In an interview published in the official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the director of the Vatican Observatory, has said the belief that alien life exists elsewhere in the universe does not contradict faith in God.
This is quite a leap of faith, considering that Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was tried as a heretic in 1633 for claiming that the earth was not the center of the universe, and the Church didn't admit the error for nearly 400 years (Pope John Paul II cleared Galileo's name in 1992).
The conflict between religion and science is as old as either, and unlikely to be resolved any time soon. Absolute belief in the literal words of the Bible stifled scientific advancement for many hundreds of years, and even today conservative Muslims insist on an Islamic view of science that aligns the scientific method with the literal word of God they believe is contained in the Koran...they believe that all scientific truth is contained in the Muslim scripture, simply waiting for man to recognize it.
Regardless of one's religious beliefs, the universe is out there, it's huge, and the belief that we're alone in it is (in my mind) silly. Fundamental issues of religion and philosophy shape our opinions of the world around us, sometimes in bizarre fashions. For this reason, I find it comforting that a religious scientist like Rev. Funes is willing to admit not only the possibility of alien life, but the fact that it's possible existence doesn't contradict belief in God.
There's hope yet for a rational meeting of religion and science. I wonder how ET solved the problem.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
Here's my theory. Why would god stop at just creating the earth and humanity? Surely he's been bored over all this time. You can only watch us screw up so often. So why not?
ReplyDelete"There's hope yet for a rational meeting of religion and science."
ReplyDeleteI think this is a strrrreeetch. As long as there's one fanatic out there willing to rally the troups, people will be killing other people in God's name.
And the more I think about it, if there are two people in proximity to one another, there will eventually be problems.
That's why I keep to myself in the basement.