As readers of the blog will know, here at BEEZHOUSE.com we have taken quite an active interest in matters of religion, more specifically evolution. (For those keeping score, examples can be found here, here, at Idle Thoughts and even over at WDBGTD). Thus, I took a keen interest in an article that appeared this week in L’Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper. The article was headlined ‘Aliens Are My Brother’ written by Fr. José Gabriel Funes, Director of the Vatican Observatory. Yes, the Vatican has a newspaper (and a website). Yes, the Vatican has an Observatory, and it’s run by none other than a Jesuit priest! And apparently, the Vatican now believes in little green men from distant solar systems.

Funes, appointed by Benedidct XVI in 2006, said that the search for forms of extraterrestrial life does not contradict belief in God. “How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?” Funes said. “Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ’sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of creation”. Funes said that such a notion “doesn’t contradict our faith” because aliens would still be God’s creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom, he said. The Bible “is not a science book,” Funes said, adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most “reasonable” explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter. He did say however, he continues to believe that “God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the result of chance”.

That said, as one blogger wrote, if extraterrestrials did in fact exist, they had better not be homosexual, or practice abortion.

Fr. José Gabriel Funes is Director of the Vatican Observatory, which has sites in Rome and in Arizona. Funes obtained his doctorate in Astronomy with the study of the kinematics of the ionized gas in the inner regions of 25 disk galaxies. Funes specializes in extragalactic astronomy. His field of research includes the kinematics and dynamics of disk galaxies, the star formation in the local universe, the relationship between gravitational interaction and galactic activity. I have no idea what any of that means, but it sounds bloody impressive.

Sources: BBC News, Shakesville, Catholic News Agency

To read the full interview/article in English, click here.

I have an amazing friend who points me to things that change my life. Sometimes I check it out straight away, and other times I’ll revisit six months later. My introduction to TED.com falls into the latter category. Over the last couple of months I’ve downloaded several videos for my later viewing, and whilst all are quite amazing, there are two I’ve found so incredible that I just have to share them.

Whilst hardly a practising (in the traditional sense) Roman Catholic, I still retain an interest in matters of faith. Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion rings true with many of my thoughts on the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) - there is a single unifying ideology of compassion which gets lost amongst a sea of commentary. Sometimes people add too much crap to a really great idea. Karen is truly engaging throughout and her wish of an open dialogue between the faiths is one that I share.

Which brings me to Dave Eggers. Apart from being a fairly prolific author (his first book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize), he was instrumental in opening a tutoring lab for young people in San Francisco’s Mission District called 826 Valencia. His TED Prize Wish outlines the setup and growth of 826 Valencia, and the subsequent implementation of the concept in other American cities. Entertaining and inspirational in the same breath, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the foresight of the project.

I wonder if I’ll ever speak before a TED conference. Guess I’ll have to do something worthwhile in the meantime…

Edit: at the suggestion of one reader, I have included direct links for downloading the relevant talks. Just means you won’t have to deal with auto-loading movies. And for those who enjoy watching video on their iPod, I recommend you download the zipped version and then use iSquint to convert it into iPod-friendly format straight into iTunes. Enjoy!

Karen Armstrong: Zipped mp4 or iTunes

Dave Eggers: Zipped mp4 or iTunes

Whilst I commend and admire Victoria’s ex-Premiere Jeff Kennett for his involvement in BeyondBlue (a truly worthwhile organisation that deals with that silent but all too real plague of our times – Depression), I cannot put out of my mind the fact that he was instrumental in weakening the health services of this state during his reign.

Each day I spend in Melbourne I am reminded that the mental health services in this state have still not recovered from those times. There is a multitude of people living on the streets and in commission housing receiving nothing but a Salvation Army or Wesley Mission visit when their stretched and independently funded resources can manage it.

Unfortunately I have had first and second-hand experiences with people who have been let down by the fact that there are too few beds in mental health wards. There was one man in particular, in the early 2000s, who had to be escorted by police to a clinic to be administered his medication. Not only a waste of the cops’ time, but they weren’t trained for such duties, and their ranks were thinned by the same government that caused the mental health crisis in the first place. The man in question was the father of a close friend. He could barely care for himself, and had had a number of violent episodes, one of which may or may not have led to (more…)