I grew up in a Protestant Christian Church (United Methodist), in a very rural area known for having some seriously narrow views toward diversity, difference, and other things that don't fit the area's socially acceptable models of "how things should be," and as a young person, I found great pleasure in not only attending church, but also being very active within it.
I found incredible acceptance and openness in my church family that was very counter to most of the area, and I honestly had the idea that Christians (across the board, and in general) were like this...open-minded, loving, nurturing, educated people.
I performed my first songs in front of people on a piano and then a guitar at this little country church in Teresita, Misssouri, where most of my family members are buried and much of my family histories on both sides are wrapped up in that little country church.
My senior year of high school, before I was headed to college, the pastor I'd grown up with in my home church was being reassigned to another church as UMC pastors are (John Wesley was a circuit-riding preacher, and part of the whole UMC gig is that Annual Conference tells you where you go and when you go there.), but even though I'd gone through Confirmation and was very aware of the doctrine of the church, it bothered me greatly to lose my pastor. I felt, for some reason, God was taking her away from me, when I was essentially counting on her being there when I was coming home from college on the weekends.
Then college happened. I went to a school literally formerly called Southern Baptist College, and was introduced to conservatism and judgement unlike anything I'd ever experienced when my best friend at the time told me she could not and would not be friends with a person who was pro-choice in regard to abortion (which I am, and always have been), and it changed my views of not only my college, but also the church at large, friendships, trust, and ultimately...God.
The more I tried to rationalize what could make God make sense...the less I seemed to be able to rationalize it in the same way I had before. I kept seeing people who weren't like Jesus and living lies all around me, and realizing we are all "sinners falling short of the glory of God," I really expected Christians in general to be like the Christians I'd grown up with. Nope.
I'd always been the "good girl," not trying things like alcohol or drugs or even cigarettes in high school...and as I got older, and further from the sense of God I'd been originally introduced to, I found myself questioning even further...and finding bitterness within my answers...and finding anger when I couldn't find answers.
Sometimes certain topics or theories seems very clear to me, and I'm not sure why...but when I started watching Ancient Aliens and listening to lots of theories (some more out there than others, of course), some of these connections seemed very clear.
In my own philosophical and religious mental-set, I do believe many paths lead to the same place...and seeing so many similarities between cultures spread out so far apart from each other with common bonds linking them: images of "bird men" or "angels" or people-like beings decending from the sky to deliver news of either necessary math (like to build the pyramids, for example), or to set a bush on fire and send Moses down glowing as he delivered at Mount Sinai, The Ten Commandments.
Extraterrestrial interaction with our humanity throughout humanity is not as illogical as one might think.
What are "The Heavens"? The Universe? Space? A different universe?
Alien Jesus Original Unmodified Cover Image Credit
By definition, Heaven would be space, and Jesus a half-human-half-alien hybrid. Would also explain everything he did, and if one were inclined or have the faith in some extended logic to believe it, explain it all, too.
Would love to have a discussion on this topic...your views...anything like that in the comments here. I'll be waxing on this further as I continue to feel this out, but I'll tell you this: I don't question the existence of God like I used to...and I think it might be closer to some of this Ancient Aliens stuff than we even realize.
Follow me @jessamynorchard for more assorted randomness!
Maybe we can talk a bit at the Steemit Summer Party. I can delve into this stuff them maybe. :)
I would love that!!
Will do that! Maybe we may set some time for this and I'll make a post about it and maybe see what if anything in particular people may be interested in talking about to be partially prepared.
I would love that, too!
I try not to put blind faith in some of the theories about aliens and UFOs, but why not at least consider them! And when you do, you realize they would really easily fill in a lot of gaps. I think the probability that we were seeded here is also much more likely than the idea that life just popped into existence. So for me, these theories are just theories, but pretty interesting ones! I especially like the idea that ETs are also extra-dimensional beings, I think it's unlikely that we are capable of observing all forms of life and I don't mean stuff like bacteria.
The way I see it, "god" is love, it's what everything is made of, and perhaps some ETs understand this better than we do.
They're just theories to me, too! I've always been a fan of theories, as it seems you are, too. :)
yeah of course! I try to stay grounded in the 5 senses but I don't mind checking sometimes to see if my 6th 7th and 8th are working :-P
What about David Blaine? haha Honestly though... people keep calling me an Alien... and I don't feel like I belong here... Hmmm... I'm not sure what to think about all this. I'm curious to learn more... my sister has the same type of theory. I love your openness.
I would take being called an alien as a compliment.
David Blaine is just Gob Bluth. Full of shit. ;)
Love you. 💚
Oh...nooo... Alien is steemit prophet...ha..ha.. I want make long comment, but I am too tired...just want say hello. Nice posting :)
@happyphoenix Please feel free to leave me a long comment when you aren't too tired! Would love to discuss some things related to this post, and would love to hear your thoughts!
Seen your post on the Facebook group. I seen aliens and rushed on over here and must say I love the perspective you came with on this. Throwing in the personal is always very awesome, makes us really get to know the perspectives you are sharing. Really liked this one so figured I would upvote and follow you to see what comes next. Great job my friend, keep up the excellent gift for writing you seem to possess
Thank you so much for checking this post out, and for thinking about the perspective, as well. Theories are just that: theories, and I have them sometimes and enjoy the freedom element here on Steemit, and feel a certain amount of joy in the open-mindedness of the people here and their willingness to have genuine interaction with each other on deep subjects.
That is the beauty of this place. No more dumbed down public on short postings like they do on Facebook, we can encourage thought provoking intelligence with this format here and i view this place as a huge meeting of the minds which could generate amazing new human philosophies together. I am glad I caught this writing of yours, have a lot of respect for the way you wrote up such a topic. I watch SecureTeam videos every night almost lol...big UFO buff and love my unknown mysteries out there. To me its a topic that should be more mainstream, what is more fascinating than something unknown and more relevant than what they put out on TV most of the time. Glad I followed you, will definitely look forward to more topics like this by you
I really like your comment about different paths leading to the same destination as that is a concept I have always considered when thinking about the endless number of different religions on the planet. Just as we speak English and someone from Mexico speaks spanish, why would it be impossible to believe that different religions are just the spiritual "language" of that culture?
Every religion has one thing in common: they believe they are correct in their views and beliefs. Well why can't we entertain the idea that they are? Their particular religion just expresses those views on their own unique set of linguistics.
It should be no surprise that much like languages, religious preferences depends greatly on geographic location. Perhaps that correlation is an indication that my theory, as well as yours, have some validity. I love intelligent discussion about religion and I only wish it were easier without the emotional baggage that typically comes with it. Great post?
Thanks, man. I'm glad you enjoyed it and that it spurred some internal thought. The more I dwell on language, which is something I have pursued my entire life and have the degrees to show for it, the more I think that perhaps all of our methods of communication are based solely to relay math to each other, which perhaps is the universal language, and/or "The Language of the Gods"....
And you are so right about religions believing they are all correct in their beliefs...however, faith, as presented in the modern church, basically forces you to believe these things.
I prefer to be given information and allowed to draw my own conclusions, and I personally think that's why we have free will...so questioning and making choices and thinking deeply isn't a bad thing---no matter how many modern Christians might say differently.
I have a problem with modern christians, but that's a subject for an entire post...
Moar!
Yassss! Look out!
wow, What an interesting perspective and story. It's very personal. Thank you for sharing. I have had similar "aha" moments throughout my journey with understanding religions and the possibility of aliens. It's quite fascinating. Wish we lived closer to meet up and discuss :) Have a beautiful day
Thank you for reading my post, @creativeusername. I also wish we could meet up and talk, too! Hopefully I will be playing some music in your neck of the woods sooner than later and we can get together! :)
sounds awesome. I would love that as well. I don't know what it takes to get into them but have you thought about ACL or SXSW? There's always some kind of festival down here. Live music is a big one here
I've been working on networking toward Austin for a couple of years now...so I'm close to having a few ins. I have some music friends in Texarkana who regularly frequent Austin, as well as some Denver friends who have played SXSW, so I'm hoping that I can get a foot in the door in the next 6 months or so.
That's exciting. Keep me updated. I'd love to spend some time when you make it down here. :)
i see deep conversations in our future.......
Please! I don't talk about this much online...and especially on Facebook (for obvious reasons), but I really think Steemit is the perfect place for me to wax on these topics. :)
Wouldn't it be refreshing to have an on line place to talk about stuff without the intrusion of trolls?
Hi Jessamyn,
I enjoyed reading your post and it raised some questions in my mind. As you know, my first reply was somehow mysteriously deleted (aliens? ;) and so I will try to reconstruct my thoughts as best I can...
I find this option somewhat problematic, mostly based on what Jesus had to say about himself. He claimed to be God. He claimed to pre-exist Abraham, the ancestor of both Jewish and Arab races.
So this has me wondering about your view of God. Are aliens sent from God? Are they God? What, if anything, created the aliens?
I realize that I've probably not quite replicated what I had said at first... Who knows, perhaps it will reappear out of some time-warp, or maybe some blockchain genius might be able to resurrect it from the archive?
In any case, I look forward to a discussion with you a time permits. ;)
😄😇😄
P.S. I'm saving a copy of this "off-Steemit" in case the Aliens are still active... ;) :D
Congratulations @jessamynorchard! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honnor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPIf you want to support the SteemitBoard project, your upvote for this notification is welcome!
Do not think too much about God. You will confuse about that, just life and share kindness, love, then you will find your "own God". I just hold in this principle 1 Corinthians 13:1–13, and I also learn about metta (buddha teaching about kindness). If you find peace, kindness and love inside your soul, then you fell presence of "God". :)
Extraterrestrials visiting the earth at some point in the past of human history is a big and deep rabbit hole to go down. There's a lot of stuff that's been written about it in the last 70 years, some of it utter nonsense, some of it quite plausible. And to some extent, which is which depends on who you ask.
South America has some outstanding evidence that potentially points to visitors from off planet. Then there is the theory about what caused the Tunguska crater in Russia in 1908. There is a theory that it was a space craft that exploded, and not an asteroid. Lots of mysterious stuff out there.
I want to say so much, but my brain keeps jumping around so much I can't make coherent sentences. I'm just gonna say, I love this post!
Yes, I have many very similar thoughts. This is something I ponder quite often. My most recent ponderings have been centered around an old friend who is now in a nursing home... memory loss, possible abduction, & Alzheimer's later if life... All just musings on my part... But yeah, let's talk more about this sometime!!!