A rousing and Lewisian conclusion indeed: "But I do think this restless hunger — for the beyond, for the other, for something that transcends what we can measure — is pointing somewhere real. We desire something beyond because there is something amiss within.
"Christianity offers the final and truest version of this story. God himself steps into time and matter, crossing every threshold, in order to bring us back to himself. It is the ultimate cosmic narrative: not man reaching upward and finding nothing, but heaven reaching downward and finding us. This, I believe, is the story that all of our obsession over UFOs really points to — we long to know the unknowable. Thankfully the unknowable has made Himself knowable."
A very well-written essay on the topic, but I am not sure I follow the argument that UAPs must present a demonic force. For instance, what is the basis for believing that most of mankind would react to a "first contact" situation in a way where the visitors are treated as godlike? I understand that a recurring theme in science fiction is that less-developed civilizations regard those with more advanced technology as gods, but this is more of a plot device than a settled matter of cultural history. I do believe that some of what is witnessed may represent a truly evil nature, but I am not sure demonic is quite the right description. According to an interesting book (UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record) by a recognized journalist, for instance, there are disturbing details about the shutdown of a missile range facility in the fall of 1966. Is the shutting down of military installations something we can view as purely spiritual in nature? Seems something else is potentially at work here. Despite the distractions, we do need to keep our eyes fixed upon Christ; this doesn't mean, however, that we ignore potentially dangerous activities by forces we fail to understand. After all, they may be neither aliens nor spiritual entities at all; we don't seem to have many answers at present. (My own blog post on this topic from years ago can be found at https://singinginthewood.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-uap-question.html .)
A rousing and Lewisian conclusion indeed: "But I do think this restless hunger — for the beyond, for the other, for something that transcends what we can measure — is pointing somewhere real. We desire something beyond because there is something amiss within.
"Christianity offers the final and truest version of this story. God himself steps into time and matter, crossing every threshold, in order to bring us back to himself. It is the ultimate cosmic narrative: not man reaching upward and finding nothing, but heaven reaching downward and finding us. This, I believe, is the story that all of our obsession over UFOs really points to — we long to know the unknowable. Thankfully the unknowable has made Himself knowable."
thanks for reading Matt! I keep remembering you are in St. Louis and we need to get together sometime.
A very well-written essay on the topic, but I am not sure I follow the argument that UAPs must present a demonic force. For instance, what is the basis for believing that most of mankind would react to a "first contact" situation in a way where the visitors are treated as godlike? I understand that a recurring theme in science fiction is that less-developed civilizations regard those with more advanced technology as gods, but this is more of a plot device than a settled matter of cultural history. I do believe that some of what is witnessed may represent a truly evil nature, but I am not sure demonic is quite the right description. According to an interesting book (UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record) by a recognized journalist, for instance, there are disturbing details about the shutdown of a missile range facility in the fall of 1966. Is the shutting down of military installations something we can view as purely spiritual in nature? Seems something else is potentially at work here. Despite the distractions, we do need to keep our eyes fixed upon Christ; this doesn't mean, however, that we ignore potentially dangerous activities by forces we fail to understand. After all, they may be neither aliens nor spiritual entities at all; we don't seem to have many answers at present. (My own blog post on this topic from years ago can be found at https://singinginthewood.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-uap-question.html .)