Slashdot Mirror


Vatican Says Alien Life Plausible

An anonymous reader writes "According to BBC, the director of the Vatican Observatory stated in an article titled 'Aliens Are My Brother' that intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space. 'The search for forms of extraterrestrial life does not contradict belief in God. — Just as there are multiple forms of life on earth, so there could exist intelligent beings in outer space created by God.' Mind that this is not the same director who said that evolution is more than a mere theory — that was Father Coyne. I myself agree. There might be intelligent beings created by God in outer space even if there are none here on earth."

19 of 775 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Might be life? by JeanPaulBob · · Score: 5, Informative

    Doesn't the Pope have direct communication with god?
    Um... No, actually. Catholics think he is infallible when he speaks "ex cathedra", but not that he has verbal back-and-forth communication with God.
  2. Re:C.S. Lewis came to this conclusion years ago. by genner · · Score: 2, Informative

    No they just said it's possible, and that the religon doesn't collapse at the discovery of fossils on Mars.

  3. Re:astronomer my asshole. by bn0p · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why can't a Catholic priest be an astronomer? A Catholic priest, Father Georges Lemaitre, came up with the Big Bang theory

    --
    Never let reality temper imagination
  4. Re:Catholics by gnick · · Score: 5, Informative

    Considering ... the Pope's alleged Hitler Youth past... What's alleged about it? Germany made participation mandatory and the Pope complied. Does anyone in the church deny that?
    --
    He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  5. Re:C.S. Lewis came to this conclusion years ago. by zulater · · Score: 1, Informative

    Some Protestants may believe this way but there are others that do not.
    Let's think about this a little.
    If there are other created beings in outer space then they must have another way to salvation since they would not be descendants of Adam. Since we are of one blood (Acts 17:26) and Christ was of that one blood when He came to Earth His blood was shed for the descendants of Adam because it's not just blood that covered sins (Hebrews 10:4,11) but Christ's blood (Hebrews 10:10).
    So I take exception because aliens could not be saved by Jesus' blood which is the only way (John 4:16).

  6. Plausible!=not impossible by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 2, Informative

    It takes only the most basic of reading and comprehension skills to understand that nobody was saying that extraterrestrial life was 'plausible'. I guess that's expecting too much around here.

    --
    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
  7. Re:Might be life? by Knuckles · · Score: 4, Informative

    Catholics think he is infallible when he speaks "ex cathedra" To be precise, they "believe" this since the First Vatican Council in 1870.
    --
    "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  8. Re:And who.. by Incredible+Elmo · · Score: 4, Informative

    ..created God? That's a simple one to answer. Humans did :)

    Now where's my prize money?
  9. Salvation through Jesus Christ by gd2shoe · · Score: 2, Informative
    You may take exception if you wish, but they are given the same opportunities as we are. Yes, I realize this is my theology, and not yours.

    22 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!
    23 For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father-
    24 That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.
    D&C 76:22-24
    http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/76/22-24#22

    (Note that there have been a lot of anonymous posts in this thread. I should post anonymous to save my karma, but I wont. Don't mod me down purely out of disagreement. That would be childish. Post instead. I will remain civil.)
    --
    I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
  10. Re:Finaly! by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are two main theories groups that attempt to explain the creation of the Universe and the origin of life and humanity.

    Group 1. Big Bang & Evolution. Essentially this version says, it all just happened, mostly by accident but with the amount of time and mass involved it was inevitable.

    Bzzt, wrong. Group 1 knows the origin of humanity, but doesn't make any strong statements about the origin of life in general, or the origin of the universe. Group 1 merely says that Evolution and the Big Bang obviously happened. Group 1 also says they don't know what happened before that. They can't make any statements about origins, because there isn't any information to work with.

    They keep making speculations about origins (particularly with life, since even though it's hard, it's a lot easier than the universe) but there's no consensus or unity. When scientists talk about origins, they're not a "group" at all, except that they're all saying, "Oh yeah? Show me why you think that" to the one who just advanced the speculation.

    --
    "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
  11. Re:C.S. Lewis came to this conclusion years ago. by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 3, Informative

    Last time I checked CS Lewis is not the head of any protestant church. I'm sure you could find a random catholic who said it even earlier.

  12. Re:Catholics by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2, Informative

    Pope John Paul: http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2HEAVN.HTM

    He didn't use the word "metaphor" but "hell is not a place, it is a state of being" sure sounds to me like the traditional idea of hell as a place where the devil tortures you into eternity is a metaphor.

  13. Re:Finaly! by geekoid · · Score: 5, Informative

    DOn't confuse evolution with the creation of the universe. two different things.
    Evolution has FACTS, falsifiable test, and makes predictions.
    Evolution is a fact, it's been proven. There is not scientific argument against it, only people saying it isn't so and lying about it, and refusing to look at any recent evidence.

    The creation of the universe is another matter; however they go bacl very close to befor the first second with some very good science. What caused the big bang? Don't know.

    neither of these prove or disprove the existence of God, only that the current Biblical interpretation probably isn't literal. Something almost every theologeon will tell you, btw.

    If you look at the hebrew, the word interpreted to 'Day' didn't not mean a 24 hours day.
    So even in the oldest context, Evolution fits fine with the Bible.
    Considering the science is very good, and there are mountains of fact it is obvious that 6 days is not literal as we know a day.

    Yes, the origins of life on the planets is pretty well known. Primordial soup and all that.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  14. Re:Mythbusters by aurispector · · Score: 2, Informative

    You want to fund it? These guys are making a TV SHOW for ENTERTAINMENT.

    --
    I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
  15. Re:But of course...A Serious Reply by ins0m · · Score: 2, Informative

    Oh, that opens up so many questions. I'll do my own take on the Epicurean riddle:

    If a god is omnipotent, then it follows that said god is omniscient. If it thus knows all, then it would come to the quick conclusion that creating natural beings with its morality would relegate itself to obsolescence.

    To wit: If a deity is possessed of nothing but righteousness, then we would already have heaven on earth, as there would be no sin. If, however, we do possess the same ethos and moral constructs, then the very presence of sin removes the ability for a deity to be all-compassionate, and so the promise of a blessed afterlife carries no weight. Or, better yet, the afterlife mythos is wrong, and we all return to the ether and dirt upon death. It's thus logical to ask, in all cases: do we still need a deity?

    If God is all-capable, why create more than one (possibly flawed) copy with different phenotypes expressing the same "immutable spirit"?

    If you're inclined to believing in supernatural origins, then each planet is an ant farm. Nothing more, nothing less.

    --
    Never attribute to Hanlon that which can be adequately attributed to Heinlein.
  16. Re:Finaly! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Theory in a scientific context does not mean the same thing as the term in popular use.

    Evolution is a fact. Read.

  17. It's both by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 4, Informative

    Evolution is fact in the same sense that gravity is fact. We know it happens. There are things we can point to and say "look, evolution".

    Evolutionary Theory also exists ("The Theory of Evolution" is a misnomer as there isn't really one single theory, rather a lot of complementary and sometimes competing theories for parts of what might be considered, in toto, "evolution") also exists in the same sense the Newton's Theory of Gravity and General Relativity exist.

    So yes, a theory exists to explain the facts but that doesn't mean there is no fact.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  18. Re:Mythbusters by 10Ghz · · Score: 2, Informative

    (who happens to also be the Jew's God, Christian's God, and, come right down to it, the Muslim's God)


    I have seen this before.... This strange thing of separating Catholics from Christians. Catholicism is one branch of CHristianity, just like Baptism, Lutheranism, Protestantism etc. is.
    --
    Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  19. There is more to evolution than humans and bones by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 4, Informative

    As I said, there are things you can point to and say "that's evolution" in the same sense that you can point to a falling object and say "that's gravity".

    Things that are seen as it happens, not just digging up a few bones and constructing a theory.

    Those links are just the first two things I found from a quick internet search. However there is an abundance of such observations where evolution can be said to have been observed as a matter of fact.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park