Vatican Astronomer Comments On Extraterrestrials 1312
An anonymous reader writes "There's an Astrobiology.net interview up with a Vatican astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, who also curates one of the world's largest meteorite collections. On the possibility of a non-terrestrial lifeform, he says initially 'I don't know', followed by three scenarios. First, he argues: 'We find an intelligent civilization and there's no way in creation we can communicate with them because they're so alien to us. We can't talk to dolphins now. In which case, we'll never know.' Secondly, he suggests: 'We find the intelligent civilization. We can communicate.' As agents of free-will, the aliens are self-aware of good and evil, thus convertible to some terrestrial religion. Thirdly: 'We find a dozen civilizations out there, and a bunch of Jehovah's witnesses go up and convert them all.' The question of whether an alien civilization might convert Earth to their religion, or become a religion unto themselves, is left unconsidered. This compares to the many reasons people give for hosting a SETI@home client, including that ET contact would unite humanity, challenge religion, or all of the above."
Or how about (Score:5, Funny)
Hail Ming! (Score:2, Funny)
All these years, I've been telling you, I hope now that you see it as clearly as I do. I for one welcome.. err.. ok.
Will the aliens be (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Good and evil (Score:3, Funny)
A Google Search for the phrase "I am evil" yields 13,600 hits.
Re:Wow. (Score:2, Funny)
You obviously haven't seen "Alien 3".
Re:Or how about (Score:4, Funny)
"A" Vatican astronomer? (Score:3, Funny)
Jehovah's witnesses? (Score:2, Funny)
And fourth... (Score:2, Funny)
They give us plans to build a mysterious worm hole transportation device, some zealous religious nut destroys it, but Jodie Foster gets into another one made in Japan, trips out on a few psychedelic visions, meets her father who looks slightly like Douglas Adams, comes back and says it's all about being happy with your life.
Meanwhile, Steve Jobs' pagan cult goes unchallenged.
Mistake No. 1 (Score:3, Funny)
Mistake No. 2
Thinking a dying Pantheon would interest already Illuminated Extra Terrestrials.
Well I do agree... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Or how about (Score:1, Funny)
Have fun in hell buddy
Re:Dolphin Communication (Score:2, Funny)
Well, maybe we can't communicate with dolphins, but they sure enjoy a good handjob given by a Greenpeace activist. Anyone to try the same with aliens ?
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:While we're on the subject... (Score:5, Funny)
"This is historic news," Maussan told reporters. "Hundreds of videos (of UFOs) exist, but none had the backing of the armed forces of any country.... The armed forces don't perpetuate frauds."
Now that is humor.
Re:Will the aliens be (Score:2, Funny)
Astral Amish.
What If? (Score:5, Funny)
There's much dismissal of the notion of aliens taking our religion seriously. And I tend to agree. But it does make for a fun "what if" scenario.
What if the aliens did take to our religious beliefs? What if the Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons did manage to convert them? Either scenario would be particularly entertaining, since presumably the aliens would then undertake the same activities as the human Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons on Earth, to the limits that their biologies would allow. Hell, I'd look forward to them coming to my door. I would be able to forgive all the other shortcomings of the 'future' (lack of flying cars, rocketpacks, etc.) if every now I could open my door to find a couple of small grey aliens in white shirts and black ties, earnest looks on their faces, asking me about my thoughts on God. I'd still slam the door in their faces, of course, but I'd have a little "Well, whaddya know?" smile on my face as I did so.
Indeed, conversion to any branch of Christianity would provide endless entertainment, since we would have yet another party laying claim to Jerusalem as the holiest city. Or perhaps we could one day look forward to a "Passion" remake, complete with an alien Jesus dragging the cross? I wonder, would the Christian aliens still nurse a mild resentment of the Jews? Or would aliens be more likely to become Jews themselves, able to accept the idea of God but not a human Messiah? Man, would that ever get some people going. Osama bin Laden would just shit himself.
Of course, they may not go for a mainstream religion. Maybe they'll become convinced that the ultimate arbiter of religious truth is some dude leading a cult somewhere in the wilds of Montana. Maybe they'd all become Branch Davidians, or some equivalent thereof.
Mind you, the alternative to us converting them is even more fun. I personally would go to church--or whatever you would call it--every week, if the purpose were to worship some whacked-out alien god. All hail the Great Slug of the Cosmos, perhaps. Hell, I'll even worship Kah'less if I get to play with a Bat'leth.
Thinking about this sort of stuff is more fun than a box full of puppies.
Re:Black Jesus, Asian Jesus, Jesus with 8 tentacle (Score:2, Funny)
> now they will have to agree for Jesus with eight tentacles?
Naw, you're confusing him with his surly cousin from R'lyeh.
Re:Or how about (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder how long it will take the scientology monkeys to order slashdot to delete this post.
Not all relgions are created equal. (Score:4, Funny)
In the given question of how religions would respond to this 'new' reality, I think would fair quite nicely. Budism and Hinduism would have little if any problem with this, and would probably brag about their general philosophy of univeralism. Jews would find some 2,000 year old comment, saying that they always knew this. Muslims would most likely be outraged. Aithiests would have an absolute fit, when they translated the alien pledge of aliegence. And the Georga school board may finally allow the teaching of evolution (that the Aliens came from apes).
The basic need for faith, in something, by far exceeds the need to keep ones world view intelectualy honest.
And maybe that's a good thing.
ps. Even if *WHEN* we discover ET, that doesn't prove or disprove anything other than ETs do exist, and really prefer M&Ms over Reeces-Peeces.
Re:Some speculation on alien religion (Score:1, Funny)
Speaking of C3PO (Score:3, Funny)
I heard about a religion a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The priests of this religion wore plain brown robes and carried sabers made out of light. They were (supposed to be) good and kind and helped fight evil.
I've never even met this alien civilization and I already want to convert to Jedi.
Re:Is it that likely? (Score:5, Funny)
They'd have angels too. They're called Vorlons.
Re:Dolphin Communication (Score:3, Funny)
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Prime Diredtive?? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Well I do agree... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Or how about (Score:2, Funny)
The technology of the Church states that the processes known as the OT levels must be done in order, must not be done out of sequence, and a person MUST be qualified to use them in order to get the desired results.
Whats so hard to understand about that content? The Church enforces that policy for the reasons of that policy and not some 'invented reason' coming out of the ass of some so-called 'expert' who hasn't even got the faintest clue what the fuck he's talking about.
If you don't know what it means to 'run out all BPC on the incident', then you really don't have any argument against why the Church protects its materials. The purpose of the protection of these materials is to ensure that, in fact, all BPC is handled on the specific incident involved, standardly, so that the stellar results of the OT materials are available, standardly, across the board, for all who care to do it...
Degrading this with derision and invalidation isn't going to change the fact that, in fact, Scientology works
Re:Or how about (Score:5, Funny)
Dr. Consolmagno (Score:4, Funny)
he studies meteorites. I wonder what research notes look like:
Observed high proportion of Carbon to Iron in meteor type X.
Question: Why is this so?
Answer: God made it that way.
Next question...
Re:Bibles. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Or how about (Score:4, Funny)
Hey, I resent this ! We, discordians, are the real bunch of babbling loons, not those scientoschmientologists.
Re:Dolphin Communication (Score:2, Funny)