Scenario: If scientists found out that aliens started life on earth, how would that effect the Catholic Faith?

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:mad: AH! And in answer to the Opening Question, I’d say that it is 100% IMPOSSIBLE for aliens to have created this Earth.

If there physical lifeforms on other planets and solar systems, then they may indeed be intelligent, perhaps as intelligent as dogs and dolphins, BUT they will never be as intelligent as we humans beings are, beings who are made in God’s image and likeness.

Being made in God’s image and likeness was enough to put us at the top of the food chain on planet Earth! I’m certain that, if all other physical lifeforms in this universe were to transfer to our planet, then we would still maintain our position at the top of the food chain.

:mad: I will accept the possibility of shape-shifting watercats on Neptune, or mysterious “plants” on floating rocks in outer-space, or even animals that may be dangerous as sharks and bears are, but nothing that would cause sufficient damage to the human race, to the point where we may become extinct.

I believe that aliens may exist, but since we are made in God’s image, then they shouldn’t be as nearly intelligent as we are, not intelligent enough to produce ships, weapons, and other technologies. Certainly *not *intelligent enough to create planets such as Earth! IN SHORT, NOPE, scientists will NEVER find out that aliens started life on Earth! In fact, once we all reach Heaven, this question’s answer will be obvious. (as all other questions would be)

But if they do then :signofcross: My faith will be dramatically affected, but I’m certain that it won’t have to. Certain. Positive.
 
Della said:
:rotfl: You’re joking? Right? 😛
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Unfortunately I am not joking.

If its any consolation I am not trying to attack your faith.

I simply testing the limits of what is acceptable to the Catholic church and what is not and why.
 
Faxero said:
:mad: AH! And in answer to the Opening Question, I’d say that it is 100% IMPOSSIBLE for aliens to have created this Earth.

If there physical lifeforms on other planets and solar systems, then they may indeed be intelligent, perhaps as intelligent as dogs and dolphins, BUT they will never be as intelligent as we humans beings are, beings who are made in God’s image and likeness.

Being made in God’s image and likeness was enough to put us at the top of the food chain on planet Earth! I’m certain that, if all other physical lifeforms in this universe were to transfer to our planet, then we would still maintain our position at the top of the food chain.

:mad: I will accept the possibility of shape-shifting watercats on Neptune, or mysterious “plants” on floating rocks in outer-space, or even animals that may be dangerous as sharks and bears are, but nothing that would cause sufficient damage to the human race, to the point where we may become extinct.

I believe that aliens may exist, but since we are made in God’s image, then they shouldn’t be as nearly intelligent as we are, not intelligent enough to produce ships, weapons, and other technologies. Certainly *not *intelligent enough to create planets such as Earth! IN SHORT, NOPE, scientists will NEVER find out that aliens started life on Earth! In fact, once we all reach Heaven, this question’s answer will be obvious. (as all other questions would be)

But if they do then :signofcross: My faith will be dramatically affected, but I’m certain that it won’t have to. Certain. Positive.
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Is it a dogma of the Catholic church that we are the only creatures made in God’s image (or the only sentient beings). God made angels and they are more intelligent than us.
 
ChainBreaker said:
“I couldn’t help but notice your pain, share it with me!”

Can you guess what star-trek movie that’s from?
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I’m not a Star Trek fan, never have been, but maybe you’ve seen to many of them and are starting to believe that fiction. I suggest you learn more about your Catholic faith and one day start practicing it faithfully. That’s much more exciting than fiction. God Bless, Memaw
 
Memaw said:
I’m not a Star Trek fan, never have been, but maybe you’ve seen to many of them and are starting to believe that fiction. I suggest you learn more about your Catholic faith and one day start practicing it faithfully. That’s much more exciting than fiction. God Bless, Memaw
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I find your post very disrespectful and uncharitable.

If and when I do “start practising the Catholic faith”, I hope it isn’t anything like yours, because any honest person who isn’t threatened by questions pertaining to their faith would have just answered no it doesn’t contradict the faith or yes it does. A person not interested in the topic would not have posted at all. I never once called your faith a fiction or a fairytale.

In fact I never once stated that I believed in aliens.

I wonder if you follow your faith as faithfully as you think you do.

One things for sure there is nothing of any real value to learn from you personally.
 
Faxero said:
If there physical lifeforms on other planets and solar systems, then they may indeed be intelligent, perhaps as intelligent as dogs and dolphins, BUT they will never be as intelligent as we humans beings are, beings who are made in God’s image and likeness.

I believe that aliens may exist, but since we are made in God’s image, then they shouldn’t be as nearly intelligent as we are, not intelligent enough to produce ships, weapons, and other technologies. Certainly *not *intelligent enough to create planets such as Earth! IN SHORT, NOPE, scientists will NEVER find out that aliens started life on Earth! In fact, once we all reach Heaven, this question’s answer will be obvious. (as all other questions would be)
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It’s interesting that you put it that way. Unsurprisingly, this was the argument raised by those who wanted to assert that Africans were inferior to Europeans, or Native Americans inferior to Europeans: they recognized that they were created in the image and likeness of God, but refused to believe that the others were, as well. “They couldn’t possibly be as intelligent as we!”

:hmmm:
 
ChainBreaker said:
Really?🙂

I wasn’t trying to be clever. I was just asking a question.

It’s plausible that given the existence of angels that shape-shift, we could be deceived into thinking that first contact is of an alien origin rather than a spiritual one. .
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I’m clever and it’s not a bad thing. You & I agree. 🙂
 
Gorgias said:
It’s interesting that you put it that way. Unsurprisingly, this was the argument raised by those who wanted to assert that Africans were inferior to Europeans, or Native Americans inferior to Europeans: they recognized that they were created in the image and likeness of God, but refused to believe that the others were, as well. “They couldn’t possibly be as intelligent as we!”

:hmmm:
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🍿
 
ChainBreaker said:
What is the purpose of this thread? Anti-Catholic Propaganda? If so it has one fatal flaw:
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Why am i being accused of Anti-Catholic Propaganda?I am simply asking the question because we have a few militant atheists in our midst!
Who started alien life? No explanation. However you assume life was started by intelligent
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beings, an uneconomical assumption! But you’re heading in the right direction. All of creation is the result of God’s creative act, or the first cause. Does the OP state otherwise? Of course not! But it seems rather an odd question to a person who doesn’t follow science fiction. 🙂
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Also useful on this topic may be this quote. It is Pope Leo XIII, quoting St. Augustine on science with regard to the faith:…St. Augustine warns us, “not to make rash assertions, or to assert what is not known as known.” If dissension should arise between them, here is the rule also laid down by St. Augustine, for the theologian: “Whatever they can really demonstrate to be true of physical nature, we must show to be capable of reconciliation with our Scriptures; and whatever they assert in their treatises which is contrary to these Scriptures of ours, that is to Catholic faith, we must either prove it as well as we can to be entirely false, or at all events we must, without the smallest hesitation, believe it to be so.” (Pope Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus, #18, 1893)
 
tonyrey said:
I am simply asking the question because we have a few militant atheists in our midst!
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I don’t see anything militantly atheistic or propaganda about a hypothetical question. You crying wolf where there is none.
Code: 
 Of course not! But it seems rather an odd question to a person who doesn't follow science fiction. :)
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In philosophy/theology there are no odd questions, only potentially boring ones.

In any case If God has created other biological beings who have intelligence like we do it would be good to know how the Catholic church would respond.
 
ChainBreaker said:
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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It is a dogma that God created all life. The how’s are left to science.

It is also dogma that man is made in the image and likeness of God. So even if biologically, humans evolved from seeding due to an alien intelligence, it still does not detract at all from God’s directing of that evolution towards the infusion of a human soul into Adam, thereby beginning the whole of salvation history.
 
Ignatius said:
A valid hypothesis must have a rational explanation.
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Why do I need to explain how scientists found other intelligent life in a hypothetical scenario?

I am not trying to prove that it happened or could happen. I am not presenting a hypothesis.

I simply want to understand how the Catholic Church would respond to that scenario. Evaluation of response is what hypothetical scenarios are for!

Isn’t this obvious?
 
MarcoPolo said:
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.
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Actually Galileo correctly deduced the reason for the lack of observable (at the time) stellar parallax. So while observable parallax would have evidence so blatant that no one could ignore it, its lack was in no way fatal to Galileo’s argument.

But there is a whole, relatively recent, thread in this topic here, so let’s not derail this one.
MarcoPolo said:
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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👍 This.

For that matter why would an extraterrestrial explanation be more problematic to Catholicism than a naturalistic chemical explanation of abiogenesis?
 
DrTaffy said:
Actually Galileo correctly deduced the reason for the lack of observable (at the time) stellar parallax. So while observable parallax would have evidence so blatant that no one could ignore it, its lack was in no way fatal to Galileo’s argument.

But there is a whole, relatively recent, thread in this topic here, so let’s not derail this one.

👍 This.

For that matter why would an extraterrestrial explanation be more problematic to Catholicism than a naturalistic chemical explanation of abiogenesis?
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The OP implies that life had to begin on this planet according to the Bible.
 
DrTaffy said:
I don’t get this, except by going for a very literal interpretation of Genesis. But what do I know?
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There are plenty of Fundamentalists around - even among Catholics! But then there are also degrees of Fundamentalism. 😉
 
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