Austin Robbins
Austin Robbins, DDS recently retired from private practice in New Jersey. He was previously on the faculties of Georgetown University School of Dentistry, Temple University Dental School, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. Dr Robbins is a member of the Board of Directors of the Associates for Biblicval Research.
Many popular magazines, news articles, TV shows and movies continue to exploit man’s curiosity about the universe in which he lives. The notion that there may be other forms of intelligent life somewhere “out there” has been particularly fruitful for the creation of such movies as Close Encounters, E.T., Star Wars, and more recently, Independence Day. That aliens could invade our planet seems to be an idea seized upon by many as a plausible, if not real, escapist fantasy.
SETI
Yet, serious people are searching for signs of intelligent life out in space. Great antennae are focused on about 100 stars which are the prime candidates for the detection of signals from space. Even the government of the United States in its Extraterrestrial Search Division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is actively pursuing the quest. The Search for Extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) program is world-wide. SETI workers are constantly listening to the radio waves coming from millions of stars, hoping to find some signals which they can interpret as deliberate. Behind this search, which costs us all a tremendous amount of tax money, is a basic presupposition. It is assumed that life on earth evolved, and that it was not created. If life did evolve, then it is reasonable to expect that somewhere “out there” life also evolved and that signs of it should be available to us.
The SETI technicians record many hours of radio signals coming from space. Our own sun emits not only light and heat, but almost every possible wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum. These range from low frequency radio waves to infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays to high frequency cosmic rays. Other stars emit similar electromagnetic waves. This radiation has been termed the “music of the stars.” Could it be that those radio impulses are the music spoken of when God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation … while the morning stars sang together?” (Job 38:4, 7)? The radiation so described has also been termed “background radiation.”
ET
How do scientists expect to distinguish between this background radiation and signals from some alien life? The term “signal to noise ratio” is often used to distinguish between the background noise (static) and the deliberate
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signal one is trying to interpret. SETI computers are programmed to react to certain distinguishing features of the radio waves constantly bombarding the earth. What are those features?
In the first place, the background radiation is completely random. It has no special order or arrangement that would make any kind of regular pattern. It is not orderly. It is just noise. The computer looks first for an orderly pattern. But order alone does not signify intelligence. A crystal of salt or frozen water exhibits order in geometric regularity, but has a very low informational content. The second characteristic to be looked for is organization. An organized structure can carry high informational content as it is assembled element by element, each with a different pattern. It produces functional complexity and requires a designed “wiring diagram.” Thus a designer is behind the organizational complexity sought by the SETI scientists.
Any system of signals received by these researchers which does not display the randomness of cosmic radiation would be interpreted as coming from intelligent beings. Such signals in fact have been received! But, in every case, further investigation proved that those organized signals had their origins on earth! In each case, whether they came from satellites or from the microwave ovens used to heat the researchers’ food, the signals were manmade. This in itself, displays the bankruptcy of evolutionary thinking. Here on earth living things contain the most complex organizational patterns of matter in the universe. SETI researchers are looking for organized complex patterns as evidence of intelligence behind them. Even the name SETI proclaims this: Search for (Extraterrestrial) Intelligence. Yet these same evolutionists refuse to admit the intelligence behind terrestrial life! The fact that intelligence exists here is evidence of the Intelligence which created it!
BC/AD
Man has received a real signal from outer space. A higher intelligence has sent us a message.
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe (Heb 1:1–2, NIV).
Yet, man has refused to consider and heed this message. Mankind has rebelled against his Creator and as a result has himself become the “alien” of the universe. He is separated from God due to his own sinfulness and is the recipient of God’s righteous punishment.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being
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understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For, although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools (Rom 1:18–22, NIV).
Not only did God send a signal, He Himself carried the message. He became man, and in doing so became the ultimate signal from space.
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 (Jn 3:16, NIV).
Jesus Christ is not only the Messenger, but the Message. He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He said, “No man comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6).
Living Stones
There is a place where Jesus lived.
Where He walked and talked with men.
And as we visit that ancient land.
We relive those scenes again.
What a thrill to walk where He walked.
To reach down and touch a stone.
Envision Him by the seaside.
Or on a mountain top alone.
But the stones we touch are lifeless.
As they lie in the cold sod.
Christ our Lord is the cornerstone
Elect, the chosen of God.
Be a living stone in His church.
The cry goes out to men.
Put your faith in the Son of God.
For ye must be born again.
Anne Moore