Round Three of Some Random Irreligious Thoughts

Sometimes you have a new thought, an idea, or eureka moment, but it’s not gutsy enough to expand into a reasonable length article or essay. So, here’s a third potpourri of thoughts that won’t exactly put me in a favourable light with any deities (if any) that are too good not to record, but with not enough meat available to flesh out. 

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* Despite anti gay, anti same-sex unions, anti marriage equality sentiments vehemently expressed ad nausea by extremists from the religious Far Right Wing, and endlessly going on and on and on about how the Bible states or defines marriage as between one man and one woman and thus the constitutional legality of gay marriage is a violation of God’s law, I fail to find any such Biblical reference or conformation. It’s certainly not one of the Ten Commandments!

I fail to spot in Genesis where Adam and Eve were actually married, or for that matter even in love. Adam and Eve were living in sin right under God’s righteous nose! Well one could suggest that Genesis 2: 21-24 suggests marriage since the word “wife” is used in the last verse, but that was a generality statement that is apparently nonsense since that same verse also uses the term “mother” and “father” before there ever was such a thing as parents or parenting. There is no place that says Adam and Eve were married or were husband and wife. There’s a sort of rehash in Mark 10: 6-9; Matthew 19: 4-6; and Ephesians 5: 31 whereby if you take the generality phrase, one not referring to any specific pair or twain of individuals, that phrase “one flesh” might be a synonym for “marriage”. However, since the Bible makes ample use of the word “marriage”, well it should just come right out and say “marriage is between one man and one woman” – but it doesn’t. 

Overall, marriage as defined between one male and one female might be implied in the Bible, but it is never specifically stated. However, that didn’t stop a lot of the upper crust patriarchs from practicing polygamy (Genesis 29: 15-30). 

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* Of all the various worldviews people possess, they seem most inclined to fight over their concept of God, not over country, not over politics, but over their religion. It’s been said there many times that while good people do good things and bad people do bad things, it takes God and religion to make good people do bad things.

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* Anyone who has made more than a cursory examination of the ‘ancient astronaut’ theory knows how incredibly popular the concept is. Ancient alien (was God as astronaut) books like Von Daniken’s “Chariots of the Gods” (and film) are bestsellers. In fact I understand that the History Channel’s documentary TV series “Ancient Aliens” is their most viewed and the best selling DVD they have put out. Then there have been sci-fi movies and TV series like “Stargate” that have picked up on the theme, as well as countless documentaries, websites, and articles. Collectively, all of this testifies that the idea has hit a very responsive neve indeed. People perhaps realise that there is something highly unusual, even anomalous about the human species, the origins of humanity and our ancient history that traditional religions and supernatural deities inadequately come to terms with, fail with plausible explanations, fail entirely with respect to these hundreds of enigmas. 

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* If Islam is the religion of peace, how come so many Muslims kill other Muslims (Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.)? Not that that is a bad thing, mind you. That in fact should be applauded even encouraged. The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim, IMHO.

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* Of all the follies that humanity has ever embraced, belief in a supernatural deity ranks head-and-shoulders above anything else. Never have so many have spent so much time on absolutely nothing. It boggles the mind. It would be absolutely hilarious were it not for the massive degree of death and suffering religious belief has inflicted on the relatively helpless. It’s a pity that all those true believers will never have any coming to terms with their delusions since once they snuff it, there’s no resurrection or afterlife to bask in.

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* Name the most evil thing Satan or Lucifer did (past tense) in the Bible. Now name the most evil thing God did (past tense) as related in the Bible. Now ask yourself, who is the more evil of the two? Who most approximates Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Chairman Mao, Saddam Hussein, and those of a similar ilk? If you should spell that entity’s name backwards, you should get a K9. 

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* It’s been claimed by those Right Wing religious fundamentalist types that whenever God is pissed off, He sends His wrath via a ‘natural’ disaster. So, any tornado or hurricane or blizzard or earthquake or wildfire, etc. isn’t really ‘natural’, rather its an Act of God’s punishment. However, it’s rather amazing that tornados tend to happen in roughly the same areas at roughly the same time of year; ditto hurricanes; ditto blizzards; ditto wildfires; ditto floods. You don’t tend to get massive earthquakes other than in well known fault zones and thus earthquake prone areas. You don’t get volcanoes erupting in areas not known to be tectonically active. Now if ‘natural’ disasters were really Acts of God, you might expect God to produce the occasional blizzard in Southern California in July; or how about 40 straight days and nights of rain in Death Valley; New York City becoming ground zero for a massive earthquake or volcanic eruption; a tornado outbreak in Alaska in January; or wildfires in areas of high rainfall and high humidity. If ‘natural’ disasters are Acts of God, why doesn’t God have an asteroid striking Chicago or a comet spanking Las Vegas or for that matter institute a massive solar flare or coronal mass ejection to blanket the entire US of A?  Even more central, why does God have to hide behind Mother Nature’s skirts in the first damn place? Why doesn’t God take a leaf out of His earlier wrath-filled up-yours and smite the first born?

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* If Hell is here on Earth, then you’d think the fire and brimstone must have been extinguished when Noah had to sail the really, really, really high seas!

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* I find it quite amazing that so-called Christian, God-loving, God-fearing, God-believing nations will at the drop of a bible wade into the internal affairs of other nations for their perceived wrongdoings and crimes against humanity. Most recently, Syria comes to mind, along with Afghanistan and Iraq, but right back through WWII and WWI and so on and so forth also springs to mind. The oddity is that while professing to believe in an all-powerful, all-wise, all-seeing, Almighty God of justice, they have absolutely no faith or belief that that very deity will actually strut His stuff and deal with the situation at hand. What makes that even odder is that’s exactly what God did historically – Exodus anyone? So, these goody-two-shoes Christian nations while believing in a just and a righteous God don’t believe that just and righteous God will do bo-diddily squat to give modern truth to that belief, and so take matters into their own hands.

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* The attraction of virtual reality (the simulated universe) or of ancient astronauts, is that you have a ‘creator god’ without having to resort to a supernatural universe, force and/or deity as an explanation for life, the universe and everything (virtual reality) or the ‘creation’ via artificial selection of the human species (ancient astronauts).

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* Contrary to everyone’s opinion, the human species is not God’s favourite creation. By the numbers, it would appear that God loves beetles most of all; thousands of times over that of the lone human species, maybe because beetles toe the line!



The Ancient Alien’s Bible: Part Two

Since the idea of supernatural deities is nonsense IMHO, perhaps there’s another explanation behind the more likely as not reality molehill hidden inside the traditional religious mythological mountain. That explanation could revolve around an extraterrestrial flesh-and-blood alternative.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

WHERE’S WHERE

Heaven: The name of God’s spaceship, or starship if you prefer.

Hell: The brig, located off-ship, probably on Earth, where one could be exiled to if need be.

Eastern Mediterranean (Israel; Land of Canaan; the Levant; Near East; Palestine): That part of terrestrial geography assigned to the officers and crew of the Spaceship Heaven as their area of responsibility. Contrast that with Zeus and company assigned the Middle Mediterranean; Odin and company responsible for the Norse lands; and the Great Spirit who looks after the North Amerindians; and so on.

Garden of Eden: Paradise was actually a terrestrial R&R spot for officers and crew of the Spaceship Heaven. God first had to expel human trespassers after they learned or overheard too much extraterrestrial knowledge forbidden to terrestrial ears. Later on however God gave Adam an interstellar ride in his Spaceship Heaven.

Towel of Babel: To disperse in quick-smart fashion the local population to the four corners of the globe, or even within the region, would have required considerable transport infrastructure.

Sodom & Gomorrah: The twin cities were destroyed via fire and brimstone from above, leaving no trace whatever after-the-fact. The obviously high tech weaponry might have been incendiary bombs or even nuclear weapons, but it certainly wasn’t any sort of destructive weapons technology common to that era.

WHAT’S WHAT

Miracles: High technology in action. As the late Arthur C. Clarke tended to put it, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, at least to those not technologically savvy. Among the high tech examples are the medical ones – healing the seriously sick and handicapped; resurrecting the very recently deceased; enabling very elderly women – over the hill and off the pill – to become fertile and bear offspring.

Food: Speaking of high tech miracles, what does one make of manna from heaven; loaves and fishes that multiply; wine from water? This almost makes you think of the food replication device used in Star Trek.

Noah’s Flood: A whole textbook could be written about the impossibilities of the Biblical tale of the flood and Noah’s Ark. The amount of water required can’t be produced. The boat isn’t near large enough to house and feed every species that would need to be given shelter. The crew isn’t sufficient to look after their charges. But, with just a bit of high tech tweaking, what if the Ark wasn’t for an actual universal disaster but a potential one, a real possibility given those high tech star wars, or wars between the various factions of deities (think of the ten year battle between the Titans and the Olympians; or what must have raged between God and Satan or will rage as per the forecast of Revelation; or the battle between the Frost Giants and the Norse deities; or all those aerial wars depicted in those ancient Hindu texts). Now instead of having entire forest worth of plants and all those animals requiring food and waste disposal, on board, substitute a botanical seed bank and a zoological equivalent, a repository of frozen eggs and sperm or embryos or genetic materials, etc. No need for food; no waste products; not much maintenance (crew time) required, and easily room for everything in the space allowed for the Ark in the Book of Genesis. The issue of course is that all of this is high tech way beyond the capabilities of the great unwashed of that era, the locals or natives. 

Burning Bush: This is an example of extraterrestrial hologram technology in action, employed to awe the local primitives, in this case Moses.

The Ark of the Covenant: Apparently a high and rather dangerous technological device, purpose not really well explained, but obviously more than just a storage box for a couple of stone tablets.

Clouds; Pillars of Fire; Flying Rolls; Star of Bethlehem; Aerial Chariots; Whirlwinds; Ezekiel’s Wheel, etc.: A UFO by any other name is still a UFO, and in most of these depictions, the object, say a ‘cloud’, is an actual vehicle that carries a passenger, more likely as not a Spaceship Heaven shuttlecraft. 

Germ Warfare & Biological Weapons: There are numerous examples in Biblical texts where high tech biological weapons were used against populations (i.e. – the Egyptians, even God’s Chosen People) and individuals like Job.

Transfiguration: Jesus led three of his followers up a mountain, and behold his face had a rather disquieting and unnatural glow about it (much like Moses after his CE3K). In fact Jesus, and/or his clothing, shone with some sort of bioluminescence. To add to this anomaly, Jesus had with him both Moses (long since considered the late Moses who had once been abducted) and Elias (otherwise known as Elijah, the abducted). Further a ‘cloud’ that hovered over this gathering ‘spoke’ to them, one and all, with words that implied that this was God himself doing the speaking. Then the ‘cloud’ vanished like a bat out of hell. Wow! There is surely something strange afoot going on here. By the way, in common with a lot of other Biblical tales, this is repeated several times, in the Books of Matthew, Mark and Luke. In fact, I’d suggest that if you eliminated all of the duplications, the Bible would be 10% thinner!

The Ascension: Jesus departs Planet Earth to take up his new job as First Officer on the Spaceship Heaven, sitting at the right hand of her captain.

Hologram Technology: A very useful ways and means of inspiring awe in the great unwashed. Examples that spring to mind include the ‘burning bush’ and Jesus ‘walking on the water’ and appearing in the ‘flesh’ post execution.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

There have been no verified and documented sightings of the main Biblical players (God, Satan, Jesus, angels, etc.) in way over 2000 years. Where are they? I suspect they have gone away. I further suspect God and crew were recalled to home base to stand trial for crimes against humanity, though many, like Jesus, were exonerated, having played no part or role at Sodom & Gomorrah or in the use of biological weapons and waging germ warfare. Satan and his fallen angels were recalled too, probably picked up from exile, to give account for their original mutiny. Perhaps as we read this Captain Jesus of the Spaceship Heaven (or some other interstellar vessel) is boldly going and finding new Garden of Eden locales to R&R in throughout the cosmos.  

CONCLUSION

It is clear that not everything in the Bible can be easily interpreted in an extraterrestrial context, probably because much of the text’s content tends to be rather mundane soap opera of a humans-only nature. That aside, after you take into consideration all the versions, all the translations and associated issues with that, translation and copying errors (deliberate and accidental), embellishments, artistic license, human imagination needed to fill in the gaps, plus the multiple authorship of all the Biblical texts itself, not to forget that the texts weren’t written down till decades, even many generations after-the-fact (it’s like nobody recorded and wrote down today’s news until the year 2112 – many an error would be made), I conclude that the Bible can largely be interpreted not in a supernatural way but rather an extraterrestrial one.

Unfortunately, if I am right, then all your theological baggage of an eternal life everlasting goes right down the drain – maybe not a bad thing if you thought you were Hell-bound, or even if Heaven-bound as the concept of eternal life is actually hellish as you would rather quickly be bored out of your afterlife skull, and you still have infinity yet to come.

The Ancient Alien’s Bible: Part One

Erich Von Daniken asked the question “was God as astronaut?” Traditional Christians, Muslims, and those of the Jewish faiths of course answer “No”, God was (and is) a supernatural deity. Those more inclined to be free thinkers pondering realities outside of the religious box, answer anywhere from “Maybe” to “Yes”. If the latter, how might Biblical characters, places and events be interpreted in an ‘ancient astronaut’ context. Who’s who, Where’s where and what’s what?

All interpretations are based on the text of the King James Version of all things Biblical.

WHO’S WHO

God: OIC and captain of the Spaceship Heaven. His real alien name is of course Yahweh, or in the vowelless version YHWH, but I’ll just shorten that to God, a name that all and sundry recognise.

Satan: God’s original First Officer and second in command of the Spaceship Heaven, later exiled to Hell, or at least to Earth, for mutiny. 

Fallen Angels: Fallen Angels are those officers and crew who were in cahoots with Satan in the unsuccessful mutiny against Captain God and who were court-martialed and stripped of their status and rank and exiled to Hell on Earth. 

The Seraphim: Because the Seraphim have six wings, they are probably a separate extraterrestrial race aligned with the alien race of beings to which God and company belong. [Well Star Trek exhibited a multi-species crew from the start.] One such alien was apparently someone called Metatron, an angel who acted as the ‘voice of God’, a scribe, and is the tallest and greatest of the lot. ‘He’s’ sort of the chief cook and bottle washer on the Spaceship Heaven.

The Cherubim (singular is cherub): The extraterrestrial Cherubim might be related to the Seraphim in that they are enormous four-winged beings. The definitive book in the Bible on cherubim is the Book of Ezekiel, mainly the first and tenth chapter.

Governor or Watcher Angels: These are your typically obedient angels who just sort of watch over humanity in general, a sort of extraterrestrial Peeping Tom some of who had an eye for the Daughters of Men.   

Archangels: Senior officers of Spaceship Heaven. Those messenger and battle ready angels. The best known of the lot were the archangels who are very high-ranking angels indeed, starting with Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, but followed by Uriel, Simiel, Orifiel and Zachariel.

Angels: Ordinary crewmembers of the Spaceship Heaven, forever running errands for the senior officers.

Sons of God: Apparently hand chosen senior crew members, perhaps literally biological offspring of Captain God. The Sons of God were apparently some or all of the Governor or Watcher Angels.

Daughters of Men: Human females.

Nephilim: The offspring of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men. They were apparently the ‘giants’ referred to ‘in the Earth’, though exactly how giant was giant isn’t spelled out.

Jesus: Another offspring of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men, albeit much farther on down the historical track, or perhaps the offspring between God himself and the Daughters of Men (well one anyway). Jesus would later rise (from the ‘dead’) to become First Officer on board Spaceship Heaven. That Jesus is an extraterrestrial is admitted by himself in John 8:23. Of note here is that Jesus probably used holographic technology to give an appearance of walking on water and/or appearing alive and in the ‘flesh’ post execution – which he survived, another sign of high technology in operation. 

Baal: God’s prime extraterrestrial rival for power and authority in the region, though there’s never any direct and open physical conflict twixt the two.

Moses: Just one of several abductees noted and logged in Biblical texts. He was abducted by a ‘cloud’ and carried on up the mountain for a close encounter with a supreme alien lawmaker. Upon his return his face had an unnatural glow about it which caused those waiting his return to be afraid of him.

Jacob: Witnessed (or dreamed about) angels ascending and descending to and from Spaceship Heaven.

Ezekiel: A human who had a close encounter of the third kind (those Cherubim) plus an associated abduction event.

Jonah: Spent three days and nights in isolation inside a technological craft.

Joshua: 1) Was in possession of high technology sonic weaponry at Jericho. 2) He later witnessed several UFOs that stood still in the sky providing illumination for his army.

Enoch and Elijah: These two human males are the only two whose ultimate fate (death) we don’t know anything about. Both humans apparently joined the Spaceship Heaven at the behest of her captain never to be seen again, albeit Elijah was spotted with Jesus by three of his disciples (see Transfiguration).

Old Age Pensioners: Methuselah, Noah, Adam as well as others, apparently lived to really, really ripe old ages, way, way, way beyond the standard three score and ten. The explanation: these were humans invited by the officers and crew of Spaceship Heaven to take a relativistic interstellar journey at velocities at a considerable fraction of the speed of light. They aged normally on board, but because of the time dilation effect, time passed more rapidly back on Earth, or more slowly on the spaceship (same difference), such that they returned home hundreds of terrestrial year’s later – Earth time - thus the false appearance that they were hundreds of years old at journey’s end but didn’t look a day over thirty because they really weren’t a day over thirty! It’s referred to as the Twin Paradox of Special Relativity, though it’s not really a paradox at all, just the logical conclusion of the equations of Special Relativity which have been verified by observation and experiment, at least on the micro scale.

Matthew, Mark, Luke & John: A quartet of roving reporters who independently investigated what was to them relatively recent history – just several generations had passed – each in his own way. The topic of their investigation was an alleged historical figure, a figure that seemed to have gained some degree of uniqueness, notoriety and prominence as a possible deity and the quartet wrote up their short biographies accordingly. 

To be continued…

Divine Right: Born to the Lurk & Perk: Part One

What is the ultimate origin of the concept of ‘born to rule’ or of ‘divine right’? Why should someone who just happened to be the product of a particular sperm cell and a particular egg cell require worship as if they were a god? Does it have anything to do with real supernatural deities anointing those with the ‘right stuff’ genetics, those who they see fit to rule, or perhaps there’s a more intimate connection. Perhaps in fact it’s all nonsense.

Mythologies are full of sexual liaisons between the divine and the human. Just like the ‘Sons of God’ mated with the ‘Daughters of Men’ and the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses mated with mortals (to cite two of numerous case histories), resulting offspring would have been descended from the gods and thus weren’t quite your ordinary Joe and Josephine Blow, with membership in that great unwashed club of the public citizen. So, what’s it about these special descendents of the gods – demigods and demigoddesses? Why are they a cut (or two or twenty) above the rest of us?

But first, let’s substitute supernatural gods for flesh-and-blood extraterrestrials, ‘ancient astronauts’ who actually had an up-close-and-personal hand in the origin and evolution of the human species (another common thread of all things mythological, albeit interpreted in a religious or supernatural context). 

Well, if you really are a genetic product of an alien, of a technological advanced extraterrestrial, I guess that does make you a cut or twenty above those who can’t claim an out-of-this-world parentage. Gods or aliens (same difference IMHO), well they fawn on their half-breed descendents as something special – the go-betweens twixt them and the great unwashed. Those go-betweens are those born to rule by divine right (divine being a property of said gods or aliens they bestowed on their go-betweens).  

There’s no shortage of historical examples – from the kings and queens of Europe to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the emperors of ancient China and Japan. All had the direct authority of God or the gods behind them; many were also worshiped as deities in their own right and as such could claim ancestral lineage back to their gods.

That was then; now is now. Surely in today’s society nobody actually believes those who were born to rule were actual offspring descendens of the gods or ET or anointed by same as being of extraordinary leadership stock that would be passed down from generation to generation forever and ever.  In fact there would be those few and far between who would justify in fact that anyone anymore is born to actually rule because of ‘superior’ ancestors. So rather than those born to rule who actually rule, instead those now born to rule are just for all practical purposes figureheads. The British colonies, like Australia, are now democracies like England; ditto other European countries that retain some sort of royalty. Japan is a democracy too though there are those alive today who recall when the Japanese emperor was a literal god.

The question is, if those born to rule don’t in most cases actually rule, but are mere figureheads, why not get rid of these divine right parasites, be they kings or queens or emperors or empresses, even sultans; parasites who serve no useful function yet lead lavish lifestyles? Egypt got rid of the pharaoh. China booted out the emperor. It’s not that hard. Still, that’s not yet the general way of the world, so let’s… 

Fast-forward a bit to the general concept of heads or figureheads of nations that were born to rule. They are not elected officials who claim no ancestry from the divine; they are not those who took power and who rule by force – dictators, tyrants, etc. that can’t trace their lineage or ancestry back to the gods (even if some dictators claim otherwise and demand their subjects so treat them as gods too). So fast-forward to those who become leaders or rulers (leadership is sometimes in short supply) just because their parents were rulers and their grandparents before them and back and back it goes.

Authority based on divine right; authority vested because of an eventual connection (however remote) back to the gods and the gods’ anointment of them and their descendents to rule forevermore, cuts no mustard with me.

I’ve always found it difficult to accept that just because the sperm of a king or emperor meets the egg of a queen or empress that the resulting product is somehow better and more deserving at being a ruler than the resulting offspring of any other male/female conception. Yet apparently millions of people have and some still do accept that as a given. You are born to rule by divine right because you were born to those who were born to rule by divine right who in turn were, etc.

Yet as far as I can tell, such born to rule offspring (usually firstborn males) have to sit on the throne in the same manner as the rest of us and put their pants on one leg at a time. They require all of the sorts of stuff we mortals that belong to the lower class, the great unwashed do – stuff like oxygen, water, food, sleep, medical care, etc. In short, there’s no special distinguishing feature of any kind that separates them from us other than a total accident of having a divine or ‘royal’ sperm meet an egg (probably of similar lineage) for their conception. A naked baby that’s heir to the throne looks no different than a naked baby that’s the offspring of commoners. So in short, divine right, even if it ultimately derived from the ‘gods’ – or those ‘ancient astronauts’ - gets no respect from me since those claiming divine right, that born to rule status, don’t have to earn anything; an elected official at least earns his or her right to rule.

Here’s a modern case history (though their roots go back seemingly forever) of those who rule (now in pretty much in just a figurehead capacity) by divine right and thus haven’t earned any respect from yours truly. I refer to the English / British / Commonwealth royal family, in particular their head, Queen Liz.

Now it’s topical in America to compare and contrast the masses, the ordinary Americans, the 99%, with those extremely wealthy elites, the 1%. In British terms, Queen Liz and her royal family parasites are akin to the top 1% of the top British 1%, and the 99% remaining of that 1% just eat what to the royal family would be table scraps, albeit tasty table scraps. The lowest 99% just eat symbolic three day old and relatively stale cake – and they love it.

Now I must admit that the English apparently do right royally love their royal parasites. That’s probably because they help contribute a sense of history (now long vanished) and a pride of place (equally gone) part and parcel of once being the stiff-upper-lipped British (‘Rule Britannia, Britannia Rules the Waves’; ‘The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire’, ‘Be British, lads’, etc.). However, in more practical terms, the royals help bring in zillions of tourist dollars a year. Overseas tourists to England have as a must-see on their itinerary at least one royal palace and getting themselves snapped in front of same, with a place guard or two in the photo as well. Of course fat lot of good that does, either the sense of history slant, or the tourist dollar reality, to the colonies like Canada, or New Zealand, or South Africa or Australia, among all those other British colonies.

The colonies aside for the moment, just what sort of lurks and perks do these right royal parasites command? Well, with a snap of the royal fingers they can command ocean going yachts, private jets, horse-drawn carriages, and transport in the finest fleet of Rolls-Royce automobiles money can buy. They live in multi-hundred room private estate castles in England, Scotland, and probably elsewhere, all sited on lush massive acreages where they can indulge in their favourite blood sport of fox hunting (tally-ho), and/or the not quite as bloody sport of polo.  

Queen Liz and family don’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, which is certainly not going to be a Big Mac or fish-and-chips, and who’s going to cook, serve and wash up afterwards. They have massive staffs to cater for their every whim – even staff to dress them. They most certainly don’t make their own beds, cook their own meals, shine their own shoes, or any other manner of menial housework or chores. You don’t see Queen Liz pruning the royal rose bushes. They wouldn’t know what a vacuum cleaner was for if their life depended on it – which it doesn’t. They lose no sleep over the next set of incoming bills. They have medical, even veterinary staff, on call 24/7/52. Whatever they want or need, that whatever goes to them, not vice versa.

The royals most certainly do not stand in line for movie tickets or que in place at the supermarket checkout or join a bank line. They certainly have no need to join the unemployment line or que for social security benefits.

While I’m sure it must be just my imagination, the royals forever seem to be on holiday.

When any of the royal family gets married, there’s got to be an official legal tender commemorative coin (or some such) struck in their honour. Was there a commemorative anything minted when you got married or similar? No? Why not? What makes the royals deserving and not you?

While not a ‘lurk and perk’, the portrait of Queen Liz appears on all Australian coins (or at least those minted since she became Queen Liz). Why? She’s not Australian. She contributes nothing to Australian society. In fact she contributes nothing of any real note to society full stop. She’s not a health professional, nor a charity worker, a noted scientist, a military leader, a politician, author, poet, or artist of any kind. She’s a wife and mother of course but that hardly makes her stand out from the crowd. Besides, IMHO, only the dead should be honoured on stamps, coins, and related.

I gather she and kin pay some taxes now (that wasn’t always the case apparently), but again, that’s not a unique skill or legal obligation for which she and kin deserve a pat on the royal back for observing. Pats on the royal back by the way are an absolute no-no, but bowing and curtsying are mandatory etiquette in the presence of their company. 

Despite all of these unearned benefits due to just being born of the right parents and in the right place at the right time, you’d probably love to be a fly on the wall at their family gatherings. What little leaks out or gets captured by the paparazzi, show the royals are a totally dysfunctional and motley bunch. Anyone who is anyone who has following the shenanigans of the lesser royals in particular over the past several decades plus would be hard pressed to use any other term but dysfunctional, though several other choice words and phrases better left unsaid come close. All up they are certainly a few pence short of a pound. Queen Liz herself is probably the only relatively sane one of the bunch. 

To be continued…

Biblical UFOs, Abductions & Ancient Astronauts: Part Three

Nearly all of us are familiar to a greater or lesser extent with the concept of ‘ancient astronauts’ – extraterrestrials that influenced human history many millennia ago. Evidence is cited from around the world, and draws on mythology, religion, out of place artefacts, artistic works, and the construction of various monumental megaliths that modern society and modern engineering would be hard pressed to reconstruct. It shouldn’t be surprising that a small fraction of that evidence has been culled from the Bible. You won’t hear this preached in church!

I have long maintained that God and the gods were not totally imaginary, but not supernatural either, rather extraterrestrials (ET). What ET is known for today, among other things, are not only those UFO encounters of the first, second and third kind, but those alleged abductions of humans for various purposes – close encounters of the fourth kind. Perhaps as it is now, so it was back in Biblical times.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

CHARIOTS

Chariots are an obvious choice as something associated with UFOs, especially given Erich Von Daniken’s best seller “Chariots of the Gods”. Most chariots in the Bible are clearly your standard horse-drawn ground vehicle. Of course there are exceptions.

2 Kings 2:11: And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

*I repeat this famous passage to illustrate the association of a chariot with an up, up and away whirlwind.

Psalm 104:3: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind.

*I repeat this verse to indicate the cloud-chariot connection as well as the other aerial connection of walking-wings-wind.

Jeremiah 4:13: Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles.

*I repeat this verse to point out the connection of a chariot with both the whirlwind and clouds. The horses are given an aerial connection being compared to eagles, all the more obvious since the “he” in question is ascending.

Isaiah 66:15: For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.

*We note the association with the whirlwind; the implication that the chariots are airborne.

Zechariah 6:1: And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass.

Zechariah 6:2: In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses.

Zechariah 6:3: And in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses.

*Zechariah must have been puffing on the good stuff. The four chariots appear to be aerial coming out from between two mountains, mountains that were made of brass – WTF? Further, all the horses aren’t pulling the chariots; they are “in” the chariots!

FLYING ROLLS

And whatever are we to make of this incident?  Is he doing some more puffing on the weed perhaps? What transpires in Zechariah is hardly an incident that anyone would suggest is an alien abduction, nor is there a cloud noted, but it’s still obviously a close encounter of the third kind.

Zechariah 5:1: Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.

Zechariah 5:2: And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.

*A “flying roll” is a near perfect description for a standard disc-shaped UFO. Now a cubit is roughly equal to 18 to 22 inches, so let’s call it 20 inches even. That makes the “flying roll” 400 inches in length and 200 inches in breadth, or a bit over 33 feet in length and a bit over 16.5 feet in breadth. That’s pretty good ballpark figures when compared to your average run-of-the-mill modern UFO sighting.

Zechariah 5:9: Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.

*These winged females are not identified in any shape, manner or form as being angels. In fact they aren’t identified as anything at all, except winged females.

WINGED HUMANOIDS

While non-human entities in the Bible aren’t depicted with green skin, or pointed ears or antenna or oozing slime or hoisting ray-guns, there are certainly some out-of-this-world creatures in the Bible. The most notable of these are the winged beings called the Cherubim and the Seraphim. [Note: despite popular depictions, angels aren’t winged.]  

Exodus 25:20: And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high.

2 Chronicles 3:13: The wings of these cherubims spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were inward.

Isaiah 6:2: Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

JESUS, THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL

John 8:23: And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

*Though one could put this statement in a supernatural context, one could just as easily interpret this as having an extraterrestrial context.

So there you have it. This is by no means an exhaustive list of relatively suggestive close encounters as related in the Bible. For more of same, see my further suggested reading list immediately below.

Further readings: While dozens of books on ‘ancient astronauts’ and UFOs will discuss the more famous of the Biblical UFO events, there’s more to Biblical UFOs than just The Star of Bethlehem and the Wheel of Ezekiel.

Blumrich, Josef F.; The Spaceships of Ezekiel; Bantam, New York; 1974:

Dean, John W.; Flying Saucers and the Scriptures; Vantage Press, New York; 1964:

Downing, Barry H.; The Bible & Flying Saucers; Avon, New York; 1968:

Jessup, Morris K; UFO and the Bible; Citadel Press, New York; 1956:

Leonard, R.; Flying Saucers, Ancient Writings and the Bible; Exposition Press, New York; 1969:

Biblical UFOs, Abductions & Ancient Astronauts: Part Two

Nearly all of us are familiar to a greater or lesser extent with the concept of ‘ancient astronauts’ – extraterrestrials that influenced human history many millennia ago. Evidence is cited from around the world, and draws on mythology, religion, out of place artefacts, artistic works, and the construction of various monumental megaliths that modern society and modern engineering would be hard pressed to reconstruct. It shouldn’t be surprising that a small fraction of that evidence has been culled from the Bible. You won’t hear this preached in church!

I have long maintained that God and the gods were not totally imaginary, but not supernatural either, rather extraterrestrials (ET). What ET is known for today, among other things, are not only those UFO encounters of the first, second and third kind, but those alleged abductions of humans for various purposes – close encounters of the fourth kind. Perhaps as it is now, so it was back in Biblical times.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

MORE UFO CLOUDS

Speaking of clouds as a term for UFOs by those who comprehended the idea of a ‘cloud’ but not of an extraterrestrial atmospheric shuttlecraft, we note that a Biblical ‘cloud’ actually transports; it goes up and down and contains passengers. Here are a few examples from the Old Testament.

Exodus 13:21: And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night.

Exodus 16:10: And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

*When the Lord assisted His Chosen People out of Egypt, He didn’t hoof it like the Israelites but oversaw events from his aerial ‘cloud’.

Numbers 11:25: And the LORD came down in a cloud.

Numbers 12:5: And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle.

Numbers 12:10: And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle.

*Clearly this ‘cloud’ not only has a passenger (the Lord) but lands and takes off.

Deuteronomy 31:15: And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle.

*God’s own personal aerial limousine again is depicted as a ‘cloud’. 

Psalm 104:3: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind.

*We note the association between (aerial) clouds and transportation (chariots), as well as a hint of actually being airborne. I mean if you’re in an aircraft and you move about the cabin, you could be said to be walking on the wings of the wind in a manner of speaking.

Isaiah 19:1: Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

*Not only does God ride as if a passenger in a cloud, but the ‘cloud’ is moving along at a pretty quick-smart pace.

Jeremiah 4:13: Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles.

*A multi-association is depicted between a passenger and clouds and chariots and whirlwinds and speed.

Ezekiel 1:4: And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

*I repeat the quote of what kick-started Ezekiel’s close encounter, but noting specifically the associations between a whirlwind and a cloud as well as fire (akin to that pillar of fire in Exodus?) and brightness. While a whirlwind-cloud might be a tornado, that sort of weather event isn’t common in the region and isn’t associated with fire and brightness. Besides, this whirlwind-cloud disembarked living creatures.

Ezekiel 10:3: Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court.

*Could this be a suggestion of a landed UFO ‘cloud’ that first landed and then disembarked a man in an inner courtyard? If the cloud had really been fog then more than just the inner court would have been filled.

UFO ‘clouds’ aren’t confined to just the Old Testament. The New Testament clouds the issue as well.

Matthew 17:5: While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

Mark 9:7: And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.

Luke 9:34: While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.

Luke 9:35: And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.

*It would appear that God’s cloudy limousine has made the transition from Old to New Testament.

Luke 21:27: And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

*It would also appear that Jesus gets to ride in his daddy’s cloudy limo too, or more likely he had one of his own.

Acts 1:9: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

*Up, up and away he went in a ‘cloud’ only to finally vanish from sight.

Revelation 1:7: Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.

Revelation 10:1: And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.

*What goes up must come down, and so those who from on high who will partake in Armageddon will need to transport on down, and of course the preferred means is via that ‘cloud’.

Revelation 11:12: And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

*What goes down must go up. Mortals hail a taxi; ET thumbs a ride back to his heavenly abode via a ‘cloud’.

UFOs MIMIC STARS

Another possible UFO connection could be a ‘star’. While most references in the Bible that refer to stars really do refer to those celestial stellar objects; most, but not quite all. There’s that one famous exception – the Star of Bethlehem. 

Matthew 2:9: When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

*Alas for a natural explanation, no celestial objects (apart from the North Polar Star Polaris) ever stand still since the Earth rotates, and one assumes that the North Star was a familiar object – which was in the north and not in the east in any event. This was obviously not a standard celestial sight, and since it ‘guided’ people to a specific destination then stood still, well that implies intelligence. Therefore this is another case of a Biblical UFO under the direction of ET.

To be continued…

Biblical UFOs, Abductions & Ancient Astronauts: Part One

Nearly all of us are familiar to a greater or lesser extent with the concept of ‘ancient astronauts’ – extraterrestrials that influenced human history many millennia ago. Evidence is cited from around the world, and draws on mythology, religion, out of place artefacts, artistic works, and the construction of various monumental megaliths that modern society and modern engineering would be hard pressed to reconstruct. It shouldn’t be surprising that a small fraction of that evidence has been culled from the Bible. You won’t hear this preached in church!

I have long maintained that God and the gods were not totally imaginary, but not supernatural either, rather extraterrestrials (ET). What ET is known for today, among other things, are not only those UFO encounters of the first, second and third kind, but those alleged abductions of humans for various purposes – close encounters of the fourth kind. Perhaps as it is now, so it was back in Biblical times.

Here are some people and events from the Bible (King James Version) that is suggestive of close encounters of the heavenly or out-of-this-world or extraterrestrial kind. Heavenly is apt since heaven is literally out-of-this-world.

One of the keywords in searching for Biblical UFOs is the ‘whirlwind’. In Biblical texts, the ‘whirlwind(s)’ – all 27 references - is clearly identified with phenomena caused by or related to God, or the LORD as He often is referred to, or more often as not refers to Himself. Whirlwinds go up, as in the case of Elijah (see immediately below), and they come down, as for example in Ezekiel (see further below).

ELIJAH

Elijah is only one of two people in the Bible who does not die. Why? Here’s why!

2 Kings 2:11: And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

*Now we have no idea what really transpired after that abduction, but there are those who maintain that, all these centuries later, Elijah is alive and well and has yet a role to play in that ‘end of days’ scenario.

Malachi 4:5: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

*So Elijah is abducted, but will ultimately be returned, sort of like modern UFO/alien abductees, only over a far longer time span.

ENOCH

Enoch is the other of that duo that doesn’t die in the Bible. While there is no quasi-UFO event, there is an abduction related scenario according to the Bible.

Genesis 5:24: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Hebrews 11:5: By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

*If God took him, and God is an ET, then an alien UFO abduction rose-by-any-other-name is still an alien UFO abduction.

EZEKIEL

Ezekiel had that famous UFO encounter recounted in Ezekiel chapter one relating those wheels within wheels and various creatures that looked sort-of like men but weren’t. Ezekiel says he had a “vision” of God, but if God is really an extraterrestrial, then Ezekiel had a vision of an extraterrestrial(s) or in modern parlance, a ‘close encounter of the third kind’. Here are the first couple of verses.

Ezekiel 1:4: And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

Ezekiel 1:5: Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

Ezekiel 1: 6: And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.

*Ezekiel’s close encounter is fairly self-explanatory, and it goes on from there. But what happened after that?

Ezekiel 3:12: Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place.

Ezekiel 3:13: I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels over against them, and a noise of a great rushing.

Ezekiel 3:14: So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.

Ezekiel 3:15: Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

*All of that sounds a bit like an unwilling UFO abduction to me!

MOSES

Another keyword associated with a possible Biblical UFO event is ‘cloud’. Take Moses for example.  Moses too was ‘abducted’ in a cloud by God, but, as typical of most abductees, returned safely to earth, or in the case of Moses, the wilderness.

Exodus 19:9: And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud.

Exodus 24:15: And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.

Exodus 24:18: And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

Exodus 33:9: And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.

Exodus 34:5: And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him [Moses] there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

To be continued…

If God Isn’t God, Then Who or What Is God? Part Two

In my opinion, all this Biblical nonsense boils down to a collection of myths and fairy tales for grownups. For those who really have the faith, I’m easy. But I think the concept of the Biblical God (and associated baggage) is the greatest con job ever fostered on the great unwashed. Unless, assuming that God or the gods (i.e. – Zeus, etc.) weren’t totally fabricated out of whole cloth, then maybe, just maybe, the gods, including God, are extraterrestrials.

There are two variations to that possibility.

Here’s one of those variations. What if God were in reality a very ‘flesh-and-blood’ extraterrestrial computer programmer, a computer programmer who has written a software package called, say “Planet Earth”? Maybe it’s a computer or interactive video game – maybe a homework assignment for a smart extraterrestrial student. Here’s some more evidence in support of our virtual reality.

Biblical One: Explain the parting of the Red Sea in the Bible! It’s easy to do in the movies, on a computer, or in your head.

Biblical Two: Then there’s this Biblical bit about Joshua commanding the sun to stand still (at least that’s the way I recall it). That’s either a tall tale or a myth or the result of a simulation. Whatever, it can’t be a physical reality. 

Biblical Three: In the Bible we have this tale of the multiplying of loaves and fishes out of virtually nothing. Again, you can imagine it, but that’s about it. Likewise with any sort of miracle it’s easy to visualize the event, but infinitely harder to explain it. But, as in the case of loaves and fishes, it’s easy to write a software package that can do this multiplication feat as a simulation exercise.

Biblical Four: Heaven and Hell can be created as easily as any other sort of place, complete with either fluffy white clouds and pearly white gates; harps and haloes, or devils and pitchforks; fire and brimstone!

Biblical Five: If someone (or something) is calling the simulation shots, you could obviously and easily be resurrected or reincarnated or just allowed to cease to be (that is, deleted from the program).

Paranormal One: How can reports of a Bigfoot or a Loch Ness Monster continue for decades without physical verification as if these creatures were but phantoms? Again, it’s easy to visualize such creatures, but far harder to explain how a rather largish lake monster can elude detection in a confined lake seemingly indefinitely. All these observers can’t be totally mistaken. But what if the ‘monsters’ AND their observers are both simulations, where the ‘monsters’ are simulated to be a quasi-phantom – a sort of game to play with your simulated observers?

Paranormal Two: What about ghosts and fairies and all of their various relations? You can create them on film, in your mind, or on a computer screen, so, if you can, so could another – and create you as well in the process.

Paranormal Three: How can aliens abduct humans or mutilate cattle, decade after decade, without ever being seen? It’s easy to do in a computer simulation; difficult in reality.

Paranormal Four: That goes ditto for the English crop circles. The crop circle phenomena is totally unexplainable, but it doesn’t have to be explainable in a physical sense if it’s all a virtual reality created by an extraterrestrial intelligence including the observers who see the circles and wonder how on earth it was done.

From the examples above, I conclude that it almost seems as if someone (something) is ultimately responsible for aspects of the Universe, but he / she / it / they didn’t quite think things through sufficiently. Methinks an all knowing, all powerful supernatural God type being wouldn’t have stuffed things up. The Universe is certainly stuffed up and if the Bible isn’t a stuffed up piece of literary work, I don’t know what is! So both the Bible and our Universe are either naturally stuffed up (The Bible because it was authored by flawed human beings and thus has nothing to do with the infallible word of God), or it was created stuffed up! If it was created stuffed up, well again, it’s because the creator was flawed flesh-and-blood, and hardly an all-knowing and all-powerful God. Our flawed creator created a simulated Universe, including all the Biblical baggage we have to try to reconcile with a perfect creator God (who, in my version, doesn’t exist).

Could there be an afterlife without a God? I suggest that if there is an afterlife, there has to be a natural as opposed to a supernatural mechanism, and that we’d be hard pressed to come up with one. While I can’t think of a completely natural explanation to account for any plausible transition from life to afterlife, I can think of a non-supernatural one, albeit it’s not totally natural. Just as it’s within the realm of possibility that we exist as software in a computer program called “Planet Earth”, so too might there be another computer program with associated software called “The Spirit World” or “The Abode of the Afterlife”. When you reach your termination as a simulated living being in “Planet Earth”, you get resurrected in “The Spirit World”. Of course in that sense there’s still a god, but a ‘god’ who just happens to be an extraterrestrial computer programmer, who could be flesh and blood, or maybe an artificial intelligence in its own right. Either way, it’s not 100% natural, but it’s certainly not supernatural. Of course for all I know there maybe other software programs with names such as “Hell” and “Heaven” or “Valhalla” or maybe dozens, hundreds even thousands of others we’ve never even conceived or heard of. I mean the virtual beings in one of our terrestrial computer or video games wouldn’t be aware that there was thousands of other computer or video games in existence with dozens more being produced and brought out each and every month.

It all makes a sort of sense albeit in a weird or strange sort of sci-fi way. I mean, to paraphrase a rather famous observation, “the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it’s stranger than we can imagine”.  If there’s anyone who can give a definitive proof that we’re not a creation of someone’s (something’s) virtual reality (computer simulation) then I’d like to hear it so I can cross the scenario off my list of things to have to worry about!

That specific aside, if there is any historical evidence for a god, gods or The God, then that evidence could just as easily be equally interpreted as evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence(s), whose purpose(s) or objective(s) may not be all that benign.

So my second and more likely possible answers to ‘if God isn’t God, then who is God?’ are summed up by the well known phrase ‘ancient astronauts’. God is, or was, an extraterrestrial, but not in this case the creator of a simulated universe. Rather, a being within a really real universe. Recall (the late) Arthur C. Clarke’s third law, “any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic”, or in this context, an advanced extraterrestrial technology and alien being welding same is indistinguishable from the supernatural or a supernatural God.

If the above argument is valid, then I conclude that it’s easy to explore the nooks and crannies of our galaxy, and seeing that we have no place to run and hide, that then we indeed have been discovered by extraterrestrials. Since one or more extraterrestrial technological civilizations have already done their boldly going exploring thing, it stands to reason that at various times in our geological and historical past we would have received visitors from the stars. If one or more such occurrences happened in our historical past, there might be some suggestive evidence of same; and thus the concept of the ‘ancient astronaut’ has come to pass.

Erich Von Daniken, including those of a similar point of view who came before and after him, collectively had the germ of a good idea, but he, and they, IMHO got rather carried away with the concept and started seeing ancient extraterrestrial astronauts behind every pyramid and megalith in existence. Now I don’t believe for a moment that aliens, or humans assisted by aliens, built the pyramids or the statues at Easter Island or any other type of archaeological monument. Evidence suggestive of ancient astronauts will probably best be found in myths and legends, including the myths and legends central to our major religions, perhaps in advanced human knowledge of scientific concepts out of sync with that particular culture so hosting that knowledge, or in art works, or other archaeological works that are suggestive of an awareness of sky beings.

Firstly, nearly all cultures have stories and pictograms about or of sky beings, including the Australian aboriginals and American Indians. Myths and legends surrounding, say, the Greek / Roman / Norse gods can be interpreted in an ancient astronaut context (ditto for other religious beings or gods), or perhaps the Biblical ‘Wheel of Ezekiel’ is suggestive. While the etchings on the Plain of Nazca were certainly not runways, for flying saucers, they can easily be interpreted as mammoth human constructions designed to be viewed by sky beings. Why go to the trouble if sky beings weren’t really around to appreciate your efforts?

Then there’s a whole pot-full of mythological creatures – the Centaur, unicorns, the Sphinx, the Griffin, Pegasus, the Minotaur, mermaids, dragons, etc. which might be non-humanoid extraterrestrial life forms. Or, more realistically, perhaps in light of the UFO abduction and Roswell greys, are the myths and legends shared by many cultures dealing with elves, dwarfs, gnomes, the fairy-folk, the wee-people, and other smallish beings that aren’t quite human. It strikes me as more logical that these ‘wee folk’ actually exist, and that’s why all the references to, and belief in, them, exist. That is, they are really real vis-à-vis references to, and belief in them, because there is some psychological, sociological or cultural necessity to invent imaginary beings, calling it mythology (as opposed to literary fiction), or perhaps calling it religion.

In conclusion, the ‘ancient astronaut’ field is a subject ripe for detailed academic study, and the concept of the ‘ancient astronaut’ shouldn’t be dismissed by scholars are readily as it has been. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely any academic would put his or her career on the line by pursuing such a controversial, ‘pseudo-scientific, topic because of the ‘giggle’ factor – Pity that.

Further recommended ‘ancient astronaut’ readings:

Blumrich, Josef F.; The Spaceships of Ezekiel; Bantam Books, New York; 1974: 

Castle, Edgar W. & Thiering, Barry B. (Joint Editors); Some Trust in Chariots!!; Westbooks, Perth, W.A.; 1972:

Daniken, Erich von; Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York; 1969:

Daniken, Erich von; Gods from Outer Space: Return to the Stars or Evidence for the Impossible; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York; 1971:

Downing, Barry H.; The Bible & Flying Saucers; Avon Books, New York; 1968:

Drake, W. Raymond; Gods and Spacemen in the Ancient East; Sphere Books, London; 1974:

Drake, W. Raymond; Gods and Spacemen in the Ancient West; Sphere Books, London; 1974:

Norman, Eric; Gods Demons and UFOs; Lancer Books, New York; 1970:

Story, Ronald; Guardians of the Universe?; New English Library, London; 1980: 

Story, Ronald; The Space-Gods Revealed: A Close Look at the Theories of Erich von Daniken; Harper & Row, New York; 1976: 

Temple, Robert K.G.; The Sirius Mystery; Sidgwick & Jackson, London; 1976:

Wilson, Clifford; Crash Go the Chariots; Lancer Books, New York; 1972:

Wilson, Clifford; The Chariots Still Crash; Signet, New York; 1975:

Wilson, Clifford; The War of the Chariots; S. John Bacon, Melbourne, Victoria; 1978: