Somewhere In Between: Religion vs. Science and the Alien Question
Don?t quote me on it, but I think it was somewhere around the end of the Middle Ages that Science managed to shake off the yoke of religious domination and branch out on its own. Since that time, Science and Religion have been the two opposing forces in the Universe attempting to explain for us the makeup of Creation and answer both the large and small questions about Mankind?s existence on the planet.
After Science escaped the stultifying clutches of organized religion, the religious fathers took for their audience those who had always been most easily controlled by a simple appeal to their faith?the under-educated masses. Science, on the other hand, focused its attentions on the more intellectually sophisticated persons, those who could be controlled or led more by an appeal to their logic?the rationale of the mind.
While Religion had a desire to understand and explain the unknown elements of existence with the heart, Science tried to explain these very same questions with the mind, bringing everything down to the level of the five senses. While the religionists were transported into a world of make-believe seemingly separate from any earthly realities, the devotees of science found themselves weighted down in the physical world of everyday reality with only the occasional flight into hypotheses and the theoretical unknowns to free themselves from their earthbound coils.
But it is somewhere in between these two methods of seeing the world where lay the real answers to the difficult questions posed by the now burgeoning field of UFOs and extraterrestrial visitations. Answers to such enigmatic questions as why are we here? and what is Mankind?s greater role in the Universe? can be found buried somewhere in this misty gray land where few researchers and seekers-after-truth seem to want to tread. This is the land where heart and mind ideally combine, where answers to age-old questions which plague both the individual and society alike abound.
Religion has, except for some religious fundamentalists, chosen for the most part to turn a blind eye to the subject in general. This despite the fact that all of the major religious texts of both the old and new worlds are full of references to objects and beings that can only be thought of as having extraterrestrial origins. Perhaps this is due to the fear that once their followers choose to move out of a total dependence on faith, they may become more curious and therefore less controllable. Once freed of their dogmatic hackles they may then start to ask more difficult questions about the religious philosophies in which they find themselves mired, questions that the various churches may find difficult to answer.
The works of such noted researchers and authors as Erich von D?niken, Zecharia Sitchin, and Laurence Gardner, have all served in recent years to open up new areas of understanding about the religious implications of UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation to the planet. Such religious terminology as ?chariots of fire? and ?the sons of God? can now better be fitted into the context of UFO jargon with more of an ease of acceptance than once was ever possible. Even these works, however, fall short of satisfactorily answering the larger questions posed by the phenomena at hand, though they certainly to serve to connect more pieces of the puzzle together.
Scientists, doctors, and ?scientific? journalists for their part, are steeped in the hard demands for scientific proof and hemmed in by narrow definitions of the various fields of scientific expertise that they must follow. More often than not this leads to an inability to see the forest for the trees. Few if any scientists will not admit to having a very limited understanding of the science and technology with which they appear to be dealing in the UFO-alien field of research. No science that we as yet know of (or at least that is commonly available to the field of UFO researchers) can explain the various mind-boggling feats of UFOs as they appear and disappear from view, perform acrobatic turns and tumbles at almost incalculable speeds, not to mention the ability of alien intruders to walk through walls, lift humans out through the roof of their apartments or houses, or project themselves from point to point?often with abductees in tow.
These scientists seem in fact not to be putting the pieces together in terms of answering the bigger questions that so intrigue the general public, but rather instead to be further dissecting these pieces into smaller and smaller fragments which only serve to make the puzzle twice as hard to complete. In doing so, they further confuse the important issues and act more as a roadblock than as an avenue of discovery.
According to this system of scientific exploration, UFOs become studies in propulsion systems, extraterrestrials become biological lab rats ready for dissection, abductees become case studies in the behavioral sciences, implants become money-making opportunities in methods of mind control, and crop circles become studies in electro-magnetic field theory and how to improve crop production. Little or no thought seems to be given to the bigger questions of why are they here and what are their intentions, let alone to the humanity of the subject that these are also living biological entities with motivations that must in some way rival our own.
In either one or both of these two systems the truth-seeker can get lost and the waters muddied so that the masses of information available become a miasma in which the seeker first stumbles and then eventually falls, finally to sink beneath the waves of seemingly unknowable solutions to questions without answers. And it is somewhere in between the two where the real answers lay waiting.
It is the author?s experience that the kind of people who attend UFO conventions and other such events, or even many of the people who come to see the UFO museum in Roswell, are simply people trying to understand the grander scheme of things in which they and their lives seem, under current circumstances and in these two systems of thought, not to play a part. Questions such as What does it mean to say we are not alone in the Universe? What are the reasons for the thousands of years of cover-up we have undergone? Who has been responsible for this cover-up? all seem to be secondary in these people?s minds to the ultimate question of Who am I and what am I doing here now?
Questions form the basis of research. While who? what? when? where? and how? all provide a source of facts with which to study the matter, surely it is the question why? that is ultimately most important and should be uppermost in our minds as we do our research in any field of human endeavor. Why is certainly the most important question a journalist should be asking when sifting through the material searching for answers to the questions that most need to be asked. Why, however, seems to be the question least asked among researchers in the field of UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation?at least by those members of the scientific or religious sectors of the field. Perhaps the question is too big for minds unused to seeing the bigger picture of the world and the Universe at large, too big for minds used to dissecting the material rather than synthesizing it back into a whole.
It seems to be a fact that, particularly among those who make their living by asking questions, there is a greater reluctance to ask why for fear of finding an answer that will provide a solution to the problem. This they fear would perhaps lead to the questioner being put out of a meaningful and ultimately profitable livelihood. It is like sex in that there is a greater profit to be made by keeping the subject of UFOs and extraterrestrials shrouded in mystery rather than exposing it to the naked and healthy, but slightly less profitable light of day.
What these people who seek to control the free flow of information do not seem to understand is that for every question for which an answer can be found, 20 more will immediately arise to take their place in a truly honest and inquiring mind.
Over the course of Mankind?s history, the greatest method used to control him has been the method of divide and conquer. Two men arguing, two parties squabbling, two races warring, serve only to divert the public?s attention away from the real issues at hand, and ultimately away from seeing who are the real powers seeking to control him. In the case of UFOs and aliens, the two sides have become Religion and Science. And it is somewhere in between, or maybe even perhaps off on a completely different tangent not yet considered by most, that the answers really lie.
Some things seem certain when one delves into this new and completely different area where mind and heart work together, where religion and science recombine in peace and harmony. First, it is obvious that Mankind is not alone in the Universe, nor has he ever been. Secondly, Mankind seems to be nothing more than an agglomeration of many and varied different lifeforms from various places throughout the galaxy and beyond. Genetically manipulated down into what He has now become?a slave race, Mankind is now so easily controlled by his desire for material goods and physical pleasures that he makes Pavlov?s dog seem a tough subject to work with in comparison.
As for what has been taking place on this planet, at least for the past 50,000 years or so, it is an experiment, one elaborated on in more depth in the book The Only Planet of Choice by Palden Jenkins, though not always entirely correctly. The scenario as described in this book is that planet Earth has been an experiment in racial blending from the many different races of the Universe, twenty-four in particular who at least originally had the welfare of Mankind at heart. Like most experiments, however, there have been unforeseen and unwelcome factors that have interfered?many races such as Sitchin?s Annunaki who have been a spanner in the works in terms of the eventual outcome and overall effects on the participants in the experiment.
Now, like the half-human/half-animal creatures who are the experiments of the maniacal Dr. Moreau in H.G. Wells? classic story The Island of Dr. Moreau, Mankind has rebelled against his creators. The subjects of the experiment now threaten to destroy not only the whole experiment but also the entire laboratory as well. Mankind, as the metaphorical lab animals, has been manipulated not only by other worldly forces in this rebellion, but also by his own visible lack of self-responsibility, running amuck and turning against the whole purpose of the experiment. And to what effect?
Planet Earth, the laboratory on which the experiment was to have come to fruition, the most beautiful planet in the entire galaxy and maybe even in the Universe itself, has been turned into a huge dump for human waste and destruction. Sick and diseased, the planetary consciousness known as Gaia now seeks to do for itself what its long-term tenants have not seen fit or been able to do, to cleanse itself?whether we like it or not.
Divided into thousands of different tribes and races, no two of which seem to be able to get along, the estimated six billion lab animals, now constantly make war on each other for the amusement and betterment of only a small band of the rich and powerful under the control of other worldly masters. Whether it be on the already bloodstained battlefields of the Earth, or in the newly transformed urban battlefields of the cities within each country already becoming too dangerous to inhabit, the results are the same?Man consistently seeks to display his seemingly endless capacity for new and different ways to force his inhumanity on other men.
It is no secret among abductees and others in the know that many forms of extraterrestrial life will have nothing to do with planet Earth, even in this imperfect corner of the Universe. This is exactly because we are the only species who treat our own kind so poorly. If nothing else, this information should raise a warning flag as to the motivations of those races of extraterrestrials who do indeed choose to interact with the planet for one reason or another.
And all that now needs to be sought for in this gray and relatively unexplored world of answers to difficult questions that lies somewhere between Religion and Science is, individually and as a species, to ask ourselves one final question: What would we do if we were the ones ultimately responsible for this experiment and its outcome? What would we do, remembering that these creatures are of our own creation?beloved children as Dr. Moreau might describe them, to stop this experiment not only from self-destructing but also from possibly infecting the whole complex organization of our facility and the overall laboratory itself? Remember Michael Crichton?s first work, The Andromeda Strain and the tough choices they were faced with? Where does one draw the line as to what one is willing to stand for, and allow to happen?
In seeking to find an answer to these very difficult and ultimately perplexing questions, we will find ourselves in the same position in which the spiritual hierarchy have found themselves recently. And somewhere in between Religion and Science?in a world where knowledge flows freely and responsibility is the key word for every individual action, there lies an answer to this question. And somewhere in our not-to-distant future, we will all learn of the decisions that have been made and the final answer and solution to this most difficult of all questions to be asked.

2006-12-12