Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: kriz@skat.usc.edu (Dennis Kriz) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Extraterrestrials and human religion Message-ID: Date: 19 May 91 02:36:12 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Lines: 67 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article ac3p+@andrew.cmu.edu (Alison R. Carter) writes: >I find it disappointing that the posters on this board have been so >nearsighted as to converse in local, terrestrial human religious matters >rather than address this rather uncomfortable issue. > >My view is this, and is completely out of league with any beliefs in the >original creation: We evolved independently as a planet within the life >zone of our sun, and if it happened to us, it can happen many times over >in a universe of a billion galaxies and over a thousand trillion stars. > >So how can a religion created by a straggling group of shepherds, just >past the step of evolving from animal to sentient, possibly sum up the >whole of creation? > I wouldn't necessarily put so much FAITH in the assumption that life exists elsewhere. While there may be plenty of worlds out there, we are also plenty complex. As a Catholic I would disagree with the assertion that the revealed word has to cover EVERYTHING there is to know about the universe. As a Catholic, I am only required to believe that all that is necessary for our salvation has been revealed in the period ending with the death of the last apostle. The apostles knew nothing of "biochemistry", or "quantum physics", etc. Neither did any of the prophets or other scriptural writers before them. I don't have any problem with that. That the Bible is not a "biochemistry textbook" simply indicates that ... for all the "neat things" a knowledge of biochemistry could expose us to ... it's ultimately and FUNDAMENTALLY peripheral. The Christian believes that from the time of Christ and his apostles onward, it has become possible for people to be saved. And this ability to be saved has nothing to do with being an "Olympic pole vaulter" or a "current member of the physics faculty at Berkeley" but rather with the simple choice of accepting Jesus as Lord: Lord, by your Cross and Resurection You have set us free. You are the Saviour of the world. For us Catholics, this is part of our Mass. Protestants should be able to identify it as the heart of Romans 10:9. As for the assertion that Christianity was "invented by shepherds" If Christ did not rise from the dead, then certainly Christianity is "invented" If Christ did rise from the dead, then the base of our faith is rooted in historical fact. Did Christ rise from the dead? That is a question that can only be answered by us, separated by 2000 years from the time of the event's occurance, through faith. But then it was always that way. The Resurrection defies all human experience. It defies all human logic, all human wisdom. Yet if Jesus is Lord, the Son of God, then all becomes possible. And rejecting the Ressurection becomes an act of faith also ... that human experience, logic, and wisdom are enough to reject what has always been maintained (by the Christian faithful) to be the ultimate ACT OF GOD. dennis kriz@skat.usc.edu