Welcome to Saturday and another Saturday Sermon. I know it’s been a while, but I feel it’s better to write when I feel like it rather than force myself to write something on a schedule. This is why I don’t want to make being a writer or podcaster a career move. Anyway, on to the sermon.

This topic seems a little more suitable for my Illuminati Social Club blog or podcast than for a blog related to the Bible and religion, but bear with me. There was a time when I believed that aliens came to earth and gave ancient man the tools and knowledge to build the pyramids, the Sphinx, the Mayan pyramids, and all the other wonders of the ancient world. However, with age comes wisdom, and it was not long before I realized that the ancient aliens mindset can be seen as racist. After all, if modern white people can’t do it with all of their technology, then how could ancient brown people with simple machines?

These days, the idea of building a pyramid seems like a novelty. Back in ancient Egypt people were paid to build the tombs where the Pharaohs would be laid to rest. That’s because the Pharaoh was the earthly embodiment of the gods who would return to the pantheon upon his (or her) death. There have been a great many hints as to how the blocks of sandstone were carved, moved, and placed found all over Egypt. The reason that the pyramid is seen on at least three different continents is because it is the most structurally sound shape that can withstand wind and rain. The Maya may have build several hundred cuboid and cylindrical structures, but they would have been destroyed by centuries of bad weather. The pyramid is the only one that would have survived. There were no aliens necessary.

According to one author, he interpreted the hieroglyphs and confirmed that aliens did in fact come to earth and share their wisdom. He thought that it would be impossible for ancient people to make up the stories of the gods that Egyptologists claim the hieroglyphs to be. Why? Is it impossible for ancient people to have imaginations? Stories of gods and monsters were akin to science fiction today. These ancient stories sought to explain how the world came to be and how natural processes work. That’s why just about every ancient civilization has a story about a great flood washing away the entire world. It didn’t actually happen, it’s a morality tale, much like the story of Atlantis in Plato’s Republic. There was no Atlantis, it was an allegory akin to the World State of Huxley’s Brave New World, or Oceania in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

All of the same can be said of the Bible. It’s not a literal history book, but more of a moral guide for people living back in the days when those stories were told. It’s hardly a moral guide today though some lessons can be gleaned from its pages. As I stated about Exodus (I can’t remember the chapter), there were many times more words about how to properly worship God than about how to treat one another. That’s because back in those days, people were far more superstitious and thought that gods were responsible for natural disasters, growing seasons, and disease. It was far more important to worship correctly than to treat your neighbor with respect.

Can we please quit disrespecting the history of ancient civilizations by claiming that they were too weak and/or stupid to do any of what they are credited with? Just because they didn’t come up with the smartphone doesn’t mean they couldn’t build a pyramid or imagine far-off lands of strange creatures and technology.