Do space aliens have souls? Inquiring minds can check Jesuit's book

I wonder how many could dance on the head of a pin?
VATICAN CITY (whole article from CNS) -- Galaxy-gazing scientists surely wonder about what kind of impact finding life or intelligent beings on another planet would have on the world.

But what sort of effect would it have on Catholic beliefs? Would Christian theology be rocked to the core if science someday found a distant orb teeming with little green men, women or other intelligent forms of alien life? Would the church send missionaries to spread the Gospel to aliens? Could aliens even be baptized? Or would they have had their own version of Jesus and have already experienced his universal or galactic plan of salvation?

Curious Catholics need not be space buffs to want answers to these questions and others when they pick up a 48-page booklet by a Vatican astronomer.

Through the British-based Catholic Truth Society, U.S. Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno has penned his response to what he says are questions he gets from the public "all the time" when he gives talks on his work with the Vatican Observatory.

Titled Intelligent Life in the Universe? Catholic Belief and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life, the pocket-sized booklet is the latest addition to the society's "Explanations Series," which explores Catholic teaching on current social and ethical issues.

I’ve had Roman Catholic friends ask the reverse question, namely “Do Jesuits have souls?” The Waffler is not even going to think about putting his waffling little nose into that argument. The question of alien life does make for interesting speculation, but I suspect we will have to wait for a landing on the White House lawn for any definitive answers.

As to whether aliens have souls, all I can say is, if any of them show up here on Earth, then I certainly hope so! The consequences of running into a technologically advanced, but soulless species is chilling to say the least. That is a recipe for the particularly horrifying prospect of a completely utilitarian yet innocent race. The Borg of Star Trek – The Next Generation come to mind – or a machine intelligence of some kind. Such an organism would as soon vivisect you as talk to you, and have no more guilt than a coyote eating a chicken.

It is hard to imagine God creating a sentient life form that was not somehow in the Imago Dei; it is a little easier to picture us manufacturing such a mechanical entity in the Imago Hominis. We have a bad track record for trying to be like God - first that horrible misunderstanding with the Tree of Knowledge, then that Tower of Babel thing. I have a feeling we might not be too hot at the creator business.