Christianity and Extraterrestrials?: A Catholic Perspective [Paperback]

Marie George (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2005

Does ETI existence spell the death of Christianity? The increasingly popular answer is “yes”. Marie George argues, to the contrary, that Christian belief is compatible with ETI existence, by examining Roman Catholic teaching and Scripture. She then makes a case that while Christian belief does not exclude ETI existence, it does render it improbable. George goes on to expose the faulty reasoning behind the common opinion that science indicates that the universe surely contains other intelligent life forms. She closes with speculations on what the Catholic Church might eventually say about ETIs. Central to her analysis is the cosmic role of Christ.

“I appreciate arguments like those in Christianity and Extraterrestrials?, laid out carefully and investigated thoroughly. If more writers proceeded with Dr. George’s care and courtesy, there would be new hope for peace in the world.”

John L. Barger, Ph.D.
Publisher, Sophia Institute Press

"Although some of Dr. George’s claims are controversial, she is clearly an author seeking the truth and open to opposing arguments. Moreover, she has sought out the best sources and used them wisely—in short, an admirable scholarly presentation."

Michael J. Crowe
Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus, University of Notre Dame and author of The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750–1900

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marie I. George is Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, New York. An Aristotelian-Thomist, she holds a PhD from Laval University, and a MA in biology from Queens College. She has received a number of awards from the Templeton Foundation for her work in science and religion.

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (June 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595358276
• ISBN-13: 978-0595358274
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #913,098 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Philosophical Examination of Christianity and Extraterrestrials?, April 10, 2006

By 

Paul S. Poskozim "Professor Emeritus, Chemistry" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christianity and Extraterrestrials?: A Catholic Perspective (Paperback)

Does the incarnation of Christ the Redeemer on Earth rule out the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life (ETI)? Can Catholicism coexist with a possible alien theology? Dr. George's recent work is a sophisticated philosophical thesis answering such fascinating questions and many more. It is an excellent companion work to Ward and Brownlee's book "Rare Earth."

My copy of "Christianity ...." will remain my preferred reference work on the subject for years to come, especially if communication with some form of ETI is actually established.

Paul Poskozim

Professor Emeritus, Chemistry

Northeastern Illinois University

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of "Christianity and Extraterrestrials", August 14, 2006

By 

Mark Murray (Calgary AB Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Christianity and Extraterrestrials?: A Catholic Perspective (Paperback)

This book examines a topic that is relatively "hot" (the question of the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life) from a specifically Christian and Catholic perspective. The author, a professor of philosophy of science at St John's University in New York City, has chosen this topic because of the lack of any serious, comprehensive, book-length coverage of the issue. Her goal is to show that, contrary to common belief, Christianity is not incompatible with certain kinds of intelligent extraterrestrial life (ETIs); but that their existence is, nevertheless, unlikely. She does this by examining ETI not only in light of scripture and Catholic teaching, but also by showing that current scientific or philosophical arguments in favor of ETI are either inconclusive or sophistical. Finally, she concludes that, contrary to common belief, no changes to any basic teaching of the faith would be necessary, should contact be made.

This book has several strong points: a topic which is both timely and yet not well covered by existing publications, a systematic and comprehensive approach, which aims to cover the issue both in detail and from various angles, a rigorous analysis, and conclusions which are nuanced. Dr. George uses scripture, tradition, papal encyclicals, writings of theologians and the Catechism of the Catholic Church to examine which scenarios of ETI existence would not be contradicted by Catholic teaching. She then relies on philosophical arguments to approach the broader topic of whether ETIs do in fact exist. This latter approach may seem at first inappropriate in an essentially scientific topic, but as the arguments for ETI existence are currently based on speculation rather than any real evidence, a philosophical examination of this speculation is fully justified. Finally, as the author applies her caution to some of her own arguments (especially the theological ones), the reader is left with a feeling, at the end of the book, of having received professional guidance through this topic rather than the dogmatic lecture which some authors feel entitled to give their readers.

A must read for anyone seriously interested in this topic.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Catholic theological examination regarding extraterrestrials, May 31, 2006

By 

Diana Cunningham (Southern CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christianity and Extraterrestrials?: A Catholic Perspective (Paperback)

I highly recommend reading this book.

It is available in both paper-bound and as a digital e-book (as of this writing the e-book only costs $6.00 on Amazon.com, which is much cheaper, but you can't print the pages).

It is a theology book based on Catholic theology. It uses Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the Catechism to substantiate its claims.

It is not a science book. (If you are looking for two good science-based books, I recommend: "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe" by Peter Ward & Donald Brownlee, and "The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery" by Guillermo Gonzalez & Jay Richards).

The author first lets his reader know that his definition of "extraterrestrials" is beings similiar to us--they are material intelligent beings with a soul--a rational animal (i.e., not angels, or some other unknown type of creature). Basically, the author contends that if there is other life in the universe, it would have to be "unfallen" intelligent beings (i.e., never committed sin). If they had fallen, in the Bible, Col. 1:15-20 tends to exclude the possibility of them not being redeemed by Christ's sacrifice on the Cross. Then, Heb. 2:14 tends to show that any fallen beings could not exist, because it states that Christ by His death set free all who were held in slavery by the fear of death. So, Christianity does leave open the possibility to intelligent life on other planets, but only if they are unfallen.

However, the author then goes on to make a very strong case that even this possibility is highly unlikely.

An interesting discussion made by the author includes that a Supreme Being does not do redundant things, even if it is in His plenitude to do so (i.e., the argument of more kinds of things vs. more individuals within a kind). So, even if God can make more intelligent beings such as us, in reality, "more of a better thing" is a feeble argument in the case of extraterrestrials. For example, there are more kinds of beetles and angels, than there are human beings. So, it seems that there has be an arbitrary cut-off point, and again, a Supreme Being tends not to be redundant.

Good support is made by looking at the Church Fathers for answers as to whether there can be multiple inhabitable planets. Although never directly addressed by them, they did argue against multiple "worlds" (universes)--that they are implausible. The author uses this same line of reasoning to make her case against extraterrestrials. As I am not very familiar with the Church Fathers, I was also surprised to learn that St. Augustine argued against what can be termed an "early version" of the Big Bang theory and collapsing universes.

Overall, this is a great book. It's over 300 pages, so the author went to great lengths to make her case, on sound Catholic theology, that extraterrestrials probably do not exist. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in the debate, is interested in theology, or wants support from a Catholic viewpoint that extraterrestrials do not exist.