A common strategy for unbelievers is to lump everything they are skeptical of together. Usually, this is just multiple religions. Why believe Jesus and not Muhammad, they ask. But occasionally, they will throw in other things. What about other claimed miracle workers? What about sightings of Elvis Presley after his death? What about aliens?
But the thing about Christians is that just as our own faith isn't based on pure denial, so also do we not purely dismiss other claims. Of course, as we are not omniscient, we do occasionally have to just dismiss things. I don't know much about Hinduism, for example, and so at least for now, you won't find much on this site directly addressing Hinduism. But while skeptics assume we automatically dismiss aliens (and of course, I realise many Christians will), I am among the large portion of Christians who do not automatically dismiss alien encounters.
Now, to be as open as possible, I do not actually believe aliens exist. I don't necessarily doubt that there is life in space, but I'm going to need quite some convincing to believe anything beyond microorganisms exist outside our atmosphere. Nevertheless, there is such a wealth of evidence for alien encounters that it is unreasonable, and frankly insulting to the witnesses, to just dismiss them out of hand.
But if we don't dismiss them all out of hand, what exactly do we do with them? The first thing we do is simply examine the witnesses. Who are they? How many of them are there? Do their stories corroborate each other? And of course, what are they willing to lose for their stories?
To begin with, of course we can dismiss drunken or drug induced ramblings. If you see aliens while intoxicated, it's easy to just blame the intoxication. You may well believe you saw something, but that's because you were under the influence of something that will make you see things. But other witnesses cannot be simply dismissed as crazy. Many "otherwise" reliable people do claim to have seen aliens.
But even then, one witness is almost never enough. People can be tricked, and even without foul play, can nevertheless misinterpret, or misunderstand what they see. And so we must also ask are there other witnesses? If there are, perhaps there is merit to the claims.
Furthermore, if there are other witnesses, and especially if they are generally reliable, their claims might actually corroborate each other. If they have genuinely seen something, they may even do so in ways they might not have intended.
Of course, with the right motivations, one might construct a narrative by which one may profit. By contrast, few people, if any, will willingly suffer for what they do not believe. These days, most people will sacrifice the truth under persecution, so how you expect a liar to maintain their lie under pressure is beyond me.
With all of that in mind, when we examine the evidence for alien encounters, what we find is that they aren't simply made up. There are multiple reliable witnesses who testify to similar encounters, and, at least historically, have lost far more than they have gained for that testimony. What that tells us is something is going on.
And there is one particular common thread that might explain exactly what is going on. Specifically, many abductees report that they have been able to end abductions, usually permanently, by invoking the name of Jesus. When Jesus is called upon, "aliens" tend to become uneasy, and cease to harass those who call upon Him. And this is unique to Jesus. Buddha doesn't work. Muhammad doesn't work. Other gods, like Allah, do not work. Even Christian figures, such as Paul or Mary, do not work. Only Jesus.
This "puzzling" fact for UFOlogists is significantly less puzzling for those who not only believe in the name of the Son of God, but also the power it gives His children over demonic spirits. Not to mention, of course, the power those demonic spirits hold over those who do not believe in His name.
Biblically speaking, the devil is "the god of this age", meaning he and his armies have a lot of sway over this Earth. This, sadly, includes deceptive powers. Satan may appear as an angel of light, and his ministers may appear as ministers of righteousness. It is no small thing for a demon to pretend to be an alien, deceiving, and potentially stealing the soul of a human being. But it is no small thing for Jesus to overcome a demon. Therefore, when His name is invoked, it is not surprising that abductions end. Aliens, often (though of course, not always) are demons. That is why there is sufficient evidence to acknowledge their existence, but not to believe their self-identification. Alien encounters happen, but they are definitely not super-evolved beings from space.
This, of course, brings us full circle back to the whole skepticism thing. When skeptics lump Christianity in with aliens, we can afford to do the same. Skeptics dismiss all things out of hand (until it suits them), but Christian skepticism should always be healthy. Just as we can look at alien encounters the same way we look at the Bible, so also can we look at the Bible the same way we look at alien encounters. We ask the same questions: Who are the witnesses, how many are there, do their stories match, and what do they stand to lose?
The witnesses of the Bible are varied. Sometimes, they record things long after the facts. Genesis, for example, was obviously not written by eyewitnesses. But much of the Bible was. Exodus - Deuteronomy was almost all written by Moses, whose immediate successor, Joshua, took over after his death, and again wrote most of the book bearing his own name. Similarly, the New Testament was written entirely by either eyewitnesses or contemporaries. Matthew and John were both close disciples of Jesus. Mark was closely linked to Peter, another disciple of Jesus. Luke sought to compile a reliable record of the events in his Gospel for a man named Theophilus.
What's more interesting is the witnesses who didn't write the Bible. A made up story would select the most "acceptable" witnesses. Much can be made of the fact that women are listed as primary witnesses, for example, as the New Testament was written in a culture that dismissed women as reliable witnesses. Furthermore, while Mark is, of course, a good witness, it is curious that his Gospel was never attributed to Peter. Things like this mean very little in our culture, but if you were constructing a false narrative back then, this is not the way you would do it.
On top of the identity and number of witnesses, their narratives do interlink quite well. Of course, there are (easily reconcilable) claims of contradictions in the narratives, but the Gospels alone fit very nicely together, as well as with the Bible as a whole. The New Testament bears witness to what the Old Testament foretold, even to the extent where reading, for example, Isaiah 53, will often bring Jesus to people's minds, which are swiftly blown when it turns out it was written 700 years before He was born.
So, we have multiple reliable witnesses with corroborating stories, but what do they have to lose? At that point in time, everything. As should be obvious given that they worshiped a crucified Savior, death was on the cards for proclaiming Him. We're not talking about being dismissed as a winebibber here. Nor are we looking at mere cancel culture. In the first century, if you testified that Jesus is the risen Lord, the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament, the God who created all things, you were risking your life. You could be cast out of your synagogue. You could have your property confiscated. You could be chased out of your town or city. You could be beaten with whips, you could be stoned, you could lose your head, you could be boiled in oil, you could be enslaved in a mine, you could even be crucified. And the disciples did it anyway!
Persecution is by far the best way to separate the wheat from the chaff. A true believer may be tempted to retreat, but liars make poor martyrs. Look at our culture. We have Christians compromising with Evolution because they're afraid they'll be mocked if they deny it. We have comedians "playing it safe", lest they be cancelled. We even have police officers refusing to tackle grooming gangs because the ethnic origins of the perpetrators might get them accused of "racism". Human beings are pathetic. We will deny even our most firmly held beliefs if it will only make life easier for us.
We even have examples of liars caving under pressure from other religions. The witnesses at the beginning of the Book of Mormon, for example. By the end of their lives, none of them were still associated with the Mormon Church. On top of that, you have the Watergate scandal. As Charles Colson put it, "“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible."
Now, to be perfectly clear: The argument here is not, has never been, and will never be, "they were martyrs, therefore their beliefs are true". This is a common straw man, but that's not what we're saying. Therefore, the common counter-argument "there are martyrs in other religions" does not work. The argument is that martyrdom proves sincerity. People just don't die for what they don't believe in. Lies are typically told when there is something to gain, or at least to protect. But if you ran around claiming you saw Jesus, the only way you gain is if it's true. So, the Apostles were martyred for claiming they saw Jesus, that means they truly believed they saw Jesus.
The Apostles were in a position to know if Christianity is true or not, and they testified, against all pressure, that it is. That lends a lot of credibility to the faith, simply because regardless of whether it is true or not, something convinced them all that it is. The simplest explanation, requiring the least amount of assumptions, is that their testimony is genuinely true.
With all of that in mind, skeptics who compare Christianity to aliens are actually doing a major disservice to their case. Evidently, there is much merit to alien claims, so much so that even if I wasn't a Christian, I would have to believe there was something going on. But on top of that, as credible as alien claims are, Christianity is more credible. The witness testimony we have is stronger than any other historical claims. We know Jesus better than we know Julius Caesar. Even skeptical historians will testify that Jesus' crucifixion is one of the most certain facts in all of history. Now, here's the question: Did He rise again?
The evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is as strong as the evidence for His death, but while many others were crucified throughout history, Jesus is the only one who rose again afterwards. Thus, some might argue, we must stop at the crucifixion. Ultimately, which side we fall on is a question we must all answer ourselves. But it is literally a life and death question.
See, one day, however it may happen, we will all pass from this world. Not even tomorrow is promised. If Christ is not risen, we may well ask what happens next? Do we just cease to be? Is some other religion true? But if He is risen, then each of us has a major problem, because He stands as judge, jury, and executioner. And every single one of us has earned execution.
And that is precisely why He was executed! When Jesus died, He did so as an innocent man, having never known any kind of sin for as long as He lived. He died for our sin. Thus, those who confess Him as the risen Lord, when we face judgement, will be declared righteous, as if we had lived the life He lived. But those who reject Him will not receive this gift. They will receive their due reward in full. There is wisdom in healthy skepticism. It stops you from being taken for a mug. But not all skepticism is healthy. Sometimes, it leads to everlasting doom. Don't use aliens as an excuse to become an unidentified frying object.