Ken Ham walked back his widely reported comments on the search for extraterrestrial life by joking that the money should instead be spent on building more creationist museums.

The president of the Answers in Genesis ministry appeared this week on fellow creationist Ray Comfort’s “Comfort Zone” online program, arguing that the existence of intelligent life would undermine Christian theology.

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“Understanding the Gospel that God’s son became a man, became a descendent of Adam, became the God-man (and) remains the God-man – our savior – and that only humans can be saved, so obviously Jesus didn’t become a God-Klingon, he became a God-man,” Ham explained.

The creationist complained that critics, including scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson and talk show host Bill Maher, had falsely accused him of calling for NASA to be defunded, but he continued to call space exploration a waste of money based on non-biblical teachings.

“One of the big thrusts in the space program is to look for life in outer space, look for alien life, and of course, you know, they believe that, because they think that they came about as a product of naturalistic evolution,” Ham said.

He said scientists’ adherence to the theory of evolution led them away from biblical teachings and toward space exploration, because they believed the natural processes at work in evolution would not be confined to Earth.

“Because of their rejection of biblical authority, they’re certainly wasting millions of dollars,” Ham said. “Think of what we could do with the millions of dollars that they’re wasting looking for life in outer space.”

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Comfort’s co-host, Emeal Zwayne, suggested those funds could be used to build an ark – like the Noah’s ark theme park Ham’s ministry is trying to build in Kentucky.

“Yeah, we could build one in California, we could build a Creation Museum in California,” Ham said. “We could build Creation Museums around the world. Certainly, NASA is wasting a lot of money looking for alien life in outer space, and it’s really because of evolution. Look how evolution is detrimental to our progress – it’s wasting a lot of money.”

He suggested mainstream secularists believed that aliens had contributed to human life on Earth, citing as his proof the History Channel program “Ancient Aliens” and writings by Richard Dawkins and Francis Crick.

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“In the beginning aliens, they’ll believe, but in the beginning God?” Ham said. “They’ll believe in eternal aliens, but absolutely reject an eternal God. They’ll believe in all sorts of ridiculous weirdo beliefs about aliens.”

He said biblical teachings eliminated the possibility of extraterrestrial life, because those beings could not be redeemed by Jesus Christ.

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“From a perspective of understanding the Gospel, I don’t believe in aliens,” Ham said. “I don’t believe there’s intelligent beings out there.”

Watch the entire interview posted online by Living Waters/The Way of the Master: