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Vatican Astronomer Comments On Extraterrestrials
An anonymous reader writes "There's an Astrobiology.net interview up with a Vatican astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, who also curates one of the world's largest meteorite collections. On the possibility of a non-terrestrial lifeform, he says initially 'I don't know', followed by three scenarios. First, he argues: 'We find an intelligent civilization and there's no way in creation we can communicate with them because they're so alien to us. We can't talk to dolphins now. In which case, we'll never know.' Secondly, he suggests: 'We find the intelligent civilization. We can communicate.' As agents of free-will, the aliens are self-aware of good and evil, thus convertible to some terrestrial religion. Thirdly: 'We find a dozen civilizations out there, and a bunch of Jehovah's witnesses go up and convert them all.' The question of whether an alien civilization might convert Earth to their religion, or become a religion unto themselves, is left unconsidered. This compares to the many reasons people give for hosting a SETI@home client, including that ET contact would unite humanity, challenge religion, or all of the above."
We discover intelligent life up there immeasurably superior to ourselves and they become our new gods.
All hail Ming, our Emperor!
All these years, I've been telling you, I hope now that you see it as clearly as I do. I for one welcome.. err.. ok.
Interplanetry Mormons or quantum presbytaryans
Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.
A Google Search for the phrase "I am evil" yields 13,600 hits.
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And it's nothing but a bunch of speculation about how to convert aliens to christianity
You obviously haven't seen "Alien 3".
I find the prospect of a mass space-conversion by Jehovah's witnesses to be unlikely. How are they gonna knock on all those doors? Better chances: Hare Krishnas They can appeal to the disaffected alien youth! Islam: Convert or we will crash this spaceship into your planet! Scientology: Will work briefly with its appeal to science and reason, but will suffer a backlash after aliens are treated to a free screening of Battlefield Earth
They give us plans to build a mysterious worm hole transportation device, some zealous religious nut destroys it, but Jodie Foster gets into another one made in Japan, trips out on a few psychedelic visions, meets her father who looks slightly like Douglas Adams, comes back and says it's all about being happy with your life.
Meanwhile, Steve Jobs' pagan cult goes unchallenged.
Asking the Vatican about Religion.
Mistake No. 2
Thinking a dying Pantheon would interest already Illuminated Extra Terrestrials.
... that getting rid of our Jehovah's Witnesses is a good idea but the potential of a hostile alien reaction is probably very good. Just imagine if we were invaded with the alien version of Jehovah's Witnesses... Aaggggghhhhhhh!!!
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Well, maybe we can't communicate with dolphins, but they sure enjoy a good handjob given by a Greenpeace activist. Anyone to try the same with aliens ?
Google passes Turing test : see my journal
What I don't get is the corollary that if we could communicate with dolphins, the Vatican would try to convert them to Catholicism.
my blog
"This is historic news," Maussan told reporters. "Hundreds of videos (of UFOs) exist, but none had the backing of the armed forces of any country.... The armed forces don't perpetuate frauds."
Now that is humor.
There's much dismissal of the notion of aliens taking our religion seriously. And I tend to agree. But it does make for a fun "what if" scenario.
What if the aliens did take to our religious beliefs? What if the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons did manage to convert them? Either scenario would be particularly entertaining, since presumably the aliens would then undertake the same activities as the human Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons on Earth, to the limits that their biologies would allow. Hell, I'd look forward to them coming to my door. I would be able to forgive all the other shortcomings of the 'future' (lack of flying cars, rocketpacks, etc.) if every now I could open my door to find a couple of small grey aliens in white shirts and black ties, earnest looks on their faces, asking me about my thoughts on God. I'd still slam the door in their faces, of course, but I'd have a little "Well, whaddya know?" smile on my face as I did so.
Indeed, conversion to any branch of Christianity would provide endless entertainment, since we would have yet another party laying claim to Jerusalem as the holiest city. Or perhaps we could one day look forward to a "Passion" remake, complete with an alien Jesus dragging the cross? I wonder, would the Christian aliens still nurse a mild resentment of the Jews? Or would aliens be more likely to become Jews themselves, able to accept the idea of God but not a human Messiah? Man, would that ever get some people going. Osama bin Laden would just shit himself.
Of course, they may not go for a mainstream religion. Maybe they'll become convinced that the ultimate arbiter of religious truth is some dude leading a cult somewhere in the wilds of Montana. Maybe they'd all become Branch Davidians, or some equivalent thereof.
Mind you, the alternative to us converting them is even more fun. I personally would go to church--or whatever you would call it--every week, if the purpose were to worship some whacked-out alien god. All hail the Great Slug of the Cosmos, perhaps. Hell, I'll even worship Kah'less if I get to play with a Bat'leth.
Thinking about this sort of stuff is more fun than a box full of puppies.
In a world without walls, there is no need for Windows.
> now they will have to agree for Jesus with eight tentacles?
Naw, you're confusing him with his surly cousin from R'lyeh.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Just because we are (inevitably) steeped in Christian culture does not meen that every religion (here on earth) conforms to the same basic models.
In the given question of how religions would respond to this 'new' reality, I think would fair quite nicely. Budism and Hinduism would have little if any problem with this, and would probably brag about their general philosophy of univeralism. Jews would find some 2,000 year old comment, saying that they always knew this. Muslims would most likely be outraged. Aithiests would have an absolute fit, when they translated the alien pledge of aliegence. And the Georga school board may finally allow the teaching of evolution (that the Aliens came from apes).
The basic need for faith, in something, by far exceeds the need to keep ones world view intelectualy honest.
And maybe that's a good thing.
ps. Even if *WHEN* we discover ET, that doesn't prove or disprove anything other than ETs do exist, and really prefer M&Ms over Reeces-Peeces.
I would rather be ashes than dust!
Actually, there are many Aiwa still in Japan, but they are inferior in numbers to the Sony.
The question of whether an alien civilization might convert Earth to their religion, or become a religion unto themselves, is left unconsidered.
:-)
I heard about a religion a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The priests of this religion wore plain brown robes and carried sabers made out of light. They were (supposed to be) good and kind and helped fight evil.
I've never even met this alien civilization and I already want to convert to Jedi.
So Jesus died for our sins but didn't die for their sins, and they didn't have their own Jesus either?
They'd have angels too. They're called Vorlons.
"We can't communicate with dolphins because we didn't have the need to do so."
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Here we are, possibly a century or more before interstellar travel is possible (maybe) and we already need a Prime Directive to reign in the Pope. ;)
There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
The Vatican Astronomer in question has a Bachelor's and Master's from MIT and a Doctorate from the University of Arizona. He's definitely no dummy. Maybe Slashdot could interview him.
he studies meteorites. I wonder what research notes look like:
Observed high proportion of Carbon to Iron in meteor type X.
Question: Why is this so?
Answer: God made it that way.
Next question...
Yeah, but the person who owned the copyrights died about 2 thousand years ago, in a tragic accident involving a cross and some nails. And left no descendants.
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Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
They are clearly high speed, high altitude weather ballons. Now move along, there is nothing to see here. Look at all the pretty pictures of Iraq, and the Presidential race, and sport, American Idol, etc., etc.