Aliens and Religion, Part 7 - Ancient Religions
Aliens and Religion, Part 7 - Ancient Religions
Ancient Faiths vs Ancient Aliens
Join Intelligence Officer Brendan Sean Murphy as he voyages into space in a struggle for peace and his own sanity. My first novel Fallen is available for $0.99 digital and $14.99 on paperback.
Religion and Aliens
Fallen and Risen Spoiler Free!
This post continues a series of objective, non-judgement views of various religions’ views on the potential of extraterrestrial life. See the previous posts on Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Other Christian Faiths, Islam Judaism, and the Dharma faiths for more.
The Ancient Religions
For the most part, the ancients did not consider other worlds or the possibility of life elsewhere. Ancient cosmologies focused on the Earth being either something as the outcome of a specific action or even an accident. The lack of understanding of the existence of planets handicapped thoughts towards the potential of extraterrestrial life.
That being said, a new religion focused on “Ancient Aliens” or “Ancient Astronauts” seeks to retcon these ancient faiths into their own conspiratorial mythology, but more on that later.
Ancient Egypt: Aliens? No one would care because it is all about Egypt.
There were multiple creation myths for the ancient Egyptians. Earth was sometimes created by the tears of the gods, other times it came from the debris from a cosmic egg, and other stories dealt with themes such as the dead bodies of gods. The common though unstated theme amongst the stories was the world’s creation being a one-off event.
Egyptians themselves believed their country was exceptional. Egypt is where resurrection happened for the gods and people, with the heavy implication that dying and being buried outside of Egypt would disrupt that process. This belief drove the Ancient Egyptian desire not to have colonies elsewhere.
The Egyptians considered the five visible planets of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn as their gods in boats traveling across the sky.
Zoroastrianism: A busy cosmos but nothing about aliens
Zoroastrianism teaches that Ahura Mazda, the good god, created the universe in a vast emptiness between his realm of light and the darkness belonging to the evil god Ahriman. The creation of people and the Earth is a significant event, but the creation myth does not mention other worlds or creatures.
The Zoroastrian cosmos has classes of divinities that Ahura Mazda created, though these lesser gods could be thought of as various forms of angels, not things we would consider extraterrestrials.
Ancient Greeks: Depends on which Ancient Greeks
The Ancient Greeks are where the question of life on other worlds has its known genesis in what would become the Western world. It wasn’t in ancient Greek mythology, though, where the earth-focused gods lived on Mount Olympus. Instead, Greek philosophy spurred the change from divinities in the sky cosmos to a physical universe.
Anaxagoras (around 500 to 428 BC) declared the moon was not a manifestation of the goddess Selene but a reflective rock, probably once part of Earth. He further advocated stars were not the spirits of people who once lived on Earth but were fiery stones. Taking his argument from astronomy to biology, he introduced the idea of panspermia, which holds that the “seeds” for life are everywhere in the universe and have taken root on Earth and elsewhere. Sadly for Anaxagoras, political feuding with various factions in ancient Athens led to him being targeted, nominally for his astronomical beliefs.
Others argued for life elsewhere, too. The Atomists believed the universe was made out of tiny indivisible things called atoms. These infinite atoms made an endless amount of things, including worlds, universes, and life forms. Alexander the Great reportedly wept when he was told there were infinite worlds and life forms out there, as he had not conquered one world yet.
Another school of thought, the mystic mathematicians of Pythagoreans, believed there were at least animals and plants on the moon. As some Pythagoreans thought the stars were planets, some believed animals and plants were also present on those worlds.
It was Aristotle who won out in the end, though. Aristotle rejected the plurality of worlds concept, teaching a universe centered on the uniqueness of the Earth, which was the center of all. As such, there was no room for extraterrestrial life in his cosmos. His philosophy drove much of Western thought until the Renaissance.
Ancient Aliens: A Modern Belief
Some may wonder why I did not mention things like the Anunnaki and other Ancient Astronaut theories. The reason is because they have nothing to do with ancient religions. The Anunnaki were a group of gods in various Mesopotamian religions. These gods were said to be descended from the god of the heavens and the goddess of the Earth.
The idea that the Anunnaki were space aliens comes from Zecharia Sitchin. Sitchin believed the Anunnaki were an alien species from the planet Nibiru. The aliens made humanity, hybrids of the Anunnaki and Homo erectus, to mine for gold. David Icke, who formerly thought he was Jesus, adopted and ran with this idea. Icke stated the Anunnaki were the reptilians who secretly controlled the world.
The truth is the Ancient Aliens ideas are the brainchild of conspiracy-minded Europeans like Sitchin, Icke, and von Danike that are being swallowed whole by people who want to believe in grand conspiracies involving higher powers. In this faith, aliens did everything while man has long been in their thrall. Only through this secret knowledge (gnosis) can one be free in the understanding of the universe. In this faith, these aliens might as well be gods that the established religions have usurped. This grift for the creators seeks to replace other religions, having people explore theosophy through the ideas of aliens.
Alternate History Hub has a good takedown of Ancient Aliens history, beliefs, and end times on the “History” channel.
Fallen the Audio Book Coming Soon!
The various voice actors are assembled. Now the recording begins! More information will come later, but there will be pre-order promotions soon.
Asking for Reviews
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Other Independent Book Promotions
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Until Next Time
Thank you for reading this newsletter post. Next time, we will have our first interview of a non-American independent science fiction author. Omar Iftikhar will discuss his book and Pakistani science fiction. After that, we will continue the religion and aliens series by looking Theozoology and its influence on the Nazis (see previous editions of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism and other Christian Groups, Islam, Judaism).
As always, please leave a comment with any questions, reviews, thoughts, whatever about Fallen, Risen, or whatever else I have discussed. I promise to reply!