The search for extraterrestrial life does not contradict belief in God, the pope's chief astronomer said on Tuesday, adding that some aliens might even be innocent of the original sin.
"As an astronomer I continue to believe that God is the creator of the universe," Jose Gabriel Funes said in an interview with the Vatican mouthpiece, the Osservatore Romano.
Even if "we don't currently have any proof ... the hypothesis" of extraterrestrial life cannot be ruled out, said Mr Funes, a Jesuit priest who directs the Vatican's observatory at Castel Gandolfo, near Rome.
"Just as there are a plethora of creatures on Earth, there could be others, equally intelligent, created by God," he said.
Original sin, which by Christian tradition occurred in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of a particular tree, refers to the fallen state from which humans can be saved only by God's grace.
Asked about the difficult theological question, Mr Funes said: "If other intelligent beings exist, it's not certain that they need redemption."
They could "have remained in full friendship with their creator" without committing the original sin, he said.
If not, extraterrestrials would benefit equally from the "incarnation," in which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, assumed earthlings' flesh, body and soul in order to redeem them, which Mr Funes called "a unique event that cannot be repeated".
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/14/2244056.htm
There was nothing left. The shock of the change still left him spinning. He had been suspended, floating in some ethereal place, gazing at the interior of an enormously complex object. There weren't really words to describe what he had seen, or what he felt. In the curling streams, in the battering of authority, the snakes in the grass who had held him back for so long, the devious little prats who always assumed power, these things, these embarrassments, were coming home to roost. It had been an astonishing experience; and he was still bewildered as to exactly what had happened.
One minute he was there, facing an invisible army; and the next it was over. Thee seemed no attempt to rebuild. There had been that giant, humming, spinning ball, and then it was gone. The closer he had got the more complex the detail; the infinite silver corridors, ribbing the inside of the globe; the what had seemed like an infinite number of open rooms facing into the interior of the ball. There had been much activity; inside the astonishingly complex edifice. A metallic sheen had coated everything he saw. Gifted instructions, he had known exactly what to do.
And then, almost in an instance, the entire structure had collapsed; one brief waving flame of black as the edifice collapsed; one brief slew of walls colliding, the metallic sheen disappearing, to be replaced by black cinders. And then it was all gone. Waking back into the ordinary shades of the office was a bigger shock than the experience itself. It looked like just another day in just another office. The men and women gathering to celebrate could have been marking a colleague's birthday; that's how innocent it looked. Across the city the buildings blinked out one by one. His own building gave a flicker and he could hear the switch to back up generators.
There were alternatives. Grow old, write the history, paint himself in and out of the picture as he saw fit. It wasn't every day you were used as such a blatant agent for change; a human rigged virus who's effects would alter the course of the nation's history. Progenitor one and progenitor two, the Spanish now called parents on birth certificates. As violence erupted through the estates. Useful fools died in old age homes, without a moment of regret. They could never understand how much damage they had done. He was being pestered to write the history; become an academic, grow old with dignity.
Julia was holding his hand, and there seemed little doubt now that she could be pregnant. He smiled and nestled his face into her chest. She laughed as she embraced him, her tiny hands wrapped around his neck. Thank you thank you he said, tearful for the first time; and her embrace grew more intimate as she held him close. One of their colleagues made a ribald joke, get a room guys, and he looked up through damp eyes. They would never know what happened. They would never know how difficult things had been. There was a celebratory scene in an ancient series of movies called Star Wars and what was happening across the city now reminded him of that; the wild shouts, the horns blasting, the music taking off, wild exultation.
He could feel it now, strongly, there wasn't any doubt Julie was pregnant. He wanted to be noble, strong, protective, to provide for the unborn life. He wanted to make sure that what had happened here would never happen again. To the victor the spoils; and it would be important to write the history in a way which no one could forget, the same mistakes would never be made. Who designed the virus? he asked her; and she put her fingers to her lips. Not now, she whispered, let's be happy it worked. His implant had stopped functioning altogether; no neat little squares of data popped up as he stared at his smiling colleagues; the few who understood that something profound had just happened; that they were free at last. His fingers curled in and out of hers and he stood up; wanting to make a speech about liberation and freedom and the delights of individualism. Instead all he said was "to the victor the spoil" as a champagne cork popped; and everyone laughed.
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http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23732816-662,00.html
MALCOLM Turnbull will attempt to paper over his differences with Liberal leader Brendan Nelson today, mounting a public defence of proposed tax cuts that he privately disagrees with.
The shadow treasurer will step up the fight against the Rudd Government's first Budget in a set piece reply at the National Press Club.
Party insiders hope the speech will ease growing tensions between Dr Nelson and his leadership rival.
But, as confirmed in recent days, Mr Turnbull will have to swallow his personal opposition to the promised 5 cut to petrol excise.
The chaos in Liberal ranks grew yesterday with a public spat between two of the party's most senior figures.
Former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer slapped down colleague Nick Minchin after the former finance minister suggested Mr Downer's retirement was imminent.
Mr Downer said the comment was presumptuous. "When I do make a decision, I will announce it myself and it will not be a matter for other politicians," he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/washington/20cnd-kennedy.html?em&ex=1211428800&en=a4adc54fd76ffeb1&ei=5087%0A
Senator Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant tumor in his brain, his doctors said Tuesday.
Tests performed over the weekend at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston indicated that Mr. Kennedy, 76, has a type of cancer known as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe, the upper left portion of his brain. Mr. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, suffered a seizure on Saturday in Cape Cod and was airlifted to the hospital for treatment.
The doctors said on Tuesday that the senator was “in overall good condition,” had been walking around the hospital, and had suffered no more seizures since Saturday.
“The usual course of treatment includes combinations of various forms of radiation and chemotherapy,” Dr. Lee Schwamm, the vice chairman of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Dr. Larry Ronan, a primary care physician at the hospital, said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/protesters-try-to-save-wrong-roos-says-defence/2008/05/20/1211182801336.html
PROTESTERS trying to stop the killing of 400 kangaroos on Department of Defence land broke into the ACT site yesterday but managed only to scare animals that were never part of the cull, a government spokesman says.
Police were called to the former naval station in Canberra's north after two protesters tried to rescue kangaroos already due for release, said the Defence spokesman, Brigadier Andrew Nikolic. No one was arrested.
"These particular kangaroos are part of the defence fertility trial and were recovering from sedation prior to release," he said. "The yelling and the screaming of the protesters frightened the small number of kangaroos that were going to be left at the site anyway."
Contractors began killing the kangaroos on Monday after the Defence Department and the ACT Government agreed the animals were a threat to native grassland and wildlife. Scores of eastern greys were herded into a hessian-cloaked pen, tranquillised with darts then killed by lethal injection.
Activists, who wanted the singer and animal welfare champion Paul McCartney to pay for the animals' relocation to NSW, said they would continue protesting.
"It's a massacre," said Pat O'Brien, of the National Kangaroo Protection Coalition. "We've always said that if they start to kill them, we'll go in there and stand in front of the guns."
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