It's Not Wise to Upset a Wookie

The Star Wars saga is one of my favorite sets of movies. Besides the great one-liners and characters, the special effects were my favorite part of the films and were far more…um…special than anything at the time. As a child, I loved the unique and beloved alien characters like Chewbacca and Yoda. All kinds of science fictions stories have heroic alien characters like the Vulcan - Spock, the Klingon warrior - Worf, and of course the Krypton native - Superman!

Wouldn't it be great to be able to have dinner with an alien hero? As long as it wasn't the Rancor monster from Jabba the Hutt's dungeon.

But could it ever happen? Will The Earth ever Stand Still from a Close Encounter from an Extra Terrestrial? How should we as Christians view the possibility of aliens? Will we ever need to put out a call to Sigourney Weaver to help eradicate a vindictive Alien species that makes it to Earth? I'm sure Will Smith and Tom Cruise could save us from the aliens in Independence Day and War of the Worlds.
There are two distinct possibilities for where aliens could come from.

• God could have created life on Mars, Krypton, Tatooine, Caladan, and Alpha Omicron. But would any alien species be expected to be subject to the curse of Adam's sin? (Romans 5:14) Would Jesus sacrifice cover the redemption of alien species? (Romans 5:15-17, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14, Hebrews 9:12,15) Is there any mention in scripture of non-humans (other than angels/demons)? Could Jesus have visited these alien worlds to act as their redeemer through death too? (Romans 6:9, Hebrews 9:7)
• They could have evolved from alien slime on an alien world in a galaxy far, far away. One mantra that scientists love to peddle is the idea that since evolution happened here on Earth, then with the great number of star systems throughout the universe, there is a high percentage that evolution was able to construct galactic life light years away. If there is enough interest, I'll plan to write an article on the failed mechanisms of evolution. Still evolution requires the death of millions of generations of organisms to develop increased functionality/survivability/fitness, and so from a Christian perspective, these alien creatures would have had to endure death and (green?) bloodshed before the curse of death from Adam's sin.

Scientists search the skies with the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Initiative) program to the point that it has become their mission in life (a religion?).  Why do people want to discover alien life forms? Would they find meaning in their lives to know that something beyond themselves is out there? The theme behind the original movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still was that humanity will ultimately destroy itself without outside help/morals/technology/strength to be saved. But isn't this what God provides? We are messy people, and we do need to be saved from our sin, but Klaatu or the force or ion pulse cannons won't get the job done.
God is in the business of changing lives, and He sent His Son as his Redeemer to bring us into a relationship with Him.

I hope you continue to enjoy the creativity and heroic themes in science fiction, but don't hold your breath waiting for a Close Encounter of the Third Kind. For further research see these websites:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v27/n2/aliens

http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/2995/