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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Questions about seemingly absurd claims	Ryan	Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Question: Hello! Hopefully Brother Ignatius Mary is reading, for I have to share a great compliment on the Three Secret Strategies of Satan essay, and his overall prowess in his question answers. I am infinitely grateful for your refusal to compromise to the agenda of political correctness rooted in the most false sense of benevolence the world can possibly know. Anyway, these things aside, I am curious as to what you might think about some claims I am coming across. Chiefly, this website: http://ldymyste.tripod.com/truth.html. This website claims that all of mankind and the religions that have stemmed forth from the Judeo-Christian tradition are nothing more than alien experiments, and that mankind is a "slave race" to extra-terrestrials. The first claim is that sightings of UFOs are not exclusively modern phenomena, but that they have been recorded for "thousands of years." A second claim, quoted directly: "Archaeological finds show that Sumeria left records revealing humanlike creatures of extra-terrestrial origin had ruled early human society as earth's first Monarchs. Those alien people were often thought of as GODS. Some Sumerian GODS were said to travel into the skies and through the heavens in flying globes and rocketlike vehicles. The Book Of Ezekiel is filled with visions and encounters with what appears to be celestial beings. The first vision, is that of a divine chariot, better known as The MERKABAH, in Kabballistic circles. It is one of the most extraordinary accounts of a UFO witnessed in ancient times. The detailed technical description of the Chariot and the manner in which it could move about..in any direction as well as up and down, has puzzled bible scholars from the past up until modern times, and has become a part of the Mysteries in the Jewish Kabballah, whose study was limited to only knowing initiates. The word dream does not appear in the Book of Ezekiel, only the word vision. The heavens opened up and I saw divine visions. The term used in the Hebrew is actually Elohim visions. The Elohim, have been referred to as the Greys, Annunaki, Nefilim, no matter what name, Ezekiel's vision was considered Divine presence..GOD" A third claim: "Supposedly, the demolished planet Tiamat, which is referred to in the book of Job, had enough DNA material from its previous life to begin life anew, and more than likely that Tiamat wasn't the original home of the Annunaki with Mars being their temporary home away from home when Tiamat rocked. Several attempts were made to create the perfect slave out of various animals, which ended up with hideous mutants that were not good for anything and had to be destroyed. Let us make Adamu in our image, as we see in the outline of genesis Let us make man in our image, which shows God referring to himself as plural. He was a race of people....the Annunaki,who are referred to biblically as either angels or the sons of god." These are lies. I only trust Bible and Church. Bible says His image, not "ours."
Question Answered by Mr. Benjamin Mathew Dear Ryan, Brother Ignatius reads all of these questions. I wholeheartedly agree with you on your comments regarding that essay. The essay on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in relation to the charismatic renewal is also phenomenal. Bro Ignatius has been a blessing to me as well; he brings clarity and reveals the harmony between faith and reason in responding to practical situations. The website you sent me is hosted on tripod.com, a popular website creation tool for beginner web designers who are usually involved in blogging. After reviewing this site filled with cartoon images and neon yellow font, I came to realize that the site’s content is even more childish than its presentation. The site does not contain any academic references to her information (which is needed for any serious article) and is run by Deborah-Nuckles Honea. This seems like a science fiction fan blogging about some alternate reality. All of these claims about extra-terrestrials visiting earth should be met by one important question, “What good reasons do we have to believe that?”. First, it’s important to note that the Catholic Church has not taken explicit stance on extra terrestrial life. However, there are no credible scientific studies confirming extra terrestrial life, visits to earth, or UFO sightings. There’s a reason why Deborah Honea doesn’t source any evidence in her article. I would lump this site in with things like the Da Vinci Code; it mixes up half-truths with blatant lies to mislead people. Though conspiracy theories may be fun (or funny), they should not to be taken seriously (especially ones as ludicrous as these). Why would only a few chosen people, namely, adamant science fiction believers have the evidence for UFO’s when world renowned scientists cannot find a single trace? There’s an important distinction between blogging and credible academic work; the ancient sightings of UFO’s can be bunched together with other bronze age myths such as women who believed that looking at ugly things would make their babies look ugly. The visions of Ezekiel referring to divine chariots are just that, divine chariots – not UFO’s. The Hebrew word, “Merkabah”, means the divine chariot of God. This chariot is a four wheeled vehicle, with four wings, and four faces (man, lion, ox, and eagle): "The Fathers of the Church liked to see these as standing for the four Evangelists. The face of a man stood for Matthew, with his opening genealogy on the humanity of Jesus. The face of the lion stood for Mark, whose Gospel opens with John in the desert. The face of the ox stood for Luke whose Gospel opens with sacrifice in the temple. The face of the eagle stood for John's Gospel; with its soaring vision of the Divine Word. The fact that they always went forward without taking anything back stood for the inerrancy of the Gospels. They went wherever the Spirit went-- inspiration, said the Fathers.” Well before Deborah Honea was born, the Church Fathers have commented about this passage from Ezekiel which is completely in line with Christian teaching. The tiamat and leviathan references in the book of Job display how God is greater than all other creatures; not some bible and mythological conspiracy theory. Her comments on evolution are even more laughable: “What did they do with neanderthal man, exterminate him, haul him off to another galaxy, to make room for the new slave race, to prevent breeding between the two subspecies”. Though the site is good for a laugh or two, there’s nothing on that site that I would take seriously. God bless, Mr. Mathew