A couple of weeks ago the Pope acknowledged the possibility of intelligent life outside this solar system. I believe there must be some intelligent life outside this solar system based off of the planets found so far and all the archeological evidence found throughout the world. Though the archeological evidence could be interpperated to a more logical conclusion, I still believe there is a chance other intelligent life has been here.

If you look at some religious art and some religious documents, there are references to "magical beings" using technology. These beings were interpperated as angels or gods or other deities. Therefore, I think these intelligent beings could be the source for some of the major religions throughout time.

I'm not religious and don't believe in any kind of god or other deity, so it is easier for me to believe this. And I have no problem with beliefs of others, no mater how different they may be.

I'd like to know what you think of this thought or the Pope's decision on the subject. I don't know much about the pope, so I don't know if he really believes in another intelligent or if this is a political move. (I don't mean to insult the Pope or his religion by saying this is a political move)

I'm a spiritual person and I believe there is other life than just on this planet...being spiritual actually makes it easier to believe.

Do you believe they could have ever been here?

If there isn't other life in this universe then the universe is an aweful waste of space.

As far as aliens having visited planet Earth, I find that very unlikely based on what we know about our planet and life on Earth. According to geneticists all life on earth is intimately related and began from a single cell. So even if aliens came here, they would have been brief spectators at best, and certainly did not give rise to humans being on this planet. Even more certain is that they would not have "bred" with humans. The probability that thier DNA would have been compatible with human DNA to the point of mating would be so slim as to be unrealistic.

As far as the Pope is concerned, I personally feel that the Church's descision to acknowledge the possiblity of alien life was done simply to "Beat Science to the Punch". Technology in astrophysics and astronomy is grown exponentially, so there is a higher and higher probability that we might soon discover signs of life, even potentially in another galaxy.

Therefore if the Church acknowledges this possiblity now as part of their "Belief system", then when life is discovered it's not going to be such a huge blow to the Chruch. So it's safer to prepare for the worst.

Is there anything in the Bible about extraterrestials? No. So why should the Pope support such a notion? Clearly he's being swayed by science, not by the teachings of scripture. That's my opinion on that one.

He doesn't want the church to get caught with their pants down again like they did when science discovered that the Earth is not at the center of the universe, and again when science discovered that we evolved from lower primates, etc.

So this time he's going to try to get a jump on science.

Do you know or think the Pope looked at this from a scientific perspective or the same way the average person does, by looking at and reading evidence and making their own conclusion.

There is substantial evidence of alien visitation on Earth. How much contact, if any, with past civilizations is yet to be proven.

In all likelihood, any civilization capable of advanced space travel could probably splice genes also. Breeding with early man doesn't make much sense but gene splicing could have been subtle and effective.

Look what we have done to corn, tomatoes, and beef.

I personally dount that the Pope made this decision on his own. I imagine it was considered by an entire committee, and the idea was probably along the lines that I'd described. The Church doesn't want to be caught in yet another position where science is discovering something that appears to fly in the face of their faith. So they decided to get a jump-start on this one so that if and when it happens the Church will already be in a position to accept it. In fact, they'll probably try to turn it around and claim like the Church has somehow predicted it before science even discovered it.

It's just a PR tactic to be sure the Church doesn't get lost in shuffle as science continues to advance.

Like I say, there is nothing in their scriptures that suggest that there should be life elsewhere, so they certainly didn't get the idea from their religion. I can only be a PR move to try to keep pace with possible scientific discoveries.

Yes, but what's the point to such theories? Those aliens would have had to have evolved on their own anyway, so why pass the buck.

I mean, what does this supposedly "explain" that can't be explained otherwise?

My thinking is that if an alien race had come to planet Earth, they probably would have colonized the solar system. Why come here, intervene with our genes and then disappear without a trace? What would be in it for them?

If that is the case here, and if they did not use any scientific process, then I personally think this decision is meaningless. I hope for their sake they did look at the issue of intelligent life with some scientific thought of some kind.

Personally, if I traveled light years to another planet and found intelligent life there, I would want to study them as much as possible and not want to influence them technologically.

I believe there is life everywhere, the debate about how much of it is 'intelligent' life is another story

I dont think there is anything in the universe comparable to humans, I hold out on the possibility that humans may still be physically changing to survive their ever changing environment and that perhaps in the future , after having gone too far and changed too much, we may figure out how to use the dimensions(including time) to come back and observe to see how we can 'make things better'

Well, I have no clue as to precisely why they make their descisions. I'm just guessing. I'm just willing to bet that they are more concerned about PR and looking good, than they are about much else.

I think the scientific probability that there exists other life in the universe is pretty high. So if you're going to bet, you're better off betting that it exists.

Besides, if the Church is the one that's doing the betting they can't lose by betting that there might be other life. If we never discover other life they won't lose anything, but if we do discover other life and they weren't on board with that possiblity then they stand to lose a lot. So if they're going to bet on it, it's in their favor to bet on the positive result. That way they can't lose. It's the safe bet.

Outside of this solar system? Well lets see...... this solar system was actually captured by this Milky Way galaxy from a collision that happened many billions of years ago with another galaxy. Our solar system did not originally emerge from this galaxy at all.

This galaxy is only a small and insignificant one in the face of the entire universe, and it contains billions of stars and many of them have planets around them.

Still our solar system is different. As you can see, it spins at a different angle from the Milky Way galaxy.

But if there is NOT "intelligent life" outside of this tiny solar system, then where exactly does the Pope think God lives? On Jupiter perhaps? In this solar system somewhere? In the center of the sun? Or is God not considered "intelligent?"

Does the Pope think that the Almightly God is confined to a tiny solar system? Does the Pope acknowledge other dimensions perhaps? Does the Pope actually believe in a God?

I think he should probably keep his opinions on such things to himself, he is showing his ignorance.

(He is supposed to believe in God. God is supposed to be intelligent.)

I believe that aliens have 'visited' this earth and probably had a lot to do with the evolution of humans here, which happened very quickly to have happened without some help. I can see you have read very little on the subject.



You may want to read it again. There are all kinds of stories in the Bible about non-human intelligent life forms, "gods" "demons" lights in the sky, and creatures (fallen angels) who took human wives and bore offspring.