How's it going America,
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Let's get into it:
The Pentagon has announced the release of previously classified UFO files. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said "The Department of War is in lockstep with President Trump to bring unprecedented transparency regarding our government’s understanding of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves. This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency."
A series of downloadable pdf links follows, including "investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports," primarily from the FBI. Included in the release are photos and audio from the Apollo 17 mission, and maybe I'm missing something, but that audio was included as a sample in a Daft Punk track, called Contact, released in 2013. It's a great track and deserves a listen.
It turns out that congressmen have been getting alien briefings for years, and some, like Tim Burchett, have called for the release of these files after he's seen videos and photographic evidence of unexplained phenomena, or what the Pentagon is calling UAPs, Unidentified Flying Phenomena. Trump said in February that he planned to release it.
Pastors have also been briefed and have said that these alien files could pose a problem for Christian beliefs and that it may be harder for pastors to hold their congregations together. Pastors were briefed by the administration and US intelligence officials. "You’re going to have people who are going to say if there are galaxies and there are allegedly other creations in the galaxies, then the whole creation story is a myth, and you’re going to have people that’s going to apostatise and turn from the Christian faith because they have no answer for what they’re about to hear," said evangelist Perry Stone.
I just don't think this is true. I think that if anything, finding out there's extraterrestrial life would make a person have more faith. Why could God not have created more than just us? What if these aliens believe in God, too? What if humans are God's chosen people? I'd like to think that the known existence of alien life would bring human beings closer together on this planet.
But I think there's a grave possibility that it would drive humans further apart as some side with aliens, some turn on their fellow humans, divisions instead of similarities are strengthened. Science fiction tells us more about who we are at the time when it was written than it does about the future, and if our current sci-fi and apocalyptic fiction is to be believed, we are very much divided, we are very much interested in tearing each other's heads off rather than comforting each other. The era of Star Trek: The Next Generation, when we saw our future as one of great explorers who have perfected Earth and soar through space bringing the Bill of Rights everywhere we go is long gone.
We talked about aliens and so much more on Timcast last night. You can check it out here.
Libby