Unknown flying objects that have recently been seen over the US and Canada have gotten everyone's attention. The topic of UFOs, which are thought to be means of transportation for aliens, has made international headlines. Considerations about whether there are any civilizations beyond our planet are nothing new. Not to mention that UFOs have already found fertile ground in literature and cinema.

Recent events made me think of a conversation I had with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the fall of 2011 in Kraków, Poland, where the 82nd Congress of the International Chess Federation was held. He was the president of Kalmykia from 1993 to 2005. Kalmykia is an autonomous republic in Russia that is on the Caspian Sea.

And he tried to convince me that chess is for humanity… a gift from outer space. He said that he had met aliens in 1998 and even claimed to have witnesses who could confirm his account. At the end of our conversation, he asked me if I believed in the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent beings. When I answered in the negative, he decided to corner me by asking if I believed in God. Hearing that I did, he decided that I was being inconsistent. He commented on my position with a grimace (I quote from memory): “Yet you don't believe in the existence of aliens…”.

The politician from Kalmykia is a type of post-Soviet quack, obviously loyal to the Kremlin. He was raised in the USSR. That was also when he started his public activity. His favourite book, he said, remained Nikolai Ostrovsky's socialist realist novel How The Steel Was Tempered. Pavel Korchagin, the main character, is a political activist who is deeply involved in shaping Soviet reality. For Ilyumzhinov, however, communism – like Christianity – is a thing of the past, as only chess, given to the people of Earth by aliens, is eternal.

Despite the eccentricity that characterises them, his views can be defined as the so-called scientific worldview. This option is not peculiar to the countries of the former USSR. In fact, it is the aftermath of the secularisation that first ploughed through the countries of the West. It is significant that the mass interest in unidentified flying objects that emerged after the Second World War spread around the globe.

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  In this situation, the thoughts of Father Seraphim Rose, an American Orthodox monk who died in 1982, are interesting. He came from a Methodist family. In his youth, he went through a crisis of faith in God. He was an atheist, treading various spiritual paths, and exploring Buddhism. Finally, he found a haven in Eastern Christianity. He joined the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (an émigré structure – independent of the Moscow Patriarchate until 2007). He was ordained as a monk and then as a priest there.

Father Rose has dealt with many issues, including those relating to UFOs. He treated stories of human contact with aliens as if they were parapsychology. He compared encounters with UFOs to mediumistic states. He interpreted them as spiritual experiences known since ancient times, but indicative of contact with supernatural evil (as in the case of possession) and not with aliens. He thus rejected the thesis of the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations.

So, from what Father Rose preached, we can conclude that having grown up under the dictatorship of state atheism, Ilyumzhinov was deceived by demons. Therefore, it is worth considering the spiritual condition of those who tell tales of having met aliens (let's not discuss the mental condition of these people, as that is another matter). The snag is that in a world with a suspicious attitude towards Christianity, such inquiries would violate the taboo that is the expression of scepticism towards all religions. If you currently believe that Satan exists, you must not expect to be taken seriously.

We can certainly disagree with Father Rose's way of thinking, especially if we take an Enlightenment-rationalist point of view. Nevertheless, despite his religious background, the monk's criticism of ‘ufology’ is inspiring and follows an interesting train of thought.

People have always been excited by things that have a connection with the unexplained. This inclination used to be linked to the search for the sacred. After all, both the Old Testament and the New Testament are full of stories about people expecting miracles from God.

It might seem that the changes that secularisation has brought about in human mentality have resulted in a complete disenchantment of the world. However, this has not happened. Under the thin cover of a so-called scientific worldview, conspiracy theories are still being spread in the 21st century. These include theories about the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations, which are also popular in the world's most developed societies. News outlets in the West thrive on the fact that their target audience is interested in unusual events, like when flying saucers show up in the sky.

These trends are at odds with Christianity. There is nothing in the teaching of the Catholic Church about having to see miracles in order to believe in God. Quite the opposite is true. After all, in the Gospel according to St John we read: Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.

But what does this mean? It means that the pursuit of something extraordinary – even mystical raptures – is neither the same as nor a substitute for the process of conversion. It can even lead people astray. This is why, today, Christianity, rather than the so-called scientific worldview, impregnates against "ufological" darkness. I suppose, therefore, that a person whose spiritual weapons are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is unlikely to meet aliens.

– Filip Memches

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and journalists

– Translated by Roberto Galea