Griffin

Writer | Mere Christian

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@BuffaloByGodDan Overmountain men

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@corylav Are my ears clogged or is there something wrong with the speakers in the stadium

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@BishopBarron J.R.R. Tolkien’s patron saint, to those who are interested

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@MiddleearthMixr That's all that's on this site anymore

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@SithoDude @ChaiDeluxe The idea of anything other than “Pikachu” or “Pika” coming out of Pikachu’s mouth is just jarring, regardless of how anyone feels about Ryan Reynolds.

That said, a Danny DeVito Pikachu skit would be funny YouTube content. Idk about a movie

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@NavirBox @ChaiDeluxe

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

Introduce yourself with 10 bands you've seen live:
1. The Avett Brothers
2. Band of Horses
3. Gregory Alan Isakov
4. Mac DeMarco
5. Jungle
6. Vertical Horizon
7. Fleet Foxes
8. Lord Huron
9. The Black Keys
10. Trampled By Turtles

[Clint @thescrotch]

Introduce yourself with 10 bands you've seen live:
1. Pinback
2. Modest Mouse
3. Stone Temple Pilots
4. The Midnight
5. The Police
6. Rilo Kiley
7. Jimmy Eat World
8. Bon Iver
9. Broken Social Scene
10. ABC

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@thescrotch I'm incredibly jealous of Pinback and STP

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@REALDaveJoseph @BenSwann_ Agreed

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@AuronMacintyre Massie can run for president in 2028, but his expectations should be no higher than Ron Paul's in 2012.

Eventually, people have to realize that this problem is beyond voting it out.

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@chrbaxter_yt This made me miss my old dual sport

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

@samuel_costner That is not a natural formation, that’s for sure.

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

Well said.

I still find it bizarre that Vallée's Passport to Magonia is considered a seminal text in ufology, and yet people who are supposedly serious UFO researchers still scoff at religious interpretations of the phenomenon. I also find it incredibly telling that this animosity is almost always directed towards one specific religious tradition.

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

Jacques Vallée and John Keel, two of the most widely read ufologists of the twentieth century, both concluded that the thing we call the “UFO phenomenon” is both deceptive in nature and consistent with what ancient and medieval Christians identified as demonic beings (amongst other religious interpretations of spiritual entities), though neither Vallée nor Keel is/was a Christian. And, according to @dwpasulka, Vallée has an extensive collection of books on angels and demons, which he considers highly relevant to his research.

It should also be noted that Christians have been involved in ufology since at least the 1960s, though their analyses vary.

Furthermore, when contemporary Christians call UFOs or aliens “demons,” this is, in large part, due to the limited vocabulary - especially in the West - available to describe and label these beings. While I at least understand why the knee-jerk reaction to any mention of angels and demons exists in the secularized West, no one seems to complain about the same analysis (“these are nefarious spiritual beings, who are here to deceive”) if the perceived antiquated good guy/bad guy language is dropped.

The reality is, as @WesleyLHuff recently and correctly stated on the Shawn Ryan Show, that scripture, for the most part, only “whispers” about these matters. Much of the language needed to discuss the beings that populate the unseen world is either 1. not given in scripture, or 2. has been reduced to a sort of linguistic binary due to a loss of cultural and historical context and nuance in the process of translating these texts. (I will not get into the “demons are the departed souls of nephilim” argument here, but people can explore that further in @DRMSHPhD and @Muddamalle’s work, or with the dudes from @blurrycreatures.)

All of this to say, I think the response to the Christian claim that the UFO phenomenon is “demonic” needs to be met with a little bit more charity from the rest of the ufology community, especially when the Mount Rushmore of the field is effectively coming to similar results, though they would never use the same language. While I agree that the subject is a bit more nuanced than the vocabulary allows, it should be acknowledged that there are plenty of intelligent and well-meaning Christians interested in this subject who do great work. Many of them have a far more sober and grounded understanding of this subject than a lot of the New Age crowd. And yes, there are still plenty of Christians who prematurely label a whole host of things as demonic without understanding what it is they are condemning or what the word itself means. At least they are more open to the idea of an unseen reality than materialists, which is ultimately what many ufologists are attempting to bring to the public’s attention, isn't it?

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

Jacques Vallée and John Keel, two of the most widely read ufologists of the twentieth century, both concluded that the thing we call the “UFO phenomenon” is both deceptive in nature and consistent with what ancient and medieval Christians identified as demonic beings (amongst other religious interpretations of spiritual entities), though neither Vallée nor Keel is/was a Christian. And, according to @dwpasulka, Vallée has an extensive collection of books on angels and demons, which he considers highly relevant to his research.

It should also be noted that Christians have been involved in ufology since at least the 1960s, though their analyses vary.

Furthermore, when contemporary Christians call UFOs or aliens “demons,” this is, in large part, due to the limited vocabulary - especially in the West - available to describe and label these beings. While I at least understand why the knee-jerk reaction to any mention of angels and demons exists in the secularized West, no one seems to complain about the same analysis (“these are nefarious spiritual beings, who are here to deceive”) if the perceived antiquated good guy/bad guy language is dropped.

The reality is, as @WesleyLHuff recently and correctly stated on the Shawn Ryan Show, that scripture, for the most part, only “whispers” about these matters. Much of the language needed to discuss the beings that populate the unseen world is either 1. not given in scripture, or 2. has been reduced to a sort of linguistic binary due to a loss of cultural and historical context and nuance in the process of translating these texts. (I will not get into the “demons are the departed souls of nephilim” argument here, but people can explore that further in @DRMSHPhD and @Muddamalle’s work, or with the dudes from @blurrycreatures.)

All of this to say, I think the response to the Christian claim that the UFO phenomenon is “demonic” needs to be met with a little bit more charity from the rest of the ufology community, especially when the Mount Rushmore of the field is effectively coming to similar results, though they would never use the same language. While I agree that the subject is a bit more nuanced than the vocabulary allows, it should be acknowledged that there are plenty of intelligent and well-meaning Christians interested in this subject who do great work. Many of them have a far more sober and grounded understanding of this subject than a lot of the New Age crowd. And yes, there are still plenty of Christians who prematurely label a whole host of things as demonic without understanding what it is they are condemning or what the word itself means. At least they are more open to the idea of an unseen reality than materialists, which is ultimately what many ufologists are attempting to bring to the public’s attention, isn't it?

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

I think it's time to start writing again.

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

The baby is also pulling for the Habs, it seems.

[Griffin @griffindaughtry]

My upstairs neighbor, who has been an absolute nightmare to live beneath for the past year, is a Sabres fan. Aside from the stomping, woodworking (yeah…), and crying baby, I’ve never actually heard him vocally make noise until Buffalo made the playoffs.

So yeah, Go Habs…