Vatican considers possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence.

[dennilfloss]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7399661.stm

Cool.

 

[andylawcc]

and aliens are Free from Sin?

okay, so basically they are just reinforcing the idea of Angels then.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Created by God...

Free from Original sin..

Science and religion need each other..

 

[zinfamous]

whoa! the Vatican has an astronomer?

is this guilt for that whole Galileo thing?

 

[Nitemare]

And on the 8th day, the Heavenly Father said fvck it and created Martians

 

[Canai]

What about all the talk of us being made in God's image? Does that automatically make all aliens inferior to us?

 

[Gothgar]

They musta been losing a lot of followers...

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: zinfamous
whoa! the Vatican has an astronomer?

is this guilt for that whole Galileo thing?

Or making concessions to, well, to reality.

 

[Fenixgoon]

so here's the real question... why the hell is the church concerned with life outside of earth?

now, i know the whole "god crated the earth in 7 days (well 6, rested the 7th)" blah blah blah... but it seems to me that, because the entire basis of the church is founded in belief, in faith, rather than science, it is rather odd that the church should be making scientific judgements about things that *real* scientists have yet to truly theorize and investigate.

edit: and besides, what difference doesit make now, considering that we don't know one way or the other?

sentient life would be big. but a few microbes here and there... that just means we might be able to populate the planet

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
so here's the real question... why the hell is the church concerned with life outside of earth?

now, i know the whole "god crated the earth in 7 days (well 6, rested the 7th)" blah blah blah... but it seems to me that, because the entire basis of the church is founded in belief, in faith, rather than science, it is rather odd that the church should be making scientific judgements about things that *real* scientists have yet to truly theorize and investigate.

edit: and besides, what difference doesit make now, considering that we don't know one way or the other?

sentient life would be big. but a few microbes here and there... that just means we might be able to populate the planet

Father Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, is a respected scientist who collaborates with universities around the world.

Care to define "real scientist", then?

I don't see this as a scientific judgment; I see it as stating that there is no conflict between Catholicism and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

 

[Printer Bandit]

the SIV already know...

 

[Leros]

If they don't say this, they're opening up possibilities for the church to be wrong. They're just shifting their opinion to that of reality and the current situation of the world. This is nothing new. The

 

[dennilfloss]

Originally posted by: zinfamous
whoa! the Vatican has an astronomer?

http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo/R1024/VO.html

They've been concerned with things celestial for ages.

http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo/R1024/gghist_p3.html

"From the Galileo case we can draw a lesson which is applicable today in analogous cases which arise in our times and which may arise in the future. ... It often happens that, beyond two partial points of view which are in contrast, there exists a wider view of things which embraces both and integrates them."

 

[Jeff7]

Free from original sin?
So what, God made many iterations of life, and some of them didn't turn out to be inherently "sinful" from the time of Creation, like us? We had to have been inherently sinful from before the time of the official "original sin," otherwise Adam and Eve wouldn't have willfully disobeyed God's orders.
How many versions of life are there? Why keep the flawed ones? It's poor manufacturing practice. Keep the good, recycle the old and try again.

Originally posted by: Canai
What about all the talk of us being made in God's image? Does that automatically make all aliens inferior to us?

Nope. It just means that all aliens look exactly like us, and they too have Bibles and Jesuses on their planets.

Originally posted by: Leros
If they don't say this, they're opening up possibilities for the church to be wrong. They're just shifting their opinion to that of reality and the current situation of the world. This is nothing new. The

!!!!!
Did you see that? He was talking blasphemy, and God smote him right in mid-sentence! REPENT!!!

 

[LtPage1]

Anybody read The Sparrow and its sequel? I think they were by Mary Doria Russell, but I don't feel like double-checking. Some of my favorite books.

Anyway, they're about making first contact with aliens, by a team put together by the Vatican.

 

[tallest1]

This is just like how only a few generations ago, minorities were seen as inferior in the eyes of the church. But then after MLK, God seems to throw a press conference stating that he loves them equally now. Anyone want to place bets on when God endorses cloning?

 

[spittledip]

Extra! Extra! The VAtican believes in the possibility Extra Terrestrial life forms! Who gives a damn what they believe!

no offense to op, just wondering why anyone should care if the Vatican believes this...?

 

[ForumMaster]

To strengthen its scientific credentials, the Vatican is organising a conference next year to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author of the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin.

gone overboard a bit! maybe this will change some of the curriculum in some schools in the US where evolution isn't even taught! nah, doubt it.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
so here's the real question... why the hell is the church concerned with life outside of earth?

now, i know the whole "god crated the earth in 7 days (well 6, rested the 7th)" blah blah blah... but it seems to me that, because the entire basis of the church is founded in belief, in faith, rather than science, it is rather odd that the church should be making scientific judgements about things that *real* scientists have yet to truly theorize and investigate.

edit: and besides, what difference doesit make now, considering that we don't know one way or the other?

sentient life would be big. but a few microbes here and there... that just means we might be able to populate the planet

The Catholic church doesn't teach that the earth was created in 7 days.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: ForumMaster

To strengthen its scientific credentials, the Vatican is organising a conference next year to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author of the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin.

gone overboard a bit! maybe this will change some of the curriculum in some schools in the US where evolution isn't even taught! nah, doubt it.

Those schools are majority protestant schools in low education proud-to-be-hillbilly communities... Like Kansas

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: JLee

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
so here's the real question... why the hell is the church concerned with life outside of earth?

now, i know the whole "god crated the earth in 7 days (well 6, rested the 7th)" blah blah blah... but it seems to me that, because the entire basis of the church is founded in belief, in faith, rather than science, it is rather odd that the church should be making scientific judgements about things that *real* scientists have yet to truly theorize and investigate.

edit: and besides, what difference doesit make now, considering that we don't know one way or the other?

sentient life would be big. but a few microbes here and there... that just means we might be able to populate the planet

Father Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, is a respected scientist who collaborates with universities around the world.

Care to define "real scientist", then?

I don't see this as a scientific judgment; I see it as stating that there is no conflict between Catholicism and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

the church is a religious institution. that guy can make all the judgements he wants, religious or not.

and besides, who really read the article?

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
The Catholic church doesn't teach that the earth was created in 7 days.

yeah, i was just quoting the bible. catholics don't take the bible so literally, which makes a bit more sense than taking it super literally.

 

[dennilfloss]

Here's another article on this subject.

http://www.newswithviews.com/Horn/thomas12.htm

 

[Shawn]

Whatever, who cares what they think anyway?

 

[Oceandevi]

Technically God itself is not from earth... therefore...

 

[smack Down]

Well it is good to know we can still count on the Vatican stating the obvious decades after it is a well know. I heard soon they are going to announce that water maybe wet.