Is There Anything Out There?

One of my favorite podcasts is “This American Life,” a National Public Radio show that examines different stories happening in our nation. This week’s episode was on Fermi’s Paradox, a scientific conundrum for those trying to understand whether or not there is alien life. Fermi’s Paradox asks a simple question – if there is alien life, then where is it? Why haven’t we found it? The paradox suggests that the fact that we haven’t found extraterrestrial life already might simply mean that there is none out there.

Now, I don’t care about debating whether or not there is alien life. It is not a problem for Christians if there are aliens – the Bible doesn’t offer us information one way or another about it. But for non-believers, the problem could be enormous. The scientists discussing the paradox put it this way in the episode:

David Kestenbaum: “What if advanced life like us is just a mathematical
improbability, a total fluke?”Melissa Franklin: “And then you would say, OK, if that's the case, I have
to believe in God. So that's what you're saying.”Kestenbaum: “How many physicists do you know who believe in God?”
Franklin: “Six.”

This exchange is telling. These two people are willing to consider any evidence, any theory, any possibility, except the possibility that a transcendent God actually created human beings in his own image. But Kestenbaum was troubled – he didn’t have a good answer for Fermi’s Paradox, and without actually saying it, he seemed very worried that God might be a possibility. He said that the idea that no one else was out there made him sad.

And understandably so. For the person who lives as if God doesn’t exist, to have that possibility thrust upon his life is a real problem. Because this God is someone who is above them, who transcends them, and who ultimately will make demands on their lives. 

What is the point? Even among the most skeptical among us are haunted by the idea of God. There is someone else out there. There is a God who made us in his image, and he shown himself to us time and time again. Ultimately, he has fully revealed himself in his son, Jesus – the image of the invisible God. And no matter how many times we shoo that idea away, no matter how far we push it down, it will continue to bubble back up to the surface. 

 Perhaps Fermi’s Paradox can be resolved. Perhaps we’ll discover alien life at some point. Perhaps E.T. is out there. But the questions about God won’t go away. Because Heis the answer to the questions that we all are asking.

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Source: National Public Radio. This American Life: Episode 617: Fermi’s Paradox. May 19, 2019.