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DATE OF ARTICLE: April 22, 1989
SOURCE OF ARTICLE: Post
LOCATION: Palm Beach, Florida
BYLINE: George W. Cornell ========================================================
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PASTOR: UFOS COULD ESTABLISH SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR BIBLICAL
EVENTS

By George W. Cornell
The Associated Press

Credit: B. Pratt

NEW YORK--Smile indulgently about it if so inclined. That's
OK with the Rev. Barry H. Downing. But he firmly maintains that
UFOs are real and that they have key religious significance.
He says recognizing the existence and operations of these
unidentified flying objects could do much to strengthen faith and
renew confidence in biblical accounts.
"It would establish scientific plausibility for the whole
biblical field," he says. "It would reinforce faith and make it
possible in a scientific context."

THE GOVERNMENT'S EFFECT
Downing, a Presbyterian pastor with a scientific bent, says
government equivocation has caused skepticism about UFOs and so
he expects some scoffing at his views.
"You have to have a good humor about it," he said in an
interview. "I can't prove I'm right, but there's lots of
evidence for it, and until it wins out, some people are just
going to have to laugh."
He theorizes that activities of UFO borne "higher beings" or
"angels," likely from another dimension rather than other
planets, are indicated in biblical events ranging from guiding
the Israelites from Egypt to Christ's ascension.

A MIDDLE GROUND
He said postulating such activities in forming biblical
faith would open a middle ground between fundamentalist
literalism and liberal theology's "demythologizing" of
supernatural events as only symbolic.
"It would cut down the distance between liberals and fundamentalists, and serve as a mediating force between the two
extremes," he said.
"The mythological concepts would have to be reexamined,
which would be important for the liberal wing. The conservative
wing, which stresses certainty and wants everything locked up
tight, also would be impacted.
"This would mean unlocking things."

DETAILING HIS IDEAS
Downing, 50, an Endwell, N.Y., pastor, has a bachelor's
degree in physics and, after having completed studies at
Princeton Theological Seminary, got a doctorate at the University
of Edinburgh in Scotland on relations between science and
religion.
He details his ideas about UFOs and about eternity as a
coexisting universe, based on Einstein's relativity theory, in a
new paperback edition of his book, The Bible and Flying Saucers,
issued by Berkely Books.
"What is clear through the biblical material is that God's
will for the Jews, and eventually for all mankind, was 'revealed'
by beings from another world," he writes.
"Usually these beings looked very much like ordinary human
beings (they almost never have wings)...Once the 'package' of
biblical religion had been delivered, man became responsible for
the distribution of the contents..."

BIBLICAL INCIDENTS
Downing said a hovering, UFO like "cloud" by day, and
glowing "pillar of fire" by night guided the Israelites out of
Egypt, projecting some propulsive force that parted the Red Sea,
leading them for years across the desert.
Other events he sees as carried out by UFOs include:
The firelike phenomenon on Mount Sinai in which Moses
received the Ten Commandments, the Prophet Elijah taken to heaven
in a fiery chariot, the star of Bethlehem, the engulfing light of
Jesus' transfiguration, his being "lifted up" at his ascension
and the blinding visitation of Paul en route to Damascus.
"All these were UFO types of reports," Downing said.

GOVERNMENT 'COVER UP'
Downing, pastor for 22 years of Endwell's Northminster
Presbyterian Church, also is theological consultant to the Mutual
UFO Network, based in Seguin, Texas, and Fund for UFO Research,
based in Washington.
Recalling a 1969 government commission finding that Air
Force observations offered "insufficient evidence" to
substantiate UFOs, Downing said the government was "covering up"
and the full report never was released.
He displayed a 1975 letter from then Sen. Barry Goldwater,
R-Ariz., saying the material was being withheld as "above Top
Secret."
"If the government weren't lying in denying UFOs exist, we'd
have had a religious revolution starting 40 years ago," Downing
said. "It would not mean undermining biblical faith, but reinterpreting it in light of UFO phenomena."

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