CHRISTIANITY: ANTHROPOCENTRIC OR UNIVERSAL (Part II)

Any accusation or argument that Christianity is anthropocentric is inherently indefensible. There is no evidence that it is as we cannot compare the Bible to an alien scripture.

So until we can actually do that, a critical judgment of whether Christianity is anthropocentric will have to wait until we have that alien version of the Bible/Koran/Bhagavad Gita/Analects/Talmud/Tao-te-ching, etc.

As to the universality of Christianity, it’s not even common to all members of humanity – how can it be common to anyone off Earth? On the other hand, Christianity is FOR everyone. Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to me ALL who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Christianity is for any intelligences we meet in space.

Christianity has adapted to a number of human cultures. There’s no reason to think that it can’t adapt to alien cultures. Christians have been adapting their faith for 2000 years – but have kept the essential tenets of Christianity: humans broke their relationship with the Creator through disobedience; Jesus came to restore the relationship by paying the penalty for disobedience—which was death – for us; He dies, but returned to life because His was the sacrifice of an innocent life. That humans can return to a right relationship with God through Jesus is logical because He was the one who paid the penalty. How can anyone return to a right relationship with God except through the one who bought them passage back?

Christianity is the only religion to claim that God came to Earth in human form with the express purpose of replacing us in receiving punishment for something he didn’t do – though the punishment was undeniably OWED. It is a type and can be universal. Who’s to say that God did not incarnate on any world where its people rebelled against the Creator of the universe? Who’s to say He didn’t die a thousand deaths and experience a thousand resurrections for a thousand intelligences? Who’s to say that Jesus didn’t die once for ALL on an obscure planet in an obscure galaxy – it would certainly fit the motif of being born to humble parents in a stable in a non-world-power among an obscure people!

God made the universe before he made humans – Scripture is very clear on this in Genesis 1:14-15. If Christians are acting as if they were here first and are foremost, that is a very different story than assuming that the document from which the doctrine was derived directed them to believe that way. Genesis 2:1 says, “the heavens and the earth were completed and ALL their hosts.” God made it all, cares for it all and will redeem any part of it that falls. C.S. Lewis posits that not all created beings failed their obedience test in his SF book, PERELANDRA.

In conclusion, I believe that Christianity is not anthropocentric but universal. The Bible itself is, indeed anthropospecific; and Jesus Christ, the Son of God is universal when he says, “Come to me ALL who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28