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A UFO for Christmas?

A UFO for Christmas?

Last updated on: December 27, 2024 at 4:58 pm by Ted Peters

A UFO for Christmas? 2024-12-27T16:58:27-08:00 Ted Peters

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A UFO for Christmas?

Would you like a UFO for Christmas? A toy drone, maybe. Certainly not a spaceship from an exoplanet.

But what if the aliens piloting the flying saucer would bring us world peace? Advanced medical science? Increased longevity? And a solution to our ecological crisis? That would be so much more than what Santa Claus could pack in his delivery sleigh.

In a previous Patheos post I asked: are UFOs our celestial saviors? It has been my observation for the last 75 years that we earthlings have been hoping and hoping to receive a UFO for Christmas. Or, at least to receive what a crew of space aliens might give us?

The ETI Myth

Ours is a scientific age. No myths. Right? No, not right. There exists at least one myth right in the heart of science.

If aliens are more evolutionarily advanced, should we ask for a UFO for Christmas?

Without mentioning Santa Claus, our sophisticated space scientists at NASA and SETI and elsewhere expect Santa-like gifts to come from evolutionary advance and technological progress. This hope derives from what I call the ETI Myth. According to this myth, biological evolution allegedly progresses from the simple to the complex. This means evolution progresses from the stupid to the smart. It means past religion was stupid and today’s science is smart. This still further means that over time evolution will make creatures smarter and smarter and smarter.

Into this bubbling punch bowl of scientific ruminations, we stir the following supposition: if an extraterrestrial civilization is older than ours on Earth by millions or billions of years, it will have progressed scientifically and technologically so that its advancement will appear miraculous to us backward earthlings.

Then we stir in yet another spicy supposition. Because we on Earth have developed nuclear weapons and so polluted our biosphere as to threaten Homo sapiens with extinction, it follows that our future ETI friends must have traversed this bottleneck ahead of us. More. They must have found a way to make peace with one another and to solve their own environmental challenge. So, ETI are not merely more advanced in science and technology. They are also more advanced morally. The logic is airtight: when aliens come to Earth they will bring gifts that will redeem our planet from self-destruction.

Now, do you want a UFO for Christmas? You bet.

The ETI Myth in Astrobiology

The ETI Myth belongs to the frame surrounding the pictures drawn for us by both astrobiologists and ufologists. Let’s look first at astrobiology.

“Astrobiology is the science that deals with the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the Universe,” says Jill Tarter, former director of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) (Tarter 2006, 20). Now, no seriously minded scientist at SETI would adopt such a myth, right?

Well, let’s look more closely. Some modern myths hide right in plain sight.

Frank Drake with Carl Sagan started SETI

We are working with an example. The two founders of SETI, scientists Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, hoped for salvation coming to Earth from the skies. In the early days of SETI the two co-authored a Scientific American article, writing that contact with extraterrestrials “would inevitably enrich mankind beyond measure” (Sagan 1975). Science saves. And in the event that terrestrial science falls short, then perhaps extraterrestrial science can get the job of salvation done. If one believes that science saves and that UAP represent a more advanced science coming to Earth from space, then it makes sense to ask for a UFO for Christmas.

Science is in the knowledge business. Does today’s scientific knowledge have saving power like ancient gnostic knowledge did? Is knowledge salvific? Perhaps much more subtly, perhaps the visiting aliens are here to teach us how to attain world peace and environmental well-being on our own. Perhaps a UFO for Christmas would bring us a teaching, a message for us to heal ourselves.

The ETI Myth among Contactees and Abductees

A UFO for Christmas?

Boston University theologian and UFO experiencer John Hart puts words to the ETI Myth. “In the vastness of space and over its eons of time, life on other worlds, too, might have evolved to be intelligent life. Extraterrestrial intelligent life (ETI) might be billions of years older than terrestrial intelligent life (TI)–and considerably more advanced biologically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually” (Hart 2014, 20). This myth frames the pictures drawn both by UFO experiences as well as the ufologists who study them.

When we look at the notorius contactees of the 1950s and the abductees of the 1980s, the myth takes concrete form. During the immediate post World War II era after the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world was terrified that atomic scientists would bring an end to the human race. We would need extraterrestrial science to save us! That was the message of contactee George Adamski or George King at the Aetherius Society along with George van Tassel and in later decades Archangel Uriel nee Ruth Norman or Raël nee Claude Vorilhon.

Ruther Norman “Uriel” of the Unarius Academy of Science

Ruth Norman, to pick on just one of the above, renamed herself Archangel Uriel when she became the shamanic leader of the Unarius Society in El Cajon, California. The Unarius Academy of Science warn us: we earthlings face a crisis. Atomic weapons threaten our very existence. The testing of these weapons threatens our health, due to radiation poisoning. Ufonauts travel a great distance to teach us to put away our experiments and to eliminate our weaponry. “We astronauts have traveled great distances, from more highly evolved and varied planets,” to save you earthlings from self-immolation. The celestial saviors plan to bring to Earth not only peace but also spiritual growth.

The abductees studied by Harvard psychiatrist John Mack delivered a much more contorted message, this time aimed at the healing of our suffering ecosphere (Mack 2021). Like the contactees, abductees also feel propelled up the path of spiritual growth. To borrow the conceptual apparatus of New Age spirituality, space aliens guide the abductee up the spiritual ladder toward the higher self, toward mystical union with the inter-subjective world. But my point here has to do with the message to earthlings coming from the heavens. “Information about ecological disaster with powerful apocalyptic imagery is also commonly transmitted by the aliens to human subjects,” wrote Mack about his abducted clients (Mack, Abduction 1994, 66).

In sum, contactees tell us to stop testing nuclear weapons while abductees tell us to stop polluting the environment. The gifts from our extraterrestrial Santa take the form of moral exhortation to repent from sin and embrace redemption.

Envoi

The worldview presupposed by our natural scientists is disenchanted. Scientists want only material explanations. No angels or divinities allowed. So, salvation must derive from something material such as technology.

A UFO for Christmas could bring extraterrestrial science

With UFO contactees and abductees, enchantment returns. But in disguised form. Enchantment looks mechanical. Extraterrestrial creatures fly in manufactured spacecraft. After all, they are scientists. Yet, they are concerned not only about earthling morality but also about our spiritual development.

The ETI myth in both its astrobiological and ufological form expresses the widespread overconfidence if not downright hubris we see in the belief that science saves. This doctrine that science saves is by no means intrinsic to science per se. Rather, it is promulgated by scientism, an ideology piled on top of science. Scientism dresses naked science in such faith clothing.

Contactees and abductees have already asked Santa for a UFO for Christmas.

Conclusion

“Until we have any contact with other forms of intelligent life in the universe, all we can do is speculate about them, their nature, and the way God is at work with them,” writes Henry Karlson in another Patheos post. Yes, indeed, we must look to the night sky and speculate. Even so, out of the corner of one eye we should look critically at others among us who are also speculating. What do they want when they ask for a UFO for Christmas? A windfall from science and technology?

As I mentioned in the previous post, our modern and emerging postmodern society may presume it has left religion to decompose in the mystical marshes of the past. But in disguised form, religious sensibilities continue to resonate endogenously within the myth that much of the worldwide scientific community has told itself. The scientist in the white lab coat has become the new messiah, the high priest of both terrestrial and extraterrestrial knowledge. And if terrestrial science threatens Earth with self-destruction through nuclear war or environmental destruction, then perhaps extraterrestrial science can teach us the right way to world peace.

Do we want a UFO for Christmas?

On the first Christmas two millennia ago, God sent a crying baby to a Bethlehem manger. Since then we have only thirsted all the more for peace – true peace — on Earth as well as good will to all who live on Earth. Does God have another Christmas in store for us?

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UFOs–God’s Chariots? For the book, click here.

Ted Peters directs traffic at the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. Peters is an emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union, where he co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, with Robert John Russell on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. He authored Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom? (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2002) as well as Science, Theology, and Ethics (Ashgate 2003). Along with Martinez Hewlett, Joshua Moritz, and Robert John Russell, he co-edited, Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Intelligence (2018). Along with Octavio Chon Torres, Joseph Seckbach, and Russell Gordon, he co-edited, Astrobiology: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy (Scrivener 2021). Along with Arvin Gouw and Brian Patrick Green, he co-edited Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics (Lexington 2022). Look for his newest book, The Voice of Public Theology, a collection of previous articles. See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.

Regarding UFOs, he is author of UFOs: God’s Chariots? Spirituality, Ancient Aliens, and Religious Yearnings in the Age of Extraterrestrials (Career Press New Page Books, 2014). He served as Louisiana State Director for MUON and is currently a member of two UFO investigation organizations, Society for UAP Studies and Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies.

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References

Denzler, Brenda. Lure if the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs . Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2001.

Hart, John. Encountering ETI: Aliens in Avatar and the Americas. Eugene OR: Cascade Books, 2014.

Mack, John. Abduction. New York: Scribner, 1994.

Mack, John. “Studying Intrusions from the Subtle Realm: How Can We Deepen Our Knowledge?” In Making Contact: Preparing for the New Ralities of Extraterrestrial Existence, by ed Alan Steinfeld, 136-157. New York: St. Martin’s, 2021.

Pasulka, DW. Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences. New York: St. Martin, 2023.

Peters, Ted. UFOs–God’s Chariots? Pompton Plains NJ: New Page Books, 2014.

Sagan, Carl, and Frank Drake. “The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” Scientific American 232, no. 1 (1975): 80-89.

Tarter, Jill. The evolution of life in the Universe: are we alone? Doi 10.1017/S174307009829, International Astronomical Union: IAU XXVI General Assembly: Highlights of Astronomy 14: 13-29, 2006.

Zimmerman, Michael. “The alien abduction phenomenon: Forbidden knowledge of hidden events.” Philosophy Today 41:2, 1997: 235-245.

Technology and Religion

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About Ted Peters

Ted Peters directs traffic at the intersection of science, religion, and ethics. Peters is an emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union, where he co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, with Robert John Russell on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. He authored Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom? (Routledge, 2nd ed., 2002) as well as Science, Theology, and Ethics (Ashgate 2003). Along with Martinez Hewlett, Joshua Moritz, and Robert John Russell, he co-edited, Astrotheology: Science and Theology Meet Extraterrestrial Intelligence (2018). Along with Octavio Chon Torres, Joseph Seckbach, and Russell Gordon, he co-edited, Astrobiology: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy (Scrivener 2021). Along with Arvin Gouw and Brian Patrick Green, he co-edited Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics (Lexington 2022). Look for his newest book, The Voice of Public Theology, a collection of previous articles. See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com. Regarding UFOs, he is author of UFOs: God's Chariots? Spirituality, Ancient Aliens, and Religious Yearnings in the Age of Extraterrestrials (Career Press New Page Books, 2014). He served as Louisiana State Director for MUON and is currently a member of two UFO investigation organizations, Society for UAP Studies and Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies. You can read more about the author here.

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