Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life

Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life
Author: Jörg Matthias Determann
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2020-09-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0755601300

The Muslim world is not commonly associated with science fiction. Religion and repression have often been blamed for a perceived lack of creativity, imagination and future-oriented thought. However, even the most authoritarian Muslim-majority countries have produced highly imaginative accounts on one of the frontiers of knowledge: astrobiology, or the study of life in the universe. This book argues that the Islamic tradition has been generally supportive of conceptions of extra-terrestrial life, and in this engaging account, Jörg Matthias Determann provides a survey of Arabic, Bengali, Malay, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu texts and films, to show how scientists and artists in and from Muslim-majority countries have been at the forefront of the exciting search. Determann takes us to little-known dimensions of Muslim culture and religion, such as wildly popular adaptations of Star Wars and mysterious movements centred on UFOs. Repression is shown to have helped science fiction more than hurt it, with censorship encouraging authors to disguise criticism of contemporary politics by setting plots in future times and on distant planets. The book will be insightful for anyone looking to explore the science, culture and politics of the Muslim world and asks what the discovery of extra-terrestrial life would mean for one of the greatest faiths.

Children of Ezekiel

Children of Ezekiel
Author: Michael Lieb
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1998
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780822322689

Discussses the relationship between the biblical prophet Ezekiel's vision of "wheels in the air" and the present day end-of-time concept as seen in various religious sects.

The Mother Plane (UFO's)

The Mother Plane (UFO's)
Author: Elijah Muhammad
Publisher: Elijah Muhammad Books
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2008
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 188485589X

This book is comprised of sixteen articles written by Elijah Muhammad in the Nation of Islam's official Newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, beginning May, 1973. What had previously been known as Ezekiel's Wheel or his vision of the wheel, was in fact called The Mother Plane, because it is today in fact, not visions, a humanly built planet, or the "mother" of all planes, so teaches Elijah Muhammad. The bible's Ezekiel did not see an actual wheel, but only a vision of one that would be in the future. This book analyzes Ezekiel's vision and brings it to bear with what Elijah Muhammad says that God taught him about it. What's called "UFO's today is in fact the wheel which eludes the scientists of this world. Elijah Muhammad interprets Ezekiel's Wheel in modern terms.

Handbook of UFO Religions

Handbook of UFO Religions
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2021-03-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004435530

The Handbook of UFO Religions, edited by scholar of new religions Benjamin E. Zeller, offers the most expansive and detailed study of the persistent, popular, and global phenomenon of religious engagements with ideas about extraterrestrial life.

UFOs and the Nation of Islam

UFOs and the Nation of Islam
Author: Ilia Rashad Muhammad
Publisher:
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2013-09-17
Genre:
ISBN: 9780989977401

UFOs were identified and answered before the public had any concerns or questions about them! This research puts forth challenging arguments that offer substantial proof and documented evidence regarding the Nation of Islam's (NOI) inherent relationship to the modern UFO phenomena. This compendium of data answers what academics, researchers, and even UFOlogists have deliberately avoided. How did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad know so much about UFOs before there were any public concerns or investigations? Why did the U.S. Government arrest him after they encountered a huge circular UFO in 1942? How is it that Elijah Muhammad and Minister Louis Farrakhan have boldly challenged the world to disprove their connection to these wheel-like crafts and no one has challenged them? "UFOS AND THE NATION OF ISLAM" addresses these and several more questions about the UFO Phenomenon that other researchers cannot answer with verity. Unlike other researchers, theorists, pundits, and skeptics, this book uses the most reliable primary sources regarding this topic-sources that others have deliberately omitted. With over 450 footnotes for ease of verification, this book challenges and debunks common misperceptions about UFOs, leaving no room for even the staunchest critics to doubt. While scientific, religious, and educational schools of thought are afraid to publicly address the UFO phenomenon at its core, this research demystifies and exposes the propaganda, the pundits, and virtually all major UFO related publications that disregard the most reliable and authoritative source on this topic-the Nation of Islam. The UFO cover-up is not simply to hide the fact that such objects exist; instead, the cover-up is to prevent the public from knowing the source of power behind these crafts.

American Cosmic

American Cosmic
Author: D.W. Pasulka
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2019-01-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0190693509

More than half of American adults and more than seventy-five percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. American Cosmic examines the mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions. Over the course of a six-year ethnographic study, D.W. Pasulka interviewed successful and influential scientists, professionals, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, thereby disproving the common misconception that only fringe members of society believe in UFOs. She argues that widespread belief in aliens is due to a number of factors including their ubiquity in modern media like The X-Files, which can influence memory, and the believability lent to that media by the search for planets that might support life. American Cosmic explores the intriguing question of how people interpret unexplainable experiences, and argues that the media is replacing religion as a cultural authority that offers believers answers about non-human intelligent life.

New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements

New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements
Author: Hugh B. Urban
Publisher: University of California Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2015-09-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0520281187

New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements is the most extensive study to date of modern American alternative spiritual currents. Hugh B. Urban covers a range of emerging religions from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, including the Nation of Islam, Mormonism, Scientology, ISKCON, Wicca, the Church of Satan, Peoples Temple, and the Branch Davidians. This essential text engages students by addressing major theoretical and methodological issues in the study of new religions and is organized to guide students in their learning. Each chapter focuses on one important issue involving a particular faith group, providing readers with examples that illustrate larger issues in the study of religion and American culture. Urban addresses such questions as, Why has there been such a tremendous proliferation of new spiritual forms in the past 150 years, even as our society has become increasingly rational, scientific, technological, and secular? Why has the United States become the heartland for the explosion of new religious movements? How do we deal with complex legal debates, such as the use of peyote by the Native American Church or the practice of plural marriage by some Mormon communities? And how do we navigate issues of religious freedom and privacy in an age of religious violence, terrorism, and government surveillance?

Paying the Toll

Paying the Toll
Author: Louise Dyble
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780812241471

Drawing on previously unavailable archives, Paying the Toll describes the high-stakes struggles for control of the Golden Gate Bridge, and offers a rare inside look at the powerful and secretive agency that built a regional transportation empire with its toll revenue.

Need to Know

Need to Know
Author: Timothy Good
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2012-07-12
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0330543490

UFOs remain essentially a military and intelligence problem - and one demanding unprecedented security and deception, with access to information on a strictly 'need to know' basis. As early as 1960 former CIA director Admiral Hillenkoetter confirmed that, 'Behind the scenes, high-ranking air force officers are soberly concerned about the UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.' The same could be said today. Based on many years of research by one of the world's most respected authorities on alien phenomena, Need to Know draws on top-secret documents, reports of encounters with large craft of unknown origin from pilots and personnel aboard aircraft carriers and destroyers and interviews with high-ranking military insiders. It is full of revelations, including the alarming escalation of aircraft accidents and the disappearance of hundreds of military aircraft during UFO encounters and recent near-misses with UFOs. The evidence is clear, balanced - and irrefutable.

Forbidden Science

Forbidden Science
Author: Jacques Vallee
Publisher: Marlowe & Company
Total Pages: 473
Release: 1996-01
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9781569248089

Known principally as an investigator of the UFO phenomenon and a science fiction novelist, the French-born Vallee (now a resident of the U.S.) has also worked as a computer scientist in both academia and industry. UFOlogists will not find the answers to all of their questions here, for although Vallee believes that UFOs exist, he has no idea just what they are. Therein lies the excellence of his dazzling diary: it offers a glimpse into the mind of a scientist who seems to challenge every preconception and established piety. To his academic training as a mathematician and scientist, which stressed rational approaches to problems, Vallee has brought an interest in the mystical, the psychical, and the paranormal. He has been a Rosicrucian and has studied the works of ancient scientists like Paracelsus. His diary is replete with profoundly insightful, often devastating observations about the strengths and weaknesses of France and the U.S., their academics and their researchers in industry.