#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:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Diana’s Website: https://uncw.edu/par/faculty/faculty-pasulka.html
American Cosmic (book): https://amzn.to/3aK2kaj

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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