Raelians

From dKosopedia

Category: Religion

The Raelians believe that an extraterrestrial communicated to Rael explaining that members of this extraterrestrial community, rather than God, is behind human origins and our religious traditions. As summary of the Raelian point of view, from the Raelians themselves, can be found here.

The Raelians claim 60,000 members are in 90 countries and have a particularly strong presence in Canada. From their website:

The messages dictated to Rael explain how life on Earth is not the result of random evolution, nor the work of a supernatural 'God'. It is a deliberate creation, using DNA,by a scientifically advanced people who made human beings literally "in their image" what one can call "scientific creationism". References to these scientists and their work, as well as to their symbol of infinity can be found in the ancient texts of many cultures. For example, in Genesis, the biblical account of creation, the word "Elohim" has been mistranslated as "God" in the singular, but it is a plural, which means "those who came from the sky".

Leaving our humanity to progress by itself, the Elohim nevertheless maintained contact with us via prophets including Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed, all specially chosen and educated by them. The role of the prophets was to progressively educate humanity through the messages they taught, each time adapted to the culture and level of understanding at the time. They were also to leave traces of the Elohim so that we would be able to recognise them as our creators and fellow human beings when we had advanced enough scientifically to understand them.

While Raelian beliefs have had a negligible impact on the larger society's worldview, they have been important in establishing the boundaries of the rights to freedom of religion in both the United States and Canada.