[meteorite-list] Pope Benedict XVI's Astronomer: the Catholic Church Welcomes Aliens

From: lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2011 10:58:00 -0700
Message-ID: <cfe69404cf097b5efe037ca0eedaf8c2.squirrel_at_webmail.lpl.arizona.edu>

I did not know that Guy could make "pronouncements."

I think he has always had fairly long hair, so I do wonder what he is
hiding. At least he does not wear a hat to cover a third eye on his
forehead, but who knows what his hair could hide on the back of his head!

Larry

>
>
> You'll notice Brother Guy's hair suspiciously covers the top of his ears.
> What is he hiding? Is he possibly a secret Vulcan, like this guy?:
>
> http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/x466/joshuatree3333/obama.jpg
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/8009299/Pope-Benedict-XVIs-astronomer-the-Catholic-Church-welcomes-aliens.html
>
>
>
> Pope Benedict XVI's Astronomer: the Catholic Church Welcomes Aliens:
>
>
> Highly evolved extra terrestrial lifeforms may be living in space and
> would
> be welcomed into the church - "no matter how many tentacles", one of the
> Pope's astronomers has said.
>
> Brother Guy Consolmagno is curator of the Pope's meteorite collection
> Photo:
> AP Photo/Plinio Lepri
>
> By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
>
> 4:16PM BST 17 Sep 2010
>
> 41 Comments
>
> The senior Vatican scientist, Brother Guy Consolmagno, said that he would
> be
> delighted if we encountered intelligent aliens and would be happy to
> baptise
> them.
>
> His pronouncement opens up the possibility of space missionaries heading
> out
> to the stars to convert aliens to Christianity.
>
> Speaking on the eve of addressing the British Science Festival, Dr
> Consolmangno said he had no problem with science and religion co-existing
> together.
>
> But he dismissed Creationism and claimed that the revival of "intelligent
> design" - the controversial theory that only God can explain gaps in the
> theory of evolution - was "bad theology".
>
> Dr Consolmango is one of a team of 12 astronomers working for the Vatican,
> said the Catholic Church had been supporting and funding science for
> centuries.
>
> He said he was "comfortable" with the idea of alien life and asked if he
> would baptise an alien, he replied "Only if they asked".
>
> "I'd be delighted if we found life elsewhere and delighted if we found
> intelligent life elsewhere," he said.
>
> "But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able
> to
> communicate with it - when you add them up it's probably not a practical
> question.
>
> "God is bigger than just humanity. God is also the god of angels."
>
> He said the characteristics synonymous with having a soul - intelligence,
> free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions may not be unique
> to humans.
>
> "Any entity - no matter how many tentacles it has has a soul,' he said.
>
> However machines were unlikely to be smart or human-enough to have souls.
>
> Dr Consolmango, 57, the curator of the Pope's meteorite collection, is a
> trained astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican's observatory.
>
> He worked as a scientist in California for 15 years before turning to the
> church.
>
> He said "intelligent design" had been "hijacked" by religious
> fundamentalists.
>
> "The word has been hijacked by a narrow group of Creationist
> fundamentalists
> in America to mean something it did not originally mean at all.
>
> "It's another form of the God of the gaps," he said.
>
> 'It's bad theology in that it turns God once again into the pagan god of
> thunder and lightning.'
>
> The phrase 'Intelligent Design' was centuries old and described the idea
> that God could be discovered in the laws of space and time and the
> existence
> of human reason..
>
> The Vatican was 'very aware' of what was going on in the world of science,
> he added.
>
> The Pontifical Academy of Science, of which Stephen Hawking is a member,
> kept the senior cardinals and the Pope up-to-date with the latest
> scientific
> developments, he said.
>
> The discovery of aliens would raise huge theological problems for the
> Roman
> Catholic church that would make the debate over women priests, clerical
> abstinence and contraception pale into insignificance.
>
> -----------------------------------------------
>
> Phil Whitmer
>
> Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum
>
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Received on Thu 01 Dec 2011 12:58:00 PM PST