Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Does all God's creation include aliens?

This news from the Vatican's chief astronomer probably caught the pope's attention, and that is one boss I would not want to irritate.
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Funes says that such a notion “doesn’t contradict our faith” because aliens would still be God’s creatures.

The interview was headlined “The extraterrestrial is my brother.” Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom.
I've written before about whether God could have created aliens and, if so, what it would mean to a handful of religions. Raelians would be stoked and I imagine Scientologists would say they knew it all along.

As a Christian, I have no problem with this, though I struggle to understand whether these other beings could also be saved by a messiah -- little "m" because it couldn't possibly by the same Messiah. Could it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In reference to the heavens, and why they were created...

Genesis 1:15 "and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so."

You need living beings on these planets to dictate the seasons here on Earth?