Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts

by Craig S. Keener

That is, one cannot simply dismiss the value of the claims by saying that many people believe in space aliens (more respectably called extraterrestrial intelligence). Those who claim to have seen aliens or even UFOs are far fewer (cf. Prather, Miracles, 47). Although researchers estimated 3.7 million alien abductees from one survey, the number of actual claims is probably much lower, though plausibly “many thousands” (Appelle, Lynn, and Newman, “Experiences,” 255–56, esp. 256), whereas more than 80 million Christians alone claim to have witnessed healings in the same country. Alien abduction experiences fit altered state of consciousness experience, and much of the “evidence” derives from memories recalled through hypnosis, which can create or adapt “memories” (Walsh, Shamanism, 169; for comparison with shamans and their spirit guides in ASCs, see Mack, Abduction, 8, an often baffling work cited in Herrick, Mythologies, 187). Perhaps 22 percent of the U.S. population believes that space aliens have visited earth (Appelle, Lynn, and Newman, “Experiences,” 258), but even if most of this group also were among those believing in divine miracles (which is questionable; paranormal beliefs seem less common among the religiously committed [McClenon, Events, 21; cf. Greeley, Sociology, 15]), perhaps half the U.S. population (some 150 million people) would remain as believing in miracles who did not believe in space aliens. Lumping all unusual claims together (e.g., UFO experiences ...