{"id":2270,"date":"2026-06-12T15:04:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=2270"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:04:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:04:22","slug":"as-ufos-go-mainstream-the-jury-is-out-on-what-the-existence-of-alien-life-might-mean-for-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=2270","title":{"rendered":"As UFOs go mainstream, the jury is out on what the existence of alien life might mean for religion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 In \u201cDisclosure Day,\u201d out Friday, Steven Spielberg is once again inviting audiences to ponder the existence of extraterrestrial life \u2014 and the implications it would have for religion on Earth.<\/p>\n

Read more David Hockney, iconic British artist known for his colorful landscapes and pool scenes, dies at 88<\/a><\/p>\n

But Spielberg is hardly the only one making headlines of late about UFOs and the possibility of life on other planets.<\/p>\n

What was once considered fringe or conspiratorial has in recent months popped up everywhere from the White House to the Catholic Church, as public fascination with unidentified anomalous phenomena \u2014 or UAPs, as the government calls them \u2014 becomes more mainstream.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon in May made public large swaths of UFO files with very little context, leaving curious sleuths to piece together their own interpretations. The dump came just weeks after former President Barack Obama set off a media frenzy for stating unambiguously in an interview that aliens are real, though he later tempered that take.<\/p>\n

\u201cStatistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there\u2019s life out there,\u201d the former president, who made a surprise visit to the \u201cDisclosure Day\u201d set, posted on social media. \u201cI saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!\u201d<\/p>\n

Some religious adherents, as well as some nonbelievers, maintain that the existence of life on other planets might undermine many faiths because it would complicate assertions that humans are unique. But others argue the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelief in UFOs is really one of the best things that\u2019s happened to religion in a long time,\u201d said Diana Walsh Pasulka, a religion scholar at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. \u201cIt\u2019s a blow to the secular, materialist worldview.\u201d<\/p>\n

An intersection of aliens, demons and Catholics<\/p>\n

Even if broad interest in UAPs bolsters the case for an enchanted universe, some believers in religions such as Christianity think they are something to be wary of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re aliens. I think they\u2019re demons,\u201d Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, said in a recent podcast interview.<\/p>\n

That sentiment was echoed by Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, formerly an exorcist with the Archdiocese of Washington. He was removed last week by the archbishop, who said statements by Rossetti \u201cgravely undermine\u201d Catholic teaching on demons and the devil.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my personal belief that probably many, if not most, of these UFO sightings are in fact demons,\u201d Rossetti said in a May 29 video posted on his Facebook page. \u201cAliens, if there are aliens, don\u2019t possess people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher Baglow, who heads a science and religion initiative at the University of Notre Dame, was surprised by the firing given that Rosetti made clear in the video he was expressing his own opinion. Baglow speculated that there may be other factors behind the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask forgiveness for any ways that I have not been faithful to the teachings of the Church\u2019s Magisterium,\u201d Rosetti said in a statement online.<\/p>\n

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Despite the assertions by Vance and Rossetti about demons, Baglow maintains the Catholic Church has long been open to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. \u201cTheologians have been speculating about this for centuries and the church has never ever taught one way or the other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While meeting with astronomy students last year at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV spoke about the \u201cancient light of distant galaxies\u201d and the \u201cmysterious joy\u201d provoked by the study of outer space. Some interpreted these remarks as tacit speculation about the possibility of life on other planets.<\/p>\n

Extraterrestrials, old and new<\/p>\n

In one sense, the idea of otherworldly beings coming to Earth can be traced back millennia.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would call it the plurality of worlds. So even back in the time of Socrates and Aristotle, there were Greek philosophers who talked about beings on other planets and other stars,\u201d Walsh Pasulka said.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until after 1945 that modern conceptions of UFOs began to develop, according to Jeffrey Kripal, a historian of religions at Rice University. \u201cThe flying saucer and the alien and the UFO \u2014 it\u2019s definitely a Cold War invasion narrative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That narrative explains why UAPs are often perceived as hostile to humans. But it\u2019s also evolved over time and led to the formation of some religions \u2014 like Scientology, which counts many a Hollywood celebrity among its adherents \u2014 that see extraterrestrials as good or even part of a divine plan. Some adherents to the Nation of Islam, for example, believe that its founder will inaugurate an apocalyptic return to Earth on a spaceship.<\/p>\n

The International Ra\u00eblian Movement, also know as Ra\u00eblism, is a UFO religion that was founded in France in the 1970s. It is still practiced today, with its strongest followings in parts of Asia, Africa and Canada, according to Susan Palmer, a sociologist who studies new religious movements at Concordia University in Montreal.<\/p>\n

Its founder, Ra\u00ebl, claims he is a direct descendant of Yahweh, whom Ra\u00ebl visited on the planet of Elohim in 1975. Ra\u00eblism claims the Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad are all hybrids of humans and extraterrestrials, as well as Ra\u00ebl\u2019s half brothers.<\/p>\n

Of the groups she has studied, Palmer argued Ra\u00eblism is the most sympathetic toward UFOs. \u201cThey\u2019re not interested in extraterrestrial wars,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But some think that sentiment might be growing.<\/p>\n

Kripal, who heads Rice\u2019s archival collection of reported paranormal experiences called the Center for the Impossible, perceives an increasing openness to these kinds of conversations about the existence of UFOs \u2014 and the possibility that they are not hostile.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are reporting these experiences or these encounters with entities and they\u2019re religious through and through,\u201d he said. \u201cMy colleagues in the academy, they\u2019re really starting to listen in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump nominates US Attorney Jay Clayton to be director of national intelligence<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 In \u201cDisclosure Day,\u201d out Friday, Steven Spielberg is once again inviting audiences to ponder the existence of extraterrestrial life \u2014 and the implications it would have for religion on Earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAs UFOs go mainstream, the jury is out on what the existence of alien life might mean for religion - South Florida Moving Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=2270\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As UFOs go mainstream, the jury is out on what the existence of alien life might mean for religion - 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