4.23 Accusation: Jesus is an alien
Yup, it’s time to address it, even if Jesus rose from the dead, this does not mean that he was who he claimed to be. Perhaps he was an alien from another planet who was playing some sort of cosmic joke on humankind and led us to believe that a he died on the cross and rose from the dead.
While this objections may be heard on a popular level, it is never raised in a scholarly context and with good reason. If some uses this, they are grasping any argument. If you believe the person is truly not seeking the truth at this moment I would say something along the lines of “It may be better to deal with the academic criticisms first, and if there is any time left over, we can look at the fun ones”.
This lets the person know that there are far more credible theories to talk about, because it’s true. Or say “I agree, Jesus was an alien, as the Son of God he was certainly not from this world!” But what if it comes from someone who sees this theory as serious?
1. Alien theory does not deny the resurrection, only God as the cause of it
We know the life of Jesus varies typically from alien accounts. Aliens are said to arrive on a spaceship, Jesus was born on the earth; Aliens usually appear for a short time, Jesus was on the earth for over 30 years; Alien reports tend to be abusive, Jesus was loving and compassionate.
2. The supposition that life exists outside of this earth is questionable
Contrary to popular belief we see in films (And films should not be anyone’s primary source of truth, unfortunately for many they are ignorant of this influential factor), the scientific evidence from astrophysics in the past 35 years makes it increasingly improbable that life exists anywhere else in the cosmos. The cosmic constants, which, if altered a little would make life impossible. Many factors must be within an extremely narrow range to meet even the basic criteria for sustaining life. Constants relate to planet-star relationships, planet-moon relationships, the degree which a planet rotates on its axis, and many other conditions
3. It is frequently stated that there must be life somewhere else in such a vast universe. Even if cosmic constants require that a planet meet an extremely narrow range of conditions to support life given the immensity of our universe and the number of planets, wouldn’t the existence of life elsewhere be probable?
The estimated number of galaxies in the cosmos is a little fewer than 1 trillion. Each galaxy has an average of 100 billion stars (1022). An average estimate of the number of planets is one planet per 1,000 stars (1019). The existence of 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10 Quintillion) planets would seem almost to require that the conditions for life to exist must come together somewhere other than earth. Or does it? The required constants for Planet star relationships themselves would eliminate 99.9% of all potential planets. When additional constants are considered, the odds of the existence of a planet capable of sustaining Life Are 1:1025. since the total estimated number of planets in the universe is 1019, it seems that we would not expect life to exist on even one planet much less any others. Anything less than 1025 leaves you with only 1 planet.
Summary
There is good evidence that God exists. Not only does the Resurrection of Jesus provide strong evidence for the existence of God, but new understandings of complexity make recent arguments for an intelligent designer of the Universe very compelling. Scientific discoveries made during the past 35 years in the fields of molecular biology and astrophysics have increased awareness of the intelligence behind creation. In addition, many have found compelling the arguments for an eternal first cause of everything. Therefore, this interconnected account involving Jesus’ Resurrection is better explained as God’s confirmation of his claims to divinity than an alien playing a cosmic joke
Sources for ‘Jesus alien’
- Chris Clayton owes to the ‘let’s focus on academic questions first’ answer
- Behind the numbers — For some examples, see the chapter “Big Bang Model Refined by Fire” by Hugh Ross in William A. Dembski, ed., Mere Creation: Science, Faith and Intelligent Design (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1998), 363–84; See also the chapter by Hugh Ross, “Astronomical Evidences for a Personal, Transcendent God” in J. P. Moreland, ed., The Creation Hypothesis: Scientific Evidence for an Intelligent Designer (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 1994), 169–70.
- Intelligent designer — For good presentations of the argument for an intelligent Designer, see Moreland, ed., The Creation Hypothesis; Dembski, ed., Mere Creation; and Michael J. Behe, Darwin’s Black Box (New York: Free Press, 1996).
- First cause of everything — For some general treatments, see W. David Beck, “God’s Existence” in R. Douglas Geivett and Gary R. Habermas, eds., In Defense of Miracles (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1997), 150–55; J. P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987), 15–42; William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1994), 79–83, 91–122; Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 276–77, 399–401 ; Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1994), 58–62.
- Cosmic joke response — For details, see Gary R. Habermas, The Resurrection of Jesus (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1984), esp. chapters 1–5. See also Gary R. Habermas, The Risen Jesus and Future Hope (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).
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