Aliens On Earth.com Resources for those who are stranded here Our Bookstore is OPEN Over 5000 new & used titles, competitively priced! Topics: UFOs - Paranormal - Area 51 - Ghosts - Forteana - Conspiracy - History - Biography - Psychology - Religion - Crime - Health - Geography - Maps - Science - Money - Language - Recreation - Technology - Fiction - Other - New Search... for keyword(s)   in Page Titles in Book Title/Author in Contents of Pages ---other searches--- Metacrawler Yahoo FAST Search Google Altavista Dogpile Inference Find Northern Light IWon.com MSN Search Las Vegas Sun Location: Mothership -> UFO -> Updates -> 1998 -> Aug -> Patriarch Warns Against Seeking Contact

UFO UpDates Mailing List

From: Stig Agermose <Stig_Agermose@online.pol.dk
Date: Sun, 9 Aug 1998 06:28:27 +0200
Fwd Date: Sun, 09 Aug 1998 13:55:58 -0400
Subject: Patriarch Warns Against Seeking Contact


From Moscow Magazine via Russia Today's religious message board.

http://www.russiatoday.com/.chat/rooms/religboard/175.html


Stig


*******


Patriarch addresses church's role in contemprary issues


Posted by Sibersky Husky on July 02, 1998 at 10:44:05:



Exclusive Interview With Patriarch Alexis II


by Larisa Rumarchuk

Moscow Magazine, 30 June 1998


<snip>

--As we know, religion and science are by no means mutually
exclusive. But scientists indulge in thought about the existence
of other worlds and other civilizations. How does the Orthodox
church view these hypotheses?

--It seems that the person who is seeking contacts with
so-called UFO's should ask himself the question: what are the
moral consequences of these searches? Why should one hope that
the spiritual and material problems of contemporary humanity can
be solved by some "emissaries from the cosmos"? What are the
spiritual consequences of communion with forces whose nature and
origin are extremely dubious? The church's consciousness clearly
sees that in this area we must manifest extreme caution. The
Apostle John warns: "Do not believe every spirit, but test the
spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets
have appeared in the world" (1 Jn 4.1). Sacred scripture,
pointing to the worth of the human soul, stresses that it is
unrepeatable and unique. In Orthodoxy the human personality is
viewed as a God-given reality that is called to a spiritual
transformation into Christ. In this context the role of the
church in the economy of our salvation is recognized. The church
building is the house of God and also the highest image of the
harmony of the entire cosmos, recalling the original Paradise
and the coming Kingdom of Heaven. Christianity recognizes that
at the base of creation lies the supreme law established by God
to which the world and humanity are subject. In this world order
there is a center--God himself, and there is an invisible
spiritual world, but so far as we know from God's revelation in
all of the great varieties of his living creatures only humanity
has been given the right to rule the earth and all that is in it
and to bear undivided responsibility before God for this home.

I suggest that scientists should pay heed to this testimony of
the Bible and the more so when the topic is hypotheses, many of
which have been disproved by the Book of Books and church
tradition. The moral meaning of any hypothesis must never be
overlooked. One of the last elders of Optino, Saint Nektary,
said that vital success can come to a person who is studying the
various sciences when his science is not a hinderance to his
moral and spiritual life, but the spiritual life is not a
restriction on the study of science. (tr. by PDS)