How We Know We Are Alone

Why have I never seriously considered extraterrestrial life when I grew up with Star Trek, The Invaders, and Lost in Space? Oh, and this jewel:

A British show with, uh, more mysteries about costumes than aliens, but isn’t the opening kind of neat?

Okay, I confess: the subject did scare me for a little while. But then came Erich Anton Paul von Däniken. He had to question or posit on the subject. Nobody who I knew to be a real Christian (as I thought of the best people I knew from church) liked what he did. He pointed to mysteries like the lines on Peru’s plain of Nazca, Stonehenge, and others as proof that extraterrestrials had visited Earth and left behind signs of their existence. Paintings and drawings and reliefs showed what appeared to be “astronauts” and even spaceships. And a tomb in Egypt with a man painted holding an enormous light bulb. Scientists and pseudoscientists alike say, “Aha! See here, there is no evidence of carbon in here from the builders using stick torches! They had electricity!”

I’m not messing about here; I’ll get right to it.

Remember the art in an ancient Egyptian temple that looked like a helicopter? Take a look, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Seti the First was evidently hated by Rameses II. Seti I is a bow. Rameses II is a bird and two outstretched arms. With age, the Rameses II hieroglyph, which was supposed to disrespect and erase the Seti hieroglyph, wore down until both appeared to the naked eye as, of course, one hieroglyph.

But I am aware of ancient ruins found in Turkey, which date about 11,000-15,000 ya. Curious, on digging out the ruins, archeological teams determined that they were quite complex, with large multi-ton stonework including well cut and smoothed upright monoliths. Since science dismisses all religions out-of-hand, but they now know and admit that there was a global flood, they think it’s asking too much for them to admit that antedeluvian humans were capable of such precise monuments and construction.

One ruin, out of very many in Turkey, may be 16,000 years-old. That predates the deluge by millennia.

I don’t know when Creation took place. That is, the Genesis Creation. No, I don’t believe it’s a myth. And no, I don’t believe that it isn’t told in more detail because the author of the book couldn’t understand what God was telling him; I simply believe that it was as complex as it needed to be. No more, no less.

This brings me to the antedeluvian ruins in Turkey. They knew how to map constellations and stars. And Sirius? Funny, how every culture, miles and miles apart, had lupine or canine names for Sirius ( brightest star in the sky or the constellation).

Underestimated

I find it mysterious that humans are so often proud and cocky but have always underestimated what our ancestors could do. I don’t wonder much about pyramids anymore. They exist. Therefore, someone built them. How they did it makes no difference to me; they are real, they exist, and most can actually be visited. Although, a heads-up is in order: if you visit the Great Pyramid, as soon as you spot it in the distance, you’ll be awestruck. As you get closer, you’ll be speechless at the size of it, especially the height.

I find that believing it was built by Venusians or some green guys from Beta Reticuli insults the humans who lived long before us.

The deluge (the Genisis flood) truly happened. So why does science reject religion? They constantly chase their own tails, looking for this particle or that. Physics may work, but no physicist yet has been able to disprove a Creator God. Hawking tried until he was red in the face but always fell short.

He did, however, kind of believe in extraterrestrials. Sort of. He said if any ETs ever came here, it wouldn’t be for anything good.

My brother, the eldest, is a UFO, or UAP, and extraterrestrial researcher. He, like so many, believes the ancient astronaut theory. That we have captured and reverse engineered alien space ships, and in the present, we’ve adapted some of the technology to our military craft.

That’s preposterous; look at World Wars I and II, and see how we graduated from the feared Fokker…

Fokker D III

…to these…

….which made the war’s beginning….and its end. From fighters to heavy bombers, they were all vast improvements to every plane used in the war of less than 50 years before. Then, not long after, the world beheld these:

Top, Convair B-58 “Hustler” Bottom: Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird”

The SR-71 was like nothing the world had ever seen. It was over a hundred feet long, 55 wide, and could travel at Mach 3.3. It was a spy plane that could fly up to 80,000 feet. At 2,200 mph, it was fired on by AA guns and rockets but never hit. It was too fast.

The moon landings 1969-72 were great feats, combining the dedication and love of exploration in something never since repeated.

It was never alien tech. None of it. So when people ask me if I’m arrogant enough to believe that we’re alone in all the universe, well, yes. But it isn’t arrogance. It’s faith.

John 3:16- “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

God did that because we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory. Us. We humans. The Bible nowhere says that there are other beings out there who need to be saved. There is no one out there.

Do not underestimate the human race. We were created by God in His own image. Nothing else, just us. You’ve seen the pictures and old films of the progress we have made. Some good, some purely evil. Splitting atoms? Sure thing. God knew we would do it. He knew we could use that knowledge to kill.

To back up my meager argument, here’s someone who will answer your questions very clearly. Enjoy, and may God bless.

The Fall

You know how comedians mocked the alert gadget ad where the old woman said she fell and couldn’t get up?

Shit’s not funny.

I wobbled backwards, struck by sudden weakness mixed with vertigo. When I fell, I struck the posterior cranium so hard that it bounced. I remember it, then losing consciousness. Coming to, I gradually became aware that my glasses were off so opening my eyes in the morning sun was hard. A mailman ran past me lying on the frozen ground, delivered something upstairs, and then pretended he just saw me, asked if I fell (no, I’m just tanning my face, you idiot!) and helped me get to my feet.

How long I was out, I don’t know. How long I was awake but couldn’t move, I don’t know. So long the cold of the frozen soil my head had struck didn’t bother me because the pain was all I could know.

I self diagnosed concussion, mild. The effects would not magically go away. It was going to take a couple of weeks if not more. I’m too old to expect better.

Now? Still in pain, still queasy, dizzy.

I’ve been down this road so many times I must have missed half my life. I’m already losing my vision and my memory. Not terribly, nothing too dramatic. But my mortality is clear. And being ignored is a terrible thing when it only takes seconds to check on someone. Don’t run past anyone lying on the fucking ground, either. If you’re spooked, at least call 911 and report a person down. What’s wrong with people? I didn’t need training as a soldier or medic to call in a “man down” so why should you?

And by the way, you remember the story of the good Samaritan? You don’t have to be a Christian to value the lesson it teaches about not only bigotry, but snottiness, and evil in general.

You probably have a good heart. Do the right things when they matter most.

Had I been the mailman that day, I’d have stopped doing my job and called in a man down. I’d have encouraged him to lie still, I’d have kept him warm, and stayed with him. Head injuries kill. You can’t wait.

So to my mailman, God bless you. Next time go for some humanity, okay?