What Are We to Do With the Aliens?

This article first appeared on my Substack, https://rememberingtomorrow.substack.com. 

Recently, my wife and I have started watching the “reboot” version of the long-running TV show Dr. Who. For the longest time, I held out from watching it based on principle: it was a really big deal while I was in college, and since everyone around me was into it and I had never heard of it, I constructed an ego wherein the “whovians” were they in this relationship and the never-seen-its were the us. For me, that little childish sense of superiority you used to get when you can contrast what your family does vs finding out your friend’s family is one of those families survived for a time into my adulthood and latched on Dr. Who as the manifestation of differentiation. In other words: I saw rejecting Dr. Who as a way of setting myself apart from the masses, at the very least so that I could pretend it mattered to my peers whether I saw the Dr. or not. Now, late in the game, I find myself drawing parallels between a central theme of the show and recent global events of 2026, occasionally-corny-early-2000s-BBC cinema notwithstanding.

Why the sudden change of heart, so many years later? YouTube shorts got the better of me. I saw several short clips of what were only referred to as “the angels,” and the people in the shorts seemed really scared of them. It was intriguing enough for me to begin watching the reboot, and then after getting a season or so in, to restart with my wife so that we both could enjoy the British humor as best we can, and marvel at the occasional screenwriting gem found among the episodes (if you start an episode written by Stephen Moffat, you’re in for a treat). And now that I’ve begun watching the show, though I still can’t consider myself a “whovian,” I’ve enjoyed how the show deals with one very specific and recurring SciFi theme: in a multi-rational species cosmos, is there anything special about being human? It’s a question clearly relevant to a recent announcement from the Pentagon.

A report came out a few weeks ago that some US pastors were briefed in secret by the Pentagon about the upcoming government disclosure that we are not alone in the cosmos. Now, the credibility of such a secret evangelical meeting is dubious at best; I tried to do a little research on what was actually said at this meeting, and it looks like it’s been billed one way to the public via social media but is in fact another way in real life. So who knows. But purportedly, the caution followed along these or similar lines: there are extra-terrestrial life forms out there, such that the entire Christian/Biblical worldview is in question. Pastors should prepare for the backlash of potential civil uprising in their congregations.

Now, again: whether the Pentagon actually issued such a caution and call for preparation, I cannot verify at all. Actually, with the evidence such as it is, I am inclined to think that any such claims to the truth of this caution are nothing more than clickbait. But be that as it may: UFOs are, by definition, existent; and the growing sentiment is that intelligent extra-terrestrial life forms are their authors. More evidence is expected to be released to support this supposition in the coming months, though the certitude of the conclusion remains to be seen. 

Notwithstanding the dubious nature of an official Pentagonal caution to Christian leaders, many have already felt the tremors of doubt in the face of evidential intelligent, non-human biological life. And, true to form, we can already find a milieu of “explanations” for what is being released. From the corner of fragile faith and preservationism of caste historicism, any alien life that might be evidenced is discounted in the same way the Dinosaurs are discounted: demons, fallen angels, Satan himself, or maybe just our own government is interfering with reality to shake our faith in God - but none of what is evidenced is actually real. 

The opposing corner of fragile faith - but this time of inescapable adaptation to new claims rather than preservation of old - we can find a supposition that religion must have been lying to us this whole time: Christianity in its traditional sense has always been false, we just didn’t realize it before. People from this corner fall into two categories: faith abandoners and faith clingers. If you are in this corner, you either become an atheist in light of “new” evidence, OR you cling to the Christian faith in one form or another because it is better for society, it is patriotic, it is a force of habit, etc. But one thing remains: the Christianity you knew yesterday is simply untenable if there are aliens.

The third corner is filled with those who have always been atheists, and who now point to the skies as supporting evidence of what they have always believed. God never existed in their worldview anyhow, and evidence of alien life forms confirms their rejection of Christianity - especially their rejection of Christianity found in the first corner. What these people do with this newfound evidence, I am not entirely sure of; I do not interact with many atheists in this capacity these days. And, since Faith is a gift of Grace from God anyhow, is anyone actually surprised that every waking moment is confirmation of a worldview founded on rejection of grace? But I do have to wonder if the worldview of materialism and opportunity so grounded in the social contract and Baconian philosophies isn’t at least a little shaken.

In the final corner, you’ll find me. I’m not alone over here; there are a lot of level-headed individuals here with me. What is our response to potential alien life forms? Well, it really imitates my response to “end of the world” cries. In this corner, the prevailing question isn’t reactionary: it’s inquisitory. Think a child asking “so what,” but on steroids. Are we curious to know whether they are real or not? Sure. I want to see the evidence, the footage, and the captured three-fingered Joes just as much as anyone. But what has that to do with me is the question. Christ became human, and it is by virtue of His humanity that we have been elevated to Divine heirs. The happy fault of Adam that merited us such a Savior applies to humans alone. And if it didn’t - if Christ also became fully Martian - then the divinity of the Martians has no bearing on what my Salvation depends upon. The die has been cast for humans, and the rules have been set. If God deemed the creation and redemption of another planet necessary, of what bearing does it have on my response to Christ’s exhortations and commands? None at all. 

Maybe alien life is real, and maybe it isn’t. The existence of intelligent life that is not human has exactly zero bearing on the reality of Christianity, though: we already know that Angels exist, and they certainly are not human. What’s one more species of intelligent life in the face of God? Heck, if Aquinas is to be believed, there are already an infinite number of intelligent species of beings, since every angel is a species to himself. Further, if you read my book Remembering Freedom, you will find a curious claim: that conscience, not consciousness, is the hallmark of personhood. 

Reason by itself, and even a subjective experience (which these days is erroneously boiled down to limited and individual data collection) are not enough to denote personhood. If that were true, we would have to grant personhood to dolphins, elephants, AI, and some levels of robots. All of these things have individual subjective experiences, and even can reason on one level or another. But this is not where we mark personhood. Rather, personhood is marked by an innate image of God imprinted upon the soul of the individual being. This imprint is more than mere logic and rational thought; it is rational thought and experience in such a way that God Himself is the object of that experience. And if God saw fit to create an infinitude of creatures with personhood in the Angels, who are we to deny Him our response in Faith if He also created biological beings in His image? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

It has been fun to watch Dr. Who. Currently, my wife and I are on the episode called “The Planet of the Ood.” In this episode (though my wife doesn’t know it yet), we travel to a planet filled with rational creatures whom the world has only known as a slave race. They live to serve, is the claim, and without masters they would perish. Come to find out, they are not slaves but have been enslaved: their centers of individuality and drive for freedom (their “conscience,” as it were) has been replaced with a bauble that makes them subservient and removes them from the center mind. This replacement isn’t invincible, and that subliminal response to a changed nature every once in a while causes an Ood to become violent; and the episode continues. It’s all convoluted, complex, timey-wimey stuff, and I can’t quite explain the mechanics in such a short paragraph. But in the end, the Dr. frees them all and they go back to being a free race. 

What is the point of bringing up the Ood? Everything has a telos, and an orientation to their being which gives them identity. Reason alone is not the defining point of humanity, and it is not that which makes one human. Reason itself isn’t even an end in itself, but rather all reason has knowledge of God as its object. Humans share this with the angels - and maybe some Ood, we may come to find. But no matter how many rational animals there truly are, the Incarnation changed everything for humans. That God would become one of His creations in the precise way He did is simply incredible, and is as unique a dignity as can be found. And even if it isn’t - even if God also became an Ood - all that means is that the same God that became Man also became an Ood, and the same rules and ethics apply. 

The die has been cast by the most perfect Craftsman. That He may have crafted a bigger world than we originally thought ought to be no more a trial to our Faith than it was when we found out the created world and application of morality extended beyond our front door. 

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