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ChainBreaker
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Scenario: If scientists found out that aliens started life on earth, how would that effect the Catholic Faith?
Scenario: If scientists found out that aliens started life on earth, how would that effect the Catholic Faith?
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Bahman
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They would deny it!
As they did with the story of Earth being in center of creation.
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bisco
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i know, but i can’t tell you until the aliens show up.
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georget
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Shallow, shameful nonsense.They would deny it!
No problem. Such an effort would probably have started with the “seeding” of the planet’s oceans, which would eventually have evolved into present-day life. It therefore does not pose any difference, since at one point, Adam would have descended from that (Adam being the first creature to be given a human soul).
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Jon_S_1
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It would not affect the Catholic Faith…
Bahman, I’m saying it now so need need to "deny it " later.
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georget
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They would deny it!
reruns
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MarcoPolo
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The Church didn’t deny that as automatically as you sound to be saying. The Church, like other scientists of the time, did not accept Galileo’s presentation a “proof.” Galileo was not able to account for the stellar parallax, which was apparently not proven until the 19th century.They would deny it!
But the answer to the OP’s question is the same as Cardinal Bellarmine’s letter regarding the Galileo affair itself. I say that if there were a true demonstration that the sun was in the center of the universe and the earth in the third sphere, and that the sun did not travel around the earth but the earth circled the sun, then it would be necessary to proceed with great caution in explaining the passages of Scripture which seemed contrary, and we would rather have to say that we did not understand them than to say that something was false which has been demonstrated.
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ChainBreaker
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This is interesting. So it is not a dogma of the Catholic church that biological life started here but only Adam did.
Is it also okay to say that God created the soul even if Aliens made homosapiens or tampered with their evolution directly?
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Aloysium
Guest
If that is where my thoughts were taking me, I would consider psychiatric treatment. Really.
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ChainBreaker
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Are you saying that I need psychiatric treatment because I asked a philosophical/theological Question? Because if your not I don’t see how your opinion relates to the OP?
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Gorgias
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And let’s not forget that it was a Catholic cleric, Copernicus, who developed the heliocentric theory to begin with…Bahman:
The Church didn’t deny that as automatically as you sound to be saying.
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Gorgias
Guest
Hmm… not stated like that, no.
What’s dogma is that God created the universe from nothing, and that humanity is unique among earthly life in that we are created “in the image and likeness of God.” It’s dogma that God creates souls immediately (i.e., without mediation) just as parents cooperate with Him in the act of procreation.
What would you mean by “made homo sapiens”?
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Aloysium
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I am just asserting that if I had such a thought and it was not part of some activity that involved the suspension of disbelief. If I seriously considered such an idea, my next thought would be that I had gone insane, spontaneously, or through the introduction of a psychoactive substance into my body.
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Jon_S_1
Guest
Yes and yes
It is not a dogma that life began on earth, only that God created life ultimately.
It is perfectly acceptable to believe an evolutionary process inspired by God, created the human form leading to a point at which God set aside Adam and Eve and gave them souls making them and then alone our first parents.
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ChainBreaker
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Then I think I can safely ignore your opinion as it relates to the purpose of this thread. Thanks.
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Della
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Ah yes, the Star Trek: Next Generation episode. I remember it well. It’s quite a reach, really. After all, you’d first have establish that there are aliens, that they are intelligent, and that they were the ones who seeded the planets. A pretty tall order. That begs the question–where did the aliens come from in the first place? Who seeded their planet to start them on their way to sentience? And so back and back and back into infinity. 
I’ll just say it doesn’t keep me up nights wondering. 
I’ll just say it doesn’t keep me up nights wondering.
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PaulfromIowa
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How exactly could scientists discover that?
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Ed_Silvia
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That’s cleverly worded because scripture only mentions 2 types of sentient beings and it teaches us angels can take on physical form. The Church teaches us that satan is cast down to earth knowing he has but a short time & all his evil spirits wander through the world for the ruin of souls.
How do we tell the difference between a fallen angel in physical form out to ruin our souls and an alien from a far off planet saying that he started life here (our celestial daddy)?
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Beryllos
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Prior to that, the “Hainish” science fiction novels by Ursula K. Le Guin. I read The Left Hand of Darkness and enjoyed it very much.
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