Alien apologetics

 

If you have two hours to spare, I have a real treat for you. The YouTube clip above, "Alien apologetics", contains a discussion on the UFO phenomenon, featuring maverick atheist Emerson Green and all-around maverick Jimmy Akin. I think Green may believe in UFOs and aliens, while Akin (who is a Catholic) is clearly skeptical...*but* in this podcast, the latter plays the role of "Devil´s advocate" (or perhaps "alien apologist"). While I disagree with Green and Akin on a number of points, I admit that their conversation is extremely interesting. 

Akin easily debunks or problematizes many common skeptical arguments against the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH). "Why do the UFOs crash, if they were built by an advanced space-faring civilization", "why don´t the aliens contact our leaders", "why are UFOs mostly a modern American phenomenon", "Bill Nye says that the government sucks at keeping secrets" (that´s a good one), "where are the whistle-blowers" (answer: everywhere, but the Skeptics refuse to listen), and so on. I´m embarassad to say that I often used some of these myself, although not on the authority of Bill Nye the Mermaid Guy! Of particular interest are the arguments in favor of a conspiracy of some sort. It simply isn´t true that the government (or the military, or the spook community) can´t keep a secret. Every year, millions of dollars are funelled into "black budgets" completely unaccounted for. 

It struck me that the military sometimes unveils projects no whistle-blower ever exposed (except maybe to the Russians!): the nuclear bomb, the Skyhook balloon, the Stealth bomber. Trump hinted at the US having some kind of new super-missiles, but nobody knows for sure. And, as already pointed out, when supposed whistle-blowers come forward, Skeptics refuse to listen anyway, unless the informers have the right "vibes" and confirms the Skeptics´ deeply ingrained belief system. And, as already pointed out, Skeptics might not even *care* about alternative information, in the same way as people on both sides of the political aisle don´t care about news broadcasts from the "wrong" network... 

My main objections to the ETH would be "how on Earth (pun intended) did they get here" and "why are they so consistently mimicking our latest science fiction flicks or magazines". Akin points out that if aliens are real, they might use robots or multi-generational ships to get here, and while that´s certainly possible (and not defeated by the objection that *we* couldn´t pull that off), it´s still very hard to see where the energy to power the space ship would come from, or how they could even approach something like the speed of light, let alone go beyond it. These may be hard physical limits no intelligent species could ever cross. 

Green and Akin are dismissive of the claim that belief in UFOs is just a misguided religious impulse, a kind of "religion for atheists". By contrast, I think it´s pretty obvious that a large portion of "active" belief in aliens is connected to precisely such an impulse. The aliens really are substitute gods, indeed, many true believers in extraterrestrial UFOs were probably never atheists to begin with, but Theosophy-inspired. The strange way in which the phenomenon always mimics our latest pop cultural obsessions  - and ancient mythology or folklore - surely suggest that it has some kind of connection to humans on planet Earth. 

A skeptic would (of course) argue that aliens and UFOs simply are pop cultural, mythological or folkloric artefacts themselves, and that´s that. More "fringe" possibilities would include fairies, who according to folklore have the ability to read people´s minds and shape-shift! Sounds crazy? Perhaps, but it´s still different from the ETH, and able to explain why the "aliens" looks exactly like the angels and demons of our imagination... 

Of course, a religious believer of some sort could easily explain (or perhaps explain away) the UFO phenomenon precisely by suggesting that it´s really supernatural. Akin, despite being a Christian, thinks that´s a too easy way out, and criticizes apologist Hugh Ross on this point, who suggests that "aliens" are really demons and the whole UFO phenomenon hence a Satanic deception. Akin´s own positions, when not playing advocatus Diaboli, is more skeptical towards ETH, although not entirely dismissive. He discusses the notion that the UFO phenomenon might be "staged" by the US military, mentioning the notorious Bennewitz case and Richard Doty (*that* guy shows up all the time in contexts like this one). Hoaxes also happen, Akin claiming that well-known contactee Steven Greer have faked UFO observations using flares. 

With that, I close this little conversation. Happy hunting! And let´s be careful out there...