A pretty big jump for the church. Did the Pope see something off his balcony?

Quote :

"The Vatican's chief astronomer says there is no conflict between believing in God and in the possibility of extraterrestrial "brothers" perhaps more evolved than humans. "In my opinion this possibility exists," said the Reverend José Gabriel Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to Pope Benedict XVI, referring to life on other planets. The Inquisition condemned Galileo in the 17th century for insisting that the Earth revolved around the Sun. The Roman Catholic Church did not rehabilitate him until 1992."

"At least they didn't use the comfy chair on me!"



http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/14/news/vat.php

5/14/2008 11:50:24 PM

Hopefully this rules out the possibility of a Catholic Holy War should we make contact.

5/14/2008 11:54:08 PM

Now that the Catholic Church has stepped up to the plate, maybe the Holy Church of Science can be shaken into seriously evaluating this question.

5/15/2008 1:10:28 AM

With the church, when science and dogma confront each other...the Pope goes with the dogma.

Modern science's lack of curiosity into the possibility of extraterrestrials seems eerily similar to the church's lack of curiosity of bascially any science.

The unwritten rule is that the serious study of ETs is for crackpots. A real scientist doesn't concern himself with it...just as a real Christian shouldn't concern himself with any scientific study that may threaten the power of church leaders.

5/15/2008 1:52:50 AM

The existence of life on other planets is an entirely theoretical study. Just based on sheer numbers it's probable, but virtually unprovable at the present time. Intelligent life is also probable, though again in even smaller numbers. If we ever achieve interstellar travel I expect we will at some point encounter life, and eventually other intelligent life.

Denying the possibility of life outside of earth is just silly, especially if you're a Christian and believe God created the universe. If we're all there is then what's with the huge amount of wasted space. That'd be like building the Metrodome specifically to house a grain of sand.

5/15/2008 2:20:52 AM

its only a matter of time before full UFO discloser.

5/15/2008 2:33:39 AM

It's all about... the Queen Spider.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/153528

5/15/2008 3:08:12 AM

Fucking Galgomeks!

5/15/2008 3:12:03 AM

I find that, many times in my life, a religious figure says something that causes me to slap myself in the face. Usually harder than I should.

A fairly large percentage of questions posed to clergy of any faith should be answered with, "I don't know, ask Jesus or something."

5/15/2008 4:43:55 AM

Quote :

"Modern science's lack of curiosity into the possibility of extraterrestrials seems eerily similar to the church's lack of curiosity of bascially any science. The unwritten rule is that the serious study of ETs is for crackpots. A real scientist doesn't concern himself with it...just as a real Christian shouldn't concern himself with any scientific study that may threaten the power of church leaders."

not sure what you're getting at here. Kurtis pretty well covered it, but with available technology, there is not much we can do to actively seek or study ETs. We have SETI, which besides from being likely futile, I don't think it's really ridiculed because it doesn't really have an impact one way or another.

I wouldn't consider the lack of study as a "lack of curiosity", just mostly a lack of means and abilities. The focus right now is studying stars, galaxies, dark matter, trying to find other planets, etc. If we can only observe most other planets by the tiny gravitational changes that are exerted on their starts, I don't know how you would propose we study what is actually on those planets

5/15/2008 7:32:47 AM

Secret UFO files released by UK government

Quote :

"LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Ministry of Defense has released files on UFO sightings dating back to the 1970s, including witness accounts and the government's response. The ministry on Wednesday released the files as part of a four-year project to transfer all of the UFO documents to the National Archives to make them available to curious members of the public. The documents include hundreds of police reports taken from witnesses who describe seeing lights or strange objects in the sky, from southern England and Wales up to Northern Ireland. The files released Wednesday cover 1978 to 1987. The rest, dating from the 1950s and covering recent history, will be released over the coming years."

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/14/britain.ufos/?iref=mpstoryview

5/15/2008 9:01:43 AM

Quote :

"EarthDogg: Did the Pope see something off his balcony?"

Or in his vault?

Seriously, what the fuck was up with Fatima?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Fatima

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun

Far be it for me to be superstitious, but history--even recent history--is full of weird shit.

5/15/2008 4:21:05 PM

^^ is that story deserving of a ?

5/15/2008 4:24:58 PM

You're an alien.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080613/sc_afp/spacesciencebiochemistrybiology_080613180404

Quote :

"PARIS (AFP) - Genetic material from outer space found in a meteorite in Australia may well have played a key role in the origin of life on Earth, according to a study to be published Sunday. European and US scientists have proved for the first time that two bits of genetic coding, called nucleobases, contained in the meteor fragment, are truly extraterrestrial. ..."

6/14/2008 3:03:29 PM

To really surprising considering we are all star leftovers anyways. The church thing does surprise me a little. It makes me wonder if they know something and this their way of warming up their followers.

6/14/2008 4:40:41 PM

people's ideas evolve you say?

human beings and systems created by humans also change over time you say?

PREPOSTEROUS!

the only thing that matters is what was written down a long time ago by a handful of people who were "insipired" by what the experienced

nothing else matters

6/14/2008 6:10:59 PM

Well this is a religion. That's pretty much how they all work.

6/14/2008 6:59:43 PM