Creationist Ken Ham calls to end space program because aliens are going to hell anyway

Creationist Ken Ham has said that the U.S. space program is a waste of money because any alien life that scientists found would be damned to hell.

"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 Sunday column on his Answers in Genesis website.

Ham argued that "secularists are desperate to find life in outer space" as a part of their "rebellion against God in a desperate attempt to supposedly prove evolution."

"Life did not evolve but was specially created by God, as Genesis clearly teaches. Christians certainly shouldn’t expect alien life to be cropping up across the universe," he continued. "Now the Bible doesn’t say whether there is or is not animal or plant life in outer space. I certainly suspect not."

But regardless of whether there was life in outer space, Ham asserted that it could not be truly "intelligent."

"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 explained. "Jesus did not become the 'GodKlingon' or the 'GodMartian'! Only descendants of Adam can be saved. God’s Son remains the 'Godman' as our Savior."

Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta called Ham's quest to end the space program "a new low even for him."

"Jesus Christ, Ken Ham is talking about the eternal damnation of alien life forms," Mehta wrote. "They’re all going to hell, apparently, and why go in search of life on other planets if they’re all doomed to a lake of fire?"

"To whine about the pittance we spend on space exploration because 'Christians certainly shouldn’t expect alien life to be cropping up across the universe' has to be a new low even for him."