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Torchwood, Faith and Little Green Men

Being a bit of a sci fi fan, I did enjoy last week’s extended Torchwood story. But there was one scene that really did stretch my imagination to breaking point. It was nothing to do with alien invasions or rifts in time and space. It was Gwen’s conversation about someone’s Christian friend who lost their faith on account of the appearance of aliens.

The more standard and fanciful sci-fi fare I can take in my stride, because it exists purely in the realm of the imagination. Bits of it will probably find their way into the real world at some time in the future. But for the time being, I don’t need to relate it to any kind of reality. Faith, on the other hand, is something I live with and experience daily. And frankly, the idea that the mere discovery of alien life would shake a convinced Christian from their faith I just found a bit hard to swallow.

So the Bible doesn’t mention aliens. So what? It doesn’t mention chicken tikka massala either; but and that doesn’t mean I’m going to lose my faith if a plate of the stuff is shoved in front of me.

So the Bible says that man was made ‘in the image of God’? Big deal. In what way does that preclude other forms of life? Even other forms that also express the same image, in different ways, and on different planets?

It’s true that potential interplanetary contact is not exactly a hot topic of debate in churches. But theologians haven’t completely ignored the subject, either. C S Lewis’s sci fi classic, ‘Out of the Silent Planet’, was one remarkable and imaginative exploration of the possibilities for alien life within a completely orthodox Christian framework. And that’s just one example.

There may or may not be intelligent life on other planets, and we may or may not make contact one day. But whether we do or we don’t, it won’t make the slightest difference to the Christian message and what it means for mankind, on our planet, now and in the future. And it wouldn't represent any kind of threat to the faith of Christians, or people of any religion.

So I’m sorry Torchwood, but for this particular fan you stretched the boundaries of credulity just a bit too far this time!

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