Robert (R. L.) Dione was an American writer associated with early “ancient astronaut” and biblical-UFO interpretations. He is mainly remembered for a small set of books that read scripture through a space-age lens, asserting that “divine” events were misunderstood technology.

Dione was a schoolteacher and World War II veteran whose later-life authorship reflected a broader cultural moment: rockets, space exploration, and a growing appetite for “hidden history” explanations.

Dione was not a mainstream ufology investigator; his role was as a speculative author who connected UFO ideas to theology and ancient history, contributing to the “paleo-contact” side of ufology-adjacent culture.

1960s: Published work that framed biblical narratives as literal encounters with advanced vehicles and beings.

Late 1960s–1970s: His books circulated within the fringe publishing ecosystem that also included other early ancient-astronaut authors.

Later attention to Dione is mostly retrospective—his writings are referenced as a historical artifact of a particular style of biblical-UFO reading.

Dione contributed an early example of “scripture-as-UFO-report” interpretation that later reappeared in multiple forms across religious ufology and biblical speculation genres.

Rather than modern cases, Dione’s “cases” are biblical episodes (visions, clouds, chariots, pillars of fire) interpreted as machines or craft.

Core view: ancient people experienced advanced technology and encoded it as supernatural events. His writing often treats miracles as misunderstood engineering and “angels” as non-human visitors.

The approach is criticized as unfalsifiable, text-selective, and culturally reductive—rewriting theology and history to fit a preferred conclusion.

Influence is niche but real within the lineage of religious-UFO interpretation. Dione’s work is sometimes cited to show that “biblical UFO” ideas have deep mid-century roots.

God Drives a Flying Saucer; Is God Super-Natural? – The 4000 Year Misunderstanding.

Dione is a minor but illustrative figure in ufology-adjacent publishing history: a snapshot of how the UFO idea expanded into religion and ancient history during the space age.