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Thursday, August 03, 2023

Christians In The United States Government Trying To Stop UFO Research

Lue Elizondo, a former high-ranking official in the United States government's efforts to research UFOs, has said that he encountered significant opposition within the Department of Defense and Pentagon from Christians who said that the research should stop. According to them, we already know that UFOs are demons, and we shouldn't research them any further. Here's Ron James, of the UFO organization MUFON, discussing the topic. And here's Michael Knowles of the Daily Wire expressing agreement with Elizondo's Christian critics. Knowles' video includes a clip of Elizondo talking about the subject. James refers to other Christians who hold other views. And Elizondo may be oversimplifying the situation in some relevant way. But many Christians are like the critics Elizondo referred to, with Knowles being an example.

I doubt that all of Knowles' comments on the subject are as shallow as what he expresses in the video I linked. But he put out the video, and what he says there reflects the approach many Christians take.

He refers to how it's "obvious" that UFOs are demons, without any argument to justify his conclusion. He frames the discussion in terms of what materialists want to believe, even though the large majority of people aren't materialists, and most people who are interested in UFOs aren't materialists. He asks why we should study UFOs. How about their interference with our military's aircraft and other equipment, such as what was described by some of our pilots at the recent Congressional hearing? How about all of the implications related to the nature of the universe, human origins, technology, etc.? It's easy to think of many significant reasons for wanting to know more. And that's even more the case if you consider a wider range of explanatory options than people like Knowles typically refer to (human paranormal activity, interdimensional beings, etc.). He says of demons, "we should want nothing to do with them". That's too vague. Whether it's true depends on how you interpret the phrase, and it can easily be interpreted in more than one way. People with views like Knowles' frequently rely on that sort of equivocation. Imagine using a vague phrase like the one Knowles used to explain why you think we shouldn't investigate a crime thought to be committed by somebody who's alleged to have been influenced by demons. Or if a crime is connected to the occult in some manner, don't investigate it. Or if some people think a condition some individuals have, like Dissociative Identity Disorder, is caused by demons, then we shouldn't do any research on it. Demonology is a field of study among the theologians of Knowles' own denomination (the Roman Catholic Church), as it should be. We also study sin (hamartiology). We study crime scenes, criminal psychology, the arguments of the pro-choice movement, abortion procedures, the impact that drug abuse has on the body, and a lot of other things that are of a bad nature in some sense. Knowles goes on to use the analogy of bugs. Why would we want to think much about them? But we do think about them to some extent: the best ways to keep them out of our houses and workplaces and such, the best ways to kill them, etc. And there are people who specialize in such things and even make a living off of it. Here's a post I wrote that addresses this kind of objection raised by Knowles.

Part of the problem here is that Evangelicals and others (such as Catholics) have built up a lot of false traditions surrounding demons and alleged demonic activity, traditions they accept without making much of an effort to justify them. There's a lot of emotionalism and laziness, among other problems, as if the fact that you have a negative feeling in response to something paranormal is adequate evidence that it's demonic, for example. And since you "just know" that it's demonic, and it's "just obvious", there's no need for you to do any research, respond to any counterarguments, or anything like that.

I've seen many Christians behave that way many times in many paranormal contexts over the years. In this most recent UFO context alone, I've repeatedly seen long lists of such comments from Christians in one YouTube or Twitter thread after another, for example. Knowles' video encapsulates the approach a large percentage of Christians take toward issues like these, UFO issues and others. It's immature and irresponsible, and it does a lot of harm.

Keep in mind that the government officials Elizondo refers to probably got their view of UFOs from relatives, pastors, authors, and other such people who influenced them in non-governmental contexts. There are consequences when people mishandle issues like these. Even if you don't serve in the Defense Department or Pentagon yourself, you can influence somebody who does. You can, and surely sometimes do, influence people in other significant contexts as well.

And the problem isn't just with falsely attributing things to demons or attributing them to demons without adequate reason to do so. There are problems with things like apathy and a failure of Christians to speak up when they should, for example. Even many of the more knowledgeable Christians I've seen in contexts like philosophy, science, and apologetics have been handling these UFO issues poorly.

One of the themes I come across a lot is the notion that since somebody's closest relatives, friends, coworkers, and such aren't talking about UFOs, then there must not be much interest in the topic. But people frequently don't discuss things they're interested in if there's peer pressure to not talk about those subjects, and they're frequently more influenced by something than they let on. And you need to think outside your own immediate circles. Something that's less popular among conservative Evangelicals or conservative Catholics, for example, can be more popular elsewhere.

It's ironic that somebody like Knowles would express concern that people are showing too much interest in UFOs. Look at the major attention organizations like the Daily Wire give to politics and certain other subjects. Being too focused on politics is far more of a danger for Knowles' audience than being too focused on UFOs (or the paranormal more broadly). See my post here on proportioning issues like these.

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