As a little change up from the normal Lenten fare, we thought was time for something completely different!
It was reported
in November 2009 that the Vatican has called in experts to study the
possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the
Catholic Church. The Director of the Vatican Observatory commented that
the discovery of possible alien life would have “many philosophical and
theological implications” for Catholics.
In 1965 Fr. John Romanides offered a valuable resource on this topic for a series run by the Boston Globe in which he gives the unique Orthodox perspective. Originally printed in the Boston Globe on April 8, 1965 (page 18), the full text of this reprinted article is below.
All Planets the Same: Religion’s Response to Space Life V
I can foresee no way in which the
teachings of the Orthodox Christian tradition could be affected by the
discovery of intelligent beings on another planet. Some of my colleagues
feel that even a discussion of the consequences of such a possibility
is in itself a waste of time for serious theology and borders on the
fringes of foolishness.
I am tempted to agree with them for several reasons.
As I understand the problem, the
discovery of intelligent life on another planet would raise questions
concerning traditional Roman Catholic and Protestant teachings regarding
creation, the fall, man as the image of God, redemption and Biblical
inerrancy.
First one should point out that in
contrast to the traditions deriving from Latin Christianity, Greek
Christianity never had a fundamentalist or literalist understanding of
Biblical inspiration and was never committed to the inerrancy of
scripture in matters concerning the structure of the universe and life
in it. In this regard some modern attempts at de-mything the Bible are
interesting and at times amusing.
Since
the very first centuries of Christianity, theologians of the Greek
tradition did not believe, as did the Latins, that humanity was created
in a state of perfection from which it fell. Rather the Orthodox always
believed that man [was] created imperfect, or at a low level of
perfection, with the destiny of evolving to higher levels of perfection.
The fall of each man, therefore, entails a failure to reach perfection, rather than any collective fall from perfection.
Also spiritual ‘evolution’ does not end
in a static beatific vision. It is a never ending process which will go
on even into eternity.
Also Orthodox Christianity, like Judaism, never knew the Latin and
Protestant doctrine of original sin as an inherited Adamic guilt putting
all humanity under a divine wrath which was supposedly satisfied by the
death of Christ.
Thus the solidarity of the human race in Adamic guilt and the need
for satisfaction of divine justice in order to avoid hell are unknown in
the Greek Fathers.
This means that the interdependence and solidarity of creation and
its need for redemption and perfection are seen in a different light.
The Orthodox believe that all creation is destined to share in the
glory of God. Both damned and glorified will be saved. In other words
both will have vision of God in his uncreated glory, with the difference
that for the unjust this same uncreated glory of God will be the
eternal fires of hell.
God is light for those who learn to love Him and a consuming fire for those who will not. God has no positive intent to punish.
For those not properly prepared, to see God is a cleansing
experience, but one which does not move eternally toward higher reaches
of perfection.
In contrast, hell is a static state of perfection somewhat similar to Platonic bliss.
In view of this the Orthodox never saw in the Bible any three story
universe with a hell of created fire underneath the earth and a heaven
beyond the stars.
For the Orthodox discovery of intelligent life on another planet
would raise the question of how far advanced these beings are in their
love and preparation for divine glory.
As on this planet, so on any other, the fact that one may have not as
yet learned about the Lord of Glory of the Old and New Testament, does
not mean that he is automatically condemned to hell, just as one who
believes in Christ is not automatically destined to be involved in the
eternal movement toward perfection.
It is also important to bear in mind that the Greek Fathers of the
Church maintain that the soul of man is part of material creation,
although a high form of it, and by nature mortal.
Only God is purely immaterial.
Life beyond death is not due to the nature of man but to the will of
God. Thus man is not strictly speaking the image of God. Only the Lord
of Glory, or the Angel of the Lord of Old and New Testament revelation
is the image of God.
Man was created according to the image of God, which means that his
destiny is to become like Christ who is the Incarnate Image of God.
Thus the possibility of intelligent beings on another planet being
images of God as men on earth are supposed to be is not even a valid
question from an Orthodox point of view.
Finally, one could point out that the Orthodox Fathers rejected the
Platonic belief in immutable archetypes of which this world of change is
a poor copy.
This universe and the forms in it are unique and change is of the very essence of creation and not a product of the fall.
Furthermore the categories of change, motion and history belong to
the eternal dimensions of salvation-history and are not to be discarded
in some kind of eternal bliss.
Thus the existence of intelligent life on another planet behind or
way ahead of us in intellectual and spiritual attainment will change
little in the traditional beliefs of Orthodox Christianity.
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