Yes, were radio signals etcetera actually detected the other day emanating from 'Hercules' (?solar system, I thought I heard), from a planet 'H et al', it'd certainly be a thing way out of not only left or right field - but any field. An amazing, unprecedented discovery by humankind and its deified techno-scientific community itself.
Life that can be shown or proven to exist elsewhere in our universe is certainly 'something to write home about' - and then some. Something to celebrate - at least in theory; though the intentions and character of such 'beings' need by no means necessarily of course be benevolent. Surely logic alone would suggest a malevolent race might just as easily exist 'out there' in 'the deep unknown' as its opposite.
But the underlying presupposition ever given to such stories, either by the newsmakers themselves or the various reporting arms thereof - whether overtly stated or merely covertly suggested or insinuated - is that such would 'somehow-or-other' put permanent paid to the oft-cited - and moreover, I respectfully suggest, more often imagined than actual - 'human-centric Christian conception of the universe' and/or the supposedly concomitant belief of some that life exists nowhere else, indeed can exist only upon Planet Earth.
Yet withal the foregoing I would likewise not claim that many Christians and churches in our day and age - not just in centuries past - have indeed not held, if usually blindly and unthinkingly, to just such a narrow concept of the creatorship of the God of the Universe. There indeed unfortunately is some substance to the accusation, at least in terms of official *churchianity and *Religiosity Incorporated - ever an opponent and adversary of true religion, from the days of Galileo and Copernicus through to our own; and no doubt on into the future. 'Old (ornery) habits die hard', as they say.
Nevertheless I would also - again, ever so respectfully - submit that such is of course el typical 'bogey-man' catch-all pretext to somehow serve as a convenient trojan horse oftentimes employed to thereby usefully and conveniently discredit Christianity and Christians and thereby consign it and all its adherents to the proverbial scrap-heap of history - at least as far as all thoughtful, reasonable people are concerned.
But of course it is all a smokescreen, for the 'Good Book' itself, the Holy Bible of Christianity - and certainly even its Older Testament of not just Christians but also Jews **and Israelites, and at times even - supposedly - Muslims - makes it abundantly clear that there is indeed life elsewhere in the Universe. And not only at the very heart of the Universe itself, variously depicted or described at 'the third heaven/s', as Heaven itself in both the Scriptures as well as in Western society at large (but also other societies generally throughout our world).
For just a sampling of such biblical 'commentary' upon the subject - which, yes, I am only too well aware will inevitably - as ever - tend to incur the charge of 'my interpretation' etcetera - how about the following, just for starters, at least to whet your appetite...
* ''...we [Paul and his fellow apostles] have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men?'' 1 Corinthians 4:9 (Scripture taken from the New King James Version. (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.) (All italics strictly mine!)
* ''Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?'' 1 Corinthians 6:3 (NKJV)
* ''And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.'' Revelation 4:6 (NKJV)
* ''...from within it [i.e. 'a whirlwind...coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself' et al] came the likeness of four living creatures [with] the likeness of a man. Each [with] four faces, and each [with] four wings...And their whole body, with their back, their hands, their wings, and their wheels that the four had, were full of eyes all around." Ezekiel 1:4,5,6; 10:12 (NKJV)
* ''Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb [W]ho was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honour and glory and blessing!" And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard......Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, "Come and see." Revelation 5:11,12,13;6:1 (NKJV)
* '''When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them." Revelation 10:3,4 (NKJV)
* '' I watched till thrones were put in place [set up], and the Ancient of Days was seated...A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.'' Daniel 7:9,10 (NKJV)
* ''And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon...[whose] tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth." Revelation 12 3,4 (NKJV)
* ''Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them." Revelation 12:12 (NKJV)
*But my own all-time favourite, natural and understandable enough for someone who's been drafting a lay-person's guide to the Book of Job - apparently the very oldest in the whole Bible - for the past decade or so, though its study has engrossed my interest since becoming a Christ-follower now some 33-plus years ago now, are these from Job:
* ''Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth...when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Job 38:4,7 (NKJV)
* ''Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan [margin: the Adversary] also came among them...Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.'' Job 1:6; 2:1 (NKJV)
*Terms I am ever endeared to a one-time 'love of my life' (if only in my own mind and heart!) Aussie Brisbanite Judy Birch for coining, even if it's extremely doubtful she was the first person ever to employ such 'apt as' terminology. (Though the add-on 'Incorporated', I must hasten to add, is entirely my own 'creation'!)
**Choosing on this occasion to distinguish between the two following my recent in-depth study of the doctrinal theory of 'British Israelitism', which I've discovered to my rather pleasant and moreover utter surprise holds more than a smidgen of biblical credibility and validity.
*** And though the following, rather sizeable section of scripture from the Apocalypse is usually taken as strictly metaphorical - at least in my own as well as the general evangelical 'tradition' - if it were perchance pertaining to a number and variety of hitherto unknown and yet somewhere existent 'species' of being, well - as the songwriter once said : ****''What a wonderful, wonderful world {or make that universe!] that would be!'' Or as my personal favourite hymn writer might have put matters: *****''All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small...all things wise and wonderful, the LORD God made them all!''
''Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as
the scorpions of the earth have power. And they were not given
authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their
torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women's
hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. And they had breastplates
like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the
sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails
like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails...And thus I saw
the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of
fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses
were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke,
and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed -
by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their
mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their
tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm." Revelation 9:3,5,7-10;17-19 (NKJV)
****'What A Wonderful World' by 'Alpert'/'Cook'.
*****'All Things Bright And Beautiful' (1848) by Cecil F Alexander.
