It is impossible to prove a universal negative, but there is not as yet even the slightest evidence, either biblical or scientific, that there are men like us inhabiting other planets or star systems. There is an abundance of pseudo-scientific speculation of this sort, but the hard evidence is against it.

Life, at least such as we know it, requires a very complex combination of environmental factors to be possible, and only this planet, so far as is known, provides this combination. Water must be abundant, for example. Little if any water exists on the moon, or Mars, or Venus, or the other planets, and certainly not in liquid form. The temperatures on all the other known planets are either too cold or too hot for life in any higher form comparable to the earth's human life.

In addition, many complex chemicals must be present in abundance in order to support the life process. An atmosphere essentially like our own would also have to be present. In general, life in any form comparable to human life would require a planet essentially the same as our own planet in every respect. There is no evidence, however, other than speculation, that such a planet exists anywhere else in the universe.

The main reason that men keep wishfully searching for evidence of extraterrestrial life is that this would give support to their evolutionary philosophy. That is, if life is just a product of natural chemical developments here on earth, as the leaders of evolutionary thought insist, then the same chance developments should also have taken place in other places in the universe, they feel, in view of the almost infinite number of other stars. Nevertheless, the actual evidence remains massively negative.

As far as the Scriptures are concerned, they teach unequivocally that the earth is uniquely the abode of man. "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's. But the earth He has given to the children of men" (Psalm 115:16) "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings" (Acts 17:20).

It was to this earth, alone among all the uncounted billions of heavenly bodies, that God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, came down to suffer and die for man's salvation. "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven" (John 3:13). The earth may not be the centre of the universe (though no one knows, of course, where such a centre might be), but it is certainly the centre of interest of the universe! "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (1 John 4:9). It seems grotesque and blasphemous to suggest that the tragedy of Calvary's cross should be repeated on millions of other planets, for the benefit of other unknown and hypothetical members of God's creation.

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