Would the Church baptize aliens if they come to Earth?

  • Thread starter Thread starter LibralAteoJesus
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I donā€™t know and Iā€™m not going to worry about it, cause speculation and curiosity is not productive for me.
 
GEddie said:
There is a theological question whether the Church is available, or even necessary, for nonhumans.

Itā€™s clear that when our LORD came, He was human. Therefore the relation of His church to nonhumans is uncertain.

But if the aliens requested baptism, all bets would be off.

ICXC NIKA
Click to expand...
Even if they requested it, wouldnā€™t then the baptism be irrelevant since the son of God came only to humans?
 
Hello! I need to say I donā€™t believe there are any aliens out there in the universe. I think this big ole dirt ball called Earth is all we got. This is it. Love or leave it!

But now that Iā€™ve said thatā€¦if ever Martin the Martian ever showed up and was interested, sure Baptize him! But make sure the water doesnā€™t melt him like Iā€™ve seen in some sci-fi films about aliens. :o

Glenda
 
I seem to remember there being a recent Church document, written under either John Paul II or Benedict XVI, that said the Church would be necessary for a given alien race only if that given race were afflicted with original sin.
 
glendab said:
Hello! I need to say I donā€™t believe there are any aliens out there in the universe. I think this big ole dirt ball called Earth is all we got. This is it. Love or leave it!

Glenda
Click to expand...
This is a non-issue because if there is life on other planets the life on those planets would probably not be intelligent. They would never be able to travel here before this planet is engulfed by our own sun. That is assuming that you could fuel it the 4.25 lightyear distance.
 
The Church teaches that the baptism of desire applies both to those who, while wishing to be baptized, die before receiving the sacrament and ā€œThose who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of conscienceā€ (Constitution on the Church, Second Vatican Council).

It follows that the Church would baptise aliens if they were receptive to the teaching of Jesus.
 
LibralAteoJesus said:
šŸ¤·
Click to expand...
I think you have read too many SF books and seen too much SF in movies and on
TV!
There is not intellegent life from outer space; and as an other respondant said, Aliens would have to be subject to Original Sin in order to warrent Baptism.
One other thing, who would determine whether or not Aliens had a soul, and how could one be sure?
 
tonyrey said:
The Church teaches that the baptism of desire applies both to those who, while wishing to be baptized, die before receiving the sacrament and ā€œThose who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of conscienceā€ (Constitution on the Church, Second Vatican Council).

It follows that the Church would baptise aliens if they were receptive to the teaching of Jesus.
Click to expand...
But to baptize them is to clean them from orginal sin and accept Jesus as savior to humans.

First: They may not have original sin.
Second: They arenā€™t humans from earth.
 
George_Stegmeir said:
I think you have read too many SF books and seen too much SF in movies and on
TV!
There is not intellegent life from outer space; and as an other respondant said, Aliens would have to be subject to Original Sin in order to warrent Baptism.
One other thing, who would determine whether or not Aliens had a soul, and how could one be sure?
Click to expand...
What made you know for sure that in this entire ultra big universe, there is no life out there? Earth isnā€™t the center of the universe. Iā€™m just giving a possibility that many consider even the Catholic church considered regarding aliens, how could ( if they exist and came to earth) be possibly baptized when:
1- They donā€™t have original sins.
2- Jesus died for humans.
 
There are more galaxies out there then grains of sands on the earth - these are unimaginal numbers chances are very good that there is life out there - itā€™s our self- centred nature that would have us believe earth is the only place life exists - who are we to limit Godā€™s creation
 
I couldnā€™t care less about aliens, and have never wasted a moment thinking about them.

However: if they exist, presumably they are alive, and if so, possess a soul.

ICXC NIKA
 
I think maybe you should look at some of the language that is used in official catholic documents. One thing that comes to mind is that in the fourth section of the council of trent it says to preach the gospel to all creatures. This to me leaves open the possibility of preaching the gospel to other species if they can comprehend and needed saving. Even in famous passages like ā€œfor God so loved the worldā€ I know that the normal implication here is our world, but it does not have to be. That is just the implied meaning maybe there is a mystery here yet to be revealed which is why the passage does not read ā€œfor God so loved only this worldā€
 
hu324b said:
There are more galaxies out there then grains of sands on the earth - these are unimaginal numbers chances are very good that there is life out there - itā€™s our self- centred nature that would have us believe earth is the only place life exists - who are we to limit Godā€™s creation
Click to expand...
Allow me to ask out of curiosity, how could you possibly accept this fact about the universe and yet believe in a dogmatic personal-religious god who sent his ā€˜sonā€™ to save one of his many creations, do you believe that Jesus could have possibly died on other planets too?
 
There is no mutual exclusivity between a dogmatic god and life on other planets.
 
hu324b said:
There are more galaxies out there then grains of sands on the earth - these are unimaginal numbers chances are very good that there is life out there - itā€™s our self- centred nature that would have us believe earth is the only place life exists - who are we to limit Godā€™s creation
Click to expand...
Correct me if I am wrong but the number of galaxies in the universe is approx 10^12. The number of estimated grains of sand on earth 10^20 to 10^24. The number of stars in the universe is approx 10^23 which would get you in the range of the grains of sand on earth
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top