Date:   Sat Jul 16 1994  14:53:00
From:   David Dean
Subj:   UFOs and Religion
UFO                            -------------------------------

The following is quoted from the Austin American-Statesman on July 16,
1994 by Tom Schaefer, Knight-Ridder Newspapers.  It is for information only.

       "As a syndicated religion columnist, I receive some bizarre mail.
At least twice a year I get a postcard from "Jesus Christ" scrawled in pen
from Ohio or Florida, I forget which.  The message is usually along the
lines of "Evil is bad; do good".  (Sort of a fortune cookie theology that
melts in your mouth, not in your head).
        My most recent piece of bizarre mail is a spiral-bound "scientific
survey" from Santa Fe, N.M., entitled "The Alexander UFO Religious Crisis
Survey: The Impact of UFOs and Their Occupants on Religion."
        The Author mailed 1,000 surveys to priests, ministers and rabbis in
the United States, asking them to give responses, from strong agreement to
strong disagreement, to 11 questions such as: "Official confirmation of the
discovery of an advanced technologically superior extraterrestrial civi-
lization would have severe negative effects on the country's moral, social
and religious foundations."  (Respondents were mostly on the disagree side
of the scale.)
        In the 30-page report, the author provides all sorts of demographic
information, based on 230 surveys returned, and concludes that:
1.  Religion isn't threatened by UFOs;
2.  Those who believe there are UFOs shouldn't be afraid they'll be
    be ridiculed if they reach out to religious groups for support;
3.  UFO organizations should re-examine their "long-held position: that
    UFOs can only have a negative impact on religion.
        After reading the study, all I can say is that if UFOs and religion
are the next theological rave, then I think I'll start saving my mail from
"Jesus Christ"-the one from Ohio or Florida.  At least it doesn't take
him 30 pages to state the obvious."


I for one would like to say that I agree entirely with the author.  I don't
know where people got the idea that UFOs meant the death of religion.  If
anything, to me, UFOs invoke the notion of awe of the universe, and the
unknown which most religious/spiritual quests are based on; the concept that
there is more to life than just the boring materialistic existence that we
perceive on Earth on a day-to-day basis.

Perhaps people picked up this habit from the media when they made such a
to-do about Orson Welles "Invasion" show, because a few loony people went
and killed themselves.  It is unreasonable to suspect that the public would
give up their long-held beliefs so quickly.  Besides, if any of these people
had the alleged "faith" that they claim in their Lord Jesus, then a little
thing like visitors from another planet should not be able to shake it -
especially considering that the bible has several passages, most notably in
Genesis and Ezekial, which invoke images of Aliens or Spaceships.  To the
contrary, I believe many people would perceive the arrival of visitors as
confirmation that the "occult" (real meaning of this word is simply unknown),
realm/dimension of life actually does exist in some shape or form, even if
scientific explanations could be offered about the aliens ability to travel
at such great distances/speeds.  Especially since, at this time, we are
approaching the end of the millenium, and there has been at almost every
change of millenium in the past two-thousand years, much hysteria and
prediction of catastrophe, armageddon, and the end of the World.  And
especially this time as the World has changed so much with the techno-
logical revolution, and because the biblical prophecies and many of those
of Nostradamus appear to have been already confirmed, (Nostradamus' writing
has been determined by many to be aimed specifically at the year 1999 because
the astronomical positions of the Planets that year will be in exactly the
formation that he predicted for catastrophe).


