Here is a link to my ongoing eschatology (end times) archive over on my other blog. I'm still showing how any view of end times is based on guesses and presuppositions. I should warn readers at this point, though. If you are married to the pre-trib / pre-mill view of...
ExoTheology
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 8
Readers will recall that we're looking at elements of Christian eschatology as preparatory to me getting into my concerns as to the marriage of one specific view of eschatology to the UFO / ET question on the part of Christians into UFOs and ETs. Here is the latest...
Eastern Orthodoxy and ET Life
I came across this interesting article: "An Eastern Orthodox Perspective on Microbial Life on Mars" (Theology and Science 6:4, 2008). I'm not Eastern Orthodox, but I think this paragraph in the article's conclusion is well written and well-reasoned: To be sure, there...
How UFO Enthusiasts Understand and Misunderstand Christians Interested in UFOs and ET Life
I recently received an email forwarded to me (and directed to me) by someone involved in a MUFON chapter. I think readers may be interested in it, and so I thought I'd blog it. I have removed all names of people and chapters in the original email and my replies. My...
Recent (2007) Scholarly Article on ET and Jesus
Here's another article that I think we can all benefit from in some respects. Some of it is material I've already blogged about, but other parts are items I've not yet commented on. It's a good instance of current scholars thinking about the issue of the interface of...
Conservative Christian Ufology and Other Views: How Can a Joint Dialogue Be Advanced?
The comments to my post about stopping abductions through prayer has me asking myself where the dialogue goes from here (or, from Roswell 2008). It's not an easy question. I think there is a willingness on both sides to dialogue, but the issues (obstacles?) are...
Thoughts on “Roman Catholic Views of Extraterrestrial Intelligence”
As noted in an earlier post, the document When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High-Information Contact contains an interesting essay entitled, "Roman Catholic Views of Extraterresrial Intelligence" by Douglas A. Vakoch. The essay begins on page 181 of the PDF file....
UFOs, ETs, and Religion (Balducci’s Conundrum, Part 3)
In the last post, I quoted Christopher Partridge's article in UFO Religions as follows: "Whilst there are some differences between the theosophical masters / mahatmas of wisdom (who were usually thought to reside in Tibet), and the early accounts of aliens, in actual...
Vatican Baptizes ET
It's not Balducci speaking (yet). There have been a lot of articles lately on how the Vatican's chief astronomer says there might be ETs. I'm trying not to yawn. Actually, this is OLD news--as in CENTURIES and even a MILLENNIUM old. Amazing how people don't know that...
UFOs, ETs, and Religion, Part 2 (Balducci’s Conundrum continued)
As I mentioned in my last post, Christopher Partridge writes the first chapter of the book he edited (UFO Religions). The introductory chapter is called "Understanding UFO Religions and Abduction Spiritualities." Partridge begins by briefly overviewing "the emergence...
Salvation and Extraterrestrials: Catholic Theologian’s Vast Universe
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...
Understanding the Christian Fundamentalist View of UFOs and Aliens, Part 2
To review the purpose of this thread, I suggested at the outset that there were four aspects to the Christian fundamentalist view of UFOs and aliens (i.e., that UFOs that are not man-made or other natural phenomena are demonic and alleged alien life forms are...
Rich Dolan Interview and Thoughts on Parsing “Non-Human Intelligences”
Below is a (roughly) ten minute interview of Rich Dolan from the 2008 Laughlin, NV UFO conference. It's very good. Rich is always a good listen (and a good read). I also personally like him, so I may be a bit biased. I agree entirely with his assessment that UFOs are...
Back from My Annual Conferences
Just a heads up. Tonight I plan to post the rest of the Psychological Inquiry articles for readers, just so everyone has the set. I'm going to be moving on to more specific peer-reviewed articles dealing with religion and ETs. For starters, at the conference I was at...
Christian Theologians Prepare for ET Life
Another regurgitation of the typical popular article that covers this topic every year. Yes, it's superficial; yes, it has to quote a Baptist pastor who gives little indication of ever having thought deeply about the subject. BUT ... it offers some new things, like...