Ancient Astronaut Theory

Is the theory that most if not all religions of the world were influenced by extraterrestrial visitors, and the advanced technology of these beings caused the primitive people to worship them as gods.

There has been a phenomena called "cargo cults" in World War 2, when armed forces from the West set up their bases on tropical islands and came into contact with isolated tribes. These tribes have never seen or heard about airplanes and guns, or have seen people like this, so they began worshiping them as gods. The troops shared food and supplies with them, and showed them technology like a lighter, which they interpreted as magic and miracles. After the war was over and the troops left, the tribes occupied the airbases and performed many strange rituals in hopes of getting the cargo to come back. They even built wooden replicas of airplanes and wooden replicas of radios in hopes of attracting the gods to come back and share their wisdom and cargo. Some of these cargo cults are still active even today.

I don't really understand why they called them "cargo cults" instead of "religions" because it is basically the exact same thing. The same could have happened with extraterrestrials coming down to earth and sharing their technologies with us. All of Jesus' miracles could have been the workings of advanced technology. In fact, could Jesus have been an alien himself? Mary could have been artificially inseminated which would explain her "virgin" birth. Jesus walking on water could have been some sort of levitation device, curing the blind could have been laser eye surgery, he could have dropped a pill in water that turned it to wine. The problem is, it's not recorded in the bible how exactly Jesus performed any of these miracles, which opens it up to interpretation.

Even if they saw the method of technology used, now way in hell would they know exactly how it worked. If they were shown a lighter, how would they know that a small spark was used to light up a steady stream of gas? They would just view it as a small magical stick that lit up with fire. People back then didn't understand a thing about technology, so they interpreted it with the knowledge that they had.







Basically, here are the options I have come up with:

1. The Bible is true and Jesus is God's son and performs cool miracles.
2. The Bible was made up by some smart guys to control the masses.
3. The Bible was an attempt to interpret strange events and feats of technology by primitive man.

Number 3 just seems the most plausible to me.

And if you say "there isn't any evidence for this", well there isn't any evidence to support that people just randomly started believing in weird shit either eh?

 

There isn't any evidence for this. People have been believing randomly in shit since people have been people.

It had to be said, so I might as well said it.

 

I love this theory, and I'm an avid spiritualist.

In my opinion though, Aliens are the same thing as foreign spirits.

Supernatural beings have been reported by almost every culture since the dawn of time, however the way they are portrayed is almost always a reflection of current cultural paradigms in place.

In ancient times they were angels and demons, gods and goddesses... now they are aliens... When ultimately they are the same thing viewed through a different lens. Back in the Medieval period the church was what primarily influence the culture so it makes sense that Supernatural beings were portrayed as angels and demons, as described in the scripture. Now in this day and age, in our culture, we are dominated by the scientific paradigm, so our views on supernatural beings directly reflect that perspective - we see them as "scientifically advanced" beings with "advanced technology" because those are the things we value in this culture.

We are no different than those tribes. No matter how you look at the situation, they remain supernatural beings in our light, we are ants on a rock to them. I would suggest that no perspective is correct and they are far more complex than any one view point can conceive of.

Love you all!

 

There isn't any evidence that people just randomly believed in weird shit either.

 

I would cite your enthusiasm into the Ancient Astronaut Theory as a great example of such evidence.

 

Pretty weak argument. A theory is an analysis of a set of facts in relation to each other, so it doesn't require any evidence. The Theory of Gravity doesn't need any evidence, it is only an explanation of what happens. The Ancient Astronaut Theory at least is an explanation based on facts and observance of human behavior, while the People Believe in Random Shit Theory is not based on anything except your primary assumptions.

 

Jesus miracles didn't actually happen, they are fiction.

 

Dude, don't spam my thread. Gtfo.

 

Sorry I spammed, but the theory is pretty unrealistic. If aliens showed themselves thousands of years ago why wouldn't they do so today?

 

How do you know they don't? The CIA doesn't even tell the President these things, even when the President asked them to disclose it. But since we are so much more technologically advanced now, with more advanced weapons like guns and bombs, wouldn't you think they would be much more careful and avoid landing in the open where some random crackhead would shoot them? Plus it would create havoc if a UFO just landed in downtown, people would go crazy and the Department of Defense would probably send the whole army over there. Thing is, people, especially our leaders, are much more powerful today than they ever were in our history. They can launch missiles and blow up half the world at command, unlike thousands of years ago when we were throwing spears and rocks, so I wouldn't be surprised if extraterrestrials are holding back. Wouldn't you be more cautious if you were them?

And you can't really say unrealistic because that would assume you have a crystal clear picture of reality, which no offense but I doubt many people have that these days.

 

If they had the technology to travel here they would have the technology to destroy the earth in seconds, so I don't think they have anything to be afraid of.

 

I'll be honest, i had never heard of this theory before i read this. But it actually makes sense!

Thankyou, im going to look into this. this is fascinating

 

Whatever the reason is, it doesn't prove anything wrong. Just because open alien contact isn't consistent throughout history, doesn't mean there wasn't any alien contact in the first place. And how do you know they aren't trying to contact us right now? You know how many UFO sightings there are every year? And how hard the CIA tries to keep things classified from the people? The CIA won't even discuss extraterrestrials with presidents. Jimmy Carter openly asked George Bush Senior, who was director of the CIA back then, to disclose all UFO information, and Bush simply denied him.

 

I think it is a far fetched theory because no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life has been discovered which has been generally accepted by the mainstream scientific community.

 

No credible evidence? A lack of evidence doesn't prove nonexistence. There is no credible evidence of a few guys coming together to make a book called the bible that for some reason tricked the masses into believing in an omnipotent God either. There is no evidence for why 1/3 of the world believes in some Jesus character. The only thing a theory is based on is reason. The theory that the bible was carefully crafted by some guys for no apparent reason, and somehow everyone believed in it, just doesn't seem to make any sense. While the idea that these people were swayed by advanced extraterrestrial beings who they interpreted as being Gods would explain tons of things.

 

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! Why don't your convictions about Obama apply here. This is what I call convenient conspiracy.

Your right, but it does seem to suggest a large amount of irrationality.

 

Huh? What do my convictions about Obama have to do with any of this...

What's so irrational about it?

 

You seem to believe that elitist control our society. What's different here?

About this, or believing in things without evidence in general?

 

Wow, that new. Have not heard of tha tbefore.

 

Well I don't really "believe", I know they do. It's not a conspiracy anymore, these people have openly stated that they control society and have been for a long time. But the corporate media doesn't report on that do they? They're too concerned with Michael Jackson. The news died a long time ago, wake up pal.

Oh my god, why is it so fucking hard for people to understand the meaning of a theory. A theory doesn't need any fucking god damned evidence, it is an explanation of a set of facts. Here is the fucking definition for ya:

theory n. - the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another

Now lets take a look at this again...

Fact - the bible and Christianity had a profound effect on the course of human history.
Fact - the bible talks about a virgin birth and a guy that performs "miracles"
Fact - the bible has a lot to do with the heavens, and things coming down from the sky
Fact - biblical artwork contained strange saucer like objects in the sky, and some beaming down light

A theory is an explanation for these events and how they occurred, no evidence is needed for this explanation. "Dur pplz r just dum n beleive in weird stuffz" is not a fucking good explanation because it doesn't fit in with any of the facts. Ancient Astronaut Theory actually fits in with these events and everything makes sense.