I'm convinced paranormal phenomena is part of a huge paradigm shift in religion.
The idea of all powerful gods is quickly being exposed as not a feasible idea in this age of science. Replacements, such as ET's, ancient aliens, etc. are slowly taking their place among otherwise agnostic people.
However, it's still religion: unprovable, unsubstantiated, etc. In keeping with our scientific age, though, people are encouraged to investigate to find answers, unlike our current religious fare.
With respect to sociology, I think "belief system" might be a more accurate term than I do "religion". A religion denotes an institution. A formal organization whose core identity is motivated by a sacred sense of mythology. It is unquestionable however, that a few esoteric religious cults have been crafted via the incorporation of certain specific aspects of what we consider to be contemporary paranormal subject matter. However, as in the case of "spiritualism", this has been ongoing now for many thousands of years. Such developmental representations will most likely always remain culturally relevant shards, amongst the larger religious seemingly whole glass pieces.
For instance, IMO, UFOs represent a huge paradigm shift in what is the culture and era specific deductive reasoning that serves to produce folkloric belief systems.
I am very grateful for your intelligent post here, because it serves to underline an extremely important human condition. Namely, the one in which anomalous environmental input stimulus trigger the human cognitive process of a memory relevant deductive response that serves to inform environmentally relevant creative output determinations. We literally experience day to day reality in parallel fashion by assessing our environment's accordingly, due to the process instinctively best serving our species' survival.
I personally think that most people equating UFOs with space ships bearing extremely advanced beings from other solar systems/planets are perceiving the phenomenon, and attempting to explain it as best they can, according to a reflection of the above described process. That doesn't mean they're wrong in terms of their explanation, however, it just as certainly doesn't mean that they're right either. Neither does it mean by any stretch of the imagination that this spacefaring explanation is the one that makes the most sense, or is in some way, shape, or form, the best expression of Occam's razor turned it's proverbial anomalous ear. Because of the high level of completely anomalous uncertainty, when we find those of a deductively reasoned specific iconic persuasion, they have adopted an anomaly inspired belief system.
This process truly does not parallel someone's choice of religion or their motives for seeking out the same. Nor does it parallel what is the described religious experience of a spiritual connection with a God of their choosing. Certainly religion is centered on the notion of belief, but if one is truly honest about the matter, brutally honest, so is just about every other philosophical and theoretical choice we make as human beings throughout the course of our lives.
Many great minds have contended that of all the qualities one must possess to best prosper in the sciences, there is none greater than that of faith.
