E.T. Phone Rome

Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church. (read entire article HERE)

The Vatican's chief astronomer says believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.  In an interview, the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes said:

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."

There is even now a branch of theology that some are calling Exotheology (theology of outer space).  These discussions about religion and extraterrestrial life even go back to a 1978 article in Time magazine.

Major religious thinkers have yet to give serious attention to the issues posed by what some call "exotheology" (the theology of outer space). Perhaps they are waiting for the first UFOs to land, but more likely they suppose that ultimately the discovery of other beings makes no difference. Even if the visitors turned out to look like bug-eyed monsters or gelatinous blobs, such species might serve to enlarge the vision of the Creator's creativity. To theologians the "image of God," after all, does not refer to the type of body that characterizes Homo sapiens but to the intellect and spirit that reside therein.

No less orthodox an author than the late Cambridge Don C.S. Lewis was untroubled by the prospect of life elsewhere. Writing in the Christian Herald two decades ago, he saw no reason why the eternal Son of God could not also have been incarnate in other worlds, or why God could not devise a totally different form of redemption. Lewis also predicted that if life ever were found elsewhere, every one would find new arguments for beliefs they already held.

There has always been a fascination with aliens and the idea that we are not alone.  But do you think Christian theology has anything to speak on this issue?  Does the idea of extra-terrestrial life undercut mankind's position as made in the image of God?

Certainly a resurgence of interest of extraterrestrials visiting our planet has renewed by the new T.V. series, "V"




I think that ultimately the desire to look up into the heavens to find signs of intelligent life is our deep need to know that we are not alone. But we don't need to look light years away to know that. God came near to us, through His son Jesus...and our search for meaning and purpose in the universe need not go any farther