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Lesley

Grey Matter

3.31.9

Knowing

SPOILER WARNING: This column contains some spoilers for the film Knowing. Procede at your own risk.

You would think that there could be some things within Ufology that are without controversy. At least things like fictional Hollywood movies, but no. I recently saw the film Knowing. I enjoyed it. I won't lie and say that it didn't raise some questions and get me thinking about certain concepts for a time, but it was not influential as to change my opinion. It was just a movie and it was pure FICTION.

After seeing the movie, I finally let myself read "reviews" that I had seen on various UFO related websites and blogs. Obviously, a lot of people take fictional movies more seriously than I do.

There were articles claiming the film was an attempt at disclosure. Disclosure of what? That the earth will be destroyed and the aliens will only save a few people and a couple rabbits? If that is the truth, then it is obvious why the government doesn't want to share that information.

There was also a group of people that somewhat fit together although they were coming from a totally different place and had the same conclusion -- the movie was too religious and was pushing some sort of alien worship.

At one end of that spectrum, you have the anti-religion people. They don't like any religion and the fact that prophecy and Ezekiel were mentioned was bad enough. To top it all off, the aliens, once they showed their true form, were beings of light that resembled angels more so than what we think of as aliens.

There were other subtle religious aspects to the film, like Nick Cage could not go with them because he had not heard the call. You had to hear the call to be saved from the destruction unless you were a rabbit. Apparently, even aliens can't resist a cute bunny.

At the other end of the spectrum, you have the devout Christians (not all, just the ones that wrote articles), who believe that all aliens are demons. They believe the film to be a conspiracy of deception to get people to believe that aliens are good and to worship them as Gods.

Really? Does Hollywood have that much power? These are the same people that couldn't stop Bush from being elected twice. It seems that whatever power they may try to thrust at us is pretty limp and ineffectual.

I love fiction -- movies, books and whatever other forms it comes in, as long as the story is good. I have always been irritated by these people that think that any more than a couple of very loose screws are going to take it seriously. Obviously, we cannot conduct a society where we spend our time worrying about how the very few unhinged people might feel about movies, TV and books. For all we know, a cloudy day could cause those people to join a sun worshiping religion or maybe go on a murder spree and there is nothing we can do about that.

To be fair, I don't believe any of the articles I read was suggesting the film should be banned or anything like that, but I know where these type of things eventually lead if they are taken seriously. And that leads us back to Ufology -- you knew it would, didn't you?

It isn't just the religious zealots that spend far too much time worrying about the few loonies. There are many people within Ufology that believe certain stories or theories should be immediately called out as fakes, frauds, lies or delusions of the woowoos. Otherwise, the poor hapless few will be taken in by them and that is somehow dangerous.

It doesn't seem to matter that Wall Street has collectively screwed us all out of zillions of dollars. What they want you to worry about is the loony that might spend $20 for a video that shows fake UFOs and gives false information. Kind of a Messiah complex, isn't it? Come to me and I will save you from the wolves and tell you what to believe. Most of these people are very anti-religion and they don't actually see the truth of how much they have in common with religion.

It was actually reading those articles, some by very anti-religion people and some by very religious people that got me to see just how similar they are. Both of them wanting so very much to save YOU. Yes, because apparently you can't think for yourself without their help. You will be lead astray and into the evil alien worship without their guidance.

Personally, I try to walk the middle line. I dislike all zealots, whether they are anti-religion or religious. It seems to me that both viewpoints taken to the extreme are a religion of some sort and that they cloud and hide the true issues and really are both equally useless. That said, I don't mind if people are atheists or very religious, as long as they are also tolerant of other points of view. I think I am easy, but then again I am probably going to hell. :-)

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