{"id":91898,"date":"2026-06-09T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=91898"},"modified":"2026-06-06T16:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T20:38:17","slug":"we-are-not-alone-in-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2026\/06\/we-are-not-alone-in-the-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are Not Alone in the Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me\u201d (Pense\u00e9s, #206). \u00a0So said Blaise Pascal<\/a> in 1657.\u00a0 That was before we knew just how vast the universe really is, with its millions of galaxies millions of light years away from each other.<\/p>\n

More recently, astronomer Carl Sagan<\/a> said, \u201cWe live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

No wonder so many people believe our brief life on this \u201cinsignificant planet\u201d is meaningless.\u00a0 And no wonder so many people believe or want to believe in extraterrestrial life.\u00a0 Surely, they say, we can\u2019t be alone in the universe.\u00a0 That would be really terrifying.<\/p>\n

\n

In our recent post entitled Would Evidence of Aliens \u201cShatter\u201d Christian Beliefs?<\/a>, we discussed claims that the discovery of extraterrestrial life would undermine the Christian worldview.\u00a0 I would argue that the apparent emptiness<\/em> of this vast universe is much more corrosive to religious faith.<\/p>\n

I came across an article by Scott Ventureyra in the Catholic magazine Crisis\u00a0<\/em>entitled We Have Never Been Alone<\/a>.\u00a0 He too cites the quote from Pascal and goes over some of the ideas we discussed in our earlier post.\u00a0 He usefully surveys what other Christians have said about the issue.\u00a0 St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, was open to the possibility of other worlds.\u00a0 And the modern Catholic theologian Karl Rahner even entertained the possibility, like C. S. Lewis, of multiple incarnations.<\/p>\n

In the course of all of this, he makes this illuminating, paradigm-shifting statement:<\/p>\n

The modern framing of the question \u201cAre we alone?\u201d often assumes a purely material universe. Yet from a Christian perspective, humanity has never been alone in creation, for God remains immanent in His creation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ventureyra goes on to cite angels and demons and continues with his discussion.\u00a0 I want to linger on this point.\u00a0 As of His Ascension, says St. Paul, Christ \u201cfills all in all\u201d\u00a0 (Ephesians 1:23; ESV).\u00a0 Other translations<\/a> render the text as Christ \u201cfills all things.\u201d\u00a0 Or Christ \u201cfills everything.\u201d\u00a0 Or Christ \u201cfills the universe.\u201d\u00a0 The Greek is even stronger, if that is possible: \u201c\u03c4\u1f78 \u03c0\u03bb\u03ae\u03c1\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c4\u1f70 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c0\u1fb6\u03c3\u03b9\u03bd \u03c0\u03bb\u03b7\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5.\u201d\u00a0 The fullness of all in all fullness.<\/p>\n

Christ fills<\/em> the infinite spaces.\u00a0 Pascal was the great Christian apologist.\u00a0 As Ventureyra says, Pascal \u201cviewed humanity\u2019s fascination with other worlds as a form of divertissement<\/em>: a way to avoid confronting our own spiritual emptiness and need for God, the only one who can fill that vacuum.\u201d\u00a0 The infinite spaces are not in the universe, but in us.\u00a0 The vacuum is not in outer space, but in us.\u00a0 But Christ can fill our<\/em> emptiness.<\/p>\n

Another 17th century Christian writer raised these same issues and came to the same conclusion.\u00a0 At several points in Paradise Lost, <\/em>John Milton raises the possibility of other worlds, without taking a definite position on the issue.\u00a0 For example, Satan, flying through outer space to tempt Adam and Eve on earth, moves<\/p>\n

Amongst innumerable stars, that shone
\nStars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds;
\nOr other worlds they seemed, or happy isles,
\nLike those Hesperian gardens famed of old,
\nFortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales,
\nThrice happy isles; but who dwelt happy there
\nHe staid not to inquire.\u00a0 (Book 3, lines 565\u2013571)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When Milton describes God\u2019s creation, he brings up the \u201cinfinite spaces\u201d problem and then\u00a0 resolves it.\u00a0 These are some of my favorite lines in Paradise Lost<\/em>.\u00a0 This may be the most sublime passage in the poem, and thus in all of literature.\u00a0 God, on the verge of creation, speaks:<\/p>\n

Boundless the Deep, because I Am who fill
\nInfinitude, nor vacuous the space.\u00a0 (Book VII, lines 168\u2013169)<\/p>\n

The reason<\/em> \u201cthe Deep\u201d is boundless is because God is boundless.\u00a0 \u201cBecause I Am\u201d\u2013note God\u2019s name:\u00a0 I Am (Exodus 3:14), connecting Him to absolute being.\u00a0 (In the very next verse, Exodus 3:15, God reveals His name as the tetragrammaton, YHWH, meaning \u201cHe is.\u201d\u00a0 Scholars<\/a> say \u201cI Am\u201d is how God speaks of Himself; \u201cHe is\u201d is how others must speak of Him.)<\/p>\n

God, \u201cI Am,\u201d fills infinitude<\/em>!\u00a0 Space is not a vacuum after all, because He is there and everywhere!<\/p>\n

We are not alone in the universe after all.\u00a0 And the \u201cinfinite spaces\u201d are inhabited by the infinite God.<\/p>\n

As for our interest in extraterrestrial life on other planets, Milton has an answer for that too.\u00a0 In the epic poem, the angel Raphael reveals to Adam what he needs to know.\u00a0 He concludes with this:<\/p>\n

Heaven is for thee too high
\nTo know what passes there; be lowly wise:
\nThink only what concerns thee, and thy being;
\nDream not of other worlds, what creatures there
\nLive, in what state, condition, or degree;
\nContented that thus far hath been revealed
\nNot of Earth only, but of highest Heaven.\u00a0 (Book VIII, lines 172-178)<\/p>\n

And here is what the Psalmist says about our alleged insignificance in the vastness of the universe:<\/p>\n

\n

When I\u00a0look at your heavens, the work of your\u00a0fingers,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>the moon and the stars,\u00a0which you have set in place,<\/span><\/span>
\nwhat is man that you are\u00a0mindful of him,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0the son of man that you\u00a0care for him?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Yet you have made him a little lower than\u00a0the heavenly beings<\/span>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0and crowned him with glory and honor.<\/span><\/span>
\nYou have given him\u00a0dominion over the works of your hands;<\/span>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0you have put all things under his feet.\u00a0 (Psalm 8:3-6)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Yes, we are small compared to the moon and the stars and the vastness of the universe.\u00a0 But the Creator of it all is \u201cmindful\u201d of us.\u00a0 He \u201ccares\u201d for us.\u00a0 He gives us dominion over His creation.\u00a0 He puts \u201call thing\u201d under our feet.\u00a0 This is fulfilled not just by man, but by\u00a0 the \u201cSon of Man,\u201d to whom we are engrafted by faith.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0 Galaxy, Star, Universe<\/a> by lumina_obscura via NeedPix, https:\/\/www.needpix.com\/photo\/1674253\/, Public Domain.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.” \u00a0So said Blaise Pascal in 1657 before we knew just how vast the universe really is. Much belief in extraterrestrial life comes from the hope that we aren’t alone in the universe. 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