“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
― Arthur C. Clarke
This week in the news, scientists announced they have detected gases on a distant planet that are the byproduct of organic life. From an article on BBC
K2-18b is two-and-a-half times the size of Earth and is 700 trillion miles, or 124 light years, away from us – a distance far beyond what any human could travel in a lifetime.
JWST is so powerful that it can analyse the chemical composition of the planet’s atmosphere from the light that passes through from the small red Sun it orbits.
The Cambridge group has found that the atmosphere seems to contain the chemical signature of at least one of two molecules that are associated with life: dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS). On Earth, these gases are produced by marine phytoplankton and bacteria.
Prof Madhusudhan said he was surprised by how much gas was apparently detected during a single observation window.
“The amount we estimate of this gas in the atmosphere is thousands of times higher than what we have on Earth,” he said.
“So, if the association with life is real, then this planet will be teeming with life,” he added.
This revelation should not be a surprise to Mormons. We’ve always believed that Elohim made “worlds without numbers” ( Moses 1:33 ) In 1996 then Elder Russell Nelson said in General Conference that there were “infinite worlds”. To me the word “worlds” here mean populated planets, not just planets like Mars, and the trillions of others in the universe (see my post here on the number of celestial bodies)
Lets imagine what it would be like if we definitively discovered life on another planet. Mormons would rejoice at the validation of the Book of Moses. They would expect whatever life was on that plant would be in the likeness of God, and therefore look like homo sapiens on Earth.
How would the Church explain in a theological sense life forms that were NOT like us on Earth? Maybe they could say that humans have not been put on that planet yet? But what if the lifeforms were way more advanced that humans on earth. What is God waiting for? What is the purpose of these advanced life forms? God obviously created them, as he did everything in the universe. Maybe they are the real image of God, and we are an early failed prototype?
Your thoughts on the news this week, and the possibility that there is life relatively close (astronomically speaking) to Earth?
What is more terrifying to you? They we are alone in the Universe, or we are not?
Wheat & Tares 
i would imagine there has to be life on other planets somewhere. Some scientists speculate that there is some life in the atmosphere of Venus. I’m not sure, however, that this validates the Book of Moses.
I’m just waiting for the invention of warp speed to be able to study this distant planet more.
I am not at all “terrified” by either prospect. The limitation of not being able to travel faster than light makes life on other planets a pretty moot point. We can’t get too them, and they can’t get to us, so their existence really doesn’t matter either way.
I am much more terrified that we are destroying our current planet and our only option for survival is to organize enough to clean up our poisonous mess. There are just far too many humans who care more about a quick buck than they care about their grandchildren’s survival. They are primarily the supper rich and want to be able to pollute without the cost of clean up. Meanwhile, the majority of us are just trying to survive and doing our best to do the right thing. But individuals can’t do much alone. Tiny efforts like recycling doesn’t have enough money in it for the wealthy to bother with. And solar panels on my house won’t change anything because my electricity is hydroelectric. And really, we need to get the very wealthy on board, but all they seem to care about is making more money than they can possibly spend.
The thought that there is intelligent life on other planets should scare no one. However, the thought that intelligent life on other planets could be technologically advanced enough to travel to earth should scare everyone.
Any life form intelligent enough to reach earth would immediately destroy us. They would conclude that the vast hordes of Bon Jovi listeners who sit around in sweatpants and crocs are unfit to rule a planet.
So we better say our prayers that we remain undiscovered in our little insignificant corner of the universe. If not, we may be the main ingredient in an alien hot dog eating contest.
It’s terrifying to think that some people look to the scriptures for an answer to your question.
It would be the coolest thing ever to to discover life on another planet. And I wouldn’t be troubled at all if we were to learn that it was inhabited by all kinds of strange creatures that we’d never seen before.
That said, I agree with Nibley–that humans remain pretty-much the same in all worlds while lesser forms of life vary greatly.
Of course, if we did discover non human lifeforms that were more intelligent than we are–well, I wouldn’t be troubled by that either. Fallen humanity is a rather silly lot. And the difference in intelligence between a fallen human being and an exalted human being is, for all practical purposes, infinite. So I’m open to the idea that non human intelligence might exceed our own–that is, while we’re in the process of learning how to fulfill the measure of our creation.
Although I have deconstructed many LDS teachings to “all made up”, or mostly borrowed. The idea of life on other planets still remains a very strong to most likely possibility for me. Every dart thrower can luck out with 100 attempts.
I am visiting another planet today, Northern Utah county. I just went for a walk. I saw the extremes of people in this foreign territory, in white shirts and ties driving off to the capstone of Holy Week services. Then less then 1/5 mile away from the chapel a drive though line at least 10 cars for a pick up order of Dutch Bro. Coffee. The clash of different approaches to spend the Easter weekend. I have participated in neither, and just here observing.
If ET were to be observing us they would think we are all a pretty unique lot.
Always a fascinating subject for me.
I haven’t been able to Google it for a while, but I can recall a study about ten years ago that examined how all religious groups would react to the discovery of intelligent alien life. It singled out LDS as possibly the only religious group that would be disappointed if we didn’t find it (I don’t think it took into account humanoid vs. non-humanoid).
From an LDS standpoint, I don’t think it’s far-fetched to believe we’re being visited by other children of God. I think both the PofGP and church leaders have taught this is one of the most wicked worlds of His creations. In on sense, I really don’t think that necessarily would mean we’re a ton different than other worlds. But on the other hand, if you look at any index that takes into account tens or hundreds of factors affecting conditions, sometimes it’s just one or two points or factors that make the difference between poverty and non-poverty, sad and happy, healthy and unhealthy, etc. On a “wickedness” index, I imagine one or two points could be the difference between millions and billions of members of the Church of Christ, or the difference between decades or millenia of expedited technological advancement. One wonders what technological advancements could be made when the needed number of restorations and dispensations decrease, or aren’t even needed at all. If I grew up a saint on another world with advanced technology, I’d want to visit where the Atonement happened, even if I had to follow a prime directive of sorts. I also tend to think another reason we’re slow to find human life is because we’ve more or less been purposely isolated from others (we’re more or less an outer-rim planet in the Milky Way). That wouldn’t stop advanced civilizations from reaching us though.
One “loophole” in the Gospel that I’ve read theorized on the idea of non-humanoid intelligent aliens being discovered is the idea that there are other non-humanoid exalted beings out there, running a similar plan of salvation for their posterity, and taking a similar but very independent path from our own. Despite the separate state of existence and plans, physical interaction remains possible. I’m doubtful on this one, but finding that’s the case would not shatter my outlook of the Plan. Of course, “image” could also be interpreted pretty broadly.
I’ll fully admit, as far as some of the more nefarious stories regarding intelligent alien life go, I don’t think one can rule out the influence of Satan or even just full on deception from fellow men. Back in the day you had some very good and “mentally sound” people fall prey to the influence of what they thought were fairies, gnomes, or other entities, and do some very bad or strange things. How might these “fairies” or “gnomes” appear in a world that has “rejected” such foolishness for technological advances and possiblities?
HAPPY EASTER
Makes me want to post on IG a picture of our 10th prophet set to the song “Man on the Moon” by R.E.M.
Proof of life forms on other planets, especially life forms that are equal to or more advanced than humans, does seem to raise some troubling theological issues for Mormonism.
Mormonism grasps pretty tightly to its dogma that, as the Family Proclamation says:
If God created other planets with life forms equal to or more advanced than humans, then why would He choose to favor earthlings with the privilege of being the only ones that He created in His image? Would this not be a sign that He doesn’t love His other creations on other planets as much as humans?
Church leaders have repeatedly taught members how wonderful the First Vision and other revelations of Joseph Smith are because we know that our Father in Heaven has a physical, albeit exalted, body that looks just like us. When we pray, we are communicating with someone that is a human, not some strange beings like the Hindus believe in that have an elephant head (Ganesh) or four arms (Vishnu), nor something without any body or form like many Christians believe in. The God of Mormonism is a very relatable God, one who has lived on previous worlds just like we have, and who looks just like we do. If you don’t believe me, then just look at what truth #1 is from the Church’s 2020 Ensign article titled “The Eight Truths from the First Vision” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2020/02/eight-truths-from-the-first-vision?lang=eng):
This is great for humans on earth, but what about those life forms on other planets that are equal to or more advanced than humans, yet look nothing like humans, and therefore look nothing like Heavenly Father? Why do they have to worship and pray to an unrelatable Being that looks nothing like they do while humans on earth get to pray to a Divine Human that looks just like they do? This seems very unfair.
For the record, I do tend to believe that it is probable that there is intelligent life on other planets in the universe. The universe is so massive, with so many places for evolutionary processes to do their thing, that it just seems probable to me that if evolutionary processes were able to produce humans on this planet that similar processes could produce intelligent life on other planets. I do think that the life forms on other planets could very well be more advanced than humans, but they also would almost certainly be very, very different from any advanced life forms on earth.
@Jack, if one believes that all life forms on earth, including humans, are the result of evolutionary processes–and there is overwhelming scientific evidence that this in the case–then I don’t see how it is possible to end up with a bunch of very different lesser creatures on other planets, yet still end up with humans (homo sapiens) as the most advanced form of life on those planets. Homo sapiens on earth have the genes, characteristics, and appearance that they have precisely because they evolved from other forms of life on the earth. If these earthly forms of life are replaced by vastly different forms of life on other planets, then it seems impossible that evolutionary processes on those planets would produce homo sapiens.
You (and, according to you, Nibley, whose ideas in this area I am not familiar with) seem to be making the argument that humans are special–evolutionary processes that apply to other life forms simply don’t apply or are different for humans. This is the same kind of logic that the believers in geocentrism once used to reject heliocentrism, despite all the scientific evidence in favor of heliocentrism. The geocentrists felt a need, driven by religious dogma, for God to favor the earth over any other heavenly body. Likewise, people who can accept evolutionary processes as the origin of all forms of life other than their own feel a need, driven by religious dogma (in particular, the types of troubling theological issues I outlined above), for God to favor their own form of life over any other.
I really like the opening scene of the show “Good Omens” season 2. It’s a bit blasphemous, but still great. After the creation of the entire universe two angels are admiring it and talking about all the intricacies and wonder when one angel says,
Angel 1 “Oh, that’s nice. You know the current word from upstairs is that we’ll be shutting this all down again in about six thousand years?”
Angel 2 “But that’s nothing! What’s the point of creating an infinite universe with trillions of star sytems if you’re only going to let it run for a few thousand years?”
Angel 1 “Ah, the point, well. You’ve heard of Earth? Blue green planet. It’ll be over there, that’s where the… “people” we’re currently designing are going to be. We’ll start with a pair, and they’ll breed until they are all over that planet. The impression I get is that the stars and nebula, well, they exist just so the people can look up into the night sky and… marvel at the illimital vastness of the Almighty’s creation!’
Angel 2 “But it’s the universe! Not just some fancy wallpaper! Millions of galaxies, trillions of stars, oodles of everything… it’s not just put here to twinkle! Most of it won’t even be visible from Earth. Why don’t you put Earth in the middle of the Universe so the view is better? Someone has got to say ‘Look Boss, this is a really, really terrible idea’. How much trouble can one get into just for giving a suggestion?”
The angel then gets demoted and becomes a devil. But I think he makes a really good point. What is the purpose of creating an infinite universe, just to have life on our little planet? I think there is much more going on than just what is happening here on Earth.
mountainclimber479,
“Jack, if one believes that all life forms on earth, including humans, are the result of evolutionary processes–and there is overwhelming scientific evidence that this is the case–then I don’t see how it is possible to end up with a bunch of very different lesser creatures on other planets, yet still end up with humans (homo sapiens) as the most advanced form of life on those planets.”
I agree that there is good evidence for evolutionary processes. And I think that certain theological elements work nicely with that evidence. I believe the covenant that we made with God before coming here–to live his preparatory laws–was a demonstration of enough faith on our part to justify the preparations he has made for us in this sphere. And though I’m not able to locate the beginning or the end of those preparations–I’m of the opinion that they could very well include the fine tuning of the Universe, the tuning of our solar system, the tuning of the earth-moon system, the seeding of the earth, his gentle massage of evolutionary processes, and so forth.
@Jack, you seem to be arguing that evolutionary processes on other planets would result in homo sapiens because God is somehow guiding the evolutionary process on all planets to end up with homo sapiens. This is starting to sound a lot like some people’s notion of “intelligent design” where God somehow uses what appears to be random evolutionary processes to create homo sapiens, but He’s actually guiding the process along somehow behind the scenes. That’s fine for this discussion if that’s how you think things might work.
However, I don’t think it’s likely that we’d end up with all the other “lesser” life forms on another planet not at all resembling the lesser life forms on earth, and then somehow the evolutionary processes on other planets still manage to produce homo sapiens. In order to have homo sapiens on earth, we had to have a common ancestor of homo sapiens and chimpanzees (which, genetically are very, very similar). Likewise, gorillas and this common ancestor share a different common ancestor, and we can follow this chain of ancestry down through the animal kingdom.
I mean, if we’re talking about an all powerful God here, then of course there’s always the possibility that He somehow makes homo sapiens from some completely different evolutionary process with completely different creatures, but that seems highly unlikely. After all, the DNA of the shared common ancestor of homo sapiens and their closest evolutionary relative on another planet has to be very, very similar, so odds are high that this close relative is going to look an awful lot like a chimpanzee. In other words, you probably can’t have evolutionary processes on another planet produce creatures that don’t come close at all to resembling (and are genetically similar to) apes or chimpanzees and then expect homo sapiens to somehow magically evolve out of some creature they aren’t very genetically closely related to.
It seems a whole lot more likely to me that if we’re going to have homo sapiens on other planets, then we’re also going to have something very similar to chimpanzees there as well and that these chimpanzees and humanoids are going to share a common ancestor that is very similar to the common ancestor they share on this planet–and so on, and so forth. Again, I still think you’re carving out a special status for homo sapiens because your religious dogma demands it. If intelligent design applies to humans, then it seems more probable to me that this design process would apply to all the lesser forms of life as well (i.e., homo sapiens aren’t a special case where the same rules and processes don’t apply to them that apply to all other life forms). If this is the case, then lesser life forms on other planets would likely closely resemble (I’m not saying necessarily exactly the same, but similar) those on earth.
I’m a lifelong fan of NASA. My favorite missions are planetary science missions (Voyager, Cassini, New Horizons). These are missions to worlds in our solar system which can be observed directly and independently from multiple observatories and observation points. As such, I tend to be a sceptic when it comes to exoplanet research. But I assume there is more life out there in the universe. And, though I’m agnostic, I still like what Truman G. Madsen said of Joseph Smith, that he gave us a religion for the space age.
Exoplanet research, while utilizing some actual observational data, seems speculative to me. The existence of an exoplanet is inferred by observing the data coming from stars. As one example, a star wobbles, suggesting its being tugged on by an orbiting (unseen) planet. In other words, many (most? all?) exoplanets are billed as “discovered” even though they have never been directly observed.
Exoplanet research boils down to scientists hoping for something which is not seen but which is (hopefully) true. … Sound familiar?
In this case, data is only coming from one source, James Webb Space Telescope. It’s not like there are multiple space telescopes out there with JWST’s capabilities, run by independent labs, also receiving the same data. Then exoplanet scientists would have two or three witnesses to establish truth. They don’t.
Bottom line: JWST has returned important data analyzed by scientists who aren’t claiming to have proven anything. But we aren’t looking at their data. We are looking at a summary of that data, dressed up by a government lab’s PR machine, and then dumbed down and sexified by science reporters, editors, and digital artists. Which is why everyone’s talking about an ocean world teeming with life (on a planet that no one has actually seen). Exoplanet research is worth doing. It allows us to make educated guesses. But it needs to be taken with a big grain of salt.
Lastly, JWST is one of the few science missions run by NASA that is relatively safe from the current administration’s proposed 20% budget cuts to NASA, with science departments inside of NASA enduring disproportional cuts of 47% overall. Not a pretty picture if we are hoping for more research and understanding on topics like this.
Regarding exoplanets, I’d like to note that we do have at least one instance of “ground truth” supporting the actual, real existence of the exoplanets inferred from photometric data. The asteroid Dimorphos was discovered in 1996 using photometric dips in the observed brightness of its primary Didymos, which is basically the same as the transit method used to discover many exoplanets. In 2003 the Arecibo radio observatory was able to get resolved images of the two separate asteroids, and in 2022 the DART spacecraft got there and found that, sure enough, there were two rocks (Didymos and Dimorphos) instead of one (the primary Didymos) and it was able to smash into the smaller rock. So, we’ll most likely never be able to visit any of the exoplanets discovered by the transit method, but the example of Didymos and Dimorphos gives me hope that they’re real. We discovered Dimorphos with the transit method and then we smashed a space probe into it a couple decades later.