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Disclosure Dud · Crisis Point

• 0:01
  Steven Spielberg's big budget movie Disclosure Day is a failed attempt to capture our fascination with aliens and the spiritual consequences their disclosure might bring. Hello, I'm Eric Simmons and welcome to Crisis.
• 0:26
  Foreign.
• 0:30
  So I know I don't normally do movie reviews on this podcast, and this isn't really a movie review per se. I mean, I will review the movie Disclosure Day a little bit, but I really want to talk about some issues surrounding it because it's been in the conversation, as they say, the cultural conversation, and particularly in the Catholic cultural conversation in the last few weeks. So I went to see Disclosure Day last night and I went into it expecting it not to be very good. I'd seen bad reviews for it, not from Catholics necessarily, but just movie reviewers that I like, that I listen to, and I tend to have the same views they have.
• 1:08
  They basically said it was a bad movie, wasn't very live problems, stuff like that. And so I went into it with my eyes wide open, so to speak.
• 1:17
  And so I wanted to talk though today about kind of my own thoughts about it. And now I admit I'm not a movie expert.
• 1:24
  I'm not like a viewer who's going to be able to talk about like the specifics of direction and lighting and all that stuff. I just like watching movies.
• 1:33
  I watch, you know, like everybody. I watch a number of movies and I like some and I don't like others. And also though this specific though type of movie, a science fiction movie about aliens, is one I've always enjoyed. I've always been interested in these stories. In fact, I even wrote one myself, Shard of Eden, which came out last year. If you haven't picked it up, just go to shardeven.com it has. It's a story about in the future, about artificial intelligence, but also about man's encounter with aliens. Spoiler.
• 2:09
  Okay, so and all speaking spoilers, this podcast is going to be have spoilers of Disclosure Day. So if you don't want to know kind of what happened during the movie, don't watch this episode until after you've seen the movie Disclosure Day. So I'll just start off by saying this wasn't the worst Steven Spielberg movie I've ever seen. In fact, about a week ago, my wife and I decided to watch AI Artificial Intelligence, which is a Steven Spielberg movie set in. It was released, I think about 25 or so years ago, right around turn of the century, I think they had the. The Twin Towers in one of the shots from New York, so it must have been before 9 11. But right around the late 90s, early 2000s, it came out.
• 2:49
  It was about a. A young. It's about a artificial intelligence robot that's set up as a young boy who's attached to his mother. Stuff like that.
• 2:59
  That seriously might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. It.
• 3:05
  My wife and I kept. It was so bad. Like, my wife and I, if we start watching a movie and we don't like it, we'll just turn it off. I mean, we're. You know, you're typically doing it for free. We. We rented. We borrow a DVD from the library, or we're using one of the free services like To Be or Pluto or something like that.
• 3:22
  AI Was so bad we had to keep watching it just to the entertainment value of how bad it was. It was the. It was one of the worst movies, like I said, I've ever seen. It might be the worst movie I've ever seen. And that's a Steven Spielberg movie.
• 3:37
  So. Disclosure Day was nowhere near this bad. I mean, AI Was like this weird movie that was like three movies in one. It started off with one feel, and then it just switched over to a completely different movie, then switched over to a third completely different movie with no connection between them, really.
• 3:53
  Okay, this isn't a movie review about A.I. but, boy, that movie was. I mean, I almost encourage people to watch it just for how horrendous it is.
• 4:01
  So, again, so I watched that movie a week ago. So I'm going into this Spielberg movie like, well, it can't be that bad. And it wasn't.
• 4:09
  It wasn't great. I mean, I'll say why it wasn't great here in a minute, but it wasn't awful either. I mean, because it's Spielberg movie. It had good directing. It was, you know, good acting, good production. You know, it's a. It's not a.
• 4:24
  Like a B movie or anything like that. It was, you know, and there was entertaining parts of it. There were definitely parts of it. Like, when you turn your brain off, you just sit there. You're not trying to think too deeply. Sure, there's entertaining aspects of the movie. It's not that bad, but, boy, I think the first thing I just have to say about it is what universe is Steven Spielberg living in?
• 4:51
  I mean, he's still stuck in the 1980s, I guess. I don't know. One of the major plot points. In fact, the whole thing kind of revolves around it. Obviously, it's about Disclosure Day, which is the idea of the.
• 5:04
  The disclosure of Aliens among us. This is like a thing in the real world that there's this disclosure that they're trying to push her alien like advocates or whatever people believe aliens have been here and they think the government's covering it up. They want all to be disclosed. And so that's what the whole point of disclosure day means is disclosing this to the world.
• 5:24
  But now think about in 2026, if you were like, okay, how could we disclose the existence of aliens among us? If it's the government's President Trump, maybe from the White House, from the Oval Office would have an alien there or something like that, or the body of an alien or some alien tech or something like that where he reveals it. That might be a way that you would disclose it that lots of people like, wow, they pay attention.
• 5:48
  And if it was done by people who were rogue elements like in this movie, maybe they would somehow get on Joe Rogan's show or something like that, create a website where they would talk about this and they would, they would reveal things or whatever the case may be.
• 6:05
  But In Steven Spielberg's 2026, they reveal it by going on a local news station and, and it's pretended in the show, in, in the movie that, that by revealing it at a local news station that's really going to, everybody's going to start watching it because it's going to be to the network feed. The network is then going to send it off to all the other networks because it's so important and like, oh my gosh, this is so important. We have. We're not going to try to keep it for ourselves. We want it was an NBC network. We're going to also let CNN have everybody else. And then everybody's going to believe it. And that's, I mean, kind of the scene everybody's watching and everybody's like believing it and just like it just, I mean it was comical. It was like hilarious to think that there's somebody who exists in, in, in our universe who thinks that's actually how things would, would happen.
• 6:57
  Here's the reality though.
• 6:59
  I don't know Steven Spielberg obviously personally, but he seems to be like just a typical Hollywood elite.
• 7:04
  And those people, they hate, they hate with a passion the rise of alternative media because it doesn't allow their narrative to have the only voice in the room. They hate the Joe Rogans. They hate the Tucker Carlson's. They hate, they hate X. They hate Elon, you know, making X something where you can, anybody can talk. They hate even a podcast like this where just any smoke with a camera can talk and give his opinions and people listen to it and might listen to it more than they would listen to Steven Spielberg. That's why they hate it.
• 7:38
  And so there's in, in disclosures day, there's nothing about like podcast or anything like that.
• 7:45
  And there's one line, just one line that I, that I remember at least about the possibly this could be AI but that's obviously be a huge deal if there was a vid, if somebody went on a Joe Rogan, let's say, and like showed videos of past examples of the government like covering up aliens or meeting aliens, whatever, which is what in the movie happen.
• 8:06
  You know, most people would be like, okay, you're gonna need more. I'm gonna need more than that. I'm not gonna believe it. Just because there's a, I mean there's actually a scene where this newscaster gets just shocked when all of a sudden the scene flips to an actual alien in, in an old footage. And it's like she had no idea this even existed two seconds before. And she immediately goes to, okay, now I'm gonna be shocked because I believe it, that it just. There's no way that would happen. No way the network would run the feed or any of that. So it's just so out of touch. It's just, it's hilarious in fact.
• 8:39
  Also, the movie itself had so many inconsistencies and implausibilities that it just.
• 8:46
  I get that in a movie you have to, you know, understand that everything is going to be perfectly like the real world and you have to suspend your, your, your, your mind a little bit, use your imagination. But boy, some things were so bad. I mean, for example, the one of the main characters is just a computer guy. He just is like a hacker hacker, but he works for a government agency as a computer expert. But yet he is able by himself basically to evade like special forces from the government multiple times in ways that are just hilarious. They're so bad. I mean just it, it boggles the, the mind to think that Spielberg, anybody thought this would be at all realistic. Because you want to make it at least a little bit realistic, even in an alien movie.
• 9:32
  Another big implausibility is the bad guys. You know, how they defeat the bad guys who are trying to keep them from disclosing this information by the bad guys just giving up. Bad guys try stop them multiple times, do all this stuff. And finally when, when they're not successful at the end, they don't try again.
• 9:48
  The Main bad guy just sits down and watches, like, okay, I'm defeated. And everybody else and all the other bad guys walk out. I mean, it just. That's hilarious. Also, there's a alien device in the movie that basically allows you to do whatever the plot demands, whatever the plot needs at that moment to further the plot. Then you just had the device do it. And so that was. That was hilarious. There was also one little thing that was, I thought was kind of funny only because, personally, I know what it was.
• 10:19
  At one point, one of the main characters is escaping from the bad guys and they're trying to track him. They realize he goes to Sykesville, Maryland, which is about an hour north of Washington, dc. I know this because I lived in Sykesville for two years, and then. Which I made me notice when they said Sykesville, like, wow, wow. And he goes, like, just outside of Sykesville, basically to this safe house.
• 10:41
  But then after the safe house, he's escaping in a car and he gets to some area which is kind of looks almost like a desert type area, and there's a big cliff that the car goes over and it's like these rocky areas.
• 10:54
  Okay, I've lived in Sykesville. It's in Maryland. There is nothing like that geography anywhere near there. There's nothing like that, which I know most people don't care about and I don't usually care about. When I watch a movie, I'm not really tracking it that much, but that does give, like, the geography problem, the implausibility. This. The. The other main characters in Kansas City, and then the one main character is in D.C. and somehow all within 24 hours, they meet up in, I think, Indiana or Missouri, then they go back to Kansas City, and it's like, all within 24 hours. It's just unrealistic that they could even do all of this in that short of a time. But anyway, the plot demanded it, so it happened now also. Okay, so that's kind of just as a movie, like, not even as a Catholic, just as a movie. It just didn't work in a lot of ways.
• 11:41
  However, I also want to note that it had some real cringy spiritual aspects. Now, I will give Spielberg credit.
• 11:48
  One of the things that drives me crazy about movies is how they just eliminate the spiritual life from the world that they're creating. You'll see this, for example, in disaster movies where something awful happens and, like, you know, aliens come or whatever the case may be, where a nuclear bomb is exploded or army invades, whatever, a big natural disaster.
• 12:11
  And you never See anybody in the movie praying when that happens? Never see anybody asking God for help or anything like that. Yet we know. And I know this because I remember after 911 what was the main reaction of so many Americans? It was a spiritual reaction. In fact, I remember going to mass, a noon mass on Friday that, you know, so that would be three days after 9 11, which was on a Tuesday.
• 12:35
  And they have special mass, basically praying for our country. This is just a noon mass on a Friday. It's a regular suburban parish near where I worked and is right outside Washington D.C. this is when I was living in Sykesville. No, I wasn't living in Sykesville at this point. I was living in Gaithersburg. But anyway, but the place was packed. The mass was just packed and everybody and all the churches were packed because. Because the President had asked, you know, for. For prayers and stuff like that. And it was just absolutely packed at this parish. And it was a huge parish. It just. I mean, standing room only was there. That's how we actually react to these situations.
• 13:12
  And most movies never show that. They just act like the spiritual world doesn't even exist. I will give Spielberg credit. He did not do this in this movie. He did not do that in this movie. He made sure that the spiritual dimension was at least addressed. Now he did it in a super cringy way most of the time, but what do you expect from like a guy. I think he's an atheist. I'm not 100 sure.
• 13:33
  They did have one character actually, a mother superior of a convent. One of the. The girlfriend of one of the main characters. She used to be a nun.
• 13:42
  The Mother Spirit was actually fine. She actually was good for a Hollywood movie. She was great. She was excellent. I mean, sure, we can quibble with this or that she might have said, but honestly, from the perspective of Hollywood trying to. To write a Mother Superior of a convent, this was like, excellent. She did a very good job of being. She was like, first of all, she wasn't crazy. She was calm. She was like a Mother superior would be. Yeah. I mean, she let the. The boyfriend like stay in the same room as the girl in the convent one night. Which that wouldn't happen, but okay. Aside from that, remember how often religious figures, especially Catholic figures in movies, how they are depicted. How often are depicted as. As fringe and crazy and. And evil. Evil and all that. This was the main religious character in the movie. I mean, she wasn't in a lot, but you know, she had the con, the. The habit on things like that.
• 14:35
  And she was the voice of reason, and she was a calm presence and she was helpful.
• 14:41
  And at one point, she. She kind of helps one, the girlfriend of the main character to reconcile certain things that she was struggling with. So I thought that was. I thought that was. That was well done. There was also, though, a scene where when this one, the woman who's the main character, Emily Blunt, I think the. The actor's name is.
• 15:00
  When she kind of has a scene where she is like, revealed as somebody who the aliens have. Have revealed themselves to her, and she has these powers type of thing. One woman actually kneels in front of her, makes the sign of the cross and goes kiss her hand. And the lady is like, no, don't. Don't like worship me or something like that.
• 15:21
  That makes no sense. Why would you make the sign of the cross when you're literally rejecting that religion in that situation? It. It was weird. It was just a kind of. And I. I know what it is. It's Hollywood. It has to be visual. It's a movie. And what are you gonna do? Just have them kneel? That doesn't say enough. You have to make. Have them make a religious action. And the sign of the cross is the most noticeable religious quick action we have that. Everybody understands that it's a religious action.
• 15:48
  So I get that it's still stupid, still cringy. And then there's a point where the girlfriend's talking to the main character about, like, how it would affect people who believe in God and stuff like that. It just was cringe. It just. I can't even remember exactly everything she said because it was so dumb.
• 16:05
  But you know, that that's expected.
• 16:08
  Another thing I would have about the movie, this kind of goes back to something that's not really religious. I want to talk about some more spiritual aspects of movie. And second is, and I forgot to mention, this is the movie is called Disclosure Day.
• 16:19
  It's called Disclosure Day. So you would think, what is the movie about?
• 16:23
  About the day of disclosure and what would happen if it was disclosed aliens were among us.
• 16:30
  However, the movie's really about the lead up to Disclosure Day.
• 16:34
  It's literally the last five minutes of the movie. I think there are. That are actual disclosure, maybe 10 minutes of the movie that are the actual disclosure of aliens. And you don't really see any reaction from people other than them just having their mouths wide open, looking at their phones, watching it and stuff like that have to say to us or anything like that. That's. That's left hanging. So that just is A.
• 16:57
  A dumb thing. But I do get why Spielberg did this, because that'd be a much tougher movie to pull off. There wouldn't be necessarily as many action scenes, and you'd have more deep discussions dial. You know, this kind of philosophical and theological discussions that would be happening wouldn't necessarily make a great movie. But all more importantly, Spielberg would just fumble with that considerably. Instead, you make it an action movie, which is really what it was leading up to the day of disclosure. But it does kind of raise the questions, how would people react if it came out that aliens were among us? How would people react? I think there'd be a number of different reactions. First, I do think there'd be a segment of population that simply would refuse to believe it, no matter how much evidence was shown. They just simply would say, no, aliens are not possible. Or I don't trust the authorities who are saying this, or they're. Whatever the case may be, they simply would say, this is not actually. Maybe they'd say it's demons or something like that. I do think there'd be a. I don't think that'd be the largest segment, but I do think there'd be a vocal minority who would think that maybe 5% of the population, something like that, I do think also would shake the faith, the religious faith of many people of different religions. I don't think it should if you're Catholic, but I could see it definitely affecting even Catholics, but others, just because they've constructed a religion that it would not necessarily fit into. And so I could see that definitely shaking the faith of a decent proportion of people.
• 18:30
  I also think there would be a religious element in the sense that people would start to.
• 18:36
  Would create a religion around these aliens. I mean, we have religions already around fake aliens. I mean, like the Scientology or something like that that are very popular. So I don't think it's unreasonable to say if we had real aliens, especially if they had abilities, powers, technology, whatever that was far beyond ours, I could definitely see a religion being created for their worship, their service, things like that. No question. Obviously, a lot of this depends on how the aliens, if they're peaceful aliens, if they're attacking us, whatever. That. That would depend.
• 19:07
  But here's something I don't think would happen, which is what is in most movies, and you kind of implied in this movie, the Disclosure Day movie.
• 19:17
  I don't think all of a sudden we would come together as a people of the world and say, okay, we shouldn't worry about our pro. We. We shouldn't worry about our. Our fights. Well, what are we doing here? We're all one big human race. And now we see we're not alone in the universe and we're all going to come together and sing Kumbaya.
• 19:35
  That's kind of the Star Trek. I love Star Trek, but that's kind of what Star Trek did it. The Star Trek universe. It's like when they first discover there's aliens, the Vulcans, all of a sudden, like, almost immediately all the problems of the world get solved.
• 19:48
  And so I just don't think that would happen because we're fallen human beings and we're going to keep fighting. We're going to keep fighting. In fact, I think the world wouldn't be that changed fundamentally if aliens were among us now. Like I said, it does depend somewhat. If they came and attacked us and destroyed our, you know, our cities, stuff like that, that would obviously be a big difference. But let's just say they just came, said, hey, we just want you to know we exist.
• 20:12
  Here's some technology. And just, you know, that's it. I mean, they didn't really say much more than that. We. Maybe we'll live among you. Something like that. I think we'd adapt and just things would go on as normal, maybe better technology. And there would be, you know, like I said, there's some segments that would have certain reactions, but within like 10 to 15 years, it wouldn't have as big of impact as people think it would.
• 20:32
  Now, go back to the movie, though.
• 20:35
  There are. There are some things about it that are disturbing. Like more than just. It's a cringe movie, cringe spirituality, dumb plot, stuff like that at times.
• 20:46
  And I think the main thing is, by far this is the thing that I would say is the most disturbing. And that is the main characters, the two main characters, the man and the woman, they're essentially. Especially the woman, are essentially possessed by aliens. The woman in particular, it's shown that she has these powers, these abilities that she has no idea where they come from. And it's implied. It doesn't really. I don't know if it's. I can't remember. I just watched it, you know, last night. I didn't have a chance. It was in the movie theater. Couldn't like pause or anything like that or go back.
• 21:16
  I think it's just implied, not stated, that she's basically. The aliens are kind of in control of her and kind of working through her.
• 21:24
  This is a very spiritually dangerous concept. And in fact, in the UFO movement Today, the real life one, there are, there are people who act like, who basically claim to be possessed by aliens and work to be possessed by aliens.
• 21:38
  You do not ever want to be possessed by any entity, whether it's real or fake, because demons will use that to their advantage and they will possess you. Actual demons. And so I would, I would even say that a lot of the people who say they're possessed by aliens or have been possessed, that, that's demonic activity, no question about it. And so the fact that they made this kind of like a normal thing like it. And nobody really seemed, I mean, people didn't, you know, kind of freaked out about the fact that this lady's doing things under the possession of aliens. But really, that is definitely bad mojo. That's, that's awful. You, you don't want anything to do with, with being possessed. I also think it's interesting in this movie that the assumption again, and you'll see this in almost every science fiction book, TV show, movie about aliens, is that M.O. that the aliens, they end up, their existence ends up verifying the materialistic and the science and the atheistic views of the creator of the science fiction work. I mean, what a shock that these aliens come and their message is we just need to have more empathy. I mean, I just saw a clip the other day of some Hollywood actor, I can't remember his name, talking about the right wing doesn't have empathy. And I can't believe they don't have any empathy for people. And I have empathy because I am liberal, and so I have empathy. So, so big shock that these aliens come and their message is basically, you need to have empathy, and that's gonna, that's gonna solve all our problems and we just have empathy. Then, then the world will be a better place.
• 23:23
  And so, and also it's like, and why is it that the existence of aliens, if they came, why would it necessarily shake the faith of Catholics or Christians, you know, and they, they never mentioned they shake the faith of Muslims, I noticed.
• 23:37
  But like, why would, why wouldn't it be possible an existence of aliens would shake the faith of atheists?
• 23:45
  Because what if the aliens themselves believed in God and they're like, of course God exists. What are you crazy?
• 23:52
  Another plug. If you want a science fiction story that doesn't assume that the existence of aliens would mean that all of a sudden we're all atheist.
• 24:04
  My book, Shard of Eden. I'll put a link in the Show Notes Eric's ShardofEden.com Just go to Chartobean.com I'll put a link, show notes. But I, I, I go delve into this a lot, this whole idea that we're talking about here.
• 24:17
  And so I just think that we just have to recognize that there is propaganda involved in this. And the truth is, okay, let's be honest, I'm doing the same thing with my book. In the sense that you write what you know, you write what you believe, you're not going to write a fictional story that completely contradicts everything you believe. It just makes no sense. So I do the same thing, but at the same time, we just need to recognize that because it's the assumption among many people that aliens, if they came, if there were aliens and they came, it would somehow verify all the atheists, all the materialists, all the like, science, scientists, scientism, believers in scientism, not scientists, but scientism.
• 25:01
  And somehow it would question or even reject religious views. I mean, again, Star Trek, that's what it does. I mean, religion goes away after the, after they find out there's aliens, which is just stupid to think about.
• 25:15
  Now, I do want, though, as my last thing to address here, about, about disclosure day and the hype around it and everything around it, that is.
• 25:25
  Here's the thing.
• 25:27
  This movie is not contrary to what certain Catholics will tell you, Catholic podcasters and others.
• 25:36
  It's not part of some great deception.
• 25:39
  I'm sorry, it's just not. In fact, I would argue, as it's being presented, there is no such thing as a great deception. Now there's the great deception in the sense of Satan is a roaring, lying lion, you know, around the world, prowling around the world, seeking souls to devour. There is the great deception since that Satan himself has been working to say to turn people away from God, to have souls lost to God. He has been working for, you know, his whole existence on that. So, and he does it. He's the father of lies. And so in that sense, yes, there is this great deception going on, but, but it has gone on since the fall of Adam and Eve. But there is no great deception going on right now that's somehow special and unique to our time. I'm sorry, it just isn't true.
• 26:32
  Now, I'm not saying there isn't some coordination, for example, between different forces in the world. So, for example, the government, I wouldn't be surprised if they do try to use Hollywood at times to foster certain narratives. I'm sure they do. And Hollywood is going to use certain things that the government does to to promote their movies and think like, I mean, the whole thing with Spielberg doing a movie on disclosure day right now isn't some grand conspiracy to set up a brand new religion. You know what it is? It's Spielberg putting his finger to the wind, recognizing the zeitgeist, and saying, you know something, a movie about the disclosure, aliens that could sell, that could be successful. People are talking about this. People are interested in it. That could sell. I mean, he knows it would could, because Close Encounters of the Third Kind did great. ET did great. I mean, his movies about aliens, they usually sell very well.
• 27:26
  And so why not make another one? And how. And like, he's not a dummy. He understands that the disclosure, the whole disclosure phenomenon is a big one right now. So let's take advantage of that and make a big budget movie about it.
• 27:39
  But again, it doesn't mean there's a great deception to try to get people to join some false religion now that somehow didn't exist before.
• 27:48
  And I. And you might say, well, what does it hurt if you do think it's a great deception? I think it's actually spiritually dangerous. I think it's spiritually dangerous to talk about some great deception going on right now that is somehow different from just the regular deception. The devil has been been fostering on us for, like I said, all of his existence.
• 28:10
  And the reason is this.
• 28:12
  Here's the thing. The spiritual life is boring.
• 28:16
  The spiritual life, properly understood and properly practiced, is boring. I don't actually mean it's boring in the sense that it actually can bring you much peace and all this stuff. What I mean by that is, from the outside, you can't make a movie.
• 28:30
  You can't promote a podcast either on the spiritual life. Like, I remember there was a movie made about Saint Therese of Lesoux years ago, and I was just like, oh my gosh, that's a mistake. Saint Therese Lesotho is one of my favorite saints. I love her to death, but her life would not make a good movie. I'm sorry, it just wouldn't. A good movie needs, like lots of action and things like that. It just wouldn't.
• 28:54
  And so the problem though is that's what the spiritual life is really like. You know what the spiritual life is? It's getting up in the morning and saying your prayers.
• 29:01
  It's doing your, your duties in your state of light life. It's going to mass regularly, it's going to confession regularly. It's trying to avoid sin daily, just on a daily basis. It's practicing acts of charity with, to other people. It's, it's being there for your kids, it's being there for your wife, stuff like that. That's the spiritual life.
• 29:22
  And the devil wants you more than anything else. He wants to disrupt and destroy that life.
• 29:30
  And so if he can get you to think there's a great deception going on, oh my gosh, look at what's happening. We have Hollywood doing this, we have the government doing this. We have these forces, these unseen and unnamed and nebulous forces all over the world trying to destroy the world and create a great new religion that's going to send people, you know, to, to apostasy and hell, stuff like that.
• 29:53
  And yet, and you get consumed by that. But you're not just doing the daily stuff and it's distracting you from the daily stuff that you need to do to be holy. Well, that's his deception. That's the devil's deception.
• 30:06
  The, the reality is, let me just put it to you bluntly, you're not that important.
• 30:13
  I'm not that important.
• 30:15
  We are simply links in a chain dating back, you know, centuries.
• 30:19
  And it basically is, we're just, our job is we've received the faith from those before us, whether from our parents or from, if we're converts from outside people. Whatever, we received the faith, we need to live it and then we need to pass it on. That's it. That's the spiritual life. Anything that distracts you from that is a great deception. Is a great deception from the devil. We're not living in some grand time.
• 30:46
  Yes, I do think we're in a crisis that's particularly acute compared to other times. I don't doubt that. I don't. I mean, in fact, I've said that many times.
• 30:55
  But we're not living in the, I mean we're not living in the end times where all of a sudden tomorrow Jesus is coming back. I, obviously it's possible, we don't know when it's going to happen, but the likelihood is extremely small to the point that if you're consumed by that, if you're, if you're obsessed by that, it's going to be dangerous for you. It distracts you from the day to day.
• 31:17
  And so this disclosure day, the movie, it's a mid movie made by a well known director that's trying to take advantage of a cultural phenomenon. That's all it is. It's, it's not that great a movie. It does have some, some messages in it that aren't very good. But that's every Hollywood movie, just about. It's not more dangerous, though, than like just the average. In fact, it's a lot less dangerous than most movies, I would say.
• 31:43
  I mean, if it's got a movie with pornography in it, immorality, stuff like that, or, or real degradation of human dignity all over the place, that's actually more dangerous than this movie's gonna be. I mean, I'm not recommending you go see it. I mean, don't see it if you don't want to. I'm not recommending you you not see it or, or if you see it, I mean, I don't care. But it's just not some part of some great deception.
• 32:06
  And here's the thing.
• 32:09
  I know if I had, if I had done an episode on Disclosure Day as part of a great deception or made it some big deal like, oh my gosh, this, aliens are demons and they're coming after you and all that stuff, I know I would get five times as many views on this episode than I will get. I, I mean, I could guarantee it if I did that. If I had a thumbnail that talked about how this is the work of the Antichrist and, and all this stuff, you're going to get more views.
• 32:35
  Again, that's spiritually dangerous. So to be chasing after clicks. But by being boring and saying we're not part of some great deception, we're just links in a chain that we're not living in some grand time, it just doesn't sell as well. I know that it doesn't reach out as many people.
• 32:50
  And just to be clear on something, and I think I've already said it in this podcast, but I know I've said before, I do believe there's demonic influences in the ufo, kind of alien movement, and I do believe it can be very dangerous and you have to be careful.
• 33:05
  I just don't think this idea that if somebody thinks aliens are kind of cool and maybe they exist, that all of a sudden that's some spiritual harm to that. That's ridiculous. And that any mention of aliens is part of some grand deception in order to lead souls to hell. I'm sorry, that's just not the case. I mean, it just. If you understand, I mean, Padre Pio didn't think that, and he knows more about spiritual life than most of us. And so I just think we need to recognize, I think we need to be just less over the top in our, in our discussions about this, be more reasonable, understand what the real dangers are, but not overhype it so that we get obsessed by it, which is also a harm. Remember, the devil will use any way he can to deceive you. He will do it through. He will do it through grand gestures sometimes, like through the works of great men, through kings and rulers and nations.
• 33:59
  But he also will do it by getting you caught up in all of that and thinking that's everywhere. That every, every time you turn around, you know this paranoid idea that there's some great movement that's trying to destroy the world that's unique to today.
• 34:14
  He's also can get you that way too. So, yeah, is my advice boring? Yeah, sure is my advice. You know, not as exciting as some might be. Won't get your, your cortisol levels up as high. Yeah, I know that's true. But what matters ultimately is our salvation. And living the spiritual life, like I said, is just doing your duties every day. That's what it consists of more than anything. So if you want to watch the movie, go ahead and watch the movie. If you don't want to watch a movie, that's fine too. It's like I said, a mid movie at best. It's got some real big glaring holes in it.
• 34:48
  It's got some, you know, it's got some decent aspects to it as well. But ultimately it's not the end of the world. It's not like the greatest movie ever made or the most dangerous movie ever made or anything like that. So. Okay, I think I'm gonna wrap it up there Again, like I said, if you want a good science fiction story that is catholic in its ethos, Shard of eden, just go. Shardofeden.com until next time, everybody. God love you. And remember the poor.