Extraterrestrial (ET) aliens, visiting earth, are not something I believe in, and here’s why. For me, it’s actually more scientific than religious, but to clear up any confusion, let me explain my religious beliefs first. I am a Catholic, and to the best of my knowledge, the Catholic Church has never made any definitive ruling on extraterrestrial aliens. So, because of that, it is theoretically possible that life could exist on other planets. Now, if the Catholic Church were to make some kind of definitive ruling excluding that, then as a good Catholic I would acquiesce to the Church’s ruling. As of this date, however, no such ruling exists (to my knowledge), so I believe it is possible for life to exist on other planets.
The Church does, however, definitively teach that angelic beings are real, and that they can take on physical manifestations in various different material forms. So that’s something I must always take into consideration as a Catholic when dealing with unexplained phenomenon. Likewise, the Church teaches that some angels are fallen (demons) and they retain these same powers of projecting physical manifestations in different material forms. We see the Bible make mention of this from the very beginning in Genesis 3, where a particular fallen angel (the devil) takes on the material form of a serpent or snake that speaks. We see good angels take on the bodies of human beings in Genesis 18 and 19, Tobit 5 through 12, and in all four of the New Testament gospels (Matthew 28:2-5; Mark 16:5; Luke 24:4; John 20:12). So spiritual beings projecting material manifestations should be nothing new to the Christian mind. Could recent developments in the U.S. government’s “disclosure” of U.F.O., and other potential things to come, all be part of a demonic material deception? Maybe. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s definitely within the realm of possibilities. As a Catholic and a Christian, I believe there is a simple litmus test that any of us can use to determine if an alleged extraterrestrial alien is demonic. It comes to us from the Scriptures. St. Paul writes under inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God…
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:8-9 RSVCE
So if these alleged extraterrestrial aliens are telling us something that contradicts the gospel of Jesus Christ, as given to us by the Catholic Church, the Bible and Christian history, then we know it is an accursed deception and nothing more. It could be a man-made deception, a demonic deception, or even both at the same time. Who knows? That is my religious belief on the matter, and I tend not to explore this topic any more on a religious level (for the time being), because until we have so-called “full disclosure” and we have applied our litmus test, there is nothing more to consider.
Moving on to my scientific beliefs for why I don’t believe ET aliens are visiting us, here we go. Sticking to science alone, and putting my religious beliefs aside for the moment, in order to consider life on other worlds, we first must consider what science tells us about life on earth. Science tells us that life has existed on earth for approximately 3.7 to 4 billion years. During almost all of this time, up until very recently, these were just microbes, plants and animals. There was no “intelligent” life capable of even considering life outside of our world. Then, just 300 thousand years ago, mankind arrived on the scene. And for most of that time, until very, very recently, man’s ability to communicate outside of our solar system arrived just 120 years ago. So to put that into perspective, just to make numbers more easier to mentally manage. If we were to reduce the entire lifespan of the earth to just one year, then this is how it would go…
- The earth appears on January 1.
- Life appears around February 14.
- Humans show up on December 31 at ~11:50 pm.
- Radio signals start in the last ~0.03 seconds before midnight.
Now, just let this sink in. The earth has been around for a very long time, but man has only been around for a very short time. And the ability for man to communicate beyond our own planet (radio signals) has only been around for an extremely short amount of time. In all practicality, the earth has been inhabited by non-intelligent microbes, plants and animals for the overwhelming vast majority of its life so far. In fact, mankind has only existed on earth for approximately 0.0066% (or about 1/15,000th) of its history. Think about that. All that time, before mankind, there were only dumb animals, plants and microbes, more concerned about their own survival than anything up in the heavens.
Now, let’s look at our solar system. How many planets are there? Depending on what year you were born, and what experts consider a planet, there are between eight and ten. (When I was a young lad it was nine.) Of all those planets, how many support life? That would be just one — the earth. Now let’s look at our galaxy, in which our solar system orbits. Scientists now claim that the vast majority of the galaxy (especially the dense center or sparse outer halo) is hostile to life due to radiation, low planet-forming material, or dynamic instability. Minimally, only about 1% of our galaxy is capable of supporting biological life. At best, depending on your optimism, it could be as high as 10%, but that’s highly unlikely. So the odds of another world supporting biological life in our galaxy are about 1% realistically. Now, that’s not a wash because there are so many stars in the habitable zone of our galaxy (about 300 million), then that means it’s possible on at least 3 million planets just in our galaxy alone.
The one big caveat here is that I said there is a 1% chance of “life” (or 3 million planets) in our galaxy. I did not say intelligent life. When we consider how long life existed on earth (in scientific terms) before human beings arrived on the scene, that would mean that the overwhelming probability of any of these worlds containing intelligent life is extremely low (almost zero), and that still doesn’t take into account advanced-intelligent life, capable of communicating beyond their own planet. That puts the number as close to zero as you can get and still be a number 0.000000001% (or about 1/100 billionth). It’s not impossible, but it’s kind of unlikely. Of course, I’m just taking our own galaxy into consideration. I know there are many, many more. Odds might increase when we consider those, but they’re so far away, it doesn’t seem practical to consider them at all.
Then we have the problem of time. Human beings have only been advanced enough to communicate outside of our world for a very brief time in world history, just the last 120 years in 3.7 to 4 billion years of life on earth, that’s less than the last second of a calendar year to crunch it down unto understandable terms. Since our galaxy is about 13.6 billion years old, there is a lot of time for other advanced civilizations to rise and fall without ever overlapping each other in a timeframe when they can both possess interstellar communication (radio). Then we have the problem of radio carrier waves only reaching about 100 light years before they dissipate into the cosmic background radiation and become undetectable. That’s on average about 10 to 15 thousand stars within the reachable circumference if an advance-intelligent species. When we consider the odds above for life existing on any one of those stars is only 1%, and advanced-intelligent life existing being about 0.000000001%. So, out of 10 to 15 thousand stars within the range of communication for any advanced-intelligent species, that’s about 150 potential candidates that could potentially support life. However, it’s probably just microbe, plant and animal life. So if said advanced-intelligent species sent out a radio signal, they’re probably not going to get an answer.
Now, if you stop and consider this, what I’m saying here is consistent with our experience on earth. We’ve been sending radio signals out for about 120 years now. How many replies have we gotten from the stars? Zero. If there is life out there, within that 100 light-years circumference range of 10 to 15 thousand stars, it’s most likely just microbe, plant and animal life. We can send out radio signals all we want. They’re not going to answer. They’re probably too busy eating grass, and maybe even each other. That’s what our animals do. When we consider the odds of 0.000000001% (or about 1/100 billion) of two advance-civilizations overlapping each other in time within that small circumference of just 15,000 planets at best, there aren’t enough planets to complete the formula in most cases. The chances of it happening are basically zero.
Does that mean that there is no life in the galaxy other than our own? No. Life most certainly can exist in other parts of the galaxy. Could some of that life be intelligent? Yes, a very small amount could be. Could some of that intelligent life be advanced? Yes, an extremely small amount could. It’s just that science (real science not science fiction) asserts the possibility of two such species communicating are so infinitesimally small, that it’s no longer worth taking seriously. From a theological perspective, if there are more advanced-intelligent species out there, it would almost seem as if God Himself doesn’t want us talking to each other.
Shane Schaetzel is an author of Catholic books and he is an Evangelical convert to the Catholic Church. His articles have been featured on LifeSiteNews, The Remnant Newspaper, Forward in Christ, and Catholic Online. You can read Shane’s books at ShaneSchaetzel.Com
