Aliens adored : Rael's UFO religion / Susan J. Palmer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Palmer, Susan J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Raël.

Raelian Movement.

Unidentified flying objects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (226 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Aliens Adored is the first full length, in-depth look at the Raëlian movement, a fascinating new religion founded in the 1970s by the charismatic prophet, Raël. Born in France as Claude Vorilhon, the former race-car driver founded the religion after he experienced a visitation from the aliens (the "elohim") who, in his cosmology, created humans by cloning themselves. The millenarian movement awaits the return of the alien creators, and in the meantime seeks to develop the potential of its adherents through free love, sexual experimentation, opposition to nuclear proliferation and war, and the development of the science of cloning. Sociologist Susan J. Palmer has studied the Raelian movement for more than a decade, observing meetings and rituals and enjoying unprecedented access to the group's leaders as well as to its rank-and-file members. In this pioneering study she provides a thorough analysis of the movement, focusing on issues of sexuality, millenarianism, and the impact of the scientific worldview on religion and the environment. Rael's radical sexual ethics, his gnostic anthropocentrism, and shallow ecotheology offer us a mirror through which we see how our worldview has been shaped by the forces of globalization, postmodernism, and secular humanism.

Contents:

Introduction: How I researched the Raelians

Contactee prophets in the history of UFOlogy

The last and fastest prophet

On how to construct a new religion

Mutating the millennium

A visit to the court of Rael

Sexy angels for amorous aliens

"Enemies within!"

Cloning around-hoax or heresy?

"Science is our religion".

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-221) and index.

ISBN:

0-8135-5498-5

0-8135-3742-8

OCLC:

70753963