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?
Telegraph (thanks, KirstyJ)
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Okay, I know it’s been said A LOT, but the Pope looks EXACTLY like Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars!!!
I mean, what were they thinking?!!?
At least the last Pope looked like someone you could enjoy a cup of tea with…
When u say about God making us in his image you presume that Christians (particularly roman Catholics) take this literally. This however is not the case.
Modern catholic thinking sees the Bible’s wording as mostly metaphorical and so this does not mean that God looks like us in a physical sense, it means that he gave us god-like qualities and abilities such as the use of reason [that he also posesses] in everyday life.
Just when I thought the Church couldn’t get any more ridiculous….it turns into the most ridiculous church that already exists *eyeroll*
Brilliant, some bloke in ridiculous robes tries telling super-intelligent being that they don’t realise that a non-existent character created them.
That’ll make the entire human race look good won’t it.
OR
will they try to hide the truth cos it doesn’t fit their beliefs like they’ve done with the Dead Sea scrolls?
Ha, I reckon they have their own three-eyed version of Jesus
I can’t say I’m surprised. I always thought Pope Benedict looked like a colour-inversed Darth Sidius. It was only a matter of time before Aliens were on the agenda. Just waiting for a potential lightsaber joke.
Ofcourse religion will and does over time as well .. their insights .. the interpretations. A bit slow .. that for sure. There’s nothing wrong with them getting into alien life as well I’d say. Science changes over time as well .. it does in fact do nothing else .. Only dead things wont.
We might be the aliens .. or part of us ..
Oh, I read the other day that the founder of the Scientology Church had this theory that we are not in charge but being under control, or should be under control of those aliens inside of us … Ehehe … it’s kinda weird that such thoughts lead to such movement … Who doesn’t have those thoughts from time to time .. without attaching more to it than thinking about things. If you are in tune with your own alien .. then you don’t need to change anything .. ehehe .. get acquinted I’d say .. the perfect match you might be looking for out there .. might be in side of you all the time already … Let’s play together on the inside .. unite our forces ..
Just a matter of looking upon things .. it’s all in the eye of the beholder of the brain ..
Or the most likely question: would religion even be a concept to alien life? Answer: no.
In the fictional world, God saved us from the Martians in the original versions of the War of the Worlds. (Not sure about the Tom Cruise version, I couldn’t watch it!)
Not directly but somethiing like because ‘in his wisdom, the smallest bacteria that the Lord saw fit to put on this world destroyed the Martians, who had no immunity to them’.
So maybe our Lord has been thinking ahead for when and if hostile fellows do arrive from another planet….
It’s no good y’know… they’ll never find me, hahaha
Personally, I wouldn’t be tickling that one on the chin, has he not seen the movies?
I didn’t think it’s what’s on the outside that’s supposed to be in the image of the absolute anyway, it is what’s contained within.
To bring back up a saying that I used to have as a sign-off:
Computer science is no more about computers than astrology is about the Universe.
I know… I appear to talk poop most of the time
@ Nopke:
You’re interesting to me. I’ve noticed most of your posts (does that sound ‘freaky’? haha).
Pax, amor et concordia.
x
So does that mean the Church will admit Jesus was an alien beamed aboard the mother ship?
Aliens believe in an universial god.
Remember “the hiest”?
What if the aliens, instead of meeting the US President or the Pope, sent everbody a video message saying that they(the aliens) thought you were the true messiah.
Imagine tens of millions of people walking around thinking they are the “the chosen one”. Hahaha
Of course, we all have the power to create and destroy, so we are all Gods.
Don’t they mean the search for intelligent life? It seems to have vanished in the church.
@ Anthony:
To be honest, if aliens sent me a video message telling me I was “the chosen one” I would probably do 5 things:
1) Question their sanity.
2) Question their motives.
3) Question my own sanity (Admittedly, this is a daily occurance with me anyway).
4) Enquire as to if they were sure they had the right ‘Mr Woolf’.
5) Deny it (possibly followed by hiding under a table with a saucepan on my head, that’s bound to work).
Mind you, the same thing would probably apply to anyone telling me that I was anything ‘special’.
You’d have to admire the alien’s direct approach though, wouldn’t you?
Rather than using some sort of Brownesque techniques of ‘under the radar’ style signals and signs.
That approach could potentially really mess someone up.
Pax, amor et concordia.
x
Oh and I just realised my old sign off used to be:
Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy* is about the Universe.
Not astrology… I’m always getting those two confused.
People who believe in one non-existant thing might easily belive in another non-existant thing.
Is it too much to hope they might beam Ratzinger up and fit him with an anal probe? All I ask is that the aliens don’t return him.
On second thoughts that would just be taken as proof of the rapture and we’d never hear the end of it.
If you wish to find strange, bug-eyed creatures, who speak in a bizarre language, believe they are supremely intelligent beings, and who have a desire to conquer, look no further than the Vatican itself.
John it is very reasonable to assume there are other planets with life on then so the hypothesis that other intelligent lifeforms exist on other planets in the universe is also well within the bounds of reason, some scientists would say a probability more than possibility, though many scientists don’t like to comment on the subject as religious leaders tend to point it out to people so they don’t look so silly
Nice picture by the way, does anyone else find Pope Ratzinger to look extremely evil in every picture ever?
everyone knows that those aliens are all godless heathens!