Posted on 05/15/2008 9:28:28 AM PDT by Dazed_Catt
Writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space...........
I'm Catholic by the way.
They could. But we’ll likley never know it.
Is the Pope valid on another planet?
“intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space”
They have to exist . . . . there are far too few of them on this planet
Are not angels (and demons) intelligent beings created by God?
Does not the Bible (OT) refer to the “sons” of God and mention a time when “sons” of God came earth and intermarried with humans, creating a dreadful mix?
They could exist. It’s been quite a while since anybody has denied that possibility. However there is absence of proof one way or the other.
more like centuries ago they got smart about this and realized that they would allow science to be science and religion to be religion.
my Catholic HS biology class in the early 1960's, taught by a Marist Brother, taught me all about evolution and my religious instruction taught me that God works in mysterious ways...and if God decided to create man through evolution it was not our job to question it, but rather learn as much of the truth as possible by scientific research.
“I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords.”
Anchorman Kent Brockman
The Vatican has hosted some science symposia. There was a neuroscience conference 30-40 years ago there, with the Pope himself in attendance. Lively interest indeed.
Oh, great...have the MIB been consulting with Rome? What are we being prepared for?
I’m very surprised that Vatican admited the alien’s existence,after all they had insisted their fixed dogma for many centuries
Why not. There is a lot of space out there and an Eternal God was probably doing something before getting around to creating Earth.
Ouch...poor taste. I would have posted a picture of a Timelord in their huge hats...at least that would have been respectful.
As the old saying goes, where there's water, there's life. The other saying is where there's ice, there's cold beer.
Checkout this very cool video on the landing sequence for the probe. From 12,000 mph to a soft landing in 7 minutes.
If we can do this space stuff... why not others. Look how far humans have come. We can send a probe to Mars in about 9 months. 200 years ago it took 2 to 3 months to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
They did not. They allowed the possibility. It's only logical.
Unless I'm mistaken, you're quoting Genesis. It seem likely that by sons of God, the Bible meant the Sethites, the offspring of the third son of Adam and Eve. The sons of men would be referred to as descendants of Cain and other (non-Godly) humans.
There are other Biblical references to “sons of God”. Including in books not now included in the Bible.
Ther are accounts that say or infer the “sons of God” were angels who fell from favor after seeing and being attracted to mingle with humans after humans began to populate the earth. There are accounts that this polluted mixed breed people were the target of Noah’s flood that wiped out mankind so it could beginb again.
A race of “giants” descended from earth and no-earth beings is an almost universal theme in many many cultures. Josephus the 1st century CE historian discusses the fallen angels - I believe Aristotle did also. So there are various philosophical and theological interpretations and debates.
Here is one overview I thought was interesting
http://users.aristotle.net/~bhuie/gen6sons.htm
Is there such a thing as an unfixed dogma?
Interesting read, thanks for the material.
Another botched reporting job by the British MSM. First of all, “the Vatican” didn’t say anything. One person, writing an article in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, said something about aliens as his personal opinion. And, contrary to the take of some folks on this forum, he did not say that aliens exist. He said that they “could” exist. Big difference. This only makes sense, since we have no way of knowing one way or the other from direct experience, and Scripture says nothing about the issue either way. Further, a number of people posting here seem to be convinced that this topples pre-existing Catholic “dogma.” It does no such thing. it has never been dogma that life could not exist on other planets, though there are many good reasons to suppose that intelligent life is - at best - quite rare. Indeed, despite our own best efforts at tearing down the argument, earth might be unique in its status as harboring “intelligent” life. Who knows? In any event, the vapid, shallow, breathless reporting of the BBC here reflects the extreme naivete exhibited by the vast majority of residents of modern “Christendom” in a decidedly post-Christian age.
Granted that L’Osservatore Romano is the Vatican’s newspaper, it still does not follow that everything in it reflects “official” teaching or policy. It is printed in similar timeframes, and with similar oversight procedures, as any other newspaper. And, unless an official dogmatic proclamation is reproduced in it with its intent made quite clear (happening only once in the paper’s history, with the proclamation of the Mary’s Assumption as a dogma in 1950), “dogma” does not make its first appearance on its pages.
Another question,whether they think the aliens were created by god?
BTW,I’m an antitheist
Then why do you care?
If they were sons of God, and born here on earth, wouldn’t they really just be long lost cousins, as opposed to alien life forms?
My dogs ma was unfixed...
This isn’t really new, Augustine theorized the same a long time ago.
The big question is about Salvation and the soul. Specifically, is there another race out there that is fallen and in need of a Savior? How did/does God reveal Himself to them?
C.S. Lewis had a nice series about such things.
Exactly who or what the “sons of god” and the nephilim where is something that has been debated for a long time. The reason that Augustine said that the Sons of God were from the line of Seth was that if an angel could make a woman pregnant, then some would say that Jesus was from such a thing. And there were some cults of the time that said exactly that (as do some today).
There was no real consensus on what they were, though many in the early Church and in the Hebrew tradition did say that they were fallen angels (at least in the Hellenistic period). But some of that was influenced from other neighboring cultures.
a karma ran over my dogma
>> Are not angels (and demons) intelligent beings created by God? <<
No. Not in the way you’re thinking. Angels and demons are not corporal entities; they do not exist in space. They are neither in outer space nor local. They cannot affect matter.
>> Are not angels (and demons) intelligent beings created by God? <<
No. Not in the way you’re thinking. Angels and demons are not corporal entities; they do not exist in space. They are neither in outer space nor local. They cannot affect matter.
I’m thinking the aliens from the Martian Chronicles had papal-esque headwear.
Yeah: this is the headgear from the Martian Chronicles... Not gonna get confused with the Pope’s hat anytime soon, but vaguely reminiscent.
There is nothing in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which even addresses the issue. It is a subject on which the Church has never pronounced and hence there is no dogma to say that extraterrestrial life is definitely nonexistent. Just as there is no Church teaching as to whether or not Sasquatch lives in the state of Washington.
Is it likely? Now that is another question entirely.
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