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This poll found that 33% of Americans believe alien spacecraft have visited earth: https://news.gallup.com/poll/266441/americans-skeptical-ufos-say-government-k
by stretchcat 6y ago
This poll found that 33% of Americans believe alien spacecraft have visited earth: https://news.gallup.com/poll/266441/americans-skeptical-ufos-say-government-knows.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/266441/americans-skeptical-ufos...
So while most people don't believe this stuff, it's not exactly fringe either. That's maybe a hundred million people who believe aliens are coming to earth, while Heaven's Gate was 41 people. Using belief in UFOs as the basis for a religion has happened a few times, but it's very fringe.
- secfirstmd 6y agoTo be fair a huge chunk of the American population and leadership believe a woman had a child without being inseminated by a man, that all of the animals in the world fit on an a big boat and that the Earth was created a few thousand years ago. By comparison aliens stopping by for a cigarette break on earth at some stage in the past 4.7 billion years sounds more likely.
- stretchcat 6y agoSure. My point here is that UFO belief can be characterized as mostly harmless. A few death cults have used it, but the vast majority of UFO believers aren't running off to join death cults.