Hi,
Please forgive my presumption for butting into this conversation, but I thought you might like to know the Catholic take on Extraterrestrial life. The Church's definition of "Man" is not the anthropological one. A "Man" (read human being) is a being with the ability to reason. That being the case, any intelligent life forms would belong under the classification of "Man" and possess an inmortal soul. That goes back to the earliest centuries of Christianity when theologians were speculating on the possibility of strange types of men such as found in the ancient world's myths.
Rod Castillo
-----Original Message-----
>From: Dan Wright <slcdmw01@No-Spam>
>Sent: May 13, 2008 10:44 PM
>To: The Astronomy Connection <sf-bay-tac@No-Spam>
>Subject: Re: [TAC] Not Too OT: Extraterrestrial life and the Church
>
>I had always assumed that first contact with aliens would shoot down
>Christian theory then and there, because aliens are probably also the
>products of evolution, and are not likely to have belief systems
>closely resembling human western religions, and specifically are not
>likely to be found worshiping Christ or God.
>
>Many good science fiction books, films, and TV shows use the premise
>of first contact, because it makes for entertaining fiction. But I
>found one such book that takes an unexpected turn. Upon first
>contact, the aliens in this book say, "You worship God too, right?
>Don't you?"
>
>This was a novel concept (get the pun? novel ...) It was a pretty
>good sci-fi read overall, though not one of my absolute favorites. A
>Christian friend sent it to me. It's called "Calculating God" by
>Robert J. Sawyer. In many ways similar to what this Vatican
>astronomer is saying.
>--
>Party time! GSSP is over 250 attendees: http://www.goldenstatestarparty.blogspot.com
>TAC Stats Tracking: http://tinyurl.com/4fhjhx
>Mailing list preferences: http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/sf-bay-tac
-- Party time! GSSP is over 250 attendees: http://www.goldenstatestarparty.blogspot.com TAC Stats Tracking: http://tinyurl.com/4fhjhx Mailing list preferences: http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/sf-bay-tacReceived on Wed May 14 09:06:30 2008
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|