C. S. Lewis and Space Aliens

One of C. S. Lewis’ lesser known books is a collection of essays entitled The World’s Last Night. A short essay included here is “Religion and Rocketry,” in which Lewis speculates on the theological implications of finding life on other planets. I’m an astronomy buff, so I found his thoughts amusing and insightful (would you expect anything less from him)? In one section he imagines that God might interact differently with creatures:

If we knew . . . that Redemption by an Incarnation and passion had been denied to creatures in need of it — is it certain that this is the only mode of Redemption that is possible? Here of course we ask for what is not merely unknown but, unless God should reveal it, wholly unknowable. It may be that the further we were permitted to see into His councils, the more clearly we should understand that thus and not otherwise — by the birth at Bethlehem, the cross on Calvary and the empty tomb — a fallen race could be rescued. There may be a necessity for this, insurmountable, rooted in the very nature of God and the very nature of sin. But we don’t know. At any rate, I don’t know. Spiritual as well as physical conditions might differ widely in different worlds. There might be different sorts and different degrees of fallenness. We must surely believe that the divine charity is as fertile in resource as it is measureless in condescension. To different diseases, or even to different patients sick with the same disease, the great Physician may have applied different remedies; remedies which we should probably not recognize as such even if we ever heard them. (pg. 87)

Isn’t it intriguing to wonder how God might deal redemptively with other kinds of alien creatures? I find it interesting that Lewis wrote this in 1958, just as the American space program was beginning to heat up. If he would have lived a few years longer he would have seen the astronauts reach the moon.

For my own part, I don’t believe in aliens, and I don’t believe humans will ever encounter intelligent life from another planet. The distances are just too great, and the odds of intelligent life elsewhere — and the possibility that they would make contact with us, or vice-versa — seems pretty unlikely to me.

If you haven’t checked out NASA’s web page lately, you really should. They have done a really great job with it. But be careful or you may end up spending a lot more time than anticipated!