Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Relationships and Religion
UFO/UAP: Real, Fake, or Demonic Delusion?

UFO/UAP: Real, Fake, or Demonic Delusion?

Last updated on: August 26, 2026 at 11:20 am by Benjamin Raven Pressley

UFO/UAP: Real, Fake, or Demonic Delusion? 2026-08-26T11:20:55-04:00 Benjamin Raven Pressley

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.

In 1993-2002 a TV show that became wildly popular and still maintains a cult-like following even today, known as The X-Files came out about two detectives who investigated the unusual, UFOs and paranormal phenomenon had a catchphrase

“The Truth Is Out There”

People have always been fascinated by the possibility that we may not be alone in the universe. It’s true! As far back as the second century, literary historians and classicists widely consider A True Story (A True History, or Alethe Diegemata) written by the Hellenized Syrian satirist Lucian of Samosata in the 2nd century AD (c. 170 AD) to be the oldest surviving work containing extraterrestrial life and interplanetary warfare, making it the world’s first true work of proto-science fiction. And you may even want to consider The Vaimanika Shastra & Hindu Epics: Ancient Sanskrit texts (like the Mahabharata) describe flying vimanas and battles in the sky, though these are traditionally framed through divine/cosmic spiritual frameworks rather than physical extraterrestrials from other planets.

Listen to this article:

https://wp-media.patheos.com/blogs/sites/2216/2026/08/UFO.mp3

Commercial poster f/ David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson TV show.

The modern UFO era erupted in mid-1947, sparked by a wave of pilot sightings and the infamous Roswell incident. While Area 51 was built in the 1950s for secret military tests, it was not publicly tied to alien lore until decades later in 1989. The phenomenon really took off in May 1989 when Bob Lazar gave an anonymous television interview on Las Vegas station KLAS, claiming he was hired to reverse-engineer crashed alien craft at a facility called “S-4” near Area 51. Lazar’s claims permanently linked Area 51 to extraterrestrial technology in global pop culture, transforming the secret base into a focal point for UFO folklore throughout the 1990s and beyond.

Is there a possibility of extraterrestrial life?

Sure, it’s possible. As Rev. José Gabriel Funes famously noted, putting limits on alien life is like putting limits on God’s creative freedom**.** Just as there are diverse creatures on Earth, there could be intelligent beings elsewhere created by God. Some have proposed that Ezekiel’s vision of a wheel within a wheel in Ezekiel 1:15–21 could have been an alien spacecraft, but upon further study you will find it was a heavenly spirit being, some would call an angel, or more precisely a Cherubim (Read my article ‘The Truth About Angels’ for more on that subject.)

Carl Sagan wrote one of the most famous lines regarding the probability of extraterrestrial life in his 1985 science fiction novel Contact:

“The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it’s just us… it seems like an awful waste of space.”

While that line captured his philosophical wonder, Sagan also framed the vastness of the cosmos through a statistical and scientific lens in his 1980 non-fiction book and TV series Cosmos:

The Scale of the Cosmos: Sagan highlighted that our Sun is just one of roughly 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, and our galaxy is just one of hundreds of billions in the observable universe.
The Probability of Life: “The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding… If we were the only intelligent beings in the Cosmos, it would be an extraordinary anomaly.”
The Balancing Principle: Despite his belief that life was mathematically probable somewhere in the universe, Sagan strictly maintained scientific skepticism about UFO claims on Earth, coining the famous principle: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Astrophysicist Frank Drake in 1961 came up with a probabilistic formula used to estimate the number of active, communicative alien civilizations and proved that, mathematically, it is possible. Sagan used the Drake Equation in Cosmos to show that even under conservative estimates, the math favors alien life:

Almost every star has planets.
There are billions of Earth-sized, habitable-zone planets in our galaxy alone.

So possible? Yes. But if alien civilizations exist, what are the probabilities that they are so far more advanced than we are on Earth to be able to travel millions of miles and able to take an interest in our planet and its inhabitants?

It was famously posed by physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950 during a casual lunch conversation, summarized by his simple question: “Where is everybody?” Where is the evidence of them if it is so likely they exist? Oh, I know modern-day conspiracy theorists abound and swear they can prove it. They live next door to the ones who have proof that Bigfoot exists.

And in recent times, 2026, President Trump declassifying and releasing files kept secret by the U.S. government confounds the possibility even more so. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, is one of the first ones to say, “We are absolutely not alone.” Even as late as the ’60s, our government was training pilots that if you do this in the military long enough, you’re going to come in contact with four different types of aliens and went on to describe the four distinct types that they supposedly had identified.

The single most compelling event widely cited by scientists, intelligence officials, and military personnel as evidence of non-human technology is the 2004 USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” Incident. What separates this case from almost all other sightings is not just pilot testimony, but multi-platform sensor data corroboration. It was tracked simultaneously by eye, radar, thermal cameras, and electronic warfare suites.

What Happened on the USS Nimitz?

In November 2004, the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group was conducting training exercises off the coast of Southern California. The guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton detected mysterious targets, shaped like Tic-Tacs, dropping from above 80,000 feet (near space) to sea level in less than a second—a rate of descent requiring speeds over 20,000 mph without producing a sonic boom. Two F/A-18F Super Hornets, flown by Cmdr. David Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich, were diverted to investigate. But, speaking objectively, the U.S. Navy admits that military radar technology doesn’t just scan for real objects; it can be tricked into seeing ghosts. The U.S. Navy has long developed active electronic countermeasure systems (such as the NEMESIS program) designed to feed false target tracks into enemy radar networks. A spoofing system could make a single stationary drone look like multiple objects dropping from 80,000 feet to sea level instantly, creating the illusion of impossible speeds. Researchers at military research centers (like the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory) also have patented systems that use high-powered, pulsed lasers to create localized plasma balls in mid-air. So, it could have been a test conducted by the U.S. Navy or possibly one of our enemies testing similar technology on us.

Picture taken at alien museum Roswell NM

HAVE ANY ALIEN BODIES BEEN FOUND?

Where the Claims Come From

David Grusch’s Congressional Testimony (2023): Former U.S. intelligence official David Grusch testified under oath before Congress that the U.S. government possesses “non-human biologicals” recovered from UAP crash sites. However, Grusch acknowledged that he has not personally seen these specimens or provided public, verifiable evidence or documentation to support the claim.
The “Nazca Mummies” (Peru, 2023–2024): Journalists and researchers presented alleged “three-fingered non-human mummies” to the Mexican Congress, claiming they were extraterrestrial beings. Independent scientific and forensic analyses—including DNA sequencing and CT scans by Peru’s Ministry of Culture and independent scientists—concluded they were modern fabrications assembled using a mixture of ancient human mummified remains, animal bones (such as llama skulls), and synthetic adhesives.

So, for the most part, I’m going to have to side with Fermi: Where’s the proof?

I also find it interesting that sightings always correspond to whatever the contemporary means of transport of the particular time the sighting is in. For example, reports of aerial sailing ships and phantom trains are famous milestones in the history of atmospheric anomalies and folklore, demonstrating how human descriptions of sky phenomena shift alongside contemporary transport technology.

Long before the Industrial Revolution, reports of aerial vessels mirrored maritime technology:

Ancient Rome (214 BC): Historical accounts recorded by Livy mention ship-like phantoms seen gleaming in the sky over Italy during the Second Punic War.
Ireland (c. 740 AD): The Annals of Ulster and the Annals of Clonmacnoise record multiple sightings of airborne ships complete with crews. In one famous account at the monastery of Clonmacnoise, a flying ship dropped its anchor, which caught on the church door. A crewman slid down the rope to free it, appearing to “swim” through the air as if underwater, before the monks helped him and the ship sailed away.

As technology shifted from sails to steam and rails, sky sightings evolved rapidly:

The 1896–1897 Great Airship Wave: Across North America, thousands reported seeing giant, cigar-shaped airships equipped with glowing searchlights, massive propellers, and mechanical gears. Some witnesses claimed to see crew members shoveling coal or operating levers.
Phantom Locomotives: During the late 1800s, as the railway system expanded nationwide, local newspapers across the U.S. frequently reported “ghost trains” or phantom locomotives chugging through the night sky, complete with glowing headlights, smokestacks, and the sound of train whistles echoing high above the clouds.

My point being, Isn’t it interesting that whatever causes anomalous sightings, the manifestation adapts its physical appearance to match the cultural expectations of the observers? From sailing ships and locomotives to spaceships. Hmm, could it be that there is a mastermind deceiver behind it all who is letting these ‘observers’ see what they want to see to feed the narrative this deceiver wants to provide? Who is this deceiver and who would be capable of such mass deception? Scripture tells us that Satan “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) and warns of deceptive “signs and wonders” in the sky during the end times.

Consider these scriptures:

Matthew 24:24 – “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
2 Thessalonians 2:9–11 – “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth… And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie.”
Revelation 13:13–14 – “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast…”
Revelation 16:13–14 – “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world…”
Mark 13:22 – “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”
2 Corinthians 11:13–15 – “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness…”
1 Timothy 4:1 – “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons…”

Author with Aliens at alien museum Roswell NM

There are core themes in these scriptures that cannot be denied! These scriptures emphasize that these signs are not just cheap parlor tricks—they are powerful, supernatural manifestations capable of deceiving almost everyone except those grounded in truth. Passage references to “fire coming down from heaven” and “angel of light” align with warnings about celestial or aerial deceptions. Is it not possible that in these modern times UFO/UAPs could fall into this category? The goal of end-times lying wonders is to shift human faith away from God toward false saviors, counterfeit spiritual entities, or alternative worldviews. Satan’s tactics have always been to get people’s eyes off of God. His original lie and the basis of all his lies in the Garden of Eden has always been ‘Hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1). The original lie was to get humankind to doubt their maker. If he can get you to doubt your maker and cast suspicion that God just might not be trustworthy, everything else comes tumbling down and makes it easy for him to further deceive. He creates a void and then fills it with his own cleverly designed alternatives. Satan loves to capitalize on human curiosity and fascination and through the years he seems to have created something for everybody, from New Age, cults, evolution and more. He seems to have a whole catalog for all to pick from, from those looking for scientific explanations to modern-day shamanism and gurus*. …Anything except the truth of the scriptures.* He has been eating away at the foundation of scriptures and what ‘thus saith the Lord’ from the beginning and this new UFO/UAP phenomenon is just one more distraction. Satan doesn’t have to get you to outright deny God; he just has to keep you distracted long enough to keep you away from seeking God and his truth as taught in the scriptures and spending time with the Holy Spirit in prayer and study.

Paul instructed Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:4 to “Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.” I think UFO/UAP interest falls into that category. It just breeds continuous questions that can’t be answered and distracts us from seeking the truth that really matters. There is nothing in the scriptures that describes aliens from outer space visiting humans and the Bible pretty thoroughly describes what is to come and what the fate of this planet is in for. I can easily imagine how Satan could use this phenomenon to explain away things that are to come as great tribulation falls upon this planet, as described in the books of Revelation, Ezekiel and Daniel. I would not be surprised if that isn’t what he will use as an explanation for when 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 happens: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Some call this the Rapture. I could easily see him using the press to explain this away as aliens have removed those troublesome Christians so we can now advance and evolve.

Author talking to aliens in Roswell NM

Any reasonable person should consider this possible when the Bible describes him as “the Prince of the Power of the Air’ (Ephesians 2:2). If one who can manipulate the weather as he did in the Book of Job, could he not also cause believable illusions to gullible human beings anxious to buy into extraterrestrial beings? The scriptures even say that in the last days people will fall under a great deception and delusion. The primary and most direct scriptural reference for the “strong delusion” in the last days is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12, which states that God will send a powerful delusion so that those who refused the truth will believe the lie, leaving them to the consequences of their unrighteousness.

Key Scriptures on End-Times Delusion

2 Thessalonians 2:10-11: Highlights that those who perish refused to love the truth, prompting a strong delusion.
Matthew 24:24: Warns of false prophets performing signs to deceive many.
2 Timothy 4:3-4: Notes a time when people will abandon truth for myths.
1 Timothy 4:1: Warns of falling away from faith due to deceitful spirits.
Revelation 13:13-14: Describes deceptive wonders.

And finally, consider Ephesians 6:10-18:

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [Original Greek is ἐπουρανίοις (epouraniois): An adjective derived from epi (upon/in) and ouranos (heaven/sky), meaning “heavenly,” “in the heavenly realms,” or “celestial, where unseen spiritual warfare takes place. Consider, those UAP sightings may very well be ‘spiritual wickedness manifested in high places, because the high places spoken of here are supernatural forces, ] 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Conclusion

Whether UAPs are military technological illusions, cultural hallucinations, or physical craft, one truth remains clear through the lens of Scripture: we must measure every manifestation by the Word of God rather than human fascination. Satan has always capitalized on curiosity, using atmospheric signs, technological shifts, and endless speculative fables to create a void of doubt and draw our eyes away from our Creator. As we draw closer to the end of the age, the ultimate defense against any high-level delusion—terrestrial, extraterrestrial, or spiritual—is not found in chasing hidden anomalies in the sky, but in standing firm upon the unshakeable truth of God’s Word.

The Truth Is Out There…In Christ!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog. I hope it gets you thinking and I hope you will share it with your friends and social media. Also consider buying my books and donating. Thanks.

I have many great books for sale!

balance

organized religion

reconnecting our spirit

self-improvement

walking spiritually

alien deception Bible

end times delusion

prince of the power of the air

signs and wonders in the sky

UAP biblical perspective

UFO demonic deception

About Benjamin Raven Pressley

Benjamin Raven Pressley is an author, teacher and spiritual guide. He is of Cherokee heritage. He has been a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles since 1975. His independent studies include the Holy Bible as well as other holy books of other religions. He is ordained by the Universal Life Church. He is a self-taught naturalist and his love and respect for nature is evident in many of the things he writes. He has authored several books on spirituality as well as a fantasy series and books on survival skills. He does not consider himself to be a religious person but believes true spirituality is an all-encompassing view of life and invites open discussion on matters of spirituality. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

August 19, 2026

Who Am I? The Answer to Society's Identity Crisis.

Next Post

September 2, 2026 What Does the Bible Really Say About Heaven?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category balance body soul spirit born again occult organized religion reconnecting our spirit self-improvement Uncategorized walking spiritually

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Hebrews say God will never do?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Fail to keep his promise Forget your work Leave you or forsake you Deny his own

Books by This Author Books by Raven's Writing Desk

See All Titles »