Aliens

First of all, don’t get me wrong from the intro on the previous page, I support the active search for extraterrestrials. Indeed, I think finding life “out there” would be the greatest unifying force this planet has ever experienced. I think it would bring us all together under the idea that “we” are one people, all nations, colors, religions, and social standing. (This is something I want to come back to at the end.) It would be the greatest thing to ever happen to us, just from that perspective, let alone the potential exchange of ideas and technology.

The possibilities are tantalizing. Some very good science fiction has been produced along these lines, ala Contact, and, of course, Star Trek. Maybe the truth is actually as sinister as some science fiction, ala War of the Worlds, Mars Attacks, or Independence Day, with aliens bent on destroying the earth and enslaving its peoples. Maybe, just maybe, the truth is as realistic as still other fictional accounts, ala Men in Black. And the abounding stories of alien sightings seem to entice many to conclude that it’s a very real possibility. Indeed we have people that say they have seen the crafts, met the aliens, and been investigated by them. It would seem only a matter of public record that alien interest in our world is fact. But somehow, the credibility of such accounts has yet to be established by other credible sources.

Now I find it curious that the idealists of the believers will propose that there must be many intelligent life forms in the universe, due to its sheer vastness and its tendency to create worlds that sustain life (c.v. Evolution), just waiting to contact and be contacted by us, but ignore the fact that almost literally all of the accounts of contact on record are with the same goofy looking creatures. If there are so many different types of alien races, why do they all look basically the same?

Then there are accounts that report to have hard evidence, but none but the insiders, of course, have ever seen it. The classic case is, you guessed it: Roswell. (I’ll leave it to the reader to research the copious material concerning that “incident” on the web.) Let’s face it, all one would need to do to validate this account is get one piece of that “alien” wreckage to the press, who would then watchfully turn it over to some lab, who would documentarily dissect where it came from. It would make national live television! We could take care of the proof of intelligent extraterrestrial life very easily. Perhaps I’m oversimplifying here, but the point is that one tiny bit of hard proof of alien activity would immediately make the top story of every news organization around the globe.

But the people who support the notion that an alien craft crash landed at Roswell will tell me that the military is suppressing the evidence. And that gets back to the heart of what I think is really going on with all these stories of semi-credible contact, like air traffic controllers seeing something amiss. I do think that the military is working on all sorts of extremely advanced kinds of aircraft and weapons. I think these tests generate the bulk of the reports. Someone sees “something,” but can’t verify what it was. Indeed, “something” crashed at Roswell. But we can no longer be sure of what it was. I think the military is hiding something. I think they are hiding their own mistake. I think some of our people, people probably without family, died in an experiment staged by the military. An experiment with a new type of aircraft. Maybe I am the one who is completely wrong here. Maybe it really was a weather balloon, and the reports were just staged or got inflated. Maybe some of the stories about weird bodies in an operating room are real. (There are so many reasons that prove the Alien Autopsy movie is faked; don’t go there.) But maybe the military was also experimenting with altering the human physique for interstellar travel. Remember that the timing of the incident is just before the “space race.” Maybe the military did screw up, cover it up, and secretly fueled the controversy in order to cover their tracks and avoid the embarrassment.

If there are real aliens, they seem to be a pretty elusive lot. Why? Don’t they share our feelings of interest and openness? Have they traveled all this way just to study us? Are we too primitive for them? Do we have life forms here that would instantly kill them, forcing them to stay far away? Do they actually have such technology as to allow them to travel interstellar distances, and yet not have the ability to learn all about us from the incredible deluge of information being broadcast into space by electromagnetic waves? Do you see where I’m going here? If there were a race so advanced that they could even come here, I cannot believe that they would need to do anything but simply plant their craft on the ground and announce their arrival, as they would already know the political and social climate of our community. (Hmm… That said, maybe they do just float around looking at sunbathers through binoculars. Maybe we should concentrate our efforts to locate alien craft above nude beaches. Heh. My point is that if I had a chance to live somewhere else where there were no wars or pollution or crime, I’d stay away from Earth too.)

Actually, I think that the real answer to these questions is as simple and as old as our race. If you have gotten here, you surely have at least read that this is an attempt to explain the phenomenon in terms of Apostolic Pentecostalism. And it has taken me a long time to swallow the answer I’m about to give, but it’s the only one in which I have any reason to believe. See, a long time ago, we thought nothing about gods and spirits that inhabited the earth. We thought them responsible for the good things and the bad that happened in our lives. The rains and harvests, marriages and births, wars and disease, supernatural beings were behind it all. Now, “science” has explained “everything.” The Big Bang, Evolution, the supposition that there must be at least the strong possibility of extraterrestrial life, it has created a reality devoid of spirituality. Yes “religion” has at times been wrong, and indeed responsible for what can only be described as atrocities. The most pertinent example would be how the Roman Catholic Church, as per the Pope, decried Copernicus a heretic, and forced him to recant, for claiming that the sun was the center of the solar system, not the earth, when, in fact, he was absolutely correct.

This example is a good one of a two-edged sword. On the one hand, the leaders of the church were trying to protect the notion that religion was the center of reality, not science. An admirable desire considering all that has transpired now that we have shifted our focus from religion to science. The despiritualization of reality has led to a notion that there are no eternal consequences for one’s actions. That has led to a society that is increasingly bereft of basic morals: virtue, respect, courage, honesty, and the like. That has led to the idea that you can do whatever you want to whomever you want whenever you want. And you can see where this is leading us. At the same time that crime is spiraling out of control, we have lost our sense of duty to call a crime a crime and punish it due to increasingly liberal politics, on both sides of the fence. And that will cause us to cave in on ourselves in anarchy given enough time. “As in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah…”

On the other hand, we have a classic example of religion delving into areas that it should not concern itself with. Really, what if the earth really were the center of the universe? Maybe the earth does revolve around the sun, but what if the universe really does revolve with the earth at its center? Who cares? Does it change the fact that God made it? That God is still the Lord of it all? That He wants to have a personal relationship with everyone on it? Does it change the fact that its still wrong to kill someone or to commit adultery? That it would still be foolishness to legalize drugs, no matter how much effort and money we are spending combating the problem? The point is that religion and science are not mutually exclusive. Each have their territory to cover; each has their lessons to teach. When they do seemingly overlap, it falls to your faith which one to believe, as in the case of evolution.

Okay. Enough about that. Back to the aliens. Science has yet to prove anything about alien existence. Religion, though discounted, still speaks to influences that do weird things to people. They are called spirits. Devils. Demons. Whatever the name, they have been abusing people for a long time. If you read the Gospels, you see Jesus casting unclean spirits out of people all the time. It was a very common occurrence. Sometimes there were more than one in a person, indicating a particularly bad problem. Sometimes they are seen making the person physically abuse themselves. Everyone back then “knew” that this happened, and happened frequently. Have these spirits gotten bored with us? Have they died? No, they’re still around, up to their same game, but with some new twists. Now we have people “remembering” abuses when they were children, giving them an excuse for the erratic and sinful behaviors they are committing. (Don’t get me wrong, I have the deepest sympathies for those that have been abused, physically or sexually. The Bible claims that it will have been better to have never lived than to have been a child abuser, and I agree.) Now we have people who “remember” being abducted by aliens. The stories seem to always be the same. And they usually come under the same circumstances: hypnotism. Funny how hypnotism plays a big part in Satanism, isn’t it? Look, to me, it’s really simple. Hypnotism, as in Holy Ghost-filled worship, empties a person to be sensitive to the spirit realm. Whether you make yourself sensitive to evil or good spirits is your choice. And when people get so distressed in life that they go to someone who uses hypnotism, they are putting themselves under the influence of evil spirits, spirits that will plague the mind and the body.

Now the next thing to deal with is proof. Hey, I’m claiming it’s ridiculous to believe in aliens because we have no proof. What about proof of spirits of either kind, good or bad? Well I would submit that it’s their very nature to avoid such proof. I know that’s kind of convenient, but I suppose that my proof lies in the Bible. It talks of spirits nonchalantly as an everyday phenomenon. That’s enough for me. Indeed, when you get filled with the Holy Spirit, there’s not much else to say on the subject. You know the spirit realm is real, and you understand it’s very sharply divided into two camps. And when you study the Bible, you find out that only one side is going to win in the end. There will be an initial return of Jesus Christ, followed by 1000 years of peace and prosperity, the final battle between good and evil, and then the “Great White Throne Judgement.” And this is what I alluded to at the very first. As we scan the skies for a new race, we will find the Spirit in terms of the “second coming” of Christ, and when we do, seeing Him face to face, without the need for faith of any kind, there will be a unifying force like no other. We will understand that “we” are not separate from “them,” and we will all work together for the good of all. It will be an end to war, famine, and disease. And that will be heaven on Earth. Literally.

I realize that my conclusion effectively renounces the possibility that there are other races in the universe. Some think that’s such an incredible waste of space as to practically force the fact there must be life “out there.” However, I think it makes what we have here all the more special in the understanding. Think about it.