Answers to questions about the Christian faith

If there were undeniable proof given to you that debunked the bible, would you stop believing?

Your question is a fair one and it would take me a long time to answer it well, because I would have to address how I read the Bible, the significance of the Bible in the Catholic Church, and many other things. But, so that I don't appear to be evading the question, I'll give you the shortest answer I can.

The short answer is this: if you proved that Jesus did not rise from the dead, then you would have shown that the Church is a fraud and I would stop being a Christian. I expect I would become a Jew, or at least a gentile who believes in the Jewish religion.

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What would a find like life on Mars or another planet do to one's faith?

The discovery of life on Mars or any other planet, especially intelligent life, would be amazing. It would not alter my faith—in my view it would not be evidence for or against Christianity.

I’ll turn it around and point out that *both* possibilities have been used as arguments against the Christian faith. E.g. if there are no other intelligent beings in the universe, then isn’t it hard to believe that God cares about intelligent life like us, since through the whole universe it only exists for a short time on one backwater planet and all the rest is dead matter? On the other hand, if there *are* other intelligent beings, then isn’t it hard to believe that God thinks mankind is so special that he sent his Son to earth to save us? It seems like whatever we find, it will be used as an argument against the Christian faith.

The fact is, the Christian faith is very practical and is about local matters here on planet Earth. It tells us as much as we need for our own salvation, and not much more. On planet Earth, man is sinful and needs redemption, and the Christian faith tells us that Christ came to redeem us. It doesn’t tell us if there are other intelligent species out there, or what God’s relationship is with them. It doesn’t even tell us about God’s relationship with *animals* here on Earth.

Christians can and do speculate about these things, and try to see how they might fit into what the Christian faith does tell us. For instance, medieval scientists believed that the planets and stars were intelligent beings, who moved in their orbits by their own free will and power. They also believed there were non-human forms of intelligent life here on earth. I don’t think they would have been shocked if they discovered that there were intelligent beings living on other planets, once they understood what we know about astronomy.

C.S. Lewis wrote a series of science fiction novels about humans discovering life on Mars and on Venus. They’re great reads, and offer some insightful speculations about what we might expect life on other worlds to be like, if the Christian faith is true. Their titles are Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.