That is the second article in a three-part collection. (Learn Half I right here.)
Within the first a part of this collection, we launched the thought of exotheology—theological reflection on the potential for extraterrestrial life. The aim was to determine a framework for desirous about alien life with out distorting Scripture or drifting into ungrounded hypothesis. Now, on this second article, we step exterior the theological library and into the broader tradition to know how the thought of alien life took maintain within the public creativeness.
Why is it that, when individuals hear the phrase “alien,” they image little inexperienced males in alien craft?
Why is it that, when individuals hear the phrase “alien,” they image little inexperienced males in alien craft? How did this imagery come to dominate our collective pondering? To reply these questions, we have to hint the evolution of UFO mythology in trendy tradition—how sightings, media, and fable converged—and make clear what scientists truly imply immediately after they speak concerning the seek for extraterrestrial life, which frequently will focus extra on microbial organisms quite than humanoid invaders from the celebrities.
To know the beginning of the trendy UFO phenomenon, we have to return even additional than Roswell. Within the early Twentieth century, a curious author named Charles Fort started accumulating studies from unexplained phenomena, unusual aerial sightings, and odd climate occasions. His books, like The Guide of the Damned (1919), at the moment are thought of foundational texts for the examine of the unexplained. Fort by no means claimed these phenomena had been extraterrestrial, however his method—treating anomalous knowledge as worthy of consideration—laid the groundwork for contemporary ufology. The British month-to-month journal Fortean Occasions is known as after him.
Quick ahead to the summer time of 1947, when pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing 9 high-speed crescent-shaped objects flying close to Mount Rainier in Washington state. His well-known description of the objects led to the press seizing on the phrase “saucer,” and coining the time period “alien craft” that most individuals are conversant in immediately. Simply weeks later got here the notorious Roswell incident. One thing crashed on a ranch in New Mexico. The U.S. Military Air Forces initially reported recovering a “flying disc” however retracted the assertion inside days, claiming it was a climate balloon. This retraction solely deepened public curiosity about these aerial objects, and planted the seeds of presidency distrust.
These occasions occurred within the early Chilly Battle, a time marked by deep technological anxiousness. The atomic bomb had dropped solely two years earlier. Jet propulsion, rocket engineering, and radar had been reshaping the world. It was a cultural second primed for paranoia and thriller. As studies of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) exploded within the Fifties, the U.S. army scrambled to handle public notion.
The Air Power launched Mission Signal in 1948 to analyze UFO sightings. It was adopted by Mission Grudge in 1949 after which the extra well-known Mission Blue Guide in 1952, which continued till 1969. Hundreds of sightings had been cataloged and studied. Whereas most had been attributed to pure phenomena or misidentifications, a small share remained unexplained. The official conclusion was that UFOs posed no nationwide safety risk—however by then, the concept that some could be extraterrestrial had taken maintain of the general public creativeness.
This period additionally noticed an increase in colourful personalities who would develop into cornerstones of American ufology. Grey Barker printed works suggesting authorities cover-ups and launched the now-infamous “Males in Black” to the favored creativeness. John Keel, journalist and creator of The Mothman Prophecies (1975), explored the connection between UFOs and paranormal phenomena. His investigations into the Level Nice, West Virginia sightings between 1966 and 1967 added a gothic layer to the UFO narrative. Eyewitnesses described a winged humanoid creature—the so-called Mothman—accompanied by unusual lights, energy outages, and even appearances by enigmatic authorities brokers. Whereas Keel didn’t argue for a simple extraterrestrial clarification (he maintained the “ultraterrestrial speculation”), his work blurred the traces between UFOs, folklore, and psychological expertise, deepening the thriller.
In the meantime, Stanton Friedman, a nuclear physicist turned ufologist, turned one of the vital vocal proponents of the extraterrestrial speculation. Friedman championed the Roswell case, arguing that it was certainly a crashed alien craft and that the U.S. authorities had engaged in a scientific cover-up. His lectures and books introduced scientific vocabulary to what had typically been dismissed as fringe hypothesis, making him one of the vital revered figures within the area.
The injury was executed. For a lot of, UFOs and aliens turned inseparable.
All through the Fifties and ‘60s, UFO sightings had been reported throughout the nation with such frequency that the interval is sometimes called the “UFO craze.” Sightings weren’t confined to deserts or small cities—they occurred close to cities (like Washington, D.C.), airports, and army installations. TV and movie responded in type. From Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) to Shut Encounters of the Third Form (1977), UFOs turned fixtures of the cinematic creativeness. In brief, by the late Twentieth century, UFOs had advanced from ambiguous aerial phenomena to cultural icons synonymous with extraterrestrial contact. The tales, potential sightings, and suspicions of the federal government turned embedded in American consciousness.
It’s vital to acknowledge, although, that the earliest UFO studies, together with Arnold’s, didn’t point out extraterrestrials. The objects had been unidentified, however not essentially otherworldly. So how did the leap from “unknown object” to “alien customer” occur?
One main issue was Hollywood.
The Fifties noticed a increase in science fiction movies that includes aliens, typically portraying them as invaders or cosmic warnings. The Day the Earth Stood Nonetheless (1951), Battle of the Worlds (1953), and numerous B-movies about bug-eyed monsters and alien craft cemented the affiliation within the public thoughts: unusual lights within the sky should be guests from one other world. Books like George Adamski’s Flying Saucers Have Landed (1953) and Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods? (1968) additional linked UFOs to aliens, claiming alien encounters and purporting historic astronaut theories. These works lacked tutorial rigor however gained huge fashionable traction, and people concepts are regularly rehashed on reveals like Historic Aliens immediately.
By the Seventies and ‘80s, alien abduction narratives had begun to flow into broadly. Whitley Strieber’s Communion (1987) and tv reveals like The X-Information within the Nineties additional cemented the cultural narrative: UFOs are spaceships, and aliens are on the market watching, probing, and even perhaps manipulating us.
The persistent secrecy surrounding UFO investigations added gasoline to the fireplace. The U.S. authorities typically dismissed studies, redacted paperwork, and denied entry to info. This opacity created a vacuum simply crammed by hypothesis. The fruits of this suspicion could also be discovered within the notorious Space 51 conspiracy theories. The assumption that the U.S. authorities had recovered alien spacecraft (and probably our bodies) and was preserving them hidden in a secret army facility turned a fixture of late Twentieth-century conspiracy tradition.
Satirically, the secrecy typically had extra to do with Chilly Battle espionage and labeled aviation know-how than with extraterrestrials. Many UFO sightings had been later linked to high-altitude spy planes just like the U-2 or SR-71. Nonetheless, the injury was executed. For a lot of, UFOs and aliens turned inseparable.
Lately, the cultural dialog has taken a extra severe flip. In April 2020, the Division of Protection formally launched movies taken by Navy pilots displaying unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). These movies had beforehand leaked, however the Pentagon’s affirmation legitimized them within the eyes of the general public. This time, the dialog shifted. As a substitute of discussing alien abductions or crop circles, individuals started asking professional questions: What are these objects? Are they overseas drones? Atmospheric anomalies? Superior human know-how? Or one thing else completely?
Authorities studies, just like the 2021 Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence (ODNI) evaluation, acknowledged that some UAPs stay unexplained. The language was cautious and cautious, however the underlying message was clear: these phenomena are actual, and we don’t but know what they’re. Noticeably absent from these studies is direct point out of extraterrestrial life. The dialog, whereas open to potentialities, has largely returned to data-driven inquiry.
This brings us to a vital distinction: what scientists imply by “alien life” is usually very totally different from what popular culture imagines. When an astrobiologist, for instance, talks about the potential for life past Earth, they aren’t often imagining clever civilizations constructing cities on Mars. They’re desirous about microbial life—extremophiles which may survive in harsh environments, like beneath the ice of Jupiter’s moon Europa, or within the methane lakes of Saturn’s moon Titan.
We aren’t responding to Hollywood. We’re responding to the cosmos.
Even the invention of a single-celled organism within the subsurface ocean of Neptune’s moon Triton can be groundbreaking. That may qualify as extraterrestrial life. It wouldn’t have a spaceship or a ray gun, nevertheless it would nonetheless be life that originated someplace aside from Earth. That is the form of discovery that scientists at locations like NASA, SETI, and the European Area Company are actively working towards. They’re finding out exoplanets within the liveable zone of distant stars, looking for biosignatures—chemical traces which may point out life on different planets.
A part of the problem, then, of exotheology, helps individuals separate two very totally different concepts: (1) the cultural mythology of aliens, formed by many years of movie, fiction, and conspiracy, and (2) the scientific plausibility of extraterrestrial life, which is extra modest, cautious, and evidence-based. One is pushed by storytelling, typically sensational or dystopian. The opposite is pushed by empirical inquiry and sluggish, cautious progress. Each can coexist within the creativeness, however just one belongs in severe theological or philosophical reflection.
Theological engagement with the potential for alien life should be rooted within the latter. We aren’t getting ready doctrinal statements about alien overlords; we’re asking what it could imply if we discovered life—even easy life—some place else within the universe. That discovery would elevate profound questions on creation.
As we transition into the third and closing article of this collection, we’ll start speculating throughout the framework specified by Half I, knowledgeable by the cultural historical past surveyed right here in Half II. The goal is to not baptize the mythology of aliens, however to ask how Christian theology would possibly responsibly interpret the invention of non-human life, no matter type it takes. To try this, we’d like readability about what the dialog is—and what it isn’t. We aren’t responding to Hollywood. We’re responding to the cosmos. And the universe, as finest we will inform, is huge, unusual, and nonetheless very a lot below the artistic rule of God.
Speculative theology turns into accountable theology when it acknowledges what we do and don’t know. We all know the gospel is true. We don’t know if life exists elsewhere. But when it does, we ought to be prepared to reply.
