The Vatican joins the search for alien life
J
The Vatican joins the search for alien life
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding a conference on astrobiology,
the study of life beyond Earth, with scientists and religious leaders
gathering in Rome this week.
For centuries, theologians have argued over what the existence of life
elsewhere in the universe would mean for the Church: at least since Giordano
Bruno, an Italian monk, was put to death by the Inquisition in 1600 for
claiming that other worlds exist.
Among other things, extremely alien-looking aliens would be hard to fit with
the idea that God "made man in his own image".
Furthermore, Jesus Christ's role as saviour would be confused: would other
worlds have their own, tentacled Christ-figures, or would Earth's Christ be
universal?
However, just as the Church eventually made accommodations after Copernicus
and Galileo showed that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, and
when it belatedly accepted the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution,
Catholic leaders say that alien life can be aligned with the Bible's
teachings.
Father Jose Funes, a Jesuit astronomer at the Vatican Observatory and one of
the organisers of the conference, said: "As a multiplicity of creatures
exists on Earth, so there could be other beings, also intelligent, created
by God.
"This does not conflict with our faith, because we cannot put limits on the
creative freedom of God."
Not everyone agrees. Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist and author of The
Goldilocks Enigma, told The Washington Post that the threat to Christianity
is "being downplayed" by Church leaders. He said: "I think the discovery of
a second genesis would be of enormous spiritual significance.
"The real threat would come from the discovery of extraterrestrial
intelligence, because if there are beings elsewhere in the universe, then
Christians, they're in this horrible bind.
"They believe that God became incarnate in the form of Jesus Christ in order
to save humankind, not dolphins or chimpanzees or little green men on other
planets."
The Academy conference will include presentations from scientists - by no
means all of them Christians - on the discovery of planets outside our solar
system, the geological record of early life on Earth, how life might have
started on Earth, and whether "alien" life of a different biochemistry to
our own might exist here without our knowing, among many other things.
--
J Young
Jvis...@live.com
JTEM
"J" <Jvisi...@live.com> wrote:
> Not everyone agrees. Paul Davies, a theoretical physicist
> and author of The Goldilocks Enigma, told The Washington
> Post that the threat to Christianity is "being downplayed"
> by Church leaders. He said: "I think the discovery of
> a second genesis would be of enormous spiritual significance.
It wasn't before.
In the past, it was popularly believed that anything that could
be created was created -- including other planets with life. The
one drawback was that they also believed in a divine "pecking
order," one where all life in the universe was either one closer
to God, or one further way, then the next life form.
Such an idea would require that intelligent life found elsewhere
would have to be either "spiritually inferior" or "Spiritually
Superior" to man, with advanced technology being a sign of
superiority...
More recently we had "The Canals of Mars," which were widely
believed to be "Proof" of a super intelligent race living on Mars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_canal
> "The real threat would come from the discovery of extraterrestrial
> intelligence, because if there are beings elsewhere in the universe,
> then Christians, they're in this horrible bind.
Bullshit. Fundies? Sure, but not "Christians."
Whether they call themselves Christians, Muslims, Jews or something
else, it is the Fundies who are the problem.
Honest truth
> For centuries, theologians have argued over what the existence of life
> elsewhere in the universe would mean for the Church: at least since Giordano
> Bruno, an Italian monk, was put to death by the Inquisition in 1600 for
> claiming that other worlds exist.
A myth as he probably did not burn for this.
--
嚙踝蕭Of all the extreme fanaticism which plays havoc in man嚙踝蕭s nature, there is
not one as irrational as anti-Semitism. 嚙皺 If the Jews are rich [these
fanatics] are victims of theft. If they are poor, they are victims of
ridicule. If they take sides in a war, it is because they wish to take
advantage from the spilling of non-Jewish blood. If they espouse peace, it
is because they are scared by their natures or traitors. If the Jew dwells
in a foreign land he is persecuted and expelled. If he wishes to return to
his own land, he is prevented from doing so.嚙踝蕭
Lloyd George
gabriel
wrote:
: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/6536400/The-Vatican-joins-the-search-for-alien-life.html
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: The Vatican joins the search for alien life
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: The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding a conference on astrobiology,
: the study of life beyond Earth, with scientists and religious leaders
: gathering in Rome this week.
:
: For centuries, theologians have argued over what the existence of life
: elsewhere in the universe would mean for the Church: at least since Giordano
: Bruno, an Italian monk, was put to death by the Inquisition in 1600 for
: claiming that other worlds exist.
:
: Among other things, extremely alien-looking aliens would be hard to fit with
: the idea that God "made man in his own image".
:
: Furthermore, Jesus Christ's role as saviour would be confused: would other
: worlds have their own, tentacled Christ-figures, or would Earth's Christ be
: universal?
:
: However, just as the Church eventually made accommodations after Copernicus
: and Galileo showed that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, and
: when it belatedly accepted the truth of Darwin's theory of evolution,
A loaded statement. Darwin's theory of evolution is not "truth,"
and furthermore does not even qualify as science:
The fish to man version of evolution (evolutionism for short -
the belief that populations of fish produced, over generations,
hippos, giraffes, eagles and human beings) is not science.
Intelligent design is also not science. Neither is any other
origins theory. Why? Because none of them are observable or
testable/verifiable.
Evolutionists will make claims about the fossil record supporting
evolution. No, it's only their BELIEFS of what those fossils and
dead bones means to them (and what they want it to mean to
everyone else) that "supports" evolution. The beliefs themselves
remain unobservable and un-testable/un-verifiable!
Evolutionists will claim that their beliefs lead to predictions
as proof it's science. So using that new definition of science
(that any prediction made by a belief automatically qualifies
said belief as science), creation by God qualifies as science as
it leads to more accurate predictions as seen in homology, DNA
similarity, the Cambrian Explosion, DNA being meaningfully
encoded information and the ability for it to be meaningfully
decoded and acted upon, and more. But of course evolutionists
will then return to the actual truth of what science really is
and refute that notion with "Show a single observation or
test/verification of God creating anything." Bingo.
The observable, testable and verifiable truth that populations of
[flies] only ever produce, over generations, more [flies] even if
they are in rare cases a slightly different species of [flies]
(but still [flies]!), which we call Speciation, remains intact
and is a far cry from what evolutionists believe: that
populations of [flies] will produce, over generations, animals
that are clearly no longer [flies] at all! (Same holds true no
matter what animal you replace with [flies] in the previous
sentence). Much like hippos, giraffes, eagles and human beings
are clearly no longer fish at all, even though they believe all
of those things and most everything else evolved from populations
of fish and worse over generations once upon a time.
But in the end, although no origin scientific claim really can
qualify as science (and it's either ignorance or outright
dishonesty to claim it is), it's logically undeniable we were
created. Just like a building is proof of a builder, more so if
it's a building that's so advanced in its design it can adapt to
its environment, remove dirt particles on a continuous basis, and
even produce more buildings just like itself over time. Not to
mention computer and computer programs are proof of a designer -
just like DNA, which is encoded instructions and the ability for
those instructions to be meaningfully decoded and acted upon in
near miraculous ways. The only faith part: was it the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the heavenly Father of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ? Or was it aliens? From a faith standpoint
on either choice, the choice is obvious.
: Catholic leaders say that alien life can be aligned with the Bible's
: teachings.
Not everyone that claims to be following God really is. So
Catholic leaders (that hide child-abusing priests, more proof
they are not really following God) hold very little weight in any
of their opinions.
:
: Father Jose Funes, a Jesuit astronomer at the Vatican Observatory and one of