View Single Post
Old 17th November 2012, 02:47 AM   #1
HansMustermann
Penultimate Amazing
 
HansMustermann's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 22,331
Why the pseudo-religion about ancient aliens?

This is basically an offshoot of the "why did ancient aliens build stuff out of stone?" thread, but I figured my question is different enough to be worth stopping derailing that thread with it.

My question is more like WTH do people find so great about those aliens? I can see why someone would replace gods with love us and care about us, with aliens who love us and care about us, but actually what you get when looking at the details of what those aliens supposedly did, they are complete psychos.

So let's say some aliens did come down and play God to Egyptians, and Sumerians, and Mesoamericans, and taught them to build mighty buildings and writing and all. And it wasn't just a one-off thing either, but for hundreds of years many ships came and went and oversaw it all.

Yes, I know it's ridiculous, but let's assume it true for the purpose of this deconstruction exercise. Let's see what kind of aliens that gets us.

Well, for the Mesoamericans we'd need some aliens which played Gods that required cruel human sacrifices, and rites like draging a barbed rayskin spine through one's penis. Or skinning women alive. And built giant pyramids with altars on top, where such sacrifices would happen. Yeah, the flat bit and altar at the top are not later additions, but the whole reason to exist for those pyramids.

Even if somehow humans corrupted the message of those aliens, nevertheless, those aliens came and went, and saw all those horrible sacrifices. They saw herds of children being driven like cattle to be sacrificed to whichever alien astronaut set himself up as Tlaloc, and having their fingernails pulled out first because crying and tears are good omens for a god of rain. They saw herds of women being herded to be flayed alive and hung to bleed to death in the honour of whichever astronaut set herself up as Yaocihuatl. And so on.

And not only they didn't try to stop that barbarism, but actually built great big pyramids at the top of which such sacrifices should take place. And they went home and nobody had anything against it either.

Or in Sumer they saw some horrible endemic warfare, followers of one astronaut God against the followers of another astronaut God. And horrors like whole villages impaled because their capital city didn't surrender. Captured rebelling vassal rulers being flayed alive and having their skin nailed to the city gates as a warning. Etc. And those guys weren't exactly secretive about it either. They carved bass-reliefs around palaces and throne rooms and temples depicting such cruel genocides. So, you know, when the alien astronaut talked to the king or took a shore leave in the city worshipping them, it would be wall after wall decorated all around in such scenes that would make a modern man or woman lose his or her lunch.

And those ancient astronauts were OK with that too, you know? Not one of them thought to say, "Dude, lieutenant-commander Inanna is my daughter and closest friend. Trust me, I DON'T want her followers slaughtered. And if I had a problem with her, I could reprimand her myself."

In Mycenaean Greece, they could look at children being sacrificed to the bull god (we actually have a baby on an altar where volcanic ash from Thera froze that scene), and said bull god astronaut could probably think, "aye, it pleases me." And all the crew members on their ship wouldn't file a report saying, "OMG, the captain is nuts, he made a primitive alien civilization sacrifice their children to him," when they got home either.

I mean look at what modern people did when they encountered such atrocities. The Brits in India basically went, "You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours." (Charles James Napier.)

Whereas those ancient astronauts would have gone more like, "Sweet! Can we watch? In fact, wait, let us build you an elevated place so the whole town can get a good view." Not even as much a hypothetical, as they too actually had ancient gods condoning and rewarding widow-burning.

How the heck are such alien psychopaths worthy of, basically, worship by any other name?
__________________
Springfield Heights Institute of Technology poster child

Last edited by HansMustermann; 17th November 2012 at 02:51 AM.
HansMustermann is offline   Quote this post in a PM   Nominate this post for this month's language award Copy a direct link to this post Reply With Quote Back to Top