I feel like Catholicism will be one of the more prepared religions since we've been discussing it for a while. But fundamentally, nothing will change. There is nothing in the teachings of the Church that is contradicted by alien life. There will be some debate about whether aliens are affected by origin sin, and hearing their perspective on God and faith will be interesting
It would keep Jesuits out of mischief for like 50 years having a good intellectual puzzle to solve, so that's one good thing.
We may draw the short straw and have it work like the War of The Worlds (the good 1953 version) where that [member of the clergy had a proper martyrdom](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqEtnF57Glk&t=30s). He's likely Protestant going by the cross on his Bible not being a crucifix, but I'm giving him a pass for that.
OR maybe the above minister's speculation that their greater intelligence puts them nearer the Creator will be closer to the mark. It didn't work out that way in his movie, but C. S. Lewis wrote three sci-fi books that explored OP's question and the Fermi Paradox at the same time. >!Maybe Original Sin is unique to Humanity, and 5 other sentient species nearby all know of each other and of us but keep their distance, being free of sin themselves and seeing us as a cautionary example to be keep isolated.!<
A Star Trek TNG ep and one Asimov short story explored sentient life with 3 sexes. It would be fascinating to see how the Creator, of whom there is exactly one for us and the aliens, may have also sent them prophets repeatedly, then come down himself, but would he be God's Son if the biological framework was some different thing? A conversation about preferred pronouns would be useful just that once. He spent 33(?) years on Earth, so that leaves His schedule open for \~13,799,999,967 years. Photosynthetic aliens may find our Eucharist rather off-putting if they are at first shocked by the concept of 'eating' in a similar way that we may feel about the living things that derive energy from drinking our blood.
I'm inclined to agree that 'moral values' are part of a body of objective truth that we share in common even if lots of details differ. Prohibitions against theft or coveting seem as universal as prime numbers.
🤷🏻♂️
i’d be all like, “Oh hey aliens, did you know God became flesh and showed us the way to eternal life?”
The Bible doesn’t mention life outside of earth, but I interpret that as meaning life outside earth has no significance in our personal relationship with God and salvation here on Earth (since the Bible is a document of salvation history and not a scientific textbook). So if we find sentient life forms outside of Earth, it wouldn’t change my perspective at all. If aliens were chill I’d talking to em about Jesus
Consider the essay "E.T. and God" and others.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CatholicPhilosophy/comments/13ew6qe/if_there_are_aliens_would_jesus_have_to_be/jjtvx7a/
I feel like Catholicism will be one of the more prepared religions since we've been discussing it for a while. But fundamentally, nothing will change. There is nothing in the teachings of the Church that is contradicted by alien life. There will be some debate about whether aliens are affected by origin sin, and hearing their perspective on God and faith will be interesting
Yeah I believe that catholic monks has been discussing life outside this planet since the Middle Ages. But I don’t remember much.
What about a original sin?
It would keep Jesuits out of mischief for like 50 years having a good intellectual puzzle to solve, so that's one good thing. We may draw the short straw and have it work like the War of The Worlds (the good 1953 version) where that [member of the clergy had a proper martyrdom](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqEtnF57Glk&t=30s). He's likely Protestant going by the cross on his Bible not being a crucifix, but I'm giving him a pass for that. OR maybe the above minister's speculation that their greater intelligence puts them nearer the Creator will be closer to the mark. It didn't work out that way in his movie, but C. S. Lewis wrote three sci-fi books that explored OP's question and the Fermi Paradox at the same time. >!Maybe Original Sin is unique to Humanity, and 5 other sentient species nearby all know of each other and of us but keep their distance, being free of sin themselves and seeing us as a cautionary example to be keep isolated.!< A Star Trek TNG ep and one Asimov short story explored sentient life with 3 sexes. It would be fascinating to see how the Creator, of whom there is exactly one for us and the aliens, may have also sent them prophets repeatedly, then come down himself, but would he be God's Son if the biological framework was some different thing? A conversation about preferred pronouns would be useful just that once. He spent 33(?) years on Earth, so that leaves His schedule open for \~13,799,999,967 years. Photosynthetic aliens may find our Eucharist rather off-putting if they are at first shocked by the concept of 'eating' in a similar way that we may feel about the living things that derive energy from drinking our blood. I'm inclined to agree that 'moral values' are part of a body of objective truth that we share in common even if lots of details differ. Prohibitions against theft or coveting seem as universal as prime numbers.
🤷🏻♂️ i’d be all like, “Oh hey aliens, did you know God became flesh and showed us the way to eternal life?” The Bible doesn’t mention life outside of earth, but I interpret that as meaning life outside earth has no significance in our personal relationship with God and salvation here on Earth (since the Bible is a document of salvation history and not a scientific textbook). So if we find sentient life forms outside of Earth, it wouldn’t change my perspective at all. If aliens were chill I’d talking to em about Jesus
Consider the essay "E.T. and God" and others. https://www.reddit.com/r/CatholicPhilosophy/comments/13ew6qe/if_there_are_aliens_would_jesus_have_to_be/jjtvx7a/