The following article is worth the reading.
I'm not carelessly openminded about it although it does coax the imagination.

Check it out

[This message was edited by Paul on 01-07-03 at 12:33 PM.]

Ah yes, Raelian Movement.

Fun - fun - fun. I actually have been, mision-ised by a Raelian when I live in Las Vegas. They have their own little pamphlets and they also have their people who go home to home spreading the word and trying to raise funds for the Embassy for the ET’s which they plan on building outside of Jerusalem at some later date.

Their beliefs are based on scripture. Ancient Hebrew words like “elohim” which has been translated to mean “Those who come from the Sky”

A similar site - Which is not associated with the Raelian Movement and also states so can be found here http://www.bibleufo.com/guide.htm

What this site does is lay out all the scripture and other related historical evidence that God Flies in a UFO. This site is not trying to establish a new religion. I can not stress that enough - this is a sincere look at the scriptures and trying to come up with some explanation for what is written - Such as The Wheel and the Sky or the Pillar of Smoke/Fire which lead Moses and his tribe through the desert for 40 years.

BibleUFO.com uses a lot of the same scripture as the Raelians use. However, the Raelians have added to it supposedly Rael (The leader) has spoken with ET on many occasions - the author of the Bible UFO site makes no such claims.

The Raelians have painted God as a ET who came down and made man. The Site I give makes no such claim.

The Raelians also believe in the power of crystals and other ESP stuff - it is sort of a New Age meets UFO Meets The Bible organization which is sincere in it’s beliefs and has incorporated a great deal of old religion traditions from all over the world into it.

It is a good theory, in as much as it has cause and effect, and does explain some (not all) of the things we know. However, the only thing that it lacks is physical proof that ET has been here. There is much in the way of second hand Proof, such as the use of OOPARTS (Out Of Place ARTifactS) as a sign that an outside intelligence has been here.

David

In my opinion, the belief that space aliens landed many many many many years ago and lit the match that sparked the beginnings of humanity is no more fantastic than the notion of a mysterious ever-present all-knowing creator who said "poof! it shall be done!" and made everything in seven days.

Of course, the unanswered question remains, where did the aliens come from and what were their beginnings? Or were they begun by another race of space alien scientists who were begun by another who were begun by another, ad infinitum?

This theory, historically, is referred to as "the Ancient Astronauts". There is quite a bit of evidence to support the theory, most of which is shown in a 1970's documentary hosted by William Shatner called "Mysteries of the Gods". Check it out if you can find it!

ValorD
I read Erich Von Danikens books on the subject Many years ago and they are a good read regardless of your views on the subject
links here

Yeah, I read it many years ago too, it was a fun read. Mostly I remember that von Daniken claimed

-- there was not other way to explain straight road built for huge distances by people who had no math than alien visitation;

-- that little horns in pictographs drawn by primitive people proved that aliens had landed in those days, since the little horns could only be 'antennae'.

I found the whole thing endearingly silly, and giggled a lot.

1. It's well known that if you have two upright poles aligned, you can project the line and place a third pole; then remove the rearmost, and so on. This produces a straight line along which to build a road;

2. It's well known that many primitive religions had rituals that involved the performers donning helmets made in imitation of totem animals, such as bulls, goats, whatever. The depiction of these rituals would show human figures with projections on their 'helmets', and these represented horns or antlers. Not antennae.

But I agree with Lex. It's no sillier than anything else which purports to explain how 'it' all began.

Oh, well, I'm afraid I'm an incurable skeptic.

quote:

Originally posted by babthrower: ...But I agree with Lex...

No! ::gasp:: That's not possible!!

If I remember correctly, von Daniken admitted that at least one of his items of "proof" was a complete fake.

Crop circles (and other patterns) were once thought to be "too perfect" to be done by humans at ground level -- until the hoaxers came forward and showed how they did it, using simple but clever methods of their own device.

I especially like the “documentaries” that continue to hold up crop circles (not to mention the Patterson Bigfoot film and the famous Loch Ness photo) as possible phenomena without deigning to mention that the creators of the circles (or images) have admitted that they are hoaxes. That disappoints me so much, I want to stop watching A&E sometimes.