when stephen hawking was allowed to see the galileo archives, he was surprised to know galileo was one arrogant dude. the pope was just so peeved about him he excommunicated him. obviously not for religious reasons.

and newton was another arrogant dude.

maybe the church should have tortured these arrogant dudes, including the pope himself.

I love it.  Galileo will be smiling down from the empyrean.

The Vatican is catching up with the rest of the world.  America is probably the only place on Earth where Neanderthals (also known as creationists and intelligent design folks) have any degree of credibility with a part of the population that shouldn't have the right to vote.  The rest of the world is on board with science and it's nice that Catholics are allowed to think.

Stug01:

While at first glance your comments are eye-rolling funny, they are the type that completely discredit dogmatic religious belief with anybody who uses logical thinking!

What kind of arrogance allows you to state:  "No other creature but man was created in the image of God"  How do you know?  The Bible doesn't state this (not that it states anything in specific terms).  Remember, those who wrote the Bible thought the world was flat and the world was the center of everything.  They couldn't fathom an Alaskan Innuit much less the possibility of life beyond the sky.

Honestly, can you come up with something a bit more plausible for those of us that don't use the Bible as a means for scientific answers?  PS- Evolution and Theory of Evolution are one in the same.  It's a developing scientific concept- science takes time/argument/evidence/discussion- it's quirky like that.

As a Christian (not a Catholic), I find this most disturbing.

a) Earth is God's special creation on which Christ died to redeem sinners.

b) No other creature but man was created in the image of God, which is why God came to earth as a man to defeat death and Hell on the Cross.

c) Real science demonstrates the sheer complexity of life and there are almost impossible odds of it developing without intelligent input. Even the 'simplest' organism is awe-inspiringly complex.

d) If you believe that God created life on earth but that it also developed independently elsewhere in the universe then you are devaluing the work of the Creator.

e) Christ died for the sins of those who give their lives to Him. ET never got this far in the film, nor could he, being non-human.

f) I wonder if the pope knows the difference between evolution (real) and the Theory of Evolution (fraud).

g) Is the pope a Catholic? Certainly! Is he a Bible-believing Christian? Clearly not!

How this for a shocker? Jesus was an extraterrestial-human hybrid! This isn't new either. There's a book  on this controversial topic that Vatican tried hard to supress ala Da Vinci Code. It somehow escaped the ban because the author re-marketed it as a parody. It's now called Givenchy Code by ER Escober.

http://www.prlog.org/10071739-catholic-secret-aliens-connection-revealed-in-book-that-vatican-tried-to-ban-ala-da-vinci-code.html