God’s Favorite?

I saw this image posted by an atheist trying to ridicule the Bible satirically commenting that Christians believe that the Bible makes a claim that we are somehow the center of the universe. I will readily admit there are Christians who would make this claim, but I do not think they can make a biblical case for such comments. Frankly the Bible is written from an anthropocentric worldview but that is because it is the story of humanity’s relationship with God as told by humanity. Is God represented in the story, yes, did God help to create the story and the provide guidance for the writing, yes. But this does not eliminate the possibilities of other stories. The Christian apologist C. S. Lewis was one of the first authors I recognized to deal with the possibility of alien life and he did so by depicting them with their own Scriptures and Divine messages. Yes, we certainly believe that humanity has a unique relationship with God on this planet but that is because humanity is unique on this planet. Stating that humanity does have a unique relationship with God on Earth does not equate to saying we are the only species to have a relationship with God, or that we are somehow God’s favorites. The language of God’s love for humanity found in the Bible should be treated in reference to humanity’s uniqueness here. The fact that Earth is central to God’s plan in the Bible reflects the perspective of humanity not God’s perspective.

One of the criticism’s I have of many atheists is that they look at the relatively narrow focus of the Bible and ask questions like, “If the Bible is true why doesn’t it talk about modern cosmology?” (or aliens or whatever issue they like). The truth is both Christians and atheists often want to misread the Bible to make it a more universal book than it is. The Christian perspective is that God calls all creation “very good” and is concerned for the whole. Humanity has a special place in creation as the image of God on this planet, charged with caring for this planet. But this does not speak to anything outside this planet. God tells each person (and in this case each species) their own story. The fact that we do not know others’ stories does not mean they are not important to God. We do not know others’ stories because they are not important to how we relate to God. Maybe one day we will know more but until then we should be content with what we know now.

I was helped in this topic by

CS Lewis’ Space Trilogy

David Wilkinson Science, Religion, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence