What the Bible Doesn’t Mention: Part One

We all know what the Bible mentions. Books featuring ‘stories from the Bible’ are a dime a dozen in bookstores. What doesn’t the Bible mention is way more interesting and amounts to just about most of life, the universe and everything. What the Bible omits tells heaps about the bona-fides of God the alleged deity, and ultimate author!

What the Bible* doesn’t contain is perhaps of far greater importance than what it does say when one comes to examining the relative importance of the document and it’s proper place in the world’s literature. Because of fairly major omissions, I conclude that the Bible is just a fairly minor piece of site-specific pseudo-historical literature (to be kind) or a potpourri anthology of fairly mundane science fantasy short stories because most of the historical context is unverifiable. 

In the beginning, the Bible states…

Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Now that presumably means God created all of the heavens, the entire universe and all it contains, which of course includes the earth and all of the geography therein. Yet only a tiny fraction of ‘heaven and earth’ get a mention in the Good Book! Let’s start with the ‘heavens’ and see what the Bible positively mentions, as well as the negative, what isn’t mentioned.

Heaven’s Positive Mentions: Constellation, Moon, Planets, Stars, Sun – in other words, the basics that you’d expect of any ancient society that had a reason to observe the heavens and chart the pathway of the stars and planets.

Heaven’s Negative Mentions: Asteroid(s), Astronomy, Aurora, Black Holes, Calendar, Comet(s), Cosmology, Cosmos, Eclipse, Equinox, Gaia, Galaxy, Jupiter (the planet), Luna, Lunar, Mars, Mercury, Meteors (and variations), Nebula, Neptune, Outer Space, Planetoid, Pluto, Satellite, Saturn, Solar, Solstice, Terra, Universe, Uranus, Venus, Aliens (as in extraterrestrials), Extraterrestrials – well okay, you get the idea that there’s an awful lot contained in and of the heavens that’s not acknowledged in the Bible.

Discussion: One very interesting question immediately comes to mind. Where did God live before creating heaven by the way? What was his previous address and did he leave ‘heaven’ as his forwarding address? That aside, you’d of thought that a God who created the universe would have had a bit more to say on the subject. Bragging rights perhaps?

Despite God creating the universe (a synonym for heaven?) and all that it contains, there’s no Biblical mention of extraterrestrials. Surely an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-creator God wouldn’t waste all that heavenly space. Surely he’d like more than just human earthlings to worship him. Then too God might be egotistical enough to put humanity in its disgraced state, in its proper place, by rubbing it in that other higher [extraterrestrial] life forms without sin graced the cosmos and were, of course, his creations and they at least paid attention to his instructions! So there!

Well actually God does acknowledge aliens in a roundabout way. It’s contained in statements akin to “Thou shall have no other gods before me”. Those ‘other gods’ are IMHO extraterrestrials. It’s either that or else you’ve got to accept the reality of polytheism and literally thousands upon thousands of supernatural deities.

Earth’s Positive Mentions: Arabia, Armenia, Asia, Assyria, Crete, Cyprus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Persia, Red Sea, Spain and probably other geographical locations and places surrounding Biblical terrain.

Earth’s Negative Mentions: Afghanistan, Africa, America, Anatolia, Antarctica, Arctic, Argentina, Armenia, Asia Minor, Atlantic, Australia, Black Sea, Brazil, Britain, Brittany, Canada, Caribbean, Chile, China, Cuba, Dead Sea, Denmark, Easter Island, Europe, Fiji, France, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Malta, Mediterranean, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Middle East, Near East, Netherlands, New Zealand, New World, Nile, Norway, Pacific, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Scandinavia, Scotland, Sicily, Sumer, Sweden, Switzerland, Tahiti, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, Wales – well again, you should have gotten the impression by now that there’s an awful lot of terrestrial geography that God totally ignores in his magnum opus. There are also some surprising omissions like the Nile and the Mediterranean Sea. 

Discussion: Well of course not all of those place names were in existence back in Biblical times so you’d argue that their omission is hardly surprising. But since the Bible is God’s holy word, and since God is all-knowing, what better way to show-off and demonstrate his absolute knowledge and be impressive, then and into the future, than through parlour games by predicting with 100% accuracy those eventual undiscovered countries that would eventually be named, for example, United States or Australia? Alas no such thing has come to pass for not even God prophesied such names and places in his holy text – the Bible. He missed a golden opportunity there. 

To be continued…

*King James Version

Ancient Astronauts: An Extraterrestrial Fairy Tale: Part Two

Scholars when they research the polytheistic gods of ancient civilizations and cultures start with the assumption that the gods are imaginary inventions of the fertile human mind and purely mythical beings. I start with the opposite assumption, that is that ancient peoples depicted real (extraterrestrial) beings which to them were so advanced as to be deities - the gods. These ‘ancient astronauts’ have an actual ongoing presence which has filtered down through the present day, achieving now an actual quasi-mythology of its own, not just fictional as in say “Stargate”, but as a basis for serious speculation such as Erich von Daniken’s or even my own minor musings.

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

5) They, the extraterrestrials, made their presence felt at the dawn of mankind’s emergence; but hence, because there were so many of them, polytheism became the religious order of the day as far as the various human cultures were concerned. The humans obviously mistook the advanced extraterrestrials for supernatural deities, worshiping what they thought were the ‘gods’, but who in reality were at best pseudo-gods.

Discussion: One criticism of von Daniken’s (and others) ‘ancient astronauts’ was the ‘evidence’ in their use of their advanced technologies in building, or assisting in the building of the ancient Egyptian or Mesoamerican pyramid and other monumental constructions or well, monuments. Critics suggest that it insults the reasoning, resourcefulness, ingenuity, stubbornness, imagination, intelligence and other capabilities of our remote ancestors. If that’s the case, and I agree it is, then it’s equally insulting to suggest that they couldn’t distinguish fact from fiction and invented imaginary beings (their ‘gods’) out of whole fictional cloth as opposed to presenting their ‘gods’ as real entities. They certainly believed their ‘gods’ were really real, so let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they were indeed really real.

So what evidence do I offer up that the ‘gods’ were really real, albeit actual flesh-and-blood extraterrestrials. Well, there’s the consistency of the tales within each culture and often parallel consistencies between ancient societies and their mythologies. For example, parallel ideas central to a ‘paradise’ or to ‘sky beings’ or to ‘wars fought in heaven’. That’s very unlike the Bible which contradicts itself no end – like at nearly every opportunity. I mean, ‘turn the other cheek’ vs. ‘an eye for an eye’; ‘thou shall not kill’ but please execute homosexuals. Then there are the images of the ‘gods’ as wall paintings or rock carvings or as statutes, frescos, etc. So what? Well, these images are contemporary with the reign of the ‘gods; it’s as if the ‘gods’ sat for their portraits. The ‘gods’ weren’t camera shy! If the ‘gods’ didn’t exist, why would the ancient Greeks go to so much trouble as to construct the massive Statue of Zeus at Olympia which occupied the whole width of the aisle of the temple that was built to house it, and was 12 meters (40 feet) tall; the Colossus of Rhodes, a giant statue of the Greek god Helios, god of the sun, some 35 meters (110 ft) tall; or the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus which was dedicated to the Greek goddess Artemis and took 120 years to build. Oh, all of these are listed as being three of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. That’s big league territory. Sorry, not one of the Seven Ancient Wonders was devoted to ‘God’.

Then there is the nature of some of those images. I mean if you look at, or read a description of the Egyptian god Seth (Set), it just screams out ‘I’m an extraterrestrial’.

6) Therefore, the polytheistic pseudo ‘gods’ (or at least some, many or most of them) exist. Later on down the track, what became the monotheistic ‘God’, actually pseudo-God also existed. However, in the beginning, pseudo-God was just one of the pseudo-gods.

Discussion: If you assume the ‘gods’ exist, you may as well assume ‘God’ exists, but it’s also logical to lump them all together. On the other hand, if ‘God’ exists, why are there no images of ‘God’ from say 4000 years ago (to the best of my knowledge anyway)? There are no paintings; no frescos; no statues; no images at all. Perhaps that’s suggestive evidence that there is no ‘God’, or perhaps ‘God’ was just ‘camera’ shy!

7) Now I assume here that the ‘gods’ and ‘God’ are all related, but like humans, aren’t always one big happy family. In fact, if there’s any one word that describes the family of the ‘gods’, its “dysfunctional”!

Discussion: Take the ancient Egyptian ‘god’ Seth (or Set – whose appearance just screams out something extraterrestrial), who had quite a domestic spat with fellow ‘gods’ Osiris, Isis and Horus. Poor Osiris was murdered in fact by Seth. That’s dysfunctional!

Speaking of dysfunctional, there are lots of references in mythology to wars fought in heaven between the ‘gods’ (battles in outer space – a sort of ‘Star Wars’ perhaps?). There’s no doubt the ‘gods’ do fight among themselves for dominance. For example, the Olympian ‘gods’ (Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, etc.) kicked out the Titans to achieve top ranking status as the Greek ‘gods’. Then there’s the Norse apocalypse of Ragnarok – more ‘gods’ behaving badly. Finally, there’s that heavenly battle royal between ‘God’ and company, vs. ‘Satan’ and company. [See Section 9]

8) Even further on down the track, was there was some sort of a falling out between ‘God’ (and His followers) and the other ‘gods’ for control over humanity? If so, ‘God’ and hangers-on win – monotheism comes to the fore.

Discussion: Well there’s no disputing that once upon a time, polytheism ruled the world; today monotheism tends to hold sway. Translated, in those ancient polytheistic times the ‘gods’ ruled, but in later times, our beloved monotheistic ‘God’ ruled heaven and Earth. If ‘God’ were once just one of the boys, just one of the ‘gods’ then there must have been some sort of falling out, even if there’s no documentation to that effect (that I’m aware of). Of course a non-existent ‘God’ might have won the hearts and minds of humanity by default. The supporters of monotheism had a good PR operation going!

9) However, ‘God’ (assuming His reality) and His minions have a falling out in turn – a house divided against itself. This is where ‘Satan’ and followers tell ‘God’ and followers to take a long walk off a short pier. Ultimately, ‘God’ proves to have ‘the force’ be with Him.

Discussion: Well there’s no disputing the Biblical (tall) tales that ‘document’ some sort of domestic disagreement between ‘God’ and some sort of entity we call today ‘Satan’. If you believe those Biblical tall tales, the end result of that domestic dispute, Armageddon, isn’t in fact in dispute. There’s a decided element here of “This ain’t over till it’s over; this ain’t finished yet; I’ll be back”! However, if you believe the Bible and the Book of Revelation, then you realise that Armageddon should have taken place over 1900 plus years ago, at least according to J.C. He said that the final battle between good (‘God’) and evil (‘Satan’) – I bet he was biased in deciding who was what – would take place within a generation or two of his utterances. So, if it took place way back then it took place off planet and out of human sight – a real life ‘Star Wars’. But if it hasn’t happened yet, assuming ‘God’ and ‘Satan’ are really real ET’s, then it probably isn’t every likely to. I mean you can only hold off a grudge match so long. Maybe they’ve kissed and made up, or…   

10) But, a now much weakened ‘God’ and company are ripe for getting their comeuppance and it was so. They then get overturned and banished by the ‘gods’, which is why there’s no evidence for any Godly presence over the past several millenniums. ‘God’ has left the building! ‘God’ has been tarred and feathered and exiled from Dodge City.

Discussion: There have been no ‘acts of God’ documented over the past several thousand years – no burning bushes, no universal floods, no pillars of salt.  So either there is no ‘God’, or ‘God’ is afraid to show His face or His presence, or ‘God’ has tucked tail between legs and sought fame and fortune elsewhere - if the latter, who else had the power to exile ‘God’ but the ‘gods’? 

11) But are the ‘gods’ still around? There’s been equally and relatively little evidence for them too over the past several millenniums. Still, I propose they’re out there at a distance, patiently observing, ever observing.

Discussion: It’s unlikely that if the ‘gods’ are really boldly going extraterrestrials, and since they have expended so much time, effort and energy in exploring this strange new world and new civilization (Earth and Earthlings) they would totally abandon their investment, their vacation R&R spot, their paradise, their home away from home. On the other hand, it’s one thing to hold sway over relative primitives, quite another to try to hold sway over a rapidly advancing civilization, one which by leaps and bounds begins to achieve their level of thunderbolt and related technologies. 

12) But what happens when humans get advanced enough technologically to begin to, at least in principle, have the potential to challenge the ‘gods’ on their own turf? That is, we humans can begin to toss around a thunderbolt or two of our own.

Discussion: There’s no doubt that we’ve come a technological long way baby over the past 6000 or so years; even in the past 600 years, far less the past 60 years which has seen humans go from a relative state of being at the mercy of Planet Earth, to Planet Earth being at the mercy of humans. Even if the ‘gods’ decide to concede their dominion over Planet Earth to the natives, they can not be confident that the tide won’t turn and that we humans, we natives, might ultimately seek dominion over the ‘gods’. So, if we’re becoming an increasing potential threat to the ‘gods’, why don’t they just wipe us out while the wiping out is good. Well, firstly, we’re just ‘potential’, not actual. Secondly, they may have some sort of Prime Directive against genocide. The ‘gods’ aren’t totally amoral beings. Thirdly, they could just leave, leaving no trace as to where they went. Sure, thousands of years hence, when we boldly go, then it might be the case that they can’t hide from us, but by then perhaps we too will have a Prime Directive in place. But in the meantime…

13) Enter the modern UFO era, with the ‘gods’ moving in to keep far closer tabs on us and their dominion, which they’ve probably never relinquished but are worried that it will be taken away from them, even by force. Our thunderbolts are now, or soon will be, bigger and better that their thunderbolts. 

Discussion: Well, there’s no denying that the modern UFO era dawned at the very time our nuclear thunderbolts came to the fore of our offensive capabilities. We’ve only increased the technological sophistication of our thunderbolts since.

The question is, will we all live happy ever after?

Ancient Astronauts: An Extraterrestrial Fairy Tale: Part One

Scholars when they research the polytheistic gods of ancient civilizations and cultures start with the assumption that the gods are imaginary inventions of the fertile human mind and purely mythical beings. I start with the opposite assumption, that is that ancient peoples depicted real (extraterrestrial) beings which to them were so advanced as to be deities - the gods. These ‘ancient astronauts’ have an actual ongoing presence which has filtered down through the present day, achieving now an actual quasi-mythology of its own, not just fictional as in say “Stargate”, but as a basis for serious speculation such as Erich von Daniken’s or even my own minor musings.

Before embarking on my little fairy tale, I note that for such taken-for-granted imaginary beings, the polytheistic gods and their relationships and adventures are spelled out in exquisite detail. I mean this was way before multi-season TV shows and volumes of related paperback novels for mass consumption. I mean we know an awful lot about Captain Kirk and Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter. But were there writers of polytheistic fiction back then who knew perfectly well they were fabricating the lives and times of the gods for consumption by and entertainment for the great unwashed and kept quiet about their literary fictions? Probably not! I don’t think the gods were literary characters invented out of whole cloth. Dare say a non-fictional biography of (fill in the blank - pick a god, any god) would be far more detailed than a similar tome devoted to God or Jesus Christ (J.C.).

The second point from the outset is that IMHO the polytheistic gods aren’t gods but ‘gods’. We think of them as the mythological gods but they weren’t actual gods but real alien beings. Now let’s get on with the tale.

1) Once upon a time, a long time ago, a group of boldly going extraterrestrials discovered Planet Earth and took dominion over it, like humans take dominion over national parks and reserves, but starting at a time before humans.

Discussion: If you assume advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist; If you assume that some advanced civilizations arose way, way, way before human civilization did; if you assume that they (or some of them) will boldly go and explore their galaxy; if you assume that there are no laws of physics that prevent subluminal space travel (there aren’t); and if you go along with calculations that suggest that the time it takes to explore every nook and cranny of the galaxy is but a short fraction of the age of the galaxy; if you accept that Planet Earth isn’t cloaked/invisible; then it’s logical that one of more such extraterrestrial civilizations have noted and logged Planet Earth in their galactic databanks, and because Earth is such a bio-friendly place, took a liking to the place, perhaps as a nice vacation spot for R&R.

There are many references in creation times and myths to the concept of paradise, perhaps ultimately nice vacation spots for the extraterrestrials, who we’ve come to identify with as the ‘gods’. . For example, the ancient Sumerians had this paradise called Dilmun, but it was a resort of, and for, the ‘gods’, not for humans. Dilmun was something like Eden, though who’s to say Eden didn’t serve as ‘God’s’ paradise retreat – a summer vacation home away from His day-to-day abode in heaven? In this case, ‘heaven’ is God’s home base, or in the case of the Norse ‘gods’, Asgard is their heaven equivalent, or perhaps spaceship. In Star Trek terms, ‘heaven’ or Asgard is the NCC 1701 Enterprise. So perhaps we have Starship Heaven and Starship Asgard!

One could argue that you’d need a very long lifespan to get subluminally from there to here. While there are other ways around that chestnut, recall that the ‘gods’ are immortal, or as close to it (in the human mind at least) as makes no odds. Whether it’s natural or technologically enhanced immortality is of no consequence in this case.

2) Now I’ve no idea where they came from except from somewhere out there. Different myths and legends point to different points of origin, all of which could well be the case.

Discussion: In the case of the ancient Greek ‘gods’, there’s some association with the stars, or constellations – the Pleiades and Orion in particular. The Greek Andromeda is also associated with a constellation of stars. Now a constellation is just a random grouping of stars usually not in close association with each other, but when viewed from Earth against a ‘flat’ blackboard or background of space, tend to form a sort of picture and our minds are very good at finding patterns and connecting the dots when presented with random configurations. The Big Dipper and the Southern Cross are two well known examples. Of course the ancients, our remote ancestors, didn’t know that. It was probably just as logical to associate a ‘god’ or ‘gods’ with a constellation as with one specific star (which we of course would do today). It’s sufficient for the sake of this argument that there is an association between the ‘gods’ (or at least some ‘gods’) and outer space. It seems as if nearly every culture’s ‘gods’ has some affinity with various stars, constellations, etc. 

3) In the time of humans, sometime later on down the line, these extraterrestrials would become, in the minds of the humans, the ‘gods’. But the so-called ‘gods’ (including ‘God’) were never real supernatural deities, but ‘flesh-and-blood’ extraterrestrials with advanced technology and powers.

Discussion: How would our ancient ancestors, with no knowledge of physics and chemistry and relatively little of what we’d call modern day astronomy, and who had only the rudiments of mechanical and construction engineering (though sufficient to build the pyramids, etc.) but certainly nothing in the way of being knowledgeable of electrical or nuclear engineering or abilities in same, view sky beings who had all this sort of advanced technology and powers. As equals? No, probably just as deities or ‘gods’.

What’s Zeus and Thor noted for? Lightning or thunderbolts, which is what ancient humans might have interpreted laser and particle bean weapons as, sort of like that envisioned as part of America’s Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) – the ‘Star Wars’ program. ‘God’s’ been known to toss around a thunderbolt or two as well. That’s an example of advanced technology or powers.

4) The ‘gods’ reign over their dominion of mankind wasn’t always benign and just.

Discussion: Well any readers of the Bible are well aware that ‘God’ has a big temper and a short fuse. Our so called ‘loving God’ certainly has directly caused massive death and destruction, so much so that I’d rather find my ‘loving’ in the arms of someone else. The ‘gods’ on the other hand are very loving, but often treat us mortals as their sexual playthings. Zeus apparently fathered a considerable proportion of the ancient Greek populus via mortal women and not via Mrs. Zeus – Perseus for one; Herakles (Hercules) was another; ditto Helen of Troy, the list goes on and on. And Zeus wasn’t the only randy ‘god’. That the ‘gods’ were sex machines, well that has filtered down to us even via such means as Richard Wagner’s four-part mega-opera “Der Ring Des Nibelungen”. In the second instalment, “Die Walkure”, we find the head god Wotan (Odin in Norse mythology) has fathered twins via a mortal woman, Siegmund and Sieglinde (who would in turn have a role in the hay and produce the flawed hero, Siegfried). Needless to say, the ‘gods’ hardly offer up any alimony or child support!

To be continued…

Aliens: The New Religion? Part Two

Aliens, as in extraterrestrials, are popular. The number of sci-fi novels, short stories, films, TV shows, factual documentaries, and the popular non-fiction literature (books and articles) must number in the multi-thousands. Are our interest and belief in, and search for, aliens, just a way of a substitution for a lack of belief in God? Do we have to believe in a higher power (advanced technology?), and if it’s not God, then extraterrestrials?

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

However, part of the overall perception problem doesn’t lie solely with UFO contactees spreading the word about their ‘space brothers’. Some of the ‘aliens as the new religion’ perception must rest with some of the more serious scientist ‘alien hunters’ who seek out new intelligent life forms and their civilizations.

Some of these scientists are partly to blame for this mythology citing as a rational, caught up in their enthusiasm, for their SETI quest, that contact and communication with extraterrestrial intelligence could lead to a Golden Age where we would be given the Encyclopaedia Galactica, the cure for cancer, and pollution free energy. They would, by being their own best example, show us how to avoid war and nuclear Armageddon; give us the ways and means of achieving global peace and disarmament – double balderdash, squared (well, sort of). It’s almost a (albeit slightly tuned down) version of the messages contactees spread.

Personally, I don’t think aliens are going to lift us up by our bootstraps – we’ve got to do that, all by our lonesome. So, whether it is contactees and New Age UFO Cult societies or SETI scientists promoting the salivation-from-the-skies ideas to help justify their work, it’s, IMHO, pure pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking.

What of the general public? There is widespread interest in, and believe in the existence of, advanced extraterrestrial life. Does that mean that millions are leaving their religion; not attending church, instead setting up telescopes at home or go UFO hunting? The truth may be out there, but I seriously doubt its any threat to either organised religion or people’s supernaturally-themed religious convictions.

Okay, so balderdash (well sort of) aside, yes, there is some truth to the perception that belief in aliens can be taken as a form of religion, well quasi-religion, but I see no real evidence that this is in any way detracting from societies’ established supernatural-based religions. I imagine many individuals believe in both aliens and God. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Some people believe in God, not aliens. Others, like me, suggest aliens are infinitely more a probable viability than a supernatural creator God.

Finally, any organisation trying to claim aliens as the centrepiece of their ‘church’ is going to find getting those standard religious tax concessions rather hard to come by!

At least believers in aliens don’t have a history of imprisoning, torturing, murdering or executing, exiling, ridiculing, etc. those who have interests and beliefs more focused in a down-to-earth direction. Alien hunters don’t demand you have some of your private parts snipped off or that you have to observe various foods, dress, time of day/day of week, sexual or other personal relationship ritual do’s and don’ts. SETI scientists have no ‘thou shall or shall not’ demands; ufologists demand no animal sacrifices or attendance at Sunday weekly UFO conventions. There is no such a thing as an infallible alien bible. No hymns are sung in praise of ET. You don’t have to, every hour on the hour, face towards the constellation of Orion, bow down, and give thanks to the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire for your very existence. And nobody wears the Southern Cross on a chain around their neck.

SETI scientists don’t engage in a Holy War against UFO buffs or vice versa; ancient astronauts enthusiasts don’t hold an Inquisition against SETI scientists or vice versa; UFO buffs don’t have Crusades against those who like the idea that ancient aliens assisted a fledging human race thousands of years ago or vice versa. Alien hunters may not always be one happy family, but compared to organised religion(s).

Also, alien hunters don’t go doorknocking trying to convert the unbelievers!

Alas, alien hunters won’t get to heaven (not that there is such a place) by discovering ET, but at least they won’t go to hell (no such place either) if they don’t! There is no 11^th Commandment along the lines of ‘Thou shall seek out my other creations among the firmament’; nor a 12^th, ‘Thou shall not worship my other creations among the firmament’!

Absolutely finally, if aliens are the new religion, well, they have light years left to travel before overtaking God, and Company as a force to be reckoned with.

But wait – an afterthought. Popularity isn’t the same thing as worship or belief, but in terms of perceptions of the God vs. alien possibilities, despite church attendance, we probably spend more time interacting with aliens than with God – if one interacts with God at all. Of course unless you are a professional astrobiologist or SETI scientist or an avid ufologist or one of those UFO abductees, you probably don’t interact with real aliens (or the concept of real aliens) either. However, over the course of a period of time, we tend to be exposed more to the concept of extraterrestrials than things Biblical; more often as not through films and TV shows. Certainly the amount of shelf space in book stores and libraries (home as well as public) devoted to aliens (usually sci-fi in the main) vis-à-vis the section devoted to religion – well, more people buy and read sci-fi than study their, or any other, religion. I know the Beatles got into hot water for claiming they were more popular than JC, but I’d bet a TV series featuring aliens gets higher ratings than one featuring Christianity.

Further readings:

Curran, Douglas; In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space; Abbeville Press, New York; 1985:

Lewis, James R. (Editor); The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds; State University of New York Press, Albany, New York; 1995:

Reece, Gregory L.; UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture; I.B. Tauris, London; 2007:

Thompson, Keith; Angels and Aliens: UFOs and the Mythic Imagination; Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts; 1991:

Aliens: The New Religion? Part One

Aliens, as in extraterrestrials, are popular. The number of sci-fi novels, short stories, films, TV shows, factual documentaries, and the popular non-fiction literature (books and articles) must number in the multi-thousands. Are our interest and belief in, and search for, aliens, just a way of a substitution for a lack of belief in God? Do we have to believe in a higher power (advanced technology?), and if it’s not God, then extraterrestrials?

There are those who suggest that our obsession with ancient astronauts, UFOs, SETI (the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence), and the like is nothing more than a religious fever under a different disguise. Instead of looking towards the heavens for salvation and ultimate truths in God, we reject God and instead we look towards the heavens and seek out new intelligences and new civilizations to boldly lead us on the path to a universal brotherhood; aliens that in their eternal wisdom will show us the one true path and give us all the benefits of their experiences and knowledge, knowledge that which gives us warp drives, a universal truth and justice, and the golden brick road that leads towards the cosmic way (the way of the cosmos?).

Balderdash! Well, sort of. 

God, assuming a God, is about supernatural explanations for creations like the origin of our planet and of us.

God is supposedly about good vs. evil; heaven vs. hell, salvation vs. damnation, and a warm fuzzy eternal afterlife.

God is about morality (never mind the lack of His own).

We don’t look to aliens for creation mythology; the afterlife; and our moral codes.

Certainly SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) scientists do not sit in worship at their radio telescope cathedrals that great alien in the sky that they seek. Seek they do, but not to worship. However, some do go a bit over-the-top in suggesting the types of societies they are likely to find and communicate with – it’s their version of the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. See below for more elaboration.

Assuming ancient astronauts, and assuming ancient astronauts were aliens, then the peoples of those ancient times obviously worshiped said ancient astronaut aliens. However, people interested in ancient astronaut aliens today hardly worship that what takes their interest. It’s just another facet of SETI (even if traditional SETI professionals would be horrified at having the study of ancient astronauts lumped in with what they do).

UFOs are slightly different kettles of fish to SETI (well, sort of) or ancient astronauts; different horses of many other colours. One such colour – at least to most people - is the cultist ‘giggle factor’ or ‘silly season’ colour. To the minority of others, well, they (cultists) believe in the ‘space brothers’ and are usually called contactees and they form various - for lack of a better phrase - New Age themed UFO societies. They do indeed worship, if not quite as gods, at least as ultra advanced supreme beings, who, for all practical purposes are as close to godlike and perfect as makes no odds. All is peace and harmony and enlightenment and utopia and perfect health and beauty and eternal rainbows in and on the worlds (including Venus and Saturn, etc.) of the ‘space brothers’. The ‘space brothers” collectively make even our most saintly of saints look like hardened criminals behind bars if not on death row!

UFO ‘space brother’ contactees or cultists often ‘preached’ their sermons of gloom and doom while offering salvation and enlightenment to the great unwashed via the messages they conveyed from those uppity-up pure-in-heart-and-mind aliens. Somehow the ‘space brothers’ offered us the one true pathway away from our destruction, often literally, as in the end of the world.

If I had some $$$ for every time the end of the world had been predicted, lets just say my bank manager and the tax office would both be pleased. I’m sure not a year goes by, probably not even a month, without someone (not always by any means UFO cultists) calling out loud and clear that ‘The sky is falling; the end is here; prepare to meet thy doom’.  For those misguided beings who take one such ever ongoing prophecy seriously, it might, I guess, be more logical to put your salvation eggs in an extraterrestrial basket carried around by UFOs. There’s way more evidence for the UFO ETH (ExtraTerrestrial Hypothesis) than for God. God hasn’t been seen (for at least 4000 years or so), tracked on radar, left physical trace marks on our environment, nor has He been filmed or photographed.

But some of these New Age Themed UFO societies can be hazardous to your health. The Heaven’s Gate group in 1997 were going to hitch a ride with this UFO concealed in the Hale-Bopp Comet as it swung around the Sun. There was one catch however - to get from terrestrial ground zero, to Hale-Bopp, you had to do yourself a fatal mischief. According to the “M*A*S*H” theme song, suicide maybe painless but it is still suicide. [There have been several other instances of mass suicide among the membership of religious cults – the Branch Davidians (Waco, Texas) and followers of Jim Jones and his People’s Temple (Guyana) – but these had nothing to do with aliens.]

Other New Age themed UFO societies are more harmless to your physical health (not sure about your mental health however), like the Unarius [Educational Foundation] Society; the Etherean Society; the Aetherius Society, and dozens more, both major and minor.

It has got to be said that bona fide UFO investigators dislike these cultists for muddying the UFO waters and turning what should be serious study into a joke within the larger general community. Riding with your racially pure white ‘space brothers’ in their UFOs to visit their home worlds (which either no one has ever heard of or which scientists have proven to be hellish enough, way beyond incapable of supporting complex life) and delivering their New Age words of cosmic truth and wisdom is going to generate a lot more column inches in the tabloids than serious investigations will in the major metropolitan press.

Fortunately, these contactees, and the New Age contactee movement were primarily a 1950’s fad. While there are those still around, they now have little real impact or influence today. However, their damage has been done, and the UFO field can not totally shake off their immense contribution to the UFO ‘silly season’ ‘giggle’ factor. 

In general however, serious UFO investigators who take the phenomena, well, seriously, most certainly do not worship whatever aliens, if any, may pilot said UFOs. I’ve never seen any evidence that UFO investigators are any different from the general population in terms of religious affiliation or church attendance.

To be continued...

The Afterlife

“Nothing is certain but death and taxes”, so the saying goes, and while much has been written about taxes, death is my topic under consideration, or at least your survival after death. The concept or subject of death (and closely related subjects) has (much like taxes) spawned billions of words (and conversations), millions of documents, multi-thousands of texts – and for all of that, we’re still none the wiser when it comes to death, or at least post-death! [Taxes we understand!]

Of all the Big Questions, one of the biggest of all is of course, is there any sort of life after death? Is there perhaps a heaven or a hell?  Or perhaps a life after death is as having an existence solely as some sort of spirit or ghost. The afterlife is akin to exobiology (otherwise known as astrobiology) in one sense – both are ‘sciences’ in search of their subjects!

Actually, quite apart from the fact that all major religions preach the existence of an afterlife, there are quite a few ‘religions’ where the death of an individual is actually celebrated (in song and dance, etc.) because they firmly believe that that person has now gone from ‘rags to riches’, the ‘riches’ part being the afterlife where all is peaches and cream and you get three square meals a day (including seconds!).

Now either there is some sort of on-going perception of the Universe after you are deemed medically dead (an afterlife), or there is not.

If there is not, then death is akin to the existence you had prior to your conception! You have no recall or perception of the Universe prior to your conception – it was peaceful; a stress-free, tax-free, memory-free, perception-free existence – if you could call it an ‘existence’. Translated, without an afterlife, post-death is akin to pre-life. It is a blissful state of nothingness.

Of course if there is no afterlife, if you only get one short bite of the cherry, or grab at the merry-go-round rings, because for 99.999999999+% of the Universe’s existence (assuming the Universe has as well a finite lifespan), you were a non-event. [Of course for most people, the great unwashed, even while alive you’re pretty much a non-event in the grand cosmic scheme of things!]

Even if you have an afterlife, and assuming there’s no such animal as reincarnation, 13.7 billion years of history have passed you by. You were a universal non-event from the Big Bang (and before, if there was a before the Big Bang event) through the date of your conception. That’s still a long time to be of no consequence to the cosmos!

Questions, questions, lots and lots of questions arise. Is it logical to have a finite beginning but an infinitely long (afterlife) ending? And what happens to you if there is an afterlife but the Universe hits a Big Crunch? If there’s a Big Crunch – the reverse of the Big Bang, then even your afterlife presumably is kaput!

If, on the other hand the Universe expands forever and forever (infinitely), and ‘dies’ an eventual Heat Death, albeit still existing as cold (as near to absolute zero as you can get) dark (no energy, no light) elementary particles, atoms, molecules, and larger bodies such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, etc., then your infinite afterlife is going to be a rather dull one – eternity spent contemplating for all practical purposes an ever expanding Universe tending towards a state of pure vacuum!

Then too is the theory that the relatively newly discovered ‘dark energy’ content of the cosmos increases in strength over time, ultimately not only accelerating the expansion rate of the Universe, but ultimately tearing apart clusters of galaxies, galaxies, stars and solar systems, molecules, atoms, right down to the most fundamental of particles – it’s termed ‘The Big Rip’. Presumably, the realm of the afterlife is still a part of the Universe, so if there is a Big Rip, well the afterlife you gets ripped apart as well!

Perhaps it’s better to go out with a Big Crunch bang than with an eternal cold dark whimper or being ripped apart! Or, perhaps there is another dimension or plane or parallel/alternative universe/existence where you will spend an eternal afterlife (complete with harp and wings and halo) where there is no Big Crunch or Heat Death or Big Rip – but I wouldn’t bet on it!

I should stress that it’s the fate of the Universe that’s important here vis-à-vis ‘living’ an afterlife. The demise of Planet Earth is of no consequence. If an afterlife is somehow on a different plane or in a different dimension, then what happens to Earth – existing in yet another plane or dimension - is of no matter.  I assume however that the Universe, containing all that there is, contains your afterlife plane or dimension and therefore its fate is your fate. So when the entire cosmos goes kaput (in either direction – Heat Death or Big Crunch), then it’s curtains for you too! 

Another point, if people really believed in an afterlife – in a life after death paradise – then they wouldn’t go to such lengths, expend so much time, effort and expenses to avoid or delay their own death, would they?. If you’re aged, suffering the disabilities of same, in pain, say due to cancer, why not give in immediately and go to paradise? No, people tend to fight the prospect of death with all the resources they can muster, even though it’s ultimately a hopeless battle. They might state they believe in an afterlife, but they fight tooth and nail to avoid it! 

Should one be afraid of death? Only if one firmly believes that there is a nasty afterlife (Hell?) to which they are likely bound for. But, there’s no evidence anywhere, at anytime, that such a ‘Hell’ exists; has existed or even can exist. The proof of that afterlife pudding lies with those claiming that there is such a thing. 

Somewhat akin to the Christian concepts of Heaven and Hell afterlives, is the concept of the ‘spirit world’ or moving on to a ‘higher plane of existence’ after your physical death. I’m actually not really sure what a ‘higher plane of existence’ actually means in any sort of physical sense. Presumably it has to be physical since there are those who claim that when you die, some part of you, when it departs the physical body and heads for the ‘spirit world’ or a ‘higher plane of existence’, actually has weight or mass, and thus your afterlife essence is a physical thing and thus must reside in a physical medium. Methinks that such phrases as ‘spirit world’ or ‘higher plane of existence’ sound a lot like parapsychology, paranormal or psychic mumbo jumbo.

However, let’s assume the ‘spirit world’ or ‘higher plane of existence’ is a physical place, for sake of argument. The only thing that makes any sense is to employ these six or seven hidden dimensions that string theorists postulate (string theory only works in ten or eleven dimensions, four of which we are intimately familiar with – front/back; left/right; up/down; and time). But, the consensus is, that these dimensions, if they exist at all, are ultramicroscopic, curled up in a volume less than typical atomic sizes. So, maybe you spend your post-death eternity in a space that occupies less volume than that of an electron! This kind of recalls the worlds within worlds within worlds within worlds philosophy (it’s hardly science, albeit a frequent topic for sci-fi authors), akin to the series of Russian dolls all nested inside one another and each getting progressively smaller and smaller as you go along. Regardless, such an afterlife doesn’t sound very appealing, but what do I know!

Actually there’s a reason rooted in physics that suggests that you can’t have an eternal afterlife – unless you’ve had an eternal pre-life. If you just have an afterlife, then something has been created from nothing since 100% of your mortal remains, remains stuck in our physical world, and yet presumably your afterlife existence must somehow be connected with some matter/energy that had bugger-all to do with your physical life. Of course if you had a pre-life, then that matter/energy went into short-term storage, awaiting your return to Never-Never Land, the spirit world, whatever you wish to call it, after some short metamorphous into a flesh-and-blood existence. The fly in the ointment is, I don’t recall any eternal pre-life, do you?

If by chance some part of the matter/energy that made up your flesh-and-blood-ness travels with you to, and become you, in the afterlife, then, when that amount or bit of matter/energy is multiplied by all humans who have ever lived, live now, and will live, and presumably ditto all animals too, that’s going to add up to quite a net loss of matter/energy to Planet Earth. I’m unaware of any net loss of matter/energy from our abode that would suggest transference from same, to Never-Never Land (or whatever, wherever).

There’s one other option. If our Universe is a simulated Universe; if you are just part of a virtual reality, say a character in an extremely realistic video game, then it’s possible that that simulation contains an afterlife software program, perhaps called ‘heaven’, perhaps ‘hell’, perhaps ‘spirit world’. Being nothing but a simulated being, software computer code, might be the price you pay to get a software computer coded afterlife!

All Things Irreligious: Introduction

The Bible is fiction; God is a fraud; religion is a total nonsense; there is no heaven or hell or afterlife. That’s just some of the themes I’ll be exploring over the next several months in this, my thoughts on ‘all things irreligious’. Be warned, if you are easily offended by those pointing out the absolute absurdities of the Christian religions, then stay clear. This is not for you. But if you value logic and if you like to think for yourself about the bona-fides of all things Biblical and godly, then stay tuned. This will be a wild ride.