Aliens? - Vatican's Answer

[MC]

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.

Funes said science, especially astronomy, does not contradict religion, touching on a theme of Pope Benedict XVI, who has made exploring the relationship between faith and reason a key aspect of his papacy.

The Bible "is not a science book," Funes said, adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most "reasonable" explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter.

But he said he continues to believe that "God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the result of chance."

Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave behind divisions caused by Galileo's persecution 400 years ago, saying the incident has "caused wounds."

In 1633 the astronomer was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

"The church has somehow recognized its mistakes," he said. "Maybe it could have done it better, but now it's time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration."

Pope John Paul declared in 1992 that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

The Vatican Observatory has been at the forefront of efforts to bridge the gap between religion and science. Its scientist-clerics have generated top-notch research and its meteorite collection is considered one of the world's best.

The observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, is based in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town in the hills outside Rome where the pope has a summer residence. It also conducts research at an observatory at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080513/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_aliens;_ylt=Atk.pxvZnk1NOQzrbloRAJSs0NUE

 

[Zeonix]

The pope obviously befriended the Greys and is trying to soften us up for the eventual invasion, which will happen under friendly pretenses.

 

[sub]

Oh God. I can picture us finding advanced alien civilizations and the church attempting to spread to them the word of christ.

 

[Zeonix]

Like I said, the J-man was an alien. This was and has always been part of "their" plan.

Flying, burning chariots in the sky my ass.......goddamn aliens.

 

[Hibiki]

Eventually religion will realize that science is about how and not why.

 

[Adaptus]

Hm, interesting.

Guess it could make sense from the Church's point of view.

 

[Brim]

Not sure how related this is, but apparently the British are releasing their UFO related documents Mexico style. With NASA making an announcement and two separate large political forces talking about aliens...has it come?

LONDON (AP) -- The men were air traffic controllers. Experienced, calm professionals. Nobody was drinking. But they were so worried about losing their jobs that they demanded their names be kept off the official report.

No one, they knew, would believe their claim an unidentified flying object landed at the airport they were overseeing in the east of England, touched down briefly, then took off again at tremendous speed. Yet that's what they reported happened at 4 p.m. on April 19, 1984.

The incident is one of hundreds of reported sightings contained in more than 1,000 pages of formerly secret UFO documents being released Wednesday by Britain's National Archives. It is one of the few that was never explained.

The air traffic controllers' "Report of Unusual Aerial Phenomenon" was filed from an unspecified small airport near the eastern coast of England.

The men, each with more than eight years on the job, described how they were helping guide a small plane to a landing on runway 22 when they were distracted by a brightly lit object approaching a different runway without clearance.

"Everyone became aware that the object was unidentified," their report said. "SATCO (code name for a controller with 14 years experience) reports that the object came in 'at speed,' made a touch and go on runway 27, then departed at 'terrific speed' in a 'near vertical' climb."

The incident is one of the more credible in the newly public files because it was reported by air traffic controllers, said David Clarke, a UFO expert who worked with the National Archives on the document release.

"They were absolutely astonished," he said. "It was a bright, circular object, flashing different colors, and after it touched down it disappeared at fantastic speed. The report comes from very qualified people, and it's one of the few that remained unexplained."

But while there are some unexplained cases in the papers, there is no reported instance in which the Ministry of Defense found any evidence of alien activity or alien spacecraft, said Clarke, who nonetheless expects conspiracy theories about a UFO cover-up by the British defense establishment to persist.

"The Ministry of Defense doesn't have any evidence that our defenses were breached by alien craft," Clarke said. "They never found one, no bits of one. That's all we can say."

Clarke said the released documents, dealing with the late 1970s and early 1980s, are the first batch in a series that will be made public in the next few years.

The National Archives is releasing the files because of numerous freedom of information requests seeking information about the government's UFO reports. Officials said that names of many individuals had been blacked out to protect their privacy and that the entire files had been reviewed to make sure their release did not compromise national security.

Ministry of Defense officials indicate in the files that UFO reports were only investigated to make sure no enemy aircraft had illegally entered British airspace. This was crucial during the Cold War when Russian planes posed a threat.

Officials said they did not try to solve UFO riddles once an enemy attack had been ruled out.

The vast majority of UFO reports come from members of the public who see strange things in the sky and jump to the conclusion that a UFO is involved even though there are logical explanations for what they observe, experts said.

"The most common things are aircraft lights, bright stars and planets, satellites, meteors, airships and things like that," said Nick Pope, another UFO expert who helped the Ministry of Defense investigate the phenomenon.

That was the case when a number of people leaving a Tunbridge Wells pub one night reported seeing a strange craft "with red and green" lights, according to the released documents.

Asked by police where the object seemed to be traveling, the pub crawlers said it appeared to be heading for London's Gatwick Airport. It didn't take a scientist to figure out it was a commercial plane making a routine approach.

Link

 

[SS4 Gogeta]

BBC version, a bit different.:shocked:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7399661.stm

 

[Sonic the Vampire]

Oh God. I can picture us finding advanced alien civilizations and the church attempting to spread to them the word of christ.

Orson Scott Card covered that in the book Xenocide from the Ender's Game series. The catholic church spread the gospil to intelligent extra terrestrials who then decided that they were the chosen people of God and tried to start up a crusade to judge the human race by spreading an alien virus.

It'll happen.

 

[Synth]

The pope obviously befriended the Greys and is trying to soften us up for the eventual invasion, which will happen under friendly pretenses.

I believe the tall whites won't allow that to happen.

 

[Zeonix]

I believe the tall whites won't allow that to happen.

Why would Norweigians be able to stop aliens?

 

[Synth]

Isn't this the month when a bunch of ****ed up **** is supposed happen?

I believe some doctrine stated that May '08 wasn't going to be a good time.

 

[MC]

Isn't this the month when a bunch of ****ed up **** is supposed happen?

I believe some doctrine stated that May '08 wasn't going to be a good time.

Well, there was an earthquake in China, plus the cyclone in Burma.

Edit

Not to mention wild fires have been breaking out all over Florida.

 

[Deman]

You mean natural disasters are occuring in multiple places at once and you're only really noticing more because of reading this thread

 

[Zeonix]

When I'm President, I'm going to say we're being attacked covertly by aliens, and the only way to defeat them is to come together as race and learn to live in peace. With each other, not the aliens. We have to pool our resources together and build a space fleet asap. To do that, we need to revamp our entire way of living for maximum output and efficiency without destroying the planet. Or we can destroy the planet in an attempt to colonize a bunch of moons. Whatever comes first.

I'll stage an alien invasion just to drive home the point.

 

[Hibiki]

When I'm President, I'm going to say we're being attacked covertly by aliens, and the only way to defeat them is to come together as race and learn to live in peace. With each other, not the aliens. We have to pool our resources together and build a space fleet asap. To do that, we need to revamp our entire way of living for maximum output and efficiency without destroying the planet. Or we can destroy the planet in an attempt to colonize a bunch of moons. Whatever comes first.

I'll stage an alien invasion just to drive home the point.

Ozymandias you are not.

 

[Zeonix]

Ozymandias you are not.

Damn right I'm not. I said I'd stage an invasion, not create a monster and have it slaughter millions of people in NYC (SURPRISE!).

 

[Synth]

It's likely that the aliens have made peace with God... "he pity'd them" clearly.

 

[Zeonix]

It's likely that the aliens have made peace with God... "he pity'd them" clearly.

Well, damn. That means they're at war with everyone who isn't God or one of them.

 

[Hibiki]

Damn right I'm not. I said I'd stage an invasion, not create a monster and have it slaughter millions of people in NYC (SURPRISE!).

Sad thing is it would totally work.

Work out almost exactly how it went down no less.