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    American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology
    American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology
    American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology
    Audiobook8 hours

    American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology

    Written by D.W. Pasulka

    Narrated by Norah Tocci

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 1, 2019
    ISBN9781977339461
    American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology
    Author

    D.W. Pasulka

    D. W. Pasulka is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She has written several books, including American Cosmic and Heaven Can Wait. Dr. Pasulka’s research spans Catholic history to modern day reports of UAPs and UFOs.

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    Reviews for American Cosmic

    4.5/5

    100 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Great book! I only wish that she read the book herself.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This was so interesting and I was disappointed when it ended.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Very interesting and thought provoking I would recommend this book
    • 5/5
      I was assigned to read this book as part of a graduate seminar on literary theory--as a class, we are discussing what questions literary criticism/the humanities might explore in the coming years (much literary criticism of recent years has focused on ideas of power and oppression--usually through the lenses of race, class, and gender studies--and, without questioning the importance of that work, some scholars are looking for new ways to add to the conversation).

      The book is different from most of the other works of literary theory that I have read--it's very accessible and focuses a lot on subjective, individual viewpoints without being too critical of them. Stories of Pasulka's conversations, conferences, and even travels with interesting figures are told through her own view, and she even mentions her own feelings toward these individuals and about the anomalous experiences they relate to her and experience alongside her. I personally enjoyed this approach a lot: much of Pasulka's work read as an engaging narrative while still asking questions about the topic at hand that seemed important to me.

      I especially appreciated Pasulka's neutral but respectful attitude toward both religion and ufology. At multiple points in the book, she mentions her training as a religious scholar, and she details how that training has taught her to focus on the substance of people's beliefs without making a judgment call about their "reality" or "truth." She even refuses to join her audience in chuckling about Jediism (a real religion whose practitioners adhere to beliefs taught by the Star Wars films and literature). While she was honest about the apparent logical contradictions of some anomalous experiences (such as when she related the experience of a man whose experience of an alien abduction was strikingly reminiscent of a film he had seen as a child), and rigorous in her comparative analysis of ufology and religion, she never made generalizations or interrogated the belief systems in a way that felt cynical or demeaning. As an aspiring scholar interested in postsecularism, this seemed very important to me.

      If there's anything I would critique about Pasulka's work, it's that I wish it went deeper into her research on the comparative resonances of ufology and religion. Her thesis about the inherent misrepresentation of these phenomena in the media seemed convincing and well-supported, but I really just wanted to know more about those levitating disks that kept showing up in Christian artwork.

      Lastly, I enjoyed Pasulka's conclusion: that we should seek to understand, not ignore, anomalous experiences. This was similar to Jeffrey Kripal's discussion of what science and the humanities takes "off the table" for discussion. Since these events are evidently a real part of human social and cultural experience, regardless of their objective "reality" or the correctness of their interpretation, it seems perfectly logical that we should not exclude them from study simply because they don't fit neatly within materialist and secularist theories that have prevailed for nearly the last century and a half.

      Overall, I'd highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to get a well-reasoned, neutral, and respectful take on the field of ufology.
    • 4/5
      I'm about halfway into it and am definitely enjoying the author's perspectives, theological comparisons, and the characters she has met on her journey, but I am a bit confused as to why she keeps making references to Area 51 and Roswell as though they are both in New Mexico... Perhaps her references are just strictly related to those two sites being famous for alleged UFO events, but the language she uses makes it seem like she thinks Area 51 is also in NM. And if she is confused about that, then for me, it throws into question the accuracy of all of her other references which in turn shakes the foundation of the entire book. But... maybe I'm being too nitpicky.
    • 5/5
      Great book, but "Passport to Magnolia"? Narrator and editor fail.
    • 5/5
      Very interesting. Listened to the whole thing in one listen.
    • 3/5
      Not what I expected and a little dry. John Keel did a better job in 1970.
    • 5/5
      I’m not sure what to make of this but the content is very intriguing.
    • 2/5
      It was great until the Vatican part. After that, I felt as if the entire book was a Trojan horse for Christian validation.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic read which poses major questions on the reality of UFOs and its close relation to religion. Pasulka's work felt like a spiritual predecessor to Jacques Vallee’s books on the subject and challenges our preconceived notions.
    • 5/5
      Everyone needs to read this book. To say that it is enlightening, does not do it justice.