What is the Vatican Doing About Aliens? Surprisingly, a Lot.

While visiting Rome, the wife and I stumbled onto an interesting church that was dedicated to the works of Galileo. I know, I know, everyone says that me and my Southern Baptist buddies declared him a heretic and ostracized him years ago, and that we are still looking for scientists to maim in our never ending bloodlust for thinkers; but there's more to Galileo's story, and, today, the Vatican is looking heavenward on its own.

Sometime after Galileo died, the church realized that attacking a poor astronomer (who had strong Christian convictions) was probably their worst idea since they asked Thomas Aquinas to write a little book about what he believed. Today, near the train station in Rome, you can see this large church that tells the legacy of Galileo and even shows a film of the moon landing. In this video, one of the astronauts mentions Galileo's predictions about gravity on the moon and carries out the experiment that Galileo had always dreamed of. Check it out:



Today, something new and different is going on in Rome. Since life on other planets is a possibility, the Vatican does not want to be caught off guard. It's important to consider the theological ramifications of extra-terrestrials and to consider what the church's role should be if an encounter with alien life took place.

"The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory...

...in the interview last year, Funes told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that believing the universe may host aliens, even intelligent ones, does not contradict a faith in God.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said in that interview.

"Just as there is a multitude of creatures on Earth, there could be other beings, even intelligent ones, created by God. This does not contradict our faith, because we cannot put limits on God's creative freedom."

Funes maintained that if intelligent beings were discovered, they would also be considered "part of creation." (Link)

I agree - nothing about aliens challenges my faith.

However, the writers over at AnswersInGenesis.com do not agree - they maintain that only the Earth can hold intelligent life and that no aliens can exist, and they insist that this can be determined by reading the book of Genesis. That's a remarkable claim - not a single Biblical scholar in history seems to have come to this conclusion, so the folks at Answers in Genesis must be pretty confident in their ability to interpret scripture. (I linked to that article and wrote my opinions about it here.)

At my old job, some co-workers said that if aliens were discovered it would nullify the Christian faith - I wanted to bang my head against the wall. When did Christians get this "anti-E.T." reputation? Let's choose our battles more wisely. Also, I'm going to join the Vatican in watching the skies.

Who Gets the Losing Teams' Championship Shirts?

I've always wondered about this.

Two years ago, Patriots fans were expecting to win Super Bowl XLII against the underdog New York Giants who squeaked into the Superbowl from the wilcard NFC spot. T-shirts, hats, and frisbees celebrating the Patriots' perfect season were printed and ready to be distributed to the New England fans who were certain that things would go their way. But things didn't go their way, and mountains of clothing were not sent out for delivery.

Thousands of articles of clothing are made for teams that end up losing, sometimes well over 10,000 shirts will be printed never to be purchased by anyone. What happens to them? The answer to this question comes to us from the smart folks at Mental_Floss, who report that the unclaimed merchandise is used for humanitarian purposes by the international outreach group World Vision.

The international Christian humanitarian aid group works with Major League Baseball, the NFL, and the NBA to collect misprinted merchandise and distribute it to people living in impoverished nations.

(MLB used to require the destruction of shirts and hats proclaiming the wrong champions, but two years ago they began donating their postseason apparel).

I couldn't have asked for a better answer. The poor and needy are fitted with high-quality clothes, the companies that made the clothes get a tax write-off, and I don't have to see those Patriots shirts unless I visit a third-world country.

Bottles and Cans - The Movie!

Many years ago, I harbored a dream to make movies. Lacking any budget, actors, and time, my roommate and I decided to film something with what we had around the apartment; the result was this silly film titled "Bottles and Cans." It's a lot of fun, but, obviously, very cheap. It was filmed with a simple family camcorder and the sound was recorded with the least expensive home recording setup available. Still, I like it. And should thank Jonathan Lawoying for writing the introductory song; it's a tune we used to play in Jazz groups and sounded a lot better with his keyboard.



(That's me on the guitar and drums.The best ideas for the puppeteering came from my co-director, Andrew Armstrong, who is very talented at film work and had really good ideas for making the bottles and cans appear to be moving. If you can tell how we moved them in any scene it's probably something I set up.)

Since you're still here, here's another thing I did with Andrew, two years ago - and they actually let me on the screen this time. This was entered into a Heinz Ketchup contest; their response was something like, "don't call us, we'll call you." You can hear a guitar line that I wrote and my wife's voice comes in at the end. I thought it was a cool song.



This was filmed with some really good equipment (XL-2's at 24 fps and a professional lighting setup attached to ceiling pipes) but didn't make it through the YouTube compression very well.

Whatever you do, don't watch this one. I no longer get asked to speak lines.

Cathedrals vs. Modern Churches - The Unchurched Speak Out

People who don’t go to church may be turned off by a recent trend toward more utilitarian church buildings. By a nearly 2-to-1 ratio over any other option, unchurched Americans prefer churches that look more like a medieval cathedral than what most think of as a more contemporary church building.

Well, us medievalists knew this already; nothing is cooler than Gothic spires or immaculate domes. But, Lifeway's article on this subject questions our current trend of church building and making churches more like homes.

I've known people who tried to start churches that just met in homes. They thought they were "getting back to basics" or emulating the early church, or something. Either way, this was usually a counter-cultural trend (thus, it was just as dangerous as any other trend) that did not manage to work out.

Why? Because it's almost creepy to be asked to attend a religious ceremony in someone's home. At a church building, you can at least run away if the preacher brings out poisonous snakes or if the music minister decides to start rapping. At someone's home, you could be in for a tough time.

The article also questions the wisdom of modern architectural trends of normal churches.

"I don’t like modern churches, they seem cold," said one survey respondent who chose the Gothic design. "I like the smell of candles burning, stained-glass windows, [and] an intimacy that’s transcendent."

No argument, here. While visiting Italy, this summer, I lamented that the church I attend (and truly enjoy) can't retain the older artistic flair that attested to the church's spirituality. I don't really know how such a legacy could be retained in a modern setting; I've seen people attempt it, but not successfully.

I recommend checking out the entire article, the survey that was used to gather this information includes other useful facts about successful and unsuccessful physical church models.

What do you think?