http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9...;show_article=1

 

The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

 

In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes says that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures.

 

The interview was headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother." Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom.

 

My 2 cents:

Let's look at this galaxy we live in. I'll be conservative and say we have 200 billion stars in this galaxy, so who knows how many planetary systems. So yeah that's pretty big. We're just a tiny, tiny speck in the galaxy, so there's 200 billion other possibilities out there. Now, if that's not convincing enough to someone that other life could exist for whatever reason, there are 200 billion other galaxies (again, being conservative, that's only what we can actually see and all we know of). So assuming ours is an average-sized galaxy, that's... umm... 4 with 22 zeros behind it, so... 40 sextillion stars or 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars. That we know of. It's literally incomprehensible how big the universe is. That number may not be convincing and it isn't proof of anything, but if it isn't mind-opening I don't know what is. And let's assume that one day we get the ability to travel beyond our solar system in a timely manner. If other life is discovered it will be so far away we won't find out for generations (and that exploring party will have become a mini-civilization in and of itself).

 

Bottom line, my position is that it's totally irrational to rule out the possibility of other intelligent life because of an unfounded "faith" that "God only created us."

I e-mailed the story to my pastors because I was curious what they might say. Our assistant pastor basically agreed with the article that there is nothing that says there cant be life on other planets.

 

He served in the armed forces for 20 years and was stationed on a base in England in which "parts" of a UFO and other UFO stories have been around for a while. it happened before he got there, but the story is still around.

Edited May 14, 200817 yr by Athomeboy_2000

Whew!

Whew!

 

About what I was thinking. In a religious context, the phrasing is a bit awkward, and possibly misleading.

I thought they'd only want you to believe in one being no one can see or prove the existence of....

 

[green?]

I thought they'd only want you to believe in one being no one can see or prove the existence of....

 

[green?]

 

Science answers how, religion answers why.

Science answers how, religion answers why.

 

You got that on a bumper sticker?

 

[definitely green]

 

You got that on a bumper sticker?

 

[definitely green]

 

 

Thank you for assuming I have a car

Thank you for assuming I have a car

You're from Texas, Land Of Big Oil, ain'tcha?

 

I thought having a car and attending high school football games were mandatory down there!

 

You're from Texas, Land Of Big Oil, ain'tcha?

 

I thought having a car and attending high school football games were mandatory down there!

 

 

Pick up (the bigger the better) or Suburban would be closer. And high school football is only mandatory of you are a red blooded American dang gummit

Science answers how, religion answers why.

 

Wrong. Especially in that sort of narrow minded context.

Edited May 16, 200817 yr by BobDylan

And let's assume that one day we get the ability to travel beyond our solar system in a timely manner.

Worm holes.

Worm holes.

No haven't you ever played Mass Effect? Once we discover the mass relays at the end of this century we'll be able to travel instantly across the galaxy.

I don't see how anyone with any amount of common sense can say that there is not intelligent life out there in the universe. If intelligent life is a result of evolution, why would anyone think that what happened on our obscure planet could not possibly have happened elsewhere? If intelligent life is the result of intelligent design, why would anyone assume that the designer limited him-her-itself to just design it on this same obscure planet.

No haven't you ever played Mass Effect? Once we discover the mass relays at the end of this century we'll be able to travel instantly across the galaxy.

 

+3