God could have created aliens too: Vatican

[DougalLongfoot]

The search for extraterrestrial life does not contradict belief in God, the pope's chief astronomer said on Tuesday, adding that some aliens might even be innocent of the original sin.

"As an astronomer I continue to believe that God is the creator of the universe," Jose Gabriel Funes said in an interview with the Vatican mouthpiece, the Osservatore Romano.

Even if "we don't currently have any proof ... the hypothesis" of extraterrestrial life cannot be ruled out, said Mr Funes, a Jesuit priest who directs the Vatican's observatory at Castel Gandolfo, near Rome.

"Just as there are a plethora of creatures on Earth, there could be others, equally intelligent, created by God," he said.

Original sin, which by Christian tradition occurred in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of a particular tree, refers to the fallen state from which humans can be saved only by God's grace.

Asked about the difficult theological question, Mr Funes said: "If other intelligent beings exist, it's not certain that they need redemption."

They could "have remained in full friendship with their creator" without committing the original sin, he said.

If not, extraterrestrials would benefit equally from the "incarnation," in which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, assumed earthlings' flesh, body and soul in order to redeem them, which Mr Funes called "a unique event that cannot be repeated".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/14/2244056.htm

 

[Timble2]

I thought that this had been the official Vatican line for years. It’s certainly not new.

 

[Anonymous]

I think the Vatican is covering all its bases there. So if and when the aliens turn up the Vatican can step in and say "oh look at Gods wonderful creation!!" Yeah, theres nothing that a religious organisation wont do to ensure its survival....

 

[Mythopoeika]

Nick Pope is not good enough, now we have the Pope getting involved...

 

[forteanflight]

Doesn't one of the main religions (can't recall which) refer to god as "lord of all the worlds"?

 

[millomite]

Born Again Christians they do not believe there is life anywhere else in the Universe but Earth. Their logic being that the Bible does not mention it - unless you know better..........

 

[Zilch5]

Their logic being that the Bible does not mention it - unless you know better..........

Well - going by that theory, there shouldn't be any intelligent life in the UK, or the USA or Australia for that matter either.

Then again, I do wonder if man does not constantly overestimate his intellectual achievements...

 

[Kondoru]

Budhism, Hinduism and Islam all state catagoricaly there are more than one world and more than one type of people.

xtianity, however, has always stated no, even to the extent that human life was not possible in the southern hemisphere

 

[eburacum]

Giordano Bruno believed in a multiplicity of worlds and solar systems, and was burned at the stake for that, among many other, heretical beliefs.

 

[Anome]

Giordano Bruno believed in a multiplicity of worlds and solar systems, and was burned at the stake for that, among many other, heretical beliefs.

It's important to remember the other heretical beliefs he was killed for. All in all, the multitude of worlds (and heliocentrism) were minor parts of his heresy.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

I thought that this had been the official Vatican line for years. It’s certainly not new.

Exactly. This is the view I encountered in Roman Catholic grade school 55 years ago.

 

[PeniG]

...belief in inhabited extrasolar worlds is not really new. The idea was not, as is commonly believed, invented by science fiction wriers. On the contrary, it was accepted by the majority of educated people from the late seventeenth century until the early twentieth century. Scientists, philosophers, clergymen and poets wrote a great deal about it. When in the 1850's the head of a well-known college wrote a book suggesting that there might not be other inhabited wrolds, he published it anonymously because he felt it might damage his reputation -- and indeed, most of the book's many reviews were disapproving. A prominent university's magazine declared that plurality of worlds was a subject on which "until now it was supposed that there was scarecely room for a second opinion."

It is often said that learning that the earth moves aroud the sun lessened man's feeling of central importance. Many historians, however, feel that the relation between the earth and the sun was not the real issue. More upsetting was the discovery that there are other suns, and therefore, perhaps, other earths - innumerable earths, all of equal importance in the universe. Yet though this was a blow to human pride, before long people began to look upon the existence of countless worlds as proof of God's power and glory. Not everyone agreed with that idea, but by the nineteenth century most religious leaders favored the view that God had probably created inhabitants for many worlds besides this one.

Sylvia Louise Engdahl, Foreword to The Planet-Girded Suns: Man's View of Other Solar Systems, Atheneum, 1974. Engdahl was a Christian science fiction writer whose best-known work is Enchantress from the Stars. This book, however, is a non-fiction exploration of the history of the idea of extraterrestrial life and intelligence, with excerpts from rare primary sources - religious, scientific, poetic.

Outside of the core belief in Jesus of Nazareth as spiritual scapegoat for mankind, it's never wise to state "what Christians believe" or don't believe. My own experience has been that Christians who reject other aspects of science in their lives, including fundamentalists, enthusiastically embrace space exploration, and that Christian writers - like Engdahl and C.S. Lewis - produce a lot of space opera. Nor do I find books with space exploration themes on the lists of most-challenged books (which, though not the exclusive province of Christian fundamentalists, feature their concerns prominently).

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Born Again Christians they do not believe there is life anywhere else in the Universe but Earth. Their logic being that the Bible does not mention it - unless you know better..........

First, all Christians are "Born Again." That's the basic definition of Christianity.

Second, there is no corporate Christian view on life in outer space. Most Christians accept the possibility, while others (a minority) entirely reject the idea.

P. S. The Bible doesn't mention raccoons either.

 

[rynner2]

What? Racoons don't exist? :shock:

Anyhow, I still want to know who created God.... 8)

 

[Analogue Boy]

Does this mean a reclassification of Angels?