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by Gary Bates There are millions who, like me, enjoy reading and watching science fiction. This hugely popular genre now accounts for 12 of the 15 highest-grossing movies of all time.1 Scifi has replaced the war movie and the western as the modern version of good guys vs bad guys and shoot em up escapism. The most notable of these include the ongoing Star Wars serial, E.T. (the Extra-Terrestrial), and Independence Day. The original Star Trek television series and its multiple spinoffs have become the most syndicated shows in television history.2
No Scriptural basis
Many wonder (even some Christians)inspired by the wonder of special effects Could there be life on other planets? But a straightforward reading of Genesis gives us no indication that God created intelligent, alien life-forms elsewhere in the universe. Would such questions even be asked if science fiction were not so popular? Romans 8:22 also tells us that the whole creation has been groaning (because of sin and the subsequent Curse) right up to the present time. So, it would not make sense that
intelligent beings on another planet (part of this creation) had, because of the sin of Adam on the Earth, been subjected to the Curse. Also, God the Creator of the universe (in particular, the Second Person of the Trinity) took on human nature (Jesus) as the last Adam (John 1:118). He came to this Earth to fulfil His plan for the redemption of the human race (offspring of the first Adam) which would redeem the entire universe as well. Redeemed humanity will be Christs bride throughout eternityand Christ will only have one bride, effectively eliminating the notion of other races in the universe (Eph. 5:2233, Rev. 19:79). Science fiction has helped people grasp the enormous size of the universe. But many go on to ask, Why would God go to all the trouble of creating billions of galaxies and stars? Apologist John Whitcomb writes: It must be recognized that it required no more exertion of energy for God to create a trillion galaxies than to create one planet.3 Isaiah 40:28 says; the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow weak nor weary . Actually, stars are rather simple structures they have been described as glowing balls of gas. There is far more complexity in the genetic code of the simplest organism than in a thousand galaxies. It would thus take more creative input, in that sense, for Jesus miracle of feeding the five thousand than for the creation of countless quasars (there is immense complexity in the structure of even a dead fish). And presumably, if God had created only our solar system, sceptics would ask why, if He were so great, did He not create something on a larger scale. Scripture explains that the purpose of starscreated on Day 4 of Creation Week (Genesis 1:14)was to divide day and night, as signs and seasons, and for days and years. In other words, the focus of the entire creation, even those stars that are megadistances away, is for humankind, on this Earth. Incidentally, as readers of our journal TJ would know, scientific evidence on redshifts now suggests strongly that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is at or near the physical centre of the universe.4
References
1. All time box office US, 4 July 2002. Return to text. 2. TNG Trivia, 12 July 2002. Return to text. 3. Whitcomb, J., The Bible and Astronomy, BMH Books, Indiana, p. 28, 1984. Return to text. 4. Humphreys, R., Our galaxy is the centre of the universe, quantized red shifts show, TJ 16(2):95104, 2002. Return to text.