American Cosmic

UFOs, Religion, Technology

Inbunden, Engelska, 2019

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Beskrivning

More than half of American adults and more than seventy-five percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. American Cosmic examines the mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions.Over the course of a six-year ethnographic study, D.W. Pasulka interviewed successful and influential scientists, professionals, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, thereby disproving the common misconception that only fringe members of society believe in UFOs. She argues that widespread belief in aliens is due to a number of factors including their ubiquity in modern media like The X-Files, which can influence memory, and the believability lent to that media by the search for planets that might support life. American Cosmic explores the intriguing question of how people interpret unexplainable experiences, and argues that the media is replacing religion as a cultural authority that offers believers answers about non-human intelligent life.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2019-04-25
Mått:147 x 211 x 30 mm
Vikt:408 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:288
Förlag:OUP USA
ISBN:9780190692889

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Mer om författaren

D.W. Pasulka is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. Her current research focuses on religious and supernatural belief and practice and its connections to digital technologies and environments. She is the author and co-editor of numerous books and essays. She is also a history and religion consultant for movies and television, including The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring II (2016). She has been the principal investigator for numerous grants, including the Federal grant program Teaching American History, which supported middle school and high school teachers in their efforts to teach religious and American history to public school students throughout North Carolina.

Recensioner i media

...American Cosmic is well worth the attention of scholars interested in how the religious is both created and functions in the contemporary world.

Innehållsförteckning

Preface- A Tour of Silicon Valley with Jacques ValleeAcknowledgements IntroductionChapter 1- The Invisible Tyler D. Chapter 2- James: Master of the MultiverseChapter 3- Scott Browne's In the Field: The War is Virtual, The Blood is Real Chapter 4- When Star Wars Became Real: The Mechanisms of BeliefChapter 5- The Material Code: Moving Beyond the Disembodied Soul to the Materiality of Quantum Information Chapter 6- The Human Receiver: Matter, Information, Energy... Contact Chapter Seven- Suspended in Space: Levitating, Bilocating Saints and Tyler D.'s Spiritual Conversion in Rome Conclusion- The Artifact