History, however, exists whether it is chronicled or not. I’m not sure what your point is with this one.
Maybe. Or possibly evolution.
That would be cool! Time travel…Well, you’re welcome to go commiserate with the trilobites, I guess.
How so?
If we really did know that, then it certainly would be awe inspiring!
Sorry, but in His Creation is the effects of the Creator. When we look at the stars and planets, and they fill us with a sense of awe, we really are looking at God’s effects that the universe carries in its existence. For everything that exists in this universe borrows its existence from something else, as it would be impossible that a thing could cause its own existence, for this would mean it could pre-exist itself, which is absurd. When we are fabricating things in science fiction, like the story of star trek, we are looking to be wowed and be filled with that sense of awe and wonder only God can give. And God is not bound by this universe.No. The central focus of human history has revolved around man. The “empty earth, with animals pointlessly breeding and running around” is exactly what the earth was like for most of biological history. There were no people wondering at the stars while dinosaurs were around, or while trilobites trundled around the ocean floor doing trilobite things.
Remove man from the universe and what do you have? Most of the history of the universe, actually.
Now you’re just being egocentric.
If you are looking for God on another planet I think you’ll be very disappointed.
I agree with you that we are looking for things to wonder at and awe us. I would propose that we’ve already found plenty of them…nebulae, beautiful spiral galaxies, the intricacies and complexity of biology, and a million other things. Not God.
Hmm…well I think we two are coming at this problem from two completely different angles. So we’re just gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.
I think the best answers to this question have been given by C.S. Lewis in his trilogy, “Out of the Silent Planet” (including “Out of the Silent Planet” and “Perelandra”).
My point is that man’s intellect is what makes history know-able, and therefore mankind has a bigger place in the grand scheme of things than you think it does (in my opinion, at least). Do trilobites care about history?
Or both.
Heh…I don’t think I could take time-travel. The whole “butterfly effect” thing would make me afraid to breathe, let alone look around.That would be cool! Time travel…
It takes a bit of ego to proclaim what we will and won’t find in the whole of the universe based on personal opinion, yeah?
Heh, well, you can’t just discount it, either.
I agree. For the record, though, this one’s been a fun exchange, and an interesting one to ponder.
No, we don’t have any evidence to suggest that. However, I think that if we found aliens on another planet who were Catholic then we would really need to put forth the resources to look for it, and it’s possible that we would uncover something.
This shows to me a mentality of something close to sheer desperation in wanting the teachings of the Church to not be true.
The conversation wound around to imaginary aliens who might be Catholic, and you’re already trying to tell those aliens that their religion might be false?That was a great line from Calvin and Hobbes… truly on the money. The other memorable line was from Star Trek: “Beam me up Scotty, there is no intelligent life down here!”. Too bad it did not actually happen…One of the best arguments I’ve heard for the existence of extra-terrestrial intelligent life is that they haven’t tried to contact us.
The Church will definitely need to rule on this if this is the case, but if the alien race were established to be non-human, I would think they would be ineligible for baptism since they would not be descendants of Adam and do not have human souls. Therefore, the human Church does not have the right or obligation to evangelize them.
To answer the OP…
I would…Yes, since despite her implants, she is still human and her human soul still animates her.To answer the OP…
zero point zero, and a hello to you again Poseiden!
A comment on this post…
How about 7 of 9? Would we baptize her
Evangelization may not even be necessary for alien intelligent life.
It will strengthen my faith. This is because the probability of the evolution of intelligent life is extremely low, according to the random process of evolution accepted by mainstream academia; additionally, the probability of the “random” evolution of two intelligent species close enough in distance for one to be able to discover the other is extremely lower! Therefore, such a discovery is more evidence for design in the universe (I DONT mean the idea of Intelligent Design). Actually, I believe it would be beneficial for the secular media and academia to keep such a discovery secret.
No, it’s simply Occam’s razor. If we discover Catholics on another planet, what’s more likely - cultural contamination (could go either way) or that the many extraordinary and contradictory claims of Catholicism are true? It seems obvious to me which is the simpler, and thus more likely explanation.This shows to me a mentality of something close to sheer desperation in wanting the teachings of the Church to not be true.
Why does it seem obvious to you?
Because one explanation is perfectly naturalistic, possible, and completely within the bounds of what’s plausible and reasonable, while the other claim requires an omnipotent being who is not known to even exist.
