Today is Halloween. While I resolutely avoid anything that smells like evil—demons, mediums, and the like—I’ve always enjoyed the idea of firing up my imagination and dressing up as something fun and interesting.

Past costumes have included Pete and I as two frogs from the plague in Exodus 8), me as an aspen tree infected with Cytospora (a scary costume for a master gardener Halloween party), and our interpretation (see Pete, left) of the Y2K bug (remember those from 1999?)

Last summer Pete and I drove through Roswell, New Mexico—probably the universe’s most famous destination for extraterrestrials on vacation. If the signs around town are any indication, aliens are certainly welcome there! It occurred to me that if aliens want to visit earth, the best time to do it would be on Halloween. Think of all the complements they’d get on their costumes!

What do aliens look like? With all the media promotion, I bet we all come up with the same mental image: Little Green (or gray) Men with small, slender bodies, big heads and eyes, and a tiny mouth, perhaps standing next to a flying saucer… as in the photo above. While Pete and I skipped Roswell’s International UFO Museum and Research Center, we quickly found that you don’t need to pay to see aliens. As we drove up and down the town’s main street, they were everywhere we looked!

Aliens were featured on store signs and billboards, in shop windows, hanging out at gas stations and on street corners. As I pointed my camera and clicked away, I half expected them to pull out their own cameras to take pictures of us earthlings.

Of course, all these Roswell aliens are good for business, but they for real? While some people dismiss little green men as the fabrications of wackos and attention seekers, many others are true believers. In fact, a 2012 survey by the National Geographic Channel (as published in USA Today) revealed that approximately one third of Americans believe aliens and UFOs are real. Additionally, “About 79% of those surveyed think the government has kept information about UFOs a secret from the public, and 55% believe there are real-life Men in Black-style agents who threaten people who spot UFOs.” National Geographic even published an article giving “Five Good Reasons to Believe in UFOs”. (Here’s a link to the interesting results of an assortment of polls asking about belief in aliens, UFOs, abductions, and the U.S. government.)

Let’s look at Roswell. There are dozens of websites all proclaiming that the Roswell incident really did involve a UFO of non-terrestrial origin, plus alien bodies that were dissected. The evidence comes from interviews with “eye witnesses.” “History of the Roswell UFO Incident,” at howstuffworks.com is a good example. I also came across an impressively research article debunking these testimonies: What Really Happened at Roswell, by Kal K. Korff. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

If you decide to dress up as a little green man for Halloween, you’ll need to do some preparation. After all, you’ll want to not only look like an alien—you’ll need to be in character to make the best impression. To that end, I’ve done a bit of research for you. Here is a link you won’t want to pass up: “Alien Paranormal: Bigfoot, UFOs and the Men In Black – Official Trailer.”

Finally, on a serious note, what do UFOs and aliens encounters have to do with faith in Jesus? To get into that topic would require a book! In fact, there is an excellent book on just this topic by Hugh Ross, Kenneth Samples and Mark Clark: Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men: A Rational Christian Look at UFOs and Extraterrestrials. And if you don’t have time to read a book, here’s a (rather lengthy) article that draws the same conclusions: “UFOs and the Christian Worldview,” by Jefferson Scott. Both Ross, et.al,, and Scott present convincing evidence of a connection between alien sightings and abductions and the occult. I believe they’re correct. With that thought in mind, maybe I’ll decide on something else when it comes to a Halloween costume.