AN EXCELLENT EVANGELICAL PERSPECTIVE ON UFOS AND ALIENS
Gary Bates is a ‘young-earth Creationist’ who is the CEO of Creation Ministries International (US). He wrote in the Introduction to this 2004 book, “I have written this book out of a genuine desire to understand the truth about this phenomenon, I have tried to assess the evidence as objectively as possible. I have a great respect and compassion for the people who have been caught up in alien phenomena, sometimes with very distressing consequences, as you will see. After all, how would you deal with … a person whose self-esteem and character has bene forever altered as a result of the belief that they underwent brutal medical examinations aboard a spaceship? Then there are the reports of millions of ordinary people who have allegedly seen UFOs in the sky, performing actual acrobatics that defy logic. I trust that, after you examine the best evidence available on the major and incidents and key issues related to UFOs, you will reach a confident and satisfying conclusion.”
He says of NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper that “during his final orbit of the earth on his Mercury mission he saw a greenish-glowing object ahead of his capsule, approaching him… UFOlogists are keen to seize upon the report as ‘proof’ by an independent, unbiased, and reliable witness… The reality is, though, that Cooper was not really unbiased by that time; he was already a believer in the ETH [Extra-Terrestrial Hypothesis]. In subsequent interviews, he claimed that he first saw UFOs in the early 1950s, and that he even saw one land at Edwards Air Force Base in 1957. This ‘prebelief’ seems to be a common factor with many people who claim to have seen a UFO or who have had an abduction experience… there is no doubt that Cooper was by that time an avid UFOlogist.” (Pg. 22)
He recounts, “Leaders of many UFO cults have been proven wrong time and time again, some followers even being led to death by their self-deluded ‘messiahs’… But in the UFO cult, and even in evangelical Christian circles today, there is a proliferation of prophets whose predictions often prove to be reliable. Has the ‘allure of the future’ infiltrated the Christian church? Many of their ‘prophets’ are elevated to an iconic status, a phenomenon that is certainly common to, and prevalent in, many other religions and cults.” (Pg. 59)
He explains, “The ability to travel trillions of light-years … in a matter of hours or days is one of the central concepts in modern science fiction… Alien civilizations are presumed to exist because of the realization that this incomprehensibly large universe contains billions upon billions of stars, and possibly a similar number of planets that could be like our Earth. However, contrary to popular expectation, this same enormity makes alien visitation even less likely… The next closest star is Proxima Centauri… Traveling at [the speed of light]… it would take you 4.2 years to get there. To traverse .. the Milky Way, it would take you about 100,000 years… it would … take approximately 2,300,000 years to reach Andromeda, and nearest galaxy like our own… There are so many stars in the universe that a human being could not even live long enough to count them all…” (Pg. 65-66)
He points out difficulties in the idea of traveling faster than light: “It is estimated that there are 100,000 dust particles per cubic kilometer of space. At light speed… an impact with just one of these tiny objects would destroy a spaceship… Traveling at ultra-high speeds makes detecting objects in your path virtually impossible… changing course of accelerating… would exert ‘g’ forces on [the ship’s] occupants… 9 g’s would kill the pilot in a matter of seconds. Any further increase would start to tear the plane apart. Changing directions at light speed or above would exert MILLIONS of G’s on the ship and its occupants.” (Pg. 71-72)
He notes that “One of the reasons that SETI and Project Phoenix [had their funding stopped by Congress… was their failure to detect anything… In addition to SETI’s efforts, there have been over 60 other projects spanning more than 40 years. Despite these massive efforts, and billions of dollars of funding, not once have they ever detected ET…” (Pg. 76)
He acknowledges, “There is, or course, no good reason why extrasolar planets should not exist, and some may well be discovered in the ‘rocky’ planets like those in our won solar system. However, the likely distance of those objects from the earth make the ETH an unlikely proposition, even if they were inhabited, due to the problems in traveling such immense distances. To date, no habitable planets, within or outside of our solar system, have been observed. Unfortunately for the advocates of the ETH, our search for life on other planets is revealing that the earth itself appears to be a unique place indeed.” (Pg. 106) He says, “Many UFO researchers have abandoned the ETH … for the IDH (interdimensional hypothesis). They, too, have realized that it would be nigh impossible for the millions of sightings to actually be of vast numbers of spaceships that have entered our atmosphere.” (Pg. 158)
He comments, “Historical documentation has shown the complete lack of physical evidence for a crashed UFO and alien bodies at Roswell, as well as providing straightforward evidence of what did happen. When mysterious elements appear in an account, human beings seem capable of fabricating fantastic stories to embellish something they want to be true.” (Pg. 188)
Of Robert ‘Bob’ Lazar, he observes, “He claimed … that he had a ‘Majestic’ security clearance… investigations determined that his qualifications and employment history were false… The most self-refuting aspect of Lazar’s theory, however, is that if we were indeed a classified Majestic operative, then in true MJ-12 fashion he should have been locked up of ‘disposed’ of long ago for having ‘spilled the beans’ on Area 51.” (Pg. 193)
He notes, “Most serious UFOlogists dislike the religious connotations that the New Age movement brings to UFOlogy. However, [Zechariah] Sitchin’s popularity transcends both camps. He appears as a scholarly authority to the proponents of the ETH, and to the New Agers he is a hero for attacking the historicity of the Bible and God as Creator by claiming the Bible has been misunderstood, and is not to be taken literally and historically true… Yet… attributing the creation of life on Earth to extraterrestrials only shifts the ‘original’ creation problem to outer space. We cannot explain the origin of complex life and … human beings simply by cross-breeding of humanoid space aliens and primitive ape-like creatures.” (Pg. 209)
Of Crop Circles, he points out, “during the foot-and-mouth epidemic in 2002, the British government … established strict rules about crossing the English countryside. However, they also noticed that during this time there was a virtual halt in the occurrence of crop circles. It appears that the aliens … duly obeyed the wishes of Her Majesty’s government, or were worried about catching the dreaded disease.” (Pg. 217)
He argues, “Although they give the impression that they are all-embracing, these ‘religious’ adherents of UFOs are very intolerant of traditional religious views… The religious UFOlogist believes that these ETs are on a religious mission, but it is a transforming one designed to take the world into a new age. They have no time for old-fashioned views.” (Pg. 221)
He contends, “Some might argue that genuine born-again believers have been abducted, too, citing the ‘Andreasson Affair.’ Betty Andreasson claimed to be a Christian, but she experienced ongoing abductions over many years… the reports indicate that she presumed that they were real aliens and she accepted their invitation to participate. The evidence suggests that very few born-again Christian believers show up among abductees. Of course, you can be a Christian and believe that aliens do exist on other planets, but it would imply that you have not taken the Bible’s history of origins seriously… If Christians can be deceived, then it would appear that they can also be subject to abduction experiences…. (And… if they call on the name of Jesus, the experience stops.) (Pg. 261-262)
He states, “I dispute the popular idea… that [aliens] are here to help us. If they are so interested in human welfare, why do they treat humans so terribly?... don’t they know the deleterious effects that forced physical sex has upon human beings? (Whether this is really physically occurring or not is beside the point---the abductees believe that it is occurring). It is hard to avoid the conclusion that these spirits… are using it… for psychological control and manipulation, and possibly their own gratification as well.” (Pg. 307)
He asserts, “[Brad] Steiger claims he used to be a Christian (although some would argue that he probably wasn’t to begin with)… Steiger is not the only former ‘believer’ to have been deceived and to have fallen away. The Reverend Barry H. Downing is the pastor of a Presbyterian church in New York… His book ‘The Bible and Flying Saucers’ … seeks to harmonize the biblical texts with UFO beliefs…. The fact that Downing is well credentialed theologically does no harm to his cause among the UFO faithful… His book is revered as a benchmark text among the more religious UFO believers, who hail him as a UFO ‘master.’… Downing’s doctrines, like the fallen angels whose stories he believes, are fulfilling a need that the world wants satisfied---a desire for a non-supernatural interpretation of the Bible.” (Pg. 327-328)
He states, “our discoveries about the … incomprehensible size of the universe have caused many to think that we cannot be the only ‘race’ in space. Otherwise, the universe would be an awful waste…. Even Christians who don’t believe in evolution end up thinking they have to accept that God created aliens elsewhere… this is a case of allowing outside ideas to influence our view of Scripture… [The] opening passage of the Bible… specifically mentions the earth, and only later the sun and moon… Stars are mentioned … almost as an aside, and the context makes it clear that they were made specifically to benefit mankind, thus placing man as the focus of God’s creation. There is never a single case where a verse refers or alludes to any other reason for the creation of stars, such as for the purpose of harboring extraterrestrial life.” (Pg. 346-347)
Of the ‘Sons of God’/Nephilim in Genesis 6, he explains, “even among Christians, the meaning of this passage is sometimes hotly debated. There are probably four major views… 1. It refers specifically to ‘fallen’ angels. 2. It represents the ‘godly’ descendants of Seth, one of Adam’s children. 3. They were kings or rulers who were described as ‘gods.’” (Pg. 351) Later, he adds, “[We] have investigated the ‘Nephilim question’ with the evidence available. With some, there is little accompanying evidence to support the claims… Much more could be written, but the conclusion is the same: a long tradition of documents indicates that fallen angels have been deceiving mankind since the beginning of creation.” (Pg. 369)
This book will be of great interest to Christians (and not just ‘young-earthers’) and others, studying UFOs and related topics.