Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer, General Science / Other

(AP) -- Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

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Posted by barakn 05/13/08 19:28

Rank: 3.6/5 after 7 votes

"The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter."

No, it doesn't.

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Posted by Teonanacatl 05/13/08 19:36

Rank: 3.5/5 after 6 votes

LOL!! Nice. More preparations for the world to learn that we've been visited by ET's for thousands of years. They've been successful for 60 years but the global cover-up is bound to fail :)

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Posted by snwboardn 05/13/08 21:01

Rank: 3/5 after 2 votes

LOL!! Nice. More preparations for the world to learn that we've been visited by ET's for thousands of years.

I know we need another good Roswell so we can discover some new technology... Maybe we can salvage their reactors this time.... My truck is low on gas.

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Posted by earls 05/13/08 23:09

Rank: 4/5 after 5 votes

barakn, I agree your statement was generally correct, I have tried to rectify the situation.

Quite a shame Physorg broke the ability to see who rated the comment(s). So many are quick to rate comments based on their personal beliefs and/or tastes instead of facts and rarely offer a valid or intelligent rebuttal.

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Posted by raincity 05/14/08 02:02

Rank: 3.3/5 after 9 votes

I don't believe in the Vatican.

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Posted by El_Machinae 05/14/08 08:36

Rank: 3/5 after 1 vote

I wonder how this interacts with Original Sin, though? CS Lewis (I think) reject the idea of ET because it muddled Original Sin. I thought his logic was pretty good, even if I don't believe in his religion.

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Posted by nano999 05/14/08 08:51

Rank: 3.5/5 after 4 votes

Maybe ET will be a talking snake.

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Posted by E_L_Earnhardt 05/14/08 12:46

Rank: 2/5 after 2 votes

No start, or stop, on physical creation - UNLESS
"DARK MATTER" IS BROUGHT INTO CONSIDERATION! The first stars were powered by "Dark Matter", (Good authority). It seems to have no beginning and no end! Everything just right without inteligence ??

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Posted by Mercury_01 05/14/08 15:42

Rank: 2/5 after 2 votes

there should be a logical next step after this statement by the vatican. Someone should ask them if they have any evidence, documents, or artifacts in their possesion. Ask them about their snake brothers!

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Posted by Captain_Sakonna 05/14/08 23:54

Rank: 4.5/5 after 2 votes

C. S. Lewis wrote fiction about ET and original sin actually (Perelandra, part of his Space Trilogy). What he actually believed about it I don't know. The presence of intelligent life elsewhere would raise some questions related to original sin, but the conflicts are easy to reconcile. You could surmise that

1) Adam and Eve were representative not just of the human race, but of all intelligent races, or

2) Each race had its own representative, and any race that "passed" its test without sinning would be isolated within a kind of protective bubble from the decay that overtook the rest of the universe as a consequence of humanity's sin. Then in the "end times" when the old, corrupted universe is remade, races which did not sin could move seamlessly from the old universe to the new one. Or,

3) God made more than one universe, and only the races that He knew were going to sin were placed in this universe. . .so they could all deal with the imperfection together.

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Posted by ceelgee 05/19/08 16:34

Rank: 1.7/5 after 3 votes

You are all wrong. There is one true God and he is the creator of all. There are no alien life forms out there. If God created them, it would be in the bible like everything else he created. The universe wasn't created by a "big bang theory". Humanity has lost touch with God and this is the problem. The vatican is full of it and that makes no sense what they said. Believing in aliens does go against true religion. Do you people know why God put humans on earth? If you knew the answer to this, you would know the purpose of the vast universe.

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Posted by Mercury_01 06/02/08 11:12

Not rated yet.

There arent any nebulae in the bible, or microorganisms, but they exist. Ive never heard of a nudibranch in the bible, or a molecule. Do you not believe in those either? What makes you think God put everything in the bible, or that God wrote the bible to give us every piece of information? Because your preacher told you so when you were little? people wrote the bible, and then even more people decided what writings went into the bible and which ones diddnt. Evil men deciden on the content of your bible. Do you think the universe just flashed into existence? who are you to know the ways of God? Who are you to decide what God has done and how God has made the universe. Furthermore, This is a science based web site, and a place for science minded people. if you misunderstand science to undermine your religion, then go live under a rock with the rest of your mouth- breathing bretheren and await your extinction. Just dont be surprised when the truth shatters your ignorant worldview.