Believing in Supernatural Beings: Ways to Contemplate

From time immemorial, people tend to believe in the existence of the supernatural being. What makes it hard to contemplate is what brought the existence of that supernatural being that rules over every creation. There are thus some ways that can lead people to believe in supernatural beings, as explained by some of the authors, including Law, Routledge, and Illing. Humans always like to contemplate there are unbelievable situations that might happen. For example, uncertain objects fall from the sky (Law 120), and that must be so interesting for us to explore or even have a worldwide conversation about it. These beliefs might be different, but it all comes from the same idea as humans want to find meanings in their life (Routledge 122). The word extraterrestrials here means living species from another planet, but it can be approached with the same ideas as supernatural like spirits, ghosts, U.F.O.s (Law 119).

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Three articles that discuss this article include "Don't Believe in God? Maybe You'll Try U.F.O.s" by Clay Routledge. He uses numerical data to convince his readers to trust the research that said the need for meaning inspires the link to the current society's new belief of U.F.O.s. The second article, "Belief in supernatural beings is natural - and false" by Stephen Law, explains the reasons why supernatural beings do not exist, and it is a mere illusion. The third article, "Probing odds if alien visitors" by Judy Keen, discusses what makes people have a strong belief towards aliens. Overall, this paper discusses three articles on religion and supernatural beliefs through summaries of the claims of each author, and a synthesis together with a conclusion is thereafter provided in the paper.

Summary of Clay RoutledgeClay Routledges's article "Don't Believe in God? Maybe You'll Try U.F.O.s" is analyzed for the existence or belief in the U.F.O.s. The report, as posted on the New York Times, discusses the reasons why Americans slowly lack faith in God. When clay popes a question of whether Americans are becoming less religious, he answers the same, stating that it all depends on the definition of religion Polls on the American religious affiliation showed a 95% sense of belonging decades ago. The percentage has significantly reduced to 75% in the current polls. While the religious belief has gone down, the belief in the existence of God has similarly dropped from 71% to 63% (Routledge, 109). Understanding this spiritual aspect depends on the reasons associated with why humans believe in supernatural beings. As a study by Pew Researcher shows that there is no relationship between the decline of religious affiliation and the existence of God, new interests emerge on the reasons why people believe in supernatural beings.

One of these reasons includes the understanding that religion or supernatural beings put an order in the world. Communities tend to associate supernatural creatures with the ability to bless or cast a spell, which is the basic understanding of world order. As a result, such beliefs have been passed down from one generation to another. Also, the depth of religion is defined by the perceptions of people, how much they observe, and how much doctrine they uphold. A religious mind can be determined by awareness, transience, the need to reckon, a craving for existence, and generally the quest for survival. Research shows that humans get more religious when issues about death are brought to them. Another reason is that the derailed belief in traditional religions may only transform a spiritual mind to believe in other immortal beings, which include aliens and ghosts. For instance, 30 percent of Americans have sent have come in contact, shown a belief in life after death, where the ancestors appear to them in dreams. In another example, 20 percent have witnessed ghosts (Routledge, 112). Therefore, research concludes that the same cognitive mind that believes in religion similarly shapes the belief in aliens and U.F.Os. As Routledge states, "The Western world is, in theory, becoming increasingly secular - but the religious mind remains active (Routledge, 124)." In the end, a loss of faith could be the beginning of a belief in another supernatural being.

A summary of Stephen Law

Stephen Law presents an article on "Belief in Supernatural beings is natural and false." The Law claims that people should stop believing in supernatural life since such thoughts cause an illusion that corrupts the mind. He elaborates his claim stating that people have faith in the immortals since they can't see them. In his argument, he recognizes the works of Steven Pinker on the Evolutionary Psychology of Religion. According to Pinker, most people believe that sickness, poverty, or calamity is caused by other unseen beings, which include spirits, demons, ghosts, cherubim, or saints. As Law explains, most people may believe in extraterrestrials because of sense and fact. For instance, if associating a supernatural with the causation of a mystery or calamity brings comfort to mind, most people will get attached to such explanations (Law, 131). However, the belief will hurt one's psychology since they will always associate ordinary happenings with mystery. In terms of fact, Stephen's Law explains that the vulnerability we have to positive believes of the supernatural that is inclined with a personal experience or a testimony makes it seeking to the mind. It creates a sense of dependence on the mind, and this is poisonous.

Moreover, Stephen Law portrays the disagreements of believers as one of the reasons why the supernatural is false. For instance, some people believe there is one god, while others believe in two and even more. It is a clear indication that no traditional religion can explain the real existence o0f the supernatural. Also, most people have associated their false beliefs with the causation of disease and illness. However, science dissociates religion from the supernatural, explaining that disease occurs due to natural causes.

A summary of Probing odds of Alien Visitors by Judy Keen

Judy Keen presents an American debate on the existence of aliens. In her article on Probing Odds of Alien Visitors, Keen discusses a case of Bryan Fains. Fains sees a moving object in the air and captures the video on his cellphone. When researchers disregard his illusion as a remote-controlled glider plane fitted with L.E.D. lights, Fains does not accept this. He still feels that the world has more beings than humans and animals. The rampant cases of unidentified flying objects in the air have promoted debates on the existence of aliens. However, most people have rejected such ideas. For instance, the Denver voters on 2nd November rejected a ballot purported towards the creation of a procedure to welcome aliens into the planet. Also, Michael Shermer of the Skeptic magazine posted that the evidence for the existence of extraterrestrials is fleeting, skeptical, and a human error. Most people believe that the coming of aliens will make the world a more hostile place. Many people associate such beings with power and calamity. However, Keen describes the thoughts of a psychologist and forensic scientist, Stephen Diamond, as the need for U.F.O. In agreement with Diamond's thoughts, there is a need to gain meaning in life. He defines UFOS as, "It's questing for something to believe in that goes beyond ourselves." Until then, the fear of super mortals will always cloud the minds of people. Also, such fear creates an intense belief that supernatural beings exist. Therefore, the meaning of life, existence of God, and attachment to religion dwell in the cognitive abilities of man.

Synthesis

The existence of extraterrestrials has been significantly agued by Clay Routledge, Stephen Law, and Judy Keen. Clay Routledge discusses the relationship between the loss of religion, the belief in God, and the U.F.O.s. In the end, Routledge disagrees with the suggestions of Law in the non-existence of immortals and associates the reasons for such believers with the mindset. Routledge claims that it all begins with the traditional religion and that when people finally stop believing in the traditional religion, their minds develop a sense of belief to other unseen beings.

Stephen Law argues that the existence of immortals is false. He disagrees with Routledge and gives reasons to why people believe in such beings as follows, first, to the testimony: to reports of sightings, miraculous events supposedly caused by such beings, and so on. Any New Age bookshop will be able to provide numerous testimonies regarding invisible agency that might seem hard to account for naturalistically in terms of hallucination, self-deception, misidentified natural phenomena, trickery, and so on. Second, many will also claim a subjective sense of presence: they 'just know' their dead Auntie is in the room with them, or that they have a guardian angel, by means of some sort of extra sense: a spirit sense (Law, 127).

Keen discusses the existence of supernatural beings and disguises such thoughts with the search for life. Keen gives various examples of people who believe in the existence of aliens. Whereas Routledge and Law talk about the general existence of supernatural beings, Keen seemingly agrees and focused on the existence. Also, Routledge and Law disagree on the existence of immortals, while characters in Keen's article hold a strong belief in the existence of extraterrestrials. In the end, all three articles agree on the search for the meaning of life rather than the driving factor for extraterrestrials beliefs.

Conclusion

Conclusively, should the humankind remain with the belief of the existence of supernatural beings or Extraterrestrials? From the discussion, as suggested by the three authors, many opinions in regard to the existence of the supernatural being have been contemplated. The human being is left to decide on existence or non-existence. The research on extraterrestrials is a current debate that has left many people in a dilemma. Whereas many traditional societies hold the belief in spirits, ghosts, and ancestors, other people had a belief in God. Nonetheless, matters of religion can only be psychologically explained.

References

Law, S. (2010). The evil-god challenge. Religious Studies, 46(3), 353-373. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/religious-studies/article/evilgod challenge/E925DF20AF17F3C87B9449B25F649F27

Lincoln, Don. Alien Universe: Extraterrestrial Life in Our Minds and in the Cosmos. JHU Press, 2013.

Routledge, Clay. "Don't Believe in God? Maybe You'll Try U.F.O.s." New York Times (2017).