ETs and the Incarnation

“IN THE BEGINNING, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). With the dawn of conscious thought, human beings have gazed at the heavens above to understand their place on the earth below. Geoglyphs and megalithic structures dot the landscape, narrating an ancient story of this transcendent human desire. Divine Revelation from the Christian faith gives inspired language for this ache and proclaims Jesus Christ as the highest good for which all of creation longs (Romans 8:19-23). As research, science and technology advance, we expand our understanding of this God-made cosmos. After centuries of demystifying the heavens, our minds have shifted from spying angelic orbs in the night sky to seeing, in the words of Pumbaa from The Lion King (1994), “balls of gas burning billions of miles away.” Although the stars have flattened into lifeless nuclear reactions, we now wonder if life exists on distant planets. Do the “heavens and the earth” speak of other places teeming with life?

In a hearing of the Subcommittee on National Security on July 26, 2023, Mr. David Grusch made the shocking disclosure — under oath — that secret government programs discovered nonhuman biological pilots of UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) at undisclosed recovery sites.^[1] Based on his testimony, we can infer that these nonhuman pilots traveled from outside our solar system to reach Earth. How might the Catholic Church fruitfully wrestle with this testimony in light of faith and reason?

After centuries of challenging dialogue between the Catholic Church and the scientific community, the Church now confronts new insights by acknowledging facts while critically evaluating both their philosophical assumptions and impulsive conclusions drawn from them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes from Dei Filius:

Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.^[2]

Because the Church holds that one and the same God created “the heavens and the earth,” we need not deny factual claims that highlight aspects of created reality. However, the assumptions underlying conclusions drawn from scientific claims must be further illuminated by divine revelation. When Copernicus proposed heliocentrism, and Galileo’s astronomical findings supported that claim, a troubled standoff ensued. The Church eventually accepted the heliocentric model of our solar system (fact), but She does not support an “anthropological demotion” (interpretation) regarding our planetary repositioning. The same will be the case should the government and scientific community fully admit the existence of rational, nonhuman biological life (henceforth, ETs) from beyond our solar system. The fallout from such a disclosure will stretch far and wide, but a Church with wisdom from past experience is uniquely placed to interpret and apply such revelations.

After heliocentrism, the Church wrestled with the theory of evolution and its impact on the Christian faith and has learned from that experience. To the chagrin of many anti-theistic materialists, the acceptance of evolutionary theory eventually folded itself within the philosophical and theological discourse of Christianity. The struggles with interpreting and applying the insights of evolutionary theory persist, while the public spectacle of Scopes Trial events fade from memory.^[3] If disclosure of ETs happens, a similar turbulent experience will occur within both the world and the Christian fold. Much like the now-muted anti-religious rhetoric surrounding evolution, after the debate about whether to classify ETs as part of the genus Homo, we would develop a clearer understanding of ourselves and the advent of life in the universe.

Once we placed ourselves within a broader human family, including predecessors like Australopithecus afarensis, which branched towards Homo erectus and our early contemporaries, Homo neanderthalensis, we gained a matrix to place both ETs and ourselves within a cosmic family. If we inhibit the more violent tendencies of our tribal nature and avoid militarizing potential dialogue with these ETs, perhaps a diplomatic relationship — like those depicted in science fiction — might yield clarity about the emergence of life, the advent of consciousness, and the nature of rational, biological life in non-Earth ecosystems. A posture of cautious curiosity would contribute significantly to reworking our own evolutionary theories and discerning our place within the cosmos. Legitimate disclosure would require a resourceful calm that allows for free debate and an investigation of evidence. This, eventually, could be incorporated into a broader Christian anthropology that assesses facts prudently while avoiding extreme interpretations.

The Catholic Church’s understanding and interpretation of divine revelation could serve to heal divergent streams of Christianity that, after an ET disclosure, will likely split into two opposing camps. The Fundamentalist Camp (FC) will denounce the existence of ETs or claim them as “devilish frauds.” The air will thicken with Apocalyptic language. Because the Bible does not explicitly mention ETs, the FC will deny their own eyes just as they have denied paleontological evidence suggesting the development of life — from simple to more complex - over millennia. The FC may double down in reactionary fashion, characterizing those willing to discuss such findings as anti-Christ figures: “God made Adam and Eve, not ZX2091 and ZX3045 from the Andromeda Galaxy!” This reaction may trigger a mass exodus from the FC, as many closely identify faith with biblical literalism, leading them to interpret their doubts about scriptural interpretation as a “loss of faith.”

The Liberal Camp (LC), by contrast, will not only embrace the ET disclosure but use it as an excuse to abandon even the appearance of upholding Sacred Scripture. A hyper-syncretistic interpretation of the cosmic family will push the LC to its limits. Any limitations on our interaction with ETs will be viewed as an “anti-Gospel, earth-bound jingoistic chauvinism.” The LC may hold ceremonial struggle sessions where participants confess their human-centric sins. Some may envision marriages between ETs and humans as a hope for a more diverse, liberated future. Scriptural interpretations along the lines of The History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens” will abound with a promotion of “cosmic love fests” that look more like hippie communes than Christian rites. Despite these attempts at inclusive effervescence, the LC will likely hemorrhage members. ET disclosure will snap the tenuous tethers to foundational Christian teaching, leaving many wondering why they remain affiliated with Christianity.

The Catholic Church, however, could stand amidst this tumult with a sound, balanced acceptance of ETs, eventually working out how to accommodate these facts within a fuller interpretation of Sacred Scripture. Something akin to a new Divino Afflante Spiritu (Pius XII, 1943) could foster dialogue between Scripture scholars and those engaging with ETs. The terrestrial nature of Christian Scripture will raise interesting questions, just as liberal theologians questioned the reality of miracles after various scientific advances. Skepticism about the supernatural accounts in Scripture will resurface, but having navigated the Scylla and Charybdis of fundamentalism and liberalism, the Catholic Church will permit seasoned caution when placing Scriptural interpretation in dialogue with the reality of ETs. From this broadened horizon of Scriptural interpretation impacts on foundational doctrines of Christianity will likely follow.

Questions about the Incarnation’s relationship to ET-flesh and the soteriological implications for ETs will flow naturally from the above considerations. Overnight, serious theological journals may come to resemble Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Catholic pundits from both traditionalist and liberal wings of the Church will echo the FC and LC. At its core, ET disclosure will force us to wrestle with whether or not we can speak of human flesh as “cosmological flesh,” which, in an ontological sense, stands in communal relationship with biological matter — that is, “flesh” — of other planetary species of rational beings. When the Second Person of the Trinity took on our Earth-born human flesh, did this “absorb” all of the cosmos - including ET flesh - into the Godhead? If we avoid a war footing with ETs, dialogue might yield valuable theological insights into their salvation and the meaning of the Incarnation.

Sincere dialogue alone will become the hallmark for helpful philosophical and theological debates. What if ETs believe in a Creator of the universe? What if they describe themselves as having a real, abiding relationship with the Creator? What if they tell us that Jesus sounds remarkably like someone on their planet whom they identify as God-in-flesh? Gregory the Great’s summary of the Incarnation states: “For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.”^[4] This may serve as a roadmap for our debates about the Incarnation and the salvation of ETs. Their flesh would demand honor and respect, just as ours does. The Catholic Church already speaks of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe in her final liturgy of Ordinary Time before Advent. With prudent Scriptural interpretation, wise theological debate, and sincere interest in scientific endeavors, this cosmologically inclusive appellation of Jesus Christ will serve us well. The Church has already been down the road of how to include a discovered mass of people within the faith in light of Jesus’ Incarnation. The Church’s experience in expanding to the New World in the 15th century — amid debates that now seem absurd to modern sensibilities — might offer valuable insights into incorporating ETs into the Catholic fold. The Church’s rich theological and philosophical tradition can offer a lodestar by which humanity can navigate the widened “heavens and earth” spoken into being by God.

Potentially, maybe, quite possibly, we stand on the cusp of another worldview change that will alter our self-understanding, our science, and our faith like never before. After the release of Luis Elizondo’s book along with his alternative and mainstream media interviews about these topics, the likelihood of further congressional hearings about UAPs and ETs rises. His testimony - coupled with ongoing leaks from whistleblowers across various government and non-government agencies - presses toward a “beyond” that feels both exhilarating and frightening. Nothing in our history quite compares to the discovery of rational, nonhuman biological life from another planet. However, we have learned from past experiences how to navigate shifts in worldview — from a geocentric to a heliocentric system. We have learned to speak of a broader family of life with which we share an evolutionary history, and through the person of Jesus Christ, we understand that his compassion often embraces those beyond our comfort level. Thus, our past provides many tools for navigating the reality of ETs, and the Catholic Church can serve as an elder guide for this journey into the unknown.