#149 – Diana Walsh Pasulka: Aliens, Technology, Religion, and the Nature of Belief

Diana Walsh Pasulka is a professor of philosophy and religion at UNCW and author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, and Technology. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – LMNT: https://drinkLMNT.com/lex to get free shipping – Grammarly: https://grammarly.com/lex to get 20% off premium – Business Wars: https://wondery.com/business-wars/ – Cash App: https://cash.app/ and use code LexPodcast to get $10 EPISODE LINKS: Diana’s Website: https://uncw.edu/par/faculty/faculty-pasulka.html American Cosmic (book): https://amzn.to/3aK2kaj PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: – Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast – Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman – Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LexFridmanPage – Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) – Introduction (08:28) – What is real? (13:56) – Can beliefs become reality? (18:59) – Donald Hoffman (22:57) – Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (26:27) – Ayn Rand (33:25) – How do religions start? (48:38) – Religion is an evolutionary advantage (53:59) – Religion used in propaganda (58:32) – What did Nietzsche mean by “God is Dead”? (1:03:59) – American Cosmic (1:07:45) – What do aliens look like? (1:16:28) – History of space programs (1:19:30) – Jacques Vallee (1:28:55) – Artificial intelligence (1:34:25) – Ufology community (1:45:38) – Psychedelics (1:49:35) – Tic Tac UFO (1:58:09) – Roswell UFO incident (2:09:14) – Bob Lazar (2:12:50) – Monoliths in the desert (2:23:39) – Humans will co-evolve with AI (2:26:58) – Neuralink (2:31:48) – Singularity (2:41:39) – Books: Nietzsche (2:46:44) – Books: Hannah Arendt (2:51:43) – Fear of death (2:56:11) – Meaning of life