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.

A little while ago I mentioned Fluid and while amazing, had found no real purpose to it. Courtesy of constant connection time-outs with Twitterrific, I have decided to point Fluid at the best web interface for Twitter: Hahlo. When I’m around town and logged into wifi on the Touch, Hahlo is my choice for tweeting.

As you can see from the screenshots, the layout and interface are just awesome. What I love is the menu. A completely customised view of your Twitterverse is only a click away. And now, all happily located on my desktop for when I can’t be bothered dealing with the Touch’s smaller screen.

There are a lot of customers with whom I have shared a relationship at my work for the last seven years. One such customer was kind enough to bring me some reading material last Thursday, complete with his own observations. Needless to say, I loved the thought. He raises a very convincing argument.

The thing that gets me is the highlighted disclaimer (I know you can’t read it, that’s why there’s a larger image). As if Starbucks are going to run out of coffee. ‘While stocks last’?