Was God an Alien?

In World War 2 an American fighter pilot

crash-landed in the Brazilian rainforest
where he was discovered by an isolated
tribe of natives. Impressed by his
technical gadgetry and his descent from
the sky, these primitive people elevated
him to the status of a god and created a
religion around him. Today, the proof
of their religion consists of a series of
artifacts hanging from tree branches,
including items such as a broken plane
engine, an empty cigarette lighter and a
rusting pocketknife. But to the educated
reader, these artifacts are instead
testimony to the fact that the artifacts of a
religion are not proof of the religion itself
but rather proof of the actual event which
occurred (and was quite possibly
misinterpreted). As Arthur C. Clarke once
said, any sufficiently advanced
technology is perceived as miracle. Could
Christianity be the product of a similar
misinterpretation?
In the 1960s, while mankind was rapidly
breaking the shackles of his home planet

and venturing out into the nearby

Cosmos, the idea naturally evolved that
maybe our planet had been visited by
extra-terrestrials in the distant past.
When Erich von Daniken released his
famous book, Chariots of the Gods, in
1968, the hypothesis arose that maybe
God was the primitive misinterpretation
of extra-terrestrials visiting Earth, whose
high technology was perceived as miracle,
and may have formed the basis for many
of the ancient religions around the
world.
Was God an Alien?
To its credit, this hypothesis can explain
all of the events in the Bible and in other
ancient religious documents all
throughout the world. If it is assumed
that it is possible for space aliens to travel
a number of light years to Earth in the
first place, then a number of the stories
in the Bible can be explained in terms of
extra-terrestrial intervention. We are told
in the Bible that the three wise men
followed a moving star, which led them
to the location of Jesus. It has been

postulated that maybe this star was really

Haleys Comet, as calculations suggest that
the comet was in the sky at the time;
however, a comet would be pointless and
difficult to follow. Alternatively, believers
of the ancient astronaut theory have
suggested that the star could have been a
UFO, which the wise men were compelled
to follow via telepathic communication
with the aliens (which is commonly
reported in alien abduction reports).
The birth of Jesus might be elucidated by
the speculation that aliens visited Mary in
her sleep (which she perceived as a
dream in which she was visited by
angels). The aliens could have artificially
inseminated her with genetically
engineered, or possibly even alien sperm;
and this could explain the superhuman
abilities which Jesus was reported to have
had, and also the fact that Mary gave birth
while she was still a virgin. So, perhaps
Jesus was one of the first alien-human
hybrids.
This idea has spawned a number of alien
cults, the most popular being the Raelian

Movement (which has over 35,000

members in 85 countries). According to
this cult, scientists from another planet
used Earth as a giant biological
laboratory, on which they created all life
using DNA, and created man in their own
image. In December 1973, a French
journalist (Rael) was supposedly contacted
by a visitor from this other planet, and
was dictated a message (basically
consisting of a re-translation of the Bible
in terms of extra-terrestrial intervention).
He has now published this message as a
series of books, which you can order over
the Internet from the Raelian Revolution
Virtual Shop. Rael was also asked to
prepare an embassy for the aliens where
they could officially land among us,
bringing with them all the prophets as
predicted by every religion.
There is certainly a degree of romance
and mystery to this theory, and it is
attractive in its consistency with our
current worldview and worldwide
religions, but unfortunately it is far from
proven. In a sense the aliens of this age

have superceded the God of previous

generations, in that any unexplained
phenomena can now be attributed to
some bizarre form of advanced alien
technology, rather than to divine
intervention. Admittedly, the evidence in
support of the ancient astronaut theory is
highly speculative and based on
questionable data (consisting mainly of
ancient myths and archaeological sites). In
addition to this, the plausibility of
interstellar travel is still debatable. So
what are the alternatives?
In Fingerprints of the Gods, Graham
Hancock interpreted many of the
mysteries of the past with a more
terrestrial hypothesis by suggesting the
existence of an advanced race of people
many years ago who originated on
Antarctica. According to his hypothesis,
these people developed a high level of
technology, and comprehensively traveled
and surveyed the Earth. He explained
many of the ancient religions as the
primitive misinterpretation of these
individuals, who had a slightly different

appearance, and whose technology would

have been perceived as magic. He
suggested that this hypothetical
civilization was destroyed during a polar
shift when Antarctica was again covered
in ice.
But maybe neither of these hypotheses
are necessary. Yes, it is possible that
visitors from outer space did land on
earth a few thousand years ago and
communicate with our ancestors. But it is
also possible that the prehistoric people
were responsible for their own art,
technology and culture. Maybe the
writings within the Bible are mere stories
and poems attempting to explain our
place and purpose in the Universe;
perhaps also in an attempt to satisfy the
basic human desire for an afterlife. And
maybe these fundamental aspects of
human nature similarly inspired the other
worldwide religions.
Or maybe the fundamentalist Christians
were right all along (after all, the Sun
does revolve around the Earth, the Earth
is at the centre of the Universe, and all

the other religions are wrong anyway,

arent they?)
John the Disciple
You can e-mail John Marshall at:
johnmm@ucla.edu