👽|Disclosure Day: Designed, not Assembled
Musings prior to the summer blockbuster and ontological shock.
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“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”
Albert Einstein
When life beats you up, you either find and turn toward God (often times laying in complete and utter surrender ) … or you walk away from religion. ‘Tis unfortunate but those dark moments tend to be pivotal in our faith journey.
If you are a college bound youngster, more often than not, that well of personal experience is not terribly deep. My third child is surrounded by peers who are intelligent, logic-driven and skeptical of anything that cannot be demonstrated empirically. He wants to share his faith and recognizes his limitations. The question arrived at an interesting moment because the cultural ground beneath that conversation is about to shift in ways that most churches and parents are not prepared for. Pop culture is on the cusp of intersecting with religion.
The Moment at Hand
Steven Spielberg’s upcoming summer film on UAP disclosure is not an accident of the Hollywood calendar. Arguably, Spielberg is the most culturally influential storyteller alive. Hollywood has historically served as the primary mechanism for acclimating the general population to paradigm-shifting concepts before official acknowledgment arrives — providing the language, the imagery and the emotional framework that allows people to process what would otherwise be an ontological shock.
The Trump administration’s long-overdue disclosures about non-human biologics and UAPs is here. The questions they will generate in living rooms, dormitories and church small groups are already forming. Do extraterrestrials exist? Were they here at the beginning of human civilization? Are they among us now? And the question underneath all the others: is our history real? What is actually true?
This film will almost certainly position alien agnosticism as the only reasonable intellectual virtue. And in doing so blur a line that matters enormously: will extraterrestrial intelligence be confused with divine intelligence? Will belief in God and the unseen realms of the divine be treated as equivalent to belief in aliens?
This framing, intended or not, is worth resisting, not with defense but with confidence: the evidence is on our side.
The Science Not Being Taught
Given my highly multicultural background, I have observed that in United States you are considered from mildly eccentric to downright loony for taking extraterrestrial life seriously. Other cultures are considerably more open. What is not debatable and is peer-reviewed, published and sitting in the National Academy of Sciences is that we were created. Let me explain.
We, Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH), appeared on earth approximately 200,000 years before the present era. In all that time, our genome has not changed. We did not descend from Neanderthals — the Human Genome Project confirmed we coexisted with them, and yes, apparently also mated. According to 23andMe results (don’t judge, I should have not), I present more than usual percentage of Neanderthal DNA — which does explain … a lot.
Consider chromosome 2. It contains over 1,200 genes, including TBR1, located in the region of our brain responsible for the qualities that make us distinctly human: intuition, empathy, compassion, the capacity for meaning. Chromosome 2 is the product of two ancient genetic strands that fused into a single longer one. The National Academy of Sciences concluded: we find that human chromosome 2 is the relic of an ancient telomere fusion of two ancestral chromosomes.
Think of telomeres as the plastic tips on shoelaces that prevent them from unraveling. In every chromosome, telomeres appear at the ends. In chromosome 2, they appear in the middle. That is not the result of a random mutation. What produces that result is intentionality: a superior intelligence intervening in the genome with a specific outcome in mind.
"The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator."
Louis Pasteur
Could that superior intelligence have been extraterrestrial? Possibly. Could it have been divinely appointed? Equally so. What is clear, given the evidence, is that we are not the accidental product of random mutation and clearly, we did not evolve from the apes, neanderthals or other hominids. We were designed. The genome says so and scientists don’t know what to do with this.
Make Disciples of All Nations
When the Spielberg film arrives and the conversations begin, here is a framework that may work for the logic-driven skeptic who has been told that faith and evidence are incompatible.
Start with creation. Not the theological claim — the scientific one. The human genome was not randomly assembled. Chromosome 2 is the signature of an intelligence that intervened in our development with intention and precision. Whatever you call that intelligence, the evidence for design is stronger than the evidence against it. We were made. The question of by whom and through what mechanism is genuinely open. The question of whether we were made is not.
Move to personal experience. Few are capable of defending every theological nuance of systematic theology. But everyone who believes in God is the world’s foremost expert on their own story. I can speak with absolute conviction about how, when and where He showed up in my life. Not as a feeling but as a series of specific events that have incredible personal meaning. Our testimonies give us authority.
Close with martyrdom. This is particular to Christianity. Open the book of Acts and count: every apostle with the exception of John died for their testimony about the resurrection … by crucifixion, beheading, stoning, or hanging. Men do not die for things they know to be fabricated. Facing torture, they recant, negotiate and survive. The apostles had every opportunity to do so but they chose martyrdom. What they witnessed was real enough to die for. This is not a theological argument, its is a historical one.
What Is Actually at Stake
The coming months will generate genuine confusion in our communities. The disclosure of non-human intelligence is likely to complicate the conversation in ways that lazy Christianity is not equipped to handle. But thoughtful Christianity, the kind that is open to science findings, knows its history and can articulate a personal testimony, has nothing to fear from the question of whether we are alone in the universe.
Jesus never said the universe is small. He said He is the way, the truth and the life. Those claims do not shrink in the face of disclosure. They grow. The larger the universe turns out to be, the more extraordinary the Incarnation becomes: that the intelligence behind all of it chose to enter human history in first-century Palestine, die on a Roman cross and rise from the dead.
We are all called to make disciples of all nations. As the coming months unfold, perhaps it is time to reflect carefully on what it means to be a follower of Jesus — and how we might be summoned to serve in a cultural moment that none of us have navigated before.
The ontological shock is coming. Let us be the ones who were ready.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
We pray for all preparing for an unprecedented cultural moment. Give us the right words and the humility to say we do not have every answer, alongside the conviction to say we know the One who does.
We pray for the scientific community: geneticists, physicists, mathematicians and biologists who follow the evidence wherever it leads. May they find the courage to say publicly what the evidence demonstrates.
We give glory to the beauty of creation, the miracle of life, and for being alive for such a time as this.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
I’ve been listening to Gregg Braden for over a decade:
My brother sent me these photos from Peru, the general public does not have access:
Clearly, this subject matter is of interest to me:
Give your son the book, “Is Atheism Dead?”, by Eric Metaxas. The probability that we would exist here on this one specific planet is so infinitesimally small it’s virtually impossible that we’d be here unless our God willed us here.
Wow, this is really a heavy article you have come up with today! I'm a simple man, and you over maxed me out with all the science. That's OK though, my attitude toward alien arrival is simple, take cover and let someone else go out to greet our guests. On the subject of your third child, there are a variety of excuses that are socially acceptable, for not joining group participation in substance use, trial, and abuse. It is not as important to verbally testify, as it is to lead by example. Referring to time spent following God's word as "checking my guidebook", can ease the tension of an otherwise awkward situation. Saying to others, " You seem to be off track, I'm going to pray it all works out for you, and you come to no harm." , can double for an excuse to not participate in dangerous or illegal doings. A good exercise for them, is to sit and see how many similar excuses they can come up with for avoiding bar behavior. I didn't have such excuses, and had to learn the hard way. God bless, and good luck.🙏