Aliens?

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scameter18

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If sentient aliens did exist, how would the Church understand them, spiritually and theologically? Would they have souls akin to ours, or perhaps more like animal souls? Is it even possible for something else in existence to be sentient, since it would require a human soul (presumably)?
 
scameter18 said:
If sentient aliens did exist, how would the Church understand them, spiritually and theologically? Would they have souls akin to ours, or perhaps more like animal souls? Is it even possible for something else in existence to be sentient, since it would require a human soul (presumably)?
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If they were to have souls like ours, it`d be more accurate to call them “rational aliens”. The immortal human soul is the seat of the intellect and the will; and those two attributes are what separate us from the other sentient animals on Earth.

The old Galileo chestnut again: giving the impression that the Church was geocentric until 1992! :mad: They dont bother to mention that Copernicus was a priest who was in good standing with the Church; and was buried in Frombork Cathedral, Poland. ** PS** Sam: "brothers"? That suggestion wouldnt be PC! :eek:
 
There is no reason there couldn’t be billions of intelligent civilizations in the universe.

It’s highly unlikely that we’d ever know about them. There could be no communication with beings in another galaxy.
The civilizations could also exist in different 5,000,000 time periods. Thus there could have been thousands of civilizations in our galaxy and we’d never know.

Each civilization could have its own salvation plan and Redeemer. God makes the rules. If he says this is OK, who’s going to argue.
The Redeemers might be aware of each other but wouldn’t need to know details of each other’s histories.
There is only one Son of God for all.
 
Thank you all very much for your responses, especially the person who provided the link. It’s very encouraging to me to see how open-minded the Church is and how all-inclusive God is. I should’ve known. 😉
 
Sam_777 said:
:confused: sorry, I didn’t get you here !
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Sorry in turn, for being vague. 😊

i meant that the term “brothers” isn`t politically correct; and might upset the radical feminists. Anyway, we can always hope that it does! 😃
 
scameter18 said:
If sentient aliens did exist, how would the Church understand them, spiritually and theologically? Would they have souls akin to ours, or perhaps more like animal souls? Is it even possible for something else in existence to be sentient, since it would require a human soul (presumably)?
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We do not know of any aliens. If sentient aliens were discovered, they would be part of God’s creation. Otherwise, we can only guess.

Peace,
Ed
 
Though if they did, that god would not be real unless it was a shadow of the true God, and even then only partially real.
 
There is no doubt in my mind that aliens do exist. Given the number of galaxies estimated (many billions) and the estimated number of stars in each (many billions in each). There are probably billions of alien life forms, and very likely civilizations that are much more advanced than ours.

Scientists figure that we humans are a type 0 civilization, about to enter type 1 (on a scale from 0 to 4). Type 1 being one that is able to tap into the resources (energy) of its own star (we are only just starting to do this with solar power). Type 2, taps into resources from other stars in its galaxy, Type 3 into multiple galaxies.

Type 2 and type 3s will necessarily have to be able to accomplish interstellar travel.

Our world has only been in the technological age for about 100 years, imagine worlds that have been at it for thousands of years or millions of years.

My guess is that more advanced worlds will have a better understanding of God, they may have even been allowed to bridge the divide between the physical world and the spiritual world. Intermdimentional travel may be a way to get around the speed of light barrier.

There is only one God and they will either know Him or they will not. My guess is they will know Him better than we do.
 
Does the fact that scientists have not found any alien life of any kind yet, and that the existence of life on Earth requires very special and precarious conditions of the Earth’s alignment, rotation, the moon, Earth’s atmosphere, etc. not make the existence of that many aliens doubtful? I’m not trying to say aliens cannot exist. I’m just discussing the issue from a scientific standpoint.
 
scameter18 said:
Does the fact that scientists have not found any alien life of any kind yet, and that the existence of life on Earth requires** very special and precarious **conditions of the Earth’s alignment, rotation, the moon, Earth’s atmosphere, etc. not make the existence of that many aliens doubtful? I’m not trying to say aliens cannot exist. I’m just discussing the issue from a scientific standpoint.
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Even our position in the Milky Way is a matter of awe:
We`re close enough to the nucleus to have been able to pick up enough heavy elements, from supernova explosions, to be who we are; and far enough away from the nucleus not to have been wiped out by said supernova explosions.

We`re close enough to the nucleus to be able to probe deeper and deeper into it (not optically, but with radio astronomy, etc.), and far enough away to be able to look out into the rest of the Universe without too much trouble. We can well and truly use our God-given intellects.

On this Earth, fheres something to occupy any thirsting mind. Great stuff! Aliens or no aliens: were truly blessed!

(Psalm 26:8: I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house; and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.)

PS
R Dawkins et al: Eat your hearts out! 😃
 
scameter18 said:
Does the fact that scientists have not found any alien life of any kind yet, and that the existence of life on Earth requires very special and precarious conditions of the Earth’s alignment, rotation, the moon, Earth’s atmosphere, etc. not make the existence of that many aliens doubtful? I’m not trying to say aliens cannot exist. I’m just discussing the issue from a scientific standpoint.
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Considering that our meager attempts at finding life have only begun about 50 years ago, and our first radio waves out of our planet were sent less than 100 year ago, when you compare that to the fact that the nearest star is 50,000 light years away, it is fully understandable why our primitive scientist have not found life yet.

We are actually off toward the edge of our galaxy, so even within in our own neighborhood, we are way out in the boonies.

We are so far away from anything else, that it is like someone yelling as loud as they can, and expecting someone else on the moon to hear them. Our messages haven’t even reached the nearest star and won’t for the next 49,900 years. BY the time any reply comes, no one will be still alive to hear the answer.

We will have to master time and space travel before anyone can truely confirm that life does or does not exists elsewhere… BUT considering the almost infinite number of stars just in our universe (and scientists now think there are many universes outside of ours -multiverse), there almost certainly have to be billions of planets that have civilizations more advanced than ours. Consider that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand in the entire world.
 
BTW heavy elements are the most common elements in the universe. Helium, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon are the 4 most common elelments in the universe… coincidentally they are also the 4 most needed elements to sustain life as we most commonly know it (other elements can sustain life also so not all 4 are required).
 
While I agree that modern science is relatively primitive and new, that there are countless stars and planets, and that organic material is abundant, the situation of life on Earth just seems incredibly rare and precipitous. Scientists have observed a great portion of our area in the galaxy, many different planets (including those in our system extensively), yet there is absolutely no sign of even microscopic life. Even where there is water, we’ve found zero life.

Perhaps I should amend the question: is abiogenesis, i.e. the beginning of organic life without a direct supernatural hand from nonliving matter, a good enough hypothesis to account for the possibility of life spontaneously generating on other worlds?
 
So far science has only found a few hundred planets in our galaxy (because they only strated looking in last decade or so) and even more recently found about a dozen or so within the proper size and orbit of its stars to sustain liquid water. The first few hundred were gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn.

And that was with hubble or other earth bound telescopes. Only in the last year or two with the kepler telescope in space, have then been able to really find earth size planets

So they really have not searched much of our galaxy at all. Of the 3 or 4 billion stars in the milky way, they have probably looked at a few hundred or a few thousand at most. I would say we have looked at far less than 1 percent of the stars in our galaxy, We probably don’t even have the technology to examine more than 1% of them. That would mean looking at 30 to 40 million stars.

They are actually finding a lot more planets than they originally thought existed. They used to think that planetary systems were relatively rare because there was no way to detect a planet, but recentlty they discovered that they could detect planets by a slight wobble of the star and even more recently (as within the last yera or two), they could detect smaller planets by the timy shadow (fewer protons being detected) as a planet passed in front of its star. Which also means we are missing some planets when their orbit do not align with the star.

BUT any way you look at it even if life were extremely rare say, one in a billion or one in a trillion, the chances of life would still be an almost absolute certainty since there are at least that many galaxies, and there are billions of stars in each galaxy. PLUS we now think there are otehr universes besides ours. The numbers are astronomically high in favor of there being life on other planets, and it is just as high that these life forms will be far more advanced technologically than ours.
 
Of course as I said before, that presumes life comes about randomly, by purely natural means, if we are using probability as a factor in the origination of extraterrestrial life. So that brings the question: does life originate by chance, based purely on the abundance of organic building blocks (water, etc.)? If not, we must also ask what the theological reason might be for God choosing to create organic life elsewhere.
 
Randomly ? I suppose there is a small possiblity that God only created life on earth alone. BUT that leaves an even bigger question. Why would God create only one life sustaining planet, when he made the universe so huge and additionally made multiple universes ??

WHy not just create one galaxy or just one solar system. There really would be no need for other stars or other galaxies, or other universes or other planets.

Some mormons believe every person in Heaven will become a ruler/god on their own planet. A huge multiverse makes that theory a possiblity. But that is mixing the physical reality with the spiritual. Maybe there is some overlap, but I think it more likely that the spiritual realm is far different from the physical.

The universe is far more interesting with life on many planets as I suspect there is. It seems rather pointless to make a huge oversized universe and only have one life form in it. It would be like making all the sand on all all the beaches in the world, and take one tiny grain, and put life only on that one grain of sand. What’s the point of making all the other sand. ?
 
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