In recent months former Department of Defense employee Luis Elizondo, who ran the Pentagon’s UFO program, known as AATIP, or The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, has made comments pinpointing experiences where senior Department of Defense officials attempted to shut down further investigation into UFOs, or, as they have been rebranded in government circles, “unidentified aerial phenomenon”, simply for reasons that amount to a prejudice stemming from religious fundamentalism. And unfortunately, this is far from the first time such incidents have reportedly occurred.

As unnerving as it is that taxpayer-run programs are being started and stopped based merely on the biases of religious extremists placed deep within the hierarchy of our government, this perspective that seeks to draw conclusions even before finishing the task of gathering data, connecting dots that arise from that process, and considering various hypotheses, is actually common-place – not only within the hallowed halls of government – but within the greater American society as well.

In fact, this is one of the greatest challenges our society faces when – as will almost certainly be the case as increasingly clear revelations regarding the presence of a non-human intelligence in our midst emerge – we are forced to reckon with this reality as a nation and, speaking more generally, a civilization.

When one considers various reactions to the revelation that apparently non-human intelligences are in our midst, and perhaps have been for a very long time, one thing seems clear: the very same data points that lead some observers to conclude that we are being visited by an extraterrestrial alien race, lead others to believe we are falling prey to the actions of demonic entities whose only aim is to deceive and ultimately draw us away from the one true God.

One group ponders the implications for our human future when faced with the startlingly sophisticated technology of a more advanced biological race, while the other fears for the salvation – and thus the very eternal souls – of countless billions, as a result of what they consider “The Great Deception”.

How did we get here? How do people — living in the very same nation, and within the very same era of history — draw such starkly different conclusions when faced with the very same data-set? And what does this say for our ability — as a collective — to deal with this revelation in the months and years ahead in a positive, constructive way?

Of course, matters become even more convoluted and complicated when research suggests that – perhaps – the events that spawned the creation of the very religions that have evolved to become the dominant meaning-making structures for a majority of the world’s population, may very well have been initiated by the very same sophisticated, non-human intelligences that we are trying to grapple with based on the evidence of contemporary encounters. In that sense, the entire question — regarding what constitutes our notion of ultimate reality – may have come full circle.

Depending on your point of view, this unique situation can be seen as an opportunity for the greatest transformation in the history of human civilization, or the revelation that has the potential to collapse our society into utter chaos. And perhaps it is both.

What do these revelations say about who we are, where we come from, and where we’re going? And how will we, as a collective, divided and currently subscribed to very different belief systems, rise to the challenge? These are the intriguing and perplexing questions we’ll attempt to address in this, the 20th episode of the Point of Convergence podcast.