Aliens And Evangilization

[phatcatholic]

but what if they believe in a God who put on flesh and died on another planet far away and have their own understanding of such things (not contradictory, just uniquely there's).

"Hyper -- So you are saying -if they also had an incarnation of God in their history it might not be right to convert them.."

OUI!

when i read these two quotes, i understood them as follows:

--in the first quote u are just questioning the possibility of aliens having their own God that died for them

--don asks u if u thought we did not have the right to convert such aliens, w/ their own God

--u responded w/ "OUI!"

--i took this "oui" sound as one of agreement, in which case u would be affirming the statement:

--we don't have the right to convert them b/c they have their own God that put on flesh and died for them

--when i read this, and understood it as such, i stated there there is only ONE God, not a God that died for us and a separate God that died for them. so, given the opportunity we should--and we have the right to--tell them about our God.

if my logic is inconsistent w/ what u were thinking, then i stand corrected. i just thought i'd let u know why i understood ur statements the way i did.

no biggie..........afterall, we are talking about aliens here, hehe :D

pax christi,

phatcatholic

Edited January 15, 2004 by phatcatholic

[PedroX]

Phat C.

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

peace...

[Anna]

What is that smell?????

:heymon:

Edited January 15, 2004 by Anna

[PedroX]

Hey, I'm a geek, not under the influence. Since geeks have stunted social skills, and no life, we have plenty of time to think deep thoughts about the possibility of souls in Aliens! :D

You're just jealous that I'm prepared for "First Contact". I am totally prepared to meet our Alien masters!

peace...

[Anna]

I am jealous because of your astonishing capacity for deep thoughts.

:blink:

[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.