Average Joey
Puritan Board Junior
Serious subject, considering these have been in the news a lt more lately.What do you all think they are?
Discuss UFO`s
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LadyCalvinist
Puritan Board Junior
I grew up watching Sci-fi but I am still sceptical of the existence of aliens. Carl Sagan in his book Broca's Brain talks about Ufo's and he states that while he would love it if there were life out there he knows of no convincing evidence. Interestingly, Sagan speculates on what is behind all of these ufo sightings and he suggests that it is unfullfilled religious longings.
Also, I think Gary Demar has a book on his website about Ufo's.
Hope this helps.
Also, I think Gary Demar has a book on his website about Ufo's.
Hope this helps.
panta dokimazete
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
No Longer A Libertine
Puritan Board Senior
Uncle Sam's aircraft or some strange light refractions from space.
One of my good friend's grandfather worked for NASA and spoke of aircraft the government had that were out of this world and beyond compare, some of them were even designed with the function of causing wonderous pandemonium above enemy cities to distract from other military actions.
The beauty for the US government is that the truth is distorted by the conspiracy theories and urban legends that permit it to shroud the simple fact that the government has high tech toys that are not at the public's full disclosure.
One of my good friend's grandfather worked for NASA and spoke of aircraft the government had that were out of this world and beyond compare, some of them were even designed with the function of causing wonderous pandemonium above enemy cities to distract from other military actions.
The beauty for the US government is that the truth is distorted by the conspiracy theories and urban legends that permit it to shroud the simple fact that the government has high tech toys that are not at the public's full disclosure.
Bladestunner316
Puritan Board Doctor
Both my mother and I have seen strange things in the sky. Technically called UFO's. Whether they were exterterrestial who knows.
MrMerlin777
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Have never seen one. Never expect to.
Personally I think it depends on where one is as to the theorys one can speculate upon. I think it's no coincidence that alot of people see "UFOs" in areas where there are top secret government military facilities, we're always testing some top secret new war waging machine. As far as folks seeing them in places where no such facility is, could be weather phenomena such as spherical lightning and such.
Personally I think it depends on where one is as to the theorys one can speculate upon. I think it's no coincidence that alot of people see "UFOs" in areas where there are top secret government military facilities, we're always testing some top secret new war waging machine. As far as folks seeing them in places where no such facility is, could be weather phenomena such as spherical lightning and such.
No Longer A Libertine
Puritan Board Senior
In 1988 my father was on a business trip to Argentina while we lived In Brazil, they went fishing with permission on a US military base and as it started get dark they began to head back to the dock in their boat.
Over the horizon on a hill they saw a giant light that looked like a house, they had no recollection of a house being there that morning and as they trolled closer the light began to hover vertically and then shoot off horizontal and it was huge.
My father and his client were wide eyed at this point and came to the conclusion that was something they probably were not intended to see.
They hurried back to the truck and when they arrived at the gate the Argentenian guards were horrified and angry at my father and his friend because they had forgotten that they were out there fishing.
They argued in Spanish amongst themselves for several intense minutes and then finally hastily waved them away in frustration.
My father doesn't speak Spanish but his friend did and he claimed they were debating whether or not not to shoot them or let them go.
By the grace of God I didn't lose my father mysteriously that night, I would've never known what happened to him.
MrMerlin777
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Whew! Sounds like a close call indeed. God in his providence was definitely merciful that day.
Did you know that there is a Federal Vision theology of UFOs? James Jordan says that they are demonic and that therefore true Christians don't see them.
Now it also happens to be the case that I knew a man, in my parent's baptist church, who was stationed in Roswell at the time of the big UFO activity, saw many UFO's, chased them in B29s, and knew the guy who found the junk that the UFO buffs say was UFO wreckage, and as a consequence got invited to the big UFO conferences and got on documentaries.
So here is the application: if, per the Federal Vision, real Christians don't see UFOs, but this member of a baptist church saw UFOs, then there is a difference between Christians and church members, that is to say, there is a visible church / invisible church distinction. So, even from something as improbable as UFOs we can show that Federal Vision theology is wrong!
JohnV
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
My kids have asked me about it, about what I think of these things. I don't want to make judgments about other people's integrity or honesty. If someone claims to have seen something, then maybe he actually did. Its the reports that I can make observations about, if anything. So this is how I've handled it, using Star Trek and Star Wars as examples, which my kids can relate to well enough (I also have a few episodes of the weekly series "Lost in Space" so they get the idea of flying saucers too):
At one time it seemed that all the "sightings" coincided with the common "expectations", or the common wisdom about space travel. People used to see flying saucers when the common idea was that space travel was accomplished by using such vehicles as appeared to be flying saucers. As NASA began travel in space, even going to the moon, then it wasn't so far-fetched to see something other than a flying saucer. It wouldn't be a copy of the Apollo crafts or of the Shuttles, but sightings still reflected the current "wisdom" of space travel somehow.
What people would witness would be within the range of what you'd expect would be seen according to the common concept of what space travel would consist of, or at least it would reflect it. I guess the thing is that others just wouldn't believe you saw something from outer space unless it fulfilled everyone's idea of what outer space would send us. So I can see that these sightings would be interpreted as wishful thinking, or as some unfulfilled or unfulfillable need in people.
I get a kick out of the Star Trek/ Star Wars ideas of aliens. No matter what they create, the "aliens" are all somehow in the image of man, either physically, spiritually, sensually, or some other way. Every time there is some extreme extension of some kind, but always as a clear product of the human imagination. I just can't help but see this same thing in the sightings of UFO's.
What people actually see, though, remains unexplained. And that's what the "U" stands for: unidentified. The fact that they fly seems to be obvious. Whether they're objects or not also remains unsure. Of the three, the "U", the "F", and the "O", none are a sure thing. And yet even if it was nothing strange to our environment, it would still be an UFO, I guess. Where I get stuck is when people go from the "U" to an "I": from unidentified to identified. For that we need explanation or proof. I can't account for all that people see or claim they see, but I expect something that does not accommodate to our sci-fi ideas if it really is a visitation from a distant planet.
The idea I wanted to convey to my children was that they shouldn't be easily taken in by so-called "proofs", especially in our day. At the same time, it wasn't right to condemn people for seeing something that went against your beliefs. I would be sure to say to them that the Son of God came to our planet that we might have life in His name, and that therefore Earth is significant to God. We need to be careful not to say more than we have a right to say, for there are possibilities that we haven't even begun to imagine yet. Then I would tell them that it requires an exhaustive search of space to declare that there is no life out there, but only one chance encounter to prove that there is life out there. As easy as a chance encounter seems in comparison to exhaustive searching, yet that chance encounter is very hard to prove. Try to prove that you ran into so-and-so by chance, so that we are all convinced that you did, and you only begin to see the problems involved. In this way you can see that only sighting UFO's, or a claim to have been captured by aliens for a time, is only the merest beginning of what would be called proof. It doesn't stop there, and we shouldn't stop there either when we try to make up our minds about whether UFO's are visitors from other planets.
UFO's are an intrinsic by-product of our age, and we should expect such claims to be made, whether there actually are visitors from other planets or not. And people are going to be convinced they saw or experienced something that maybe never was there or never happened. The explanation in God's Word seems to make the Earth the centrepiece of the whole creation, and I am not going to doubt that. If there are aliens out there, then they're coming to us like the Magi came to Bethlehem, I would think, not like Star Wars, Star Trek, Flash Gordon, or countless others portray it.
At one time it seemed that all the "sightings" coincided with the common "expectations", or the common wisdom about space travel. People used to see flying saucers when the common idea was that space travel was accomplished by using such vehicles as appeared to be flying saucers. As NASA began travel in space, even going to the moon, then it wasn't so far-fetched to see something other than a flying saucer. It wouldn't be a copy of the Apollo crafts or of the Shuttles, but sightings still reflected the current "wisdom" of space travel somehow.
What people would witness would be within the range of what you'd expect would be seen according to the common concept of what space travel would consist of, or at least it would reflect it. I guess the thing is that others just wouldn't believe you saw something from outer space unless it fulfilled everyone's idea of what outer space would send us. So I can see that these sightings would be interpreted as wishful thinking, or as some unfulfilled or unfulfillable need in people.
I get a kick out of the Star Trek/ Star Wars ideas of aliens. No matter what they create, the "aliens" are all somehow in the image of man, either physically, spiritually, sensually, or some other way. Every time there is some extreme extension of some kind, but always as a clear product of the human imagination. I just can't help but see this same thing in the sightings of UFO's.
What people actually see, though, remains unexplained. And that's what the "U" stands for: unidentified. The fact that they fly seems to be obvious. Whether they're objects or not also remains unsure. Of the three, the "U", the "F", and the "O", none are a sure thing. And yet even if it was nothing strange to our environment, it would still be an UFO, I guess. Where I get stuck is when people go from the "U" to an "I": from unidentified to identified. For that we need explanation or proof. I can't account for all that people see or claim they see, but I expect something that does not accommodate to our sci-fi ideas if it really is a visitation from a distant planet.
The idea I wanted to convey to my children was that they shouldn't be easily taken in by so-called "proofs", especially in our day. At the same time, it wasn't right to condemn people for seeing something that went against your beliefs. I would be sure to say to them that the Son of God came to our planet that we might have life in His name, and that therefore Earth is significant to God. We need to be careful not to say more than we have a right to say, for there are possibilities that we haven't even begun to imagine yet. Then I would tell them that it requires an exhaustive search of space to declare that there is no life out there, but only one chance encounter to prove that there is life out there. As easy as a chance encounter seems in comparison to exhaustive searching, yet that chance encounter is very hard to prove. Try to prove that you ran into so-and-so by chance, so that we are all convinced that you did, and you only begin to see the problems involved. In this way you can see that only sighting UFO's, or a claim to have been captured by aliens for a time, is only the merest beginning of what would be called proof. It doesn't stop there, and we shouldn't stop there either when we try to make up our minds about whether UFO's are visitors from other planets.
UFO's are an intrinsic by-product of our age, and we should expect such claims to be made, whether there actually are visitors from other planets or not. And people are going to be convinced they saw or experienced something that maybe never was there or never happened. The explanation in God's Word seems to make the Earth the centrepiece of the whole creation, and I am not going to doubt that. If there are aliens out there, then they're coming to us like the Magi came to Bethlehem, I would think, not like Star Wars, Star Trek, Flash Gordon, or countless others portray it.
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