Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153021 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Customer Reviews

Intellectually Stimulating
Believe it or not, this book has given me a brand new appreciation of physics! It is a very well written book that explores the "UFO Phenomena" that so many Christians just want to pretend doesn't exist. It is a book that Christians and non-Christians alike can read to obtain a new perspective on this phenomena. I started it skeptically but finished it respecting the author's research, knowledge and willingness to look at the viewpoints of non-Christian and Christan researchers in this field, all the while retaining his integrity as a Christian and as an intelligent being. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in UFO's or the universe as a whole.

Great home library book... but where do I file it?
As I read previous reviews, I was bemused by the wide variety of ratings. When people disagree so vehemently about a book, it is almost always worth reading whether one agrees with the authors' conclusions or not.

About three years ago, a co-worker who knew I was a Christian asked if I believed in UFOs, and I gave her a theologically safe, non-committal answer. However, her question got me to investigate this phenomenon more seriously.

I now consider Alien Encounters to be a valuable addition to my research library. In addition to presenting compelling arguments for the reality of alien encounters, the authors present some interesting insights on some of the most confusing portions of the Bible.

This book explores some possible explanations to try to reconcile what appears to be strong evidence for extraterrestrial / supernatural encounters and Christian beliefs. Some of these theories are sure to be controversial.

If UFOlogy were the primary or only subject researched by these authors, I would be hesitant to recommend it. However, both have done outstanding research in other areas.

My only reservation about this book is that the authors try to tie together so many concepts at one time that there just isn't enough room to do most of them justice.

For instance, as presented in the book, credible arguments may be made for a slight shift in Earth's orbit around 700 BC. However, four astronomers wrote an entire book (The Long Day of Joshua and Other Biblical Catastrophes) developing the concept of an Earth-Mars orbital resonance. They recognized that this is an extraordinary claim. Carl Sagan once said, "I believe that the extraordinary should be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

Unfortunately, brevity required that much of the evidence for this and other concepts be heavily edited in order to fit everything into Alien Encounters. (The bibliography provides ample material for further research, however.)

Overall, though, I would heartily recommend Alien Encounters, especially to skeptics. Despite my own skepticism, I found myself over half way through the book before I first put it down. And while I'm still undecided about some of the conclusions presented, it at least convinced me that this is a topic which deserves more serious consideration.

A less than credible narrative
Mr. Missler and Mr. Eastmen have made a common mistake that a number of Christian authors make in regard to UFO sightings: taking everything on face value without careful research. As a Christian I believe that end time events will be terrible and will involve the whole world. I will also concede that UFO and UFO related deceptions may occur. But I try to be careful and not allow false reports and outright hoaxes to become part of my belief system. This book presents a very interesting analysis of the potential for UFO related events being part of the end time deception of the human race prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ. This may well be a very distinct possibility. The authors arguments however loose a considerable amount of credibilty when they include any testimony from George Adamski or George Van Tassel. In the 1950's George Adamski went around the country telling of his journeys around the solar system in a spaceship from Venus. He described conditions on Venus as being much like the tropical areas of Earth. This was believed possible with the understanding of what Venus was like in 1950. We now know that Venus is not capable of sustaining any type of life as we know it so Mr Adamski could never have walked around on the surface. Mr Adamski was also caught faking an 8mm movie depicting one of his flying saucers with bore a remarkable resemblance to a Sears and Roebuck company chicken brooder. I can recommend the book for a home library because it does contain some very valid observations about the gullibility of current American culture stemming from a lack of spiritual roots.