Is the Vatican easing
humanity toward alien disclosure?
Church astronomer latest to speak of
"space brothers"
by Thomas Horn
Vatican chief astronomer Father Jose Gabriel
Funes in a long interview with the L'Osservatore Romano newspaper this week made
news by saying there is a certain possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in
the universe, and that such notion "doesn't contradict our faith."
"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," he said.
The statements by Funes are the latest in a
string of recent comments by Vatican astronomers confirming a belief that
discovery may be made in the near future of alien life, including intelligent
life, and that this discovery would not unhinge the doctrine of Christ.
In 2005, another Vatican astronomer, Guy
Consolmagno tackled this subject in a 50-page booklet, Intelligent Life in
the Universe, in which he concluded that chances are better than not that
mankind is facing a future discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence.
Approximately 7 years ago Monsignor Corrado
Balducci made similar news when he said ETs were actually already interacting
with earth and that some of the Vatican's leaders were aware of it.
Before his death in 1999, maverick Catholic
theologian Father Malachi Martin hinted at such more than once. In 1997, while
on Coast to Coast AM radio, Art Bell asked him why the Vatican was heavily
invested in the study of deep space at Mt Graham Observatory in southeastern
Arizona. As a retired professor of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Father
Martin was uniquely qualified to hold in secret, information pertaining to the
Vatican's
Advanced
Technology Telescope (VATT) project at the Mount Graham International
Observatory (MGIO). Martin's answer ignited a firestorm of interest among
Christian and secular UFOlogists when he said, "Because the mentality... amongst
those who [are] at the... highest levels of Vatican administration and
geopolitics, know that, now, knowledge of what's going on in space, and what's
approaching us, could be of great import in the next five years, ten years."
Those cryptic words "...what's approaching
us, could be of great import in the next five years, ten years," was
followed in subsequent interviews with discussion of a
mysterious "sign in the sky" that Malachi believed was approaching from the
North. People familiar with Malachi believe he may have been referring to a
near-future arrival of alien intelligence.
If ET life is something Vatican officials have
privately considered for some time, why speak of it so openly now, in what some
perceive as a careful doctrinal unveiling over the last 24 months? Is this a
deliberate "warming-up" by the church in anticipation of ET Disclosure? Are
official church publications on the subject an attempt to soften the blow before
disclosure arrives, in order to help the faithful retain their orthodoxy in
light of what such unprecedented knowledge could represent?
There might be a more mundane explanation for
the Vatican's recent interest in all things spacey.
Writing on Thursday, May 15th for Newsweek (The
Vatican and Little Green Men), Sharon Begley noted that "[this] might be part of
a push to demonstrate the Vatican's embrace of science (in 1992 it apologized
for that whole unfortunate Galileo mess, after all)... Interestingly, the
Vatican has plans to host a conference in Rome next spring to mark the 150th
anniversary of the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin's seminal work on
the theory of evolution. Conference organizers say it will look beyond
entrenched ideological positions—including misconstrued creationism. The Vatican
says it wants to reconsider the problem of evolution 'with a broader
perspective' and says an 'appropriate consideration is needed more than ever
before.'"
The 'appropriate consideration' Begley mentions
may have been alluded to by Guy Consolmagno two years ago in an interview with
the Sunday Herald. That article pointed out how Consolmagno's job included
reconciling "the wildest reaches of science fiction with the flint-eyed dogma of
the Holy See" and that his latest mental meander was about "the Jesus Seed" - "a
brain-warping theory which speculates that, perhaps, every planet that harbours
intelligent, self-aware life may also have had a Christ walk across its methane
seas, just as Jesus... did here on Earth in Galilee. The salvation of the
Betelguesians may have happened simultaneously with the salvation of the
Earthlings," the article said. This sounds a bit like holy panspermia to me --
the idea that life on earth was "seeded" by something such as an asteroid impact
-- but in this case "the seed" was divinely appointed and reconciled to Jesus /
God.
Do other religions agree with the Vatican on
ET brethren?
Following L'Osservatore Romano's interview with
Jose Funes, Muslim and Jewish leaders joined to say their religion could
accommodate an ET reality, while a scholar for the Russian Orthodoxy excluded
the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence.
The question of how the world's
political and religious communities would respond if suddenly faced with
visitors from beyond is something world religions and even the US Government has
studied. Paul Davies of The Atlantic Monthly wrote in 2003 that the discovery of
even a single bacterium somewhere beyond Earth could force mankind to revise its
understanding of who we are and where we fit into the cosmic scheme of things.
Davies speculated that such a find could throw the human race into a spiritual
identity crisis that could leave some gasping for faith in God.
In contrast, the
Alexander UFO Religious Crisis Survey of ministers
indicated that a majority of people--both religious and non-religious--not only
believe in but could accept an ET reality without throwing God out with the
bathwater.
Davies hopes this is true. As a cosmologist he sees order in the universe,
including the anthropic balances that make life possible elsewhere. This has led
to a deep personal interest in the subject of God and ET in which his response
to either an ET discovery or visitation would be compatible to his religious
ideas. He says the discovery of extraterrestrial life might actually
substantiate biblical creation, not challenge it, if mankind is--as
the Alexander UFO Religious
Crisis Survey suggests--ready
for it.
Professor Anthony Tambasco of Georgetown
University not only believes the world--including its religious people--is ready
for ET, but responding to NASA's recent press releases
about life potentially existing on Mars, he said that if the discovery of
life is substantiated, "it will not unravel traditional biblical convictions,
but rather provide an opportunity to enlarge or broaden them."
In a related CCN article, Sayyid Syeed of the
Islamic Society of North America said, "Most Muslims would also welcome the
discovery of life off of Earth." The Koran refers to Allah as the God of
'worlds,' he said, not just one world.
Rabbi James Ruden of the American Jewish Committee says most Jews also leave
open the possibility of life on other planets in their interpretation of
Genesis.
But What If ET Is Already Here, And He's the
Devil?
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) are
historically connected to the idea of extraterrestrial life. In some cases,
behavior of these strange sightings have left witnesses feeling as if they had
observed something alive, not mechanical. "I have become thoroughly convinced
that UFOs are real," popular Christian writer Hal Lindsey once wrote. "I believe
these beings are not only extraterrestrial but supernatural in origin. To be
blunt, I think they are demons."
In Angels Dark and Light, Gary Kinnaman accepts
UFO sightings as the manifestations of angels of darkness. "My main reason for
thinking this is that UFO sightings have never, at least to my knowledge, led a
person closer to God. In fact, most UFO experiences have just the opposite
effect."
Associate professor of psychology Elizabeth L.
Hillstrom points out in her book Testing the Spirits that a growing
number of scholars support similar conclusions of UFOnauts being synonymous with
historical demons:
From a Christian perspective, Vallee's
explanation of UFOs is the most striking because of its parallels with
demonic activity. UFO investigators have noticed these similarities. Vallee
himself, drawing from extrabiblical literature on demonic activities,
establishes a number of parallels between UFOnauts and demons....Pierre
Guerin, a UFO researcher and a scientist associated with the French National
Council for Scientific Research, is not so cautious: "The modern UFOnauts
and the demons of past days are probably identical." Veteran researcher John
Keel, who wrote UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse and other books on the subject,
comes to the same conclusion: "The UFO manifestations seem to be, by and
large, merely minor variations of the age-old demonological phenomenon."
Some theologians caution about connecting UFOs
with demonology. They say if UFOs represent anything supernatural at all, the
unidentified objects could be manifestations of good angels, while phenomenon
such as so-called alien abduction is more in line with manifestations of demons.
In other words, good "Watchers" observe earth from UFOs (using what one
evangelical theologian recently referred to as "celestial conveyances") while
fallen Watchers such as those spoken of in the apocryphal Book of Enoch do evil.
Regardless of the position one takes on UFOs
specifically, the possibility of open contact with intelligent
extraterrestrial life has never been better according to those who study
deep space for the Vatican.
Books by Christian scholars on UFOs, alien
intelligence