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God Drives a Flying Saucer
R. L. Dione's 1969 UFO Masterwork back in print after almost 40 years of silence. Trashface has prepared a beautiful new edition of this enduring rationalist masterpiece. With an introduction by Quincy Schmerz this edition brings the wonder of a super technological God to a modern audience used to "dealing in the currency of facts"...
- GenresScience Fiction
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 17, 2022
I love books like this. I love the warped and twisted logic. I love way rhetoric is deployed in place of rationality. And I admire the authors for being able to get a publishing deal for such transparent lunacy.
R L Dione offends scholarly standards of evidence in so many ways. The references that he gives for his claims are (deliberately?) uncheckable. Sometimes the evidence he offers is completely absence. He uses the trope of 'things we don't yet know or understand'. Alternatively, he uses the argument that 'since you can't prove me wrong I must be right'. He claims certainty for things that are debatable such as “Another established fact is that UFOs while in flight sometimes emit a tangible substance that drifts down to the ground." (Ch 4); “If the Lady can predict great disasters why can she not predict whether her people will obey? ... It seems obvious, therefore, that she is not supernatural.” (Ch 6) “Surely he’s describing nothing else than a flying saucer” (Ch 7). He offers a limited set of alternatives and then dismisses the straw men he has set up, forcing us to choose his favoured alternative without considering the many other possibilities. He attacks those he doesn't like ad hominem while credulously believing in that trope of UFOlogists, the 'reliable witness'.
This book is also distinguished by the author's errors in simple Physics, such as when he confuses mass and weight, so deciding that the "neutralization" of Earth's gravitational field would make a spaceship's inertial mass zero (Ch 3) or when he describes momentum as “the force which throws drivers against windshields in car accidents” (Ch 3)
Enjoyable nonsense
R L Dione offends scholarly standards of evidence in so many ways. The references that he gives for his claims are (deliberately?) uncheckable. Sometimes the evidence he offers is completely absence. He uses the trope of 'things we don't yet know or understand'. Alternatively, he uses the argument that 'since you can't prove me wrong I must be right'. He claims certainty for things that are debatable such as “Another established fact is that UFOs while in flight sometimes emit a tangible substance that drifts down to the ground." (Ch 4); “If the Lady can predict great disasters why can she not predict whether her people will obey? ... It seems obvious, therefore, that she is not supernatural.” (Ch 6) “Surely he’s describing nothing else than a flying saucer” (Ch 7). He offers a limited set of alternatives and then dismisses the straw men he has set up, forcing us to choose his favoured alternative without considering the many other possibilities. He attacks those he doesn't like ad hominem while credulously believing in that trope of UFOlogists, the 'reliable witness'.
This book is also distinguished by the author's errors in simple Physics, such as when he confuses mass and weight, so deciding that the "neutralization" of Earth's gravitational field would make a spaceship's inertial mass zero (Ch 3) or when he describes momentum as “the force which throws drivers against windshields in car accidents” (Ch 3)
Enjoyable nonsense
April 18, 2014
The author has a point. Interesting book.
November 3, 2015
This was a WILD RIDE
February 13, 2024
I've been fascinated by UFO belief and millenarian religions for years, and have read a bit on both subjects, however this is the first book I've read by someone who genuinely believes these things rather than an academic or journalist. It would be easy to say that most or all of what's in here is absurd (though that is true) and call it a day, but I wanted to try to understand why Dione believes what he believes. I do think he makes the occasional good counter argument to other UFO writers and to some interpretations of the bible. He clearly has an internal logic to his ideas, no matter how out there the conclusions may be. Dione does, though, make a lot of jumps, assuming that the reader knows why two disparate ideas would connect instead of showing us step by step. On many occasions he also states that there are only two or three possible conclusions to a problem in an attempt to lead the reader to his conclusion, when there are many unstated reasonable alternatives. I don't think a general reader should read this book, but I do think it may be worth your time if your interested in the topics I mentioned at the beginning. It's only a little over one hundred pages, so if you can find a cheap copy like I did it can make for an entertaining evening.
February 8, 2024
(All books get 5 stars. Though this one would earn it anyway for sheer audacity.) I read this for a class on conspiracy theories and I really just…wow.
God is not supernatural, he’s a supertechnologist. Also an alien. A fascinating blend of blind faith in scripture and the personal accounts of ufo encounters and “scientific” explanation of miraculous events.
God is not supernatural, he’s a supertechnologist. Also an alien. A fascinating blend of blind faith in scripture and the personal accounts of ufo encounters and “scientific” explanation of miraculous events.
June 10, 2018
1st Read: January 6, 2014 - February 2, 2014 (** Rating)
It is hard for me to explain whether or not I had enjoyed this book. I have a relatively open mind to things, however, this book just seemed too far fetched to even consider. The last chapter is the one which held my interest the most, and enough to want to take some personal notes down to paper. Although, I didn't.
It is yet to be determined if I will remove it from or add it back into my collection of books. I will make that call when I read it again in the future.
2nd Read: April 8, 2018 - April 8, 2018 (** Rating)
It still seems too fantastical to me that any of this is even plausible. It doesn't hinder my belief and trust in God in any way that this book was written. It is the author's opinion and no one else's. I just don't buy it.
It is hard for me to explain whether or not I had enjoyed this book. I have a relatively open mind to things, however, this book just seemed too far fetched to even consider. The last chapter is the one which held my interest the most, and enough to want to take some personal notes down to paper. Although, I didn't.
It is yet to be determined if I will remove it from or add it back into my collection of books. I will make that call when I read it again in the future.
2nd Read: April 8, 2018 - April 8, 2018 (** Rating)
It still seems too fantastical to me that any of this is even plausible. It doesn't hinder my belief and trust in God in any way that this book was written. It is the author's opinion and no one else's. I just don't buy it.
May 12, 2011
First paperback book that I remember reading as a kid. Picked it back up to read all these years later. Seems like utter crap now. I still enjoy reading extreme cosmological theories, but the contortions required to make the Bible speak the author's language beg far too much suspension of disbelief.
October 20, 2014
an interesting book but I don't believe a word of it, sorry, possibly only of interest to fundamentalist atheists with mental problems.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews