The Raelians are a UFO cult headquartered in Quebec Canada. Its founder, ex-racecar driver Claude Vorilhon (b. 1946), tells the story that on December 19, 1973 he had an encounter with a UFO and a four foot tall, pale green alien with a black beard. He was told the truth about all religions and informed that he was to be the last of the great 40 prophets. He changed his name from Claude to Rael (meaning light of God), taking the name of the Egyptian sun god, Ra, and the Hebrew word for God, El.  Rael was commissioned to spread the truth with the "new commandments" to the world.

Basically the teachings are Bible stories with an extraterrestrial twist to them.

1. The Genesis flood was caused by exploding nuclear missiles.
2. Noah's ark was actually a space craft that floated high above the earth.
3. The Tower of Babel was a rocket designed for the conquest of space.
4. Crossing the Red Sea was made possible by a repulsion beam.
5. Ezekiel's creatures were wearing anti-gravity suits with small jet engines.
6. Jesus' healings were performed by concentrated laser beams from a far away spaceship.
7. The Hebrew word Elohim does not mean "God" but refers to the all the alien creators.
8. Aliens, who left their planet and now live in spaceships, created all life on earth about 25,000 years ago.
9. They created life by altering the evolutionary process here on earth.
10. The Genesis story of the cherubim with the flaming sword refers to soldiers with atomic disintegration weapons, preventing humans from stealing scientific knowledge and becoming intellectually equal with their creators.
11. Jesus was the 38th prophet, Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism) was the 39th, now Rael is the 40th and last.
12. Mary was artificially inseminated by Yahweh, the chief alien, Rael's mother was done the same way, making Jesus and Rael half brothers.
13. The resurrection was accomplished by cloning a single cell of Jesus' dead body.
14. There is no devil, omniscient god, guardian angels, or sin.
15. They want to build an embassy in Israel to welcome the Elohim when they return to earth.
16. Everlasting life is based on works. They indorse euthanasia. There is no individual human soul.

The movement says it is attempting to clone humans for the purpose of eventually adding alien DNA to create a hybrid alien-human creature, thus fulfilling man's destiny. They now own an offshore bio-technology company called Clonaid. The government of Canada has officially recognized the "Raelian church" as an official church with all the tax exemptions. In 2002 there were reported to be some 55,000 Raelians. Experimenting with sexuality, including homosexuality seems to be encouraged. Marriage is discouraged and considered useless. The official symbol of the Raelian movement is a star of David with a swastika in its center. The swastika was replaced by a swirling galaxy after trying to buy a plot of land in Israel for their embassy.