filed under Daily Dose | Religion | Science
God v. Science VII: Einstein Versus the Aliens
12:43PM ON
05/14/2008
BY
Ari Savitzky
Einstein rose from the grave this week to slam God and His believers via a 1954 letter. Thus Spake Albert:
“The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish,” Einstein wrote.
The famed physicist also rocked the Jews some for good measure:
“For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions,” the letter said. “And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.”
Burned!
Luckily, the Catholic Church struck back with the answer to one of sci-fi/theology’s most basic questions: did God create Aliens?
According to “Vatican’s chief astronomer,” which given Copernicus must be a pretty new position, the answer is yes!
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.
In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Funes says that such a notion “doesn’t contradict our faith” because aliens would still be God’s creatures.
The interview was headlined “The extraterrestrial is my brother.” Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom.
Booya!
It’s an interesting question, how can conceptions of God, and how can religion, change and remain viable as technology renders the miraculous mundane, and science explains the unexplainable?
It’s really a question of frontiers. Einstein claims that a belief in god is childish. The implication, then, is that when humanity matures, we will grow out of it. While Europe might be headed that way, though, in the US and much of the world that’s just not the case. Perhaps, with life becoming more complicated and harrowing, it makes perfect sense that the marketplace for Answers continues to flourish.
Of course, from the perspective of the Church, it’s just the opposite - as our knowledge of the universe expands, so does proof of the wonder of God’s creation, and the endless bounds of “God’s creative freedom.” So readying for First Contact makes sense; why be caught flatfooted and explanation-less by Space Invaders when you can preemptively incorporate them into God’s plan, and make a good theological point too.
So the direction in which we grow up is still up for grabs, I think. But we’ll see when the Klingons roll up.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:59PM
Roberts Says:
As long as there are unexplained phenomenon outside the scope of then modern science, there will be religion.
[Reply]