Extraterrestrial Life and Catholic Theology | Prof. Chris Baglow

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This lecture was given on February 8th, 2024, at Catholic University of America.

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About the Speaker:

Dr. Baglow is Professor of the Practice of Theology and the Director of the Science and Religion Initiative of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. His work is the culmination of 19 years of faith and science scholarship and educational program creation, as well as a lengthy career in Catholic theological education spanning high-school, undergraduate, graduate and seminary teaching. For this work, he was co-recipient of an Expanded Reason Award in Teaching from the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (Madrid) and the Vatican Joseph Ratzinger Foundation (Rome).

Baglow is the author of Faith, Science and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge (2nd edition, Midwest Theological Forum, 2019) and Creation: A Catholic’s Guide to God and the Universe (Ave Maria Press, 2021). He serves as theological advisor to the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Scientists and as a contributor to the JTF-funded science and religion programming of the Word on Fire Institute. Most recently, he authored the transcripts for Wonder: The Harmony of Faith and Science, a Word on Fire film series directed by Manny Marquez and narrated by Jonathan Roumie. His work has appeared in That Man is You, Crux, Church Life Journal, Culture and Evangelization, and Joie de Vivre Quarterly Journal.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
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0:51.2	So my talk tonight, you might notice I have here a term or an acronym that I'll explain
0:56.1	in a little while, is about what Catholic theologians might say if there is rational
1:03.7	life in outer space, or off-planet rational animals, or Oprah for short,
1:11.6	what might we say?
1:13.6	And from the outside, this question might seem,
1:16.6	in fact, some of my colleagues have interrogated me about this,
1:19.6	might seem to be a completely useless one.
1:22.6	Idle, right?
1:23.6	We don't know if there is any life in the universe off of this planet.
1:29.3	And more specifically, we don't know whether or not there is extraterrestrial life off planet,
1:34.3	life made in the image of likeness of God as humanity is, right?
1:38.3	So what might understandably come to the mind is the question,
1:42.3	well, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin as an
1:46.4	analogy to the kind of question we're talking about tonight? Why try to answer a question that has no
1:53.2	immediate application to anything pressing? But it seems like a matter of vital curiosity. I mean, can't we
	...

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