I really would like to know why Rev. Billy Graham has a syndicated column. In his latest one, he spends most of the time talking about something that has nothing to do with the letter-writer’s question.
That question is actually a good one:
My 7-year-old son asked me to ask you this question: Do you think there’s intelligent life on other planets?
Does the Bible say anything about this? My son is very curious about things such as this.
Graham answers this in the first couple sentences:
The Bible doesn’t say anything about life on other planets; its focus is on this planet and its need for God. There well may be life on other planets, but the Bible doesn’t say one way or the other.
Not that it matters what the Bible says on this issue anyway… it didn’t have anything to say about DNA or HIV, either, but science has plenty to to say on those subjects. Why not place some trust in the process that produces results?
Anyway, Graham then spends another four paragraphs preaching about anything and everything and nothing all at once:
What the Bible does say about the universe, however, is very important, and I hope you’ll teach it to your son. It’s found in the first verse of the Bible, and it tells us everything in the universe was made by God: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The galaxies and the stars and the planets didn’t happen by accident; they came into existence because God made them.
…
Be thankful for your son’s curiosity and ask God to help you use it to point him to Jesus…
If the lady’s son is genuinely interested in finding out whether or not there is life on other planets, asking God for help won’t get him any closer to the answer.
Reading a science book that discusses which environments could be hospitable to life may help. Or a book on the universe. Or a book that discusses what we need to look for, exactly.
But not the Bible.
I wonder what would happen to Graham’s faith if we ever did find evolved life on another planet, though. (And what if those beings didn’t believe in Jesus?!) Would we still be considered special?
(Thanks to Jason for the link!)
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