The BBC has an article about the suffering citizens went through during the struggle between the Peruvian government and the Maoist rebel group Shining Path.

The article talks about a particular valley outside of Ayacucho, Peru where bodies of civilians were dumped by soldiers who were supposed to be protecting them. Ayacucho is where I went for three weeks during the summer of 2007. While traveling around the mountains it was not uncommon to have someone point to one of the passing valleys and say, “There were bodies dumped there.” Some by the Shining Path, others by government forces.

The bloodiest periods of violence are long over now but the memory remains a deep wound for the people. All the more troubling was the rise of new Maoist groups that want to return to the ways of the Shining Path. It seems unlikely that they would ever rise to that level of power but it is not impossible.

Pray for the believers in Peru who continue to minister to those displaced by the violence. While in Ayacucho I stayed in a home on the edge of a large shanty town. The shanty area formed by people who fled to Ayacucho seeking safety in numbers. Many of them left everything while seeking safety. Pray that they and all others in Peru would hear and respond to the gospel.

Below is a video I put together after my trip. I’ve posted it before, but that post is no longer around.

According to a BBC article, a scientist working at the Vatican, Father Gabriel Funes, has said that alien life could well exist on other planets and might be free from the effects of original sin.

Christians have debated whether or not there are aliens out there. The basic argument is that since the Bible does not mention intelligent life created elsewhere, such life does not exist. Others have pointed out that since the Bible is silent on the subject, we are free to assume that aliens might be out there.

Father Funes believes there may be aliens out there, and I assume he means intelligent aliens with a cognitive ability similar to ours. Such aliens might be free from original sin.

Here is my take. I believe some form of alien life can and probably does exist in the universe. We could go to other planets and we would find plants and animals. But I do not believe we will ever find intelligent alien life. Romans 8 explains why.

Romans 8:19-23 says:

[esvbible reference="Romans 8:19-23" header="on" format="inline"]Romans 8:19-23[/esvbible]

This passage includes everything in creation. It says that all of creation has been “subjected to futility” because of the fall of mankind into sin. We humans are profoundly affected as well.  Here is the question to ask. If there existed other moral, intelligent beings who were somehow like us, would God have subjected those beings to decay because of our sin? Everything in creation was impacted by us. I do not think God would subject other moral, intelligent creatures to the effects of our sin. It is possible, but I don’t think so. And since the Bible tells us that everything in creation has in fact been subjected to the effects of our sin, moral, intelligent alien life must not exist.

I haven’t even touched on the question of whether or not aliens would be sinless, and if they were not how salvation might work for them. But that factors into the discussion as well.