Research Question What are some of the most popular alien related conspiracies, and why do these seem so believable to certain sections of the population. Why has our culture shifted to believe in these beings from outer space? (Thesis) Conspiracy theories change with time, tuning themselves to other cultural feelings of their time.
History and Debate
Since the early medieval ages, the idea of cosmic pluralism, or the idea that multiple worlds like earth exist with their own forms of life, has been thrown around philosophical and theological. It has only been in the last few centuries that books (like Orson Wells War of the worlds), and television shows like the History Channels ancient aliens, put forward theories and tell stories that
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UFO culture and to a new and similar extent aliens are shaped by our larger cultural sense. In a world and time before cosmic pluralism was a largely excepted concept, the answer for strange behavior, creatures, and fire in the sky was attributed to the religious. Fire balls in the sky or things similar were seen as a show of power or a punishment. The strange creatures and behaviors seen were not seen as outer worldly but from the doing of Satan and his cohort of necromancers and witches. As time pressed on into a modern age where science prevails, these explanations steered more away from religion and more into the realm of science fiction. As a culture who are now attuned and used to censorship and government cover-ups and secrets, the idea of an alien species hiding in the dark corners of our world doesn’t seem so far fetch for a great number of people. The modern day culture of “big business” with its “evil” corporations and suspicious governments lends itself well into the idea of earth shattering secrets hidden from the general populous. Although it’s easy to look at this as a very “doom and gloom” scenario, there is another thing that sets our culture apart from those of the past. The 19th and 20th centuries have been the staging grounds for some of the human race’s most breathtaking discoveries and wildest experiments. Humans understanding of space has …show more content…
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