Why We Can’t Believe in Aliens

Guest post by Adam Miller.

There are discussions on numerous Facebook sites and blog pages about the possibility of aliens. Many Catholics and others who profess belief in Christ as God and man, Lord and Savior, believe in alien life on other worlds in this vast universe. The following paragraphs are from an unpublished Tower of David manuscript titled: “Principalities and Powers of the Air: Ancient Gods, Aliens, Abductions, & U.F.O’s — The Deception of Demons.”

Some may ask: Would not God create other physical beings of intelligence to populate this vast universe? Why would the Church condemn such notions which appear quite attractive to us today? Well, the reasons why the Church has done so are fundamental to the content of God’s revealed truths to men: Creation, the Fall, the Incarnation and Person of Jesus Christ, and the necessary implications which follow from these revealed truths.

If there were aliens on other worlds, then a number of problems would exist which are contrary to these truths which God has formally revealed:

  1. Adam would not be the first hominem;
  2. That Christ did not die for these alien beings, for they are not fallen; or
    A: That the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity did become incarnate on
    their worlds (but then, how many worlds and how many times?)
    and
    B: that He also died for them there.

Number 1 must be rejected since it is a revealed truth of God than Adam was the first man, the first hominem (viz. a being composed of physical body and spiritual soul), from whom ALL hominem (i.e., physical beings with a spiritual soul endowed with the faculties of will and intellect) are descended. This is a solemnly defined dogma of the Catholic Faith (see below).

Number 2 must be rejected because God has revealed that all Creation was affected by the Fall. (cf. Rom. 8:20-22)

Number 3 ‘A’ must be rejected because Christ is only ONE Person (the Second Person of the Holy Trinity) with two natures, divine and human. He could not therefore have another (alien) created nature united to His divine Person, and He surely did not have multiple mothers.

Option ‘B’ must be rejected because Christ died only once, never to die again, thus He could not have died on another world, or on other worlds. Therefore, it necessarily follows according to Divine Revelation and thus dogmatically that there are no physical beings, that is, no aliens on (and thus from) other worlds. A truth that necessarily follows from a defined dogma is known as a “dogmatic fact.”

Add the fact that there is another Church document from which it necessarily follows that there could not be aliens on other alien worlds. At Lateran Council IV (1215) the following doctrine was infallibly defined as a dogma (i.e. a truth formally revealed by God as necessary for belief) that:

“God by His own omnipotent power at once from the beginning of time created each creature from nothing, spiritual, and corporal; namely angelic and mundane [i.e. animals] and finally the human, constituted as it were, alike of spirit and body.”
[fn: “Decree on the Catholic Faith,” see Denzinger, #428]

We see that the Church has formally and infallibly defined that the types of creatures whom God has created are either mundane animals (i.e. no rational/spiritual soul), or angels, or human — constituted of spirit (soul) and body. It necessarily follows from this as a dogmatic fact that there can be no other beings endowed with rational souls except for human beings and angels. Therefore, there are no aliens on other alien worlds.

Has the Church ever condemned the belief in aliens on other (alien) worlds? The answer is yes.

In fact, the Church has condemned the notion that there are alien beings on other worlds. The phenomenon of (apparent) strange vehicles in the sky and encounters with strange beings was well known and frequent enough that back in the 15th century a Catholic priest, Father Zanini de Solcia, Canon of Pergamum, proposed that there must be other worlds with alien beings who were perhaps visiting us. But the opinions of Canon Zanini (or Zaninus as he was called in Latin) were declared by ecclesiastical authorities as errors which “attacked the dogmas of the Fathers.” In 1459, the priest and several of his propositions received a solemn condemnation by Pope Pius II (1458-1464). One of Fr. Zanini’s condemned propositions states that God created other alien (Lat. alium) worlds, that in the time of those worlds other male and female aliens (alios) existed, and thus Adam was not the first man.
[This is Condemned Proposition # 3 from the Papal Epistle Cum Sicut, November 14, 1459. See Denzinger, # 717c]

From this document, Cum Sicut, of November 19, 1459, by Pope Pius II, is a declaration that the Catholic Church has condemned the notion that there are other worlds with other physical beings with souls. It should be pointed out that the classical definition of ‘man’ (Lat. hominem) is a created being composed of a physical body and a spiritual soul endowed with the faculties of will and intellect.

This means, according to the language of the Papal condemnation, that alien beings as we think of them would be included as hominem (i.e. ‘man’), for they would be physical beings endowed with intellect and will. Thus, as a doctrinal matter of the Faith, Catholics must reject the notion that, other than angels and devils, there are alien beings on other, alien worlds. Therefore, the phenomena today known as UFOs and alien encounters cannot be properly understood as the visitation of the earth by planetary biological aliens, or so-called extraterrestrials. It must be something else.

My thesis for this work is that the authentic phenomenon of today known as UFOs and alien abductions is nothing but the activity and deception of fallen angels or demons misleading men. Which fallen angels, one may ask? Those whom Divine Revelation designates as the principalities and powers of the air (see Eph. 3:10 and 6:12) of whom Satan is their prince (Eph. 2:2).

___

Originally published at Tower of David/Marian Publications.
Photo: Donald Giannatti, Unsplash / PD-US

Adam Miller is married and the father of eight children. He graduated Summa cum laude in his majors of theology and philosophy from Mount St. Mary’s College (now University) in Emmitsburg, MD. With graduate work done in historical theology, he is a member of both Phi Sigma Tau, the national honor society in philosophy, and Theta Alpha Kappa, the national honor society in theology. Mr. Miller has taught high school religion, catechism, U.S. and world history for twenty years, and is the founder and director of Tower of David Ministry and Publications, a lay Catholic educational apostolate. The author of more than one dozen works defending and explaining Catholic teaching and history, Mr. Miller is finishing up a text on American history from a traditional Catholic perspective.

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20 thoughts on “Why We Can’t Believe in Aliens”

  1. If your claim is true, the Church has been remarkably reticent in condemning this “error contrary to dogma”. Firstly a single letter from a 15th century Pope condemning a certain proposition proposed by one man, is not an exercise if the infallible Magisterium and can not be concluded to condemn, for all time, all propositions which somewhat resemble it.
    Many authors of unchallenged Catholic standing for many centuries both before and after this letter, professed freely that heavenly bodies, even the Sun,! are inhabited by alien beings. Indeed the vast majority of the most famous mediaeval and early modern astronomers professed this idea. With not one of them ever being called “into line” by his bishop or pope, even in those days when the Church was quick to lay the most fierce anathemas on anything suspected of being heresy.
    You’ll have to produce a LOT more evidence than this to sustain your theory.

    1. And yet no one in this comments section takes on the actual arguments the author presents…what is the Catholic Church and its dogmas in view of aliens especially the descent of Adam?

      1. It is because they have neither the authority nor the competence to comment on extra worldly matters that have no scriptural or traditional basis for teaching.

  2. I don’t mean this to be demeaning or insulting, but how it it possible to study Catholic theology and graduate with honors without having learned how Latin nouns are declined?

  3. Another example of misunderstanding infallibility and its application. In the 15th century they may have thought they were speaking of theological matters that applied in the instance at question but as knowledge advanced, they obviously were not. In fact, even infallibility itself has been de facto narrowed since Vatican I as exemplified by its rare use. Previous councils and pontiffs threw around doctrines and anathemas rather carelessly, giving little thought as to the deeper meaning of their pronouncements and were clearly not infallible statements within the present meaning of the word.

    1. C. S. Lewis was quite clear that there was every likelihood of “unfallen worlds.” His trilogy of outer space, read Perelandra, especially evokes this. The author seems threatened by even the idea of alien life. If they are unfallen, trust God’s grace–they might teach us much.

  4. It is unclear whether the author is using the term “Adam” metaphorically or literally believes that humans all trace their lineage through early generations of incest with just two people at the top of the chart. The church does not require we believe in only two first humans and, in fact, we know anthropologically that humans descend from a group of about 10,000 early hominids in Africa. Likewise, if intelligent aliens show up one day are we to deny their existence, or do we have to renounce our own religion if, as the author states, our religion says we can’t believe in them?

    1. From one Mount grad to another – not a good take. There are numerous problems with this argument.

      First, the condemnation cited is, while important, not exactly conclusive and is certainly not “solemnly defined,” as a matter of faith. That’s absurd.

      Second, Thomas disagrees about the Son and the taking on of multiple bodies. He says that a Person can take on infinite bodies – due to the Person’s infinite power. So, no, if there were another fallen race somewhere which God wished to redeem in a way analogous to how He has redeemed us, the Son could and would take on their flesh and pay their inherited debt of sin. There is no contradiction here at all – the Son is doing the redemptive work in each case.

      Third, a discussion is lacking of the development of the category of the “species of the species,” which is quite relevant to the discussion of the “first human,” Adam, in the context of Lateran IV’s preamble. Aliens, if possessed of rational souls, would in fact be human – just not of this sub-species, and without Adamic descent.

    2. Humani Generis is pretty clear about polygenism – while there could be a group of human-like creatures populating the Earth, there must in fact be one first man with a rational soul (which is not exactly hard to believe – after all, someone had to be first, as a matter of principle, unless we say that a group was rational all of a sudden, which seems strange).

    3. This is technically incorrect. St. Pius X, through the Pontifical Biblical Commission, condemned the idea that Genesis is NOT a true history, and affirms the timeless and traditional perspective of Genesis as a true history. This particular train of thought is consistent with the Church Fathers, and as Trent formally defined, when the Fathers are in agreement, the proposition they agree on is to be considered “de fidei”. This also matches with the Vincentian Canon (from St. Vincent of Lerins): what has been believed always, everywhere, and by everyone is “of the faith”. Genesis as history was the only perspective until the 1800s. Unless you are saying that Trent was wrong…

  5. Thank you for the article.
    Aliens and UFOs are a complete distraction from real life. They are 1950s science fiction movies brought to life. They are Walter Mitty escapism from reality. I love the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” but it is simply a way of portraying evil spirits and can actually teach us something about them.

  6. “Adam was the first man” is Biblical Fundamentalism which I reject. How about the “Young Earth” people who say that the earth is only 6,000 years old? Don’t fall into the trap of Biblical Fundamentalism which is essentially a Protestant error.

  7. On many occasions, God, through the prophets, quite clearly limited pronouncements to “the world”. The fact is that travel to any possibly inhabited worlds with methods known to today’s technology seems to confirm that. And when, or if, the little green men land here first, we will deal with that when the time comes.

  8. This simplistic approach might work just fine, for some, unlikely to ever witness an alien encounter. But if a time comes when such a rendezvous (or even simple discovery) occurs, the author is essentially saying that the church will collapse and cease to exist and everything we learned will have been a lie. It’s another example of reducing the omnipotence of God to try to fit Him into our human minds. There may be worlds, and dogmas, the human mind has yet to experience. We should keep our minds open to embracing them rather than suppressing them, lest we lose everything in the process of trying to defend what some day may no longer be defendable. Had it truly been central to our faith for the earth to be flat, Christianity would already have been extinguished

  9. So if we were to discover, or be discovered by, another species of intelligent being, much like ourselves but living in a different type of atmosphere on a different planet, would that then invalidate Catholicism and Christianity?
    Would we have to perceive them as not merely aliens but as demons? Even if they were peaceful (just like we are) and had a theology exactly like ours except for the part, of course, where they are human? Would we have to treat them as soulless eternal enemies? Or as very intelligent faarm animals?
    I have thought about his as a theoretical problem myself for years, even before my baptism and entrance into the Church. It will remain a theoretical “thought problem” until such time, if ever, we meet said alien race.

  10. Deacon James Stagg

    Not all Catholic scientists (and priests) agree with you premise. Cf:
    https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/believing_in_aliens_not_opposed_to_christianity_vaticans_top_astronomer_says

    There are no barriers to Catholics believing in aliens, except for the limits on our own minds.

    It reminds me of a story I read in Catholic grade school,,,,about Third or Fourth Grade. It came from a small paper published monthly, I presume, for kids in Catholic schools. The story was identified as fiction, of course, but seemed perfectly logical to the elementary school mind…..and, really, perfectly logical to this senior mind:

    A mother and her son were sight-seeing through the universe in a space ship.

    Looking out the viewing portal, the boy exclaimed to his mother: “Mother, look in the distance! See that beautiful jewel, all blue and green! Can we go visit that planet?”

    “You are right,” his mother relied, “what a beautiful presence in this black space!”

    “But,” she continued, “we must not visit there, nor let the people who live there know that we exist.”

    “But, why, Mother? It is so beautiful. The people who live there must be wonderful, too.”

    His mother looked at her son fondly and began to explain. “You know the castle of good and evil that exists on the other side of the shallow lake……the castle that God said no one is ever to enter, even though the drawbridge remains open?”

    “Yes, Mother. You and Father have warned us many times not to even go near it.”

    “This planet is called ‘Earth’, and the people here, called humans, once had a garden with a tree in the center. They were forbidden by God from eating the fruit of the tree, even though it appeared delicious. They failed God’s command and ate some of the forbidden fruit. They committed a sin, an offence against God.”

    She continued, “This is why we must have no contact with these humans and they must not find out about us. Some day they will have a new world, and there will be no sin there. Then we can visit.”

    “Oh, Mother. I hope that is soon! Can we look closely at the red planet next to earth and then the golden one on the other side closer to the sun-star?”

    “Of course we can, son,” as she turned to the navigation screen.

    Amen.

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