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Havard
Guest
You don’t have to apologize, I just wonder who gave you that idea.
Check this out:
wordonfire.org/resources/article/the-myth-of-the-war-between-science-and-religion/331/
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Check this out:
wordonfire.org/resources/article/the-myth-of-the-war-between-science-and-religion/331/
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desales09
Guest
Very interesting topic, StudentAD.
From a religious standpoint, I don’t see that it would be intrinsically bad to expand our horizons through space travel. The only problem I could think of is utilizing mass quantities of resources that could be used to better life for those on this planet. But who knows? Maybe we will still be here when the Sun is going out. I find it doubtful - I think the end will come sooner - but I could be wrong. (Either way, it’s the blink of an eye in terms of eternity). Maybe we should use our technology and resources to find other options for the human race.
Interestingly, C.S. Lewis said his major concern with contacting alien life-forms would be passing on human corruption to them. This comes out in his science fiction trilogy, “Out of the Silent Planet.” I’m listening to it now. It’s a little dated in terms of scientific knowledge (I think it takes place on Mars, and it has bodies of water and is abundant with alien life forms), but it’s still entertaining, thought-provoking, and well-written.
As for the Second Coming: The whole universe is going to know it when the end comes. We won’t miss it if we’re stationed in some other Solar System. “The heavens will roll back like a scroll.” There will be “a new heavens and a new earth.” That’s the whole universe.
From a somewhat more scientific standpoint: I do think the most likely planet in our solar system to colonize would be Mars (though that wouldn’t solve the issue if the Sun was going out). The other terrestrial planets, Mercury and Venus, are too hot. The outer four Jovian planets are largely composed of hydrogen and helium (like the Sun), and don’t really have solid ground to work with. Their atmospheres are too dense, the gravity too intense, and are either too hot (Jupiter and Saturn) or too cold (Neptune and Uranus). Mars is composed of rock, like the other inner planets, and though it is far colder than earth (as Geddie pointed out, half the sunlight of Earth), it’s easier to bundle up in the cold than to cool down in the heat. That’s my partly scientific, partly intuitive understanding of the matter…
From a religious standpoint, I don’t see that it would be intrinsically bad to expand our horizons through space travel. The only problem I could think of is utilizing mass quantities of resources that could be used to better life for those on this planet. But who knows? Maybe we will still be here when the Sun is going out. I find it doubtful - I think the end will come sooner - but I could be wrong. (Either way, it’s the blink of an eye in terms of eternity). Maybe we should use our technology and resources to find other options for the human race.
Interestingly, C.S. Lewis said his major concern with contacting alien life-forms would be passing on human corruption to them. This comes out in his science fiction trilogy, “Out of the Silent Planet.” I’m listening to it now. It’s a little dated in terms of scientific knowledge (I think it takes place on Mars, and it has bodies of water and is abundant with alien life forms), but it’s still entertaining, thought-provoking, and well-written.
As for the Second Coming: The whole universe is going to know it when the end comes. We won’t miss it if we’re stationed in some other Solar System. “The heavens will roll back like a scroll.” There will be “a new heavens and a new earth.” That’s the whole universe.
From a somewhat more scientific standpoint: I do think the most likely planet in our solar system to colonize would be Mars (though that wouldn’t solve the issue if the Sun was going out). The other terrestrial planets, Mercury and Venus, are too hot. The outer four Jovian planets are largely composed of hydrogen and helium (like the Sun), and don’t really have solid ground to work with. Their atmospheres are too dense, the gravity too intense, and are either too hot (Jupiter and Saturn) or too cold (Neptune and Uranus). Mars is composed of rock, like the other inner planets, and though it is far colder than earth (as Geddie pointed out, half the sunlight of Earth), it’s easier to bundle up in the cold than to cool down in the heat. That’s my partly scientific, partly intuitive understanding of the matter…
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wmw
Guest
All fixable problems.
The real debate is not can living off earth be possible, but is there some religious reason not to live off earth. I’m saying that we have a command that says we should do whatever we can to expand our horizons no matter what form they take. The ones taking the risk should make their choice accordingly, but being Catholic should help propel you on in the quest rather than hold you back.
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Et_Cetera
Guest
I’ve encountered some people who seem to be already doing this 
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EasterJoy
Guest
Do not worry about what everyone out there tries to sell you. There are a billion Catholics in the world. Some of us are more regal than the Queen and more Catholic than the Pope, and most of us have internet access.
Maybe you’d like to check out the work at the Vatican Observatory?
vaticanobservatory.org/
"…*The Vatican Observatory School in Astrophysics is thus a place where young people the world over can engage in dialogue and collaboration, helping one another in the search for truth, which in this case is concretized in the study of galaxies. This simple and practical initiative shows how the sciences can be a fitting and effective means for promoting peace and justice.
Here too we see a further reason for the Church’s commitment to dialogue with the sciences on the basis of the light provided by faith: it is her conviction that faith is capable of both expanding and enriching the horizons of reason (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 238)**. In this dialogue, the Church rejoices in the marvelous progress of science, seeing it as a sign of the enormous God-given potential of the human mind (cf. ibid, 243), even as a mother rejoices and is rightly proud as her children grow “in wisdom, and age and grace” (Lk 2:52).
Finally, I would also encourage you to share with people in your own countries the knowledge about the universe which you have acquired. Only a fraction of the global population has access to such knowledge, which opens the heart and the mind to the great questions which human beings have always asked: Where do we come from? Where are we going? Does this universe made up of hundreds of millions of galaxies have any meaning? … The search for an answer to these questions can lead us to an encounter with the Creator, the loving Father, for “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
May the almighty and merciful God, who “tells the number of the stars and calls each one by name” (Ps 147:4), fill all of you with his peace and grant you his blessing."* Pope Francis, speech at the Vatican Observatory, June 26, 2014
**[Evangelii Gaudium (On the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World), 238: *Evangelization also involves the path of dialogue. For the Church today, three areas of dialogue stand out where she needs to be present in order to promote full human development and to pursue the common good: dialogue with states, dialogue with society – including dialogue with cultures and the sciences – and dialogue with other believers who are not part of the Catholic Church. In each case, “the Church speaks from the light which faith offers”,[186] contributing her two thousand year experience and keeping ever in mind the life and sufferings of human beings. This light transcends human reason, yet it can also prove meaningful and enriching to those who are not believers and it stimulates reason to broaden its perspectives.
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