Friday, December 04, 2009

Bishops love Sci-Fi!

At least according to Fr. Dougal in the Fr. Ted series. It'd be easy to dismiss as utter nonsense, but Dougal may not have been too far off the mark. Considering a recent conference in Rome, one may wonder if it may be that a few Bishops even Cardinals somewhere watched too much Star Trek at some point...
The Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences held its first ever conference on astrobiology, the study of life beyond Earth, last month. Thirty scientists, including non-Catholics, from the U.S., France, Britain, Switzerland, Italy and Chile gathered in Rome for the five-day conference, called to explore among other issues "whether sentient life forms exist on other worlds."

"The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Pope's chief astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory. Funes said the possibility of alien life raises "many philosophical and theological implications" but added that the gathering was mainly focused on the scientific perspective and how different disciplines can be used to explore the issue.

The Church of Rome's views have shifted radically through the centuries since Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 for speculating, among other ideas, that other worlds could be inhabited, and they've come along way since Galileo was tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant his finding that the Earth revolves around the sun. Earlier in the year they embraced Darwin's theory of evolution.

Colonel “Whopper” Creedon, Special Operations Commander for UNETIDA, while not specifically invited, also spoke at the conference warning against blind acceptance of E.T.s should they arrive. “Ya know, for such an outmoded and traditionally close-minded, even backward-thinking group of people - to begin seeking out information concerning E.T.s is quite astonishing” remarked the stalwart Marine after a ceremony declaring him a “Hero of Sweden” in Stockholm earlier this week.

Pope Benedict XVI, listens intently at Colonel Creedon's plan for subduing Extra Terrestrial life. "You remind me of a man I once knew in my youth" remarked the Pontiff.

“I was glad to give the cardinals and theologians some basic information on what we’ve been researching ourselves and preparing for" continued Creedon. "Obviously UNETIDA is more concerned with alien’s weapons and attack strategy to which we must formulate a defence against and just as importantly our ability to subdue them in order to use their special abilities and advanced technology for ourselves. But the Vatican seemed like they wanted to prepare to adapt their teachings to include the possibility of life on other planets. Sure this “Almighty God” dude [not Lucas] created the heavens and the earth etc. in six days and rested on the seventh – is there something that says he didn’t start up somewhere else on Monday morning again? Just because we don’t have a record of it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. You really think the almighty is going to tell us everything? Would you if you were him?"

Somewhere right now: Dan Brown is scribbling furiously….

Sources: The Colbert Report / The Telegraph / BBC News/ AP

2 comments:

Master Guns said...

Now if only they'd be as quick to stop buggering small children as they are to embrace your enemies Colonel...

Civilian Overseer said...

Have to agree with Guns on this one.