The Vatican: It’s fine if you believe in God and extraterrestials

That’s not quite what a spokesperson for the Vatican said, but that is what the headlines say: “Vaticano: possible credere in Dio e negli extraterrestri.” The headlines remind me of a widespread modern phenomenon which no doubt is not without analogies in cultures of most times and places: it’s easy to find people who are unsure about whether God exists, but firmly believe in the devil, the Bermuda Triangle, and UFOs.

Or consider the situation in France. Atheism is fashionable, with 33% or even 47% happy to announce the fact to poll-takers. But belief in reincarnation is also fashionable: 29% believe in that. 36% believe in reincarnation in Switzerland. Very few people in France and Switzerland are practicing Christians anymore, but hey, there’s always the next life to do that in. In the meantime, the reasoning goes, after being Catholic or Protestant for so long, it’s about time we try something with fewer requirements and  fewer inhibiting intellectual and moral guardrails.

What Josè Gabriel Funes, the director of the Vatican Observatory, really said was this:

[M]olti astronomi non perdono occasione per fare pubblica professione di ateismo . . . è un po' un mito ritenere che l'astronomia favorisca una visione atea del mondo. Mi sembra che proprio chi lavora alla Specola offra la testimonianza migliore di come sia possibile credere in Dio e fare scienza in modo serio.

Come esiste una molteplicità di creature sulla terra, così potrebbero esserci altri esseri, anche intelligenti, creati da Dio. Questo non contrasta con la nostra fede, perché non possiamo porre limiti alla libertà creatrice di Dio.

Many astronomers do not miss an opportunity to make public confession of atheism . . . [but] it’s a bit of a myth to hold that astronomy favors an atheistic view of the world. It seems to me that those who work at the Vatican Observatory are an excellent illustration of the fact that it’s possible to believe in God and do science in a serious way.

Just as there are a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there could exist other beings [elsewhere], even intelligent beings, created by God. This does not contrast with our faith, because we can’t put limits on God’s creative freedom.

Here is an image of a spiral galaxy at a distance of 9.7 Mpc (32 million light years) procured by Vatican Observatory astronomer Josè Gabriel Funes S. J., and Sanae Akiyama with the University of Arizona.

Comments

[Mike Heiser]

John - You're behind the times! (Good for you in this case). Over on my blog UFOReligions I've begun what will amount to a challenge to one Monsignor Corrado Balducci (bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corrado_Balducci).

Balducci is famous on the web for his "unofficial official" sanctioning of alleged ET contact and "alien spirituality." We've met once - nice guy, but ... well ... you can read what I think of him on my blog if you're interested.

[JohnFH]

Thanks, Mike.

If you get in the habit of adding the right URL when you leave a comment, people will be able to click through to your blog / blog post instantaneously.

[Peter Kirk]

Thanks, John. Has the Vatican spokesperson been reading my blog? I wrote more">http://www.qaya.org/blog/?p=438">more or less the same a couple of months ago, and was surprised when it proved controversial.

[JohnFH]

Thank you, Peter, for blogging about controversial topics. It can't be done without ruffling feathers.