Imagine the Potential

Those Catholics keep producing these excellent and subtle pro-life adverts. Here is their first one - and below their latest which commemerates 40 years since man first set foot on the moon.

Alien

"Writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space." - BBC. I agree with Father Gabriel here; we should not rule out the possibility of the existence of aliens.

I do not want to sit in a dimly lit basement, one of a circle of socially-inept, un-shaven and un-showered men, discussing every imaginable topic relating to aliens. Hours spent speculating upon the liklehood of extra-terrestrial life has no attraction to me. Disputes over various species of aliens, and what they would do if they came here are meaningless, because virtually nothing is known about the subject. However I do want to point out that we should not quickly deny the existence of something we are so unsure about.

To categorically state that aliens do not and cannot exist is to limit God's power (which is limitless).

It was in 330BC that Aristotle provided observational evidence for the spherical Earth. Until then, most of the world lived in blissful ignorance of just how spherical their planet Earth was. And it was not until 1543 that Copernicus's book, "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" was published that the concept that the Earth was not the center of the Universe began to be accepted.

At various stages throughout history, people have stood back and said "we've arrived". It is claimed that in 1899, Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office Charles H. Duell said "everything that can be invented has been invented".

Let me finish by saying that I do not care whether aliens exist or not. I would dissuade people, especially children from too many hours spent, huddled under the duvet holding the Alien Mysteries book with cold, shivering and sweaty hands, pondering the *irrefutable* cases set before them with set jaw.

"We should not even discuss the possibility of aliens", some have said. Well, if this argument was used on Captain James Cook, it certainly didn't stop him from sailing half-way round the World, sailing un-chartered seas in a search for "The Great Southern Continent", and finding New Zealand (and Australia).

I see nothing inherently wrong in probing the depths of Space in search of alien creatures with whom we can communicate and trade with. The billions of tax-payer's dollars being used to fund such enterprises, however, is an entirely different issue! It is a pre-occupation with the idea of aliens and UFOs that we need to avoid.

Kiwi band Goldenhorse has a nice song called Alien.

Update (17 May): Jono responds with a strong argument against the possibility of the existence of Aliens. Click here to read his article.

Guy Fawkes

The classic poem...

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up King and Parliament.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Click here for the second verse

This song comes to mind. "My will be a dead man" by Project86. I don't know about the video, but I like the song. It's good easy listening for November the 5th.

Did you know? Some key people in Parliament knew about the gunpowder plot from early on in the piece. One of the schemers was actually a rat, employed by parliament to feed in information and updates on the plot. This was just what the Protestant Parliament wanted, a chance to foil a plot by Roman Catholics to kill the King and all the MPs in Parliament. It was essentially a complex and well thought out publicity stunt. When the people of England heard that the Roman Catholics were trying to blow up Parliament, they would be unhappy - and all power to the current Government!

Parliament buildings: still standing

If by some bizarre chance Guy Fawkes and the crew had been successful in blowing up Parliament, they would have also succeeding in bringing total havoc and disorder to the whole country of England. The right of the common man to read and write could well have been again removed, and the hierarchical Roman Catholic reinstated as the oppressive regime that it had been prior to the Reformation.

Don't even get me started on Nanny State only allowing the sale of fireworks between the 2nd and the 5th of November. It's quite simple, just chuck the irresponsible and immature losers in prison. Don't restrict the freedom of everyone just so that you manage to stop the few who ruin it for the rest of us.