'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky people

Throughout the history of Earth, we have been routinely seeded with advanced technology by beings from the sky.

These beings come down in shining craft, make contact and bestow wisdom and gifts unto the people, that aid them in jumping to the next level of human experience.

This has always happened. Texts of history show repeated visitations from sky people who bestow gifts. Myth, legend, oral histories, show that this has happened forever. They come down, leave their gifts and wisdom, and leave for a very long time.

And the people, being limited, never fully comprehend the motives and teachings of the sky beings. So they fill in the gaps with imagination, inventing the world where the sky ships came from, inventing possible motives. These become the legends of the sky people, the beings from above, the angels from the heavens.

And these legends, being both fascinating and untrue, and existing in a vacuum of actual information, blossom and mutate into fantastic belief systems, rituals and incantations geared towards pleasing these sky beings so as to gain their favor. Many believe that once THEY get the sky people's attention, they will get the gifts, and the power.

And then many others who see an opportunity in this, will claim to have a relationship with these beings, claim that they communicate with them regularly, and understand them. These people promise to the struggling masses that through THEM, their pleas will be heard and answered by the sky people. And they warn, of course, to not follow the OTHER people who claim a relationship to these heavenly creatures, as these others are mere charlatans. Follow a charlatan, and you can be certain the sky folk will be mad at you, maybe crush you. Best to follow me instead, as mine is the true path. Oh, and there's a fee.

And the different groups under different leaders argue and fight, divide and separate. They war, they flee, they destroy. All to guarantee their Right to the gifts from heaven. After long stretches of time, many groups forget who the sky beings ever were, and just continue on knowing there's simply a force in the heavens that they must please.

And finally, once all this has passed, once many, many generations are come and gone, and the myths and legends have dissappeared into history, the sky beings return once again, and bring gifts to a growing world.

R

 p.s. Did you know, that all of the traditional edible grains on the planet (such as rice, corn, wheat, barley, etc.) are of unknown origin? That the gulf of separation between the wild (inedible by humans) and cultivated (edible) strains is so vast, that for humans to have bred the wild grain into edible grain would have taken 1000 years of cultivation? 1000 years of harvesting, picking the best strains, replanting, growing, harvesting, season after season, year into decade into century, all the while the harvest is inedible. Wow, what foresight. Or, as many cultural myths clearly explain, they were gifts from the Sky People.

p.p.s. Fun Fact: Can you explain how Native Americans knew of certain planetary moons and celestial details (location and nature of distant star systems), for centuries, that were only "discovered" by the White Man in the late 1900's? The Natives could. They got the info from Sky People from Sirius.

Everbody Loves Jesus!

Currently working a temp job with the Rescue Mission, a Christian organization that aids the homeless and other needy types.

In charge of the October Safety Newsletter. Considering a Halloween motif for the layout. Concerned with Halloween's pagan connotations and their potential to offend Christians.

So, I ask an employee here whether a Halloween theme would be offensive to the Christians involved with the Rescue Mission. I explain that I ask because I am not Christian, and so have no basis of reference. Her response?

"Well, 'Christian' just means that you believe in God."

Really. I had to engage numerous office-related body language subroutines to keep my face from fully displaying my bemused incredulousness.

I had no idea, that apparently most Earth religions are in fact Christian. Islam? Christian. Jews? Surprise, Christian. Bet they wish they knew back in '39, that they were on the same team as Adolf...would've saved the long commute to Auschwitz.

Whooda thunkit? That anyone with a belief in some form of cosmic, divine consciousness that links all things, is Christian. That's some crafty semantics, if you ask me.

One again, Christians, you got it all worked out.

Oh, and it was decided that an "Autumnal" theme would be just fine.

R