The modern-day obsession with aliens is a strange one, but also fitting. As man likes to believe he has killed God forever, he nonetheless acknowledges the wonder in the world, but instead of appreciating it, he works to try to make it cold and sterile. This is nowhere clearer than in the study of aliens. When we talk about aliens, we hear of creatures greater than us, more 'evolved' than we are, with technology so advanced that it can do things that we couldn't even fathom. However, these deities of naturalism are often involved with forces beyond those of normal science. We see psychic phenomena, in many accounts of abductions, the beings do not speak but are able to communicate with the abductees telepathically. What's more, there's always this air of knowledge about them. They are cold grey creatures with large eyes an skulls, features historically attributed to very wise creatures. Some theorize that snakes and owls are depicted as intelligent due to these large or unblinking eyes, and many aliens are depicted as reptilian or having almost amphibian characteristics than those more mammalian ones. All of this serves to further drive home the idea of them as, well, alien.
From there, many, Christian or otherwise, will simply go on to call them mythical or fraudulent. I, however, don't think I can reasonably say all those who confess to have seen or experienced extraterrestrial phenomena are lying. In fact, 77% of Americans claim to have seen a UFO, and nearly half of that thinks it was an alien. Like one third of Americans, I believe many of these experiences came from the stars originally, but they do not anymore. Rather, they are from that third of the stars which were "cast down to earth" as well as Wormwood, the one who fell from heaven into the watery chaos to kill us with his bitter water (Rev 12:4, 8:14). In other words, they are from the demons, those great deceivers who seek to destroy mankind so as to make them in their own perverted image. Those in the field are already beginning to believe in a grand unified theory of the paranormal, in which beings like ghosts, aliens, and Bigfoot (who is a topic for another post) are related, the demonic would fit this very well, as ghosts are already established to nearly always being demonic spirits seeking to torment and drive to despair. I'm not planning on posting about that, but if you're interested I can make a further case for it, I just feel it to be fairly obviously incompatible with the Christian viewpoint.
Now, enough assertions, time for the actual historical case. First and foremost, let's look at some of the most common places for UFO sightings. I would contend that the two most famous are Roswell/Area 51 and the Phoenix lights. Both of these cases have a major thing in common: the desert. Historically, the desert has often been associated with the demonic. In the case of the Israelites, we see that on the day of atonement, the scapegoat was sent out of the city, having all of Israel's sin imputed to him, and he was meant "for Azazel," a prominent demons often identified as Satan himself. With the desert fathers, namely St. Anthony, we hear stories of demons tormenting them in caves, often beating them and rending their flesh, with the saints besting them by prayer. In the case of St. Anthony, he was found in a cave by his friend, there to bring him bread, and it is said that the spirits would turn into different forms, lions, leopards, bulls, serpents, etc. and attack him (Athanasius, Life of Anthony 8-9). These demons behave similarly to a creature of Inuit folklore called the Ijiraat, which also has many characteristics with most alien encounters. These creatures are shapeshifters, able to turn into any Arctic animal, just as those in the Life of Anthony, but they are unable to change their large, red eyes. In addition, those who see them almost always forget their experiences a short period of time after, a phenomenon similar to that of abduction stories. What's more, they are associated with the realm of the dead, just as demons are, and are said to come from a space between the realms of the living and dead. Another story from a couple centuries later is from the Life of Martin of Tours. The text describes a rebellious monk who claimed to speak to angels. When trying to convince his abbott, he said that he was "the Power of God" and that the angels would give him a brilliant white robe. In the middle of the night, it was said that the other monks saw his cell "glittering with lights" and could hear whispering and movement from people within. The next morning, he showed up with a brilliant garment, and his abbott tried to get him to go see St. Martin. After violently refusing and even saying that he promised not to show the garment to Martin, they dragged him there and it disappeared instantly. This testimony of a demonic interaction sounds remarkably similar to many alien encounters, with mysterious lights from one's room and physical footsteps from beings giving him secret knowledge.
In more modern times, we see some phenomena in line with alien encounters but pointing to a more sinister truth. On April 14, 1561 in Nuremberg, Germany, there was a brilliant spectacle in the sky. In the middle of the day, glowing, multicolored shapes, with crosses, cyllinders, saucers, and crescents each shooting lights at each other, as if they were fighting. Modern viewers would, and often do, interpret this as an alien battle above Germany, but I would say the viewers had a much more reasonable reaction:
"Whatever such signs mean, God alone knows. Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children."
They see these signs in the heavens and repent because they know of God's wrath. Rather than going the route of Ancient Aliens, which has claimed that Jesus is an extraterrestrial at some points, and instead they repent so as to not follow the 'false christs and false prophets' who 'perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.' (Matthew 24:24) Three centuries later, Alister Crowley, the infamous occultist, communed with the spirit of an Egyptian god named Lam, and made a sketch of the spirit, which looks remarkably similar to a grey alien. It has a large, bulbous head and large eyes with a somewhat fancy robe, further showing the demon-alien connection. The final modern piece of evidence is that many eyewitnesses claim to have cried out for Jesus mid-abduction and been released from the experience, to the point where if you simply look up "alien abduction stopped by Jesus," you will find plenty of results. I actually have a friend of mine with a similar experience, who I will leave anonymous for privacy's sake. When they were young, they had a sort of imaginary friend, but instead of a friend they pretended was there to play with, he rather spoke to them in their mind. He said he was a martian and told them all about martian society down to even a personal level with him and his family. The two would talk often, and yet all his stories would lead them to tears or manic laughter in public. In fact, not long after their first encounter with him in middle school, which is later than many create an imaginary friend, they experienced a spiralling in mental health with self-harm and suicidal thoughts. What's more, when I mentioned their "alien friend" to them, they were surprised I even knew of him, as they don't remember talking about him to anyone. I was confused, because they talked about him relatively often in high school, but they nonetheless don't remember it at all. He only stopped communicating with them in high school when they started taking part in a bible study, and though they weren't free from the mental health issues, which they do at least partially blame on him, they are free from his voice.
In addition, there are numerous "UFO religions" that have popped up in recent years. The largest one is called Raelism, which involves "engag[ing] in daily meditation, hope for physical immortality through human cloning, and promot[ing] a liberal ethical system with a strong emphasis on sexual experimentation." Supposedly, the founder, Claude Vorilhon, who later renamed himself Rael, communicated with the Elohim, which may I remind you is the Hebrew name for spiritual beings, who claimed to be aliens that were mistaken for gods and that the leader of every religion (Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc.) is actually an Elohim-human hybrid. Another is called Ashtar Command, which involved a sort of Gnostic theosophy and the obtaining of secret knowledge from the "ascended masters," with the first and most commonly communicated one being Ashtar. One point that is interesting to note is that the name Ashtar is likely derived from the ancient Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar or Inanna, goddess of war, love, and passion.
The final point is that alien life simply makes little sense in the Christian worldview. Many these days have tried to reconcile the two, with leaders like Pope Francis saying that the Church would baptize aliens if they could (which is pretty funny, coming from the antichrist), but really it makes no sense. We know from the holy scriptures that the Lord 'formed [the earth] it to be inhabited" (Isaiah 45:18). In addition, we see a contrast between the population of the earth with the unpopulated stars when the Psalmist says, 'The heavens are the Lord ’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man. ' (115:16) It also creates a kink in the view of anthropology, with an ensouled creature who also has wisdom and yet is not made in the image of God. Now, that is not to say that if aliens were "discovered" that we should instantly renounce the faith, but we ought to acknowledge that a demon may diguise "himself as an angel of light" (2 Cor 11:14). And from there, we should reject the demonic powers that seek our souls and turn to Christ our Lord.
O Lord, keep us safe from the demonic powers that threaten us and guard us from the evil one, that we may not fall into his wiles but may remain self-controlled and with the other fruits of the Spirit.
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