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."

Comments

Re:Church foward thinking

[bugs2squash]

I don't like to see childish attacks on anyone either. But it seems to me that the only reason the church is taking these strides is because it has been attacked on these issues in the past.

Do you imagine that the church would have made these statements without external pressure ?

Hell no, this is simply to inoculate the church against the inevitable progress in tolerance, and discovery and to try and carve out some future relevance.

Seems like the rock of the church is being eroded by the water of enlightenment - and about time too.

Re:doubtful

[illegalcortex]

I don't see how the catholic clergy can just say "yeah alien life doesn't contradict our religeon" without addressing these questiosn. Of course they can. The answer will just be "I don't know" and/or "God works in mysterious ways", same as their answer to numerous other major theological questions.

Re:But of course...A Serious Reply

[clonan]

If god is omnipotent than he(she/it) can appear in any form (say a burning bush).

Therefore god must have created us in the image of the only part of him that doesn't change. His morality, his way of thinking and his personality. We have a dim image of this immutable portion of god.

Therefore aliens COULD look very different but still be created in his image.

The only remaining question is how did they get so many light years from eden?

Re:Impressive move by the Church

[pubjames]

Well, I would prefer it if they made policy changes that actually changed people lives, like dropping their stupid stance on condoms.

Re:Mythbusters

[c6gunner]

Not religious myself, but if you'd have a clue about catholicism you'd know that they argue that god's children are free beings, living to choose and work out their destiny.

They also argue that if you pray for something really really hard, the invisible man in the sky might make it happen. So which is it? Is prayer useless because god never interferes? Or is god an egomaniacal prick, who'll let thousands of people die for no particular reason, but will intervene in human affairs when you ask him real nice like?

Re:Mythbusters

[Knuckles]

You don't understand the catholic mindset :)
The whole point is to believe in it against all odds and, specifically, despite the fact that nothing happens.

I find it weird, too.

OTOH, I can imagine that the mere act of such a submission to a state of mind can have certain desirable effects (and, of course, also undesirable ones). I don't think it's an accident that many other religions propagate a certain way of "giving up".

Re:Mythbusters

[Rycross]

Personally I got tired how all the good things that happened in my life were God's blessings and how all the bad things were just part of some incomprehensible plan. A lot of non-believers like to talk about how religion is popular because it gives people hope, but for me it was a millstone around my neck. Imagine the kind of self-esteem issues one develops after being repeatedly told that you didn't really earn the good things in your life, and that the bad things in your life happened for some reasons beyond your comprehension.

I feel a lot better now that my life is my own to control. And its nice to know that sometimes bad things happen for no reason, and not because I've inexplicably displeased some supreme being.

Sorry, kind of off-topic, but I felt like sharing. The kind of logic you outlined in your post is probably the #1 reason I'm no longer religious. I always find it amusing that so many people view religion as comforting, since it was quite the opposite for me.

Re:Mythbusters

[Rycross]

So you hate the Catholic Church because their God (who happens to also be the Jew's God, Christian's God, and, come right down to it, the Muslim's God), drowned thousands of innocent children in a tsunami. Nevermind that He did NOT drown several billion other children that day.

I'm not sure if you're being serious, because my sarcasm detector is wonky, but are you seriously suggesting that not committing heinous atrocities is an admirable quality in a all-powerful being? That'd be like praising my friend John because, as far as I know, he hasn't killed anyone and dumped their bodies in the river. Or maybe like people who proudly state that they take care of their children, as if not leaving them to die in ditches is some extraordinary praise-worthy quality. Its kind of expected that normal people not do horrible things, much less omniscient, omnipotent beings.

Personally I'd like to describe God in terms other than "Allows thousands of people to die for no reason, but at least he isn't genocidal." Well as long as you ignore several books of the Old Testament.

nitpick

[aepervius]

"So even in the oldest context, Evolution fits fine with the Bible." which would somehow say that the bible is the mass to measure everything on it.

So it should read "the bible stories can be made fit with evolution (which we know to be a very successful theory at explaining all life today as we know it)". It is not that evolution fits, it is that the bible is interpreted in the light of evolution.