Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
historical parallels: aliens, they say, have always been visiting us,
poking at us, stealing our sperms and eggs, impregnating us. In
earlier times we recognized them as gods, demons, fairies, or
spirits; only now do we understand that it's aliens who've been
diddling us all these millennia. Jacques Vallee has made such
arguments. But then why are there virtually no reports of flying
saucers prior to 1947? Why is it that none of the world's major
religions uses saucers as icons of the divine? Why no warnings
about the dangers of high technology then? Why isn't this genetic
experiment, whatever its objective, completed by now, thousands
of years or more after its initiation by beings supposedly of vastly
superior technological attainments? Why are we in such trouble if
the breeding programme is designed to improve our lot?
Following this line of argument, we might anticipate present
adherents of the old beliefs to understand 'aliens' to be fairies,
gods, or demons. In fact, there are several contemporary sects -
the 'Raelians', for example - that hold gods or God to come to
earth in UFOs. Some abductees describe the aliens, however
repulsive, as 'angels', or 'emissaries of God'. And there are those
who still think it's demons.
In Whitley Strieber's Communion, a first-hand account of 'alien
abduction', the author relates
Whatever was there seemed so monstrously ugly, so filthy
and dark and sinister. Of course they were demons. They had
to be ... I still remember that thing crouching there, so
terribly ugly, its arms and legs like the limbs of a great insect,
its eyes glaring at me.
Reportedly, Strieber is now open to the possibility that these
night-time terrors were dreams or hallucinations.
Articles on UFOs in The Christian News Encyclopedia, a
fundamentalist compilation, include 'Unchristian Fanatic Obsession',
and 'Scientist Believes UFOs Work of Devil'. The Spiritual
Counterfeits Project of Berkeley, California, teaches that UFOs
are of demonic origin; the Aquarian Church of Universal Service
of McMinnville, Oregon, that all aliens are hostile. A 1993
newsletter of 'Cosmic Awareness Communications' informs us
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