JW's and the question of alien existence

by Monski 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Monski

  It seems to me that JW's do not believe in the existence of alien beings as the Bible has nothing to say on the matter. Everything seems to revolve around the planet earth and the possibility of there being alien life is considered to be apostate. Sounds a bit like the oppression that Galileo received from the Catholic church when he suggested that the earth moved around the sun and not vice-versa!

  If the theory of creation is correct, then it could be that Jehovah has given us up as a bad job or is simply waiting to see how we deal with the mess we have made. Meanwhile, he might have created another civilisation of humans in another galaxy that have not rejected him and are still perfect. After all, why did he create such a vast universe? We can't even see most of it, even with the array of technology we have developed.

  It would be ironic if the JW's are striving to be saved when all the attention is being directed to a "better" society elsewhere. There could be hundreds, thousands or millions of other experiments going on. He is the all-powerful after all. It would be stupid to believe that we are the only ones, unless of course there is no truth behind any of the WT's teachings!
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  dmouse

  Awake 1973 5/22 p12-15

  Is

  There Life Beyond the Earth?

  SPACE exploits thus far have failed to detect any sign of life on any of the planets of our solar system. Also, it has been found that there are no life-sustaining systems in outer space. Yet evolutionist scientists believe that there are planets, somewhere, teeming with intelligent persons. Is this view reasonable?

  Among the evolutionists themselves, not all believe that human life could evolve on other planets. Admits Cornell University Astronomer Carl Sagan, a spokesman for the evolutionists who search for extraterrestrial life:

  "If we started the earth all over again, even with the same physical conditions, and just let random factors operate, we would never get anything remotely resembling human beings. There are just too many accidents in our evolutionary past for things closely resembling human beings to arise anywhere else."?"Time," December 13, 1971, p. 55.

  If ?it could never happen again on the earth,? how, then, can evolutionists really expect intelligent life to evolve on other planets, which are far less hospitable?

  Could it be as an editor for Science magazine said even before the first rocket went to the vicinity of Mars: "In looking for life on Mars we could establish for ourselves the reputation of being the greatest Simple Simons of all time"?

  Well, to this day, after many probes to Mars and thousands of pictures of it, there is not the slightest shred of proof that life exists on Mars or other planets in the solar system or on any other planets in the universe.

  The Christian, particularly, knows that even a million landings on Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn or any of the planets and their moons will fail to reveal evolution of life. Both life and intricately designed living creatures came from the Creator, as he clearly tells us in his Word the Bible. To spend money with a stated major objective of verifying the myth of evolution is indeed folly. (Prov. 1:7; 9:10) How much better if the money were spent, not trying to verify an erroneous scientific theory about the origin of life, but on the life already here on this unique planet!

  Man

  Made for the Earth

  Of our planet alone the Holy Bible declares that God "formed it even to be inhabited." (Isa. 45:18) And long ago God?s Word declared that the heavens belong to the Creator, "but the earth he has given to the sons of men." (Ps. 115:15, 16) So the Bible shows that the earth is unique among planets. And what a wonderful home in space the earth is for man! Astronaut Frank Borman said:

  "When you look at our earth from two hundred and forty thousand miles away, especially over a horizon that has been bombarded for eons, you see that our planet is the only thing in the universe that has any color in it. You don?t know whether the blue is water or the blue is land . . . We share such a beautiful planet. . . . the overwhelming wonderment is why in the world we can?t appreciate what we have."

  Such a beautiful home in space as man has did not get here by chance or accident. Just as the moon could not have gone into orbit around the earth by accident, the earth could not have got in its orbit around the sun by chance. Just before the launching of the Apollo 17 lunar mission, Astronaut Eugene Cernan, on his second flight to the vicinity of the moon, said:

  "When you look back at the earth from the moon and you see the perfectness of it and the beauty of it and the logic of it all, you know it didn?t happen by accident. It is moving with beauty and you get a feeling that you are looking at our earth as God, whoever that God might be, envisioned it when he created it. I?m anxious to get back and get that feeling again."?New York "Times," December 8, 1972.

  That God who created the earth is no nameless God, but, as he says in the Holy Bible: "I am Jehovah. That is my name." (Isa. 42:8) "O Sovereign Lord Jehovah! Here you yourself have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. The whole matter is not too wonderful for you yourself." (Jer. 32:17) Instead of searching for evolved life in outer space, the evolutionist scientists would do well to learn about man?s Creator and gain a knowledge of his purpose for the earth. But just as it was in the days when Jesus Christ was on the earth, so it is today. In prayer Jesus said: "Righteous Father, the world has, indeed, not come to know you."?John 17:25.
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  Nathan Natas

  Permit me a moment to switch hats so I can play "Jehovah's Advocate"...

  The bible is the record of God's dealings with MAN.

  The Bible tells us there are alien creatures - they're called angels and demons.

  Once man has re-attained perfection he might expect to be re-introduced to the REST of the family of creation.

  ... now I've gotta go puke...
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  Terry

  I live in Texas; believe me, we know all about Aliens. We suffer invasions constantly.

  They even come from the Third World!
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  gaiagirl

  Carl Sagan, a spokesman for the evolutionists who search for extraterrestrial life: "If we started the earth all over again, even with the same physical conditions, and just let random factors operate, we would never get anything remotely resembling human beings. There are just too many accidents in our evolutionary past for things closely resembling human beings to arise anywhere else."?"Time," December 13, 1971, p. 55.

  This is likely correct. For example, if a comet hadn't hit Earth at the end of the Cretaceous, dinosaurs might never have become extinct, thus providing an opportunity for mammals to evolve into the dominant species. There were numerous mass extinctions prior to that which wiped out entire species, including previously successful creatures such as trilobites, euryptyrids, ammonites, many armored fish, many amphibians, all the flying reptiles etc. At the end of the Permian period, a particular class of creatures known as mammal-like reptiles ALMOST became extinct. If the extinction event at that time had been just a bit more severe, those creatures would have disappeared entirely, and there never would have been any mammals. Apparantly, the Awake writer assumes that ONLY humans could be intelligent, when they write:

  "If ?it could never happen again on the earth,? how, then, can evolutionists really expect intelligent life to evolve on other planets, which are far less hospitable?"

  Further, they assume that ALL planets which will ever be found will be less hospitable than Earth. Given the huge number of stars likely to have planets just in our own galaxy, this seems like an unreasonable assumption.
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  Tashawaa

  numerous mass extinctions prior to that which wiped out entire species, including previously successful creatures such as ... ammonites ...

  Hey! I thought the Israelites wiped them out under divine direction!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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  Monski

  Good points made. However, mankind seems to be too sure of itself I feel. Those "unlikely" series of events that lead to the perfect environment for life to exist could be duplicated somewhere else by a "divine" being (if creation is correct). Nowhere did I mention chance. I am talking about God having other races elsewhere that could be doing much better than us. Would he have reason to tell us about their existence? He hasn't told us much about our own planet let alone those elsewhere in the universe.

  Anyway, have the scientists (who I am sure know much more than me) looked at every single one of the 200 billion stars in our galaxy? Unlikely I think as it would take several hundred million years to examine! Oh, and then I forgot, there are hundreds of billions of galaxies as well! We do assume a lot don't we.

  I am just making the point that the creator could have many "experiments" going on all over the place. What makes us so important? It is like one of us being extremely concerned with a colony of ants in Southern Namibia. Would you really care what happens to them? If he is the perfect creator and can do no wrong, why did he create us with the ability to err? Don't talk about free will as I know you are all thinking. If he can do no wrong, has he a free will? Interesting isn't it?