The world's obsession with UFOs has been likened to a new religion.
The world's obsession with UFOs has been compared to a new religion
Theology experts claim that sightings of alien spacecraft rocket during times of trouble as humans hope to discover a better world.
Boffins claim that those who have close encounters with alien life feel better afterwards and often claim that their lives have been transformed by the experience.
Professor Diana Pasulka, from the University of North Carolina in the US, says that the public's desperation for a breakthrough in the hunt for alien life is "a new form of belief, a new form of religious belief, a new religiosity".
Meanwhile, it was recently claimed by religious scholars that aliens are actually "demons" sent by evil powers.
Theologists suggest that there are several parallels between UFO sightings and "demonic encounters" as they seek to explain to worshippers why there is no suggestion of alien existence in religious texts.