[extropy-chat] FWD [forteana] When the Gods Came Down

[Terry W. Colvin]

BOOK REVIEW:
Alan F Alford: "When the Gods Came Down - The Catastropic
Roots of Religion Revealed". Hodder & Stroughton London 2000
____________________________________________________

I found this book very hard not to put down. There are a lot of
quotes and some of these are useful, but the turgid text is far
from moreish. Alford recognizes that cultural memories of catas-
trophic physical events are at the core of cult activity around 
the world, especially with Judaism, Islam and Christianity. He 
interprets this as "proof" of the validity of religion.

He says falling "mountains" were part of Heaven, where the 
stuff of Apocalypse aka Revelations actually happened. The 
Garden of Eden was on another planet called Heaven. In 
keeping with the ideological agenda Alford dedicates his work 
"To the Lady of Life".  At the end of his preface he says:

        "Ultimately it is to modern science that we must turn if 
        we are to judge whether the secret "truth" of the ancients 
        is, or is not, a Truth with a capital "T". It is in the depths 
        of space that NASA and the Vatican must seek scientific 
        knowledge concerning the lost paradise of man and the 
        fingerprints of God."

Arthur C Clark touched on that theme in a short story when he has 
a Jesuit priest on a starship that discovers the original Star of 
Bethlehem. The Jesuit handles the discovery with dignity and
rationalism. Alan F Alford maintains an opposite view and my 
prime beef is that the publisher lacked the decency to label this 
silly book as the fiction that it is. (I am also struck by the
incongruous funniness of the title and subtitle.)

Lawrie Williams _____


-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
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