WHY DO WE LOOK UP?

                There is something that has been puzzling me for a long time. Why is there a fascination with life on other planets, and why do we always assume that they are more advanced than we are? Why do we look to the stars for the answers to the questions we have on earth?

                It is puzzling to me that people who have no belief in God can believe in angels, spirits and extraterrestrial beings. There seems to be within us a desire to look outside of our world for the answers to the ultimate questions of life. Granted, not everyone does this. Many atheists and evolutionists believe that we live in a closed system that has no meaning or higher purpose. Survival of the fittest is the only true value. Everything else is arbitrary. Yet, when pressed about the origins of life on this planet, one prominent atheist suggested that it may have been planted here from another planet.

                It is an undeniable fact that even the most primitive cultures on earth have a god-consciousness. There is something hardwired within us that tells us that there has to be something out there. Although the expressions of this god-consciousness vary greatly, they are all addressing the same burning questions. Where did we come from? Why are we here? Who or what is in control of this world in which we live.

                Atheistic evolutionists have dismissed God from the equation, and have distilled everything down to natural selection. We are random products of a random universe. The life we have is all there is. There is nothing beyond this world, except, just maybe, other random ecosystems like ours. This answers some of the questions, but not all. It still leaves open the question of how all of this got started. It avoids dealing with the more subtle evidence that there is some higher meaning to life. Survival of the fittest cannot explain why we feel obligated to care for the weak and vulnerable. Natural selection cannot adequately explain the vast diversity of our world, some of which is very fragile and should, by all accounts, have died off. Evolution cannot adequately account for our emotions, or our desire to create beauty, or for beauty itself.

                Therefore, we keep looking up, hoping that the real answers are out there somewhere. The Bible clearly addresses this internal hunger that we all must struggle with. Solomon summarized this hunger in Ecclesiastes 3:11. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

                God has placed within us a desire to know Him. He stirs that desire through the world, which He created. Our world raises questions that we cannot easily explain. I was a biology major in college, and I know that the more science learns, the more questions are raised. God went one step farther, by speaking into the world through prophets, who communicated God’s desire for us to know Him. Ultimately, He answered the questions of life by sending Jesus into the world. 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. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrews 1:1-3

                The answer to the question of, is there life out there, is a resounding yes! But it is not the life people have been looking for. That life is not found in aliens or extraterrestrials. That life is found in God and revealed in Jesus Christ.

                In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  

                The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-5,14