Obama predicts ‘new religions’ could arise if proof of aliens discovered
‘It wouldn’t change my politics at all. Because my entire politics is premised on the fact that we are these tiny organisms on this little speck floating in the middle of space’
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Your support makes all the difference.Former President Barack Obama predicted that concrete evidence of alien life would fundamentally change global society in an interview published Tuesday with The New York Times.
Speaking with Ezra Klein on The Ezra Klein Show, the 44th president was confronted with a potential scenario in which humans had verified that alien life was probing the earth, but as of yet had no way of making contact with the mysterious beings.
Mr Obama replied that his overall political viewpoints would likely not differ, while predicting that many people around the world would see their own philosophies challenged and a whole host of new discussions would arise.
“It’s interesting. It wouldn’t change my politics at all. Because my entire politics is premised on the fact that we are these tiny organisms on this little speck floating in the middle of space,” said Mr Obama.
“But no doubt there would be immediate arguments about like, well, we need to spend a lot more money on weapons systems to defend ourselves. New religions would pop up,” the former president continued. “And who knows what kind of arguments we get into. We’re good at manufacturing arguments for each other.”
His remarks come ahead of the expected release of an unclassified report from the US Department of Defense detailing unexplained phenomena involving unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and American military personnel.
Former US Navy pilots have detailed a handful of such incidents in interviews over the past several months, including several who shared experiences with CBS News’s 60 Minutes in May.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki addressed the report’s release last month at a daily news briefing, telling reporters that the extent of the information to be released was up to the discretion of the Director of National Intelligence.
“[O]ur team at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is, of course, actively working on that report. And we take reports of incursions into our airspace by any aircraft identified or unidentified very seriously and investigate each one,” Mrs Psaki said.
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