I searched around for what God really means. Google define gave me an answer – “any supernatural being worshiped as controlling some part of the world or some aspect of life or who is the personification of a force”.
So that brings us to a chicken and egg question – “Which came first, man or God?”. You would say the answer is God, but what if I put it this way – “Did God make man or man make God?”. Would your answer be the opposite? I had a discussion with a friend who writes: http://turaag.blogspot.com/2008/05/did-god-make-man-or-man-make-god.html
To me the answer is simple. God is an idea. God is not a single living being who lives forever. That is just human representation of the elements, the forces, which created everything. Man is too egoistic to look up to a thing, so the visionaries of yesteryear created God, and gave it personalities, so lesser men could look up to someone universal and follow the rules of civilization. To me this is the greatest creative work of all humankind and I worship and believe in God for that reason.
Lets bring a new twist in the story. Eric von Däniken is an author made famous for his theory of space gods. In his popular book Chariots of the Gods he suggests that many years ago earth was visited by extra-terrestrials who bred with early humans (Do you smell the coming of Gods to live among mortal men?). He also supports the hypothesis that human evolution may have been manipulated through genetic engineering by these extra-terrestrial beings.
Von Däniken believes that these space aliens gave our ancestors the gift of thinking and ingrained us with the desire to return to space. He further gives evidence that most of the depictions of deities in old scriptures can be interpreted to illustrate astronauts, air and space vehicles, non-human but intelligent creatures, and artifacts of a high technology.
Many scholars have argumentatively nullified Von Däniken’s claim as fiction. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology is a book by Professor Kenneth L Feder, which extensively refers to Von Däniken’s works. A Danish writer, Willy Wegner observed in one of the depictions on a relief that Von Däniken claims is that of an alien astronaut, that the image could easily have depicted the chief of the tribe in the area because of certain physical features and dressing sense.
Whether we buy into this theory that Gods could be E.T. or not, one thing is common in all arguments. Gods were depicted by a handful brilliant humans and were glorified in a manner that generations later, it would give hope to billions. Therefore, man created God, and that is all there is to it.
As an extension of this view, it is apparent that personalities of today will be made divine 20,000 years later. Any guesses on what works of today might stand the test of time and create the next God?
