they are found almost everywhere.
As soon as we look at the past with our present-day gaze and use the fantasy of our technological age to fill up the gaps in it, the veils that shroud the darkness begin to lift. In the next chapter a study of ancient holy books will help me to make my theory such a credible reality that in the long run the investigators of our past will no longer be able to evade the revolutionary questions.
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Chapter Four - Was God An Astronaut?
The Bible is full of secrets and contradictions.
Genesis, for example, begins with the creation of the earth, which is reported with absolute geological accuracy. But how did the chronicler know that minerals preceded plants and plants preceded animals?
'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness': we read in Genesis 1:26.
Why does God speak in the plural? Why does he say 'us' not 'me', why 'our' and not 'my'? One would think that the one and only God ought to address mankind in the singular, not in the plural.
'And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.' (Genesis 6:1-2.)
Who can tell us what sons of God took the daughters of men to wife? Ancient Israel had a single sacrosanct God. Where do the 'sons of God' come from?
'There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.' (Genesis 6:4.)
Once again we have the sons of God, who interbreed with human beings. Here, too, we have the first mention of giants. 'Giants' keep on cropping up in all parts of the globe: in the mythology of east and west, in the sagas of Tiahuanaco and the epics of the Eskimos. 'Giants' haunt the pages of almost all ancient books. So they must have existed. What sort of creatures were they, these 'giants'? Were they our forefathers, who built the gigantic buildings and effortlessly manhandled the monoliths, or were they technically skilled space travellers from another star? One thing is certain. The Bible speaks of 'giants' and describes them as 'sons of God', and these 'sons of God' breed with the daughters of men and multiply.
We are given a very exciting and detailed account of the catastrophe of Sodom and Gomorrha in Genesis 19:1-28.
Two angels came to Sodom in the evening when father Lot was sitting near the town gate. Obviously Lot was expecting these 'angels', who soon proved to be men, because he recognised them at once and hospitably invited them to spend the night in his house. The men of the town, says the Bible, wanted to 'know' the strangers. But the two strangers were able to dispel the local playboys' sexual lust with a single gesture. They smote the mischief- makers with blindness.
According to Genesis 19:12-14, the 'angels' told Lot to take his wife, sons and daughters, and sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, out of the town with all speed, for, they warned him, it would be destroyed very soon. The family were unwilling to believe this strange warning and took the whole thing for one of father Lot's bad jokes. And Genesis continues:
'And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed .... Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do anything till thou be come thither.'
According to this report, there is no doubt that the two strangers, the 'angels', possessed a power unknown to the inhabitants. The suggestive urgency, the speed with which they drove the Lot family on, also make us think. When father Lot tarried, they pulled him along by the hands. They had to get away in a matter of minutes. Lot, they ordered, must go into the mountains and he must not turn round. Nevertheless, father Lot does not seem to have had unlimited respect for the 'angels', because he keeps on making objections: '... I cannot escape to the mountain lest some evil take me, and I die.' A little later the angels say that they cannot do anything for him if he does not go with them.
What actually happened at Sodom? We cannot imagine that almighty God is tied down to a time-table. Then why were his 'angels' in such a hurry? Or was the destruction of the city by some power or other fixed to the very minute? Had the count-down already begun and did the 'angels' know about it? In that case the moment of destruction would obviously have been imminent. Was there no simpler method of bringing the Lot family to safety? Why did they have to go into the mountains at all costs? And why on earth should they be forbidden to look round again?
Admittedly these are awkward questions about a serious matter. But since the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, we know the kind of damage such bombs cause and that living creatures exposed to direct radiation die or become incurably ill. Let us imagine for a moment that Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed according to plan, i.e. deliberately, by a nuclear explosion. Perhaps—let us speculate a little further—the 'angels' simply wanted to destroy some dangerous fissionable material and at the same time to make sure of wiping out a human brood they found unpleasant. The time for the destruction was fixed. Those who were to escape it—such as the Lot family—had to stay a few miles from the centre of the explosion in the mountains, for the rock faces would naturally absorb the powerful dangerous rays. And—we all know the story— Lot's wife turned round and looked straight at the atomic sun. Nowadays no one is surprised that she fell dead on the spot. 'Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrha brimstone and fire ...'
And this is how the account of the catastrophe ends (Genesis 19:27-28):
'And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrha, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.'
We may be as religious as our fathers, but we are certainly less credulous. With the best will in the world we
