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

From: Matthias Bärmann <majbaermann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2011 19:23:33 +0100
Message-ID: <A54D4198826B4F9299DEAA1D4799D3B7_at_thinkcentre>

"No matter how many tentacles"? Ha, a likely story. I bet a new legislation
in regard to church taxes is already prepared: ... % per tentacle.

Prophetically,
Matthias

 ----- Original Message -----
From: <lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu>
To: "dorifry" <dorifry at embarqmail.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 6:58 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Pope Benedict XVI's Astronomer: the Catholic
Church Welcomes Aliens


>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 01:23:33 PM PST