SETI – The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence

SETI is an amazing concept, and organization. Listening for signs of intelligence elsewhere, off-earth. There is a part of me that hopes for such a discovery...

Certainly the entertainment industry has made a few dollars off the concept of malicious extra-terrestrial life. Perhaps it has a good lesson to us to not think of  possible extra-terrestrials in our terms of reference. They would, by definition, be “other”, and as much as we play with the concept of their “other-ness”, it could be beyond  our comprehension.

I do find it striking, though, as a man of faith, that the concept of SETI is in a sense, reversed, according to the story of the gospel. The gospel tells us that God (who is totally “other”) came searching for us, sent a representative (Jesus) into our experience to instruct, enlighten and transform human beings, to the end described in the Westminister Shorter Catechism – the chief purpose of man – to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever”.

So, hear me: I’m not attacking the concept of SETI, I hope they find something. But, I am asking you to not ignore the search for you. You can find the basic description in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." NIV