1boringperson

Something is wrong when it's the unbaptized, agnostic member of the family (me) who spent the most time actually at the church service, including  being the only one of his family there for the for sermon.  Wife and child #1 were preparing for the church picnic.  Child #2 got to go to "children's church" during the middle of service.

There's been another addition to my household recently, so we're talking to start baptism. All fine and good, but now the pastor is inquiring if it might be a pair of baptisms. You see, while my wife and kids (except the new one) are all baptized, I'm not.

( Looong entry behind the cut. I won't insist anyone read it, but I could use some feedback. )
So, to summarize, I'm attending a church almost weekly, but except for the fact I'm not baptized and therefore don't take communion, no one knows I'm not truly one of the faithful. Seems I'm already fairly hypocritical, so why not get baptized? Fear, it would seem. So what now?

Well, that's interesting. The BBC and AP are reporting on the director of the Vatican Observatory, Father Gabriel Funes, saying it's entirely possible that extra-terrestrial creatures, even intelligent ones, might exist in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper. Unfortunately, it appears that at this moment, the article has not been translated into English. So I took the original Italian article and put it through the Google Translator.

You might remember last month I posted my musings on the possibility of extra-terrestrial messiahs. That, of course, is right out with Catholicism. (And, I imagine, most of Christianity.) Like I said before, it's that whole "only son of God" thing. Details, details.

The article is actually about the relationship of science and religion, but the ET thing gets a little time. When asked if the Genesis creation story doesn't rule out ETs, Funes says, "in my opinion this possibility exists," and goes on to talk about just how mind-boggling big the universe is. Like I did. (Note that this is his opinion, not official Vatican doctrine.) When asked whether they might be as or more advanced than us, he says, "it is possible."

Then it starts to get interesting with the interviewer asking, "and this would not be a problem for our faith?" Funes says it's not a problem, as anything in the universe part of God's creation. I particularly like his quote, "this does not conflict with our faith, because we can not put limits on the creative freedom of God."

Finally, we get to the fun part: "what about redemption?" His answer involved the analogy of intelligent beings as sheep, all part of God's flock. Perhaps mankind was the only group to get lost. Any others "could have remained full in friendship with their Creator." The follow-up was, "if they were sinners, could redemption be for them too?" Funes replied, "Jesus became incarnate once and for all. The incarnation is an event unique and unrepeatable. However, I am sure that they, too, in some way, would have the opportunity to enjoy the mercy of God, as it was for us men." Which, of course, completely blows my lovely little story from last month. But then, I knew no Christian would go for it anyway.

What follows is an odd thought I found lingering in my mind when I woke up the other morning. Probably another good candidate for a bad science fiction story.

( Musings on the Son of Man not being God's only son, with a sci fi bent. )

My posting really comes in spurts, doesn't it? As seen on wreath_of_barbs' blog:

You scored as agnosticism. ( Read more... )

I'm surprised Islam scored so high.

An odd thought just crossed my mind, which is pretty much all I use this blog for. You know how, when children are behaving themselves, people call them "little angels"? Well, according to at least some Christian ideology, angels, unlike humans, lack free will. They are in the presence of God, thus they do not need faith in his existence; he's right in front of them! Therefore they have no need of free will to believe in him.

So, when you call a child a "little angel," in a round about way you're saying they lack free will. And really, isn't that what you want sometimes? If they lack free will, they will be obedient and well-behaved. Let's hear it for little angels!

I was thinking about random things the other day. I came up with a theory that could easily get me tagged as a kook. However, I'm not seriously advocating it; it's just a weird idea I came up with.

What if "dark matter" is actually the souls of the dead? Just to make it kookier, not just Earth's dead, but the dead from other planets as well, i.e. extra-terrestrial life-forms.

Hmmm, I think there's a bad science fiction story in there somewhere.

It's a long story, but I heard an interesting statement the other day: "Jesus came to tell us to cook our meat." Now I'm not much of a Bible scholar, but my searches at BibleGateway.com are not supporting this statement. Still, I can see the market for a new t-shirt at Christian stores: "Jesus died for your steak." :-)