Will you dismiss this like the dinosaurs? Did God plant false evidence to test your faith?
Or does the Bible mention Mars and I just missed it?
Being a curious child, I asked my grandmother (a very religious Pentecostal lady) about aliens when I was young. Her take on it was that the Bible dealt with Earth, and the things that had happened here on Earth. The Bible does not (to my knowledge) proclaim that there were never any other beings in existence around the universe.
I have heard that several people believe different references in the Bible refer to alien beings, but I cannot quote Scripture on this, as I thought it was rather vague at the time and not worth remembering. 
I think you might be referring to Ezekial. That is the book ufo nuts say is a description of a biblical close encounter. I think there are a couple others in psalms or whatnot, as well. The discovery channel or pbs had a show on it.
I think only the most fundamental Christians would have the kind of dismissive response you suggest, escapol. I went to church a lot growing up and I had never heard of anyone not believing the dinosaurs existed until I heard Carl Everett say it a couple years ago. I just don’t think it is as widespread as you would like to believe. I know what it would imply, but I can’t see too many people giving up on religion because of a few single-celled fossils. And anyways, there is a chance they came from the Earth (or vice versa).
I think your post is misaddressed.
You shouldn’t be asking your question of “Christians”; you should be asking it of “those who believe not only that everything in the Bible is literally true but also that everything which is true is stated in the Bible”.
It’s a fairly small group, so I wouldn’t expect too many replies.
You might try Mark Twain’s CAPTAIN STORMFIELD’S VISIT TO HEAVEN. Captain Stormfield dies, he’s on his way to heaven but gets side-tracked and arrives at the wrong gate. Trying to find his way to his proper place, he identifies that he comes from the Earth, the world that Jesus died to save, and he’s told that doesn’t help, there are countless such worlds.
That’s one Christian view.
It is interesting though to ask Christians for example:
What if there are other planets with life forms that are able to make the distinction if there is yes or no a God.
Did God send them a suitable equivalent of Jesus to “save” them (from whatever consequences of the event made their fall on that planet happen).
But I guess such a quesiton should be discussed in an other thread
Salaam. A
I think this question betrays a rather naive view of Christianity, and I don’t mean that in an insulting way. The OP might have been exposed only to such caricatures of Christianity as Henry Morris or Jerry Falwell. But Christianity is about love; that is, spreading goodness among free moral agents. It is a spiritual matter, not a physical matter. And so it doesn’t matter whether one agent is on earth and the other a thousand lightyears away. They are one.
I suggest that you reduce your monumental ignorance regarding Christians and Christianity. Many Christians do not accept fundy literalism. Many Christians accept the possibility or reality of evolution. Likewise, please provide a specific quote from the Bible that states that the Bible is the only acceptable origin for Christian doctrine.
Not all Christians are legalists. Before you spout off about Christians, learn something about them.
Look.
The Earth is not flat.
The Earth is more than a few thousand years old, and it was not created in 6 days.
There was not a global flood a couple of thousand years ago that destroyed all life.
But Jesus walked on water, and he changed water to wine! And Moses split up that lake! Yeah, we really mean it this time! Don’t forget that four-headed dragon with seven wings on each head! And oh, there were no psychadelic drugs included in that vision, nosirrybob. Not in the word of God, I tell you.
Seems to me Christians will keep on sticking with everything that hasn’t been scientifically disproven yet. Life on Mars or not, this discussion will never make a difference. If reason was even remotely capable of demolishing the faith of a True Christian ™, Christianity would no longer exist, as so many things that very recently were considered facts by Christians, have been disproven scientifically, and anyone not knowingly and consciously dismissing the obvious, can see that. Christianity has nothing to do with truth, it’s about faith. The Bible clearly states so itself, according to their own testimony.
Sorry for the heat, I just get a little warmed up when I think about how insanely dismissive some people can get in the pursuit of simply being “right”.
That would be the God-Of-The-Gaps approach, but I think you’re probably associating this with term ‘Christian’ a little more broadly than is fair.
I wonder why the dinosaurs dismissed it? Dinosaur Dopers, would you care to explain?
Why would evidence of prior life on Mars affect Christianity at all? The Bible doesn’t address the idea of life on other planets, so it wouldn’t contradict any of the teachings of the faith.
The really challenging thing would be to discover other intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and find that they were completely familiar with Christianity.
Read C. S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet* for a fictional exploration of the idea.
Regards,
Shodan
As a Catholic, I don’t see how the existence of life elsewhere in the universe would change a dang thing.
A century ago, G.K. Chesterton addressed that very issue, in one of the Father Brown mysteries:
“Reason and justice grip the loneliest star. Look at those stars. Don’t they look as if they were single diamonds and sapphires? Well, you can imagine any mad botany or geology you please. THink of forests of adamant with leaves of brilliants. THink the moon is a blue moon, a single elephantine sapphire. But don’t fancy that all that frantic astronomy would make the smallest difference to the reason and justice of conduct. On plains of opal, under cliffs cut out of pearl, you would still find a notice-board: THOUS SHALT NOT STEAL.”
Chesterton is more poetic than I’d have been, but the point remains: if we encounter intelligent life in space, we Christians will have an obligation to treat THEM as our brothers, too, and will regard our core beliefs as applicable to them, too.
If life is common elsewhere then the universe is that much more marvelous and God that much cooler.
I don’t dismiss the dinosaurs, I think it’s obvious they existed.
No.
Clearly, there’s life on Mars (it’s where the ancient Greeks went) and they already know about Jesus, thanks to Mr. of Tarsus.
More seriously: I doubt the people who wrote the bible understood what Mars was, and they obviously didn’t think it was important enough to mention in their religious texts (or at least those texts that were selected to form the Bible).
I’m wondering why the OP is only addressed to Christians and not all religious devotees. Surely Christians aren’t the only ones who have Earth-centric views that could be challenged by the existence of Martian life.
I’m not a christian, but doesn’t the book of genesis make it pretty difficult to fit martian life into the bible?
Genesis 1:24
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Genesis 1:25
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
So, both these passages specifically mention the Earth. The only way martian life would fit in if it is 100% aquatic life, as…
Genesis 1:20
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
…and…
Genesis 1:21
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good
So, the aquatic life bit doesn’t mention earth, and could therefore be applied to Mars. If we find a land animal or a bird on mars, then it couldn’t have been created by god, unless there is a missing passage “On the eighth day, God messed around creating freaky alien stuff”.
you are assuming that every translation and mention of the word “earth” is as an actual name for the globe. Even the globe itself was not a commonly understood notion. “earth” is synonymous with “ground” and “dirt” as well as being a proper name for our planet.
Really there is nothing that states the life spoken of in genesis was confined to this planet.
If thats the case then isn’t genesis proved wrong by the existence of seagulls?
Genesis 1:20
"…and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. "
What about fowl that may fly above the sea?
Darn it, Shodan, I wanted to be the first one to recommend Lewis’ Space Trilogy in this context. Not only Out of the Silent Planet, which specifically explores the question of life on Mars (and their understanding of God) but also Perelandra which is about life on Venus and the temptation of a Venusian Adam and Eve.
The fundies will be able to claim that evidence of a Mars previously awash in water simply provides a logical answer to the “where did all the Earth’s flood water go” question that evolutionists keep throwing in their faces. 
God done sucked the water off the earth and plopped it all onto Mars.