Alie-an

This is an introduction to my God-Philosophy it runs deep enough for a book I have many of the concepts and chapters outlined already.

What is the question that unites God and aliens? Do you believe in God? Do aliens exist? And are we alone in the universe? If aliens visited us tomorrow and told us that they’ve been here watching us since before we were homo-sapiens then I’m sure that the conglomerate empires of Earth religions would find themselves wanting. Initially, people would flock to church out of habit as a response to the ‘fear of alien invasion’ but most congregations would offer little comfort in face of extra-terrestrial first-contact. I open my book with this because it’s nearly impossible to de-mystify the concept of God. I recall on the ride home with my mother in middle school bringing up the subject of God only to say that I don’t understand it and that it seems to be the simplest possible explanation for where we came from. I had only been to church once with an Asian friend’s family which we spent on the floor drawing while everyone was looking at pictures on an overhead projector screen of people from their church group.

Now as I reflect upon my decision to write this book and the new found insights that will arise through the further exercising of my imagination I realize that this has always been my greatest dream for humanity. I’ve always felt a personal and intense desire to unite science and religion through philosophy (the science of wisdom). In times of doubt, I rest assured that at the very least I can unite religion and science in my own mind. Time has helped me to see that religion and science will always be at odds because religion is very unscientific. That’s why I have taken this fight to the heart of the matter by addressing the conception of monotheism’s God. For example, it is reasonable that atheism and theism are actually not in contradiction of one another but a part of the same duality of thought. In their most simplistic forms, theism states that God exists while atheism declares that God does not exist. Since these are philosophical concepts, God, both does and does not exist; God as a metaphysical, spiritual omnipresent being, in existing paradoxically does not materially exist. I’ve gone about this by reflecting on religious stories and concepts through the lens of science (evolution, philosophy, history, and the known universe) instead of the scientific method.

There was a single event that has inspired this book more than any other which occurred last year when I spaced out at a red light and missed the green arrow. I was in no hurry and there was no one behind me so I patiently waited with my eyes gazing towards the cloudy midday-sky. That’s when I saw a U.F.O. peak out of the clouds directly in my line of sight and then peak back in as if to say, “Hello Jason, we know you saw us.” Granted, I didn’t have my glasses on and had just left a bar named Oblivion where I had one large glass of wine, so how could I be sure? Since I don’t have any evidence of extra-terrestrials then I must presume that it was a hallucination or some other product of my imagination. Is Space-X in Orlando? Does Disney have a space-ship ride? I cannot know what I witnessed despite how I title this book. However, to say that I believe aliens exist detracts from what we do in fact know. The universe is complex, so massively complex that the act of trying to contemplate its size and shape creates more brain-cells or might even induce a headache. The longer we contemplate the conception of life, the shape of the universe, and the universe’s ever increasing size, the less likely it becomes that we neither are alone nor will remain alone.

So then if aliens do not exist beyond the world of our imaginations, what good is the concept of an alien in logical, rational terms? Alien has many meanings. It can be used to describe something strange. There are aliens deemed such by the Government or someone who has been ‘estranged or excluded’. Anyone can be alien but ‘an’ alien is something else, something… wonderful.

There’s no reason to think that human beings are not still evolving. Evolution takes place over time-scales that make our entire recorded history appear as mere seconds. To be ‘an’ alien is to aspire to extra-terrestrial dreams. It’s to love fame for its fortune. To be ‘an’ alien is to accept that the human race is evolving but humankind will always exist despite what the future holds. ‘An’ alien accepts this because they are among us, human beings are aliens. Thousands or hundreds of thousands of years from now if humanity spreads throughout our galaxy and beyond then our genetics will gradually change creating races of human beings that given differences in diet, environment, etc gradually evolve into something else. This fascinating sci-fi concept becomes even more intriguing with the added possibility of reproducing with a life-form from another planet. Evolution has shown that we all have common ancestors with simple-celled organisms. Therefore it also predicts that we are potentially the ancestors of future-humans whom have travelled so far from earth that their ancestors eventually became aliens to human kind. I mean this quite literally as opposed to a person living in the present day with an extreme imagination or someone who has a mental disorder such as autism which creates an alien world in their own mind, a more commonly understood form of ‘alienation.’

Any alien species that has the understanding of the universe to reach our world is the closest living thing to our concept of God. These creatures, by our standards would be all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing. This is what human beings aspire to through religious philosophy, to be like God. Through Christian philosophy a man walked the earth as God. I’m not religious so I can look at the whole story through eyes that have never had to endure the mysticism of Church. I’ve sought understanding as to the meaning of it all, not the bible but the creation of the bible and religion itself as events in human history. My conclusions should not come as a shock and I accept them as a product of my imagination without providing any concrete evidence, I allow the rational to be its own evidence. The bible was, for all intensive purposes the first book ever invented; the English translation of ‘The Book’ is very fitting as it was the first mass produced work after following the invention of the printing press. Everything about it was magical and the stories were taken literal by generations of people who first learned to read through its pages. The benefits of storytelling were made available to the masses through churches that became among the first established social institutions of philosophy and education. Stories have always and will always be inspired by real events even if they are from a writer’s unconscious. But whether or not you think Jesus could have been visited by aliens, was an alien, or was the Christ it’s all inconsequential so this book is not about any conspiracy theories or religious proclamations (though I may have dedicated a chapter to all that jazz).

Yet many people fail to understand this point; the concepts of God and an intelligent alien life-form capable of visiting Earth are actually describing nearly identical states of being. There usefulness to philosophy is inarguably similar. God is a supreme being that made everything while an extra-terrestrial visitor is a life-form with a god-like understanding of the universe. The characteristics of God are infinite knowledge, omnipresence, infinite power, and perfect goodness. An advanced civilization that has discovered and visited life from other galaxies would be a utopia; if they could travel at the speed of light that’s like omnipresence. A power source of infinite supply would surely power their world, a society absent of suffering in the sense that our human world is riddled with it. I cannot imagine a life-form acquiring the capacity to contact another intelligent life-form without having first solved the problems on their own planet. The technology they must have would solve many of the social ills that plague our world today.

Believing in the possibility of a utopia is not an option but a mandate. If curing the world of social ills, crime, and corruption are not the dreams of those who fight them then they’re only preserving an insane world for its inevitable demise. Perfection is not only a law of God but a law of nature, evolution, and it is a paradox because the same forces forever keep it out of reach. Through these concepts of God, aliens, and evolution there is no doubt that if there is life out there, they may be different than what we consider alive; we can relate with one another at least through the shared understanding of god and evolution as well as what it means to make first contact with beings from another world.

There is great value in examining the concepts of God and aliens in how they relate to one another. This is a personal account of a philosophy that I’ve developed over my life-time. I believe that viewing God and Aliens in this way has immense spiritual and philosophical value above any of the ideas offered in modern religions. There is a psychological value in answering the questions about God and aliens once and for all (until we discover them or they discover us, or I suppose if Jesus comes back in which time I will apologize for the harsh words I have for American-Christ worshippers in the chapter that involves politics).

Scientology is a cult and not a religion because it isn’t based off of other religious thought that emerged out of human history and evolved or even as a product of any known historical event. Scientology evolved as a spiritual outgrowth of scientific ignorance. I draw this distinction to make two points, first, that there is great value to human consciousness in exploring the likeness of our conception of God and aliens. Second, viewing God, humanity, or the possibility of extra-terrestrials this way could never become a religion because it’s based on rationality not spirituality. This book is meant to be an unbiased examination of philosophical concepts as well as our scientific understanding of the universe. I also believe that understanding the likeness of these ideas should enhance anyone’s spirituality who is an honest believer in God or practitioner of any religion. The difference between God and the proposed alien-visitors is in how we attribute death to God’s will. These beings became ‘god’ to their world and I believe they have little interest in being looked upon as God by us or playing such to our world.