From The Daily Mail:
In a 2008 interview with the paper headlined 'Aliens are my brother' [Father Jose Funes, the Vatican's top astronomer] said:
"Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on Earth there could be other beings, intelligent ones, created by God. This does not clash with our faith because we cannot set limits on God's creative freedom. To quote St Francis, if we view earthly creatures as our brothers and sisters, why can't we speak of a brother from another planet?"
In the interview, Father Funes, who took over at the Vatican Observatory in 2006, also suggested aliens might not need to be 'saved' to enter Heaven, especially if they were 'more evolved' than humans.
At last! An end to those sleepless nights worrying about whether ET would go to Hell or Heaven! Not clear what the position for non-Catholics is though, what about a non-Catholic or atheist alien life form? Questions, questions...
Thursday, 13 December 2012
A lot of people will have been wrestling with this theological dilemma
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
There's a Frank Cottrell Boyce short story ('The Ahhhh') in which aliens come to Earth specifically because they're Catholic - Jesus and Mary went on to visit other planets and spread the words after he was taken into heaven.
N, that sounds highly implausible, because Jesus and Mary were Jewish.
If you were going to see aliens, probably the best place to do it would be the Vatican observatory.
"Father Funes...also suggested aliens might not need to be 'saved' to enter Heaven, especially if they were 'more evolved' than humans."
...more evolved to the point they have moved beyond religion and gods?
JH, we went there once on holiday. Didn't see any aliens.
U, from their point of view, a sophisticated alien would have been created by the same "God" and would be Roman Catholic anyway. But this leads us on to the old dilemma - can animals go to Heaven?
Oh dear - I hope all this Hell and Heaven stuff is well organised. I don't want to end up in an alien Heaven by mistake.
AKH, well, according to his logic, you might end up in the Heaven of a less evolved alien race. So it won't be harps and stuff, just tuneless banging on bits of wood.
Post a Comment