D.W. Pasulka, Christopher Bledsoe, and the Study of Religion

This is a fifteen minute excerpt from my live Becoming Human Academy course, "The Sacred World: An introduction to Religion." In the lecture, I explain why the academic study of religion is important, how it gives us a deep understanding of inclusiveness and ways of interpreting difference that give us compassion, sympathy, and insight. These are some of the great values of the academic study of religion, especially the way it gives us a new scientific approach to context. We need different understandings of the human, particularly of human context and meaning, which is what the scholarly study of religion provides.  In this excerpt, I give the example of a great scholar of religion, Diana Pasulka, who uses the unique skills of the scholarly study of religion to approach the big issue of technology and religion today, particularly in the case of UFOs. I also discuss how a book by a UFO experiencer, whom Pasulka writes about, gives examples of how the history of religion helps us understand contemporary phenomena in an exciting new way.  You are welcome to join the "The Sacred World: An introduction to Religion." You can register now, get the Zoom link, and you will have access to all the past lectures.  https://www.samuelloncar.com/courses/p/the-sacred-world-an-introduction-to-religion