Aren't the deities aliens?

[anunitu]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

Depends on the viewer...savages that can't even conceive of how to light a fire,and you (potential God) pop out your Magic Zippo.. ...just saying..

[Medusa]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

Depends on the viewer...savages that can't even conceive of how to light a fire...just saying..

I watch a lot of day time talk shows. Pretty much people have no idea how they get preggers.

[anunitu]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

Well yes there is that...(Ponders the dead end side of evolution)

[B. de Corbin]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

Arthur C. Clark said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

However, people expect more from a god than the "gee whiz" factor of putting on a clever show.

[anunitu]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

That is when you bust out your copy of a Justin Bebier(so I spelled it wrong,sue me) and the local populace is convinced you have a direct connect to the God of bad taste.

[monsno_leedra]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

The history and beliefs of the Dogon people also support the notion of ancient astronauts and visiting earth. Even to the belief that as a race they originated on the star, Son of Sirus the Dog Star.

[Alienist]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

In the Sumerian myths they wanted gold..and they made us smarter to be able to mine it for them...Why Gold..who knows. The idea is they domesticated our ancestors to do some dirty work,and in the process cut us loose to become what we now are.

Thank you and good night..

I thought the theory kind of explained that. It was because of Nibiru, their home planet had a depleting atmosphere and needed gold to replenish it, otherwise they'd freeze or burn up in the suns rays. Also gold was also used for science and magic and prolonged life. Why do you think gold was called "The metal of the gods."? The Ark of the Covenant being made of gold, the golden apples in Norse mythology, ect.

Also I wouldn't just dismiss the theory just because it's not what we were taught to believe in. Some will say "Well it's not what I was raised to believe in or it doesn't fit with my beliefs so it's not true." Doesn't anyone remember what Arthur C. Clarke said? "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable to magic."

[Dumuzi]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

If you believe that these gods are:

1. Physical living beings / life forms
2. Who did not originate from earth

then technically, yes, they are aliens.

[Alienist]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

True. I mean, many stories say of how they created the Earth in some way shape or form and came from "Heaven" Heaven is in another place entirely, it's not on earth, so any of the deities that came from Asgard or Heaven or Otherworld or wherever, the deities, are by definition, aliens, as they did not originate from Earth.

[feathered_regalia]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

I don't buy the ancient alien theory. It takes a bunch of coincidental information then linking it all together through the use of speculation rather than hard evidence. It's like saying that a playstation 3 is the same as a dvd player because they both play dvds. However, you can't game on a dvd player. Just because there are pyramids in south america and pyramids in egypt doesn't mean they're the same type of pyramids.

Writing wasn't common hundreds of years ago and the Mayans didn't keep personal journals. I heard one ancient alien theorist claim that when people invented writing they wrote down what they saw and what they heard, that they recorded their history to preserve it because they felt it was important. That sounds like the feelings of a historian projecting how they feel about writing onto people who don't exist anymore and can't say what they were around to do. From my perspective, it is far more likely that they wrote what could be displayed to unify their people. Centering everyone around a religion was an excellent way to keep order in the ancient world. Can you imagine if they actually wasted time writing what people saw every day? No one would appreciate writing if it was just used to record data and never enlightened or changed the way people perceived their world. Writing was used to control general perspective. Divine right was the greatest way to say you were the authority, because there was no way to dispute it, and those who wrote generally had all the authority. It unified people and served as a constant reminder of what they needed to believe.

This is why temples were so large and why people would come up with similar designs. These structures had to be unique. They had to reinforce the will of the religious authority by being a constant reminder. So what accounts for all the heavenly accounts? There are so many ways to come up with plausible theories. It's all speculation until hard evidence supports just one theory. Since no one's found the leftover shells of alien tech lying around, that theory is still out for me.

One can easily explain it as inspiration. Where does inspiration come from? We don't know. Why does an artist suddenly see something he'd like to paint? A neurobiologist would give you a very different explanation from the artist. Where do you feel inspiration? In your mind. It just comes to you, like it was sent from somewhere out there. Somewhere from above... Must be the heavens.

Or perhaps in their efforts to construct information about where these deities lived, they were hard-pressed to come up with where they would live on Earth, because then what happens when a member of the population actually makes it there and there's no gods? So, put those gods in the heavens, and there's no risk of that happening. But why in so many places around the world were people coming up with such similar stories? Well, that, too, is pretty obvious.

Universally, people see faces in everyday objects that aren't actually there, but simply resemble a face. There is a primitive part of the brain that has been identified as the culprit behind this "phenomenon". The brain follows similar lines of reasoning and it doesn't take much persuasion to get it to believe in what it sees. And it's universal. So if it happens at point "A", there's no reason to believe it won't happen at point "B" also.

From my personal experiences with meditation and psychic abilities, I believe there is also an explanation on an energy level that science hasn't caught up with yet.

As for gods being considered aliens on the basis of the fact that they come from Heaven or wherever, that would depend. Clearly Earth is accessible from this place, so who's to say this place is not just another facet of Earth minus the physical aspects? What if this place only exists because of Earth's existence? Could you still consider them aliens then? The fact is we don't have enough solid evidence to give us the level of understanding to make certain judgment calls at this time. The idea is an interesting one, but better suited to scifi and the realm of fantasy as things stand now.

[Dez]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

I rather liked reading Fingerprints of the Gods, but I thought the most interesting stuff was the idea that there has already been a technological cycle that crashed, rather then the alien suggestion.

The idea that makes more sense to me when it comes to aliens is that we feel a needed psychological niche of "otherness". Up until recent human history, I'm pretty sure that same spot was filled by Pixies/Fay/etc, I.E. the stories of something *like* humans, but different in some uncanny valley way, operating within a different set of rules then we do, and capable of whisking people away. Aliens never seem to follow the big mythic archetypal functions of Gods. That leads to a problem: why in the world would aliens do big dramatic things in the past, then resort to kidnapping random people and the occasional cow? It has the same logical fallacy issues that believing in modern prophets(and then, by extension, prophesy period) do.

P.S. If the idea of God coming from another planet strikes your fancy, you should take a look at the LDS Book of Abraham. Look for the word Kolob: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Abraham

[Alienist]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

I rather liked reading Fingerprints of the Gods, but I thought the most interesting stuff was the idea that there has already been a technological cycle that crashed, rather then the alien suggestion.

The idea that makes more sense to me when it comes to aliens is that we feel a needed psychological niche of "otherness". Up until recent human history, I'm pretty sure that same spot was filled by Pixies/Fay/etc, I.E. the stories of something *like* humans, but different in some uncanny valley way, operating within a different set of rules then we do, and capable of whisking people away. Aliens never seem to follow the big mythic archetypal functions of Gods. That leads to a problem: why in the world would aliens do big dramatic things in the past, then resort to kidnapping random people and the occasional cow? It has the same logical fallacy issues that believing in modern prophets(and then, by extension, prophesy period) do.

P.S. If the idea of God coming from another planet strikes your fancy, you should take a look at the LDS Book of Abraham. Look for the word Kolob: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Abraham

Well the aliens from the past may not be the same as the ones that kidnap cows and people. There are other species of aliens. I mean I don't see how it's that implausible for deities to be aliens, especially since they are by default "aliens" anyway since they didn't come from Earth. Also didn't anyone see mayan and Aztec figures of "chariots" of the gods and goddesses? They look like air plane jets.

[anunitu]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

Truthfully none of this matters much in the long run,perhaps visitors came and we called them gods,or Gods came and spoke with we humans. The thing is we believe what we believe each to their own conception as to what it means to believe in Gods. Some reject the concept of Gods altogether,and some ride the fence. What really matters is if your personal belief works for you,and that is really all that matters.

[monsno_leedra]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

I rather liked reading Fingerprints of the Gods, but I thought the most interesting stuff was the idea that there has already been a technological cycle that crashed, rather then the alien suggestion.

The idea that makes more sense to me when it comes to aliens is that we feel a needed psychological niche of "otherness". Up until recent human history, I'm pretty sure that same spot was filled by Pixies/Fay/etc, I.E. the stories of something *like* humans, but different in some uncanny valley way, operating within a different set of rules then we do, and capable of whisking people away. Aliens never seem to follow the big mythic archetypal functions of Gods. That leads to a problem: why in the world would aliens do big dramatic things in the past, then resort to kidnapping random people and the occasional cow? It has the same logical fallacy issues that believing in modern prophets(and then, by extension, prophesy period) do.

P.S. If the idea of God coming from another planet strikes your fancy, you should take a look at the LDS Book of Abraham. Look for the word Kolob: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Abraham

If you look to the perspective that Earth was a big peetree dish then it makes sense that as the species progress you remain hidden as the observer. Something that is still practiced in most wildlife observations so you do not influence the creature being observed. Yet specimens are still taken for analysis or research before being returned to the habitat.

As far as personal interaction there are many stories of the gods / goddesses but far fewer of actual interaction with them where they are identified as god / goddess. Usually later generations make that equation or via the god / goddess seerer / priest / priestess.

[Aikadon]

Re: Aren't the deities aliens?

From a perspective of "how could a religion have started" then yes, aliens are one explanation, a strange one, as there are much more likely options available.

Per definition, I believe that god is not a being, but a deity. To asume a god to be a physical entity is, in my opinion, to contradict their divinity. And so from a theological standpoint, I'd say no, a god can't be an alien. Even if worship of an alien being appears, you could either see that as them as being being falsly worshipped as a god, but I personally believe that they would rather "become" a patron god, or a patron god would Begin to exist from the worship of that alien.

Ofcourse these are only my metaphysical theories. Not to put to much weight on anything I say.