As if the Vatican weren’t doing enough to make themselves look super silly, the Pope’s astronomer – yup the Pope has an astronomer – has enlightened us to the fact that any intelligent life forms living in space should be considered God’s children. No matter what they look like. And if that was a bit much to take in, Brother Guy Consolmagno, who was speaking at the British Science Festival in Birmingham, went on to say, “any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul”. Of course you would think that as a member of the Vatican being at a science festival, and having those evolution vs natural selection, religion vs science battles already raging on, you would try your best not to draw any attention to yourself. Not for Brother Guy apparently, who went on to say that he would be willing to baptise an alien, but only ‘if they asked’. It does bring up the question however, of who would genuinely be interested enough to ask the Pope’s astronomer whether they should be prepared for bumping into ET at the pearly gates. God bless science geeks.
By David Drummond
