Christian missionaries have not only spread the religion far and wide on earth but have taken into their folds extraterrestrials as well, it seems. What am I talking about? Well, recently Guy Consolmagno, an astronomer and a devout Jesuit, serving as the director of the Vatican Observatory, was asked by a rather inquisitive journalist on whether he would be willing to baptize an alien. The question, however hyperbolical, received a swift answer from the man. Consolmagno, the co-author of the rather flamboyantly titled book "Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial," said, "Only if she (the alien) asked."
Newsweek carried an excerpt of the interview and by the looks of it; the church has taken a quasi-liberal attitude towards the alien bunch. Consolmagno, the pope's head astronomer, substantiated his argument by putting forward that as a man of faith, there is a constant war with the known and unknown. Thus, Pascal's wager of aliens is needed. So it boils down to this - if there is alien life and if it's willing to be baptized, then why not?
Consolmagno is not sure if the aliens (if we find them of course) will be superior to us in terms of intelligence but he is sure that they would drive in a deeper probe in a philosophical way. A yes or no attitude is, perhaps, not the best way to approach extraterrestrial life forms. Rather a more nuanced look into the questions about life and the reason of humanity's own existence would be preferred.
Also Read: Mars doesn't have extraterrestrials and here is why
By the way, in case you thought things just went from religion to aliens to philosophy and back again, well, it appears at least here, you are right. It, indeed, did.
