While science is unable to fulfill people's spiritual longings, Americans are primed for anything that keeps the trappings of science but invests them with religious meaning.  Even intelligent, highly educated people are shifting to the New Age idea that earth is divine, a combination of spirituality with an ecological mission to save the planet, the message they say is espoused by aliens.  Man was designed to worship God, but if they refuse to bow to Him, they will inevitably bow down to something else, even as far-fetched as aliens from outer space.