Excitement is building for Steven Spielberg\u2019s hotly anticipated new film, Disclosure Day, a return to the filmmaker\u2019s lifelong fascination with all things extraterrestrial. All teasers so far have been as mysterious as possible by design, leaving audiences with more questions than answers about the story. At a panel discussion with some of the stars, an interviewer asked the director about Spielberg\u2019s personal connection with the source material. How would the world react to a real Disclosure Day? How would Spielberg react? Is it something he just yearns for, or is he a true believer? \u201cI was yearning for it when I made Close Encounters,\u201d Spielberg replies, \u201cbut when I made Disclosure Day, I believed it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spielberg goes on to foretell ominously that the consequences of \u201ca real full disclosure\u201d would include \u201csocial dislocation,\u201d even \u201ctrauma,\u201d including \u201ctheological questions.\u201d He hints that this will be among the tensions explored in the film.<\/p>\n
The Devil\u2019s Work?<\/p>\n
He\u2019s far from the first to propose that UFOlogy and traditional theology might be at odds. In the documentary Age of Disclosure, whistleblower Luis Elizondo talks about the potential for \u201contological shock\u201d on levels \u201ctheological\u201d and \u201cphilosophical.\u201d Meanwhile, there is little patience with the alternative hypothesis that if the evidence is real, it points to demons rather than aliens. According to Elizondo and retired intelligence agent Jay Stratton, their investigations have been blocked by \u201creligious fundamentalist extremists\u201d in the Department of Defense, who have ordered them to stop meddling with the devil\u2019s work. The dislike, it seems, is mutual.<\/p>\n
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Spielberg-produced Encounters docuseries introduces us to Eddy Weiss, a complicated character with his own idiosyncratic way of merging theology and UFOlogy. Gathered around the table for a Bible reading with his homeschooled children, he teaches them to read alien encounters back into cryptic prophetic texts like Ezekiel (a \u201cwheel within a wheel,\u201d you say?). He presents this as an enlightened alternative to the ignorant fears of the broader Christian populace, who do \u201cnot want to believe that any of this is real because if it does [sic], it changes all of their reality.\u201d \u201cIs the Bible just for us,\u201d he asks rhetorically, or could it possibly be for aliens too? He believes the question is too mind-boggling for most people to handle.<\/p>\n
Christian writers like Michael Heiser have attempted to put a more sophisticated spin on Weiss\u2019s kind of speculation, exploring how UFOlogy might intersect with demonology. Some readers will find this enterprise more compelling than others. I myself favor a third way somewhere in between dubiously fantastical syncretism and the DoD officials\u2019 allegedly obstructive \u201cfundamentalism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Call It the Way of Lewis<\/p>\n
C. S. Lewis was always game for a chat about God and aliens, as recalled by his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Sheldon Vanauken. The question of how to reconcile the possibility of extraterrestrial life with Christian theology was a hangup for Vanauken in his early explorations of the faith. Lewis helped him to think outside the box. We can see the sorts of ideas Lewis was playing with in his fictional Space Trilogy, or the Ransom Trilogy, as fans prefer to name it for the main character. Dr. Ransom is kidnapped into space by a mad scientist and has adventures on other planets containing intelligent life. In the middle book, Perelandra, he finds himself at the center of a parallel-planet Genesis narrative in which he must thwart the Satanic seduction of Venus\u2019s Eve figure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
None of this is presented as if it\u2019s in any tension with Earth\u2019s Genesis narrative or salvation story. In the trilogy\u2019s storyworld, God simply deals with sentient non-humans on their own plane of existence, writing their own parallel story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another character in the Encounters series, retired Texas constable Lee Roy Gaitan, lacks Lewis\u2019s sophistication. But he gestures at this possibility when he says simply that if aliens are real, then God made them too. Presumably He must have something or other figured out for them.<\/p>\n
A Substitute Religion<\/p>\n
But die-hard UFOlogists might not welcome a peaceful Lewisian resolution, so invested are they in the idea of disclosure as a \u201cdisruption\u201d of traditional theistic religion. Spielberg has teased a scene in the new film where a character tells us she was \u201craised to believe in a Supreme Being\u201d and is now awed at the prospect of seeing \u201cactual supreme beings.\u201d \u201cThe world can\u2019t handle both,\u201d she asserts.<\/p>\n
This makes sense if one understands UFO enthusiasm as a form of substitute religion. As researcher and hypnotist Budd Hopkins once admitted in so many words, \u201cI often think of myself as a very religious person. Maybe I\u2019m inventing my own.\u201d Indeed, perhaps it is easier to invent one\u2019s own religion than to submit to an ancient one \u2014 or to the Supreme Being behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mere prospect of aliens is in no danger of shattering our religious foundations, as Lewis\u2019s thought experiment demonstrates. The ever-repeated mantra \u201cWe are not alone,\u201d sold as an explosive revelation, is in fact the oldest of old news. Of course we\u2019re not alone. We never were.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Excitement is building for Steven Spielberg\u2019s hotly anticipated new film, Disclosure Day, a return to the filmmaker\u2019s lifelong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-456428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}