Maleficus

I've been basically an Atheist for a couple years now. I've also been reading Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, and other vampire books. I've been basically obsessed with vampires for about 2 years now, but something troubled me in all the books I've read, either the origins of vampires was spiritual, or there was no origin explained(specifically, Bram Stoker's Dracula). This obsession is possibly because I am 16, but I believe that age isn't the only way to wisdom. I've done a great deal of studying on vampire lore, and religion. Well, here goes, I expect a mixed reaction from this, but please try to be at least civil.

There is no scientific proof of a spiritual world and, it is, therefor, improbable. This is a fact as far as I'm concerned, but it provides an interesting conflict. I know there has to be vampires, it sounds far-fetched, even to Christians who believe there is a Creator and Controller of all, but there have been accounts of vampiric creatures in every known civilization. The typical views, most of which are taken from literature, Bram Stoker's unexplained beginning to Dracula is the only book/movie I've ever read/watched that hasn't explained the vampire's origin, Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles clearly tells the origin in book 3(Queen of the Damned), Dracula 2000(movie) states the Dracula was Judas, and heaven wouldn't take him, all the accounts I've read/seen have a spiritual backing. By taking all of this into consideration, I've created my own theory on the origin of vampires, as based on evolution. My theory is, vampires are highly evolved humans. When humans became such, away from the apes, we had no recollection of being apes(how could we, as apes, we couldn't record our growth and evolution) so vampires may not know their true origins, and might stay in hiding because they know our discriminating ways, and overpowering numbers.

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles presents vampires as having highly developed psychic abilities, and when I first thought through this, I figured it was impossible. Thinking it through a second time I realized, human(and animal) thought has been proven to be made up of electrical synapses firing off in the brain. It could be possible that the highly evolved vampiric brain could read those synapses and thereby read someone's mind.

The drinking of blood is easily explained, certain birds and insects eat flower nectar, consider blood as human nectar.

Now, the theory of the evolution into vampiric form defies the ability to create more vampires out of humans, at the moment, I haven't thought of an explanation for that, I'll be considering it and working on a theory for it, but it's entirely possible that this portion of the vampiric being is mere myth, superstition has a powerful affect on the brain.

The ability to fly, kill with the mind, and other telepathic abilities are other pieces of the stereotypical vampiric being that I haven't figured out, but like I said, I'll be thinking a lot about this in the coming days and will definitely post my theories.

liquid

Whilst this might be an interesting hypothetical exercise, particularly if you are interested in writing or similar, I don't expect there will be too much enthusiasm on these boards for your ideas - at least in a scientific sense.

This basically comes down to the level of rational skepticism present. Vampire lore, whilst common, is not unexplained, and there are pretty clear links to the historical figure of Vlad the Impaler.

Just as there is plenty of vampire stories, there are plenty of werewolves, leprechauns, ghosts, brownies and sprites. The fact that humans have good imaginations and tend to have storytelling-traditions doesn't really consist of some kind of evidence.

I could go on about practical impossibilities and the like, but I don't want to dampen your imagination, just raise your reality levels!

phlebas

Um. Okay. Well, it's hard enough to explain real evolution to the creationists without adding Anne Rice and Bram Stoker. (Now, Buffy -- SHE'S real.)

Off to Misc Discussions.