Project Blue Beam

[ehowton]

Was asked to look into Project Blue Beam if I was unfamiliar with it. I was. More articles on it circulating on right-wing conspiracy sites (and by right-wing conspirators) while fewer on the left-wing conspiracy sites. To be fair, right-wing conspiracy sites (last time I was there) purported John F. Kennedy Jr. was going to come back to life in Dallas, TX and reinstate Trump as President. As far as I know, that did not occur. Yet many people actually believed that was going to happen. Please be aware I also read the Tim LeHaye novels, Left Behind from which Project Blue Beam seems to borrow heavily.

The only people who believe in the antichrist are Christians, ergo, I am not in any way afraid of the antichrist uniting the world under a New World Order for nefarious purposes, especially when those in power consumed with greed, fear, and corruption seem to be doing a bang-up job on their own, or further separating through nationalism, whichever you choose to believe. Yes there are plenty of things occurring which cannot be immediately explained, but suggesting aliens (or the antichrist) are behind them is awfully unorthodox. It's basically Nietzsche's, "God of the gaps" philosophy in play. Besides, I have two counterpoints to aliens, one of which is my own anecdote:

My mother called one day concerned that aliens were not only real, but running the government. She laid out her, "proof" and was scared it might all be true, then asked for my counsel. It may have been at the end of a long day following a long week, I really don't know, but I outlined the impact verifying aliens were real and running the government would have on my life - none; zero. If it was broadcast TODAY that all that was true, I would still have kids to feed, a mortgage to pay, and a job in which to go in order to provide those things, along with the hundreds of other things for which I was responsible. The knowledge aliens existed and were running the government would literally not change a goddamn thing in my life, nor would I expect it to. She seemed to take that well.

For the more devout amongst us, I will offer this take from Ken Ham, a Christian apologist and biblical literalist concerning extraterrestrial life: "You see, the Bible makes it clear that Adam’s sin affected the whole universe. This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but because they are not Adam’s descendants, they can’t have salvation." I trust that makes more sense to you than it does to me, because as difficult as it may be to believe, I do not lay awake at night wondering about the eternal salvation of extraterrestrials. That said, I do feel sorry for any alien who chooses of his own free will to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and...well, not Savior apparently.

As a critical thinker, I do not immediately dismiss all conspiracy theories (JFK Jr. coming back to life was an easy one to dismiss) but I also don't embrace them even if they sound reasonable. There's actually some fantastic research papers on why people believe conspiracy theories, but I'll warn you now they discuss concepts above a fifth-grade reading level, so your mileage may vary. What's most interesting to me about these papers is they literally say, "Some people cannot integrate factual information which conflicts with their strongly held beliefs," and someone to whom that statement would absolutely apply will respond with, "Nuh-uh."

But here's where things get tricky - there have been conspiracy theories which have turned out to be true. Personally, discernment is what helps me separate those from dead children of assassinated Presidents coming back to life. The point is, just because you believed a conspiracy theory that later turned out to be true does not affect my view on the validity of any current or future conspiracy theories which may or may not be true - that's not how that works. I don't care you were right about one or two of the hundreds in which you believed, I will continue to do my due diligence and see how things play out. When one is able to integrate factual information, this is pretty much an effortless process. It also helps I don't hold many "strongly held beliefs." Yes, I know you have an opinion on everything. That honestly sounds exhausting and I want to spend my time and energy on things which matter to me. The antichrist is not one of those things.