• UFO Religion has its roots in technologically developed regions like US, Japan, France
• Adherents believe aliens are interested in the welfare of humanity
• Outer space religion is believed to hold potential to solve current ecological, social and spiritual problems

August 7, 2017 : I have realized that the more I read about religion, the more I figure out that I know nothing about it. It incorporates wisdom and knowledge, principles and information that draw you towards itself the more you expose yourself to it. Hence, I might fail miserably if you ask me to explain what religion is. To put it in the simplest words, religion is what individuals employ to make a contact with The Divine Force. Religions teach people about the nature of existence and spiritual realities, incorporating a code of conduct or school of thought.

While religion is a broad concept without a definitive explanation, I will quote three definitions for easing understanding of the article,

• The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods
• A meticulous system of faith and worship
• A pursuit or interest to which someone endorsed supreme substance

While humanity continues to define and re-define popular religions, conceptually and theoretically, an alternate school of thought has also been in place for a while now, widely explored however largely ignored by the masses.

It was in the sixteenth century that the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno published his opinion that the universe consists of infinite solar systems with infinite habitable planets housing an infinite array of beings.

"And this space is what we call the infinite, because there is no reason, capacity, possibility, sense or nature that must limit it. There are infinite worlds similar to this one and no different from it in its type, because there is no reason or defect of natural capacity (I am referring both to passive and active power) by which, just as they exist in this space that surrounds us, they should not equally exist in the other space that by its nature is no different or diverse from this." Giordano Bruno (Fifth Dialogue)

While he believed that his inestimable God exercised his mighty powers to create such distinct worlds, the notion of beings beyond the earth did not go down well with the reigning Christian orthodoxy encapsulated in sixteenth-century Europe.

What followed was condemnation and eventually burning of both Giordano Bruno and his published work.

It was a time when religions were yet to incorporate life beyond the Earth into their views -ancient religions and holy texts prevailing at the time were restricted to their local locales, which have been suggested in theologies of the time, until the twentieth century.

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The term UFO was coined in 1953 and used since, to refer to un-identified objects suspected to be piloted by beings from other galaxies than our own. This gave rise to a phenomenon many might quotes as 'Outer Space Religion'

What Is Outer Space Religion?

The phenomenon popularly incorporates judgment, behaviors and sentiments that gravitate around the belief that 'salvation' is to be found in outer space.

The term 'Astroreligion' could also be used to describe this space related phenomenon.

A common question at this point would be to wonder, are aliens god? For a fact, some astronomical groups do hold that opinion. Additionally, some of the UFO religions hold that,

• ETs are the gods that humans have been talking about since time immemorial- ETs created life on our planet.
• For other UFO religions, ETs bring divine messages from the gods.
• And for others, ETs are mere religious seekers, not very different from homosapiens.

In order to tend to these extra-terrestrial (ET) beings, an elaborate field of enquiry arose in the twentieth century called Exo-Theology.

While it may come as a surprise to you, theories combining outer space, aliens and religion do enjoy similarity to other popularly accepted beliefs in terms of their construction and the field has gathered mass attention of the public and researchers alike.It shares similarities with popular religions of the homosapiens' world and is now touted as an acceptable, exclusive belief set,

• Ufology deals with the origins of humanity, the nature of existence, the purpose and nature of cosmos, and the purpose of life. If observed closely, religion and associated spirituality deal with similar profound concepts.
• Many alleged extraterrestrial encounters have a sacred insinuation.
• Various UFO groups have religious doctrines of belief and even 'religious vestiges like events, sightings, or a body of evidence that are honored as an attraction.

Thus, it is in this way that the concept bears uncanny similarity to mainstream 'religions' of the world.

However, an important point to note here is that like every belief, UFO religions are not scientifically consequential. Instead, they are more like ideological assumptions to sift through available data. Because of the magnitude of available researches and raw data, these assumptions help ufologists and researchers to devise a structured way through their studies and researches.

Thus in this sense, all UFO religions can be classified as methods of interpretation, sometimes based on an ideology.

At present, the field of ufology is a little disturbed. With the internet boom, an increasing amount of information is accessed everyday which needs to be studied, contemplated and analyzed.

The belief system which has been ridiculed for years is now finally seeing the light of the day with people becoming more receptive to information and the eventual disclosure of extra-terrestrial life in the cosmos.