{"id":38511,"date":"2019-10-27T16:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T16:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/"},"modified":"2019-10-27T16:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T16:52:00","slug":"ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"UFOs are Becoming the World\u2019s Next Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A book by D.W. Pasulka, department chair of philosophy and religion at the University of North Carolina, is titled <em>American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology<\/em>. In it she explores how belief and fascination with UFOs and aliens could be evolving into a sizable world religion. At least 35% of Americans believe extraterrestrial beings have visited us in the past, and 26% believe it is continuing today.<\/p>\n\n<p>Pasulka has observed that:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>UFO beliefs display other classic indicators of religion: sacred sites, sacred revelations, and testimony by credible witnesses to miraculous events. Alien belief allows for a crowded, living cosmos filled with the wild supernatural. It provides a language of longing for something&mdash;an angelic visitor, the complete fulfillment of our own technological potential, revelation about the nature of the universe.<\/p>\n<p>&hellip; there are signs that alien belief is poised to become one of the world&rsquo;s ethical religions. Alien beliefs often implicate the world in wickedness and call for repentance. Many accounts of alien contacts include calls for an end to war and an increase in peaceful human cooperation. A recent New York Times op-ed used an alien invasion as a model for thinking about climate change.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-source\"> <\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409,410],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3450,3711,3906,3948,3953,4186,4338,4510,4525,4667,4798,4891,4900,5037,5108,5109,5303],"tax_ctp_topics":[393,396],"class_list":["post-38511","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-creation","tax_ctp_tags-evolution","tax_ctp_tags-false-beliefs","tax_ctp_tags-false-religion","tax_ctp_tags-humanism","tax_ctp_tags-last-days","tax_ctp_tags-mystery","tax_ctp_tags-naturalism","tax_ctp_tags-postmodernism","tax_ctp_tags-religion","tax_ctp_tags-science","tax_ctp_tags-secularism","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-blindness","tax_ctp_tags-supernatural","tax_ctp_tags-superstition","tax_ctp_tags-worldview"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UFOs are Becoming the World\u2019s Next Religion - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UFOs are Becoming the World\u2019s Next Religion - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A book by D.W. Pasulka, department chair of philosophy and religion at the University of North Carolina, is titled American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology. In it she explores how belief and fascination with UFOs and aliens could be evolving into a sizable world religion. At least 35% of Americans believe extraterrestrial beings have visited Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/\",\"name\":\"UFOs are Becoming the World\u2019s Next Religion - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-27T16:52:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-27T16:52:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UFOs are Becoming the World\u2019s Next Religion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UFOs are Becoming the World\u2019s Next Religion - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ufos-are-becoming-worlds-next-religion\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UFOs are Becoming the World\u2019s Next Religion - CT Pastors","og_description":"A book by D.W. 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