Popular creationist Ken Ham has slammed NASA's attempts to find for extraterrestrial life, saying that God has intentionally not created life anywhere outside the Earth, and calling it a "desperate attempt to prove evolution."
"I'm shocked at the countless hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent over the years in the desperate and fruitless search for extraterrestrial life," Ham wrote in a blog post for Answers in Genesis on Sunday.
"Of course, secularists are desperate to find life in outer space, as they believe that would provide evidence that life can evolve in different locations and given the supposed right conditions! The search for extraterrestrial life is really driven by man's rebellion against God in a desperate attempt to supposedly prove evolution!"
Ham, who is the CEO and founder of the Creation Museum, made his comments in response to a group of scientists who suggested that within the next twenty years, space telescopes will likely discover other habitable Earth-like planets and possible extraterrestrial life.
"It's highly improbable in the limitless vastness of the universe that we humans stand alone," said Charles Bolden, the current administrator of NASA and former astronaut.
"I think in the next 20 years we will find out we are not alone in the universe," added NASA scientist Kevin Hand, according to a report by The Register last week.
The scientists are anticipating the James Webb Space Telescope's deployment to the Earth-Sun L2 point, where it will be able to investigate the atmospheres of far-off planets circling other suns.
"Sometime in the near future, people will be able to point to a star and say, 'that star has a planet like Earth'," added Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at MIT.
However, Ham argues that believing in extraterrestrial life is simply not Biblical.
"Secularists cannot allow earth to be special or unique - that's a biblical idea (Isaiah 45:18). If life evolved here, it simply must have evolved elsewhere they believe," he stated, adding that Christians who believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God "shouldn't expect alien life to be cropping up across the universe."
"And I do believe there can't be other intelligent beings in outer space because of the meaning of the gospel. You see, the Bible makes it clear that Adam's sin affected the whole universe. This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam's sin, but because they are not Adam's descendants, they can't have salvation," he continued.
"One day, the whole universe will be judged by fire, and there will be a new heavens and earth. God's Son stepped into history to be Jesus Christ, the 'Godman,' to be our relative, and to be the perfect sacrifice for sin -the Savior of mankind."
Yet not all Christian denominations agree with Ham. In May, Pope Francis discussed extraterrestrial life forms, saying that if they ever came to Earth, he would willingly baptize them.
"If - for example - tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here ... Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them ... And one says, 'But I want to be baptized!' What would happen?" the Roman Catholic Church leader theorized during a speech focused on the question "Who are we to close the doors to the Holy Spirit?"
The pope continued: "If then God gave them the same gift He gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?"
