Mars needs Catholics

// added November 14, 2009 // 35 comments //
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http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Vatican_looks_for_alien_lif...

The Vatican has hosted a conference to study the possibility of alien life in the universe and its implication for the Catholic Church.

The study was part of events marking the UN-designated International Year of Astronomy.

The Rev Jose Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, said "the questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration".

He presented the results of a five-day conference that gathered astronomers, physicists, biologists and other experts to discuss the budding field of astrobiology - the study of the origin of life and its existence elsewhere in the cosmos.

Funes said the possibility of alien life raises "many philosophical and theological implications" but added that the gathering was mainly focused on the scientific perspective and how different disciplines can be used to explore the issue.

Chris Impey, an astronomy professor at the University of Arizona, said it was appropriate that the Vatican would host such a meeting.

"Both science and religion posit life as a special outcome of a vast and mostly inhospitable universe," he said.

"There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe."

Thirty scientists, including non-Catholics, from the US, France, Britain, Switzerland, Italy and Chile attended the conference, called to explore among other issues "whether sentient life forms exist on other worlds."

This is not the first time the Vatican has explored the issue of extraterrestrials. In 2005, its observatory brought together top researchers in the field for similar discussions.

In the interview last year, Funes told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that believing the universe may host aliens, even intelligent ones, does not contradict a faith in God.

He said: "How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere.

"Just as there is a multitude of creatures on Earth, there could be other beings, even intelligent ones, created by God. This does not contradict our faith, because we cannot put limits on God's creative freedom."

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Vatican_looks_for_alien_life&in_ar...
  1. groups:
    News,   Culture,   Space
  2. tags:
    God,  Catholic,  Aliens,  Vatican,  1 more

35 comments // Mars needs Catholics

  • CreatioExNihil
  • ankab
    • 0
      ankab  

    • So Gene Rodenberry , may he rest in heaven, sold us a bill of lies. We will never have a Mr Spock kind of character who can communicate with aliens without talking English or Swahili to them. Catholicks do quite of bit of work in Italian or Spanish. English isn't really a requirement. the above msg is for calm_incense

    • 3 months ago
  • ankab
    • 0
      ankab  

    • Ninja_Koala you wont be mistaken for a religious tolerant....
      Person from Virginia........No one needs a whaler or a marshal arts course but they still have them......ouch on you..........

    • 3 months ago
  • arikata
  • FlexSF
    • 0
      FlexSF  

    • "In the interview last year, Funes told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that believing the universe may host aliens, even intelligent ones, does not contradict a faith in God."

      I am so disgusted with these arrogant bible thumping lunatics. Even is it were a contradiction to their faith in "god" the rest of the sane world doesn't need to stop progress because of the arbitrary, power hungry, fears of managers in the world's largest money laundering corporation, the Catholic Church.

      What if the aliens want to build relationships with humans? Will the crazy bible thumpers going to do about it, stand with guns and police everyone? Screw them!

    • 3 months ago
  • Westnewport
    • 0
      Westnewport  

    • I want to know why we continue to call humans "intelligent life forms"... we are the dumbest species on the planet if you ask me... well we are certainly the most selfish. Certainly somewhere, in the vast universe, God has a better plan.

    • 3 months ago
  • Hunnter
  • calm_incense
    • 0
      calm_incense  
    • Westnewport:

      Intelligence and wisdom are two different things. The reason we have so greatly taken advantage of the earth's resources is because of our CAPABILITY, not just our desire. A lion who tears open a gazelle while it's still squirming or a chimpanzee who rips the skin off a small monkey while it howls in pain are being quite selfish as well, no?

      If you want to believe that you're dumber than a cow, then go right ahead. But until that cow can calculate partial derivatives or apply microeconomic theory, I'll refrain from making similar judgment.

    • 3 months ago
  • Bood
    • 0
      Bood  
    • Westnewport:

      I was going to post something similar to what the above poster stated. We are the most intelligent creatures because we have the ability to reason and communicate in ways that other animals cannot.

    • 3 months ago
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  

    • the bible re-write offers possibilities;

      a reading from mark: stardate 3456.7
      blessed are the uranus that does not lay larva in missionaries.

    • 3 months ago
  • eden49
  • calm_incense
    • 0
      calm_incense  

    • I'm always amused by the fact that people ALWAYS seem to assume that if there ARE aliens out there, they'll be bipedal intelligent beings just like us. Who's to say the "aliens" out there aren't like rabbits? Or birds? Or fish? Good luck trying to convert those into Catholicism. Even more annoying is hearing people fantasize about aliens taking over earth or whatever. Out of the MILLIONS of species on planet earth, only ONE of them is a highly intelligent life form capable of advanced communication and complex thought (Internet aside, that's us - humans). If we're expecting to find just ONE "species" of aliens on some distant planet, why on earth (pun regretted) would they be an equivalent to us? It's much more likely that they'd resemble insects, if ANY earth-originated species at ALL. And hell, maybe these "alien life forms" will turn out to be more like algae than anything else. I realize it's more "exciting" to imagine they'd be a comparable counter to the human race, but realize that's extremely childish, naive thinking.

      And no, even if they did speak a language, it likely wouldn't be intelligible to humans, so forget about religious conversion or "befriending" them.

    • 3 months ago
  • kewal91
  • calm_incense
  • chinese_democracy
  • calm_incense
    • 0
      calm_incense  
    • calm_incense:

      I was just about to thank you for your previous post. I'm sure having two similar comments here to reinforce common sense won't do too much harm.

      I'm not one to "hate" on Hollywood, but it's sad that people can only think in terms of blockbuster films and other sensationalistic media when they consider the possibility of non-earth life forms. Life is generally quite boring, and this romanticized alien fantasizing is nothing more than delusional escapism.

    • 3 months ago
  • dalistuff
  • kewal91
  • Ninja_Koala
  • trut
  • ankab
  • sunspot01
  • asherp
  • zacmalinowski
    • 0
      zacmalinowski  

    • I see life on other planets as being much the same as it would here on Earth. In the scope of climate and environmental conditions possible in the universe, and the lack of life on planets which have even a slightly different atmosphere than ours, wouldn't life follow the same basic developmental stages as it has on Earth and create a similar life-form? If we're lucky, maybe we can find a planet harboring life still in a period like the Cretaceous or something. Odds are there is another planet somewhere out there in the universe of the same age, orbiting it's own sun at a comparable distance, with carbon-based beings walking it. Who are silver.

    • 3 months ago
  • chinese_democracy
    • 0
      chinese_democracy  
    • zacmalinowski:

      "wouldn't life follow the same basic developmental stages as it has on Earth and create a similar life-form?"

      I don't think so. If the "goldilocks zone" produced the same developmental standards for all species then we wouldn't be celebrating the diversity of life on our very own planet. If there is life on another planet (intelligent or not) they are almost guaranteed not to resemble us any more than animals here on earth (except the ones in our own classification of course they don't count).

    • 3 months ago
  • Hunnter
    • 0
      Hunnter  
    • zacmalinowski:

      Not really. One of the huge factors of evolution is the environment. There are more potential variations of landscapes than there is atoms in the universe, each giving rise to huge changes over those millions of years.

      Not just that, how the planet was formed would make the most differences.
      The planet could be high in oxygen from the start, or high in methane or various other elements. Even slight differences will make a huge difference.

      But it will be most likely that life will settle around DNA, or perhaps a similar construct (since we have made stable artificial strands with other elements as well)

    • 3 months ago
  • ryan8566
  • eden49
  • FlexSF
  • trut
    • 0
      trut  
    • eden49:

      It may be that the Catholic churches acceptance of pedophilia makes eden`s comment insightful. The Catholic church has been stealing, killing and raping in the name of jesus for quite a while if you haven`t noticed and their method involves indoctrinating new cultures and peoples as soon as they are discovered.

    • 3 months ago
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  
    • eden49:

      as a victim of this crime, i'm glad the subject isn't swept under the rug. i would like to mention it myself every chance i got but that would just be annoying and i don't want to spend too much time in victimhood.

      rome has behaved this way long before christ. rome will exploit whatever it can and any alien advantage they find, will be incorporated.

    • 3 months ago
  • eden49
    • 0
      eden49  
    • eden49:

      I'm a crazy pevert...I suppose I could flag you here, but I won't. I'm the farthest thing from that as could be imagined. I'm a 60 yr old woman, who abhorrs the mentality of the Catholic Chuch who constantly sweep this issue under the table. I worked for the police force down under regarding apprehension of child molesters, and wherever it pops up, albeit, not subjective here, but if the Catholic Chuch want to hold these ridiculous forums on rubbish, they need to look at what's happening on Earth, first. Sorry, you think I'm such an awful person, but you know me not. Peace, Eden...

    • 3 months ago
  • pukemnukem
    • 0
      pukemnukem  
    • eden49:

      How is the forum rubbish? This is no different than the forums they have had on evolution, genetic engineering, or any other science issue that the Church takes a stand on.

      I agree with you that the Church's handling of the child abuse crisis,the result of systematic failures, was absolutely wrong. That does not change the fact that the Church must move forward and meet the needs of its participants.

    • 3 months ago
  • eden49
    • 0
      eden49  
    • eden49:

      ...yes, I agree, we as HUMANS, need to move on...but, you have to clean up your own backyard first, before venturing into someone or something elses' ???...

    • 3 months ago
  • ryan8566
  • plusaf
  • RojoGatto

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