Dispatches from the Creation Wars

Ralph Barker is back with the conclusion of his 2-part series on UFOs. And he’s about to reveal to us what UFOs really are:

Even the greatest skeptic would have to admit that there are still unexplained UFO sightings. So, what are they? Are they alien spaceships? Are they visitors from the future? Or, are they something else.

Personally, I think they are something else. In my youth I held to the idea that they were truly alien visitors. Today, I still think they are alien visitors but not visitors from another planet. I am convinced they are visitors from another dimension, a spiritual dimension. I believe they are demons. Just think about it.

If they were interplanetary visitors why have they remained hidden in the shadows? What are they afraid of? Maybe they saw the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still and know what we do to UFO visitors. Why do they only contact a few isolated people and not appear to the masses or to our leaders?

But that brings up another question: why do demons keep appearing in front of handfuls of dazed rednecks? And why would these demons be so obsessed with probing said rednecks’ anal cavities? Ah, but Barker has more practical questions in mind:

I remember speaking at a church in Dallas, Texas, some years ago and I broached the subject of whether or not there was life on other planets. I asked the congregation what questions would come to their mind if we did accept the premise that aliens really existed.

If we do allow for alien life then certain questions must follow at least from a Christian standpoint. For example, are aliens fallen beings? Do they need redemption? Did Jesus die for them? Did Jesus die for all beings, earthling and alien? Did He die just once here on earth or did He have to visit and die on each planet? All good questions.

As we were discussing this, a local magistrate in the congregation had a question. His question definitely caught me off guard. He wanted to know if aliens did exist, could we eat them. I think he was a hunter. What do you think? Can we eat them?

I think….well, I think you’re nuts. And I think anyone who would ask that question is equally nuts. And I think you have a very short memory, as demonstrated in this quote:

Have you noticed that Americans have shifted their view of alien visitors over the last fifty years? Most of us are well aware that there has been a shift in worldviews in America since the 1950s. The biblical worldview that established America and sustained it for so long is losing its place in American society. Humanism, paganism, and other isms are taking center stage. With this shift our view of life, God, and aliens has changed and continues to change.

It used to be that movies, made prior to the 1960s, almost always portrayed aliens as being sinister beings with designs on taking over or even destroying planet earth.

The popular horror films of the era featured aliens who were malevolent and imperialistic such as those found in War of the Worlds, I Married a Monster from Outer Space, and The Thing From Another World.

Beginning in the late 1950s and beyond, the movies began to change their perspective as humanism began to permeate our society. Aliens began to be portrayed more often as not as good guys. For example I submit for your consideration, The Day the Earth Stood Still (Klatu Barada Nickto), ET, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Then there are several children’s movies featuring friendly aliens.

Uh, yeah. Movies prior to the 60s had aliens as bad guys and now they’re good guys. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have a 3 day film festival of movies made since then with aliens as the bad guys, starting with Alien, Independence Day, the remake of War of the Worlds, Bloodsuckers from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Men in Black, Predator, and Species 1 and 2. I’m beginning to wonder if Barker is an alien; he doesn’t seem to be very familiar with our movies here on earth.

In conclusion I submit that the evidence or lack thereof points to a satanic deception and it is working.

Perhaps it was Satan who told him that aliens were all good guys after the 60s and blinded him to the existence of dozens of movies to the contrary. Or maybe they wiped out his memory when they took him on board the mothership. They probably could have combined it with the anal probe, since it appears that his head resides down there as well. Where do they find these people?

Comments

#1 Tulle
July 20, 2006

Not to be picky or anything but the “alien” in The Day the Earth Stood Still was as human as every one else. He was only an alien in the same sense as a Mexican is an alien. Plus he was here to say we either behave ourselves once we are in space or the earth will be destoryed. Threatening to blow up the earth unless we behave in a mannor that he wanted, sounds more like a terrorist to me.
#2 Doug
July 20, 2006

Not to be picky or anything but the “alien” in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1) explicitly said he came from millions of miles away and (2) managed to come back to life after someone killed him.
Sound like any Mexicans you know?
#3 Matthew
July 20, 2006

Aliens have been portrayed sympathetically since the 60s; prior to that I’m having trouble thinking of friendly alien movies. But this goes hand in hand with cultural evolution. Aliens are the ultimate “them” and make a great symbolism for how we treat other people on Earth who aren’t exactly like us but more like us that we originally think.
#4 Jesse
July 20, 2006

The Day the Earth Stood Still was released in 1951; the same year as the Thing from Another World, two years before the George Pal War of the Worlds and 8 years before I Married a Monster from Outer Space.

It Came from Outer Space was released in 1953, and also featured (fairly)benign aliens.

I’m sure we could cite counter-examples all day. And it would be more fun than working.
#5 Chance
July 20, 2006

Ed,

I’m not kidding that was truly funny. It’s almost good enough to be modified into a stand-up routine. The only sad part is that A. this man is nearly insane and B. He is speaking to large groups of the same.

And they all vote.
#6 Cory
July 20, 2006
I wonder if the parishioners at the Dallas church asked questions like:
- “Were the aliens on Noah’s ark, too?”
- “How do we convert the aliens if they do exist?”
- “How do we protect marriage from the aliens?”
- “Did the aliens come from Adam’s rib, too?”
#7 Ginger Yellow
July 20, 2006

I think (one of) the more interesting disparities is that films no longer bother to give aliens any complexity of motive. Pretty much all the major alien films in recentish years have just made their creatures rapacious resource-scavengers and reproducers without culture or complex emotion. I’m not saying 50s aliens were all, or even often, sophisticated moral agents, but even Ed Wood’s aliens had more depth of characterisation than the baddies in Independence Day or Starship Troopers (in the latter, of course, it was deliberate). The most morally and emotionally sophisticated sci-fi films in the last few decades (Gattaca, Serenity) abandoned aliens altogether. I don’t know if this reflects a decreasing ability to empathise with The Other or what, but I think it’s an interesting mainly post cold-war trend.
#8 wamba
July 20, 2006

Even the greatest skeptic would have to admit that there are still unexplained UFO sightings.

Uh, yeah; I guess that would explain the U.
#9 wamba
July 20, 2006

Not to be picky or anything but the “alien” in “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1) explicitly said he came from millions of miles away and (2) managed to come back to life after someone killed him.
Sound like any Mexicans you know?

Nows that you mention it, there was this one guy who claimed he came back to life. He had a Mexican name; what was it? Oh yeah, Jesus.
#10 tacitus
July 20, 2006

What’s always puzzled me is that Christians like Barker don’t even need an alternative demonic explanation for aliens and UFOs. They could easily join with the rest of us rational folks and claim the sightings are merely figments of people’s imaginations.

Debunking UFOs doesn’t necessarily make the existence of a spiritiual realm any less likely and yet many credulous religious people seem very reluctant to do so. It’s as if they are afraid that rational explanations for one unexplained phenomenon will lead people to question other unsubstantiated beliefs, like those of their religion.

So I’m guessing that these loony demonic explanations for alien and UFO sighting is simply a defense mechanism against awkward questions regarding their own metaphysical experiences.
#11 Matthew
July 20, 2006

Ginger,

Most of those resource scavenger aliens, as you call them, aren’t particularly intelligent beings. Most of those types of aliens ran into humans by happen chance. There are other instances, such as Contact, where the aliens were intelligent and complex (too complex in that example, I think). I don’t think we can read anything in to this other than those movies were created by hollywood studios who make movies for the lowest common denominator who might become confused if a character portrays more than one type of emotion over the course of the two hour film.
#12 MisterDNA
July 20, 2006

Don’t forget to show They Live at your 3-day film festival.

“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubblegum.”
#13 Tulle
July 20, 2006

Doug, I understand your confusion. It is one of my favorite movies. Yes, he said that. Did you miss the part where he explained that some humans were taken off the earth long ago, so later one could be sent on the mission that he was on. Plus, he came back to life using medical technology that far exceeded ours, and that he was not immortal. He did seem hesitant about revealing how long he could live though. So just like any other real alien, he was a human from someplace far away. I wonder how they would have deported him?
#14 No One of Consequence
July 20, 2006

As we were discussing this, a local magistrate in the congregation had a question. His question definitely caught me off guard. He wanted to know if aliens did exist, could we eat them. I think he was a hunter. What do you think? Can we eat them?

The daily limit is 2, and they have to be over 18 inches long. Oh, and you can’t use live bait.
#15 Ginger Yellow
July 20, 2006

“Most of those resource scavenger aliens, as you call them, aren’t particularly intelligent beings. Most of those types of aliens ran into humans by happen chance.”

Well yes, that’s kind of my point. They’re not particularly intelligent beings, with negligible emotional or cultural life, who just happen to have interstellar travel capabilities and post-nuclear weaponry. It’s a bit of a paradox.
#16 mark
July 20, 2006

What about Dr. Who? And Flesh Gordon?
I think Barker had a few anal probes too many, and lost his brain.
#17 Jurjen Smies
July 20, 2006

Astounding. Sagan’s Demon-Haunted World, anyone? Except this Barker guy hasn’t progressed from an irrational belief in demons to a slightly less irrational belief in extra-terrestrials, he’s come full circle and gone back to demons.
#18 Skemono
July 20, 2006

In conclusion I submit that the evidence or lack thereof points to a satanic deception and it is working.

Wow. So, if there’s evidence, that points to Satan. If there’s not evidence, that also points to Satan.

And why did Satan only decide to start this propaganda campaign in the ’60s?
#19 dogmeatIB
July 20, 2006

Also you have series with bad aliens:

Star Trek (good and bad to be fair)
Stargate
Stargate: Atlantis

Between those last two, the universe appears to be full of greatures that want to all sorts of horrible things to humans.

Ed,

I believe the reason UFOs seem to be so facinated in redneck anus’s is that they’re searching for their brains.
#20 Raging Bee
July 21, 2006

For example, are aliens fallen beings? Do they need redemption? Did Jesus die for them? Did Jesus die for all beings, earthling and alien? Did He die just once here on earth or did He have to visit and die on each planet? All good questions — the answers to which will depend on whether we want their land or natural resources.

…why do demons keep appearing in front of handfuls of dazed rednecks?

Because behind all their holier-than-thou hellfire righteousness, their faith is the weakest of all, which makes them the easiest pickins for Satanic Minionhood.

And why would these demons be so obsessed with probing said rednecks’ anal cavities?

To convert them to the homosexual lifestyle.

Where do they find these people?

By means of those anal probes?