• Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith

  • Are We Alone in the Universe with God and the Angels?
  • By: Paul Thigpen
  • Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
  • Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith  By  cover art

Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith

By: Paul Thigpen
Narrated by: Kevin O'Brien
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Publisher's summary

For more than half a century, the question of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) has been widely dismissed in our culture. That wasn’t always the case. Some of the best minds of the last 25 centuries in Western civilization have grappled with this mystery.

In Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith, best-selling author Paul Thigpen begins with a fascinating historical survey of the public conversation about ETI, tracing the thought of prominent Catholics and others. Well-known figures such as Plato, Saint John Chrysostom, René Descartes, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, and C. S. Lewis all speculated about the possibilities of life beyond our planet. Even Catholic saints and blesseds spoke of ETI, such as Pope Saint. John Paul II, Saint (Padre) Pio of Pietrelcina, and Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.

In light of this history, listeners will discover answers to these questions:

  • How do Scripture and Catholic teaching shed light on this topic?
  • Are alleged encounters with ETI simply a form of demonic deception?
  • Is belief in ETI compatible with the Catholic Church’s teaching?
  • What might be the spiritual and moral status of ETI, and what relationship might they have to Jesus Christ?
  • Would the confirmed existence of ETI undermine the Christian faith, as some have claimed?
  • How can thinking about ETI deepen our faith and enhance our understanding of the Church’s teaching about God and His creation, Jesus Christ and salvation, and God’s ultimate intention for His creatures?

Still more, a concluding appendix addresses the related issue of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and the speculation surrounding them.

Recent developments in astrophysics, technology, and UFO-related disclosures by the Pentagon have reawakened the public discussion about ETI. Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith is a thorough guide to navigating the conversation from a faithful Catholic perspective.

©2022 Paul Thigpen (P)2022 TAN Books

What listeners say about Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith

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Interesting head scratcher

This is a thorough and multi sided discussion of a topic for which no one can currently claim to have the authority, experience, or understanding to give a definitive answer. And it is well explored. It seems like particularly good source material for an evening of discussion and libations with a few friends.

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Great analysis of ETI

A very scholarly analysis of the phenomena and how they relate to Catholic faith. The narration however is a bit haughty.

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Nice historical research, but narration overwrought

Compiling so many thinkers’ conjectures and arguments on the subject, no doubt, was a laborious task. Enduring the narrator’s dramatic interpretation of the attitudes and genders of said thinkers, one may find almost as exhausting.

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Just what I was looking for

A piercing yet comprehensive inquiry into the implications of the existence of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence on Catholic dogma and cosmology. Very well done.

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