Ask a Question - or - Return to the Faith and Spirituality Forum Index

Question Title Posted By Question Date
Christian and other mythology. Johan Thursday, October 8, 2009

Question:

Why is Christian mythology so similar to Pagan mythology and other faiths?

And God? History is filled with things that cannot be explained, flying machines in hyrogliphs thousands of years old! Technologies so advansed that we can not even copy it today...



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Johan:

I already answered the question about the similarities of Christian belief and pagan mythology.

As for "flying machines" depicted on cave walls or other ancient art, there is no evidence that I am aware of that shows that this artwork actually depicts such things as aliens or flying machines. Such things are creative interpretations by imaginative people who are prone to see aliens and flying machines in these paintings.

This phenomena is common. Any two people can look at the same cloud and one see an elephant shape and another see a giraffe shape.

It is the way the brain works. The brain will kick in an interpretation based upon what is in the person's memory and mind. For example, the experience of Déjà Vu is not supernatural, but simply the way the brain works. When a person goes into a room or meets a person and think they have been in the room before or have met the person before, all that is happening is the the brain picks up the geometric lines of the room or of the face and kicks in a vague memory of a room we actually did visit one time, or a person we actually did meet.

The reason that it kicks in that vague feeling is that the geometry of the room or the person's face is not identical to the what is literally in our memory. Rather the brain picks up enough of the geometry that is similar to a room or person in our memory that it draws in the rest of the lines automatically. Thus, we think what we are seeing is familiar.

Consider this test:

What does this line remind you of?

/

What about now?

//

What about now?

//__

 

And now?

//__/

 

And now?

//__//

I can continue to draw one line at the time until your brain kicks in that I am drawing a cat's head. Unless you are really not a cat person, most people will identify these lines as a cat even though I have not drawn the entire head.

This is how the brain works.

Thus, if a cave man draws something on a cave wall, it could be anything. It will be something from that cave man's experience or imagination. What these ambiguous images could we may never know for sure as we do not have the same experience and do not live in the environment they lived in. Thus, our brains see the geometry of the the drawings and interprets it according to what memories we have in our head about an object with similar geometry.

What all this means is that because something in an ancient painting looks like a alien or a spacecraft does not mean it is.

I have seen many of this pictures and none of them are convincing. I remember one ancient painting that people said was a man with what looked like an oxygen tank on his back. Could it not have been a quiver for arrows? Another painting looked like a man wearing a space helmet. Could it not have been some sort of ceremonial mask?

We tend to see what we want to see and in according with our culture and interests.

A common restatement of Occam's razor is "The simplest answer is usually the correct answer."

It is certainly a simpler explanation that an image of a man has a ceremonial mask than to say it is a space helmet.

In fact, to suggest that it is a space helmet is ridiculous. There is a great deal of evidence and analytical reason to suspect that it is a mask. There is no evidence or reason to suggest that it is a space helmet.

Now with all this said, there is evidence of technologies of ancient peoples that we are not able to duplicate today. The Library of Alexandria had a depository of most of the knowledge in the ancient world up to that time. It burned down and most of its knowledge burned with it.

This, fact, by the way, does not mean that these ancient people were "more advanced". It only means that they used a technology that we do not recognize and may not be able to copy at the moment.

History has shown that some technology was developed at one time by some society, and then lost to that society, and then regained hundreds of years later. This can happen, but it is fanciful imagination to assert (with not a single shred of evidence) of some highly advanced technology existed thousands of years ago and then lost. It is utter fantasy to assert aliens from other worlds visited us then or now.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary


Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below:
Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum.
Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum
Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum
Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum
Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum