2019-1121

Lights In The Sky & Little Green Men

Comments Off on Lights In The Sky & Little Green Men[Author: Category: Non-fiction, Paranormal, Religion, Reviews ]

Lights In The Sky & Little Green Men, A Rational Christian Look at UFOs and  Extraterrestrials, by Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples, and Mark Clark. The book is published by NavPress, Bringing Truth to Life, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2002.

In addition to numerous other qualifications in education, Hugh Ross has received master’s and Ph.D degrees in astronomy, Kenneth Samples has a master’s degree in theological studies, and Mark T. Clark is a Professor Emeritus of political science. The authors are active in Reasons to Believe, “a nonprofit organization providing research, publications, and teaching on the harmony of God’s revelation in the words of the Bible and in the facts of nature.” There is no hesitation in this compact book of 255 pages to take on the worst human UFO-related disasters of the twentieth century and point directly to the cause, which is demonic.

In the Preface, Hugh Ross writes “Speculations about unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrial beings just won’t go away. They continue to crop up in conversations all over the planet. Almost everyone can tell a story of seeing weird lights in the sky – lights that seem to defy explanation.” Little green men are those beings who fly overhead in spaceships, sometimes landing. “We hope this book will compel people to explore beyond surface explanations.”

Kenneth Samples opens the first chapter with references to sightings from antiquity through the twentieth century, with an increase of sightings by pilots during World War II, who speculated that these anomalies, called “Foo Fighters,” were advanced enemy aircraft. “From the late 1940s through the 1960s, the United States Air Force investigated UFO reports through various projects and committees, concluding with the “Condon Report,” which states that “further extensive study of UFOs probably cannot be justified in the expectation that science will be advanced thereby.” However, the subject has obviously not gone away and has continued to be carried, e.g., by NASA’s SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), professional ufologists, social scientists, UFO enthusiasts and debunkers, New Agers, UFO cult members, and Christian theologians and apologists.

Author Kenneth Samples examines Types of UFOs in Chapter 2. “There are plenty of crackpot UFO enthusiasts out there, but many ufologists are respected scientists and other experts who are going about their task in a professional way.” Subheadings in this chapter include Systems of Classification, Natural Explanations, and Two Leading Hypotheses. The hypotheses for the phenomena are extraterrestrial (ETH) – the most popular explanation among Americans – and interdimensional (IDH). Regarding the IDH, this is “sometimes described as the paranormal or occult view of UFOs. Some ufologists, (especially Christians) have ascribed an angelic or demonic interpretation to this interdimensional presence. Even a number of leading secular ufologists have argued for a correspondence between UFO phenomena and the occult or demonism.” Significantly, the authors refer throughout the book to the concept of the RUFO, or the residual UFO, “those unexplainable yet real phenomena that remain after all naturalistic explanations have been exhausted.” The “Condon Report” aside, there should be much to learn about cosmic and human existence – as this book testifies – from UFOs and RUFOs. (RUFOs are later described as “both real and nonphysical” in a chapter titled A Closer Look at RUFOs.)

As Hugh Ross writes in Chapter 9, Nature and Subnature, “Ever since publication of Robert Jastrow’s landmark volume, God and the Astronomers, in 1978, references to the supernatural – and specifically to God and theology – have become commonplace in books by astronomers and physicists. If a person scans the science shelves at a local bookstore, he will find books with titles like God and the New Physics, The God Particle, God and the Cosmologists, Reading the Mind of God and Through a Universe Darkly. What’s going on here? Is a mass conversion taking place? No, it’s not a mass conversion. Rather, this development arises from research findings. A mountain of evidence compels the conclusion that reality must exist beyond the physical universe.” Under one of this chapter’s subheadings, The Nature of Supernature, Hugh Ross writes, “For those who care to investigate, nature holds abundant clues to its supernatural source or cause. And that investigation may hold keys to unlocking some of the mysteries of  UFO phenomena.”

Mark Clark tackles Government Cover-Ups in Chapter 7. “True believers in UFOs are frustrated at not being able to convince the world that a residual portion of UFO sightings are for real. Could someone be making their task more difficult?” The U.S. Government. “And so the loaded word ‘cover-up’ enters the conversation.” He continues on with the subjects of Roswell, the Classified Information that came out of the Cold War, Project Blue Book (the Air Force response), the CIA, and Bureaucratic Politics. Then a second full chapter, Government Conspiracies, includes the topics of Political Culture, The Psychological Dynamic, Contrary Evidence, Popular Opinion and the Ockham’s Razor dictum.

This is a remarkable book that should be on the shelf of every conscientious twenty-first century citizen. It is not easy to read through Chapter 14 on UFO Cults by Kenneth Samples, where he describes The Aetherius Society, The Unarius Academy of Science, Heaven’s Gate, and The Raelian Movement. These unimaginably horrible realities of human behavior and error are followed by The Bible and UFOs, Chapter 15 – quoting Ezekiel 1:4-28;10, 2 Kings 2:1-12, and Revelation 1:12-18  –  and a Summary, Chapter 16, stating that “RUFOs … are consistent with the Bible’s descriptions of demons.” Adhering to the “doctrinal statements of the National Association of Evangelicals and the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy,” Reasons to Believe has admirably taken on the UFO phenomena. The book concludes with three Appendixes (e.g., Appendix A, Fine Tuning for Life on Earth), extensive Notes, a Bibliography, and Subject and Name Indexes.  – Martha Keltz

References:

The Incarnation of Ahriman: The Embodiment of Evil on Earth: Seven Lectures by Rudolf Steiner, Given Between October and December, 1919, Skylark Books, on Amazon.com.  

Astronomy and Spiritual Science, The Astronomical Letters of Elisabeth Vreede, SteinerBooks, on Amazon.com.

On-Line references:

Cosmic Christianity & The Changing Countenance of Cosmology: https://wn.astrosophy.science/Books/Cosmic/Cosmic_index.html

The Ahrimanic Deception: https://wn.rudolfsteinerelib.org/Lectures/AhrDec_index.html

The Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman: https://wn.rudolfsteinerelib.org/Lectures/GA191/English/AP1993/InLuAr_index.html

The Cosmic New Year: https://wn.rudolfsteinerelib.org/Lectures/GA195/English/RSPC1938/CosNew_index.html

The Mission of the Archangel Michael: https://wn.rudolfsteinerelib.org/Lectures/MissMich/MisMic_index.html

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2019-0922

Encounter in Rendlesham Forest

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Encounter in Rendlesham Forest, The Inside Story of the World’s Best-Documented UFO Incident, by Nick Pope, with John Burroughs, USAF (Ret.), and Jim Penniston, USAF (Ret.). Published by Thomas Dunne Books, An Imprint of St. Martin’s Press, 2014.

The first encounter, in the early hours of December 26, 1980, was an actual landing of the UFO craft. The second encounter, on the night of December 26, involved the sighting by personnel of D-Flight of a fiery red/orange object that descended slowly into the forest. It was surrounded by an eerie blue/white corona. The third encounter took place from the evening of the 27th through the next morning, and several challenging UFOs with beaming lights were witnessed.

On December 26, the strange intense lights of the first encounter were seen in the forest outside the East Gate of the Woodbridge US Air Force base. At that time the Bentwaters and Woodbridge NATO bases, on British soil, were staffed by Americans. The twin bases were in “the sleepy county of Suffolk on the cold, exposed coast of the East of England,” an area described as “creepy” and “weird” by service personnel. The Rendlesham Forest was between the two bases. The red and blue lights were spotted by Airman First Class John Burroughs, who had been patrolling Woodbridge near the East Gate. He contacted his supervisor, Staff Sergeant Bud Steffens, and both drove out to a small track that led into the forest. An odd white light had also become visible. They returned to the base to inform others, including the on-duty flight chief at Woodbridge, Staff Sergeant and NCO James (Jim) W. Penniston, who thought there might have been an aircraft crash. As it turned out it was not a crash, it was a landing. “In the clearing was a small, metallic craft. It was about three meters high and maybe three meters across at the base. The craft was roughly triangular in shape … It had a bank of blue lights on its side and a bright white light on the top. There was no sound whatsoever. Penniston “had the presence of mind to take a number of photographs.” Unfortunately, the photography failed, probably due to high radiation levels. But Penniston managed to sketch both the craft and its symbols in his police notebook.

He also “plucked up the courage to touch the object. It felt hard and smooth, like a smooth, opaque glass.” However, when he touched the symbols, “they were rough, like running my hands over sandpaper.” The craft responded to Penniston’s touch with a white light at the top that “flared up and became so intense that Penniston was fear struck and temporarily blinded …” After a time, the craft rose above the trees, taking two or three minutes, and then “accelerated away in an instant.” It was noticed that three indentations were left on the hard, frozen ground, and that the line between them formed a near-perfect equilateral triangle. Later, plaster molds were made of the indentations. More »

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2019-0822

México Profundo, Reclaiming A Civilization

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Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization

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México Profundo, Reclaiming A Civilization, by Guillermo Bonfil Batalla (1935-1991), is translated by Philip A. Dennis and was published by the University of Texas Press in 1996, with eight paperback printings through 2009. From the back cover, Mexican studies; anthropology: “For Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, the remaining Indian communities, the ‘de-Indianized’ rural mestizo communities, and vast sectors of the poor urban population constitute the México profundo. Their lives and ways of understanding the world continue to be rooted in Mesoamerican civilization… Since the Conquest [Hernan Cortés, 1519-1521] Bonfil argues, the peoples of the México profundo have been dominated by an ‘imaginary México’ imposed by the West.”

Philip A. Dennis is a Professor of Anthropology at Texas Tech University. The book opens with his Foreword of 1995: “Guillermo Bonfil Batalla’s book México profundo: una civilización negada seems prophetic in retrospect. He predicted the collapse of what he called the imaginary Mexico and hoped that the strengths of the “México profundo” would serve as a basis for building a new Mexico. According to Bonfil Batalla, Mexico is not a mestizo country. Rather, it is a country whose majority population continues to be rooted in Mesoamerican civilization and whose way of life reflects cultural patterns and values with thousands of years of history … The México profundo erupted into national consciousness on January 1, 1994, when the Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejército Zapatista de la Liberación Nacional – EZLN) took over four towns in the southeastern state of Chiapas. Their struggle provoked a still-unresolved confrontation with the Mexican government. Most of the EZLN fighters are Maya Indians from a poor state whose population includes more than a million Maya people. Their rebellion responds to years of injustice and oppression. In recent years in Chiapas, large cattle ranchers have continued to usurp Indian land, with the support of paid gunmen and the judicial police. Land and wealth and political power in Chiapas are highly concentrated in the hands of the local elite, while the Indian and peasant majority live in extreme poverty.”

“Guillermo Bonfil Batalla had a distinguished career in Mexican anthropology, cut tragically short by his death in an automobile accident in July 1991 … Bonfil Batalla began his career as one of the early critics of indigenismo, a continent-wide movement concerned with Indian welfare, but directed by non-Indians. He and other Mexican anthropologists of the early 1970s concluded that the paternalistic stance of indigenismo obscured the truly multicultural nature of Mexico, and they supported, instead, Indian efforts at self-determination.”

The book is divided into three parts (each with two to five subheadings): Part I, A Civilization Denied; Part II, How We Came to Be Where We Are; and Part III, The National Program and the Civilizational Project. From Bonfil Batalla’s summary that precedes Part I: “What unifies them [the México profundo] and distinguishes them from the rest of Mexican society is that they are bearers of ways of understanding the world and of organizing human life that have their origins in Mesoamerican civilization and that have been forged here in Mexico through a long and historical process … The civilization of Mesoamerica has been denied but it is essential to recognize its continuing presence.” Later in Part I, under the subheading Cultural Schism, he writes: “Cultural diversity is not a problem in itself … The problem lies in the dual, asymmetrical structure that underlies the plurality. At this point it is indispensable to return to the origin of this problem, which is none other than the colonial situation from which current Mexican society is derived. This is a past whose basic, antagonistic duality has not yet been superseded. To the contrary, it is expressed in every facet of national life. It is an original sin that has not yet been redeemed.” More »

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2019-0722

The Stones Cry Out

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The Stones Cry Out, What Archaeology Reveals About the Truth of the Bible, by Dr. J. Randall Price. The book is Published by Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, Oregon; Copyright 1997 by World of the Bible Ministries, Inc.

The author received his Master of Theology degree in Old Testament and Semitic Language from Dallas Theological Seminary, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Middle Eastern Studies and Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has participated in field excavations at Tel Yin’am in the Galilee, as well as at Qumran, the site of the community that discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In the Preface of his book, under the subheading The Popularity of Biblical Archaeology, the author writes (from Jerusalem, Shavuot, 1997): “It is for the popular audience that I have written this book … My purpose, however, is not to ‘prove’ the Bible, which as an archaeological document is proof itself. Rather, it is to show from the stones that the Scriptures are reliable and reveal to us the Scriptures in such a way impossible without them …”

Regarding the title, The Stones Cry Out, two Biblical quotes are given:  

Habakkuk 2:11: Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, and the rafter will answer it from the framework.

Luke 19:40: When leaders sought to silence those praising Jesus’ Messianic entry into the rock walls of Jerusalem, he answered and said, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”

This 346-page book is presented in three Parts: What Can Archaeology Prove, New Discoveries in Archaeology, and Listening to the Stones Today. Throughout the entire book the author never loses his enthusiasm – at times his contagious joy – for the fact that the Old and New Testaments have both been confirmed by today’s science of archaeology to be historically accurate. In the first chapter, he writes: “Archaeology has revealed the cities, palaces, temples and houses of those who lived shoulder to shoulder with the individuals whose names appear in scripture. Such discoveries make possible for us what the Apostle John once voiced to authenticate his message: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life, these things we write. – John 1:1-4.” In the same chapter the author also quotes a foremost authority in archaeology, the dean of the old school of biblical archaeology, Professor William Foxwell Albright (1891-1971): “Discovery after discovery has established the accuracy of innumerable details and has brought increased recognition of the value of the Bible as a source of history.”

Part I – What Can Archaeology Prove? – has four chapters in which the author details the basics of the science of archaeology. He defines a tel as an unnatural mound created by the repeated destruction and rebuilding of ancient cities and villages on the same site. Excavation areas are called digs. The archaeological finds of greatest value are inscriptions or written words (So Shall it be Written … So Shall it be Found) on papyrus, parchment, clay, metal, stone, and pottery fragments called ostraca. An example of a Stratigraphy of a Tel shows thirteen layers of the ground, from the present ground level to the Early Bronze IV period (2300-2100), beneath which is the original level of virgin soil. In addition, the book offers scientific charts of Major Inscriptions and Major Tablets of Old Testament Significance, and maps, graphs, models, and many photographs of ancient sites, such as the Great Hall of Columns, Karnak, the Rosetta Stone, and the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (which is located in the ancient Assyrian city of Calah, modern Nimrud). Pictures or paintings from the past also offer proof. For example, the remarkable Beni-Hasan Mural, on the walls of a tomb that is south of Cairo on the east bank of the Nile. It is 8 feet long and 10 feet high and pictures Semites in Egypt, from about 1890 BC, as a “parade of foreigners, eight men, four women, three children, and donkeys (one of which carries the two smaller children) and other animals, all being led by Egyptian officials.” The author writes that “the importance of the painting lies in its visual depiction of what people looked like in the time of the patriarchs.” More »

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2019-0622

Turing’s Vision, The Birth of Computer Science

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Turing’s Vision, The Birth of Computer Science

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Turing’s Vision, The Birth of Computer Science, by Chris Bernhardt, was published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016, with the first MIT Press paperback edition published in 2017. Chris Bernhardt is a Professor of Mathematics at Fairfield University, a Catholic University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Alan Mathison Turing (1912-1954), was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist. He emerged into public awareness largely as a result of the 2014 American film, The Imitation Game. The film is based on the biography by Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma, although it is highly dramatized.

Chris Bernhardt’s book is about Turing’s great contribution to theoretical computer science in a paper that Turing wrote in 1936, when he was twenty-four years old. His talents had been recognized and he was then a Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge. The paper is titled On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem (decision problem). “But don’t be discouraged by the title,” writes Bernhardt, “because it contains a wealth of elegant and powerful results. It also contains some remarkably beautiful truths… This book is for the reader who wants to understand these ideas. We start from the beginning and build carefully. The reader doesn’t have to know much mathematics – high school provides enough – but it does require some mathematical aptitude and also a little work … Turing is not saying trivial things about computation, but saying deep and nonintuitive things. That said, many people find these ideas quite fascinating and the work rewarding.”

The book has a Contents section; a helpful Introduction including paragraphs of information about each of its nine Chapters; a section for Further Reading; Notes for each of the Chapters (e.g., how Boolean algebra works); a Bibliography, and an Index. The Contents section lists all of the topics in each chapter. For example, Chapter 1, Background, includes Mathematical Certainty, Boole’s Logic, Mathematical Logic, Securing the Foundations of Mathematics; Hilbert’s Approach (David Hilbert, German mathematician, 1862-1943); Gödel’s Results (Kurt Gödel, Austrian mathematician, 1906-1978); and Turing’s Results.

From Chapter 1: “Gödel had completely destroyed Hilbert’s program as it stood in 1920. Nevertheless, there was still the Entscheidungsproblem.” More »

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