UFO Religions

Posts Tagged ‘theology’

I just wanted to post a convenient listing of the series Cris Putnam has been posting over on his Logos Apologia blog. The series summarizes a lot of heady material into readable segments:

Exo-Vaticana: Ancient Atomism and Extraterrestrial Belief

Exo-Vaticana: Plato, Aristotle, Epicureans and the Apostle Paul

Exo-Vaticana: Extraterrestrials and the Medieval Church

Exo-Vaticana: Nicholas of Cusa’s Learned Ignorance Leads the Way

Exo-Vaticana: Giordano Bruno’s Extraterrestrial Diabolicus

Exo-Vaticana: Giordano Bruno’s Extraterrestrial Diabolicus II

Technorati Tags: aliens, Christianity, extraterrestrial, life, philosophy, theology

I saw this essay from TIME Magazine pop up on Twitter today: “Dabbling in Exotheology.” The date of the essay was 1978 (unless that’s a typo). The essay opens with this question: “Can the “image of God” survive in extraterrestrial life?”  An understandable one, but an ignorant one, nonetheless. Anyone who has followed my work knows I’ve lectured on this many times. The answer is “yes” (if what is meant is the survival of the doctrine). It’s “no” if what is meant that ET also has this image.

Lest I be misunderstood, I’m not saying TIME is guilty of theological ignorance. The question really is to be expected. The ignorance is to be found among the many millions of Christians and Jews who would be spooked about the confirmation of ET life because they have fundamentally misunderstood the image of God as some sort of (heretofore) human attribute, like intelligence, sentience, speech, etc. This is the way the image gets talked about all the time, but that notion is not at all coherent.

I won’t take the time or space to rehearse the content of my lectures here. The best I can do is the twelve-page essay on the image of God that I recently wrote for a study Bible published by my employer, Logos Bible Software (the article was for the Lexham Bible Dictionary, also our product, but accessible through the study Bible). Look for the section on the meaning of the image. I could have devoted twelve more pages as to why the “traditional” (attribute-based) view undermines a pro-life ethic and fails because of research in fields like artificial intelligence and animal cognition (and the theoretical study of intelligent ET life), but this will have to do. People who have a high view of Scripture and its teaching about how humans are God’s imagers (to know why I use the verbal phrasing, read my essay), an intelligent ET ought not to be any theological threat. And yet it would be, due to theological ignorance.

Technorati Tags: Bible, Christianity, extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrials, image of God, judaism, religion, theology

Today marks the release for pre-order of the special edition of my paranormal-supernatural thriller, The Façade. The special edition published by Kirkdale Press contains some great bonus content:

- Behind The Façade: A look into how and why I wrote The Façade.

- Resources for Further Study: An annotated bibliographic guide to the government documents, covert military programs, UFO controversies, and religious ideas that are part of the plot of The Façade.

- The first five chapters of the highly-anticipated sequel!

The special edition is freshly edited and formatted for your ereader, mobile phone, tablet, and computer. Click here for a synopsis. Readers get 25% off when they pre-order it on Vyrso.

I’ll be revealing a hint about the sequel’s title tomorrow on the blog. Be the first to guess correctly and you’ll get a free copy of The Façade: Special Edition.

Technorati Tags: aliens, AREA 51, Bible, Enoch, extraterrestrial, Facade, nephilim, novel, Paperclip, paranormal, religion, Roswell, theology, thriller, UFOs, Vyrso, Watchers

I’ve mentioned Thomas O’Meara before on this blog. O’Meara is a Catholic theologian who has taken an interest in the theological implications of a genuine extraterrestrial reality. I don’t agree with certain of his positions (or perhaps it might be best to call them trajectories), but it’s nice to see someone contributing to the discussion.

O’Meara’s thoughts in seed form recently appeared on the Huffington Post. Readers can begin there and then obtain his newly-released short book (96 pp) published by Liturgical Press: Vast Universe: Extraterrestrials and Christian Revelation. I’ve ordered my copy and will review it here in the near future.

Technorati Tags: alien life, book, catholic, Christianity, ExoTheology, extraterrestrial life, O'Meara, theology

I blogged this over at PaleoBabble a few minutes ago. Hat tip to Jason Colavito for this link to a Salon.com piece on Ridley Scott’s new movie. When you click through, take note of the titling of the URL itself: “dazzling dumb-ass theology.” What a perfect, poetic description of the film and the ideas it conveys. Can’t wait to see it!

Technorati Tags: Ancient Astronauts, prometheus, religion, theology