The missing category

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 25th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: fitting space aliens into a Christian worldview.

Over the last two months, the Pentagon has released hundreds of documents and recordings of “unidentified anomalous objects.” That’s the government's new, more inclusive name for unidentified flying objects, or UFOs. 

The files contain reports of orbs moving erratically, flying discs, and large fireballs.

REICHARD: Experts are split on whether the videos show proof of space aliens, but as these accounts find a place in pop culture and government, one author says Christians should know what they think about it.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter saw white particles below his spacecraft.

NASA, SCOTT CARPENTER: They appear to be traveling exactly my speed. There’s one drifting off. It’s going faster than I am, as a matter of fact.

That same year, spacecraft pilot Walter Shirra Jr. also described “little white particles” near his craft.

NASA, WALTER SHIRRA: The one object actually looked like it came toward me, but it wasn’t.

Those audio recordings from NASA are part of the files that the Pentagon released over the past few months. NASA later dismissed those reports by saying the particles were coming from the spacecraft itself.

But there are a lot of reports without explanation: like old military footage showing orbs making odd movements, and modern videos of orange lights in the sky. It can ignite questions about the true nature of the spiritual realm.

Derrick Warfel is a movie producer with a background in theology. He’s the author of UFOs and God.

DERRICK WARFEL: In the 1980s I kind of thought like most people, this is just kind of a nice science fiction myth. But I just began seeing too many encounters by credible people and I just, as a Christian, I didn't have a category for that in my philosophy.

He really started digging into it after watching the History Channel show Ancient Aliens. The first episode aired in 2009.

ANCIENT ALIENS S1, EP 1: Amidst a wave of modern UFO sightings, a new theory emerged: That aliens visited earth in antiquity and were regarded as gods. 

Now it’s on season 22.

WARFEL: I disagree with the conclusions that History Channel Ancient Aliens comes up with, but they present an awful lot of evidence from credible people who, that there are encounters with these crafts and with these beings, and you know, what do you do at that point? Do you just write it all off and stick your head in the sand like an ostrich, or do you basically say there's got to be some explanation for this?

He’s not alone. In 2021, a Pew Research poll found that 65 percent of Americans think intelligent life exists on other planets.

Warfel thinks that Scripture would have mentioned them in the creation account if God made other non-human intelligent beings. And the odds are stacked against intelligent life evolving on one planet, much less two.

Yet, he believes there is something unexplained going on. While people may lie about an encounter, Warfel thinks not everyone would, or is incentivized to do so. 

People around the world report beings communicating telepathically, or relating new secret knowledge about the universe, or undergoing invasive tests.

WARFEL: They even say that they're the ones who seeded life here in the first place! And as a Christian, they also deny all Christian doctrines and teachings.

Warfel says generally, those who encounter aliens end up with physical ailments, or their lives are destroyed over time.

He says that sounds a lot like some other beings that Christians do have a name for.

WARFEL: There's a French writer called Baudelaire who said "the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

Warfel believes aliens are Satan’s newest play in a materialist age. He thinks the only difference between space aliens and the Egyptian and Roman gods is the physical spacecraft.

So, the defense is the same.

WARFEL: The Bible says you know, if you're attacked by Satan, ‘submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you,’ because we're greater than he is. 

Let me give you an example of that. There's an example of a guy who'd been abducted several times. He was being raised off his bed, and in the middle of this thing, he knew what was coming next, and I guess out of his background he said, 'Jesus, save me,’ and at that very moment he was thrown back on the bed… Now, why would that happen if they're just intergalactic visitors?

Not every story is so cut and dry. But Warfel believes the similarities between alien encounters and demonic oppression shouldn’t be ignored.

It’s not clear what will come of the government’s decision to release its files. So far, it seems to have raised more questions than answers for most people.

But Warfel says these files reveal the spiritual battle that the scripture make clear.

WARFEL: The attack comes from the same source. There is a supernatural source that's trying to destroy us. Jesus says, "the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy." This is just one of many ways he does that.

So regardless of what the government does, Christians can have an answer ready.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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