Were Jesus and Buddha Aliens? BBC Program Debates the Idea

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Monday, February 09, 2015

A program aired on the British Broadcasting Corporation recently held a discussion as to whether or not major religious figures like Jesus Christ and the Buddha were from other planets.

In a religion-focused series titled "The Big Questions", host Nicky Campbell oversaw a discussion asking the query, "Have beings from other planets guided our religions?"

"Last month NASA's Kepler space telescope identified another planet that might have the right conditions for life," said Campbell.

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"It will be no surprise to the followers of those religions who've long believed that life - possibly not as we know it - exists elsewhere in the galaxy. Life which has possibly exerted its influence here on planet Earth. Have beings from other planets guided our religions?"

The segment featured two groups, the Aetherius Society and the British Union Of Spiritist Societies, which advocated for the theory that various religious figures, including Jesus, were aliens.

"We believe that various religious leaders from history have an inter-planetary origin," said Mark Bennett of the Aetherius Society.

"We believe that Jesus and Buddha came from Venus, that Sri Krishna came from Saturn, that Saint Peter came from Mars, and so on."

The program also include two people representing Christianity, a scientist who belongs to the Christ Church Southampton and a bishop, who opposed the theory.

"It's very clear if you look at the gospels that there are only three answers as to who Jesus is," said the scientist Liz Weston.

"Either he's mad... or he's bad, he's trying to deceive us [and] his power comes from the Devil, or he is actually who he claimed to be and he is the son of God... none of those say that he was from Venus."

Claims that Jesus might have been an alien are not exclusively made by groups like the Aetherius Society. Presbyterian Minister Barry Downing has often credited phenomenon in the Bible, including the coming of Jesus, to extraterrestrial origins.

In a rebuttal posted on the website Ancient Aliens Debunked, Frank Johnson wrote that the theory of Jesus being an alien "creates a few problems."

"No matter how you look at it, there is no way possible that God as revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures could be an extraterrestrial as most understand the term," wrote Johnson.

"Jesus cannot possibly be an extraterrestrial, hybrid or otherwise, simply because He is one with God the Father. The Bible demonstrates, and Jesus states that He and the Father (God) are ONE."