Creation Ministries International is at it again.
In an alleged response to an alleged letter, Gary Bates wrote a piece ultimately promoting his Alien Intrusion propaganda flick (based on his book), especially encouraging viewings in churches. Why? Because Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is giving a lot of attention a recent Congressional report on UFOs …and Gary wants folks to believe it’s all demonic.
For reference, Gary Bates is CMI’s anti-alien CEO and the very fellow who called me a “lone wolf” for daring to consult the entirety of theological discussion on the subject of the possibility of alien life since the Middle Ages and not accepting the comclusions of the Johnny-come-lately Christian movement that came about as a reaction to the flying saucer craze.
The Pentecostal deliverance ministries from which the Demonic Hypothesis of UFO was born and promoted from in magazines and large scale revival meetings were already obsessed with Devil and the End Times. It apparently took very little to nudge them to come to that knee-jerk conclusion. Gary Bates usually cites CE4 Research Group as evidence for his views. CE4 are the folks who tell us alien abductions can be stopped in the name of Jesus, but who don’t tell us that resistance and willpower also work because that suggests it’s probably psychological rather than demonic. Gary think that the fact that these experiences stop in the name of Jesus (most of the time…) is the “smoking gun” of the UFO mystery. But why would it be surprising that the name of Jesus has power over a psychological experience?
But lately, he’s started saying secular Ufologists also agree UFOs are demonic:
If you haven’t watched the movie Alien Intrusion: Unmasking a deception, I would encourage you to do so. It has updated information in terms of the actual secular UFO researchers claiming the phenomenon is actually spiritual and even demonic. So this is no longer just a Christian point of view. You could point out to your mentor that it is the secular people saying this because of the actual evidence and the way it appears and interacts with us.
In the next paragraph, he provides a link to an earlier post which clarifies his favorite secular quote-mining source, Nick Redfern (Yes, I realize he also cites John Mack but I’m also sure that Mack’s hypnosis-farmed “abduction” experiences share the same amount of evidence as the Satanic Panic’s claim that Satanist cults were abducting, raping and killing people nationwide on a massive scale (i.e., there is zero evidence these experiences objectively occurred, you know, in reality)).
Gary writes:
UFOs beliefs are changing due to the mounting evidence of them being spiritual in nature. The evidence is actually on our side. Both the secular and Christian researchers agree about the spiritual nature of UFOs, although we might disagree about their origin. But this more recent evidence that is readily available to all researchers is being widely ignored. Today, believers in alien visitations actually have a problem with the views of their own secular experts—not we Christians as we understand the evidence within our worldview. For example, UFOlogist Nick Redfern (author of over 40 books), said:
“But, I can say for sure that, every year, my views that we are dealing with something much stranger than ET grow stronger. The main reason: the phenomenon works too hard to come across as alien…‘We are part of a symbiotic relationship with something which disguises itself as an extra-terrestrial invasion so as not to alarm us’ (quoting McKenna).”10
Although a secular researcher, Redfern indicates in our AI doco that experiences with these alleged alien entities are, indeed, demonic.
(By the way, “AI doco” is apparently an abbreviation for Alien Intrusion documentary. Anyway…)
This attempt to get Nick Redfern (or anyone else for that matter) to say things they don’t actually believe through selective quotes is known as quote-mining. Quote-mining (or quoting out of context) is lying. It’s a deceptive practice that is all-too-common in modern sensational UFO and cryptid films styling themselves as documentaries that ask you to “Decide for yourself” while selectively presenting the evidence in favor of a certain outcome. Film makers either ask leading questions that they often later edit with different questions or editorial remarks and cut to the expert’s comments to make it appear they are in agreement with propaganda in the film. In essence, quote-mining is using words out of context to make someone appear to hold an opinion or belief that they do not hold.
And yes, quote-mining, is a sure sign that you’re being fed propaganda.
And here is the evidence that Gary Bates is quote-mining Nick Redfern by saying he indicates that these experiences with these alleged alien entities are, indeed, demonic. Redfern had this to say about his beliefs on a website dedicated to promoting Final Events, his book on a group investigating the demonic theory of ufo:
Weird. It kind of looks like Redfern doesn’t believe the UFO phenomenon is demonic. In fact, he doesn’t even think there is a shred of evidence that it’s demonic. You see, he goes on to write:
So, while I’m not sure that we have enough proof to say with 100 percent certainty that literal ETs are visiting (although there is plenty of evidence that an unexplained UFO phenomenon from SOMEWHERE exists), I have seen zero evidence that the beliefs of the Collins Elite have validity.
But, I didn’t write the book to validate what they said. Rather, I wrote the book because I found it fascinating that the government was covertly funding a deeply buried think-tank group to determine if UFOs WERE demonic.
For me, that’s the important thing – the nature of the story, how the group came together, and what they believed. But, personally, I don’t think their conclusions are the correct ones – at all.
Now in fairness, if Gary Bates was ignorant of Redfern’s beliefs, well, maybe Gary should’ve done a better job of vetting his experts before he cherry-picked ones to conform to the message of his book. Because the truth is that ufology is certainly NOT coming around to the conclusion that it’s all demonic. It is a decidedly fringe view even in such a fringe field of investigation! And it is held as possible only by Christians, especially Christians obsessed with End Times theology, but even most Christians don’t believe it! Bates’ caveat about not dwelling on eschatology aside, the theory he subscribes to, the Demonic Eschatological Hypothesis of UFO, predicts the probability that fallen angels will pose as aliens or a world organization will create a false flag alien event that unifies the world under the Antichrist in fulfillment of Bibke prophecy. He downplays the eschatology, but it is intrinsic to his beliefs on the subject and the beliefs of anyone else who subscribes to it because IT IS THE WHY of their hypothesis. Why are fallen angels posing as saucers and giving people these experiences? To prepare the way for that false flag alien event. That’s their Big Picture, and that’s why Gary keeps bringing this scenario up.
But, Gary, if you have quote mine secular experts, use experts (like Mack) with highly questionable methods like hypnosis (where it is proven subjects can be led to conclusions and caused to believe things really happened that did not), and selectively present that alien abduction experiences can be stopped in Jesus name (while omitting the fact that simple will power and resistance also stop them) in order to convince people of your views, maybe it’s time to reconsider your views (even if they’re a productive revenue stream). Maybe it’s time to admit you were wrong and get on board with the rest of us who’ve trying to figure out this mystery without resorting to such tricks. Maybe time to even study what theologians long before the flying saucer phenomenon came along had to say about the possibility of alien life.
Turns out, I’m not really a lone wolf.
Exotheology.org 