Vatican Says ET OK

One of the big stories going around the blogs right now is the claim by the Vatican that there may be extraterrestrials out there somewhere.    This isn’t really too big of a surprise, believing in something that is possible (aliens) isn’t necessarily a huge jump for a group that believes in something much less possible (God).

However, as Greg Laden has pointed out (with a somewhat inaccurate portrayal of Protestant baptism), is that this brings up all sorts of thorny theological issues.  The astronomer at the Vatican has said that these aliens may have been born without original sin, since the Garden of Eden was on earth, obviously.

I think the real news here is not that the Vatican says aliens might exist, everyone knows they might exist, just that at present there is no evidence.   The real news is that by stating this, the Vatican has effectively declared original sin and the Garden of Eden fact, to spite the lack of evidence for either one. Additionally, the big argument for aliens isn’t simply the possibility of aliens, but the possibility of God’s creative powers.

Effectively, the Vatican’s argument for aliens is actually worse than many other people, who simply argue on chance.  The Vatican argues based solely on the existence of an undocumented being with infinite power for the existence of beings outside the knowledge of their all knowing book and patriarch.  Makes my head hurt.