Why an Encounter With Aliens Might Not Go Well

Many things might happen if humans encounter intelligent creatures from another world.  Films and books have rarely considered how our spiritual nature and theirs might affect the outcome.  Our track record is not good.

A close-up of an alien in Disclosure Day (2026), https://www.disclosuredaymovie.com/.

I recently posted an article about the spiritual issues Steven Spielberg raises in his film Disclosure Day, where I explained why the movie is right in suggesting that an encounter with intelligent beings from another world would not upend the Christian faith.

But would it be a good thing if humans were to come into contact with aliens?  C. S. Lewis makes a powerful argument that it would not.  Here’s why.

Three possibilities

How an encounter might go would depend in part on the spiritual status of the hypothetical extraterrestrials we might encounter.  Theologians have identified 3 broad possibilities, which I will describe after I explain some terms.

One of the presuppositions of the Christian faith is that humanity began in an “unfallen” state, living in full communion with God in a state of perfect holiness and justice.

At some point, “Man” made a conscious decision to turn away from God.  The word used by religious people for this decision to reject God’s plan of holiness and justice is “sin.”  People who are not religious may not use that word but recognize its manifestation in greed, egotism, unkindness, selfishness, a lack of love, and a lust for power.  A people that has turned away from God’s holiness and justice is described as being in a “fallen” state: it does not enjoy a close relationship with God because it has chosen a different path.

From the very beginning, God had a plan to deal with this state of fallenness.  God the Father sent his Son to take on human flesh and dwell with us because he[1] wants to live in intimate union with us and share his love with us (John 1:14; 15:9; 17:20-21).  We call this the “Incarnation.”  God united his nature with our nature in the person of Jesus, who was fully human and fully divine, so that humans, who were created in the divine image (Gen. 1:26-27), could be united with God.

The Son of God, by his death and resurrection, secured our “redemption”: he dealt with our sinfulness and restored the way for humans to have full communion with God (Rom. 3:23-24; Col. 1:13-14).  Humans only needed redemption because they were fallen; an unfallen humanity would not have needed redemption.

The outcome of a human encounter with aliens might depend in part on whether those aliens are fallen or unfallen.

Option 1: Unfallen

An intelligent species on another planet might never have made the choice to turn away from God.  Its members might still be in an unfallen state where they faithfully follow God’s commands, live holy lives, and treat each other with love and justice.  They would probably be aware of their Creator and have a relationship with him.  God might even have come to live among them the way Jesus lived among us.  (Theologians throughout the centuries have suggested that God might have become incarnate on Earth even if humans had not sinned, because of his intense desire for union with the rational souls he created.)

An example from C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis probes this possibility in the first two books of his space trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra.  A group of humans visits two planets where other intelligent lifeforms have developed extensive civilizations while remaining in an unfallen state.  The contrast is stark between these civilizations and the humans, who are affected by greed and the desire for colonization.

Option 2: Fallen

A species in another star system might have become fallen as humans did on Earth.  If so, we could ponder what God’s plan might be for their redemption.

Option 2A: Each species might receive its own Incarnation and redemption

It is possible that God has developed a separate plan for the redemption of each species that is capable of knowing him but has turned away from him.  It might be a modified version of our Incarnation and redemption, or it might look very different.

Option 2B: The Incarnation and redemption on Earth might apply to all species throughout the universe

It is possible that there is only one work of redemption –  the one provided by Jesus Christ here on Earth – and every intelligent lifeform in the entire universe that needs redemption receives it through the single act of Jesus Christ on Earth.  This seems less likely to me, but some Christians who read the Bible in a very grammatically literal fashion think the Scriptures say this.  I think that God’s passionate love for every species that can commune with him would lead to a unique plan of redemption for each group.  The message of God’s love would be much less meaningful if God were to say: “I love you so much that I sent my Son to live among a people you never heard of, on a planet you don’t even know exists, and his sacrifice on that planet addressed your need for redemption.”  That seems much less likely to engender the desired response of love.  Furthermore, Paul describes Christ as the “last Adam,” who overcame the death caused by the first Adam (1 Cor. 15:21-22, 45-47).  If his death repaired the damage done by the first Adam – i.e., the first human – it may be a work of redemption that was done specifically for humans.

An example from Star Trek

In the original Star Trek series, an episode entitled “Bread and Circuses” briefly touched on this possibility.  The Star Trek crew lands on a planet with a civilization that has 20th century technology but is structured like the civilization of the ancient Roman Empire, with gladiator fights and unjust officials who capriciously exercise life-and-death power over other people.  In spiritual terms, this civilization is clearly in a fallen state.

The ruling empire oppresses an underclass whose members appear to call themselves children of the sun.  At the end of the episode, Spock expresses puzzlement that people whose technology is relatively advanced would still be worshipping the sun.  Uhura sets him straight as to what they worship: “It’s not the sun up in the sky.  It's the Son of God.”

What would happen if humans actually came into contact with aliens?

Would things go well or poorly if humans encountered an extraterrestrial civilization?

In the Star Trek canon, humans are constantly coming in contact with fallen civilizations driven by greed and the lust for power, and individuals on both sides are constantly being killed.  Many science fiction movies focus on the evils of invading aliens – for example, Independence Day and War of the Worlds.  In the various Star Trek series, we see that the humans aren’t perfect either.  However, just as the current president of the United States wants only the good parts of American history told, the fictional story of Star Trek tends to focus on a sanitized version of the future history of space exploration.  Starfleet crews are portrayed favorably and almost always do the “right” thing unless their wills have been taken over by an alien force.  We have to keep our eyes open to see that Starfleet crew members often make selfish or headstrong decisions that can cause harm, and rogue humans occasionally appear and cause widespread death and destruction.  The civilizations are fallen on all sides.

In the Star Wars franchise, the fallenness of humans is honestly portrayed (if the people who look like humans are indeed human even though these events occurred “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”): they include a rogue’s gallery of thieves, cheats, mercenaries, and smugglers who occasionally work for good, battling others who have clearly turned to the Dark Side.

In the Lewis trilogy, only the humans are fallen.  The aliens are not a threat to humans.

In Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, the spiritual status of the aliens is not clear.  They seem eager to share with humans the mathematical secrets of the universe and the importance of empathy.  Despite their advanced knowledge, they accept the abuses inflicted on them by humans and do not appear to attack when attacked.  Some might see in them an unfallen species, though that is debated.  It is the humans who do evil.

C. S. Lewis said it would be better if humans never encountered other beings

Lewis did not live to see these movies, but he predicted much of the mayhem they portray.

In an essay entitled “Religion and Rocketry” published in Christian Herald in 1958, Lewis considers what would happen if human beings actually met creatures from another planet.  His answer is chilling.  Such a meeting, he says, would be a “calamity.”  To think that we would interact lovingly with them “is a glorious dream.  But make no mistake.  It is a dream.  We are fallen.”

Here is why he says it would be a problem:

“We know what our race does to strangers.  Man destroys or enslaves every species he can.  Civilized man murders, enslaves, cheats, and corrupts savage man.  Even inanimate nature he turns into dust bowls and slag-heaps.  There are individuals who don’t.  But they are not the sort who are likely to be our pioneers in space.  Our ambassador to new worlds will be the needy and greedy adventurer or the ruthless technical expert.  They will do as their kind has always done.  What that will be if they meet things weaker than themselves, the black man and the red man can tell.  If they meet things stronger, they will be, very properly, destroyed....

“I therefore fear the practical, not the theoretical, problems which will arise if ever we meet rational creatures which are not human.  Against them we shall, if we can, commit all the crimes we have already committed against creatures certainly human but differing from us in features and pigmentation; and the starry heavens will become an object to which good men can look up only with feelings of intolerable guilt....”

“Aliens” today

C. S. Lewis’s vision is not necessarily our destiny.  We do not have to oppress, enslave, and destroy (or be destroyed by) any intelligent beings we encounter from other planets.  We could seek to move back toward the original holiness and justice God intended for us.  Doing that would lead us to love all of God’s creatures – human and otherwise – as God loves them and loves us.

A first test of our readiness for “first contact” might be how we treat intelligent beings from our own planet who happen to be from other nations.  The fact that so many are willing to call them “aliens” may be one of the fruits of our present fallen state.  Could we change how we treat the foreigners who are already in our midst, as a first step toward being ready to meet beings from other worlds?

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[1] God has no sex or gender. I use the male pronouns “he” and “him” not because God is male but because the word “it” would not express that God is a Person and the word “they” would falsely imply that there is more than one God. “He” and “him” are appropriate because when God became a human in the person of Jesus, he dwelt among us as a male, and because Jesus called God his Father. Using the same pronoun for God the Father and Jesus the Son of God helps us avoid losing sight of their essential unity.