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Vatican says aliens could exist [Open]
BBC Europe ^ | May 13 2008 | David Willey

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...........


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Religion & Science
KEYWORDS: et; science; vatican
I don't want this article to be mis-interpreted as being disrespectful or as a joke. I find this pretty remarkable actually. The Vatican after centuries of fixed dogma and a fixed belief structure.....

I'm Catholic by the way.

1 posted on 05/15/2008 9:28:31 AM PDT by Dazed_Catt
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To: Dazed_Catt

They could. But we’ll likley never know it.


2 posted on 05/15/2008 9:31:07 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Dazed_Catt

Is the Pope valid on another planet?


3 posted on 05/15/2008 9:32:13 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: Dazed_Catt
I don't think it is a joke and I don't have a problem with the idea there may be life on other planets.
4 posted on 05/15/2008 9:33:02 AM PDT by svcw (There is no plan B.)
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To: Dazed_Catt

“intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space”

They have to exist . . . . there are far too few of them on this planet


5 posted on 05/15/2008 9:33:14 AM PDT by Jeffrey_D. (Some people are alive simply because it's illegal to shoot them !!!!)
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To: Dazed_Catt

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?


6 posted on 05/15/2008 9:33:32 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: Dazed_Catt

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.


7 posted on 05/15/2008 9:36:07 AM PDT by RightWhale (You are reading this now)
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To: Dazed_Catt
The Vatican after centuries of fixed dogma and a fixed belief structure.....

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.

8 posted on 05/15/2008 9:36:53 AM PDT by Vaquero (" an armed society is a polite society" Heinlein "MOLON LABE!" Leonidas of Sparta)
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To: Dazed_Catt

“I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords.”
Anchorman Kent Brockman


9 posted on 05/15/2008 9:36:55 AM PDT by tumblindice (Kang, Kodos and the Holy Ghost: `To Serve Man' The Book of Remulak Chapt 3 verse 1 `Pre-heat oven to)
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To: stuartcr
Is the Pope valid on another planet?

maybe there's a reason for the big hats?

PhotobucketPhotobucket

10 posted on 05/15/2008 9:39:49 AM PDT by digger48 (http://prorev.com/legacy.htm)
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To: Vaquero

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.


11 posted on 05/15/2008 9:43:25 AM PDT by RightWhale (You are reading this now)
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To: Dazed_Catt

Oh, great...have the MIB been consulting with Rome? What are we being prepared for?


12 posted on 05/15/2008 9:53:53 AM PDT by 50sDad (OBAMA: In your heart you know he's Wright.)
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To: Dazed_Catt

I’m very surprised that Vatican admited the alien’s existence,after all they had insisted their fixed dogma for many centuries


13 posted on 05/15/2008 9:54:10 AM PDT by mygirl1983
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To: Dazed_Catt

Why not. There is a lot of space out there and an Eternal God was probably doing something before getting around to creating Earth.


14 posted on 05/15/2008 9:54:46 AM PDT by Domandred (McCain's 'R' is a typo that has never been corrected)
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To: digger48

Ouch...poor taste. I would have posted a picture of a Timelord in their huge hats...at least that would have been respectful.


15 posted on 05/15/2008 9:55:20 AM PDT by 50sDad (OBAMA: In your heart you know he's Wright.)
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To: Dazed_Catt
On a tangential note, the Mars Phoenix probe is just a few days away from making a landing at the North Pole of Mars. The probe is equipped to sample ice at the landing site.

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.

16 posted on 05/15/2008 10:09:29 AM PDT by 6SJ7
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To: RightWhale
Vatican Observatory
17 posted on 05/15/2008 10:10:39 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: mygirl1983
surprised that Vatican admited the alien’s existence

They did not. They allowed the possibility. It's only logical.

18 posted on 05/15/2008 10:15:29 AM PDT by RightWhale (You are reading this now)
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To: silverleaf
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?

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.

19 posted on 05/15/2008 10:27:04 AM PDT by EarthBound (Ex Deo,gratia. Ex astris,scientia (Who the hell do I vote for now?))
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To: EarthBound

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


20 posted on 05/15/2008 10:56:10 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: mygirl1983

Is there such a thing as an unfixed dogma?


21 posted on 05/15/2008 10:57:17 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: silverleaf

Interesting read, thanks for the material.


22 posted on 05/15/2008 11:39:26 AM PDT by EarthBound (Ex Deo,gratia. Ex astris,scientia (Who the hell do I vote for now?))
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To: Dazed_Catt

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.


23 posted on 05/15/2008 11:52:56 AM PDT by magisterium
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To: Dazed_Catt

Another question,whether they think the aliens were created by god?
BTW,I’m an antitheist


24 posted on 05/15/2008 12:07:18 PM PDT by mygirl1983
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To: tumblindice
“I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords.”


25 posted on 05/15/2008 12:08:30 PM PDT by Zero Sum (Liberalism: The damage ends up being a thousand times the benefit! (apologies to Rabbi Benny Lau))
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To: mygirl1983; Dazed_Catt
Another question,whether they think the aliens were created by god? BTW,I’m an antitheist

Then why do you care?

26 posted on 05/15/2008 12:11:25 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: silverleaf

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?


27 posted on 05/15/2008 1:23:34 PM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: silverleaf

My dogs ma was unfixed...


28 posted on 05/15/2008 1:24:29 PM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: Dazed_Catt

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.


29 posted on 05/15/2008 3:56:06 PM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: silverleaf; NYer
Self ping to your link.

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.

30 posted on 05/15/2008 3:59:58 PM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: stuartcr

a karma ran over my dogma


31 posted on 05/15/2008 5:47:29 PM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: silverleaf

>> 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.


32 posted on 05/16/2008 6:57:53 AM PDT by dangus
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To: silverleaf

>> 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.


33 posted on 05/16/2008 6:58:19 AM PDT by dangus
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To: 50sDad

I’m thinking the aliens from the Martian Chronicles had papal-esque headwear.


34 posted on 05/16/2008 7:00:00 AM PDT by dangus
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To: 50sDad

Yeah: this is the headgear from the Martian Chronicles... Not gonna get confused with the Pope’s hat anytime soon, but vaguely reminiscent.


35 posted on 05/16/2008 7:03:00 AM PDT by dangus
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To: 50sDad
Yeah: this is the headgear from the Martian Chronicles... Not gonna get confused with the Pope's hat anytime soon, but vaguely reminiscent. OOPS: here it is:
36 posted on 05/16/2008 7:04:31 AM PDT by dangus
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To: dangus

37 posted on 05/16/2008 7:27:26 AM PDT by 50sDad (OBAMA: In your heart you know he's Wright.)
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To: Dazed_Catt
Dog bites man story.

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.

38 posted on 05/16/2008 7:51:31 AM PDT by marshmallow
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