OPINION:
Not long ago, many would have scoffed at claims of extraterrestrials, alien abductions and UFOs. At the very least, these topics were considered fringe. Yet, as I learned while working on my new film, “Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons,” a massive shift has turned the majority of Americans into believers.
In the 1950s, polling reportedly showed just 25% of the populationbelieved so-called flying saucers were evidence of alien life. But by 2021, this proportion jumped wildly, with 65% telling the Pew Research Center “their best guess is that intelligent life exists on other planets.”
Gallupfound during the same year that 51% of the public believed UFOs reportedly seen by military members “are likely evidence of intelligent life outside Earth.”
And the statistics keep ticking up. Just consider aYouGov survey from November 2025 that found 56% of Americans believe aliens “definitely or probably exist.” And a smaller percentage — 30% — believe UFOs are “probably alien ships or life forms,” with 45% stating these sightings are explained by something else.
So what’s driving this radical shift? On one end, there’s a pop culture obsession with aliens that spans decades. From the “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” franchises to “the X Files” and multitudes of other sci-fi projects, there’s no shortage of UFO and alien-themed entertainment. At the very least, this has likely primed people to more readily accept the concept.
Mix that with the fact that people consistently report seeing UFOs and experiencing other inexplicable happenings. Plus, there’s also another dynamic: the U.S. government has been increasingly vocal on this topic (officials tend to dub UFOs as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs).
Former President Barack Obamasparked a firestorm last month when he said aliens were “real” but later clarified he didn’t see any evidence while serving in the White House. Meanwhile, President Trump isplanning to release government files on UAPs and extraterrestrial life, with the Trump administration recently registeringaliens.gov as a domain.
Now that it’s such a mainstream discussion, people might find themselves forced into a corner on the topic — and this is particularly true of Christians, who are less likely to believe in alien life. With so many people talking about the topic, Christians must be prepared with answers and talking points.
In fact, it’s a topic we cover in the Christian Broadcasting Network’s new film, “Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons,” a documentary I host and produced that explores not only UAPs but also real-life stories surrounding claims of angel and demon encounters.
Interestingly, Christian theologians have another theory about alien life: perhaps these are spiritual and not physical apparitions and beings. Rather than actual aliens, many Bible scholars would argue these apparitions are a demonic deception.
Instead of an overtly created alien class, some believe sightings are basically the demonic realm seeking to confuse and confound humans. As strange as this might sound, nearly half of Americans also believe demons exist, adding intrigue to the mix.
In “Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons,” we sat down with astrophysicist Hugh Ross, who offered up intriguing evidence to back his belief in the demonic deception theory. Among other elements, he said claims of UFOs never seem to coincide with physical and scientific evidence that would corroborate material entities visiting Earth.
“In these thousands of cases, not only do the observers see it go through the atmosphere, it crashes into the earth,” he said. “You go to the crash site; we see a shallow crater. If there’s snow, the snow is melted. Consistently, the vegetation is damaged in a way that looks like some kind of radiation phenomena. But as you look at the crater site, there’s no debris. There’s no artifacts. That’s missing in all these cases.
“The fact that we see no physical evidence tells us we’re dealing with something that’s got powers beyond our laws of physics and space-time dimensions.”
He also noted something else: People who claim to have encountered aliens almost exclusively report facing “harm” as a result.
“Then the deception — the fact that there are cases of close encounters of the third kind where they’re put into a trance and they get a message from these beings,” Mr. Ross said.
This, of course, is just one theory, but it’s a compelling one. The Bible certainly speaks about angels, demons and a spiritual realm beyond our own. In fact, Ephesians 6 frames the human struggle as being fought against “the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).
So, are aliens real — or is the demonic realm deceiving human beings? We tackle this and more in “Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons.”
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Mr. Hallowell is also the author of four books.
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