GrodsCorp

Belief, meet fact

Wednesday 14 May 2008, 11:10 am

The Editor

Categories: Religion, Science

Tags: astronomy, Catholicism, ET, JesusChrist, Vatican

I kinda wish I could’ve been alive for the last couple of thousand years so I was able to watch Catholicism (and other religions) try rooly, rooly hard to marry their beliefs with human kind’s developing body of scientific knowledge and our growing awareness of the universe in which we live. I mean, listening to the Vatican’s “chief astronomer” try to grapple with life, the universe and everything and not make his religion look like a pile of pants is bloody hilarious.

“As an astronomer I continue to believe that God is the creator of the universe,” Jose Gabriel Funes said in an interview with the Vatican mouthpiece, the Osservatore Romano.

Even if “we don’t currently have any proof … the hypothesis” of extraterrestrial life cannot be ruled out, said Mr Funes, a Jesuit priest who directs the Vatican’s observatory at Castel Gandolfo, near Rome.

“Just as there are a plethora of creatures on Earth, there could be others, equally intelligent, created by God,” he said.

So far, so good. Nothing too weird there. But…

Original sin, which by Christian tradition occurred in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of a particular tree, refers to the fallen state from which humans can be saved only by God’s grace.

Asked about the difficult theological question, Mr Funes said: “If other intelligent beings exist, it’s not certain that they need redemption.”

They could “have remained in full friendship with their creator” without committing the original sin, he said.

Oh dear.

If not, extraterrestrials would benefit equally from the “incarnation,” in which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, assumed earthlings’ flesh, body and soul in order to redeem them, which Mr Funes called “a unique event that cannot be repeated”.

* smacks forehead into hand *

But all of this begs the really obvious question: what would Jesus Christ look like on ET’s planet?

JC phone home

21 Comments

Wah (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 11:29 am) #

The good thing about this is it will piss off the Scientologists
Damian (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 11:42 am) #

Ed, was that photoshoppage inspired by the Terrorgraph’s “what if they had a mullet” effort? It’s a shocker.

Scientology, Wah? U mean, like, those totally weird ppl who think the world was created from science?
Bruce (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 11:44 am) #

I not so sure any of this is any weirder than anything else in Catholicism. Although trying to marry the death and resurrection to science isn’t going to work if he admits it’s a once only event, because then it can’t be repeatedly tested.

Best to give in to less literal interpretations.
John Surname (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 11:58 am) #

OMG FREAK
The Editor (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 12:15 pm) #

Unlike the muppets at the Terrorgraph I don’t get paid for my shocking Photoshop skillz.
Mikey (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 12:28 pm) #

I declare that effort to be transubstantiastic!
Mikey (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 12:29 pm) #

Oh it will also probably give Mr Lefty’s favourite conservative visitor SB a conniption.
magic bellybutton (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 12:51 pm) #

I love that they’re willing to believe in ET but not in abortion, contraception and homosexuality.
The Editor (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 1:15 pm) #

ETs are forever while homofaguality is just a phase.
Wah (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 1:20 pm) #

If ET were Christ the the cricifix would look more like this -+-
magic bellybutton (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 1:29 pm) #

Wonder what they’ll do when they see the boy ETs fucking the other boy ETs?
The Editor (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 1:32 pm) #

They’ll send them to Gay Camp like Butters in South Park.
Dave from Albury (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 1:43 pm) #

Does anyone else pick up a Johnny Young vibe when the Ed signs off with ‘Goodnight Australia’?
John Surname (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 1:50 pm) #

God doesn’t give a fuck about them, so they won’t bother.
Dave from Albury (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 1:56 pm) #

Oops, this isn’t the Grodsthink discussion is it?
The Editor (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 2:09 pm) #

Ha! Brilliant, Dave.
Dave from Albury (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 2:21 pm) #

This is the result of following stuff in an RSS reader. If the rest of you bastards could confine yourselves to a single thread it’d help me look much less incompetent.
The Editor (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 2:24 pm) #

That’d be right, Dave. Expect the system to change for your benefit and not the other way around.

Fascist.
Dave from Albury (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 2:26 pm) #

Out of touch idealist.
Damian (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 3:53 pm) #

Dave’s ~~from~~ the Albury branch of Socialist Alternative.
Suburban Marxist (Wednesday 14 May 2008, 4:03 pm) #

(sigh) No Damian, he’s from the left-wing of the ALP, who think they can change the system ‘from within’…