mark9950

remember carl sagans cosmos episodes on channel 11 back in 1980.

I do know that he is a respected scientist.

I do believe for every reaction there is an action to cause things.

The action could be is that an alien that was powerful may have visted the earth many years ago.

The reaction would be to fear this alien/aliens to the point that they must worship this alien and write myths about the alien/aliens.

Action you see a car coming head on your lane

Reaction you must avoid the car to prevent a collision.

Mageth

The action could be is that an alien that was powerful may have visted the earth many years ago.

The reaction would be to fear this alien/aliens to the point that they must worship this alien and write myths about the alien/aliens.

You don't need to posit aliens from outer space as explanations for the God phenomenon. It's just not necessary. There are many natural phenomenon that could inspire fear and awe, leading to deification. There were more powerful native tribes/cities that could incite fear and awe in a less-powerful people, not to mention various animals, volcanoes, storms, lightning, fire, the sun that visited the sky for a period every day, the planets that followed regular clockwork paths across the night sky, and the moon that visited the sky every night (and that died and was resurrected every month, too, BTW).

Kilgore Trout

One thing I find interseting about this theory is it seems to be a way to highlight one of the fallacies I find that christians often use. When someone says there is no god, a response they often have is: "How can you say there is no god when you don't have knowledge of the entire universe?"

Well, lets assume Jesus did the miracles he is claimed to have done in the gospels. That still doesn't prove where he got his power from. Christians say Jesus doing miracles is proof he is god. Since they have no evidence of god then you can tell them: "Maybe Jesus was an alien or do YOU have knowledge of the entire universe and can prove he wasn't?"

That doesn't mean I think he was an alien since I don't think he did any miracles either. I'm just saying that even if he somehow did miracles you can come up with lots of reasons how he got his power that have as much evidence as their reason (none).

Another reason could be that Jesus is working with the Devil to draw Jews away from true Judaism. After all even Jesus himself says false prophets will use signs and wonders to deceive the believers. So he is saying that just because someone performs miracles doesn't mean that person is on god's side. After all he supposedly did all these great miracles but they crucified him anyway. So I guess the Jews didn't share the beief that anybody who does miracles is sent by god. The Torah says Jews are supposed to kill anybody who claims the sort of things Jesus claimed, so they were just following god's orders.

Secular Pinoy

I have both those books. Whic book and page are you referring to? Thanks.

lunachick

Perhaps it was just the awe of natural phenomena, and a need to explain it. Things like thunder and lightening, tornadoes and hurricanes, floods and droughts. There are also eruptions and earthquakes, etc, but much of what is great and awesome comes from the weather - the sky - the heavens. So, I figure, that just like a child imagines a real person (only really, really small, somehow) sitting in the radio, talking and playing cd's - primitive adults would imagine something very much like themselves (only really, really big and powerful, somehow) sitting in the sky, to explain the weather. And that early personification of the elements, coupled with developing cultural imaginations, led to the creation of God(s).

keyser_soze

Exactly. Another way of looking at it:

When something is explained, there is less reason to fear it. That huge roaring sound and flashing hell-light from the sky is frightening...but if you were to believe it was Thor striking his hammer in valhalla....you would find it less frightening. People create myth, to explain events they don't understand. A real example would be fishermen, who came upon "red tides" which are not in reality blood but rather naturally occurring algae growths(albeit unusual) ascribing to them some mythical circumstance(a blood slick half a mile accross could cause a less than knowing person some brief pause one would imagine)....

wildsimian

Aliens? Nah. No need.

Ever since humans developed self-awareness, realized we were "alive", and developed a sense of empathy .... we also realized (uh-oh) that we would die.

Even chimps and other primates will carry around their dead infants for days ... poking and proding at them as if they are wondering "what happened?".

Realization of death is the price we had to pay for our higher cognitive abilities. But we found a way around it ... or at least a way to placate ourselves. Religion.

Mageth

Welcome, wildsimian. A very good point. I agre that the realization of individual death is almost certainly a major spark, the major spark, that ignited mythological (wishful) thinking in early humans.

wildsimian

Thank you for the welcome. This site definitely has a vast array of ideas.

I do wonder where that spark originated though. I don't recall any account of homo erectus burying their dead. ooops, wait. Wrong part of the forum.