Debunking the Modern-Day Myth of Aliens Through Catholic Scripture and Holy Tradition

Introduction

The desire to tell stories is unique to the human condition. Some of these stories are straightforward historical accounts of an important event. Others are written to teach lessons, or to give the best possible explanation for a mysterious occurrence. Sometimes, though, a story serves both of the latter two purposes at once. These stories are called myths.

The ancient Greeks associated thunder with Zeus and erected temples in places struck by lightning to appease the god’s anger.[1] In one stroke, the Greek lightning myth serves to warn of the dangers of lightning while also attempting to explain its occurrence. 

Modern readers may scoff at our forebears’ outdated understanding of the universe, but the fact is that little has changed in the intervening centuries. Myths like these abound in the present day. 

To illustrate: assume the existence of beings with apparently godlike powers to rejuvenate the elderly and return them to a state of youthful vigor. Science cannot adequately define these beings’ capabilities. Only a select few on Earth know of them. Those who have witnessed them claim the encounter produced a transformative effect on their lives.

At first blush, the scenario above may resemble a religious experience. It is not. It is a watered-down plot summary of Ron Howard’s 1985 science fiction film, Cocoon. It is also a snapshot of how the public might envision an encounter with a peaceful race of intelligent aliens. Aliens are so entrenched in the public consciousness that, while anyone would agree Ron Howard’s film is fiction, far fewer would discard the idea of intelligent alien life as a myth.

The ancient Greeks abandoned their myths of a thunder-throwing deity upon realizing there was no truth to them. Modern society should do the same with the myth of aliens. There is no good reason to believe in the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life.[2] SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has turned up nothing after six decades of searching.[3] NASA has admitted: “No life beyond Earth has ever been found; there is no evidence that alien life has ever visited our planet.”[4] In 2022 it was reported that Pentagon officials “have seen nothing that indicates intelligent alien life.”[5]

The lack of evidence for intelligent extraterrestrial life should suffice to dispel the myth of aliens. The present investigation goes further, aiming to show that inerrant Catholic Scripture and Sacred Tradition positively refute the existence of corporeal non-human extraterrestrial rational persons—i.e., beings colloquially known as aliens.

Methodology Of Analysis

Theology falls under the umbrella term of philosophy. Anyone with a Ph.D. holds a doctoral degree in philosophy regardless of whether his concentration of study is art, medicine, or science. The simplest definition of philosophy can be given as the “methodical consideration of reality…”[6] Note the term in the definition: “methodical.” The practice of philosophy is a formalized process through which topics are explored. This is most readily seen in natural philosophy (i.e., the natural sciences) wherein the scientific method is the process by which the material, observable universe is investigated.

And yet there is more to the universe than simply that which is observable or material. Fire is observable but not material. Morality is neither. Both fire and morality are things that exist in the universe, but the way in which each exists is different. Fire is a natural phenomenon; morality is a concept. Thus, morality is not amenable to being studied through the scientific method. For things such as morality, a different methodology is necessary—ethics—which also comes under the penumbra of philosophy.

What then about God? Assume that an infinite, personal, omnipotent being exists. God is not directly observable like matter, nor is He a concept like morality. He is a person. Because He is infinite, his qualities cannot be defined. We can only grasp His attributes by comparing them to finite things. Hence, God is supernatural—He surpasses nature. Here too, a specialized methodology is needed, because the natural sciences cannot grasp that which by definition transcends nature. This is the ambit of theology. 

But observe: theology concerns itself with more than just God. Between the natural and the supernatural lies an intermediate category: the preternatural—those things that fall short of being above nature but nonetheless are beyond nature as nature is presently understood to operate. This is the realm of angels and demons, which theology also addresses.

If philosophy can be thought of as a toolbox, then its contents are individual areas of study. Science, ethics, and theology are philosophical tools among others utilized in the pursuit of truth. Each performs best in the field to which it is suited, just as a hammer is best for pounding nails into a wall or a wrench is best for turning a bolt. However, certain topics can be studied using methodologies other than those typically employed in order to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. To put it another way, a tool different from the one normally called for in an application may be used to achieve the desired result. Thus, a stubborn drywall screw that will not come out with a screwdriver can be removed from a wall with pliers or a claw hammer.

Why, then, would anyone use theology to study aliens? Would not science be more appropriate? Theology is not only appropriate, but more effective for investigating this topic than science. It takes an inordinate amount of faith to believe in aliens given the dearth of scientific proof for their existence.

Before continuing on, another myth must first be dispelled. Science and theology are not diametrically opposed. A wrench is no less a tool than a hammer because it cannot drive nails into wood; a hammer is no less a tool because it cannot turn bolts like a wrench can. Both are useful tools in the same toolbox. Where they differ is in their mode of operation. This is so because the objects they work on are different. 

Science focuses on nature. Nature is the observable, material universe. Theology, in a broad sense, studies the supernatural. By definition, anything supernatural is surpassing of nature. Thus, the supernatural in its default state is neither observable nor material. But, like the concept of morality in the example above, the supernatural is no less real for how ephemeral it may seem. Any scientist would be quick to point out that bacteria and the planet Saturn both exist despite one’s inability to see either with the naked eye. 

The currency of science is measurement. Scientists perform experiments in order to take measurements. These measurements comprise the data they use to form conclusions about the natural world. For something to be measured, it must be observable. 

A cement block is made of matter. Matter is observable. The block is defined by three spatial dimensions. It possesses a quantity of mass. It weighs a discrete number of pounds. The more such measurements are taken, assuming they are precise, the more can be known about this particular cement block. But it is also true that to the extent an object is measured, the more it is delimited by these measurements. Two cement blocks may look identical at a glance, but one might be 0.02 inches longer on one side than the other. Hence, as similar as they may appear, they are not the same. Also, because they are both made of matter, they are discrete units within three-dimensional space. This allows us to say: “This block here is not the same block as that one over there.”

With this in mind, consider the science of astrobiology. NASA defines it as: “the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe.”[7] Yet in the same breath NASA states that life beyond Earth has never been found.[8] Faced with this, one cannot help but conclude that astrobiology is the only science with no data. And because the practice of science requires data, can astrobiology rightly be called a science?

In contrast to science, theology explores subjects that are not made up of matter. As a result, the subjects discussed in theology do not occupy three-dimensional space, they do not possess mass, they cannot be weighed, nor can they be measured directly. They are quite real, however. If theology is to be of any value in obtaining truth, its methodology must be appropriate to study its subject matter in the same way that for a hammer to be useful, it must be designed with an aim toward driving nails. In addition, like science, theology must have a means by which the validity of its claims can be tested, otherwise it is just wishful thinking. 

Thus, the currency of theology is logic. Unlike measurement, logic does not depend upon empirical observation. Logic is not subject to the limitations imposed on science, but is entirely suited to exploration of theology’s subject matter. 

Logic also works to validate theology’s claims. While it is conceded that apparently sound arguments can at times result in absurd conclusions,[9] any philosophy is meaningless if its purpose is not the pursuit of truth. This applies as much to science as to theology. Theology does not start with a conclusion it wishes were true and then fill in the gaps to justify that conclusion. Rather, it seeks to answer questions the physical sciences cannot.

One question science cannot answer is whether aliens exist. The practice of science is not equipped to address that type of inquiry. This is because the entirety of scientific knowledge is broken into two rough categories: laws and theories. A scientific law is an expression of what has been found to be provably true by experimentation and measurement. Not only do laws describe what will happen in a given situation, they also define the magnitude of those phenomena. Newton’s law of gravity sets forth that each particle of matter attracts every other particle in the universe. This statement describes the fall of an apple from its tree to the ground. The phenomenon can be expressed as a mathematical equation to quantify its effect. It is by this equation that Earth’s gravity has been calculated to be 9.88 meters per second squared. 

By contrast, a scientific theory attempts to explain why something happens; for instance, why it is that gravity causes objects on Earth to appear to fall. Many competing theories of gravity exist. The simplest of them posits that gravity causes things to move in a downward direction until something impedes their progress; whereas Einstein’s theory goes beyond Newton’s system of competing forces in positing that gravity is a pocket of curved spacetime. 

Thus, scientific laws address what a thing is, while scientific theories ask why it is the way it is. Returning to the discussion at hand, assuming we were to discover the cadaver of an alien life form, science would be appropriate for telling us about that creature. Although science excels at discovering what, how and why a thing is, it cannot predict definitively whether a non-observable thing exists. This is because science depends upon measurement, and measurement requires empirical observation. In the absence of an alien life form to observe, there exists nothing from which to collect data.

In contrast, theology enjoys a peculiar advantage over science in the form of divine revelation. Let us again assume the existence of God with the qualities Catholicism ascribes to Him. Put succinctly, God is a beneficent, infinite person. To be infinite is to be limitless. When the quality of infinity is applied to an aspect of one’s person, what that aspect is appears to merge with the person possessing it. This must be true, or else that quality or person would have definable bounds and thereby not be infinite. 

Thus, God has a simple nature. There is no division within Himself. When God thinks or acts, He does so infinitely and with His entire being. If God exists and is infinite, then He is existence itself; if He loves, then He loves infinitely and is love personified. A beneficent God would not lie because to lie would be evil. Evil does not comport with the character of an infinitely beneficent person. In keeping with the infinite nature of God, if God speaks only the truth then it is because He is truth itself. Since God is truth and truth cannot be false, God cannot lie.

With this in mind, where it can be shown that genuine divine revelation has occurred, the content of that revelation is indisputably true. There is no way it can be false. For the purposes of this discussion, there are two primary sources of infallible Catholic teaching: the Holy Bible, and dogma. 

The Bible is the inspired word of God copied down by man throughout various periods in history; “[h]owever, all revealed truths are not contained in the Bible… neither is every truth in the Bible revealed…”[10] “Holy Scripture is therefore not the only theological source of the Revelation made by God to His Church.”[11]

The magisterium (teaching authority) of the Catholic Church exists “for the solution of controversies arising among [the faithful] and of which the Bible itself was often the occasion.”[12] By His command that the Church teach all nations, and His promise never to abandon the Church, God guarantees the infallibility of the Church’s teachings with respect to morals and salvation.[13] “This authority is therefore infallible.”[14] It is by this authority that the Church can define a dogma, “a truth appertaining to faith or morals, revealed by God, transmitted from the Apostles in the Scriptures or by tradition, and proposed by the Church for the acceptance of the faithful.”[15]

A dogma, therefore, is a tenet of the faith which must be taken as true by Catholics. When talking about dogmas, it may sound strange that one should have to accept a matter as indisputably true, but this is not unreasonable. Science has its dogmas as well. It is a dogma of science that water is H2O. No other chemical composition produces water. The laws of thermodynamics are treated similarly. It is a dogma of science that matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. No one who calls himself a scientist would disagree.

Likewise, a person is not a Catholic unless he accepts all dogmas as true. To illustrate: it is a dogma that hell exists. One is not a Catholic if he denies the existence of hell. Christ spoke of hell as being real;[16] indeed, He spoke more about hell than any other topic. To deny the existence of hell is to call Christ a liar, which is grossly unbefitting of anyone who considers himself a Catholic. 

Because God guides the Church and would never allow it to fall into serious error with respect to its salvific message, dogmas enjoy bedrock reliability. To question whether a defined dogma is true would be like asking whether water is wet. Not only are dogmas indisputably true, they are at times confirmed by authentic miracles, such as the miracle at Lourdes that confirmed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

Faith and morality are the subjects of the Church’s catechisms. Catechisms are tools for understanding the faith. They reiterate established principles of the religion. While catechisms themselves are not infallible, they are premised upon infallible Scripture and dogma, and so they are highly reliable as well.

Aliens: What Are They?

Because aliens are generally thought of as extraterrestrials, they are inextricably intertwined with unidentified flying objects (UFO’s). One of the earliest UFO sightings in the modern era occurred on June 24, 1947. While flying over Mt. Rainier, pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects in the sky moving at supersonic speed. The speed at which these objects traveled is significant because no craft known to mankind had attained such speeds until Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in October later that year.[17] 

News of Arnold’s encounter went public two days after the sighting, when the Chicago Sun ran the story, “Supersonic Flying Saucers Sighted by Idaho Pilot.”[18] This was the first use of the term “flying saucer” to describe an unidentified flying object, except that what Arnold saw did not match the description in the newspaper. The objects Arnold reported seeing were thin and flat, but more closely resembled wedges than saucers.[19] Later, he would claim that the objects only resembled saucers by how they moved, skipping along like a flat stone thrown at the surface of a lake.

Scarcely two weeks after the Chicago Sun’s story went to print, the Roswell Daily Record ran a piece on July 8, 1947 announcing the recovery of a downed flying saucer.[20] The U.S. Army asserted that the wreckage was of a weather balloon, but this was a cover story. The Air Force would later divulge that the object was a clandestine device used to spy on the USSR in an operation called Project Mogul.[21] In 1961, Barney and Betty Hill claimed to have been abducted by aliens and taken aboard their craft. Then, in 1980, The Roswell Incident was published. Its authors posited that the bodies of dead extraterrestrials were recovered from the Roswell wreck, but that the government had concealed this fact from the public.[22]

It is from these events that the image of aliens as “Roswell Greys” owes its provenance. These “Greys” have been described as a race of hairless humanoid creature with gray skin and large black eyes. However, the general idea of what comprises an alien is not settled. Competing depictions of intelligent extraterrestrial life exist, such as the one put forth by George Adamski. In the 1950’s, Adamski authored several books relating his experiences with the “Nordic aliens,” a race of fair skinned, blond humanoid extraterrestrials.

From the above, the essential concept of an alien can be expressed as follows: it is an incarnate life form. Because it is incarnate, it can be presumed that it experiences bodily life. This is to say that its organs maintain the biological functions necessary for it to remain alive—i.e., it possesses a metabolism. Anything with a metabolism dies upon the permanent cessation of its metabolic functions. If aliens are incarnate, then like other incarnate creatures, they can die. If they can die, this means they are living creatures. Ergo, aliens are incarnate, living beings. 

While an alien is sometimes described as having a humanlike appearance, it is generally thought of as being non-human, although some theories have pointed to the existence of alien-human hybrids. These beings may or may not have originated from the planet Earth, but they are nonetheless closely associated with UFO’s. Hence, “alien” is considered synonymous with “extraterrestrial” in common parlance. Whether their motives are magnanimous, belligerent, neutral, or self-interested is not knowable from their purported interactions with humanity. 

As a race, aliens are believed to have intelligence and technology surpassing that of humanity. Like humans, aliens are thought of as being rational creatures, except that the aliens’ mode of existence is superior to mankind’s. For this reason, it has been posited that aliens may possess the ability to perceive the world by means aside from physical senses (clairvoyance, extrasensory perception) or the ability to read minds (telepathy).

Inerrant Catholic Scripture And Sacred Tradition Refute The Existence Of Aliens

The Catholic Church has never expressly spoken on the existence of intelligent, extraterrestrial, material beings. However, the absence of a definitive ruling does not leave the field open to speculation. Catholicism’s central tenets refute these creatures’ existence.

Scripture provides that God is the creator of everything in the universe.[23] God is not a created being; He always existed. He is “the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God…”[24] He created all things “in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…”[25] There is no god but God.[26] Other beings attempting to pass themselves off as gods are not actually gods but lying spirits because “all the gods of the Gentiles are devils…”[27]

All things except God are created. Thus, inanimate objects, plants, animals, human beings, and angels are creatures. All of existence can be sorted into a hierarchy. At the top of this hierarchy is God. Beneath God are the angels. At the very bottom are inanimate, nonliving things that simply exist (i.e., rocks, objects). In the strata above the lowest are things that exist and are alive (i.e., plants). Moving further upward there can be found things that are alive and have some ability to reason (i.e., animals).

Man exists, and so mankind must have a place in this continuum of being. Scripture teaches that God:

made him [mankind] a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour: And hast set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen: moreover the beasts also of the fields. The birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea.[28] 

Mankind occupies a unique stratum in this hierarchy. Like animals, humanity possesses a physical component—a body. Unlike animals, however, man also possesses a spiritual component—a rational soul. The soul is more akin to the angels and to God than it is to anything in the material universe. 

With this in mind, the hierarchy of being takes the form of: God, the angels, mankind, and then everything else. This is echoed in God’s granting to man dominion “over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth.”[29] In short, God bestowed unto man dominion over everything below mankind on the hierarchy of being. Dominion over angels was not granted to man; angels are above man. Thus the structure becomes apparent: God, angels, mankind, and everything else.

Aliens are not God, because only God is God and no other gods exist. Aliens must then be creatures. This being the case, they must have a place in the order of being. If they do not have a place on the hierarchy then they do not exist.

Angels are creatures, but aliens cannot be angels. “As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures…”[30]

St. Augustine teaches that the fundamental nature of an angel is “spirit.” The word “angel” denotes what a spirit does. Thus, an angel is a spirit with a mission, much like a postman is a human being with the task of delivering the mail. Fundamentally, the postman is human. Likewise, the angel is fundamentally a spirit. 

Spirits by nature do not have material bodies—there is not one atom of matter in their substance. Were this the case, any matter in their bodies would be subject to what St. Thomas Aquinas calls corruption, whereby the physical bodies of living things break down and die.[31] If claims of the discovery of alien cadavers such as at Roswell in 1947 are to be believed, then aliens are material creatures. This is doubly true considering that death is a phenomenon undergone by a physical body. Angels, who do not have physical bodies, cannot die; thus, aliens cannot be angels.

Aliens cannot be human beings. While aliens have been described as being human-like, no physical evidence has been put forth that would suggest they are one and the same. By comparison, Scripture lends proof of the opposite, that mankind is unique among creatures in physical reality:

And he [God] said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.[32]

After God created everything else He created man, and yet He gave man dominion over everything in physical reality that came before. He did this in recognition of the special dignity mankind enjoys, that of being made in God’s image. To be made in God’s image means to possess the faculty of reason. Only God, the angels, and man have the capacity to reason. A material creature with the ability to reason has what Aquinas calls a rational soul. No creature in physical reality besides man has such a soul. 

If aliens were corporeal creatures with rational souls, then they would be humans. That would mean that both humans and aliens would belong to the species Homo sapiens. But, since humans already occupy the stratum on the chain of being for corporeal, rational beings, no other creature can share that position.

Thus, aliens are not human beings. While they might have material bodies like humans do, this is an attribute shared with animals, and so that is not a sufficient justification to place aliens above humanity in the hierarchy of being. On the contrary, this would justify placing aliens beneath humanity. Aliens are less like God than mankind because only mankind is made in God’s image. By the same token, this would mean that aliens are more similar to animals beneath mankind than to God. 

This observation undercuts the claim that aliens are somehow more intelligent than man. Man is the pinnacle of created reality. If any race of creature is expected to discover interplanetary flight, it should be man, for the sole reason that no other creature has the intelligence to do so. It does not bear out that a creature more similar to an animal (an alien) should have the intelligence to master interplanetary travel when mankind is still a fledgling in this area. This does not comport with the descriptions given for aliens as they are commonly understood. Therefore, either the descriptions are wildly incorrect, or alien life does not exist.

Building on this point, the Church has spoken with respect to human origins. In the encyclical Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII wrote:

For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents.[33]

The message is clear: all of mankind descended from one set of parents, Adam and Eve. To believe otherwise is to accept the heresy of polygenism, which proposes that humans developed from several independent pairs of ancestors. To assert that aliens are humans is to state that, somehow, human ancestors developed into a race of alien. Not only is this untrue, it is unfounded because no evidence of this claim exists in the fossil record or elsewhere.

Another argument against the existence of intelligent, corporeal, extraterrestrial life consists in knowing the purpose of a created being. On this point, the Catechism of the Catholic Church provides:

Of all visible creatures, only man is “able to know and love his creator.” He is the “only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake,” and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life. It was for this end he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity…[34]

Put succinctly, the purpose of every human being is to know, love, and serve God. One cannot love or serve what one does not know exists. Thus, if man is to fulfill his purpose, he must possess the faculties with which he may do so. To say otherwise—that God did not give mankind the ability to know Him—is blasphemy. It would be an act of monstrous cruelty for an all-powerful being to fashion a creature, give it a purpose, and withhold the tools necessary to attain that purpose. 

Turning back to the discussion at hand, mankind can know and love God. Aliens cannot. Assuming aliens had rational souls, if they lacked the capacity to know and love God, then they would have been created not out of gratuitous mercy but out of malice. In life, they would be doomed to never know God, and yet have sufficient reason to understand that God exists and that He wants nothing to do with them. 

Aliens’ circumstances could only worsen upon death. All rational souls are immortal—they survive the death of the physical body. To be with God in paradise is not owed in justice to rational souls. No soul has a right to heaven. Heaven is a gift for those who depart from life in the state of friendship with God.[35] One cannot be a friend to someone of whose existence he is oblivious, ambivalent, or uncaring. As a result, an alien with a rational soul and an inability to know God would be shut out of heaven forever. This creature never would have been given the opportunity to be with God. To fashion such a creature as described here is not befitting of a benevolent creator. Moreover, God, who is all-knowing, cannot make mistakes. Thus, no such creature as an alien can exist.

The topic of corporeal aliens with rational souls raises many more troublesome scenarios. One of the characteristics of a rational soul is a free will. Both the angels and mankind are rational. Angels who sinned through the exercise of their free will were permanently separated from God and became demons. In a like manner, sin caused humanity’s fall from grace. Christ’s sacrifice was necessary to atone for the sins of all mankind, past, present, and future.

Assuming a race of rational aliens had sinned, does this mean Christ would have to atone for them as He did for humanity? Scripture indicates to the contrary: 

But this man [Christ] offering one sacrifice for sins, for ever sitteth on the right hand of God… For by one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.[36]

Note the emphasis on “one,” which is stressed twice in this passage. Christ’s work on Earth perfected forever the salvation of mankind. The quality of perfection is insuperable. The duration of forever is interminable. St. Paul clearly spells out that Christ’s sacrifice was a singular event in the history of the universe.

By what means might Christ extend salvation to a sinful alien race? On Earth, He was born a human being and lived among us. Would He therefore become incarnate in the body of an alien whose race He wished to save? Here, Scripture states that Christ “is the image of the invisible God…”[37] The fact that Christ became incarnate as a man points to the dignity of man as made in the image of God. No other creature has such dignity. Thus, it stands to reason that Christ would not incarnate as any other creature. 

Scripture also records that God extended salvation to no creature except man. He did not save the animals because they, lacking the use of reason, are incapable of making moral judgments. Nor did God redeem the angels who sinned.[38] Thus, there is no reason to believe that salvation is for aliens. Without God’s salvific grace, a corporeal, rational creature that dies in the state of mortal sin is condemned to hell. A loving God would not create a race of beings bound for eternal damnation through no fault of their own.

What, then, if this alien race was sinless? Before getting to the question of whether they would require salvation, it must be observed that the idea of a sinless, non-human, corporeal, rational creature savors of heresy.

Call to mind the story of how Adam and Eve were created. God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and then breathed life into him.[39] Eve was fashioned from the rib of Adam.[40] Both came into being sinless, but neither was conceived. 

Compare these events with the birth of the Blessed Virgin. The mother of God is the only human being in history to have been conceived without original sin. This is insinuated in the archangel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”[41] The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX. Heaven confirmed this dogma during the 1858 Marian apparitions at Lourdes, in which the Blessed Mother referred to herself as the Immaculate Conception. Thus, it is apparent that there exists only “the” Immaculate Conception and not “an” Immaculate Conception, denoting that this event was intended to occur once in history, on planet Earth and nowhere else, and is never to be repeated.

With that said, if we assume aliens are rational beings, this means they are capable of making moral judgments. If they are sinless, then this means they have the ability to sin but choose not to. If none of them ever sinned, then the concept of original sin is meaningless as it relates to them. If they are corporeal beings, then they procreate as other incarnate beings do. There lies the problem—assuming an alien being were conceived, and no one back to its earliest ancestor committed a sin, then that creature would be immaculately conceived along with all the others similarly conceived. The Blessed Mother alone is the Immaculate Conception. To hold otherwise is to reject a fundamental Catholic dogma.

Proponents of intelligent extraterrestrial life at times point to the Fermi Paradox as evidence of their claim. The paradox seeks to answer the question of why humanity has not yet encountered intelligent alien life. It was expounded by Enrico Fermi, who in 1938 was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work in nuclear physics. 

The paradox can be expressed in this manner: since the universe is so vast, one or more planets besides Earth must exist that are capable of supporting intelligent life. If so, then civilizations may have developed on those planets similarly to those on Earth, perhaps slower or perhaps faster. If a civilization developed faster than any on Earth, it is possible that this civilization has already developed interstellar travel. This being the case, such a civilization should already have visited our planet, except that there is no evidence that they have.

This paradox is a thought experiment. It is not science. Its central tenet is the correlation between the size of the universe and the probability of life on other planets. Given the current state of the empirical data, what is known of other planets refutes the existence of alien life. No planet in our solar system has been observed to harbor intelligent life. Indeed, the conditions on other planets in our solar system are thought to be hazardous to any known forms of life. At best, the Fermi Paradox provides a statistical probability for the existence of aliens. It is not hard evidence of what it claims.

Scripture refutes the Fermi Paradox. It goes further—Scripture affirmatively demonstrates that intelligent alien life is nonexistent. Planet Earth may not be the geographical center of the universe, but our planet is indeed the center of the universe from God’s point of view. “Thus saith the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool…”[42] Earth is the point of reference for God’s creation of the universe. All events of significance occurred here. God, who is omnipresent and outside of time, walked with man on Earth.[43] God promised the first parents of fallen man—on Earth—a Savior to redeem them.[44] This Savior’s coming was repeatedly foretold on Earth centuries before His arrival.[45] The archangel Gabriel announced the Savior’s coming to His mother nine months before He would be born.[46] When the moment finally came, God chose a particular time and place on Earth to become incarnate as Jesus Christ.[47] It was on this planet, and for mankind, that Christ performed His salvific work.[48] Planet Earth enjoys the special attention of God because it is humanity’s home. This is fitting considering that God delights “to be with the children of men.”[49]

It can be argued that nothing says God didn’t create life elsewhere. Likewise, nothing says He didn’t become incarnate to redeem some other rational creature in another part of the universe. There is no evidence in Scripture or in the natural world to support these claims, and so they should be discarded. By the same token, it is too much of a stretch to accept that Christ was referring to aliens when He said: “other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.”[50]

Call to mind that God gave man dominion “over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth.”[51] To say that God’s bestowal of dominion should apply only to the planet Earth is shortsighted. By enumerating every type of living creature and its habitat, the language God uses to grant this favor implies a broader scope. God may have created the universe for His own glory, but He did so for the benefit of man. Thus “the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure [i.e., Eden, the extent of the universe known to man at the time], to dress it, and to keep it.”[52]

In a like manner, God instructed mankind to “[i]ncrease and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.”[53] These passages do not make sense unless God intended for man to govern over the entire material universe. This would necessarily squeeze out any pretenders to the niche currently occupied by humanity—created, material, rational beings.

Consider also that during Christ’s earthly ministry, He instituted the Sacrament of Baptism.[54] It is through Baptism that one is initiated into the Catholic religion. Christ stressed this sacrament’s importance in no uncertain terms: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”[55] “[U]nless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”[56] “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”[57]

In order to properly confect the Sacrament of Baptism, water is necessary. Water has been found on other planets, but only as ice or vapor. Neither suffices for Baptism, which requires either that the water be poured on the person’s head or that he be immersed in the water. For this purpose, only liquid water will work. The only planet known to have liquid water in abundance is Earth. As much as three-quarters of the planet’s surface is covered in it, to say nothing of underground natural springs from which people draw their drinking water. Thus it makes sense that an all-knowing God should institute so important a rite as Baptism with water on a planet where water is ubiquitous. Turning this notion on its head yields that Baptism is not for planets that do not have liquid water. It is more than coincidental, then, that planets known to not have liquid water also do not exhibit life.

Conclusion

In antiquity, people put their faith in things we now know to be ridiculous. Centuries later, it appears that little has changed.

Aliens are a science fiction literary device. They are not real and cannot hurt anyone. However, the belief that aliens exist is dangerous. More so than in any other era, extraterrestrial intelligences have been associated with the New Age, the New Age being just another term for what prior generations called the occult.[58] Belief in aliens serves as a gateway to Gnosticism, whereby one seeks to perfect himself by his own efforts through the accumulation of secret knowledge. 

Gnosticism is an occult religion. It is incompatible with Christianity. It desacralizes everything that Christianity considers holy while elevating profane things to godhood. Case in point: Scientology (arguably a modern form of Gnosticism) denies that Christ is God,[59] relegating Him to the status of a peculiarly talented teacher. The religion dispenses with the belief in any god, asserting that “each person is an immortal being, a force that believers call a thetan.”[60] Put another way, it claims that anyone can make himself a god. The way to achieve this perfection is by “rid[ding] the body of space alien parasites.”[61] This process is lengthy, expensive, secretive, and accessible only to those who can afford it. 

Like Gnosticism, Scientology expresses a negative view of material existence. The cause of one’s problems in life is spiritual trauma sustained during past lives that “cloud[s] the analytic mind and keep[s] us from experiencing reality.”[62] It is said of the church that Scientology:

promotes the idea of an ancient intergalactic civilization in which millions of beings were destroyed and became what are known as “body thetans,” which continue to latch onto humans and cause more trauma… [however,] the church discloses that cosmic history only to more advanced Scientologists.[63]

If this all should sound too fantastic to be believed, observe that L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology’s founder, was a science fiction writer. 

That belief in aliens is just repackaged Gnosticism only goes to show that aliens are an old myth with a fresh coat of paint. It is a superstitious, false belief, and all the more dangerous for being false. Dr. Daniel O’Connor, a contemporary proponent of this view, has summed up the spiritual risks of believing in these myths better than anyone:

Can you not see how diabolical this is? There are no aliens. But I do not doubt that the Antichrist or his forerunners will try to convince us that there are—and that, conveniently, he has contact with them (and maybe even can “show them” to us)—and through this “contact” he will strive to compel us to “reread” our Faith, thus emptying it of its power, as St. Paul prophesied for these times. Have nothing to do with it.[64]

Dr. O’Connor’s admonition insinuates a subtler—though no less dangerous—risk for those who believe in aliens. It is this: that the belief in aliens subjects a person to demonic deception.

Temptation is the most basic demonic activity. Because sin itself is disorder, when a person sins he invites additional disorder. Thus, sin can provide the gateway to advanced demonic activity in one’s life.[65] However, not all sins are equally weighted. Some are more egregious than others. The practice of occult religion is a direct offense against God. It contravenes the First Commandment because it entails the worship of something that is not God. Scripture equates this behavior with infidelity to God on the level of adultery, for which the just punishment is death.[66] Therefore, it stands to reason that the more egregious the sin, the greater the demon’s influence over the sinner.

Building on this point, two advanced forms of demonic activity are oppression and obsession. Oppression is demonic influence over a person’s externals—his possessions, his relationships with other people, and so on. In extreme cases it can also manifest as physical abuse on a person’s body—cuts, bruises, scratch marks, burns, illness, and other harm of preternatural origin.

In contrast, obsession is a demon’s influence over a person’s internal reality. Demons can act upon the senses, imagination, and memory to make a person experience things that are not real, and conceal from him things that are real. People obsessed by demons have experienced low-level chatter, indiscernible background speech like murmurs in a packed movie theater. Others have reported clear and distinct speech. In either case, this speech originates from inner voices not their own. Typically, no one but the sufferer can detect the voices.

Theologian Kurt Koch provides an account of a woman encountering aliens while visiting an African mission.[67] The woman had a long-held desire to contact extraterrestrial beings, and so she traveled to a location in Africa where there had been frequent UFO sightings. While there, she was mysteriously transported out of the home where she was staying and into the presence of robot-like beings which she believed were extraterrestrials. 

The woman was confident her experience was genuine because she was familiar with the methods of faking paranormal phenomena. Both her parents were spiritualists. In her youth, she had attended her parents’ séances. What is more, she had practiced spiritualist tricks herself. Thus, she would have had the means of knowing whether her experience was an elaborate hoax.

The beings performed an examination of her body using a number of instruments. These examinations caused her pain and left visible marks on her body. Afterward, she carried on a telepathic conversation with these creatures. They offered to grant her anything she requested, saying, “God is not going to answer your prayer anyway. But we can fulfill your wish.”[68]

Koch draws four observations from the foregoing event.

First, that aliens do not exist. But note: Koch does not dispute the genuineness of the woman’s experience, only her interpretation of it. He accepts that what befell the woman actually did occur. He does not accept that the encounter involved extraterrestrials.

Second, that the beings who confronted the woman were demons disguised as aliens. The interaction between the woman and the beings, the manner in which they communicated, and the substance of that communication all dovetail with the demonic mode of operation. Of import is the beings’ derision of God. Why should an ostensibly superior alien race care whether humans worship Jesus Christ, or for that matter, that humans should worship at all?

Third, that the woman’s interest in spiritualism and UFO’s predisposed her to a demonic encounter wherein the demons were disguised as aliens. Recall that spiritualism is a grave sin, and that sins afford demons greater influence over the sinner. Recall too that demons can act upon a person’s physical body and perception of the world around him. Thus it is within a demon’s power to act upon the woman in the same manner as the purported aliens had. 

What is more, demons can disguise themselves. A demon is an evil spirit. All spirits, whether good or bad, are imperceptible to the physical senses. They can, however, take on appearances they believe will advance their motives. Tobias was none the wiser when the Archangel Raphael assumed human form to accompany him on his journey.[69] Likewise, Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light.[70] There is no reason to believe a demon cannot disguise himself as an alien. As to whether they would want to do so: knowing that demons operate similarly to conmen, it is likely demons would want to exploit any vulnerabilities they detect when tempting someone to sin. Hence, if the target of a demon’s attentions strongly believes in the existence of aliens, or desires contact with aliens as in the case Koch relates, then a demon would not hesitate to leverage that belief.

The fourth of Koch’s observations is that the connection between the occult and demons is the same as that between the occult and UFO’s:

UFO’s and occult practices run parallel. It is clear they have the same origin… Placing Satanism and UFO on the same level is only one indication that both movements have the same origin.[71]

Koch concludes that the purpose of the alien myth is to undercut faith in Christ:

They tell their contact people that the Bible is full of errors. Christ is not the Son of God but rather a Venusian. Three contemporary Venusians are the real saviors of mankind. Mediums like Uri Geller are allies of these Venusians. The same can be said for other mediums like [George] Adamski or [Andrija] Puharich [i.e., Henry Karel Pulharíc], who are said to have the assignment on earth to give reality to the ideas of the UFO beings.[72]

Observe that where aliens and Christianity intersect, Christianity is wrong; and where aliens and Christ intersect, Christ is likened to an alien. The Buddha has been likened to an alien,[73] yet no one claims Buddhism is wrong or that it is to blame for hiding the truth about the Buddha’s purported alien origins. And yet the people Koch references in the passage above would assert that aliens are superior to Christ because Christ is an alien, not merely a human. Why else would they liken Christ to an alien if not to demean Him; to show that their make-believe alien Christ is superior to the real-world Jesus Christ, the Son of God who walked the Earth, was crucified and rose from the dead? Furthermore, it is implied that, if Christ really were a superhuman alien, then Christianity could be faulted for lying in order to cover up the existence of aliens. Not only is this all false, it is disgusting blasphemy.

Aquinas teaches that everything is perceived according to the mode of the recipient. In light of how demons can act upon others’ physical senses, memory, and imagination, it would seem that the prevailing folklore of a time and place influences how one might perceive the manifestation of a demon. With the modern world so steeped in the myth of aliens, it is hardly a surprise that demons have adopted alien disguises. Aliens’ rightful place is science fiction, not science fact. To accept otherwise is to lay the groundwork for being deceived.

Footnotes

[1] National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “History and Mystery of Lightning.” Lightning History, www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-history. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[2] It may be the case that non-intelligent life forms exist outside of Earth, but that topic is beyond the scope of this investigation. This study focuses on the ostensible existence of aliens with intelligence on par with or surpassing that of human beings.

[3] SETI Institute. “SETI Research.” SETI Institute, www.seti.org/seti-research. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[4] National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Life, Here and Beyond.” Astrobiology at NASA; Life in the Universe. astrobiology.nasa.gov/about. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[5] Stewart, Phil and Idrees Ali. “No Evidence of Space Aliens So Far in the Pentagon’s UFO Deep-Dive.” Reuters, reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/no-evidence-space-aliens-so-far-pentagons-ufo-deep-dive-2022-12-16. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[6] Britannica, the Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Philosophy.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[7] National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Life, Here and Beyond.” Astrobiology at NASA; Life in the Universe. astrobiology.nasa.gov/about. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[8] Id.

[9] Example: All cats die. Socrates died. Therefore, Socrates was a cat.

[10] Gigot, Francis. “The Bible.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. www.newadvent.org/cathen/02543a.htm. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[11] Bainvel, Jean. “Tradition and Living Magisterium.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. www.newadvent.org/cathen/15006b.htm. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[12] Id.

[13] The Holy Bible: Douay-Rheims Version, Matthew 28:19-20. Christ instructs His disciples: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.”

[14] Bainvel, Jean. “Tradition and Living Magisterium.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. www.newadvent.org/cathen/15006b.htm. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[15] Coghlan, Daniel. “Dogma.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. www.newadvent.org/cathen/05089a.htm. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[16] Matthew 5:22-29.

[17] Editors, History.com. “This Day in History: Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier.” History, 8 Dec. 2020, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/yeager-breaks-sound-barrier. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[18] “Supersonic Flying Saucers Sighted by Idaho Pilot.” The Chicago Sun, 26 Jun. 1947, p. 2.

[19] It may not be a stretch to say that what Arnold saw was a predecessor to the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, an aircraft designed to look like a flying wedge in order to avoid detection by radar.

[20] “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.” The Roswell Daily Record, 8 Jul. 1947, p. 1.

[21] Huffling, Brian J. “UFOs, Aliens, and Christianity.” CrossExamined.org, 4 Oct. 2022, www.crossexamined.org/ufos-aliens-and-christianity. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[22] Berlitz, Charles and William Moore. The Roswell Incident: The Classic Study of UFO Contact. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 1990.

[23] Genesis 1:1.

[24] 1 Timothy 1:17.

[25] Colossians 1:16

[26] Deuteronomy 32:39.

[27] Psalm 95:5.

[28] Psalm 8:6-9.

[29] Genesis 1:26.

[30] Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993, n. 330. www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1A.HTM. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[31] Summa Theologiae, II-I, Q. 85, Art. 1. “Wherefore, original justice being forfeited through the sin of our first parent; just as human nature was stricken in the soul by the disorder among the powers, as stated above, so also it became subject to corruption, by reason of disorder in the body.”

[32] Genesis 1:26-27.

[33] Pius XII. “Humani Generis.” The Holy See, 18 Dec. 1950, www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[34] Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993, n. 356. www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1A.HTM. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[35] Hontheim, Joseph. “Heaven.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. www.newadvent.org/cathen/07170a.htm. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[36] Hebrews 10:12-14.

[37] Colossians 1:15.

[38] 2 Peter 2:4.

[39] Genesis 2:7.

[40] Genesis 2:21-22.

[41] Luke 1:28.

[42] Isaiah 66:1.

[43] Genesis 3:8.

[44] Genesis 3:15.

[45] Isaiah 7:14.

[46] Luke 1:26-38.

[47] John 1:14.

[48] John 3:16.

[49] Proverbs 8:31.

[50] John 10:16.

[51] Genesis 1:26.

[52] Genesis 2:15.

[53] Genesis 1:28.

[54] Matthew 3:13-17.

[55] Matthew 28:19.

[56] John 3:5.

[57] Mark 16:16.

[58] Pacwa, Fr. Mitch. Catholics and the New Age: How Good People Are Being Drawn into Jungian psychology, the Enneagram, and the Age of Aquarius. Ann Arbor: Servant Publications, 1992.

[59] Urban, Hugh B. “Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Jun. 2006, pp. 356-389.

[60] Gilgoff, Dan and Tricia Escobedo. “Scientology: What Exactly Is It?” CNN, 19 Apr. 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/us/believer-what-is-scientology/index.html. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[61] Id.

[62] Id.

[63] Id.

[64] O’Connor, Daniel. “There Are No Aliens.” He’s Coming, 6 Mar. 2021, www.dsdoconnor.com/2021/03/06/there-are-no-aliens. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.

[65] Driscoll, Fr. Mike. Demons, Deliverance, and Discernment: Separating Fact from Fiction about the Spiritual World. El Cajon: Catholic Answers, Inc., 2015.

[66] Leviticus 20:6; 20:27.

[67] Koch, Kurt E. Occult ABC. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1986.

[68] Id.

[69] Tobit 5:18.

[70] 2 Corinthians 11:14.

[71] Koch, Kurt E. Occult ABC. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1986.

[72] Id.

[73] “Intergalactic Buddha: If Buddha Was An Alien from Another Planet, Galaxy or Dimension—Or Alternate Reality—What Would He Be Like?” Buddha Weekly, www.buddhaweekly.com/intergalactic-buddha-if-buddha-was-an-alien-from-another-planet-galaxy-or-dimension-or-alternate-reality-what-would-he-be-like-compassionate-and-wise-regardless-of-illusory-app. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.