Aliens And Evangilization

[Jake Huether]

Phat C.

I read Hyper's posts to say unique incarnation of the same God. Not different God, just different expression.

peace...

That's the way I read it too.

Wow. This could lead to many possibilities.

God is God - He can do anything.

The Son, though Jesus here, might have incarnated on another planet, in another form. Is that possible? Truly God, Truly Man, Truly Alien???

Nahhh.

I'll stick to the idea that there is no inteligent life on other planets.

Humans just have wild imaginations.

[Don John of Austria]

The problem here is intellegent vs Human, it might be that a beast could learn to reason and even appear to have free will( I have known dogs who appeared to have free will.) and still they could not be graced with a human soul. That would have to be determined if they were found. I think Hyper that you are right that it would be heretical to think that there would be more than one incarnation, for the Children of adam, but if there was a seprerate creation, then maybe.

[DojoGrant]

Interestingly enough...

Orson Scott Card is a professed Mormon, but his Ender books are all about or portray in a good manner, Catholic Characters

Ender's Game

Speaker of the Dead

Xenocide

Children of the Mind

Ender's Shadow

Shadow of the Hegemon

Shadow Puppets

They involve a Catholic community (with Bishop) on an alien planet, a character who becomes a priest and spreads the Gospel to an alien race, and in two of the books, there is a very kindly nun who is pretty central to the plot.

Probably a good read for people who are interested in this discussion. ;)

[Azriel]

I said it once, I'll say it again. If you are fascinated with the concept of life on other planets than you need to read CS Lewis "the Space Trilogy" or at the very least read the first one "Out of the Silent Planet".

[Paladin D]

Let's say there are aliens with souls on another planet, would there be another Mary? :lol:

[Ash Wednesday]

I'm of the opinion that if aliens exist, I don't think they have souls in the same way humans do. Much like animals -- only perhaps much more intelligent. But who knows anyway? I think we should be concerning ourselves with the needs of this planet first and foremost.

When I kick the bucket, I'll ask God what that's all about.

An interesting Faq on aliens from ewtn.com

Edited January 15, 2004 by Ash Wednesday

[Paladin D]

I'm of the opinion that if aliens exist, I don't think they have souls in the same way humans do. Much like animals -- only perhaps much more intelligent.

When I kick the bucket, I'll ask God what that's all about.

Yeah, I agree.

Aliens who don't have souls, but are intelligent animals.

[DojoGrant]

This is starting to sound a bit one-sided. The only reason we would need to say, with certainty, that they are "intelligent" is if they came to us. There is always the possibility of us FINDING life on a planet that we explore. Such "alien" life would not necessarily (and more likely, would not) be intelligent.

[PedroX]

Dojo,

tread carefully here. Your assumption of intelligence is faulty. Were Native Americans not intelligent because it was the European's who "found" them? There are fascinating cultural, anthropological and even spiritual answers to these questions, but exploration is not the only sure sign of intelligence.

peace...

[DojoGrant]

Pedro,

I think you misunderstand me. A creature with the ability to cross the cosmos would obviously be intelligent. A creature we stumble upon, without such visible display of "technology" is not so easy to classify as "intelligent."

Further, except for a terribly conceded person (or one who lied to himself for personal gain, ie, slavery), early American settlers may have called the Native Americans "savage," but there was no doubt that they were "humans." If not, they wouldn't have tried to evangelize to them. It's kind of a faulty example, because we knew they had souls.

My point is that some other creature without perceivable intelligence in any non-standard animal form, is harder to say that it is intelligent, much less that it necessarily has a soul.

[NewReformation]

The surest sign that there IS intelligent life on other planets is the fact that none of it has tried to contact us.

[Aloysius]

lol parodoxical

i am the very first person who ever started a topic about aliens. therefore i have the authority to say a lil something.

we decided that aliens don't necessarily have to be of male and female sex, they might just pray for babies and the green stork brings them to em.

if they do have souls, and they fell from their garden of eden, they probably are the scientologists of their planet, you know, the religion everyone thinks is wierd for worshipping some alien. cuz Jesus of Nazareth is the only savior.

they could very well have never fallen, and thus never die and live always in their garden of eden. possibly God gave them a spacecraft so they can come look at us to keep their conviction not to fall and become as bad as us :ph34r:

that's my 234324cents... i have a lot more cents than all of you who only have 2. :P

[Paladin D]

Let's say there are aliens with souls on another planet, would there be another Mary?

Hmmm...

[Aloysius]

Jesus of Nazareth is the only savior. i contend that God never incarnated Himself on any other planet. He only had to suffer and die once, for all. not once for each group of creation, whether seperated by continents or solar systems. :P

[Don John of Austria]

He died for all Mankind, all of Adams Children not all of Creation, I agree completely that all of Adams Children where ever they maybe would be Covered by the single incarnation however that wouldn't proclude other created creatures thatt where not Human and might not be counted in that salvation.

[Aloysius]

:unsure: i guess... i still don't like the idea though.

[Don John of Austria]

Noer do I really don't think much of the Idea that there is intellegent life outthere but the possability should be concidered

[Don John of Austria]

Further, except for a terribly conceded person (or one who lied to himself for personal gain, ie, slavery), early American settlers may have called the Native Americans "savage," but there was no doubt that they were "humans." If not, they wouldn't have tried to evangelize to them. It's kind of a faulty example, because we knew they had souls.

Well actually it was heavily debated about whether or not the natives Were human and it took a Papal decree to settle the matter.

[Don John of Austria]

I do not believe that we are given implicit or explicit dominion over other planets. The English translations of Genesis do not support this. Therefore, the colonization of other worlds is a very touchy subject

Yeah this is where I keep ending up. But I am still not sure, certianly colonization or alteration of other worlds would have to be done with far more thought about it that we usually show. Now on the other hand If we do have dominion then our hand would be virtually free as there would be no one else to worry about when concidering an uninhabited world.

[PedroX]

Don,

Purely in the realm of hypothetical musings...

What if the drive for exploration was a symptom of the Fall? Think about it, before the Fall Adam and Eve were confined to the Garden. After the Fall, they had free roam over all the earth. God's curse on Cain (part of it) was to wonder the earth endlessly. (The curse of Cain was not vampirism, at least most likely not!)

Just some random musings...

peace...