Pope's astronomer says he would baptise an alien if it asked him
Pope's astronomer says he would baptise an alien if it asked him An alien – 'no matter how many tentacles it has' – could have a soul, says pope's astronomer Alok Jha guardian.co.uk , Friday 17 …More
Pope's astronomer says he would baptise an alien if it asked him
An alien – 'no matter how many tentacles it has' – could have a soul, says pope's astronomer
Alok Jha
guardian.co.uk
, Friday 17 September 2010 15.45 BST Article history
Aliens might have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them, a Vatican scientist said today. The official also dismissed intelligent design as "bad theology" that had been "hijacked" by American creationist fundamentalists.
Guy Consolmagno, who is one of the pope's astronomers, said he would be "delighted" if intelligent life was found among the stars. "But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it – when you add them up it's probably not a practical question."
Speaking ahead of a talk at the British Science Festival in Birmingham tomorrow, he said that the traditional definition of a soul was to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions. "Any entity …More
An alien – 'no matter how many tentacles it has' – could have a soul, says pope's astronomer
Alok Jha
guardian.co.uk
, Friday 17 September 2010 15.45 BST Article history
Aliens might have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them, a Vatican scientist said today. The official also dismissed intelligent design as "bad theology" that had been "hijacked" by American creationist fundamentalists.
Guy Consolmagno, who is one of the pope's astronomers, said he would be "delighted" if intelligent life was found among the stars. "But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it – when you add them up it's probably not a practical question."
Speaking ahead of a talk at the British Science Festival in Birmingham tomorrow, he said that the traditional definition of a soul was to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions. "Any entity …More
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The Jesuit astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, is too dismissive of the arguments for intelligent design by biochemists like Michael Behe. Professor Behe is not a "fundamentalist" nor a "pseudo-scientist." There are examples of "irreducible complexity" in nature which do not fit the theory of gradual mutation over thousands of generations. If several components must all be present at the same time, natural …More
The Jesuit astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, is too dismissive of the arguments for intelligent design by biochemists like Michael Behe. Professor Behe is not a "fundamentalist" nor a "pseudo-scientist." There are examples of "irreducible complexity" in nature which do not fit the theory of gradual mutation over thousands of generations. If several components must all be present at the same time, natural selection would not favor the development of each individual random mutation. Professor Behe cites many examples, for example, the complex structure of a bacterial flagellum. Brother Consolmagno is an astrononer, but he is not an expert in biochemistry.