The End of Days should have happened a long, long time ago, 80 generations ago in fact – if it were to happen at all. They didn’t end, though many hope, pray and predict they still will. I say they won’t. Why? Nearly all the players have exited stage left - and right. So, it’s not the end of days that’s coming, rather the twilight of the gods that have come, with just a mere handful around now. We call them the ‘Greys’.
Introduction: I start the story here to point out that 1) behind all mythology, including Biblical mythology lurks a tiny grain of historical truth and that 2) God isn’t a supernatural deity but just one of many extraterrestrials who have arrived on Earth eons before and have divided jurisdiction over various terrestrial geographical areas among themselves. God’s patch of turf to oversee and govern was of course what we now call the Middle East . The logic behind that is too long and complicated to go into again; I’ve done that previously. Let’s just say if you believe in God then you actually believe in extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial intelligence and ‘ancient astronauts’. Since our mob of ‘gods’ are extraterrestrials, they must have arrived in spaceships, one of which, for lack of a better name I’ll call the Starship Heaven under the command of Captain God (or His more alien sounding name, Yahweh).
The End of Days/Second Coming was supposed to have happened by the year 100 AD at the very latest, probably earlier according to no less an authority than Jesus Christ himself. It ain’t happened, so what went wrong? Well, what went wrong was probably due to that motley and rather nasty crowd of extraterrestrial cast and crew (God and His; the gods and their alien hangers-on) being arrested, tied and convicted for all those gross violations of their Prime Directive against us, as well as their planned atrocities we know as the apocalypse or Armageddon (or polytheistic equivalents).
Our gods, including God, now convicts, are now probably still cooling their alien heels in the slammer of whatever extra-solar planet they originally hailed from. Let’s look at and trace the background to this scenario.
1) Wars between the Gods: The mutiny that Captain God of the Starship Heaven faced was just one of many in mythology. In the Judeo-Christian lore, we have angels loyal to God vs. angels loyal to Satan. We all know the story how those not loyal to God got the heave-ho, though it was rather more a case of a ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ where Captain Bligh won and the mutineers were exiled.
Mythology is full of turf disputes – wars in heaven – the second best known example being the ten years war between the Titans and the Olympians. And we all know who won that contest, and if you need a hint, think of those Olympic Games and how they are not called the Titan Games.
In the mythology of the Norse lands, the Aesir and Vanir War was a war that occurred between one clan of gods, the Aesir (Odin, Thor, etc.) and another tribe, the Vanir. So these two groups of gods fought a war over turf, but in this case the war ultimately resulted in the unification of the two clans into a single tribe of gods. The deities Njord (daddy to), Freyr (the son), and Freya (the daughter) were members of the Vanir.
In ancient Mesopotamia , you’ll find references to a conflict between the older and primordial gods and the next generation of younger gods. For example you have Enlil (King of the gods) challenged by his daughter, hardly daddy’s little girl in this case, Inana (or Inanna), goddess of sex, fertility and war. To make long stories shorter, this older vs. younger generation conflict ultimately resulted in the epic battle between Marduk and Tiamat.
Even in tranquil Polynesia you had the god Tu (or Tumatauenga) who wanted to do in mum and dad – the earth mother and sky father gods Rangi (or Ranginui) and Papa (or Papatuanuku). Yet another domestic power struggle apparently.
2) Gods Behaving Badly: God’s not the only SOB. The gods not only committed mayhem on each other but took special delight in singling out us humans for a bit of the old blood sports. Of course, based on the authority of the Old Testament, this was especially true for God.
God’s record on human rights violations puts Him heads and shoulders above any and all human dictators, historical, recent or present that you care to name. God is a bloodthirsty, vengeful, egotistical tyrant. The authority for that statement is provided by the Bible itself which provides dozens of case studies that run counter to those who would like to persist in the fiction that God is a loving God who cares for each and every one of us. Read the Bible and learn that the phrase “loving God” is an oxymoron – a total contradiction in terms. No official representative of any monotheistically inspired Church of God
However, it’s rather unfair to single out God alone as bloodthirsty. We all know how bloodthirsty the Aztecs, Maya and Incas were, sacrificing thousands upon thousands of victims, not all of them POWs by any means, in honour of their gods, and in very Old Testament like fashion. And more than one deity (like Zeus) tried to drown the lot of us.
Fortunately for the human species, the gods (including God) left (or were dragged away kicking and screaming) before they exterminated the lot of us. The Big Question is why. We know they left because many said they would return. Second comings aren’t unique to God and company.
3) Second Comings: However, the exact reason for the departure of the gods (including God) isn’t detailed in our historical literature, but they apparently vowed many eons before General Douglas MacArthur to return.
So we have the Greek/Roman Astraea, a goddess of justice, daughter of Jupiter (but not Mrs. Jupiter), who got entirely fed up with humans and their violent ways, and left for the heavens, but vowing (at a time never mentioned) to return to usher in a new Golden Age! One question needs asking. How come she pointed her finger at humans as being violent without first looking and criticisg her own kind?
Quetzalcoatl was one of the most important of ‘gods’ in the Mesoamerican pantheon, starting with the Olmecs, but also the Maya, and most notably the Aztecs. Quetzalcoatl must have left promising to return one day for the Aztecs welcomed Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors with open arms thinking this event was the return of their beloved Quetzalcoatl and company (though there’s now some academic doubt about the reality of that relationship). Needless to say, they found out differently and much to their sorrow that Cortes was not Quetzalcoatl.
And of course most relevant to most of us is THAT Second Coming, otherwise hyped as the End of Days, and boy is it ever hyped.
4) The Hype: It would seem that every time there is a natural disaster (even oil spills qualify), anywhere in the world, but especially in America, right-wing Christian Fundamentalists and TV Evangelists jump for joy, do high fives and are more than happy to point out, even gleefully telling “I told you so”, and the more the destruction, the better the mayhem, the greater the death toll, the higher they jump, the happier they are and the more they rub their hands gleefully together. Why? It’s to them yet another Sign that the End of Days are near.
Well they are both right and wrong. There will be an end of days when the Sun engulfs us and roasts us alive, making global warming seem downright frigid in comparison. A real Hell on Earth certainly should appeal to the Fundamentalist and Evangelist mobs. However, it’s that ‘near’ part that’s in error. We won’t be solar barbequed for another five billion years, give or take a hundred million or so years in either direction.
As to THAT End of Days that so many are looking forward to – and if it takes disasters to convince the faithless and bring it on, so be it - sorry to rain on your parade folks, the solar barbeque is probably going to be something only for your great, great, great (add several million more “greats” here) grandkids to look forward to and enjoy.
Of course if our Fundamentalists and TV Bible Thumpers had lived 500 years ago, or 1000 years ago, or 1500 years ago, they would have been strutting out the same old line, the same old hype, the same old gloom and doom (gloom and doom for the rest of us sinners that is).
How long can these Evangelists go on playing the same old End of Days song before credibility runs out? - Seemingly indefinitely if you’re already preaching to the converted and/or the gullible. No doubt 500 years from now their descendents will be screaming out the same old tired tune.
I could of course name the names of many of these showbiz Evangelists, but you Americans know who I am talking about – those who live in opulent lifestyles thanks to your generous donations supporting their cause – the style of life to which they’ve become accustomed!
To be continued…
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