Today while browsing through Digg, I found this curious article written by By ARIEL DAVID for the Associated Press
VATICAN CITY - Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.
“How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?” Funes said. “Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ’sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation.”
In the interview by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion “doesn’t contradict our faith” because aliens would still be God’s creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom, he said.
The interview, headlined “The extraterrestrial is my brother,” covered a variety of topics including the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and science, and the theological implications of the existence of alien life.
To read the rest of the article, please go here.
8 Responses to “Vatican: It’s OK to believe in aliens”
Comment Page 1 of 11
God never ceases to amaze us, so why should we ever limit our belief in his capabilities to earthly matters ;) ? You have probably heard of the cave drawings dating back to way before JC, which depict men with something like a goldfish bowl over their heads, rather like those which astronauts wear today……were they aliens and did God create them too…..why not?
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Look at the pic: what a nice firewall!
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Anlao, If we spent more time believing rather than trying to scientifically prove everything, we would ALL be happier.
Love to you, Paul
PS: Movies, are very powerful & manipulative, and those who make movies should understand just how much responsibility they carry when making a film. For example, about kids shooting colleagues and professors in a school. Where do you think they get the ideas from?
Man is such an egoist, why on earth should aliens not exist, and why should they look at all like us?
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Well, of course they have to say it, didn’t we already find unicellular life forms on Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons)? To me, that was one of the most important discoveries of the century.
It’s not a matter of believing or not, it’s a matter of scientifical evidence. The fact that these “aliens” are not as we imagine or see in the movies, does not make them any less important.
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It’s a positive and natural thing that believes, points of view change. Life changes, we’re changing. What was happening during medieval times etc..is no longer happening, everything become clearer, better, step by step. And it doesn’t matter what it concerns; if we could only as a human beings be brave enough to admit to our mistakes, our wrong doing, our hurtful behavior, and change, life would be less painful and more beautiful.
love
Agnieszka
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The Vatican astromer, Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, sounds like a very interesting man. I am surprise the Vatican would make a statement regarding the existense of extraterrestrials. It’s a tricky topic to talk about for anyone. It’s true though about “Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom”.
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I like very much this notice. I believe in God, I believe in the human and I believed in extraterrestre´s life because the Universe is very great and I think that don´t to be alone.
I like very much Vatican´s pronunciation, is very good they tolk about that.
Thank you Paulo because you sharing this notice with us, I like very much.
Kises for you, many kises.
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God never ceases to amaze us, so why should we ever limit our belief in his capabilities to earthly matters ;) ? You have probably heard of the cave drawings dating back to way before JC, which depict men with something like a goldfish bowl over their heads, rather like those which astronauts wear today……were they aliens and did God create them too…..why not?
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