Read this. Make sure you get to page two.

Hokay.

So a guy who works for Team Catholicism came out and said it's cool to believe in aliens.  Not that any particular Team Catholicism proclaimations have much effect on me any more... somewhere between calling out the Muslims and a priest trying to explain to me how homosexuality and kleptomania were inherently the same thing, I stopped getting the memos (and on that note, grats to California).  Now, unlike my demi-hero Joss Whedon, I very much believe in the "sky bully", an afterlife, a meaning to "it all", etc.  Heck, I even still think Catholicism is a heckuva foundation-- which is why you'll find my religion beliefs listed on the book of faces as "Hare Club for Men" (I hope somebody out there gets that reference before they go to Wikipedia).  

SooOOooo I see this news all over the place and think, "Good! Some open-mindedness!"  (And, honestly, reading that article, there are a LOT of statements in this press release I LOVE.  This guy is smarter on the uptake than many officials...)  But then I get to this gem, which not all the reports have been covering:

"There could be (other beings) who remained in full friendship with their creator"

And suddenly my knee-jerk reaction kicks in.

Aliens didn't commit original sin, eh?

I could be wrong on this, but I think the majority of people reading this blog ascribe to some theory of evolution.  They understand differences between micro and macro evolution, they get the reasons that particular fossil links are hard to find (because it happens very fast), and so on.  So, I'm not talking to any frakking fundamentalists, unless Riley's mum is lurking over his shoulder.  Which means we're all on the same page: the Bible is a good book.  Divine inspiration? Sure! Amazing message? Absolutely! Literal? Fack no. Heck, there's so much contradiction between New & Old Testaments, as well as the fact that the books that made the cut were chosen by just another bunch of humans, not unlike the bunch of humans that wrote the flawed books... if we are to believe that any free will was involved, we must believe there are some problems.

Not that creation as told in the Bible is a problem, if you're functioning above the intelligence of a properly educated junior high student.  It's a represenational story.  It says, in short, "God created everything and it was sweet."  Then the second item, "He also created us to be like Him, but the sweetness got messed up via choice."  I don't think that some evil woman tricked my species into falling out of grace.  It's a very anti-feminist world view, in my opinion. I'm more inclined to believe that myself and everyone around me was made very much like God.  When the first post-monkeys started to make choices that went against survival but instead towards emotion and intellect, they occasionally made choices, because of their freedom, that were anti-God.  And the beauty of that is that we really CAN choose (thank you, Lord).  

So, why does the concept of guilt-free aliens bother me?  For me, it assumes a full human-centric view.  Jesus came to save us, and nobody else. Paul had to write letters about this viewpoint problem from day one.  God came to save us all. Now, I'll give you He might have repeated the performance elsewhere, sure. I have no problems if you want to tell me about the planet Claxxon Five, and their Savior who was laser-beamed to death to save them from sin. 

BUT if you say there are intelligent beings out there, and they got a pass, there's something wrong there.  Either they are not intelligent beings, which means they work purely on survival, OR God made someone literally "better" than us.  Our He/She Lord allegedly made angels with will and reneged on the enterprise after one of them became a real asshole.  If extra-terrestrials got a pass, though, that would mean they were fully intelligent, and for some reason, they got the full story.  They realized, fully, that God was awesome, and so they just never-ever screwed up.

Maybe this doesn't bother you.  But think about this.  If you're a functioning Christian, you believe that when you die, if your ducks were in a row, you go to Heaven.  And there, you don't "lose free will" but you "gain eternal life".  So, you choose, forever, to play for team Holy.  If you're making said informed decision, that means you're closer with the big fella than any angel was, because when they had choice and strong communication lines they still had some people cut out.  So, while it's been theologically exemplified for sometime that humans > angels, we would now have a universal view that other > human.  I'm assuming both "other" and "human" would be technically made in God's image, so... it makes no sense.  Unless God made intelligent beings NOT in Her own image that were in better Communion with Her.  Which is kind of a self-defeating view for anyone in the Vatican to be taking on, eh?

Now, I know this isn't some religious decree that says, "THIS IS HOW THE CHURCH BELIEVES" or even the Pope speaking on the matter.  But it is someone in Catholicism, in a position of authority, speaking publically and saying something that is, to me, fairly damning.  Maybe Mr. Vatican Science Guy doesn't want the aliens to have free will.  Or maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill.  

My rant is done.  What's your opinion, gang?