tomspug
Absorbant
One of the reasons I love the X-Files isn't because of its campy sci-fi, but because of its strong spiritual themes. I believe that there is a direct correlation between the desire for the existence of alien life and the desire for God to exist.
We could never admit it, but I believe that we are all scared of the dark and empty deep down. We are frightened by the concept of nothing. The idea that we are alone in the universe is downright disturbing, makes us feel trapped, encased in a world, like playing in our own grave.
We are desperate for fullness and light. We seek it in many ways: knowledge, achievement, recognition, power... But when people are really honest with themselves, what they want is companionship.
In the same way that we crave intimacy with a spouse, we crave intimacy with something even more other. Something that will change us and the world we live in. We want to grow and escape our hole, our life, our planet. It is greater than the idea of religion. Religion is not intimate. The idea of God is.
And honestly, people view aliens like they do God. In a way, aliens are the God alternative, the same awe and inspiration but without being at his mercy. Even then, we have movies like Independence Day, which views the unstoppable god as a grand challenge to the human race, to rise above what it currently is. They really do represent a futuristic heavenly mythology. The archaic concept of heaven has been replaced by an endless expanse of space, where one form of escapism has been replaced with another.
Belief in aliens IS escapism, and for many people so is God. Do aliens exist? Perhaps. But the way we interact with that possibility as a race indicates that this belief is rooted very much in something psychological, even spiritual perhaps.
We could never admit it, but I believe that we are all scared of the dark and empty deep down. We are frightened by the concept of nothing. The idea that we are alone in the universe is downright disturbing, makes us feel trapped, encased in a world, like playing in our own grave.
We are desperate for fullness and light. We seek it in many ways: knowledge, achievement, recognition, power... But when people are really honest with themselves, what they want is companionship.
In the same way that we crave intimacy with a spouse, we crave intimacy with something even more other. Something that will change us and the world we live in. We want to grow and escape our hole, our life, our planet. It is greater than the idea of religion. Religion is not intimate. The idea of God is.
And honestly, people view aliens like they do God. In a way, aliens are the God alternative, the same awe and inspiration but without being at his mercy. Even then, we have movies like Independence Day, which views the unstoppable god as a grand challenge to the human race, to rise above what it currently is. They really do represent a futuristic heavenly mythology. The archaic concept of heaven has been replaced by an endless expanse of space, where one form of escapism has been replaced with another.
Belief in aliens IS escapism, and for many people so is God. Do aliens exist? Perhaps. But the way we interact with that possibility as a race indicates that this belief is rooted very much in something psychological, even spiritual perhaps.
