An out-of-this-world "what if"

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mo0004

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I would like to pose a “what if” question involving intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe that we could perhaps discover in the next few hundred years – basically, would the Church’s teaching on the dignity of human life apply to non-human intelligent life forms? The “what if” concerns a species on a planet Omu in another star system (out of “Star Trek” perhaps.) The Omians are not human and don’t look anything like us, but are intelligent and we can communicate with them. They have a level of civilization about like ours maybe 3000 years ago and therefore almost no technology as we know it. They have a single world government and are peaceful and meticulously respectful of the basic rights of all members of their species. War and crime are nonexistent. They also have a monotheistic religion. Their biology and body chemistry are different from ours. They are unisex and reproduce asexually. The reproductive cycle is set in motion naturally when the Omian reaches maturity, and the cycle happens once and only once in the Omian lifetime. Typically one to four offspring are produced by each Omian. Because their population is increasing, we (the Earth crew) see an overpopulation problem looming on Omu. The Omians have asked us for guidance.

An astrobiologist on the crew discovers that common aspirin, which is not available on Omu, will, based on the Omian body chemistry, interrupt the Omian reproductive cycle if given to the Omian either just before the cycle begins or just after (say a couple of weeks in our time measure). If it’s just before, the cycle will not start. If it’s just after, any gestation would cease. If we can talk enough Omians into voluntarily taking the aspirin to achieve an equal balance between births and deaths of Omians, the overpopulation problem will not happen. (Obviously, we are getting into contraception and abortion issues.) The ship’s captain, a Roman Catholic, must decide whether to make the aspirin available to the Omians. Would the Fifth Commandment apply here as it would for human life on Earth?
 
Gee, what about the Prime Directive? 😉

Your question, in all seriousness, reminds me a bit of the JFK issue: Should Catholic politicians let their religion dictate their decisions in office? Your scenario asks the question, Should Catholic ship captains let their religion dictate their decisions while on board ship?
 
keeping in mind if these people did exist . . . they would be no different than a lost tribe of whereever here.

Another planet means nothing to God, as He made them all.

😃
 
You raise a valid point about the Prime Directive. I was thinking more about the Fifth Commandment. But interpreting the Fourth Commandment as owing obedience to civil authorities (in this case Starfleet), this alone puts the Captain in a moral dilemma (and a legal one too since the PD is a military order.)
 
exactly God created all life what the captian needs to do is teach them to pray and God answers all prayers if you believe without doubt
 
mo0004 said:
You raise a valid point about the Prime Directive. I was thinking more about the Fifth Commandment. But interpreting the Fourth Commandment as owing obedience to civil authorities (in this case Starfleet), this alone puts the Captain in a moral dilemma (and a legal one too since the PD is a military order.)
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Good point!

You know, this is something I’ve been thinking of. How far would we go if we really followed Church teaching? What would happen if every Catholic pharmacist or pharmacy technician refused to dispense birth control? What about Catholic doctors? Not to mention Catholic politicians?
 
I think if there were other life forms they would be created soley to help us (not sure how though), like the animals and all other life forms here.

Remember that God chose to create and destroy planets and suns in the universe so Carbon could rain down on earth to give us the building bricks of life as no carbon is produced on earth.
 
Icarus210 said:
I think if there were other life forms they would be created soley to help us (not sure how though), like the animals and all other life forms here.

Remember that God chose to create and destroy planets and suns in the universe so Carbon could rain down on earth to give us the building bricks of life as no carbon is produced on earth.
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Careful, Iccy…as Jesus came not to be served but to serve, perhaps the reason we would have developed warp drive and been able to travel to the Omian world would have been to help them…by providing valuable God-centered moral guidance…🤷
 
Because of the different biology, a “contraceptive” may not be immoral. Asexuality implies that there are no sexual sins–fornication, etc.
 
Melvin said:
Careful, Iccy…as Jesus came not to be served but to serve, perhaps the reason we would have developed warp drive and been able to travel to the Omian world would have been to help them…by providing valuable God-centered moral guidance…🤷
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Indeed! If there is life Out There, it is because God willed it so. If that life is rational, it is called to the same Truth to which we are called. Remember, our church is Universal – not “Global”. 🙂

I recommend reading C.S. Lewis’ “Space Trilogy” (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength). It’s a fascinating take on this general topic.

Peace,
Dante
 
How would we know that it was gifted with an immortal soul – the difference between us and other animals.
 
Another question would be if the fall of Adam and Eve affected these Omians… 😛 Could THEY be in paradise? I used to think about life on other planets and thought about this question.
 
I’m a trekkie, so please bear with me.
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Since you say the Omians are about 3,000 years in the past in terms of technology, then the Prime Directive would probably be already breached since the only explanation they would ask for our help is if someone from the ship contacted them first and made them aware of our presence.

Gene Roddenberry used the Catholic Church in several instances throughout the 5 series. In Star Trek: Enterprise, Dr. Phlox mentioned being at St. Peter's Square celebrating Mass. The Vedeks of Star Trek: DS9 models the Cardinals of the Catholic Church. In Star Trek: Voyager, the Borg resemble the Catholic Church IMO. They act as one mind, one body, much like the prayer Jesus said on the Cross, "That they may be one."
Now to address the dilemma. The Fifth Commandment does not apply in this case. Asexual reproduction is simply a natural cloning process. Bacteria reproduce asexually, creating exact copies every time. Contraception is not an issue, for something to be conceived means it wasn’t there before. In this case, the being is already created, in the Omian by which the clone is produced from because both have the same genes.

Is it ethical to kill your clone? Do clones have souls? We know that natural clones do have souls and the Fifth Commandment does apply. So if an Omian does have asexual relations, then the resulting Omian has a soul and does have a right to live. However, as stated above, contraception is not an issue. Therefore, it is my judgment that aspirin is to be made available to the Omians.
Oh what I wouldn't give to have Captain Picard answer this......
 
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