UFO-based sect backs human cloning.(South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Behind one plan to replicate humans is a small, sci-fi tinged religion that preaches UFOs and promises eternal life through cloning.

Brigitte Boisselier was among the three scientists who startled the National Academy of Sciences this week by predicting that a human being would soon be genetically duplicated. Besides her two degrees in chemistry, Boisselier is a bishop of the Raelian movement, a tiny religion that teaches humans were created by extraterrestrials called Elohim.

She was one of three researchers who spoke Tuesday at a symposium sponsored by the academy in Washington, D.C., which also heard other scientists voice angry warnings on human cloning.

Founded by a French race car driver who goes by the single name of Rael, Boisselier's UFO-based faith seemed …