Religion, UFO's, and the Media

It is such a dichotomy that we live in the US. At least for the most part. Religion plays a ridicuously huge role throughout our culture. And while I don't knock religion for everything, it has it's moments. In fact it has a lot of moments. The dichotomy that exists is that we can openly plug Jesus via numerous avenues, but should we even mention UFO's or aliens break out the tin foil hats and commence hearty laughter.

We embrace Christianity (sorry to omit everyone else here, but it IS the majority. Go ahead consider yourself a part of the cultural embrace, it's fine.) with such a ferver. We print license plates with "In God We Trust". We print giant billboards with slogans like "Repent or Go To Hell". We wear crosses, tattoo crosses, erect crosses in our yards. We build exquisite architectural shrines to the Lord our Savior. A presidential candidate has virtually NO chance of being considered without this religious baggage, whether they believe it or not. But UFO's? Please, get a freaking life you moron.

The media has always had a field day with this topic, but for some reason they never seem to attack that invisible all knowing man in the sky. Why?? Is there some evidence that Christ actually lived and presumably died willingly so that humanity may be relieved of all its sins for all the ages to come?? Ummmm, no. Yet the media treats this topic quite differently don't you think??

UFO's have been seen by thousands of credible sane people. Of course they have also been the fosterer of countless hucksters trying to make a buck. They have also been the lair of many a delusion. Make no mistake about it, UFO's bring all types from highly credible miltary to insane utterly discombobulated bobbleheads. But the fact remains that this phenomenon has affected normal people, yet you might not know this due to the media ignorant take on it. Are they being cattle prodded to tell a side of the story or are they just not very good at reporting the facts?

I can certainly understand the discourse when certain "ufologists" try to tell their story. When Jeff Peckman tells of direct evidence that of course he can't actually show. When hoaxers and liars make a complete embarrassing mockery of the topic at hand. When people make up stuff they become targets and it seems that these targets are the only ones that end up on the news. They have a way of polarizing and marginalizing the topic greatly. But is this not equally true in the religious realm as well?? Why don't we have the religious wackos exposed in the same manner as the UFO wackos?? Perhaps they are too afraid to upset the masses with something that is closer to a consensus type pseudo-truth than the UFO one.

Despite the unequal and unsatisfying reporting on UFO's over religion it will certainly not change anytime soon. I don't even know that most of the media even thinks or knows that the subject is worhty of serious discussion. These are the same masses that are grudgingly corraled in churches on Sunday. Should UFO's be a real concern it may upset the divine order.

I've recently heard a CNN reporter say that people that believe in UFO's were just lunatics. I've heard Stephen Hawking profess that UFO's only appear to cranks and wackos. I've heard a radio program crank call Peter Davenport. Imagine that. This is nothing new and I could fill this page with countless examples of the media behaving this way.

If people really knew anything about the topic they might act differently. They might. The reality of unknown intelligent life is scary and unnerving to people so it is better to bury and ridicule than to be informed. The Bible has a better story and outcome. People can deal with this, but probably they are just fooling themselves. Ignorance is bliss in this case. No aliens, only heaven. Einstein once said " the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious". But the mysterious contains just that, an unknown. Perhaps it is just better that people deal with a worldview based on the supposedly known than actually thinking and dealing with a high probability that what they have learned about God and Jesus and heaven and a cushy afterlife is just, well, wrong.