A still-shot from the famous sci-fi classic film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
Moscow, 14 May 2008 (Interfax):
Orthodoxy does not believe in the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial beings with reasoning ability, said Professor Aleksei Osipov, an eminent theologian at the Moscow Theological Academy (MDA). “From the point of Orthodox theology, there are no grounds for talking about extraterrestrial civilisations that have reason and are capable of creating artifacts”, Professor Osipov said to Interfax-Religion on Wednesday. In his view, such a position is based on the fact that allusions to intelligent extraterrestrial life-forms “are not found in the New Testament”.
“Secondly, there have been very many people in the Church who reached the highest degree of God-likeliness and sanctity, but, not one of them ever mentioned them (extraterrestrial civilisations: Interfax), although they spoke about many other things”, the professor said. He emphasised that this argument was “also very important”. Besides, he pointed up that modern astronomy in its “advance into the depth of the Universe still has not found any planet with life similar to that on Earth. We have solid grounds to refuse to accept the existence of any intelligent extraterrestrial civilisation”. Professor Osipov noted that the Orthodox Church did not consider this question on purpose to arrive to at a given conclusion. He mentioned that there are some theologians who studied the question of extraterrestrial civilisation and concluded that the universe is very rich and there are phenomena that remain unknown. But, they believe these to be astronomical phenomena, rather than with spiritual ones.
Professor Osipov said that there is still another point of view, which was expressed by Elder Seraphim Rose, a “well-known hieromonk and deeply-respected ascetic of the 20th century”, who first studied Eastern philosophy, “was deeply involved in searching for the truth, and after a long quest, joined Orthodoxy”. He noted that Elder Seraphim admitted that there were “spirits who surround the Earth and enter into the human world and even influence certain people or some vital processes. He said that these spirits couldn’t be attributed to holy spirits or angels, and church language would call them demons”, Professor Osipov said.
Also on Wednesday, the chief astronomer of the Roman Catholic Church, Fr Gabriel Funes, stated that he does not rule out the possibility of life on other planets. In an article entitled “Extraterrestrials: My Brothers” in the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, he wrote that other intelligent life-forms, created by God, may exist.
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=24445 (in Rusian)
