I recently read an interesting article published by Religion News Service that reported on a Pew survey conducted this year on the belief in alien life.

While atheists enjoy mocking Christians because of our belief in God, the poll found that atheists, despite their claims of being evidence-based, also have faith, as most believe in the existence of aliens.

According to Pew’s survey conducted in 2021, 85% of atheists/agnostics said they believed in little green men. But they weren’t alone, as the same survey revealed that 80% of nones, those with no religious affiliation, also claimed they believe in aliens.

Though certainly not as high, overall 57% of Christians similarly claimed they believed in the possibility of life on other planets, but when broken down by religious affiliation, Evangelicals at 40% were among the lowest to hold such an opinion.

And if a survey conducted in 2014 by Astronomer David Weintraub is any indication, atheists’ belief in aliens is growing. The Vanderbilt University professor conducted a similar survey for his book, Religions and Extraterrestrial life, and found at that time only 55% of atheists believed in aliens.

So in a matter of seven years, the number of atheists believing in aliens has grown by 30%.

It is difficult to understand why.

The only explanation that I can offer is the release of the movies Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 and Star Trek Beyond in 2016, but I presumed most people understood these were fictional.

Because the biggest problem with the belief in aliens is the lack of evidence to support it, but still they believe.

Certainly, the release of a report on UFO sightings in June 2021, by the US military has sparked a renewed interest in alien life.

But many explanations have been offered, ranging from naturally occurring phenomena to technical glitches to even concerns of advanced drone technology being used by enemy states.

I remember watching a video of one of those UFOs and a person stating that it was travelling at over 128 miles per hour. I suspect my older SUV can probably go faster than that.

Here is the big problem!

Though there have been tens of thousands of reports of unidentified flying objects, and even YouTube videos of people testifying they were captured by aliens and taken up to flying saucers for experimentation, strangely no one has ever gotten their hands on an actual UFO.

Other than the one that conspiracy theorists state the US government has secretly stashed away at Area 51 in the US state of Nevada, of course. The mega movie hit, Independence Day, adds that there are even live aliens at the site.

But to their credit, Pew reports that Atheists (31%) and evangelicals (35%) are agreed on one thing, UFOs are not evidence of alien life.

But that doesn’t stop atheists from believing.

Stephen Hawkins, perhaps the world’s most famous atheist before he died in 2018, was very vocal about his belief there was no God and also in the existence of aliens.

In a documentary produced for the Discovery Channel, the famed physicist expressed concerns of an advance alien civilization plundering earth for its resources along the lines of Independence Day which was fictional, not an actual documentary.

He stated in the documentary:

“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.”

But to be fair, not all physicists hold this Hawkins’ opinion.

In a mini-documentary series produced in 2014 for the BBC, entitled Human Universe, famed UK physicist, Professor Brian Cox stated that he doesn’t believe in alien life because what happened on earth was so unique, so miraculous, the chances of life evolving again on another planet is basically impossible.

In the video, Cox explains:

“There is only one advance technological civilization in this galaxy and there has only ever been one– and that’s us. We are unique.“

The Bible holds a different opinion, and starts with these words:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1 NIV)

READ: For Atheists, the Idea of Aliens Seems Real. Religious People Doubt it. AND Is Stephen Hawking right about aliens? AND Believe in Aliens? Then you’re probably an atheist or Muslim: Study reveals how religion affects your likelihood of believing in ET