Raëlian cosmology is a cosmology proposed in 1973 by Raël

Raël

Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon is the founder and current leader of the UFO religion known as Raëlism....

, the founder of the International Raëlian

Raëlism

Raëlism is a UFO religion that was founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon, now known as Raël.The Raëlian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call the Elohim...

 Movement. This cosmology is similar to the Jain cosmology

Jain cosmology

Jain cosmology is the description of the shape and functioning of the physical and metaphysical Universe and its constituents according to Jainism, which includes the canonical Jain texts, commentaries and the writings of the Jain philosopher-monks...

 in that it proposes that the observable universe has no creator and is infinite in time and infinite in size and surrounded by infinite space.

However, in Raëlian cosmology, our observable universe is an "atom" of a much larger level of matter (and possibly organism). It is also stated in Raël's books that "atoms of our atoms", or subatomic particles in our bodies, also possess universes like our own, but on a much smaller scale. This pattern, atom within universe within atom, is believed to be infinitely repetitive, from the infinitely small, to the infinitely large. The Raëlian Messages by Raël

Raël

Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon is the founder and current leader of the UFO religion known as Raëlism....

 state that humanoid extraterrestrials, who were originally called under the name Elohim

Elohim

Elohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...

(singular: Eloha), verified this cosmology scientifically.

Beliefs

Raël says that, "Everything is in everything." Inside the atoms of living things, he says, are living things made of atoms which themselves have living things made of atoms, and so on, to the infinitely small. The universe itself is contained in an atom inside of another universe, and so on, to the infinitely large. Because of the difference of mass, the activity of life inside in a living thing's atoms would undergo many millennia before enough time passes for that living thing to take a single step. Raëlians believe the universe is infinite and thus lacks a center. Because of this, one could not imagine where an ethereal soul would go, due the universe's infinite nature. They believe that infinity exists in time as well as in space, for all levels of life.

Raëlians believe that humanity would be able to create life on other planets only if humanity is peaceful enough to stop war. In that case, humanity could travel the distances between stars and create life on another planet. Progress in terraforming

Terraforming

Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...

, molecular biology, and cloning would enable these teams to create continents and life from scratch. Progress in social engineering

Social engineering (political science)

Social engineering is a discipline in political science that refers to efforts to influence popular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, whether by governments or private groups. In the political arena, the counterpart of social engineering is political engineering.For various reasons,...

 would ensure that this creation would have a better chance of both surviving and having the potential to understand its creators. Research on how civilization would occur on another planet would allow scientists to decide what traces of their origin should be left behind so that their role in life creation would someday be revealed. The progress achieved by the science teams would ultimately sustain a perpetual chain of life.

Raëlians do not believe in reincarnation as dictated by mystical writings because they do not believe that an ethereal soul

Soul

A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...

 exists free of physical confinement. Instead the Raëlians think that advanced supercomputers of the Elohim are right now recording the memories and DNA of human beings. When Elohim release this information for the coming resurrection, people would be brought back from the dead and the judgments upon them would be realized based on actions in their past life. People excluded from physical recreation would include those who achieved nothing positive but were not evil. Claude Vorilhon expressed an interest in cloning Hitler for war trials and retroactive punishment. Raël also mentioned cloning as the solution to terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

 by suicide attacks, as the perpetrators would not be able to escape punishment by killing themselves if the Elohim recreated them after their attacks.

Relation with Sensual Meditation as promoted by the IRM

The official cosmology of the Raëlian Messages plays a role in a series of meditations described in the Raëlian book of Sensual Meditation. During these meditations, one is encouraged to establish a link between one's anatomical features and one's central nervous system. The Raëlian Sensual Meditation emphasizes the nuances and structure that exists in the human body and it emphasizes the Raëlian cosmology to encourage the meditator, after a controlled breathing exercise, to experience the inner planets, stars, galaxies, and people within his or her constituent particles down to the infinitely small. Following this, the meditator is encouraged to experience the greater universe, or the infinitely large that we are a part of, in accordance with the teachings contained within the Raëlian books. The meditator is encouraged to mediate the consciousness of the self between the infinitely small particles and the infinitely large particles. This part of Sensual Meditation may sometimes be followed by sensual physical contact between partners.

See also

• Jainism and non-creationism
  Jainism and non-creationism
  Jainism does not support belief in a creator deity. According to Jain doctrine, the universe and its constituents - soul, matter, space, time, and principles of motion have always existed . All the constituents and actions are governed by universal natural laws...
  
  
• Raëlian beliefs and practices
• Turtles all the way down
  Turtles all the way down
  "Turtles all the way down" is a jocular expression of the infinite regress problem in cosmology posed by the "unmoved mover" paradox. The phrase was popularized by Stephen Hawking in 1988. The "turtle" metaphor in the anecdote represents a popular notion of a "primitive cosmological myth", viz...
  
  

Cited texts

• Raël
  Raël
  Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon is the founder and current leader of the UFO religion known as Raëlism....
  
  , Intelligent Design: Message from the Designers. Nova Distribution, 2006. ISBN 2940252203. - The messages given to Raël published in 1973, 1975, and 1979.

External links

• FractalCosmology.com - a site on fractal cosmology (by Yun Pyo Jung, a particular Raëlian)
• What is the symbol of infinity? - a webpage from Maitreya.co.kr