THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

THE CREATION MYSTERIES

A Collection of Articles from the Web

THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

THE CREATION MYSTERIES
Astrobiology and Evolution: Intelligent Aliens before Humans Science knows for a fact that all the requirements necessary for intelligent life were present in the universe long before our earth even existed. Life-giving elements were plentiful long before us. Also, sun-like stars and earth-like planets are plentiful, and always have been since at least 11 billion years ago. There are several reasons why earth cannot be the first planet to have spawned intelligent life. The earths young age, its location in the galaxy, its excessive uranium and iron content, and its evolutionary history - all these factors make earth a rather poor candidate for being the first planet to spawn intelligent life. Astrobiology and evolution favour older, larger, less radioactive planets that are closer to the Galactic centre. So, intelligent life probably evolved before us. Could aliens visit earth? Deep space travel is quite possible using nuclear fusion and deuterium as fuel. But why would they travel in deep space? Survival of the fittest forces endangered species of intelligent life to keep expanding to new solar systems, to avoid extinction caused by ever-present genocide. But why dont we see the aliens? We do not see them because they dont want us to see them. The aliens use planet earth as a source of genetic variety. The aliens use EARTHS DNA for making new species among themselves, in a Breeding Program. Apparently, they do this for their own evolution into various specialty species, not for the benefit of our evolution. They want to keep this secret from us. Also, aliens want humans to care about the environment, not because Mother Earth is sacred, but rather because extinctions decrease earths DNA variety and thus inhibit the aliens genetic engineering objectives. There is much scientific evidence from the fossil record that aliens have impacted evolution. Many evolutionary events happened much too quickly for Darwinism theory of natural selection to be the only cause. The most notable event was the Cambrian Explosion. Shortly before the Cambrian Explosion, the most complex life on the planet was creatures that looked like UFOs. Since then, extinctions have happened at regular intervals, for which the best explanation is extra-terrestrial causes. There is also some indication that aliens impacted climate during late Ordovician and Silurian times, since certain climate changes of

that time cannot be explained by naturalistic forces. There are even cave paintings that seem to depict aliens. Today, there are many reports that extinct species have come back to life. Some of these come from crypto zoology, like the Loch Ness Monster and the Beast of Gevaudan; however, other reports come from respected scientific journals. One famous example is the coelacanth fish, which is known from science. Do the aliens keep extinct DNA on ice? Are they operating a secret Jurassic Park in the mother ship? Would aliens invade earth to take it from us? No, because living off the land is primitive. They dont need our resources. Besides, an easier way to get rid of us is to pollute our gene pool so that we evolve back into apes. There is fossil evidence that primitive hominids existed at times long after their supposed extinction. The legend of Bigfoot makes some people laugh, but there are other primitive fossil hominids of a late date, which are taken much more seriously by mainstream science. The creationist narrative in Genesis 1 is contradicted by many ancient Christian texts. Instead of an Almighty Creator God, ancient Christian texts espouse that the universe is born from blind arrogance and stupidity. The angels caused evolution to occur from species to species. There are many gods, (or aliens?), and the Christian God is just one among them. Satan the Devil writes scripture, and thus the Bible was polluted with Genesis 1. Archaeology and modern scholarship demonstrate that Genesis is indeed corrupted. Cavemen walk with Adam and Eve. Esoteric prophecies reveal the coming of Christ, and also reveal the dark forces that govern the cosmos. Such are the ancient Christian writings. Science vindicates the truth of these ideas. Evolution often happens too fast for Darwins theory. Gaps in the fossil record indicate that some kind of unnatural force acts together with natural selection. Astrobiology reveals that intelligent life probably evolved long before us. The fossil record reveals strange clues that aliens abducted species and transported them across oceans, and that DNA from diverse lineages was combined to spawn hybrid species. religions. When Did the First Life in the Universe Evolve? There are at least 200 billion stars in our Galaxy. Is our sun the only one to spawn intelligent life? Who cares if that's the wrong question? Here is a better question: There were at least 200 billion stars in our Galaxy before our sun even existed. Did one of them spawn intelligent life a long time before us? And if so, should we not expect such an ancient intelligent species to be much more advanced than we are? Earth is 4.6 billion years old, but the universe is 13.7 billion years old. That's a difference of 9 billion years during which intelligent life could have been evolving before earth even existed. The Building Blocks of Life Evidently, aliens influence evolution, and they are the gods of the worlds

To exist, life needs certain elements. Among them are hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulphur. Many complex life forms also require heavier elements such as iron, zinc, copper, manganese, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and sodium. The first of these, hydrogen, is easy to come by. Accounting for nearly three quarters of all atomic matter in the universe, hydrogen is by far the most common element. Moreover, hydrogen came into existence very soon after the Big Bang. Chances are good that early life did not suffer from a lack of hydrogen. All the other elements necessary for life came on the scene somewhat later. They were the product of nuclear reactions deep inside large stars, which dispersed their payload of life-giving elements across the vast reaches of space by means of massive stellar explosions called supernovae. These supernovae debuted about 400 million years after the Big Bang. They were formed from colossal hydrogen gas clouds that had self-compacted under the force of gravity. The gravity was so intense that it compressed hydrogen atoms together, making new atoms that were larger and heavier than hydrogen. This is called nuclear fusion. As Carl Sagan explained it, Hydrogen fuses into helium, helium into carbon, carbon into oxygen and all the way to iron. In extremely dense hot stars, silicon burns to create iron, and in lesser quantities, the elements of intermediate weight between silicon and iron. Among these are the life-giving elements phosphorus, sulfur, potassium, calcium, and manganese. After only 10 million years or so, the massive stars blew apart in supernovae, scattering their diverse treasures of elements far into space, where they were subsequently incorporated into future solar systems, such as ours, which are rich in these heavier lifegiving elements. In supernovae explosions, large numbers of neutrons are released from the interior of the star. They use the energy from the blast to fuse with iron atoms, thus forming elements heavier than iron. Among these are nickel, copper, zinc, silver, tin, iodine, platinum, gold, mercury, lead, and finally uranium. At uranium, the elements become unstable and radioactive, the nuclear fusion process stops, and radioactive decay begins. When this radioactive uranium is subsequently incorporated into planetary bodies, it, together with gravity, causes volcanic and geothermal activity, which is essential to life, because volcanic activity is necessary for the creation of an atmosphere. Hence, the massive hydrogen supernovae stars of deep antiquity were the first vital step toward the evolution of life, because they seeded the universe with the elements necessary for life. Stars similar to the earliest stars still exist today, because there are still so many clouds of hydrogen collapsing into balls of burning gas. Two stars in particular, HE1327Hence, those stars in the 2326 and HE0107-5240, have been extensively analyzed under telescope. These two stars have created a large amount of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. first and second generation with a mass twenty times larger than our sun are empirically demonstrated to have seeded the universe with carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Sodium,

magnesium, and aluminum may also be made inside these stars, together with a large quantity of phosphorus.

How Soon Did Life Evolve in the Universe? The first supernovae stars began to exist about 400 million years after the Big Bang. From birth to death, these stars only lasted about 10 million years. The universe is 13.7 billion years old. If you could fit 13.7 billion years into a 24 hour day, then 10 million years would be just one minute. 410 million years would be 43 minutes. So in astronomical terms, if the lifetime of the universe is compared to a single day, all the elements necessary for life were spawned within the first hour of that day. Moreover, heavy organic elements tend to sink toward the center of the Galaxy, so we should expect life to emerge first toward the central core of the Galaxy - perhaps not directly in the central core, because of the frequency of collisions, but rather just outside the central core. Yet earth is more than half-way to the outer rim, which means we are comparatively lacking in organic elements. Since the earliest possible date for life is dependent upon the calculation of the earliest date that heavy organic elements were available in sufficient quantities, it is very likely that regions more toward the center of the Galaxy produced life at an earlier date than our earth did. This fact significantly reduces earth's chances of being the first planet to produce intelligent life in our Galaxy. The pertinent question is this: At what time in the history of the universe did the life-giving elements become common enough for life to first evolve? Measuring the occurrence of iron is a good benchmark by which to answer the question. The iron content of stars is comparatively easy to establish because it exists throughout the universe in sufficient quantities to measure. Also, iron is one of the heaviest, and therefore one of the last of the organic elements to fuse. Where iron is present, the other life-giving elements are also likely present. Iron rich stars emerged early in the history of the universe. A sample of 462 single F and G class stars (that is the stars similar to our sun) studied by Nordstrom suggest that iron rich stars appear to have existed very early in the history of the universe, and have remained more or less consistently present in the universe at a surprisingly stable distribution. The first iron rich stars appeared at approximately 13 billion years ago, and a substantial number apparently existed about 11 billion years ago. There is clearly no significant rise of overall iron abundance ([Fe/H]) with time. The rapid creation of iron, which occurred during the youth of the universe, may be a function of the fact that the early supernovae had relatively short life spans compared to our sun, many just 10 million years or less. Consequently, the first few generations of stars

came in rapid succession, seeding the universe with large amounts of iron and other lifegiving elements even while the universe was still quite young. Even the proponents of the Rare Earth Hypothesis admit that the universe was seeded with a sufficient quantity of lifegiving elements just 2 billion years after the Big Bang. Therefore, stars capable of producing life appear to have been just about as plentiful 11 billion years ago as they are today. Insofar as our sun is about 5 billion years old, and life first evolved no later than 1.5 billion years afterward, we may reasonably postulate that simple life forms first evolved 1.5 billion years after iron-rich stars became plentiful. In other words, simple life forms similar to bacteria probably first evolved about 9.5 billion years ago, at the latest. But when did intelligent life first evolve? The creationist narrative in Genesis 1 is contradicted by many ancient Christian texts. Instead of an Almighty Creator God, ancient Christian texts espouse that the universe is born from blind arrogance and stupidity. The angels caused evolution to occur from species to species. There are many gods, (or aliens?), and the Christian God is just one among them. Satan the Devil writes scripture, and thus the Bible was polluted with Genesis 1. Archaeology and modern scholarship demonstrate that Genesis is indeed corrupted. Cavemen walk with Adam and Eve. Esoteric prophecies reveal the coming of Christ, and also reveal the dark forces that govern the cosmos. Such are the ancient Christian writings. Science vindicates the truth of these ideas. Evolution often happens too fast for Darwins theory. Gaps in the fossil record indicate that some kind of unnatural force acts together with natural selection. Astrobiology reveals that intelligent life probably evolved long before us. The fossil record reveals strange clues that aliens abducted species and transported them across oceans, and that DNA from diverse lineages was combined to spawn hybrid species. Evidently, aliens influence evolution, and they are the gods of the worlds religions.

Rare Earth? No! Why Life Is Plentiful in the Universe

Some argue that earth is unique in so many ways that life is unlikely to exist elsewhere. Among the points that make earth supposedly unique are our sun, our distance from the sun, a nearly circular orbit, liquid water, density, rotation, volcanism, the moon, and the presence of a gas giant to act as a shield from meteors. Each is answered in turn below. The Sun A conservative estimate for the number of stars in the Galaxy is 200 billion. Of these, 5.6% are estimated to be G-type stars like our sun. Stars larger than the G-type generally have too much ultraviolet light, and they burn through their fuel too quickly for life to evolve. Smaller stars, such as brown dwarfs, don't have enough gravity to produce energy by nuclear fusion, and so they don't give much heat. By the time a planet gets close enough to

receive adequate heat from a brown dwarf, it is believed that its proximity to the star will place it in tidal lock, which means that the same side of the planet faces the star at all times; the "dark side" of the planet gets very cold and freezes the whole atmosphere, including all water as it evaporates and moves across the dark side by the wind, where it permanently freezes; or, if the planet is large, then wind speeds will constantly be of ultrahurricane strength, in an effort to redistribute heat to the dark side. Other stars include pulsars, which kill everything nearby; neutron stars, which are dead x-supernovae; red giants; and white dwarfs all of which are entirely unsuitable for intelligent life. Hence the probabilities for intelligent life should be factored by the number of G-type stars. Yet as a side note, the red giants and white dwarfs were at one time stars similar to our sun, and thus give testimony that potentially life-giving stars like our sun have existed even in extremely ancient times. Our own sun will become a red giant and then a white dwarf within about 5 billion years. Hence, it is quite possible that a few of the red giants and white dwarfs we see in our telescopes today had at some time in the distant past given rise to intelligent life before us. Two-thirds of stars in our neighborhood are in systems with multiple stars, and this number is expected to rise in areas with a higher density of stars, such as clusters and the Galactic center. Insofar as systems with multiple stars are likely to produce radical effects on orbit, and therefore on climate, these might not normally be capable of producing complex life. Also, the possibility of being struck with excessive radiation from pulsars, supernovae, neutron stars, and gamma rays, is greater in clusters and in the Galactic center. Hence, the odds that any given star would produce intelligent life may be confined to something like 0.5-2%. Still, this is 1 to 4 billion stars in our Galaxy. Some believe that there exists a "Galactic Habitable Zone" or "GHZ" outside which lifegiving stars cannot exist. This theoretical zone excludes the Galactic center, star clusters, and the presumably metal-poor areas of the outer rim. However, the idea is controversial, and scientists cast doubt on it. Prantzos states, We conclude that, at the present state of our knowledge, the GHZ (Galactic Habitable Zone) may extend to the entire MW (Milky Way) disk. Even if 100% lethality is assumed for all land animals after a nearby SN (Supernova) explosion, marine life will certainly survive to a large extent, since UV is absorbed from a couple of meters of water. In the case of Earth, it took just a few hundred million years for marine life to spread on the land and evolve to dinosaurs and, ultimately, to humans; this is less than 4% of the lifetime of a G-type star. Even if land life on a planet is destroyed from a nearby SN explosion, it may well reappear again after a few 10 8 (100 million) yrs or so, and the probability for surviving SN explosions, which is null in the inner disk at early times, becomes quite substantial in late times.

If it were common for fledgling life forms in the universe to be wiped out by such radiation from deep space, then shouldn't we see at least a few extinction events in the fossil record that have no explanation save radiation? As it is, all major extinction events known to science in the fossil record are clearly tied to other events besides interstellar radiation. The Permian was tied to geothermal activity, the Ordovician and Pleistocene to ice ages, the terminal Cretaceous and Frasnian-Famennian to extraterrestrial impacts, the Miocene to climate change, and the Ediacaran to higher life forms. If gamma rays and supernova bursts have completely wiped out other planets, they should have at least partially wiped out ours, but such is apparently not the case. Therefore, the danger from interstellar radiation is probably next to nothing. Planets 270 planets have been found outside our solar system, most of them around stars like our sun. Most of these planets are giants like Jupiter and Saturn, because they are the easiest, and until only very recently, the only planets that could be detected. About 7% of stars are believed to have such giants. Based on the observation of "super-Earth" planets, 33% of stars like our sun are believed to have planets between the size of Earth and Neptune orbiting close to the star. Udry states, It is most probable that there are many other planets present: Not only super-Earth and Neptune-like planets with longer periods, but also Earth-like planets that we cannot detect yet. Unfortunately, as of this writing, planets the size and distance of earth cannot be detected. Planets are detected by measuring their gravitational impact on their star, which necessarily means that more massive planets that are closer to their star are easier to detect. The realization that so many stars have very large planets orbiting their stars at a distance only a fraction of earth's distance to the sun is disconcerting, because it means that these planets probably formed far away from their stars as gas giants, and later lost their distance in a phenomenon that would most likely strip a solar system of any planets in the habitable zone, for as the orbit of the gas giant deteriorates, it brings the smaller inner planets closer to the sun with it. However, this might be a problem only for very heavy solar systems. It is demonstrated that stars with a greater metal content than our sun are the same which harbor "hot Jupiters" and "super-earths." This makes sense because more metal means more gravity, which in turn causes planets to loose their orbit. In contrast, stars with a lower metal content are believed to still have enough metal in their proto-planetary disks to form earthlike planets, even though they might not be able to produce hot Jupiters, and thus, earth-like planets should, according to current data, be rather common.

The Quest for Liquid Water Liquid water is necessary for life to exist. Thankfully, liquid water is very common in the universe. It exists on comets, Jupiter's moons, and probably even once existed on Mars. Water in ice form exists on Uranus and Neptune. Outside our solar system, liquid water might exist just 41 light years away, on a planet of a star that is already known to have five planets orbiting around it. According to Marcy, the star 55 Cancri has a mysterious gap between its fourth and fifth planets, in which it is believed there are smaller planetary bodies that could be much like earth. Telescopes and gravity measurements are not strong enough yet to see earth-sized planets. What they can see is a gas giant beyond it, which likely serves like Jupiter, blocking meteors from the smaller life-giving planets. In another case, a red dwarf star only 20 light years away was found to have two planets believed to be near the habitable zone, Gliese 581c and 581d. Upon studying them, it was found that 581c is too close to the star and 581d is in tidal lock with the star. Hence, neither is very promising for complex life, although 581d may have microbial life. Water in steam and solid form is also known to exist on a planet orbiting the star GJ 436, which is 30 light years away. Although none of these planetary discoveries really hits the mark, they do provide indisputable evidence that planets are common. The fact that no truly earth-like planet has been found is merely a function of earth's small size and long distance to the sun. In less than a decade, astronomers have gone from seeing "hot jupiters" close to their stars, to now seeing "super-earths" smaller than Neptune. Technology is in the works to eventually see planetary systems in higher resolution, and thus find earth-like planets. So how do planets get liquid water? Answer: from volcanoes. Volcanoes bring carbon dioxide and hydrogen to the surface of planets. The chemical reaction of carbon dioxide (CO2) with hydrogen (H) leads to the production of steamy water vapor (H 2O), and methane (CH4). As the steam rises, it cools, then turns to water and falls as rain. Sometimes planets acquire additional water vapor and methane from their moons. Water must be in liquid form for life to exist not steam or ice. If a planetary body is too hot, all its water will be steam. If too cold, it will all be ice. We are 93 million miles from the sun. Some people assume that if we were a little further we would freeze like Mars, and that if we were a little closer we would be scorched like Venus. But this is not correct. Believe it or not, Venus, Mars, and the Moon are all close enough to the sun to sustain life. What killed them was not proximity to the sun, but rather an imbalance of carbon dioxide. In Venus' case, a collision was the likely culprit. In Mars' and the moon's case, lack of size was responsible. Venus has too much carbon dioxide because its slow rotation cycle caused excessive vulcanization. Its slow rotation was perhaps caused by a collision with another object.

Hence, our solar system is actually unlucky, for if we had not suffered the untimely death of our twin, Venus, we would have two life-giving planets in our solar system. The problem with Mars is too little carbon dioxide. Mars cannot retain heat without it, and without heat, all its water freezes and life cannot exist. Planets get carbon dioxide from volcanoes, which pump it out with their lava. As stated above, volcanoes are a form of geothermal activity which is driven by gravity and radioactivity. Mars is deficient because its small size and lack of density translate into low gravity, and therefore fewer volcanoes. Although Mars does show signs of being currently volcanically active, it lacks the density and the mass needed to produce and retain enough carbon dioxide to compensate for its distance from the sun. The moon was quite volcanically active about 3 billion years ago, but with the depletion of its uranium, it has become even more hopeless than Mars. Small bodies, especially moons, often loose what little carbon dioxide they have because their gravity is not strong enough to retain it. Volcanoes are to planets what blood is to humans. They are the circulatory system, transporting heavy elements and molecules through arteries of liquid rock to the surface. Without volcanoes, the surface would not receive the elements necessary for life. Luckily, volcanoes are quite common. Recent volcanic activity is affirmed on Venus and on Mars and also on several of the moons of Jupiter and Neptune, including Io, Triton, and Europa. Europa appears to be especially active. If volcanoes are as universal as numerous witnesses in our solar system testify, then the lifeblood of planets is also universal, and thus life must also be universal. Carbon dioxide is to planets what clothing is to humans. If things get too cold, you can put on more clothing. Conversely, if things get steamy, you can take off your clothes. Here's how it works: Carbon dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere by volcanoes, animals, and anything that burns as fuel. But it is taken out of the atmosphere by the rocks and the ocean. Rocks are made of silicon, which, when eroded by weather, combine with carbon dioxide to produce limestone. When temperatures are warm, the cycle of evaporation and rainfall becomes more intense, which causes more erosion, which in turn breaks down more silicon rocks, so that carbon dioxide can combine with it. When this happens, carbon dioxide is taken out of the atmosphere, and temperatures fall. Falling temperatures cause less rain, which causes less erosion, and so the earth is self-stabilizing like a thermostat. The ocean and the atmosphere also play a balancing game. If the ocean has more carbon dioxide relative to the atmosphere, it yields carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. Conversely, if the atmosphere gets too much carbon dioxide, the ocean absorbs it.

Of course, if, in a single century, we burn all the fossil fuels that have ever been produced, then atmospheric carbon dioxide might rise faster than natural processes can suck it up, which could lead to severe environmental consequences in the short term. But in the long term, the earth will heal itself, as it always has, despite numerous cataclysms which have befallen it over the aeons. Even though carbon dioxide might cause a short term global warming catastrophe, in the long run, it is our eternal friend. Mother Earth is a tough old bitch. Don't underestimate her resilience. For example, she was completely covered in ice 700 million years ago, but the volcanoes just kept belching out more carbon dioxide until she warmed up. Because everything was ice, there was no rain, and therefore no erosion, and therefore no rocks were broken up to absorb the carbon dioxide. So the carbon dioxide just kept building up until earth got warm again. The realization that earth has a carbon thermostat gives us more hope for finding life on other planets. It expands the distance a planet can be from its star and still have a suitable temperature. Just as the thermostat on your wall allows you, a tropical ape, to build a house in Alaska and survive; so too, nature's thermostat might allow extraterrestrial intelligence to abound in places we might not expect it. Hence, a planet's ability to sustain liquid water, and ultimately its life-giving potential is not as dependent upon the distance to its star as one might think. Depending on atmospheric content regulators, carbon dioxide can bring an otherwise frigid planet within a suitable temperature range, and keep it there, thanks to the thermostat. A planet more distant from its star than earth may still yield life if it has more greenhouse gases. One planet's pollution is another planet's lifeblood. Since the frequency of carbon dioxide in the universe is high, thanks to the ubiquitous presence of volcanoes, expectations for finding life elsewhere in the universe should also be high. Tilt Earth spins on an axis that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole. This axis is tilted 23 degrees relative to the sun. Axial tilt is "the reason for the season," as they say at Christmas. About Christmastime, the most intense sunbeams hit earth at the Tropic of Capricorn, which runs across northern Australia. On June 21, they hit the Tropic of Cancer, just south of Florida. What would happen if instead of 23 degrees, the axial tilt were 45 degrees? At Christmastime, the South Pole would theoretically be as warm as the equator, but Christmas in Los Angeles would feel like Siberia! The more the tilt, the more extreme the winters. This is a problem, because it constricts life to the tropics, and increases the likelihood that the planet will slip into a downward spiral of glaciation, whereby heat is reflected by the white snow back into space, the planet cools, and becomes one big snowball. What would happen if instead of 23 degrees there was no tilt? We need only to look at Mercury, which spins at zero degrees relative to the sun. Mercury's equator is seething hot, but its poles are frozen. Without tilt, the poles never receive direct sunlight,

and so they freeze. Worse, they freeze all water vapor that the wind blows across them, and this increases the chances of atmospheric freeze out, similar to the planets in tidal lock believed to orbit brown dwarfs. In time, the oceans would all evaporate only to fall as snow on the poles, never to melt. Too little tilt, and irreversible ice ages result. The same is true of too much tilt. Therefore, a planet with life should have moderate tilt. Only then can the growth of polar ice caps be checked. Earth's 23 degree tilt is a deciding factor, because it distributes warmth across the planet evenly, thus reducing the chances of atmospheric and oceanic freeze out. The next question is, how common is a favorable tilt? Do many planets in the universe have this tilt, or are we lucky? Looking at our own solar system gives us a good idea. Of nine planets, four are within an acceptable range. Mars spins at 25 degrees, Saturn at 27 degrees, Neptune at 28 degrees, and Earth at 23 degrees. Of course, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune cannot have intelligent life for other reasons, but the point here is that tilt is not the cause of their lifelessness. Thus, a tilt that is favorable to life is normal, not unique. All the other planets can be explained as abnormal. Mercury is gravitationally tied to the sun, so its tilt is zero. Jupiter is nearly zero also, probably because it is so large that nothing was big enough to knock it off kilter as it was being formed. Uranus spins at 98 degrees, which may be caused by interactions with its larger neighbors. Venus and Pluto are said to spin "backwards," at 177 and 122 degrees respectively, probably because in their early years they got hit with other planets so hard that they got knocked upside down; in Pluto's case, it has a large moon, Charon, to account for the damage. Creationists love to point to Venus and Pluto and say, "Why are they spinning backwards? If the solar system formed as a spinning disk of gas and debris, everything should be spinning the same direction. Nothing should be spinning backwards, unless God did it." This is nonsense. They are not spinning "backwards." They only appear to be, because they got knocked upside down by large planetary bodies as they were forming from that cloud of spinning gas and debris. The Moon Earth has a large moon for its size. The large size of the moon keeps the winds low, stabilizes our tilt, and enriches the ocean with nutrients because of the tides. This is all good for complex life. There is no particular reason to believe that the moon is unique. While it is true that the moon is large relative to the earth's size, we must ask, relative to what? The moons of the gas giants? Granted, the moons of the gas giants, such as those of Jupiter and Saturn, are proportionately smaller compared to their planets. But why is that? Is it because we got lucky with a large moon? Or is it because the gas giants are made of gas?

While the gas giants were forming, the planetismals that formed in their proto-planetary disk smashed into each other, thereby expelling their lighter-than-air helium and hydrogen, such that the larger of the colliding objects inherited most all their gas. Hence, huge planets formed, hogging most of the gas. The leftovers of the planet-forming process were small, gas-deprived, rock moons. In contrast, the planetismals from the proto-planetary disks of inner planets formed from more solid material, and so when their planetismals collided, some of the smaller planetismals survived as large moons, since their structure was more solid and less gas, and therefore less likely to be stolen by the gravity of the larger planet. surprising that our moon is so large. Even in our own solar system, our moon is not alone. Pluto's moon, Charon, is even more disproportionately large compared to its planet. Also Venus has a slow rotation possibly because it collided with a moon it once had. It is possible that Mars might have grown larger, and has larger moons, if the mass of giant Jupiter had not sucked away a great deal of loose material from it, and from the asteroid belt. In fact, we might even have had three earth-like planets in this solar system if it weren't for Jupiter sucking up their material Earth, Mars, and the failed planet represented by the asteroid belt. A large moon might or might not be essential, but in any case, there is no particular reason to suppose it is rare. At a minimum, Pluto and earth have one. At a maximum, all the terrestrial planets except Mercury could have had one. Shouldn't we consider the odds elsewhere to be likewise rather favorable? Density and Rotation Earth has a density of 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter. Hardly unique, this density is common for inner planets. Venus' density is almost the same at 5.2 g/cm3 and Mercury's density is even closer at 5.4 g/cm3. Therefore, as a prerequisite for life, density requirements are most likely frequently met throughout the universe. High densities such as these indicate an iron core, which together with the speed of rotation give the planet a magnetic field. The magnetic field gives it the ability to fend off the devastating effects of certain kinds of radiation. Earth is not unique in rotation speed. Although lacking in other respects, Mercury also meets this prerequisite. Venus might have done so too, if not for the collision earlier in its history. Mars spins fast enough but doesn't have enough iron. So, of the planets in the inner ring of our solar system, three out of four have a favorable rotation speed, three out of four have a favorable density, and two out of four, Mercury and earth, have both. In a Galaxy with 200 billion stars, two out of four is damn good odds. Hence, it is not

Gas Giant Meteor Shield It is sometimes argued that a gas giant such as Jupiter is a prerequisite for life because it absorbs meteors and comets that would otherwise strike us. Driving this argument is the assumption that extraterrestrial collisions are detrimental to evolutionary progress. Is this assumption correct? Earth has suffered many collisions throughout its history, but only one has been so devastating that it significantly impacted evolutionary progress and this impact was favourable namely, the collision that killed the dinosaurs. The dinosaur extinction stands apart from other extinctions because of its abruptness. Other major extinctions, such as the Permian-Triassic extinction, which was actually even more devastating, happened over longer periods of time, and although comparatively fast in geological terms, were by no means immediate, and thus could not have been caused by a collision. Truly devastating collisions are extremely infrequent. Moreover, it only took 10 million years for life to substantially re-diversify after the dinosaur extinction, and this turned out to be a good thing for intelligent life, because humans would not exist otherwise. Hence, it seems that meteor and comet strikes do not annihilate all life from a planet, but rather just make room for different life, which in terms of evolutionary progress, is probably a favorable event, not unfavorable. Meteor impacts are like hitting the reset button you don't want to do it too often, but every once in a while it is necessary to hit it when evolutionary progress freezes. Such was the case with the dinosaurs, because they had made life in the trees impossible for anything with opposable thumbs. Gas giants are likely to exist in other solar systems, because the same laws of physics apply to other solar systems as to our own. Heavy material sinks toward a source of gravity, and that is why stars close to the sun like Mercury, Venus, and earth contain a lot of heavy material like iron and silicon. Lighter material stays afloat, which is why the outer planets are comprised of hydrogen and helium and other light elements. The outer planets are gas "giants" because their gas is not compacted into a small space like the solid rocks of earth, but is swirling around in large clouds. Since these planets result from normal physical processes which we should expect to see elsewhere, we should not consider the presence of a gas giant such as Jupiter to be unique. Rather, we should expect to see billions of similar gas giants in solar systems throughout the universe. Indeed, as mentioned above, large planets are already observed in other solar systems. Earth Cannot Be the First Planet on Which Intelligent Life Evolved. The evolution of intelligent species probably took even less time on other planets. This is because the early earth was comparatively too hot to handle, a fact which may have significantly retarded the evolution of higher life forms. Earth's geothermal activity, that is volcanoes and earthquakes, is still going strong even after 4.6 billion years. Geothermal activity is caused by two things gravity and radioactivity which in turn are caused

by high levels of dense materials such as iron and even denser radioactive materials such as uranium. On lighter planetary bodies, like the Moon, geothermal activity died out a long time ago, because they have less gravity and because their uranium became depleted. But earth is still pumping out steam and lava because it is heavier and contains more radioactive material deep within its core. As planetary geologist Ellen Stofan says, The larger a planet is, the more heat will be generated in the interior, and thus the more active the surface will be. Geothermal activity also pumps out carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, and thus causes global warming. If geothermal activity causes too much global warming, then water is too hot and life dies. Such was the case in the earth's early oceans. Earth's oceans first appeared 4 billion years ago, but were extremely warm, almost to the point of boiling. Although simple prokaryotic cells like bacteria could survive under near-boiling conditions, more complex eukaryotic cells could not, because the best of them can only withstand temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius, or 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Eukaryotic cells absolutely must be the building blocks of all complex and intelligent life, because prokaryotic cells do not have the organelles necessary to sustain an organism beyond just a single cell. Prokaryotic cells seem to have evolved very quickly after the first oceans, the first evidence of them standing at 3.85 or 3.5 billion years ago. In contrast, eukaryotic cells emerged much later. This is not a function of the time it takes for eukaryotes to evolve, but rather resulted from the fact that early earth was simply too hot for eukaryotic cells to even exist at all, regardless of their evolutionary potential. species evolved much faster than we did. Also, early earth had too much iron on its surface. There was so much iron that it soaked up great quantities of oxygen for well over a billion years after life first appeared on earth. This is recorded as bands of gray and red in archaic rocks. Animal life cannot exist without free oxygen in the air. Therefore, surface iron severely delayed the emergence of even the most primitive worms and creepy-crawlies. In another world, where surface iron was less plentiful in earth's early years, intelligent beings might have evolved much more quickly. For these reasons, the earth is too iron-rich and too radioactive to make a likely candidate for the first intelligent life. This possibly speaks for the universe at large being past its prime. Supernovae stars have perhaps over-seeded the universe with heavy elements, such that it can no longer produce life with the same degree of efficiency as it used to. Thus the universe is facing its midlife crisis. In its younger days, the universe may have spawned intelligent species much more efficiently than it does now. On a less radioactive planet, eukaryotic life may have evolved much more quickly. If this is true, then the first intelligent

In another event which may have significantly retarded the development of life on earth, we may note that 700 million years ago, the earth was covered in ice. This situation persisted for millions upon millions of years. If other planets did not suffer from this, it follows that they developed intelligent life many millions of years before us. Look to the Trees 250 million years ago, mammal-like reptiles dominated the earth. Some of them even climbed trees, and if it weren't for the pointless evolutionary diversion of the dinosaurs who temporarily replaced them, the tree dwellers may have even developed opposable thumbs, which is a prerequisite to having the ability to use tools. With tools, a species can become technological, and thereby become an intelligent advanced civilization like humans. Animals that live on the ground need all four feet to run fast, so they have little chance of developing hands that can grip tools. Animals that live in the water need fins or flippers, so the same is true for them. Animals of the air exchange hands for wings. So when we look for intelligent life, we should look to the trees, for it is in the trees that hands evolve. Although dolphins and whales are intelligent, they will never be technological, because they lack the ability to grip and use tools. You can't write Moby Dick with a flipper. You need hands, and hands evolve from swinging in trees, and tree-swingers cannot coexist in a world filled with very tall carnivorous dinosaurs whose heads are above the treetops. The longterm dominance of giant carnivores like Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus may have significantly retarded the development of technological species on this planet. Such dinosaurs dominated earth for well over 100 million years, until finally the mammals made a comeback, thanks to the luck of a fallen star slamming into the Yucatan. If the dinosaurs never existed, then intelligent life may have evolved on earth over 100 million years earlier. If the evolution of interstellar intelligent species is a race between planets, and if earth was distracted in the middle of the race by so many complications, how is it possible for us to have won the race? If earth was running around in a reptile zoo instead of running the race track, while other planets were sprinting toward the finish line, then how can we possibly believe that we are the first intelligent species to evolve? It is not difficult to imagine a tree-covered planet filled with monkeys where dinosaur-sized predators never existed. Such a planet would have more gravity than earth, which would get rid of the dinosaurs and carnivorous birds and pterosaurs, since large terrestrial animals and flying creatures take a long time to evolve mechanisms to cope with gravity. But the extra gravity would not deter trees, for the physical properties of water cohesion pull water up the trunks of trees with a force of 130 megapascals, which is several times the cohesion strength needed to overcome gravity, even for tall sequoia redwoods.

But what of the extra geothermal pressures resulting from more intense gravity? If the planet were high in iron and silicon, but low in uranium, geothermal activity would increase in proportion to iron and silicon, but decrease in proportion to uranium, and thus a favorable level of geothermal activity would be maintained despite the higher level of gravity. As an added benefit, such a planet would also enjoy more constant levels of geothermal activity over time, instead of being skewed in favor of the early years of the planet a fact which would make such a planet cooler than earth in its early life and thus likely to evolve eukaryotes at an earlier date than earth. Hence, the ideal planet for intelligent life, I think, would be heavier than earth, but with less uranium. Such a planet could probably produce intelligent life much more quickly than earth did.

Deep Space Travel - Logistics

Assuming the first intelligent species of our Galaxy originated in the most remote region of the Galaxy, in the farthest corner away from earth, they would be approximately 73,000 light years away. This is a distance of 411,503,775,886,980,000 miles, which is 411 million billions of miles. A jet airplane traveling four times the speed of sound could accomplish this distance in 16 billion years. Much faster is our own 1970's vintage space probe, Voyager. Launched in 1977, Voyager has broken through our sun's gravitational pull and is destined to travel deep space until the sun freezes over or until some space alien intercepts it and learns to dance the boogie woogie from the oldies music on Voyager's phonograph "Golden Record." Careening through space at approximately 38,000 miles per hour, Voyager will travel 73,000 light years in 1.24 billion years, provided it suffers no obstructions. Likewise, space aliens could reach our planet in just 1.24 billion years, using nothing but 1970's technology. Assuming they evolved 6 billion years ago, this means that they arrived in our solar system approximately 4 billion years ago. At that time, earth was just beginning to form. But let's say that the aliens paused for 10,000 years every 10 light years, in order to build a civilization on a suitable planet, which after 10,000 years would become so overpopulated that they would be forced to move on. Even then, the number is not much different, standing at 1.30 billion years. This is not based on the assumption that they made a beeline for us; rather, it is based on the assumption that they expanded in all directions from their point of origin, and that we are one of many planets they could have visited within their radius of origin, which enlarged as they traveled in deep space, stopping every few light years, and pausing until overpopulation of suitable planets forced them to keep expanding. The Galaxy itself is 100,000 light years in diameter. Using these same numbers, the colonization of the entire Galaxy, just by using 1970's technology, should take no longer than 1.8 billion years. It could have happened even more quickly. We could get to Alpha Centauri, the star closest to the sun, with much greater speed, in just 20,000 years, if we used the gravity of a planet to "slingshot" spaceships toward the foreign star. Using gravity as a slingshot would greatly enhance the speed at which we could travel. Using this technique, it would allow us to colonize the entire Galaxy in just 565 million years this number still allowing for 100 million years of down time during which aliens enjoy colonizing suitable solar systems until they become so overpopulated that they must move on. This technology is just outside our current capabilities. If stupid apes like us can achieve it, how much more efficient would the big-headed aliens be? By putting these observations together, we can construct a hypothetical history of life in the universe. The universe was formed 13.7 billion years ago. The first life-sustainable solar systems were formed between 13 and 11 billion years ago. Since intelligent life evolved on earth within 5 billion years, it should

do so at least as fast on other planets, and the fastest among them was probably even faster. Therefore, the first intelligent species emerged no later than 6 billion years ago. This species and its descendent species would have colonized the entire Galaxy within 1.8 billion years. Thus, by 4.2 billion years ago, the entire Galaxy was likely populated with space aliens. This is likely the latest it could have happened. Hence, space aliens permeated the Galaxy before life even appeared on earth. They have been with our planet since the beginning, and have played God with us since the beginning. At this point, evolutionary science and religion should stop their bickering and just get married, because the gods are real, and they are the product of evolution.

The Fuel of Space Travel

But where would the aliens get the fuel for such long interstellar journeys? How light and compact would the fuel need to be in order to make the journey on a single "tank of gas," so to speak? After all, you can't refuel while you are in between stars, so you need to carry a very large amount of fuel with you. To be feasible, the fuel must either be extremely light or pack one heck of a power punch. The fuel needed would be the hydrogen isotope deuterium, and the process to burn it would be nuclear fusion. According to nuclear scientist Freidberg, "It would take only about a pickup truck full of deuterium laced ocean water to power Boston for a year." This is a perfect fuel. Not only does it provide 96 million MJ per kilogram, roughly 2.4 million times the energy provided by the same amount of gasoline, it also occurs in plentiful amounts throughout the universe. Water in one form or another is known to exist not only on earth, but also on comets, Uranus, Neptune, maybe Mars, and several moons of the gas giant planets of our own solar system. Recently, water in steam form has even been spotted on planets outside our solar system. Just 30 light years away from earth, there is a planet with the same mass as earth which is known to be comprised almost entirely of water. It is much closer to its sun than earth is, ensuring gaseous form on the surface. Therefore, water must be a cheap and easy commodity on the intra-Galactic market. The fuel required for a nuclear fusion powered space ship is commonly available, very cheap, and packs a power punch powerful enough to justify carrying its weight around in a gas tank for thousands of years while traveling through deep space.

Why Would Aliens Visit Earth Anyway?

If intelligent space aliens evolved before us, why would they come here? Why not stay comfortable on their home planet? Deep space travel is a tough life. Quarters are cramped and cold for thousands of years. Everything has to be recycled. Interstellar travelers would have no choice but to eat mushrooms growing on their own excrement, and chemically synthesized food derived from the dead bodies of their comrades. No wonder the aliens are putrid, green, and feeble-looking. Worse, the cost of the project would be astronomical no pun intended. Given such conditions, why would anyone want to live in deep space? Answer: To escape genocide. Interstellar space travel is inevitable, because genocide will eventually always force certain subgroups of intelligent species to depart from their home planet. Genocide is the drumbeat to which so-called evolutionary progress marches. The whole of natural history is nothing but an endless saga of brutal savagery and mass-murder. Cambrian creatures committed genocide against Ediacaran creatures 550 million years ago, jawed fish committed genocide against the non-jawed fish 350 million years ago, early reptiles committed genocide against amphibians 250 million years ago, and the dinosaurs committed genocide against everybody 150 million years ago. Humans are no better. The Romans committed genocide against the Helvetians, the Mongols against the Arabs, and the Europeans against the Native Americans. Just in the past century, the Turks committed genocide against the Armenians, the Germans against the Jews and Slavs, the Communists against the Cambodians, the Hutu's against the Tutsi's, and the North Sudanese against South Sudan and Darfur. Someday, a one-world economy will demand a one-world governing system, and sooner or

later that government will fall into the hands of a bloody tyrant who will spare no enemy. Then what will the victims of genocide do? They will have no choice but to blast off toward another planet, no matter what the cost, and no matter how uncomfortable the journey. If it can happen on earth, it has already happened elsewhere in the Galaxy. Among the prey, those who flee survive. Among intelligent species, those who flee and survive are those who fly away to new planets. The first deep space travelers were not brave pioneers. Rather, they were refugees who were driven from home by acts of genocide perpetrated against them. The brutal reality of survival of the fittest is genocide. The essence of evolution is the complete extermination of certain genes from the gene pool. This is a universal law that holds true for all time without regard to intelligence or technological advancement. The same law has continually applied to all, from the smallest bacteria to the largest dinosaur, from the stupidest birdbrain to the smartest human, and from the smartest human to the smartest alien space god. We are all children of the same Mother Nature, who gleefully watches her children rip each other's heads off and eat each other in barbaric acts of genocide. Genocide is easily rationalized it's a matter of your own tribe or nation destroying some other tribe or nation to garner the resources that used to belong to them. Genocide is not psychotic, nor is it crazy. Genocide is just the normal course of business. Genocide is the reason why space aliens invented the technology necessary for deep space travel, and that technology must inevitably lead them here.

Alien Genetic Engineering - An Explanation for Evolution

The history of evolution on earth may hold the answer for why the aliens are so secretive. As demonstrated earlier, there have been inexplicable sudden appearances of diverse new body plans at certain periods of earth's history, and inexplicable movements of species across oceans. But these events do not seem to have the markings of a well-designed plan that has been effected down through the ages. Events like the Cambrian Explosion, the rapid evolution of snakes and birds, and the sudden appearance of seals and turtles these rapid evolutionary events are spaced so haphazardly across such great stretches of time, that it is unlikely they are part a premeditated plan of extraterrestrial guidance across all time. Thus, the bulk of alien involvement in earth's evolutionary history was not premeditated; rather, it was accidental, temporal, and non-directional. It was not intelligent design; rather, it was intelligent interference. A logical hypothesis, therefore, is that the aliens did not create or design new forms to put on earth. Rather, they designed new forms for themselves, and occasionally they accidentally leaked DNA from their genetic engineering laboratories, which unintentionally came to earth. From the aliens' perspective, why should they care about the course of evolution on earth? Is there any profit in it for them? If not, then why should they try to influence it? If aliens have a stake in the genetic engineering of new forms, it would be in the genetic engineering of themselves, in order to improve themselves, or to diversify themselves in order to fulfill different tasks, or to create subordinate slave species to assist them. They have no reason to cause genetic engineering on earth. Hence, they don't intentionally do so. However, if some forms on earth occasionally produce a DNA sequence they find useful, they may abduct the individual who carries the DNA sequence, and copy that individual's DNA for usage in their own laboratories, for the improvement of their own species. The aliens, in essence, create hybrid alienearthling DNA. Occasionally, every once in a long while, one of the hybrid DNA strings accidentally finds its way back into earth's general population, and breeds with other members of the original species, thus interjecting a new and nearly functional DNA sequence into the gene pool, which is adjusted by means of natural selection to produce a fully functional new form. If several such events occur within a lineage in

rapid succession, we have an explanation for the sudden appearance of new forms. Thus, DNA leakage from the genetic engineering laboratories of aliens may very well be the reason for the abnormally sudden appearances of new forms that paleontologists regularly observe in the fossil record. The rich biodiversity of earth, therefore, is made possible because we are the accidental DNA dumpster of space aliens. What causes such breaches of security in the alien laboratories? How is it that individuals carrying hybrid DNA are allowed to roam free procreating in the general population? If the book of Enoch and other ancient texts are to be believed, these breaches are the result of bestial perversion and lust, which drives "angels," that is aliens and hybrids, to engage in acts of intercourse with the species of earth . This may explain why the angels who had sex with human women were thrown into the dungeons of hell, according to the ancient texts, because the government of the aliens considers it a crime to compromise the security of the genetic engineering laboratories, and so they lock them in some kind of prison, which they have revealed to us as "hell." This also explains why sudden changes in body plan occur only sporadically in the fossil record, not all the time, because the security of the laboratories is tight enough, and the penalties deterrent enough, that breaches in security don't happen every day, but only happen once in a great while. Therefore massive leaps in evolutionary diversity only happen once in a great while. There is also the possibility that the more embarrassing mutants are absconded with, and thus never fossilized and found. For example, although Bigfoot sightings and footprints are very common, the bones of Bigfoot have never been found. Perhaps the UFO occupants who are responsible for the recent evolution of Bigfoot take precautions to hide the bones of such transitory species. Also, the aliens may quickly annihilate the children of their comrades' indiscretions, as was the case in Noah's Flood, whereby the alien authorities destroyed the half-breed nephilim giants. Because such monsters were short-lived, the opportunity for fossilization was greatly abbreviated, and this may explain why Frankenstein monsters in the fossil record are the exception rather than the rule. We may never know the true measure of how many monsters have come and gone on this planet, because the alien governments have destroyed them before they become common enough to be seen in the fossil record. Now that we have become an intelligent species, it has become even more necessary for the space alien gods to tighten security and conceal their activities, in order to continue their genetic engineering projects without arousing the suspicion of humans. Consequently, we just don't see them very often, and when we do, they are secretive, illusive, and they promulgate disinformation campaigns to confuse us. Another factor may be the periodic absence of alien intelligence from our solar system due to interstellar star wars between alien societies, which force aliens to leave the solar system. Alien absence may explain why certain long periods of time passed with no lineages undergoing radical changes. Hence, macro-mutations caused by aliens are infrequent and sporadic, because there were long periods of time during which the extraterrestrial presence was non-existent or self-restrained.

A factor which may have retarded the aliens ability to effect evolutionary change might be a limited number of space aliens.

Alien Abduction, the Breeding Program, and the Fossil Record

The events described in the Biblical book of Enoch, when angels came down from heaven and began to procreate with animals and humans, is also happening today, only today it is no longer attributed to angels, but is recognized as alien abduction. Alien abduction of both animals and humans is a longstanding phenomenon known to those who study UFOs. Sometimes, when the aliens are finished probing, terrifying, defiling, and otherwise abusing their abductees, they unceremoniously dump them in whatever random location is convenient. In this manner, we might explain the occasional fossil which shows up on a continent it does not belong. The agenda of the extraterrestrials is to use human sexual mechanisms to create one or more new species. At the moment, they don't want to conquer us as Hollywood pictures in the movies, nor do they want to help us as the New Agers hope. Instead, UFO researchers report a scenario much more akin to the situation in Enochs time that is, heavenly entities secretly coexist with us for the purpose of genetic engineering. One of the most widely respected UFO researchers is Dr. David Jacobs, who has effectively reduced UFO abduction research into a science that can be studied using large sets of quantifiable data. According to Jacobs,

The evidence suggests that all the alien procedures serve a reproductive agenda. And at the heart of the reproductive agenda is the Breeding Program, in which the aliens collect human sperm and eggs, incubate fetuses in human hosts, to produce alien-human hybrids, and cause humans to mentally and physically interact with these hybrids for the purposes of their development The production of a hybrid species appears to be the means to the aliens goal. So far, researchers have been unable to uncover any other purpose for the UFO and abduction phenomena, and the Breeding Program.

Leading UFO researcher Budd Hopkins adds confirmation. About his first alien abduction case in 1983 he writes that it was,

The first of hundreds of similar cases I subsequently investigated in which women reported being abducted and apparently artificially inseminated, after which they found themselves pregnant. Then equally mysteriously, about the end of the first trimester, but often weeks or months later, the pregnancies disappeared, with no trace of fetal tissue.

Jacobs adds,

On many occasions, abductees have reported scheduling an abortion only to find an empty uterus during the actual procedure.

For the skeptics, Jacobs lays down several reasons for why alien abductions are real:

Abductees are physically missing during the event. The abductee is not where he is supposed to be; people who search for him cannot find him. The abductee is usually aware that there is a gap of two or three hours that neither he nor anyone else can account for Approximately 20 percent of abductions include two or more people who see each other during the abduction event.

These factors make it improbable, even impossible, that the abduction phenomena are only psychological delusions. Hopkins and Jacobs claim that female abductees typically develop health problems associated with their reproductive organs, even to the point where hysterectomies are common. During hysterectomy operations, doctors sometimes notice scar tissue has developed on the ovaries or the fallopian tubes, indicating that something or someone penetrated the abductees stomachs to retrieve or impregnate eggs. This aspect of the alien abduction phenomena is consistent with the fact that female abductees typically report the aliens inserting a long needle into their stomach. This procedure is a constant component of the abduction experience, going back to the very first time a woman was allegedly abducted by aliens. In 1961, Barney and Betty Hill made history by becoming the first victims of alien abduction to have their experience widely published. The couple reported that the aliens ran a long needle into Bettys stomach, telling her it was a pregnancy test. Such a procedure was entirely unknown in 1961, but is commonly done today for the purpose of removing eggs for in-vitro fertilization. After the abduction experience, Barney contracted genital warts, possibly from the aliens. Jacobs attests that of 700 abduction cases he has studied, almost 150 of them contain abductee testimony that eggs were taken during the abduction. Another very early UFO abduction incident, which allegedly took place in 1957, concerned a Brazilian farmer named Villas Boas who was ostensibly forced to engage in sexual intercourse with a naked female human-like alien. After the sexual encounter, the alien pointed to her stomach and then pointed upward to the sky, suggesting that she would become pregnant with his child, and that it would be born in the sky with her. The pattern of alien-human sexual activity for the purposes of reproducing a hybrid species has been a consistent component of the alien abduction phenomena ever since it began in the 1950's, and ever since it first began in the time of Enoch. Concerning bestiality, cattle mutilations also play a likely role in the reproductive goals of the aliens. In typical cattle mutilations, animals such as cows, sheep, goats, or horses are slaughtered, but without any trace of blood. Internal organs are removed, and UFO sightings often accompany the event. UFO writer and Ugaritic scholar Heiser notes that a bovine uterus is very similar to a human uterus. The aliens are apparently killing cows to take their uteruses. Then they incubate hybrid human-alien fetuses inside of the bovine uteruses. This explains why the cattle mutilations are occurring.

Rapid Evolution Can Darwinism Explain It?

Rapid evolution is a fact of the fossil record. Evolutionists often acknowledge that most life forms arrived suddenly throughout earths history. The problem is, evolutionary genetics predicts that evolution should happen slowly, over many millions of years. Events such as the Cambrian Explosion and the Eocene mammal diversification defy the expectations of genetics. The fossil record provides many examples of new life forms that arrived seemingly instantaneously, with little or no evidence for gradual evolution. Turtles, bats, pterosaurs, certain amphibians, primitive sea lions, sauropterygians, ichthyosaurs all these evolved suddenly. In all these lineages, natural selection made subsequent improvements over millions of years, but only after the greater part of evolutionary advancement had been suddenly accomplished. What causes rapid evolution? Evolutionists have put forward theories such as Punctuated Equilibrium and hopeful monster Salvationism. However, these explanations are in some ways inadequate. Perhaps a better explanation is the belief of the ancient Christians that fallen angels had sex with animals, and their children became new species. The Cambrian Explosion produced over 20 new body plans. It was not necessary for the Cambrian Explosion to produce so many new and radical life forms. A single body plan can adapt to a multitude of environments. We can see this in the evolution of ocean reptiles, winged animals, the first animals with legs, arthropods, and mammals, which did not need to become new phyla in order to adapt to new environments. So what causes new body plans to suddenly appear?

Missing links do not justify creationism. This is because intermediary fossils do exist. Yet strangely, the intermediaries often appear after the transition has been completed, not before. The first bird, archaeopteryx, comes before the feathered raptor dinosaurs to which it was related. Likewise, the first true snakes come before the lizard-snake intermediaries. The same pattern is observed in other lineages. Taken together, this indicates evolution happened, yet the greater part of the transitions happened surprisingly quickly, because time did not allow for sufficient quantities of intermediaries to accumulate in the fossils before the new forms were fully developed.

Fossilized UFO's: Explanation for the Cambrian Explosion?

The gods said, "Let us make life in our image, after our likeness." So they made life in the image of a UFO. Before the Cambrian Explosion, there were strange creatures living in the depths of the ocean. This was the Ediacaran period, some 610 to 550 million years ago. Ediacaran fossils preserve a rather curious piece of evidence for the presence of extraterrestrial influences upon the development of life, because of their body shape. They resembled UFOs. Several genera that are common in Ediacaran strata possess a disc shape with a distinct inner circle called a "central boss" which is thicker or more elevated than the outer circle that defines the exterior of the organism. In this respect, they bear a striking resemblance to UFOs, in that they are circular, and possess a bulge in the middle, which is an elevated circle within a circle raising the middle up from the rest of the structure. This disk shape is apparent in the fossils of Aspidella, which is among the earliest and most common of Ediacaran biota. Aspidella and its close kin range from Newfoundland, where it is dominant, to Australia. Another like it is Charniodiscus, which is also a disc. The difference between the two is that Charniodiscus supported a leaf-like "frond" from its basal disc, whereas Aspidella apparently did not. There are several other discshaped organisms among these earliest of non-microscopic creatures Cyclomedusa, Ediacara, Hiemalora, Charnia, Hadrynichchorde, and Tribrachidium. Could it be that the gods genetically engineered these early life forms in the image of UFO's?

Mass Extinctions Every 26 Million Years - Raup, Sepkoski, and the God Yahweh
Mainstream scientists Raup and Sepkoski discovered a pattern in mass extinctions that has been maintained since the Permian some 247 million years ago. They found that mass extinction events occur at intervals of 26 million years. The greatest extinction of all time, the Permo-Triassic extinction, lies on the interval of this pattern, as does also the second largest extinction, which killed the dinosaurs. Other extinction events that conform to the 26 million year pattern are the end of the Triassic, the early Jurassic, the end of the Jurassic, the mid Cretaceous, the late Eocene, and the mid Miocene. At least two of these, the dinosaurs and the Eocene, are associated with meteor impacts, and therefore Raup and Sepkoski stated "we favor extraterrestrial causes." There are four extinction events that do not conform to the pattern, yet these are comparatively minor in terms of numbers of extinct species, and are most likely due to other forces besides the force which drives the 26 million year pattern. What is so special about 26 million years? 26 is the number of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Yahweh's name consists of four letters in the Hebrew language. Yod(Y), He(H), Vav(W), and another He(H) spells YHWH, or Yahweh. Yod is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and so its number is ten. He is the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and so its number is five. Likewise, Vav is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and so its number is six. The four letters added together are 26. Yod 10, plus He 5, plus Vav 6, plus another He 5, adds up to 26. Thus, Yahweh, or YHWH, as it is spelled in Hebrew, is signified by the number 26. Could it be that Yahweh was leaving a signature? Was he causing mass extinctions every 26 million years to announce his presence? This scenario certainly does fit the personality of the God Yahweh. As the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh is known for exhibiting regular cycles of destructive judgment followed by longer periods of permissiveness. Indeed, the entire history of the Hebrew people, according to the Old

Testament, is summarized by this very type of cyclical pattern. In the Old Testament pattern, Israel disobeyed, and so Yahweh destroyed part of Israel for a short time, but afterwards Yahweh had mercy on Israel for a long time. Similarly, Yahweh exerts cyclical judgment on life as a whole. Yahweh is not the only god who exhibits such patterns of judgment in the fossil record. The gods of the ancient Vedic faith, precursor to Hinduism, apparently also judged the world by cleaning house every certain number of years. According to mainstream paleontologists McKenna and Bell, On average, in the early Cenozoic, convenient time divisions like the North American Land Mammal Ages are about four million years in duration coincidentally one mahayuga of the Rig Veda = 4,320,000 years.

Ordovician Ice Age and Silurian Sea Level Defy Natural Causes
Earths temperature has seen a lot of ups and downs over the past several hundred million years. Sometimes its hot. Sometimes its cold. Most of the time, these climate changes have natural scientific explanations. However, in two separate events, the data is contrary and perplexing. These two events happened within 20 million years of each other, which in geological terms is not very long. They are the late Ordovician ice age, and the late Silurian drop in sea level. An ice age occurred some 440 million years ago at the end of the Ordovician. Extensive glaciers existed on the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. This is known from drill cores and analysis of archaic rock formations. Also, a mass extinction event happened at that time, giving us further evidence of a major climate change, since drops in temperature tend to kill off large numbers of species. However, it is very strange that an ice age occurred at this time, because carbon dioxide levels were at an all-time high. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. It traps the heat of the sun in the earths atmosphere, thus making the earth warmer. When carbon dioxide levels are high, we would expect earth to be very warm. But in the late Ordovician, something strange happened. Carbon dioxide levels were extremely high, but the earth was cold. For this reason, the late Ordovician ice age is puzzling. Therefore, it is reasonable to postulate that some sort of divine, supernatural, or extraterrestrial intelligence interfered with the climate of our planet at the end of the Ordovician. The other mysterious anomaly in the history of earths climate is the drastic drop in sea level which occurred at the end of the Silurian. About 420 million years ago, the ocean shrank. Naturally, one would ask, where did all the water go? The conventional answer would be into the polar ice caps. Indeed, this is the current situation in our world today. The ocean is smaller than it has been at other times, because a lot of the earths water is tied up in ice sheets around the poles. However, there was no ice age 420 million years ago. There is no sign of glaciers existing during the late Silurian. Wherever the water went, it did not turn into ice. In fact, the general consensus is that the late Silurian was one of the hottest times earth has ever experienced, and that ice sheets were small or non-existent. So where did all the water go? For lack of a scientific answer, one might postulate that there was some sort of divine or extraterrestrial interference with the oceans 420 million years ago. Perhaps the space alien gods were thirsty. And if they drank the water, then how did the sea level rise again in the Devonian? Perhaps the gods have bodily functions similar to humans. Maybe they pissed out the ocean after they drank it. This time period corresponds to the time in which fish made most of their advancements and diversifications including the development of jaws, paired fins, teeth, and the divergence of sharks, rayfinned fish, lobe-finned fish, acanthodians, and placoderms from a common ancestor. Is it possible that the gods were inserting rogue DNA into fish during this time, causing evolution to advance more rapidly than usual?

Prehistoric Cave Paintings of UFO's and Aliens

The aliens have been here for a long time. We can see this from ancient cave paintings. From McConkie Utah to Victoria Australia, several localities report prehistoric works of art that depict UFO's and space aliens. The Wandjina, found in Kimberley Australia, are among the most striking. Their pale white or gray skin, large dark eyes, narrow chins, and lack of a nose constitute synapmorphies with the established description of the commonly reported small feeble Zeta-Reticula aliens, which are also known as "the grays." There exist numerous other examples of plausible ancient space aliens that are pictured in the cave art of the Anasazi Indians and other native peoples of the American Southwest. One time, I was surprised to find ancient alien cave art in the Paleozoic section of a natural history museum, positioned right by the trilobite fossils from the Cambrian Explosion. I scratched my head, wondering why crude sketches of prehistoric space aliens were on display in a museum that ostensibly teaches naturalistic evolution. Are the aliens dropping subliminal hints?

Alien Crypto zoology - Are Extra-Terrestrials Resurrecting Extinct Species?

The coelacanths disappeared with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. However, the world was shocked when a live one was caught in the ocean not too long ago. Several have been caught since then, all in recent decades. Were they really there all along? Or have our dead ancestors come back to life in the depths of the watery abyss? If so, who or what might have preserved their DNA for so long? There is also the ammonoid family Goniatitidae, which evolutionists call a "typical Lazarus taxon," because like many life forms, it disappeared from the fossil record for millions of years, only to reappear much later, as if Jesus had resurrected it from the grave like he did Lazarus in the gospel story. Another example of a Lazarus taxon is the arthropod Naraoia, which went extinct at the end of the Ordovician, but came back after 20 million years at the end of the Silurian. Some other very strange things were happening at the end of the Ordovician and Silurian. In the latter half of the Cretaceous, from the Kyzyl Kum desert of central Asia, there comes the first shrew, who was called Cretasorex. This animal was apparently way ahead of its time, for it looks like a shrew, and even has a coronoid process like a shrew, but it lived long before shrews existed. Shrews first arrived about 45 million years ago in the fossil record, although some hypothesize that they might extend further back to the Wasatchian some 55-50 million years ago. Cretasorex is at least 20 to 30 million years older, as the Kyzl Kum desert produces fossils of mid to mid-late Cretaceous age. Its remains are extraordinarily well preserved, which theoretically should leave little doubt of its identity, yet its date is so far outside the timeframe expected for shrews that paleontologists are reluctant to classify it as a shrew. The gap between Cretasorex in the Cretaceous and the arrival of shrews in the Eocene suggests extinction and reintroduction. Perhaps the body plan of the shrew was an experiment which the gods developed and immediately scrapped, but then decided to re-introduce at a later time. For the naturalist, who believes re-evolution of extinct forms to be extremely unlikely, Cretasorex remains something of an anomaly. Outside of mainstream science, several legends exist of long-dead animals which are allegedly still subsiding. Both the Lapps of northern Europe and the Eskimos of North America espouse that there

exists a large animal with tusks which approximates the description of the wooly mammoth. There is also the matter of the Nandi Bear in Africa a legendary beast whose description sounds a lot like the chalicotheres of the Miocene. The chalicotheres, as discussed previously, were large herbivores with the head and teeth of a horse, the claws of a sloth, and the knuckle-walking capabilities of a gorilla. Even more bizarre are stories from Greco-Roman antiquity which speak of humans that crossbred with animals and produced hominid creatures who, although they understand human speech, could only bark and chirp like dogs and birds, and these have claws, fangs, tails, and heads like dogs. Kongamato is allegedly a modern pterosaur that resides deep within the remote recesses of Africa. The problem is, pterosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago with the dinosaurs. Kongamato has wings with no feathers, and instead of a toothless beak as birds have, Kongamato has teeth in its beak. Therefore, trying to identity it as a bird is problematic. When asked, the natives replied, "It isn't a bird really; it is more like a lizard with wings like a bat." When the natives were shown a picture of a pterosaur, "every native present immediately and unhesitatingly picked it out and identified it as Kongamato." Could the gods have preserved pterosaur DNA on ice, then cloned them millions of years later? There are at least four witnesses that testified for the real existence of Kongamato an explorer, a missionary, an employee of the British Museum, and the natives themselves. Cadborosaurus, or Caddy for short, is a 60 foot long serpent-like animal that lives in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia. It has flippers, a tail, hair, and a camel-like head. Its hair perhaps indicates that it is a mammal, such as an early whale. It is described as having saw-like teeth, which is also consistent with the dentition of very early whales. But modern whales do not have bodies with hair, nor are they serpent-like, nor do they have a head like a camel. However, early whales might have. Are ancient species being brought back from the dead? Mackal records that there are actually three such species off the Pacific coast of Canada. One has large eyes, a camel's head, long neck, and a fur coat. A second is like the first, but with small eyes, horns, or a mane. The third is a serpent-like form with a sheep's head, dorsal fin, and small eyes a kind of snake in sheep's clothing. They are all good swimmers. Horns, camel's heads, and sheep's heads all are traits of the lineage artiodactyla. The artiodactyls are genetically very similar to whales and some think the artiodactyls are the ancestors of whales. And of course, how could we forget the Loch Ness Monster. It and Champ resemble plesiosaurs, which were giant marine reptiles that went extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Evidently, somebody is busy cloning monsters of antiquity. But the best documented case in all cryptozoology is the Beast of Gevaudan. It stands in its own class. As Brockis states,

Compared with other monster mysteries she was unique, leaving graves, witnessed parish records, and archives of official documents, many of them included in this book, proving her real and guilty beyond doubt.

The Beast of Gevaudan terrorized the French countryside from 1764 to 1767. Pourcher published numerous unfiltered firsthand accounts, which testify convincingly to the beasts real existence and strange characteristics. Based on these firsthand accounts, we know today that the Beast of Gevaudan resembled a mesonychid, that is, a prehistoric predator known from 60 million year old fossils .

Why Haven't the Aliens Invaded Already?

Hollywood assumes that space aliens would try to kill us to take over our planet's resources for themselves. But what if we don't compete for the same resources? What if we can peacefully coexist because we occupy different ecological niches? Why would they need to steal our farmland if they can artificially synthesize food? Why would they steal our oil and gas if they use nuclear fusion for energy?

Unless they needed to steal resources from us, there is no particular reason to perpetrate a holocaust against us. Seeing that they don't need our resources, they leave us alone. They merely abduct a few of us to satisfy their occasional sexual curiosities and breeding innovations, and this they do merely for their own purposes not to advance human evolution, but rather to advance their own genetic properties by means of genetic engineering, to which end our DNA occasionally proves useful. Why should they care about our evolution? It makes much more sense that they are perpetrating sexual encounters with us to further the cause of their own evolution. Why invade earth when everything you need is in your space ship? If the aliens have been living in deep space for billions of years, not being on a planet, then they are adapted to that lifestyle, and have no need of living on a planet. Staying in the space ship has certain advantages: A space ship can dodge asteroids and meteors, but a planet cannot; a space ship does not suffer from unpredictable natural disasters like a planet does; a space ship may have better temperature controls than a planet; planets may be home to potentially harmful microbes that could devastate alien populations. Also, life on neighboring planetary bodies provides a gene pool from which the aliens can draw, for the purpose of genetically engineering certain useful life forms that they don't already have in their menagerie of alien slave species. If they invaded earth, they might cause contamination of this asset. For these reasons, our alien neighbors may actually prefer to remain in space rather than invade us. Therefore, the aliens don't kill us because they don't compete with us for the same resources. When the Europeans colonized the Americas, they did not exterminate the earthworms of America. Instead, they subdued members of their own species, the American Indians, and they did this because they competed with the Indians for the same resources. Likewise, we should not necessarily expect space aliens to destroy us. Rather, we should expect them to destroy other space aliens, because they compete with other space aliens more than they compete with us. There is war among the gods, and we are but earthworms on the battlefield, who remain oblivious inside our burrows, relatively safe from the hellish warfare in the heavens.

Are Humans Evolving Back Into Apes? The Fossils Say Yes
A lot of people say we evolved from chimpanzees and gorillas. I beg to differ! The chimps and gorillas evolved from us! We are the more primitive species! Perhaps we evolved from some cousin of the orangutans, but we did not come from chimps or gorillas. This argument comes from the fossil record. There are no gorillas or chimpanzees in the fossil record prior to comparatively recent times. Although hominid fossils are common, there has been only one find of chimpanzee fossils, dating to between 284,000 and 545,000 years ago. As Harrison said,

The evolutionary history of extant humanoids (i.e. gorillas, chimps, and humans) is poorly known, with the notable exception of humans, which have a relatively complete fossil record extending back more than 4 million years the fossil record for African apes is entirely unknown. The evolution of the orangutan is, by comparison, much better documented.

Just going from what the fossils say, the chimps and the gorillas have not been on this planet nearly as long as we have. Some say that we can't find more fossils of chimps and gorillas because they live in the jungle, and fossils don't preserve well in the jungle. But does this make sense? How is it that Pleistocene Orangutan fossils are scattered all across southeast Asia? Is that not jungle too? In the Miocene, Europe was covered in tropical forests. Ape fossils have been recovered from hundreds of locations all across European strata of that time. In fact, when the European jungles retreated in the late Miocene, so did the apes, for they cannot be found in great numbers in Europe except for where there was jungle. From the early Eocene to the early Oligocene, 196 fossil primate species are known, and from the late

Oligocene to the late Pleistocene, 167 fossil primate species are known. Fossil primates have been found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Thus, the primate fossil record is comparatively well-known, both in numbers and across time frames. If chimps and gorillas were in Africa for the past 6 or 7 million years, since the time they allegedly diverged from us, then we should see more evidence for it. Despite the fossil gap, the chimps and gorillas are very much related to us. The chimps share 98.6% of our DNA, or 95.2% if deletions are added to substitutions. They look like us, they have DNA like us, and they even act like us. But they are not found in the fossil record before us. So we did not evolve from them. If anything, they evolved from us! If you took a chimpanzee, and put both a human and a gorilla right in front of his nose, and then asked him "Who's your daddy," the chimp would point at the human, not the gorilla. Likewise, a gorilla would also point to the human, not the chimp. A test using the agent antiserum against albumin revealed that both chimps and gorillas are more related to us than to each other. Despite having much in common, such as hairy bodies, knuckle walking, and much smaller brain sizes than we do, they are more closely related to us than to each other. A Jukes-Cantor measurement of the distance between genomes sheds some light on the subject. When comparing the chimp genome to gorilla and human genomes, the chimp is in all tests more closely related to humans than to gorillas. When comparing the gorilla genome to chimp and human genomes, the non-coding genes, autosomals, pseudogenes, and synonymous genes of the gorilla show a closer genetic relationship to humanity than to the chimp. For non-synonymous genes, the gorilla shows just a hair more affinity toward the chimp these being the genes under the pressures of natural selection. Here's why: non-synonymous genes are subject to the pressures of natural selection, whereas synonymous genes are not. Gorillas and chimps live in similar jungle environments, and this has caused them to acquire similar characteristics, but the synonymous genes reveal lineages by means of tracing DNA that has been left unaltered by selective pressures. That's how we know chimps and gorillas are more closely related to us than to each other. Natural selection has caused chimps and gorillas to look more similar to each other than to us. However, when their genomes are analyzed, chimps and gorillas both turn out to be more closely related to us than to each other.

The Evolution, Devolution, and Devilization of Humanity

It appears that some aliens don't really want humans on this planet, so they have attempted to devolve us back into less intelligent animals. To reverse human evolution, they have inserted ape-like DNA into our gene pool, thus causing gorillas and chimps and other small-brained hominids to evolve from us. The predictions of the so-called "molecular clock" tell us that humans and chimps diverged from each other 6 million years ago, and that humans and gorillas diverged 7 million years ago. Some give it a wider range, from 5 to 8 million years ago. This information is in tension with the fossil record, which does not show chimp or gorilla fossils until much more recent times. Be that as it may, let us suppose that the molecular clock is correct, and that the fossils just have not been found. In this scenario, then, if we trace our ancestry back through the fossil record, we should expect to find our ancestors from 6 and 7 million years ago to look like primitive chimps and gorillas. Yet the fossils of this age that are potentially ancestral to humans reflect more similarity to humanity than to chimps or gorillas. Sahelanthropus was an ape-like human in precisely this time frame of 6 to 7 million years ago. It had human characteristics such as a flatter face, smaller canines, and thicker tooth enamel than in other apes, and a human-like attachment of the spinal chord to the brain, which indicates that Sahelanthropus probably walked on two feet, instead of on his knuckles. As Jobling et al say, "these findings can barely be reconciled with a chimp-human split of 5-7 million years ago." About this same time there appears Orrorin, walking on two feet, and with thick enamel on its teeth two distinctly human characteristics not shared by chimps or gorillas. There is also Ardipithecus, which has chimp-like characters (thin enamel to

name one); yet it could stand on two feet more efficiently than a chimp. From this, we might conclude that humans are devolving into apes, as Jobling et al said, All these early hominid fossils appear to represent chimpanzee-sized, upright-walking species The most radical possibility is that bipedalism is the primitive trait and knuckle-walking in chimpanzees is derived One possible explanation is that the molecular evidence is just wrong, and that chimps and gorillas diverged much earlier. Suwa et al propose this, based on some 10 million year-old gorilla-like teeth, yet unlike modern gorilla teeth, these have thick enamel and other differences.

Our Unfortunate Relatives

The fossil remains of the hominid Homo floresiensis are only 38,000 to 18,000 years old, yet the forehead is receding, and the brain size is smaller than that of the ape-man Australopithecus only 380 cubic centimeters, which is surprisingly tiny even for its relative body size. Australopithecus and Paranthropus had gone extinct 2 million years previously, and even they had larger brains for their body size! H. floresiensis is in most other respects human, including its teeth, basic skull shape, and ability to walk upright on two feet. Despite its small brain, it appears to have used tools and lit fires. For some, its technological achievements indicate it must have been derived from more advanced hominids such as possibly Homo erectus. Yet H. erectus had a brain more than twice the size and was already extinct by then. Multiple specimens have been found, which means we are not dealing with a dwarf or abnormal mutant, but rather with a regular population. Humans just like us were contemporary with H. floresiensis. Even the Neanderthals were almost extinct. We might say we are their nearest relative, if it weren't for the fact that the wrist of H. floresiensis is apparently more primitive than both human and Neanderthal wrists. Some even argue that the root of its divergence from the human line is quite ancient going back to Homo habilis. The problem is, H. habilis died out nearly 2 million years ago. Where are its fossils for the past 2 million years? Could this strange creature be the product of malicious space aliens, who were attempting to thwart human evolution by devolving us into lower apes? The natives of Indonesia claim that a small hairy clan of people who spoke a different language was still present some 300 years ago. H. floresiensis was found in Indonesia. Apparently, the ape-men are coming back. There is also the ape-man Paranthropus, which, although it is not necessarily a step down in terms of brain size, certainly was not a step up either. It's non-technological, apparently root-digging lifestyle, was an evolutionary dead end. Wood called it a "bushpig."

Are Bigfoot Sightings Really Misidentified Bears?

Bigfoot DNA was attained when a Bigfoot accidently stepped on some screws and bloodied his foot. This incident occurred at Snow Grove Lake in the Canadian wilderness. The DNA sequence revealed that Bigfoot's genome is actually closer to humans than to our closest relative chimpanzees. Perhaps Bigfoot is the aliens' most recent attempt to devolve our species with apelike DNA. Bigfoot has no fossil record, which causes many skeptics to doubt its existence. But no fossil record could also mean that its origins are very recent, which is consistent with the hypothesis that aliens devolved it from us in the not-to-distant past. Some skeptics believe Bigfoot sightings are just misidentified bears. However, that theory cannot hold water in light of bear population data. There have been 419 Bigfoot sightings in the state of Washington, but only 13 in the state of Maine. Yet, the bear populations of the two states are

comparable. Washington has a bear population of about 30,000, and Maine has a bear population of just over 20,000. Washington has over 30 times as many Bigfoot sightings as Maine, despite having a comparatively similar bear population. The same story is evident from other states. Montana and Idaho are home to over 40,000 bears, which is more than Washington contains, but Montana and Idaho together have recorded only 77 Bigfoot sightings, which is far fewer than Washington's 419. Minnesota has about 20,000 bears, but only 35 Bigfoot sightings. Wisconsin has 14,000 bears, but only 42 Bigfoot sightings. If Bigfoot sightings are just misidentified bears, then why don't we see more Bigfoot sightings in these bear infested states? In response, a skeptic might say that the frequency of Bigfoot sightings in the Pacific Northwest is a function of the disproportionate rate of marijuana consumption in that region of the country. However, there are some states with comparatively little marijuana usage, and with virtually no bears, yet they have a lot of Bigfoot sightings. Florida has a meager 1,000-1,500 bears, and old folks categorically don't smoke pot, yet Florida has 129 recorded Bigfoot sightings. Texas and Ohio have virtually no bears, yet Texas has 160 Bigfoot sightings and Ohio has 191. Clearly, Bigfoot sightings should not be ascribed to misidentified bears.

Gnostic Origins: Christianity That Agrees with Evolution

Not every ancient Christian was a creationist. They did not all believe in Genesis 1. They did not believe that God saw creation was good. Rather, they believed the universe was originally evil. It resulted from a sudden burst of violent emotion - from arrogance, stupidity, and injustice. One look at the cosmos justifies their opinion. The universe is a vaste wasteland of burning gas and cold dead rock. The universe is arrogant for being so large, and stupid for being a wasteland. It is also unjust, for the only natural law is survival of the fittest, whereby violent unjust individuals kill and eat the peaceful. They blasphemed the creator, but they never blasphemed Christ, for they believed Christ came to save us from the creator and his wicked angels. These were the Gnostics. Some of the Gnostic literature sounds metaphorically similar to the Big Bang. The Gnostics were the most serious threat to Biblical creationism before Darwin. In the mid 2nd century, Gnostic Christians made a concerted effort to take over the congregation at Rome. They must have come close, because testimony from their opponents survives, which tells of major upheaval in the churches. They held a variety of anti-Genesis beliefs. They believed that the universe was made by a stupid god called the demiurge. Several ancient Christians thought the universe was the product of blundering angels. Many of these Gnostics lived during or proximate to apostolic times. Even the Apostle Paul held Gnostic opinions, which are not evident in English translation, but become clear when read in the Greek. There is some evidence the uncle and cousin of Jesus taught Gnostic views. For that matter, even Jesus is quoted in the Gnostic gospels, in support of their opinions. The Gnostics believed that because the material world is a failure, therefore matter and flesh is despicable. Although they rejected parts of the Old Testament, the Gnostics accepted much of the four Biblical gospels. The Gnostics began to die out during the century before Constantine for certain reasons. Unfortunately, the creationist perspective became dominate during the late 2 nd and 3rd centuries, and remained so until Darwin. All these assertions are backed up and footnoted in the links above.

Evolution in the Bible - Fallen Angels Begat New Species

The Biblical book of Enoch suggests that angels procreated with animals, and that their children became new species. Enoch says, I saw a vision, and behold, I saw in the sky many stars falling and throwing themselves to the first star. They became cows like other cows, and they grazed with them. I looked again and behold, I saw all of

them getting erect penises, and they started mounting the female cows. They got pregnant, and gave birth to elephants, camels, and donkeys. This passage is significant because it seems to convey macro-evolution, that is, the evolution from one species into another species. Fallen stars represent fallen angels in ancient Jewish and Christian literature. These fallen angels caused evolutionary change by breeding biologically. Enoch is a book in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible the oldest Bible known to archaeology. Other ancient books that were considered scripture, such as Jubilees and Jasher, also say that fallen angels caused evolution by having sex with humans and with animals. There have also been archaeological discoveries of ancient Christian texts which frequently mention that angels had sex with humans. But why should this perverted stuff about angel sex be in the Christian Bible today? Actually, it is in the Bible today. Its just not explicit. Genesis 6 mentions a breed of angel-human hybrids called the nephilim who were said to be giants. The true interpretation of this passage was lost during the dark ages, but modern scholarship is resurrecting it. The New Testament endorses the book of Enoch. Jude the brother of Jesus quoted Enoch and called it prophetic. The Apostles John and Peter used material from Enoch in their New Testament books. The Apostle Paul said that the angels can be sexually aroused, an idea he apparently got from Enoch and related apocrypha. Jesus Christ himself used material from Enoch in his Sermon on the Mount. Moreover, multiple ancient historical records prove beyond a doubt that the ancient Christians included Enoch in the Bible. Enoch was hand copied by the scribes of the Dead Sea more frequently than other books of the Bible. This must mean that Enoch was part of the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible. The Essenes were the people who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jesus had friends among the Essenes, and he may have been an Essene himself. It stands to reason that Jesus accepts the book of Enoch, because the Essenes did. Enoch was rejected from the Bible in 364 AD, for all the wrong reasons. Yet the Ethiopian Church still keeps Enoch in the Bible. The Ethiopian Church is among the most ancient apostolic churches in the world. An ancient Babylonian epic called Gilgamesh indicates the gods procreated with mortals, and corroborates much of what Enoch says. Gilgamesh describes Noahs Flood, not as a worldwide catastrophe, but as a regional typhoon. Gilgamesh was written not too long after the Flood, and so there is reason to believe much of Gilgamesh is historically accurate, because it is was written shortly after the events it describes. There is also evidence from the Gospel that Jesus accepts Gilgamesh as a source for valid history. All this does not mean that angels control every aspect of evolution, nor that Darwins theory is wrong. Rather, the thesis of this website is that paranormal forces act together with natural selection to produce evolutionary change. Evolution often happens too quickly for Darwinism to be the only cause. The data cannot support intelligent design by God, angels, aliens, or anything else. Rather, the data supports accidental intelligent interference, caused by a small number of extra-terrestrials who haphazardly influence evolution when they lust for earthlings and/or accidentally leak DNA from the genetic engineering laboratories of aliens. The End Times prophecies of Jesus Christ, and of the archangel Uriel, suggest that the Antichrist will be a monstrous angel-human hybrid who is born from the lust of the angels, as in Enoch.

God Is NOT All Powerful - at least not yet

The Gospel tells us that Jesus is NOT all powerful. In the Bible, it says, "Jesus COULD NOT do a mighty work there." (Mark 6:5)

What's this? Was Jesus incapable of doing something? We have been brainwashed into thinking the Christian God is all powerful. In reality, the Bible teaches that there are many gods. This is made clear in Psalm 82, where it says that "God stands in the congress of gods." The Dead Sea Scrolls talk frequently about these other gods. Moreover, ancient Christian holy texts uncovered at Nag Hammadi also mention a multitude of other gods. Monotheism is false. and has nothing to do with the true religion of Jesus and the Prophets. Archaeology and textual criticism prove this beyond any doubt. Extensive quotes from ancient texts prove that Monotheism is heresy. This is why bad things happen to good people, and why violent animals kill - because God is not powerful enough to stop evil from happening. This is also why the prophecies of the Bible are so vague - because God really doesn't know the future; rather, God tries to manipulate the future, and so the prophecies are vague on purpose so that God can fulfill them in some way or another. The parts of the Bible that say God is all powerful are actually part of a forgery called the Priestly text, which was written long after the valid parts of the Old Testament had already been completed. Also, the monotheists intentionally corrupted certain parts of the Bible, like Deuteronomy 32:8, to remove mention of the other gods. The phrase "Almighty God" which occurs frequently in English Bibles is actually El Shaddai in Hebrew, which means "God of the Desert." Shaddai or Saddai refers to the open fields or desert, and does NOT mean "Almighty." Thus, the phrase Almighty God in the Bible is a mistranslation. God is not all powerful. Instead of monotheism, the ancient Hebrews and early Christians believed in Henotheism.

Is Jesus Christ a Space Alien? Examining the Gospels for Clues

The resurrection story in the Gospels suggests that Jesus Christ may have been a cloned space alien. He was never immediately recognized, not even by his most intimate associates, which means he must have looked different. But upon closer examination, they realized it was him. This is consistent with the resurrected Jesus being a clone. Every early Christian group believed there was something about Jesus that was otherworldly. No group, not even the heretics, believed that Jesus Christ was merely mortal. However, there was no consensus about any other aspect of his nature. There was no consensus he was God. There was no consensus he was flesh. Its like everybody knew Jesus Christ was from another world, but they didnt know exactly what that meant. This fits the pattern of a space alien. Upon close examination of the Gospels, we can build a case that the biological parents of Jesus were the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is female. She is the Goddess of Christianity . There is extensive proof of that the Holy Spirit is a woman from both early Catholic and Gnostic texts. Both the Orthodox and the heretics believed that Sophia, i.e. Divine Wisdom, was the feminine aspect of God and resided in the person of the Holy Spirit. Mary was not the biological mother of Jesus. Rather, the Virgin Mary was abducted by space aliens, and her womb was used to incubate Jesus. In early Christian literature, we are told repeatedly that the resurrection is a refurbishment of the flesh. The resurrection is biological, not spiritual. This fits the pattern of what would expect from aliens that are supernatural biological entities. They clone themselves and move their souls into their clones, thus achieving immortality.

Astrobiology and Evolution: Intelligent Aliens Before Humans

Science knows for a fact that all the requirements necessary for intelligent life were present in the universe long before our earth even existed. Life-giving elements were plentiful long before us. Also, sun-like stars and earth-like planets are plentiful, and always have been since at least 11 billion years

ago. There are several reasons why earth cannot be the first planet to have spawned intelligent life. The earths young age, its location in the galaxy, its excessive uranium and iron content, and its evolutionary history all these factors make earth a rather poor candidate for being the first planet to spawn intelligent life. Astrobiology and evolution favor older, larger, less radioactive planets that are closer to the Galactic center. So, intelligent life probably evolved before us. Could aliens visit earth? Deep space travel is quite possible using nuclear fusion and deuterium as fuel. But why would they travel in deep space? Survival of the fittest forces endangered species of intelligent life to keep expanding to new solar systems, to avoid extinction caused by ever-present genocide. But why dont we see the aliens? We dont see them because they dont want us to see them. The aliens use planet earth as a source of genetic variety. The aliens use earths DNA for making new species among themselves, in a Breeding Program. Apparently, they do this for their own evolution into various specialty species, not for the benefit of our evolution. They want to keep this secret from us. Also, aliens want humans to care about the environment, not because Mother Earth is sacred, but rather because extinctions decrease earths DNA variety and thus inhibit the aliens genetic engineering objectives. There is much scientific evidence from the fossil record that aliens have impacted evolution. Many evolutionary events happened much too quickly for Darwins theory of natural selection to be the only cause. The most notable event was the Cambrian Explosion. Shortly before the Cambrian Explosion, the most complex life on the planet were creatures that looked like UFOs. Since then, extinctions have happened at regular intervals, for which the best explanation is extra-terrestrial causes. There is also some indication that aliens impacted climate during late Ordovician and Silurian times, since certain climate changes of that time cannot be explained by naturalistic forces. There are even cave paintings that seem to depict aliens. Today, there are many reports that extinct species have come back to life. Some of these come from cryptozoology, like the Loch Ness Monster and the Beast of Gevaudan; however, other reports come from respected scientific journals. One famous example is the coelacanth fish, which is known from science. Do the aliens keep extinct DNA on ice? Are they operating a secret Jurassic Park in the mother ship? Would aliens invade earth to take it from us? No, because living off the land is primitive. They dont need our resources. Besides, an easier way to get rid of us is to pollute our gene pool so that we evolve back into apes. There is fossil evidence that primitive hominids existed at times long after their supposed extinction. The legend of Bigfoot makes some people laugh, but there are other primitive fossil hominids of a late date, which are taken much more seriously by mainstream science.

Fossils Say that Alien Abduction Happened for Millions of Years

The fossil record indicates that UFO abductions happened in the past. This is because several species from millions of years ago crossed oceans that were impossible to cross, except if they were somehow air-lifted. How did marsupials get from North America to Australia? How did monkeys get from Africa to South America? How did animals native to the northern continents migrate to the southern continents, before the Panama, Suez, and the Himalayan land bridges existed? Did aliens abduct them and transport them? Similar questions must be asked for how other animals crossed oceans, such as elephants, early tetrapods, condylarths, snakes, and fresh-water fish. And if these found a natural way to raft across the oceans, then why were rats and mice so unsuccessful at rafting across oceans? Apparently, the aliens abduct species to conduct a Breeding Program, according to modern alien abduction experts. The creationist narrative in Genesis 1 is contradicted by many ancient Christian texts. Instead of an Almighty Creator God, ancient Christian texts espouse that the universe is born from blind arrogance and stupidity. The angels caused evolution to occur from species to species. There are many gods, (or aliens?), and the Christian God is just one among them. Satan the Devil writes scripture, and thus the Bible was polluted with Genesis 1. Archaeology and modern scholarship demonstrate that Genesis is indeed corrupted. Cavemen walk with Adam and Eve. Esoteric prophecies reveal the coming of Christ, and also reveal the dark forces that govern the cosmos. Such are the ancient Christian writings.

Science vindicates the truth of these ideas. Evolution often happens too fast for Darwins theory. Gaps in the fossil record indicate that some kind of unnatural force acts together with natural selection. Astrobiology reveals that intelligent life probably evolved long before us. The fossil record reveals strange clues that aliens abducted species and transported them across oceans, and that DNA from diverse lineages was combined to spawn hybrid species. Evidently, aliens influence evolution, and they are the gods of the worlds religions.

Genesis Creation Story Denounced by the Prophets as FORGERY

The creation story in Genesis 1 was called a forgery by Jeremiah the Prophet. In the Bible, Jeremiah accused the priests of Jerusalem: How can you people say We are the experts, for we have the Lords Bible, when behold, like a forgery, the pen has been manipulated by dishonest Bible copiers!(Jeremiah 8:8) Most English translations say that the "law" was corrupted, instead of the "Bible." However, the word translated "law" is actually the Hebrew word Torah, which does not refer to just any old "law." The word Torah means the "Law of God," which specifically means the first five books of the Bible including Genesis. Once this is realized, the full weight of the Prophet's oracle hits us like a ton of bricks: The Bible is polluted by forgery! The Bible itself testifies that this is true, for this passage is from the Bible. Modern scholars believe that Genesis 1 was part of a document called the Priestly text, written by the priests of Jerusalem, the very same people Jeremiah accused. Genesis 1 was derived from a pagan Babylonian myth called Enuma Elish, and was incorporated into the Priestly text, which itself was subsequently added to the Bible at a late date, after earlier versions of the Bible were already written. Scholars believe that Genesis 1 was added to the Bible when Israel came under Babylonian control, which happens to be the same time Jeremiah was alive. We know this because the earlier Prophets, those before Jeremiah, never show any knowledge of Genesis 1. The most natural explanation for this is that the Genesis creation story was not even originally part of the Hebrew religion. This theory is verified by variations in vocabulary that prove the Documentary Hypothesis is true. The Documentary Hypothesis is the theory that the Torah is derived from primarily four contrary sources. It goes beyond just different names used for God. Its easy enough for amateurs to verify the Documentary Hypothesis to their own satisfaction, even without knowing Hebrew. All you need to do is analyze your Bible with a thinking mind. For example, why does Genesis 1 contradict Genesis 2? Its because Genesis 1 never came from God. It came from the Babylonian paganism of the Priestly text. These facts have been well-known among mainstream Biblical scholars for many years. But don't take my word for it. Try Googling "Documentary Hypothesis." The matter is complex, but the conclusion is quite solid. Even the Catholic Church acknowledges that Genesis 1 comes from a different author than Genesis 2. Israelite history tells us that there were deep divisions between northern and southern Hebrews, which culminated in the establishment of two separate literary traditions, both of which found their way into the Bible. We can know this because certain Bible stories are duplicated, which means two variants of the same story originally existed in separate texts. The two traditions gave birth to two rival priesthoods. The northern priesthood wrote the Elohist sources. The southern priesthood first wrote the Yahwist sources, but later they added spurious material which became the Priestly text. The southern priests evolved into the Sadducees. Jeremiah and Jesus called them a den of thieves. They not only put the undateable and pervasively unscientific Genesis 1 creation account in the Bible, the Sadducees also killed Jesus Christ. Hence, it was ancient creationists who killed Christ. Much of the material in the Priestly text is strictly occult, including the use of the Urim and Thummim. The Priestly text, which contains Genesis 1, contradicts both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old, it contradicts the Bibles earlier sources on such issues as animal sacrifice, the treatment of deceased animals souls, genealogies, the role of Aaron, the centralization of worship at Jerusalem, and on a wide variety of even more important doctrines. Jeremiah made fun of Genesis 1 in his book. In the New Testament, it can be demonstrated that Jesus Christ disagreed with the Priestly text on many things, such as circumcision, celibacy, how much work to do on the Sabbath, what holy days to keep, possibly some

regulations from the Damascus Document, and whether the story of the manna in the Exodus was real. Some may counter that Jesus quoted Leviticus, but this can be explained as Jesus merely cooperating with authorities. One can search the entirety of the gospels and never find a place where Jesus affirmed the literal truth of Genesis 1. Apparently, Jesus was not a creationist. But for all this, the Priestly text is in the Bible today. Why? It was not God who allowed this pernicious forgery into the Bible. Rather, it was Ezra who erroneously put all of Israels traditions in the Bible regardless of their source. Ezra was a heretic who disobeyed the Prophets and polluted the Bible. We can see this in the book of Ezra, and also from ancient traditions that came after him, which were written by Christians who disrespected both Ezra and the Bible, saying that parts of the Bible were indeed written by God, but other parts were written by Satan the Devil. These ancient authorities have been obscured by the forces that be. The Priestly text and its creationist forgery were written by the priests of Zadok, for whom Solomon built the Jerusalem temple. Solomon is numbered in the Bible as 666, because Solomon was a type of antichrist. Also, ancient Christian and Jewish texts record that Solomon built the Jerusalem temple with the help of demons. Such are the dark secrets of the Jerusalem priesthood and of its temple, through whom Genesis 1 unfortunately came to be in our Bible. This is not fiction. Everything is documented with cold hard facts.

Humans in the Bible before Adam and Eve

Who did Adam and Eve's kids marry? Genesis says that Cain built a city. Who lived in it? Why did God want "animals" to be Adam's partner? Were they really animals? Or were the animals or really cave women? What does the Bible mean by "Noah was perfect in his generations?" Read all about Adam and Eve and the Cave People Too. Why do ancient Christian texts say that humans are a type of animal?

If civilization was made possible by the end of the last ice age, then why didn't civilization flourish during previous warm periods?
If the human species is 200,000 years old, why is civilization only 6,000 years old? The creationist narrative in Genesis 1 is contradicted by many ancient Christian texts. Instead of an Almighty Creator God, ancient Christian texts espouse that the universe is born from blind arrogance and stupidity. The angels caused evolution to occur from species to species. There are many gods, (or aliens?), and the Christian God is just one among them. Satan the Devil writes scripture, and thus the Bible was polluted with Genesis 1. Archaeology and modern scholarship demonstrate that Genesis is indeed corrupted. Cavemen walk with Adam and Eve. Esoteric prophecies reveal the coming of Christ, and also reveal the dark forces that govern the cosmos. Such are the ancient Christian writings. Science vindicates the truth of these ideas. Evolution often happens too fast for Darwins theory. Gaps in the fossil record indicate that some kind of unnatural force acts together with natural selection. Astrobiology reveals that intelligent life probably evolved long before us. The fossil record reveals strange clues that aliens abducted species and transported them across oceans, and that DNA from diverse lineages was combined to spawn hybrid species. Evidently, aliens influence evolution, and they are the gods of the worlds religions.

The Hidden Esoteric Evidence for Jesus Christ

Most Christian apologists focus on prophecies that foretell Christ, such as Psalms 22:16, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 12:10, etc, which is all well and good. But if we dig even deeper, we find even more prophecies, of a hidden esoteric nature. On August 8, 2008, or 8/8/08, a crop circle formed in England, in the shape of a giant 8. The number 888 is the number of Jesus Christs name, according to ancient Greek numerology. Calculations reveal that prophecies in the Bible employ the number 888 when foretelling Jesus Christs coming. The number of the name of the Old Testament God, Yahweh, is 26. Mass extinctions happen every 26 million years, according to the research of evolutionary scientists. Jesus evidently displayed his hidden knowledge of the cosmos when he described the concept of being hurled into outer darkness in the final judgment. Jesus understanding of outer darkness is consistent with the scientific understanding of the Big Rip, which is how science believes the universe will end. All groups of ancient Christians believed that Jesus Christ was more than just a mortal man . It was true of both traditionalists and heretics. Nobody said he was merely a mortal. Also, in ancient times, both the Orthodox and the heretic Gnostics believed in the Trinity. The ancient Iranian prophet Zarathustra also believed in the Trinity, and the scriptures of Zarathustra foretell the coming of Christ, 600 years before he came. Jeremiah was also an historically verifiable Prophet who foretold Christ. For that matter, Jesus Christ was also an historically verifiable Prophet. They all foretold events which subsequently happened in secular history. The fact that Jesus Christ was a real historical person is undeniable. Ancient sources even tell us much about Jesus Christs family, his uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, and his grandmother.

Why Is There No lce Age Adam?

Several data points affirm that the human species has been around for about 200,000 years. Along the Omro River in Ethiopia, two partial human skulls were unearthed which dated to around 196,000 years ago. Three partial human skulls were uncovered at Herto, Ethiopia, which dated to 160,000 years ago. This find was especially important because one of the skulls is nearly complete. Its distinctly human face has even been preserved. Besides fossils, mitochondrial DNA indicates that we arose some 200,000 years ago in Africa. Interestingly, we had the same brain size back then as we do today. Yet, for the vast majority of the time our species has been alive, we have been living like animals. Civilization came late in the game, and only accounts for about 2.75% of the time Homo sapiens has existed as a species. The first

civilization on earth was ancient Sumer in modern day southern Iraq. Its emergence was sudden and unprecedented. Sumerian civilization seems to have been born overnight. Pottery, the wheel, division of labor, organized religion, government, warfare, manufacture of tools, written language, agriculture, city building, fortification all the critical elements of human civilization were innovated within the fourth millennium BCE. This happened along the Euphrates River. Interestingly, Genesis specifically states that the Garden of Eden was by the Euphrates River. Prior to Sumerian civilization, humans had been hunter-gatherers for 200,000 years. They travelled in small family clans. They had no written language. They had primitive tools. They had no kings, no governments, and no organized religion. Nowhere on the entire earth did any humans generate anything like civilization. These were humans like us. We are not talking about Neanderthals. Neanderthals were a separate species, and DNA analysis demonstrates that they were not our ancestors. We are not talking about ape-people either. Ape-people, that is the genus Australopithecus, went extinct about 1.8 million years ago, long before we arrived. Neither is we discussing Homo erectus, whose name does not necessarily imply that primitive hominids practiced same-sex stimulation. We are strictly discussing humans, Homo sapiens, the same species we are today. For 200,000 years, humans like us lived like animals! They were just like us anatomically, and in terms of brain size. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, we became civilized. Why, after 200,000 years of living like animals did we abruptly decide to start living like we do today? Why did civilization come about? Naturalistic evolutionists have an answer the end of the most recent glacial period of the present ice ages. Earth has experienced ice ages for about three million years. Not all that time has been spent in cold temperatures. Rather, there have been about 20 cycles of cold snaps and warm spells. The cold snaps are called "glacial" periods. The warm spells are called "interglacial" periods. About ten thousand years ago, the last glacial period came to an end. Earths weather became much more pleasant. We entered into one of the interglacial cycles. Fertile earth began to emerge in places that had once been covered with ice and snow. People came out of their caves and discovered how to plant crops. Previously, during the glacial period, the growing seasons had been much shorter, which retarded the development of agriculture. But now, the warm summer months lasted long enough to grow and harvest food. Agricultural production became more attractive than hunting and gathering. Instead of freezing in a tent, people could build a house and live there indefinitely. Instead of battling wild animals with spears, people could raise domesticated livestock. Instead of climbing trees to pick bananas, people could reach down to dig up a potato. The agricultural life was much better. The new way of obtaining food demanded a new society. People could no longer live in small tribes. They needed to build cities and forts to defend their food stores from thieves. They needed people to administer the cities. Kings were inaugurated for this purpose. They needed priests to appease the gods so that bad weather did not destroy their crops. Certain aspects of religion were invented for this purpose. They needed some way to till the ground and harvest their crops. New tools were invented for that purpose. The end of the last glacial period of the ice ages made agriculture possible. Agriculture made civilization possible. Civilization made technology possible, and that is why we stopped living like animals. That's the naturalists' explanation. But is this explanation adequate? One problem with the view presented above is that the emergence of civilization really doesnt correspond with the end of the last glacial period as they claim. Civilization first began about 3,500 BCE. But the last glacial period of the ice age had already ended some 4,500 years before in 8,000 BCE. Since 8,000 BCE, the average temperature of the earth has not varied any more than two degrees Celsius. Temperatures have been enormously stable. The warm climate we have today is the same climate humans enjoyed in 8,000 BCE. Variations from the norm have been comparatively minimal. Did it really take humankind a full 4,500 years to realize that agricultural civilization was the wave of the future? And if so, if they only progressed toward civilization gradually over 4,500 years, then why did all major elements of civilization emerge so suddenly in 3,500 BCE?

Another problem is that there have been other interglacial periods during humanitys existence. About 125,000 years ago, an interglacial period started that was similar to the one we are currently living in. It afforded early humans about 10,000 years of warm weather like ours before the earth was battered by another cold snap. The humans who were living then had all the same opportunities that we did. They had the same mild climates we enjoy today. They basked in warm temperatures comparable to ours today. Most importantly, they were humans just like we are today, with the same anatomy, same brain size, and presumably the same intellectual capability. Why didnt they create civilization? In just 5,500 years, civilization has brought us from jungle bunnies to computer geeks, from barbarians to cell phone junkies, from nomads to moon walkers. 125,000 years ago, humans had a 10,000 year window to accomplish everything we accomplished in just 5,500 years. Why didnt they? If civilization was caused by the end of an ice age, then why didnt the last interglacial 125,000 years ago cause the formation of human civilization back then? Moreover, there was a third interglacial about 185,000 to 215,000 years ago, about the same time our species first arrived on the scene. So humanity has been on the earth long enough to enjoy three long periods of very agreeable weather, and yet civilization only managed to take root the third time around. If civilization was made possible by an interglacial warm spell, then why didnt civilization emerge the other two times we enjoyed a respite from the ice ages? If the end of the most recent glacial period did not clear the way for civilization, what did? Is it possible that there was a change in our intelligence without a change in our biology? Is it possible we suddenly got smarter without a change in our brain size? And what might cause such a sudden change in intelligence? For 200,000 years, we lived as animals. Then, civilization suddenly began about the same time Adam and Eve are said to have been created. Perhaps the injection of Adam and Eve's super-human Godcreated DNA into the gene pool of the cave-people is what made the difference.

THE ANCIENT EARTH MYSTERIES THE HOLLOW EARTH MYSTERIES AND OTHER LOST CIVILIZATION MYSTERIES
EVIDENCE FOR THE NEW HISTORY OF EARTH
AS SOPHISTICATED TECHNOLOGICALLY as we have become on this planet, we are still pretty much in the dark when it comes to matters of our own existence. Where do we come from? What is our purpose here? What happens after we die? These are the age-old questions. Science attempts to answer the first question only and doesnt yet know how to deal with the other two. Religion, in its many forms, provides as many certain answers to all three questions, but with little or no evidence. A multitude of other philosophies have their own ideas. With all our investigation, pondering, faith and meditation, however, we are no closer to knowing. The more we dig for answers to these questions, it seems, the more questions are raised. Many fascinating questions are raised with regard to where do we come from? in Brad Steigers book, Worlds Before Our Own. First published in 1978 and out of print for several years, the book has recently been reprinted by Anomalist Books (along with several other of Brads titles, including Strange Guests and Shadow World, all of which I can heartily recommend). Obviously, I have always been fascinated by discoveries and human experiences that dont fit into the standard templates of what conventional science and even religion would have us accept. Thus, my preoccupation with ghost phenomena, psychic experiences and sightings of Bigfoot, to specify a few. This fascination also includes archaeological discoveries that do not fit neatly into the timelines currently laid out in scientific texts. (See The 10 Most Puzzling Ancient Artifacts.) Yet these discoveries exist, annoying as they may be to the commonly accepted theories. Brad shares my excitement and wonder about these anomalies, which is why I gleefully relish books like Worlds Before Our Own. These anomalous findings and there are thousands of them stand out as real evidence that there very well may have been civilizations (possibly advanced) that pre-date any we are aware of. They may stretch back hundreds of thousands or even millions of years further than conventional histories. Following is a glimpse of the amazing and tantalizing discoveries Brad documents in the book... Here is a glimpse of the amazing and tantalizing discoveries Brad documents in the book:

IMPOSSIBLY OLD HUMAN REMAINS AND TRACKS In the 1880s, anthropologists found the remains of a modern-looking man, woman and two children in glacial strata that were dated at 10 million years old far older than the currently accepted model, which says modern man ( homo sapiens) has only been around for about 200,000 years. In 1971, while exploring a mine, an amateur geologist and archaeologist found a human tooth embedded in strata that was dated as 100 million years old. In 1932, an experienced trapper found human footprints imprinted in the gypsum rock at White Sands, New Mexico. More astonishing, the prints measured 22 inches long!

GIANTS Two brothers digging into ancient Indian mounds in Minnesota unearthed the skeletons of men that would have stood over eight feet tall. In 1930, the New York Times reported the discovery by a mining operation in Mexico of human remains averaging eight feet in height.

PREHISTORIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY In 1968, a Russian archaeologist found a large-scale metallurgical factory dating back to some unknown civilization 4,500 years ago, where they made vases, knives, bracelets and more of copper, gold, iron and bronze. In Haifa, Israel in 1966, researchers found in a cave a piece of manufactured glass measuring 11 feet long, 7 feet wide and 1 feet thick and aged at 1,400 years old. Such a feat of glass making was not matched until the creation of the mirrors for the Mount Palomar telescopes in the 20th century. The ancient Peruvians may have invented ballooning. In 1690, a Portuguese Jesuit priest recorded that he had actually seen the Peruvians flying about in hot-air balloons.

Again, this is just a small sampling of the wealth of intriguing anomalies Brad Steiger has assembled in Worlds before Our Own. Of course, we call them anomalies only in relation to current scientific belief. More correctly, they should be regarded as concrete evidence that we know very little about the true history of humankind on Earth a history that is almost certainly far richer and older than we have imagined. Who knows what other astonishing discoveries await us in the coming years.

History Mystery: Ancients in America

Long before Columbus sailed to North America, this hemisphere may have been visited by other Europeans, ancient Romans, Chinese and Japanese - even the ancient Egyptians! In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue... Many of us learned that rhyme, part of a longer history poem, when being taught in school that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Although nothing can be taken away from Columbus' daring voyage, he certainly was not the first to arrive on the shores of the Americas. For one thing, there were already people here - many Native American nations inhabited what later became North and South America and even the Caribbean islands where Columbus landed. Columbus probably wasn't even the

first "white man" to make it here. It's fairly well documented that Icelander Leif Ericsson successfully sailed to North America in the year 1000 - almost 500 years prior to Columbus's voyage. In fact, there's a growing amount of proof suggesting that a lot of the familiar history of human exploration and "discovery" by our ancestors as we were taught it may be quite wrong. There is hard evidence of ancient civilizations making their mark in places where, according to traditionally accepted history, they just shouldn't be. Here's an overview of some of the most remarkable and fascinating cases. Greeks and Romans in the New World Coins: o Roman coins have been found in Venezuela and Maine. o Roman coins were found in Texas at the bottom of an Indian mound at Round Rock. The mound is dated at approximately 800 AD. o In 1957 by a small boy found a coin in a field near Phoenix City, Alabama, from Syracuse, on the island of Sicily, and dating from 490 B.C. o In the town of Heavener, Oklahoma, another out-of-place coin was found in 1976. Experts identified it as a bronze tetradrachm originally struck in Antioch, Syria in 63 A.D. and bearing the profile of the emperor Nero. o In 1882, a farmer in Cass County, Illinois picked up bronze coin later identified as a coin of Antiochus IV, one of the kings of Syria who reigned from 175 B.C. to 164 B.C., and who is mentioned in the Bible. Pottery: Roman pottery was unearthed in Mexico that, according to its style, has been dated to the second century A.D. Inscriptions: o In 1966, a man named Manfred Metcalf stumbled upon a stone in the state of Georgia that bears an inscription that is very similar to ancient writing from the island of Crete called "Cretan Linear A and B writing." o In the early 1900s, Bernardo da Silva Ramos, a Brazilian rubber-tapper working in the Amazon jungle, found many large rocks on which was inscribed more than 2,000 ancient scripts about the "Old World." o Near Rio de Janeiro, high on a vertical wall of rock - 3,000 feet up - is an inscription that reads: 'Tyre, Phoenicia, Badezir, Firstborn of Jethbaal..." and dated to the middle of the ninth century B.C. o Near Parahyba, Brazil, an inscription on Phoenician has been translated, in part, as: "We are sons of Canaan from Sidon, the city of the king. Commerce has cast us on this distant shore, a land of mountains. We set [sacrificed] a youth for the exalted gods and goddesses in the nineteenth year of Hiram, our mighty king. We embarked from EzionGeber into the Red Sea and voyaged with ten ships. We were at sea together for two years around the land belonging to Ham [Africa] but were separated by a storm [lit. 'from the hand of Baal'], and we were no longer with our companions. So we have come here, twelve men and three women, on a... shore which I, the Admiral, control. But auspiciously may the gods and goddesses favor us!" o The Kensington Stone, discovered in Kensington, Minnesota in 1898 contains an inscription describing an expedition of Norsemen into the interior of what is now North America. It's estimated that this expedition took place in the 1300s. o In 1980, P.M. Leonard and J.L. Glenn, from the Hogle Zoological Gardens, Salt Lake City, visited a rock outcropping in Colorado that was reputed to be inscribed with "peculiar markings." Leonard and Glenn believe they are excellent examples of Consainne Ogam writing - a type ascribed to ancient Celts. One of the many inscriptions was translated as: "Route Guide: To the west is the frontier town with standing stones as boundary markers." o A fist-sized, round stone was found during the early 1890s in an cemetery near Nashville, Tennessee. Its front was inscribed with symbols thought to be Libyan, pre-100 A.D. style. It translates as: "The colonists pledge to redeem." Pictures: An experienced botanist has identified plants in an ancient fresco painting as a pineapple and a specific species of squash - both native to the Americas. Yet the fresco is in the Roman city of Pompeii.

Statues: In 1933, in a burial at Calixtlahuaca, Mexico, archaeologist Jos Garca Payn discovered a small carved head with "foreign" features in an undisturbed burial site. It was later identified by anthropologist Robert Heine-Geldern as "unquestionably" from the HellenisticRoman school of art and suggested a date of "around AD 200." Structures: Many stone chambers dot the New England countryside and most archaeologists insist they are all potato cellars built long ago by farmers. Others argue that they are too sophisticated for such a mundane application. One, is built into a hillside at Upton, Massachusetts, has sophisticated corbelling that follows they style of Irish and Iberic chambers. It's theorized that it was really built by Europeans around 700 AD - long before the Leif Eiriksson. Ships: In 1886, the remains of a shipwreck was found in Galveston Bay, Texas. Its construction is typically Roman. Toys: A doll made of wood and wax was found deep in a "Well of Sacrifice" at Chichn Itz, Mexico, on which is written Roman script. Tombs: In the Mayan ruins of Palenque, a stone sarcophagus was found that is very much in the style of the ancient Phoenicians.

The Far-Traveling Egyptians Statues: In 1914, archaeologist M.A. Gonzales was excavating some Mayan ruins in the city of Acajutla, Mexico when he was surprised by the discovery of two statuettes that were clearly Egyptian. One male and one female, the carvings bore ancient Egyptian dress and cartouches. They are thought to depict Osiis and Isis. Inscriptions: Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs have been found in New South Wales, Australia. Located on a rock cliff in the National Park forest of the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, the enigmatic carvings have been known since the early 1900s. There are more than 250 carvings of familiar Egyptian gods and symbols, including a life-sized engraving of the god Anubis. The hieroglyphs tell the story of explorers who were shipwrecked in a strange and hostile land, and the untimely death of their royal leader, "Lord Djes-eb." From this information, scholars have been able to date the voyage to somewhere between 1779 and 2748 BC. Fossils: In 1982, archaeologists digging at Fayum, near the Siwa Oasis in Egypt uncovered fossils of kangaroos and other Australian marsupials. Language: There are striking similarities between the languages of ancient Egypt and those of the Native Americans that inhabited the areas around Louisiana about the time of Christ. B. Fell, of the Epigraphic Society, has stated that the language of the Atakapas, and to a lesser extent those of the Tunica and Chitimacha tribes, have affinities with Nile Valley languages involving just those words one would associate with Egyptian trading communities of 2,000 years ago. Artifacts: Near the Neapean River outside Penrith, New South Wales, a scarab beetle - a familair Egyptian symbol - carved from onyx was unearthed. Another was found in Queensland, Australia. Tombs: The April 5, 1909 edition of The Phoenix Gazette carried a front-page article about the discovery and excavation of an Egyptian tomb in the Grand Canyon by none other that the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian has since denied knowledge of any such discovery.

The Scattered Tribes of Israel Inscriptions: o In 1889, the Smithsonian's Mound Survey project discovered a stone in a burial mound in eastern Tennessee on which is inscribed ancient Hebrew lettering. Known as The Bat Creek Stone, experts have identified its letters as being Paleo-Hebrew dating from the first or second century A.D. Some of the letters spell out: "for Judea." o An abridged version of the Ten Commandments was found carved into the flat face of a large boulder resting on the side of Hidden Mountain near Los Lunas, New Mexico. Known as The Los Lunas Inscription, its language is Hebrew, and the script is the Old Hebrew alphabet with a few Greek letters mixed in. Artifacts:

o o

In June, 1860, David Wyrick found an artifact on the general shape of a keystone near Newark, Ohio that is covered in four ancient Hebrew inscriptions translated as: "Holy of Holies," "King of the Earth," "The Law of God" and "The Word of God." In November of that same year, Wyrick found an inscribed stone in a burial mound about 10 miles south of of Newark, Ohio. The stone is inscribed on all sides with a condensed version of the Ten Commandments or Decalogue, in a peculiar form of post-Exilic square Hebrew letters. A robed and bearded figure on the front is identified as Moses in letters fanning over his head.

Asians on the West Coast Stories: o Indian traditions tell of many "houses" seen on Pacific waters. Could they have been ships from Asia? o Chinese history tells a charming account of voyages to the land of "Fusang." o Old Spanish documents describe oriental ships off the Mexican coast in 1576. Coins: In the summer of 1882, a miner in British Columbia found 30 Chinese coins 25 feet below the surface. The examined coins of this style were invented by the Emperor Huungt around 2637 B.C. Artifacts: o Japanese explorers and traders left steel blades in Alaska and their distinctive pottery in Ecuador. o Underwater explorations off the California coast have yielded stone artifacts that seem to be anchors and line weights. The style and type of stone point to Chinese origins. Structures: California's East Bay Walls, ancient low rock walls east of San Francisco Bay, have long been a mystery. No one knows who built them or why. In 1904, Dr. John Fryer, professor of Oriental languages at U.C. Berkeley, declared: "This is undoubtedly the work of Mongolians... the Chinese would naturally wall themselves in, as they do in all of their towns in China."

Could Ancient Man Fly?

Models of airplanes thousands of years old... vast works of art that can only be seen from the air... ancient texts that describe aerial battles. Are they proof that ancient civilizations mastered powered flight? Flight has been the dream of humankind since they watched in awe as birds soared effortlessly through the sky. But, according to accepted history, it wasn't until the 1780s that two Frenchmen achieved lighterthan-air flight when they were lifted into the air in a hot air balloon near Paris. Then powered, heavierthan-air flight became the goal. And although it was theorized that heavier-than-air flight was possible as early as the 13th century, and in the 16th century Leonardo da Vinci designed winged aircraft and a crude kind of helicopter, it wasn't until the Wright brothers made their first successful flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903 that powered flight became a reality. That's the widely accepted history. Some researchers and a few rogue scientists believe there's evidence to suggest that humans achieved flight earlier in history - much earlier... so early, they say, that the knowledge of this technology has been lost and ancient stories that recount adventures of human flight have been relegated only to myth. Is it possible that humans developed the technology to fly in early civilizations - or in civilizations that are now lost to history? Let's take a look at what some call the evidence - intriguing artifacts, carvings, inscriptions and legends - that they say point to the true record human of flight. The Egyptian Airplane

In 1898, a peculiar six-inch wooden object was found in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt that dated back to about 200 BCE. The object had a body or fuselage, seven-inch wings that curved downward slightly, a fixed rudder and a tail. It looked very much like a modern airplane or glider. But since airplanes had not yet been invented in 1898 (never mind ancient Egypt), it was labeled as a model of bird and stored away in the basement of the Cairo museum. The object was rediscovered many years later by Dr. Khalil Messiha, an authority on ancient models. According to Messiha and others who have studied the object, it has characteristics of very advanced aerodynamics, much like modern pusher-gliders that require very little power to stay aloft. The curved wings are today known as reverse dihedral wings, which can attain great amounts of lift. A similar design is employed on the supersonic Concorde aircraft. Was this just a child's toy? Or was it a scale model of an aircraft the Egyptians planned to build... or did build. If they did build a full-scale version of the aircraft, no evidence exists for it. No full-size airplanes have been found in any pharaoh's tomb to fly him to the land of the dead. The Carvings at Abydos Although no airplanes or airplane parts have ever been found from the ruins of ancient Egypt, is there corroborating evidence that they constructed aircraft? Even more controversial than the model airplane are the enigmatic carvings found in the temple of Abydos, Egypt by Dr. Ruth Hover. Hover photographed a wall panel which had been revealed when a newer overlaying panel crumbled and fell off. The older panel beneath contained embossed images that resemble modern aircraft as seen in profile. One bears a striking resemblance to a modern helicopter, while others could be interpreted as aircraft, hovercraft or even flying saucers. When the photos of these carvings first surfaced, it was assumed that they had been digitally altered to create a sensational hoax. And indeed some of them had been retouched to more clearly show aircraft-like features. But even unaltered photos seemed to show the very modern-looking figures. Perhaps looks are deceiving, however. The official take from archaeologists is that the strange carvings are palimpsests - the result of two or more overlapping carvings that combine to look like something else. The "aircraft," they say, are merely combinations of overlapping hieroglyphics. Central and South American Shuttle Egypt's isn't the only ancient civilization that has produced puzzling artifacts. A remarkable gold trinket estimated to be at least 1,000 years old - dating perhaps to between 500 and 800 AD - was found in Central America and along coastal areas of South America. If you weren't aware of its age, you might guess that it was a child's model of the Space Shuttle or a delta wing fighter aircraft. When the artifact was discovered, archaeologists called it a zoomorph, or animal-shaped object. It resembles no known flying animal, however. It looks distinctly mechanical with its delta-shaped wings, stabilizer fins and rudder. It even has what looks like a pilot's seat in the right place. Experts in aerodynamics, however, contend that the wings are too far back for the object's center of gravity, and that the nose is not aerodynamically sound. Whatever this object is supposed to be or represent, its remarkable resemblance to a modern aircraft or spacecraft is uncanny. Nazca - A Reason to Fly? Spread over a 37 by 15 mile plateau near Nazca, Peru are huge works of art "drawn" on the ground by people of the Paracas and Nasca cultures. The figures, called geoglyphs, are

stylized portraits of a 18 different kinds of birds, a curly-tailed monkey as big as a football field, a killer whale, a 150-foot spider, a lizard, human forms and other strange objects. Although the civilizations that created the figures flourished between 200 BC and 600 AD, no one knows for certain when the geoglyphs were made... or why. But since they were discovered, archaeologists have wondered by these people would create such monumental works of art that could not be appreciated from the ground. The figures can only be distinguished when viewed from a great height. In fact, they were discovered in recent times only when an explorer noticed them when flying over them in an airplane. Since there are no nearby mountains or other elevated areas nearby from which to look down on the Nazca lines how were they ever seen? Because of Nazca's large grids of crisscrossing paths, that seem to go nowhere (some extending as long as six miles), authors such as Erich Von Daniken have suggested (with only this as "evidence") that Nazca is a ancient spaceport. The paths, he contends, are runways for aircraft, and that their pilots and passengers were those privileged to view the large-scale figures. Less sensationalistic is the suggestion that this ancient civilization constructed hot-air balloons in which to take passengers aloft to view the symbols. In 1974, Julian Nott and Jim Woodman tested this theory by building a balloon made of materials available to the Nazca natives. They constructed a gondola of totora reeds and stitched-together sheets of cotton cloth that they filled with the hot air from wood smoke. Their balloon, dubbed Condor I, quickly rose to over 300 feet, proving that it was at least possible for the South American natives of this region to have achieved lighter-than-air flight long before Europeans did. The Vaimanika-sastra Although the Chinese are credited with inventing rocketry, some people believe that an ancient text from India describes sophisticated air flight by human pilots. Written by Maharishi Bharadwaja in the 4th century BC (allegedly dictated while he was in a trance), the Vaimanika-sastra seems to talk about piloting some kind of aircraft - a vimana - with some astonishing capabilities. Sounding like a manual for aerial battle (or instructions to a video game), the text claims to reveal 32 secrets of piloting a vimana, including: Goodha - permits the pilot to make his vimana invisible to his enemies. Paroksha - enables the pilot to paralyze other vimanas and put them out of action. Pralaya - pushes an electrical force through the "five-limbed aerial tube" so that the pilot may "destroy everything as in a cataclysm." Taara - provides the pilot with another means of avoiding contact with an enemy or hiding from observers: "By mixing with ethereal force 10 parts of air force, 7 parts of water force, and 16 parts of solar glow, and projecting it by means of the star-faced mirror through the frontal tube of the vimana, the appearance of a star-spangled sky is created." Jalada roopa - instructs the pilot in the correct proportions of certain chemicals which will envelop the vimana and give it "the appearance of a cloud."

Was the Vaimanika-sastra simply imaginative writing, rich with symbolism and religious meaning? Or was it a description of ancient yet advanced technology that humankind was not to rediscover until the 20th century?

THE HOLLOW EARTH?

If you were to fly north from New York City, across Canada directly to the Earth's physical North Pole, then kept going straight... you'd end up somewhere in Russia, right? Not necessarily, say those who believe the Earth is hollow. Why? Because there's a big gaping hole at the North Pole, they allege, and if you'd fly (or walk, for that matter) across the pole, you'd find yourself entering the interior of the planet. The idea that the Earth is hollow is an outlandish one, on a par, many would argue, with a belief that the Earth is flat. There isn't much in the way of evidence, except for some unverifiable stories and a few highly contested photos that purport to show the hole at the North Pole. (There is supposedly a matching hole at the South Pole.) But the notion of a hollow Earth has persisted over the decades, most recently thanks to a few dozen websites that keep the speculation alive. Putting science aside, it's easy to understand the appeal of a hollow Earth. It's the same romance and sense of adventure that inspired novels by the likes of Jules Verne ( A Journey to the Center of the Earth), Edgar Allan Poe (MS Found in a Bottle) and Edgar Rice Burroughs ( At the Earth's Core) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Even today as our robots explore the surface of Mars, wouldn't be thrilling to find and explore a completely new world right here on this planet? (I should say in this planet.) That's the tantalizing prospect of a hollow Earth. As mentioned above, there are allegedly true stories of people who have seen and even ventured into the space at the top of the planet, where lush vegetation is said to grow, warmed by an interior sun, and where strange, advanced civilizations thrive. Some adventurers claimed to have found the opening by accident, while others have mounted expeditions expressly for the purpose of exploring the Earth's interior: In the early 1800s, an American army captain named John Cleves Symmes was an enthusiastic supporter of the idea of a hollow Earth. He believed the theory proposed by Sir Edmund Halley, the famed astronomer, that there were five concentric spheres within the planet, each capable of supporting life and illuminated by a glowing atmosphere (which was responsible for the aurora borealis seen in the northern latitudes). Symmes was such a champion of this idea that the holes at the poles actually became popularly known as Symmes' Holes. He traversed the U.S. trying to raise money for an expedition and even petitioned Congress for financing. Nothing ever came of it. In 1824, a wealthy doctor is said to have mounted an expedition to find Symmes' Hole at the south pole, but the journey was unsuccessful. In 1893, Dr. Fridtjof Nansen designed his own ship, the Fram, to explore the north pole. Hollow earth followers have cited his reports of warm winds coming from the north, of red and green pollen covering the snow in some areas, and of fresh driftwood found in the Arctic Ocean ice, where there are no trees. All of these anomalies, hollow Earthers say, have come out of the warm northern opening. In 1926, Admiral Richard E. Byrd became the first person to fly over the North Pole. In 1929, he successfully flew over the South Pole. Although officially, of course, Byrd discovered no entrances into the Earth's interior at either pole (he certainly wasn't looking for any), staunch hollow Earthers contend that he really did find a hole at the North Pole. They say he may have even flown as far as 4,000 miles into the interior, although there's no evidence to support this. In 1939, the Americans and Germans were in a race to explore and claim lands in Antarctica. President Roosevelt sent Admiral Byrd to the frozen continent to thwart any German claims to Antarctic lands in the Western Hemisphere. Hollow Earthers have proclaimed that this was actually a secret mission to beat the Nazis in the exploration of "the land beyond the poles." In 1947, Admiral Byrd is said to have made a secret flight to the North Pole to find this land beyond the pole. The "evidence" for this flight comes from a highly controversial "lost diary" kept by Byrd and miraculously found in the 1970s by "The Society for a Complete Earth." In it he writes that as he looked

down from his plane, he saw not snow, but green vegetation, grassy valleys and mountains not shown on any map. Very few take this diary - or the flight itself - seriously. New Expedition The search for an entrance into the hollow Earth is not over. New expeditions are planned and, in fact, you can join if you want. Advanced Planetary Explorations, LLC, under the auspices of the Phoenix Science Foundation is planning an expedition is scheduled to leave Murmansk, Russia aboard the Russian nuclear icebreaker, The Yamal, in the summer of 2008. "We are of the opinion that this expedition will be the greatest expedition in the history of the world," states the group's press release. "Whereas Columbus discovered a new continent, we will discover a whole new world that world within our world Inner Earth. And you will be part of this discovery with your support and interest in what we discover." Hey, if nothing else, it would be a great adventure.

MYSTERIOUS TUNNELS UNDERNEATH

There is something fundamentally and primally mysterious about caves and tunnels. Maybe it's their darkness or the fact that they open into the very body of the Earth. They are invariably the subjects of adolescent adventure stories, such as the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew mysteries, and R.L. Stine's books. And they serve as backgrounds in exciting stories directed at older audiences as well, such as Jules Verne's A Journey to the Center of the Earth and the Indiana Jones films. Tunnels represent the unknown and touch the fears that reside deep in the primitive human subconscious. I've come across several sites on the Web that tell what some believe are true stories of vast underground networks of tunnels. And they are no less mysterious and fantastic than those used as settings in the fictional tales mentioned above. It's not that the tunnels merely exist and are unknown to most people, it's what they contain, who built them, and why and that takes us into the deepest recesses of the unknown. People who claim to have first- or second-hand knowledge or experience with these tunnels make many astonishing claims: that they contain long-lost cities; that they are inhabited by advanced civilizations perhaps the descendents of Atlantis; that they are bases for extraterrestrials and their flying saucers; that they are bases for secret government installations. The government no doubt has top-secret military installations deep within mountains and perhaps underground, but this, of course, is the least fantastic of the stories. Here are highlights of some of the more extraordinary claims. Since these stories come without photos or any other kind of verification, consider them skeptically. In any case, they are fascinating. Grand Canyon Mystery The April 5, 1909 edition of The Phoenix Gazette carried a story entitled "Explorations in Grand Canyon." According to the article, a man named G.E. Kinkaid made an astonishing discovery while on an expedition, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute, in the Grand Canyon. Among his findings: A mammoth chamber about 1,480 feet underground from which radiates dozens of passageways "like the spokes of a wheel." Several hundred rooms, some of which contain artifacts such as weapons and copper instruments of a kind that have never been known to be native to the Americas. A crypt containing mummies - all adult males - wrapped in a bark fabric.

A shrine containing a Buddha-like idol sitting cross-legged with a lotus flower in each hand. Stone tablets on which are carved mysterious Egyptian-like hieroglyphics.

The article also mentions a legend of the Hopi Indians that says their ancestors once lived in an underworld in the Grand Canyon. Crumf Burial Cave In 1892, Frank Burns of the U.S. Geological Survey reported that he found strange coffins in the Crunf Cave along the southern branch of the Warrior River in Murphy's Valley, Alabama. The wooden coffins appeared to be hollowed out by fire, then chiseled with stone or copper tools. Each coffin was 7.5 feet long, 14 to 18 inches wide, and 6 to 7 inches deep. The lids were open on each empty coffin. The specimens were sent to the Smithsonian, which suggested the coffins might actually be troughs. In any case, the museum lost the artifacts. Tunnel Network Under California According to an article entitled in the Fall 1985 edition of Search magazine, a high-ranking but unnamed Naval officer told of the discovery of a huge network of tunnels under portions of the west coast of the U.S. He said that U.S. nuclear submarines had explored some of these tunnels, which are accessible just off the continental shelf, and had followed them inland for several hundred miles. Here are more highlights of this incredible claim: What are being passed off as the San Andreas Fault are actually large, unsupported chambers that are in the process of collapsing. A well-known U.S. Nuclear submarine lost its way in one of the passages and was never heard from again. (Two U.S. nuclear submarines have disappeared under mysterious circumstances the U.S.S. Thresher and the U.S.S. Scorpion.) Some of California is actually floating on the ocean. When oil companies began pumping oil from beneath the city of Long Beach, it began to sink - up to 26 feet before the pumping was stopped.

More and More Tunnels The above story was written up in a long article called "The Underground Empire," which reveals many more details. It also offers these other fascinating accounts: A couple from Bishop, Calif. discovered a circular hole in the ground while exploring for petro glyphs. They climbed down the hole which bottomed out to a horizontal corridor. On one of the walls was carved a face out of the mouth of which poured water. Suddenly the water started to gush out of the face and from other openings, and the couple was forced to abandon the tunnel. Later, both recalled that they heard music down there. In West Virginia, workers found some caverns with strange hieroglyphics written on the walls. They also claimed to gear faint voices and what sounded like machinery coming from beyond the walls of the cavern. Two men searching for bat guano (which has some value as fertilizer) at the foot of Mount Lassen found a deep cave. They followed it inside for a mile or two and noticed that the floor was worn smooth, as if it had been used for a road. Eventually they met three strange "men" who asked if they are "surface people," and then took them deeper in the cave on an electromagnetically powered hovercraft. The story gets stranger from there. Travelers Ferdinand Ossendowski and Nicholas Roerich claim to have discovered a subterranean society below central Asia, which they referred to as Agharta or Agharti. They say it is home to 20 million people, and their civilization extends throughout all the subterranean passages of the world. A 12-man speleological team broke into an ancient tunnel system in northern Arkansas and encountered the inhabitants of the subsurface world. Exploring another cave in Arkansas, just north of Batesville, explorers found a tunnel illuminated by a greenish phosphorescence where they met a race of beings who stood 7 to 8 feet tall and

had bluish skin. The beings, who have advanced technology, told the explorers they are the direct descendents of Noah. Brazil is said to have many entrances to an underground world. Several people claim to have proof: Two explorers returning from tunnels near Ponte Grosse in Brazil say they spent five days in an underworld city inhabited by 50 adults and some children. The same two explorers found another tunnel entrance in Rincon and saw luminous flying saucers going in and out, and heard beautiful choral singing. An old man living near Concepiao told how he had visited a vast underground city where strange vehicles darted back and forth. An explorer looking through a tunnel near Rio Casdor met a beautiful woman who appeared to be about 20 years old, but told the explorer she was 2,500 years old.

Pretty far-out stuff, huh? There is, of course, no proof to verify any of these stories, and the explorers always seem to lose or forget where the exact entrance to these caves and tunnels are. Some of the stories may have a basis in fact, but most are certainly tall tales, exaggerations, or outright fabrications. But they fortify our fascination with strange caves and tunnels. They make me; at least, want to go exploring in them. And who knows what would be found!

GATEWAYS TO THE OTHER VWORLD

HUMANKIND HAS AN innate knowledge that there is something more to our existence than our brief lives on this planet. And we yearn to understand exactly what it is. It is this unquenchable yearning that has led to the creation of religions and myths, and explorations of such concepts as life after death, reincarnation and past lives. We long to truly discover this otherworld. In his fascinating book, Gateways to the Otherworld: The Secrets Beyond the Final Journey, from the Egyptian Underworld to the Gates in the Sky , author Philip Gardiner delves deep in the knowledge of ancient cultures and discovers that they might have had the ability to journey to other realities. He also explains how we can begin to take that journey ourselves. In this interview, Mr. Gardiner explains some of what he has learned. Q: Let's start with the title. What is the "otherworld" you refer to? Gardiner: There are, of course, many definitions and they seem to grow with each year. Today, people often think about the other worlds of science fiction (or maybe not) such as those of Stargate. However, for the purposes of my book, we are dealing with more ancient concepts that have come down to us today in the Western world, such as Heaven or even Avalon. For as long as there has been consciousness, it seems man has found the desire to overcome the greatest of fears the loss of self following death. And so we now have myths and religious belief systems built around the concepts man created (or discovered) to overcome this issue. The other concept of the otherworld seems to have come later (although this may not be so; it is difficult to prove either way historically). This secondary otherworld is the place that our Shaman claims to visit and is, of course, related to the world of the "spirits". The two otherworld concepts are related in most cultures, although some have them slightly differing. Q: In the first sections of the book, you delve into a lot of history. Is the "secret" information that was known to the ancients and has been lost or forgotten? Gardiner: I have often had this discussion with other authors in the field and many of us agree that these "secrets" fell out of popular perception over time naturally, but that some were pushed out, especially by a jealous and empire-building church, which wanted its "heaven" to take precedence. Some elements have

been kept alive in the undercurrent, and by that I mean the many so-called secret societies that maintained the "wisdom traditions". By piecing their elements together with those from ancient texts, archaeology and even science, we can draw some conclusions and that's what I did for the book. Q: What is the significance of the great Egyptian pyramids in this context? Gardiner: Quite apart from the fact that one cannot leave the Great Pyramid at Giza out of any equation regarding "gateways" to other worlds, I was amazed to see the science of the building and its materials actually meeting with the belief systems of the ancient Egyptians. Let me explain. The Great Pyramid stands at what was then said to be the centre of the Earth's landmass. It was built from materials well-suited for absorbing energy specifically, electromagnetic energy. The Kings Chamber is created from granite, which is made up mainly of quartz crystal, which magnifies electromagnetic energy. So the building collects and magnifies energy. This energy is that of the natural world around us the energy of the Earth (Mother, as our ancestors believed). Place yourself in a meditative state inside the Kings Chamber and you not only bring your brainwaves down to a specific frequency known as the hypnagogic, but you also become one with the frequency of the Earth. Sounds mad, I know, but that's the science, and there is much more to it. Q: Is an understanding of this ancient knowledge essential for making this journey? Gardiner: I would not say so totally... but it is extremely important that one gains knowledge of balance and grows in wisdom before attempting anything that involves trance. We can often take heaven or hell with us wherever we go. Q: What can we expect to find through the gateway? Gardiner: The last answer gives a clue. Those individuals who are not balanced and who have not sought out "themselves" prior to accessing this otherworldly truth have all too often discovered a terrifying world. I cannot say with all certainty that what is found within these states is real in the classical sense, but the fact is that man has sought out and had these experiences for millennia, and the similarities among the experiences are profound. Quite often, people can have these experiences spontaneously too, and this can give rise to the many tales of alien abduction... but that's another book.... Q: How difficult is it for any of us to find our way through the gateway? What's required? Gardiner: First and foremost, one needs to deal with the thing we know as consciousness and its relationship to chaos, which is created by conflict between being aware and yet having natural urges in a society that is simply not natural it's called ego. Once we have dealt with that which is basically discovering ones true self then we can move on. Our ancestors discovered many methods from drugs (not advised nor required) to meditation, prayer, fasting, solitude and even dervish (spinning around). These things help the mind become entrained to get the brain frequency to meet with the frequency of the Earth (twilight zone!). They also release certain hormones and drugs that affect our consciousness and perceptions. Then one is on the road. Q: How has this knowledge changed your life? Gardiner: All the knowledge I have gained over the years has changed my life in many great and sometimes also subtle ways. I began by wanting to know many things the who, where and when but as time went on and the more I learned, the more I realized that what mattered most about history was why! H. G. Wells said that we teach our children about the philosopher, about when and where he lived, but we fail to teach them the philosophy. Nothing seems to have changed since he wrote that. It is time we began thinking more about our responsibilities as conscious beings on this planet, and stopped reacting like barbarians who can make a brilliant weapon, use it for war and murder and yet not really know why we do so. My personal role is to help the innocent in any way I can, and if that means I have to go through the process of getting a message of "philosophy" to those who are not innocent, then I shall continue to do so.

NAZIS AND THE HOLLOW EARTH THEORIES

THE ALLIES ARE closing in. Berlin is crumbling under the weight and impact of hundreds of Allied bombs. Deep in his fortified bunker, Adolf Hitler, once unshakable in his confidence in Nazi world domination, now admits that defeat is at hand. But Hitler is determined never to suffer the humiliation of being captured by his enemies. There is only one escape route - one he has planned for should he ever face just such a turn of events. Suicide is out of the question. Instead, Hitler and his corps of elite traverse through an underground tunnel to an isolated airstrip. There they board an unmarked plane and fly south. South to the pole. To the opening at the South Pole where they will enter the hollow Earth and disappear from history. Based in fact This alternate scenario to history is actually accepted as fact by some proponents of the hollow Earth theory. And as incredible as it sounds, the genesis of this story lies in some facts that carry some merit: some of Hitler's top advisors - perhaps even Hitler himself - believed that the Earth was hollow; and there was at least one expedition by the Nazi military to exploit that belief for strategic advantage during the war. As with all such stories, it's often difficult to sort out facts, exaggerations, and outright fabrications. But it's an intriguing tale, and one that requires a little background. Several theories There are several hollow Earth theories. The most prevalent one holds that there are great but hidden openings at both the North and South poles, and that it is possible to enter those holes. Some including the respected Admiral Byrd claimed to have entered those holes. According to the legends, other civilizations live within the Earth on its inner surface, warmed and lit by an interior sun. The idea has inspired novels by Edgar Allen Poe ( MS Found in a Bottle), Edgar Rice Borroughs (At the Earth's Core), and Jules Verne (A Journey to the Center of the Earth). A second theory, call the "inverted Earth" theory, claims that we - our civilization - actually exists on the inside of the globe. We are held fast to the ground not by gravity, but by centrifugal force as the Earth rotates. The stars, so goes the theory, are twinkling chunks of ice suspended high in the air, and the illusion of day and night is caused by a rotating central sun that is half brilliant, half dark. Cyrus Teed, an alchemist from Utica, N.Y., was one of the first people to popularize this idea. So obsessed was he with the idea that he founded a religion based on it, changed his name to Koresh, and established a commune for Koreshanity in Chicago in 1888. In Germany, independently of the Koreshans, another group also was founded that adhered to the inverted Earth idea, and it was this concept that was accepted by some segments of the Nazi hierarchy. The scenario told at the beginning of this article accepts one hollow Earth theory, while the facts seem to show that some Nazis actually believed in the other. Hitler's Nazis were convinced that they were destined to rule the world, and they came to this warped conclusion through the acceptance of many occult beliefs and practices, including astrology, the prophecies of Nostradamus, and the hollow/inverted Earth theory... hohlweltlehre. Because they suspected that our surface is on the interior of a concave Earth, Hitler sent an expedition, including Dr. Heinz Fischer and powerful telescopic cameras, to the Baltic island of Rugen to spy on the British fleet. Fischer did so not by aiming his cameras across the waters, but by pointing them up to peer across the atmosphere to the Atlantic Ocean. The expedition was a failure, of course. Fischer's cameras saw nothing but sky, and the British fleet remained safe.

Escape to Antarctica Then there's the legend... that Hitler and many of his Nazi minions escaped Germany in the closing days of World War II and fled to Antarctica where at the South Pole they had discovered an entrance to the Earth's interior. According to the Hollow Earth Research Society in Ontario, Canada, they are still there. After the war, the organization claims, the Allies discovered that more than 2,000 scientists from Germany and Italy had vanished, along with almost a million people, to the land beyond the South Pole. This story gets more complicated with Nazi-designed UFOs, Nazi collaboration with the people who live in the center of the Earth, and the explanation for "Aryan-looking" UFO pilots. While the evidence for either hollow Earth theory is close to nil (although some folks claim to have proof in the form of photos), the story involving Nazis, war, and the romance of exploratory adventure sounds like the makings of a great Indiana Jones story. In fact, it is! In the novel Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth by Max McCoy, Indy comes into the possession of a mysterious journal hinting at the existence of an underground civilization that he and the Nazis race to find. The fate of the world - hollow or not - is in Indy's hands!

SECRETS OF THE HOLLOW EARTH

The interior of the Earth, some believe, is home to strange races of technologically advanced beings. Who are they and where are the hidden entrances to their subterranean cities? Many readers of the paranormal and the unexplained are familiar with the theory that the Earth is hollow. The idea is based on the ancient legends of many cultures that say there are races of people - entire civilizations - that thrive in subterranean cities. Very often, these dwellers of the world beneath are more technologically advanced than we on the surface. Some even believe that UFOs are not from other planets, but are manufactured by strange beings in the interior of the Earth. Who are these strange races of beings? How did they come to live inside the Earth? And where are the entrances to their underground cities? Agharta The Network. One of the most common names cited for the society of underground dwellers is Agharta (or Agartha) with its capital city of Shamballa. The source for this information, apparently, is The Smoky God, the "biography" of a Norwegian sailor named Olaf Jansen. According to Agartha - Secrets of the Subterranean Cities, the story, written by Willis Emerson, explains how Jansen's sloop sailed through an entrance to the Earth's interior at the North Pole. For two years he lived with the inhabitants of the Agharta network of colonies who, Emerson writes, were a full 12 feet tall and whose world was lit by a "smoky" central sun. Shamballa the Lesser, one of the colonies, was also the seat of government for the network. "While Shamballa the Lesser is an inner continent, its satellite colonies are smaller enclosed ecosystems located just beneath the Earth' s crust or discreetly within mountains." How and Why They Went There. The many cataclysms and wars taking place on the surface drove these people underground, according to Secrets: "Consider the lengthy Atlantean-Lemurian war and the power of thermonuclear weaponry that eventually sank and destroyed these two highly advanced civilizations. The Sahara, the Gobi, the Australian Outback and the deserts of the U.S. are but a few examples of the devastation that resulted. The sub-cities were created as refuges for the people and as safe havens for sacred records, teachings and technologies that were cherished by these ancient cultures." The Entrances. There are allegedly several entrances to the Kingdom of Agharta throughout the world: Kentucky Mommoth Cave, in south-central Kentucky, US.

Mount Shasta, California, US - the Agharthean city of Telos allegedly exists within and beneath this mountain. Manaus, Brazil. Mato Grosso, Brazil - the city of Posid supposedly lies beneath this plain. Igua Falls, border or Brazil and Argentina. Mount Epomeo, Italy. Himalayan Mountains, Tibet - the entrance to the underground city of Shonshe is allegedly guarded by Hindu monks. Mongolia - the underground city of Shingwa allegedly exists beneath the border of Mongolia and China. Rama, India - beneath this surface city is a long lost subterranean city, they say, also named Rama. Pyramid of Giza, Egypt. King Solomon's Mines. Dero Caves, ?. North and South Poles.

Nagas The People. In India there is an ancient belief, still held by some, in a subterranean race of serpent people who dwell in the cities Patala and Bhogavati. According to the legend, they wage war on the kingdom of Agharta. "The Nagas," according to "The Deep Dwellers," "are described as a very advanced race or species, with a highly-developed technology. They also harbor a disdain for human beings, whom they are said to abduct, torture, interbreed with and even to eat." The Entrances. While the entrance to Bhogavati is somewhere in the Himalayas, believers assert that Patala can be entered through the Well of Sheshna in Benares, India. Says William Michael Mott in "The Deep Dwellers": "According to herpetologist and author Sherman A. Minton, as stated in his book Venomous Reptiles, this entrance is very real, with forty steps which descend into a circular depression, to terminate at a closed stone door which is covered in bas-relief cobras. In Tibet, there is a major mystical shrine also called 'Patala,' which is said by the people there to sit atop an ancient cavern and tunnel system, which reaches throughout the Asian continent and possibly beyond. The Nagas also have an affinity with water, and the entrances to their underground palaces are often said to be hidden at the bottom of wells, deep lakes and rivers." The Old Ones The Beings. In an article entitled "The Hollow Earth: Myth or Reality" for Atlantis Rising, Brad Steiger writes of the legends of "the Old Ones," an ancient race that populated the surface world millions of years ago and then moved underground. "The Old Ones, an immensely intelligent and scientifically advanced race," Steiger writes, "have chosen to structure their own environment under the surface of the planet and manufacture all their necessities. The Old Ones are hominid, extremely long-lived, and pre-date Homo sapiens by more than a million years. The Old Ones generally remain aloof from the surface peoples, but from time to time, they have been known to offer constructive criticism; and it has been said, they often kidnap human children to tutor and rear as their own." The Elder Race The Beings. One of the most controversial tales of inner Earth dwellers is the so-called "Shaver Mystery." In 1945, Amazing Stories magazine under the editorship of Ray Palmer ran a story told by Richard Shaver, who claimed he had recently been the guest of what remained of an underground civilization. Although few really believed the story, any many suspect that Shaver may actually have been psychotic, Shaver always averred that his story was true. He contended that the Elder Race, or Titans, came to this

planet from another solar system in our prehistoric past. After a while of living on the surface, they realized our sun was causing them to age prematurely, so they escaped underground, building huge subterranean complexes in which to live. Eventually, they decided to seek a new home on a new planet, evacuating the Earth and leaving behind their underground cities populated by mutated beings: the evil Dero - detrimental robots - and the good Tero - integrated robots. It was these beings that Shaver claimed to have met. The Entrance. Despite the enormous popularity of the Shaver Mystery in Amazing Stories - Palmer milked it for all it was worth, and then some - the location of the entrance to this underground world was never divulged.

Atlantis: Where is the Lost Continent?

Some say it's in the Caribbean, some say at the South Pole, while others say it never existed at all. But an astonishing recent discovery off the coast of Cuba just might solve the mystery of the great sunken civilization The legend of the lost civilization of Atlantis comes to us primarily from an account recorded by Plato, the great Greek philosopher and author, around 370 B.C.E. He described it as a beautiful continent-sized island that existed somewhere to the west of the Mediterranean, by most interpretations. It was a peaceful land, prosperous from its flourishing commerce, highly advanced in knowledge and technology, and powerful in its governmental influence. After many years of prosperity, however, the gods looked unfavorably upon the island nation because of its arrogant rulers and complacent citizenry, and they condemned it. In just one dreadful day and night, Plato tells us, Atlantis was completely destroyed by catastrophic flooding and disappeared beneath the sea. Plato's description of the exact location of Atlantis is vague at best, giving us only its general direction. People have been searching for it ever since. The idea that such a marvelous lost world may have once existed - and about which we know so little and have even less evidence - is compelling. People have devoted their lives to studying, researching and hunting for Atlantis. A lucrative cottage industry has grown around the legend, producing countless books, articles, websites and movies - all speculating on the true fate of the doomed land. Did Atlantis really exist? If so, where was it and can we find evidence of the once-great civilization today? Not surprisingly, there are many theories as to the precise location of Atlantis. Whenever underwater ruins of any kind are found, it seems, someone tries to link them to Atlantis. Here are some of the more popular theories, plus the latest information on a recent remarkable discovery that just might shed light on the legend of Atlantis. Nowhere Many historians and mainstream scholars consider the story of Atlantis just that - a story. This point of view is explained in an article entitled "Atlantis, Again" on N.S. Gill's Ancient/Classical History section of About.com. "Given Plato's concern for good government and an ideal image of Athens of old," writes the

article's author, Aulus, "it is very clear that this is a parable regarding the need for virtuous government and rulers. Of the few other ancient mentions of Atlantis, all are but commentaries on Plato's tale... We all would like to think that somewhere, some time there was or is or will be a nice utopia. Unfortunately, that's all Atlantis ever was, a tale of utopia."

The West Indies or Bahamas

The Bahamas is an independent state in the long string of beautiful islands known as the West Indies just east of Florida. This area is favored by many as the last remnants of Atlantis primarily due to a 1932 "reading" by Edgar Cayce, the famous "Sleeping Prophet." In this reading, Cayce said that evidence for Atlantis could be found as far east as the Pyrenees and Morocco and as far west as the Yucatan, in Mexico. The Bahamas, however, might be the best place to look: There are some protruding portions... that must have at one time or another been a portion of this great continent. The British West Indies, or the Bahamas, are a portion of same that may be seen in the present. If the geological survey would be made in some of these especially, or notably in Bimini and in the Gulf Stream through this vicinity, these may be even yet determined. One of the most often-cited "proofs" of the accuracy of Cayce's prediction was the discovery in 1969 of enigmatic stone formations beneath the ocean at Bimini in the Bahamas. Although skeptics claim that the geometric, adjoined stone slabs are completely natural formations, believers suspect that the stones were once part of a great Atlantean roadway or temple. Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle Crystal relates one incredible story about a discovery made by Dr. Ray Brown in 1970 while scuba diving near the Bari Islands in the Bahamas. Brown claims that he came upon a pyramid-like structure with a smooth, mirror-like stone finish. Swimming inside, he found the interior to be completely free of coral and algae, and was illuminated by some unknown light source. In the center was a sculpture of human hands holding a four-inch crystal sphere, above which was suspended a red gem at the end of a brass rod. Brown says he took the crystal, which allegedly has strange, mystical powers. "People have felt breezes or winds blowing close to it," the article says. "Both cold and warm layers surround it at various distances. Other witnesses have observed phantom lights, heard voices or felt strange tingling sensations surrounding it." Brown's story, of course, has yet to be corroborated or verified. Antarctica This relatively recent theory holds that Antarctica is Atlantis. Those who subscribe to this theory say that Antarctica wasn't always the ice-covered land at the bottom of the world, as it is today. The continent was once a tropical land situated on the Earth's equator, but was shifted to the South Pole due to a slippage of the planet's crust. This theory is described in great detail, with photos and maps, at Atlantis and the Earth's Shifting Crust. One of their main pieces of evidence is an alleged ancient Egyptian map of Atlantis, said to be published in a book by a German Jesuit priest in 1665. The map depicts "Atlantis" between the Americas and Africa (look at a globe from the bottom and Antarctica is indeed situated between South America and Africa). More intriguing, however, is the shape of Atlantis in this supposedly ancient map: it corresponds almost exactly to the shape of the land beneath all the ice of Antarctica - a shape that wasn't known until 20th century satellite imaging! Mexico Gene D. Matlock is one researcher who believes we should be conducting the search for Atlantis in the Yucatan region of Mexico. Matlock cites place names as one of the compelling proofs: Atln, Autln, Mazatln, Cihuatln, Cacatln, Tecaltitln, Tihuatln, Atitln, Zapotln, Minititln, Ocotln, Miahuatln, Tecaltitln, Tepatitln, Tihuatln, Texiutln, and the like. Notice that the Nahuatl Tln root of these place names is exactly like the Tlan in "Atlantis."

He also cites an ancient, spiral-shaped harbor with high banks or dikes lining the channels that once existed near San Lorenzo Tenochtitln, Mexico. This layout is very much like that described by Plato for Atlantis's great port city. The Celtic Shelf

The Celtic Shelf is the continental shelf surrounding much of England. This area, currently underwater, was actually above water during the last ice age, over 10,000 years ago. It is here, according to a theory by Viatcheslav Koudriavtsev, a Russian researcher in his article, "Atlantis: A New Hypothesis," that artifacts from the lost Atlantis might be found. "Plato's geographical descriptions of Atlantis correlate with sufficient precision with the actual paleogeographic situation at the time he specified: in the Atlantic Ocean," he writes, "outside the Mediterranean Sea, there must have really existed land, where there was a plain adjoining the coast of approximately the same size as described by Plato. The verification of this hypothesis can be effected by organizing an expedition for underwater exploration on the Celtic Shelf, in particular, in the Little Sole Bank area." An Exploded Planet

This is probably one of the most controversial theories about the location of Atlantis - outer space. Alan Alford makes the case that Atlantis was not an island, continent or any other terrestrial landform, but a planet circling our sun. Alford goes back to Atlantis's Egyptian roots (Plato is said to be retelling the story of Solon, who in turn told the stories that he had heard during his trip to Egypt) and his interpretation of Egyptian legends to include a neighbor planet that blew up in some ancient era. This doomed planet may have been, in fact, the home of the technologically advanced Atlanteans. "This example of Atlantis," Alford writes, "illustrates how the implications of an exploded planet cult in ancient Egypt extend well beyond the boundaries of Egyptology itself, leading to a radical reappraisal of the so-called 'gods,' which came down from heaven to Earth. The identification of these gods (the Anunnaki, the Nephilim, the Builder Gods of Edfu, for example) as meteoric planetary fragments inevitably begs the question of whether God, the son of God and the angels of God are also echoes of this ancient and profound interplanetary creation cult." Off the Coast of Cuba In May, 2001, an astounding discovery was made off the coast of Cuba. An ocean engineer named Paulina Zelitsky, while conducting ocean sonar research for Advanced Digital Communications, imaged something she could hardly believe. She told a reporter for Reuters: ""We are the first people ever to see the bottom of Cuban waters over 50 meters. It's so exciting. We are discovering... even possibly a sunken city built in the pre-classic period and populated by an advanced civilization similar to the early Teotihuacan culture of Yucatan." Incredibly, the sunken city lies on the floor of the ocean at a depth of about 2,200 feet! It must therefore be a quite ancient civilization indeed! Zelitsky said that the sonar revealed a "huge land plateau with clear images of what appears to be urban development partly covered by sand. From above, the shapes resemble pyramids, roads and buildings." This is an incredible and potentially history-altering discovery. And it was made not by some lone diver or amateur organization. This find was made by scientists. And today no less an organization than the National Geographic Society has become involved and is investigating the site. It is not known how long the investigation will take or when National Geographic will release its findings. If the sonar images are accurate, however, we will at least have evidence of some lost, unknown culture. On the most fantastic level, we may finally have found Atlantis. Atlantis Caribbean Atlantis in Bahamas Atlantis Hotel Istanbul Orkney Island Atlantis Resort Atlantis is one of the stories of our collective past upon which the Western civilization was built. Every modern society has origin myths, that define and describe the character of the people themselves. Stories of the Old and New Testaments of the Judeo-Christian bible, medieval tales of Robin Hood, and the

Gilgamesh epic are examples of the wests historical background that have been investigated archaeologically. The study of archaeology owes a lot to the process of seeking the truth of the tales in the historic and religious documents of our past. More recently, scientific methods have been used to identify places or events in the past. Consider the studies indicating that poisonous gases created the visions of the Oracle at Delphi, or the studies concerning evidence for ancient floods in the Black Sea that may have been the basis for Noahs flood from the bible. Its what we do. Were interested in our past, we want to know the truth of those stories our ancestors told us. Few people would argue that the stories might have some truth to them, fewer still would argue that they have a lot of folderol in them as well. To effectively seek the past, you have to figure out what works in those stories and what doesnt. The Atlantis Hypothesis In July 2005, a conference entitled The Atlantis Hypothesis presenting multidisciplinary papers on the potential for the geological truth of Platos tale of Atlantis took place on the Greek island of Milos. One of the papers presented was a report by Marc-Andre Gutscher, a geologist of the prestigious French research institution Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). The original hypothesis came from Jacques Collima-Girard, who took selected elements of Platos story, and identified a sunken island west of the Straits of Gibraltar as a potential candidate for the location of Atlantis. Dr. Gutscher followed through on the argument, completing a bathymetric investigation of the island, and producing quite an interesting paper, Destruction of Atlantis by a Great Earthquake and Tsunami to be published in the journal Geology in August 2005. Atlantis, for those of you visiting from another planet, is the legendary utopian society that sank below the surface of the ocean, never to be seen again. As described in Platos dialogues Timaeus and Critias, around 12,000 years ago, there were two great civilizations: Athens and Atlantis. Both of these societies were what anthropologists call socially-stratifiedthere were classes of people, including artisans, farmers, warriors, and royalty. Both societies farmed and raised cattle. They both built temples and meeting halls. They both mined silver and gold; they both made bronze and tin as well as silver and gold objects. They had horse-drawn chariots, they built bridges, aqueducts, canals and roads, and had ships to conduct international trade. Atlantis, so Plato said, was a trading and commercial center with an urban lifestyle and a ruling class. The city-state was located on an island the size of Libya and Asia combined, outside of the Pillars of Hercules (believed to refer to the Straits of Gibraltar). Athens ruled the eastern side of the Pillars of Herculesthe Mediterranean Sea. The people of Atlantis were directly descended from Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. An extended war broke out between Atlantis and Athens. The civilization fell into decadence and Zeus punished them, sending a great earthquake, and Atlantis sank beneath the waves of the ocean in the space of a day. The story of Atlantis was reported by Plato in the 4th century BC, who said he read it in the writings of Solon (6th century BC), who had originally gotten the story from the Egyptians. Its a great story, and it has great resonance today, particularly after the destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Indonesia in December 2004. But, was Atlantis a reality, was it really destroyed, and if so, when, where and how? This is what the conference at Milos was to find out. The pieces of the Atlantis puzzle that Drs. Collima-Girard and Gutscher took for their research were the physical location of the action as described by Plato (outside the Pillars of Hercules), the geological history (destroyed by earthquake and tsunami), and the timing (12,000 years ago). They pinpointed a sunken island called Spartel Bank, located in the western Straits of Gibraltar, that sank about 11,600 years ago. Since Spartel Bank is between 50 and 130 meters below the current water level, no one has looked for cultural remains, but there it is, right place, right condition, right time.

7,500 Years Too Early But is it the right time? If Platos timing was right, he was wrong about all of the societal description of the communities. Simply put, 12,000 years ago, there were no stratified societies (ranking is in evidence no earlier than 8,000 BC), there were no cities (the first was Catalhoyuk, 6300 BC), there was no monumental architecture (megalithic tombs, 5000 BC). There were no domesticated cattle (southwest Asia, 6000 BC), there was no bronze production (5000 BC), there were no domesticated horses (Ukraine

4000 BC) or wheels (Mesopotamia, 3000 BC). No roads (Sweet Track, 3000 BC), certainly no canals, aqueducts or bridges. No ships (Egypt, 2600 BC). In fact, according to all the archaeological evidence gathered to date, 12,000 years ago, every single person on the planet was a hunter-gatherer living in an egalitarian band. The primary point of Platos story is not the destruction, but the activities that led up to the destruction. The societal conditions described for Atlantis and Athens by Plato cannot be any earlier than 2600 BC; 4000 BC, if you leave out the transportation network. But since the transportation network made the war with Athens possible, if youre going to look for Atlantis, look in the Mediterranean or environs, and look for destruction on a pretty massive scale, but, especially, look no earlier than 2500 BC.

What about the Minoan Culture?

It seems clear that Plato got his dates wrong. Bad news for Drs. Collima-Girard and Gutscher, that rules out Spartel Bank, which was underwater and uninhabitable by 11,600 years ago. One idea that has been kicked around for a long time, and meets the criteria established in the paragraph above, is the Minoan culture on Akrotiri, whose cataclysmic end occurred in eruptions in 1500 BC. The Minoan culture is actually quite a good fit. The Egyptians knew about the Minoans; the site of Tell el-Daba has Minoan frescoes, and both cultures were quite involved in international trade throughout the Mediterranean Sea, as is apparent from the Qantir glass workshop. Whether the legend reported by Plato was based on the Minoan culture and its destruction or not will never be known for certain. However, it is certainly a better fit for Atlantis than the Spartel Bank.

THE TEN MOST INTRIGUING MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

HOW CAN WE know who we are if we don't know where we come from? It is clear from many fragments of evidence, traditions and lore that we have an incomplete picture of the earliest days of human civilization. It's possible that whole civilizations, some with advanced technology, have come and gone. At the very least, human culture reaches much further back in time than conventional history admits. There are many mysteries in our ancient past, but there may be clues to that past around the world in the form of sunken cities, ancient structures, cryptic hieroglyphics, artwork and more. Here are ten of the most intriguing pieces of the puzzle that is our past. They are shrouded in mystery and varying degrees of doubt, but all are nonetheless fascinating.

1. Egyptian Treasures in the Grand Canyon

The April 5, 1909 edition of the Arizona Gazette featured an article entitled "Explorations in Grand Canyon: Remarkable finds indicate ancient people migrated from Orient." According to the article, the expedition was financed by the Smithsonian Institute and discovered artifacts that would, if verified, stand conventional history on its ear. Inside a cavern "hewn in solid rock by human hands" were found tablets bearing hieroglyphics, copper weapons, statues of Egyptian deities and mummies. Although highly intriguing, the truth of this story is in doubt simply because the site has never been re-found. The Smithsonian disavows all knowledge of the discovery, and several expeditions searching for the cavern have come up empty-handed. Was the article just a hoax? "While it cannot be discounted that the entire story is an elaborate newspaper hoax," writes researcher/explorer David Hatcher Childress, "the fact that it was on the front page, named the prestigious Smithsonian Institution, and gave a highly detailed story that went on for several pages, lends a great deal to its credibility. It is hard to believe such a story could have come out of thin air." 2. Age of the Pyramids and Sphinx

Most Egyptologists believe the Great Sphinx on the Giza plateau is about 4,500 years old. But that number is just that - a belief, a theory, not a fact. As Robert Bauval says in "The Age of the Sphinx," "there was no inscriptions - not a single one - either carved on a wall or a stela or written on the throngs of papyri" that associates the Sphinx with this time period. So when was it built? John Anthony West challenged the accepted age of the monument when he noted the vertical weathering on its base, which could only have been caused by long exposure to water in the form of heavy rains. In the middle of the desert? Where did the water come from? It so happens that this area of the world experienced such rains - about 10,500 years ago! This would make the Sphinx more than twice its currently accepted age. Bauval and Graham Hancock have calculated that the Great Pyramid likewise dates back to about 10,500 B.C. - predating the Egyptian civilization. This raises the questions: Who built them and why? More information:

3. Nazca Lines The famous Nazca lines can be found in a desert about 200 miles south of Lima, Peru. On a plain measuring approximately 37 miles long and one mile wide are etched lines and figures that have puzzled the scientific world since their discovery in the 1930s. The lines run perfectly straight, some parallel to one another, many intersecting, making the lines look from the air like ancient airport runways. This prompted Erich von Daniken in his book Chariots of the Gods to suggest (ludicrously, we think) that they actually were runways for extraterrestrial craft... as if they would need runways. More intriguing are the gigantic figures of 70-some animals carved into the ground - a monkey, a spider, a hummingbird among others. The puzzle is that these lines and figures are of such a scale that they can only be recognized from a high altitude. (They were rediscovered by accident in the 1930s by an overflying airplane.) So what is their significance? Some believe they have an astronomical purpose, while others think they served in religious ceremonies. A recent theory suggests the lines lead to sources of precious water. The truth is, no one really knows. 4. Location of Atlantis There are as many theories as to the true location of Atlantis as there are SPAM in your e-mail box. We get the legend of Atlantis from Plato who wrote about the beautiful, technologically advanced continentsized island back in 370 B.C., but his description of its location was limited and vague. Many, of course, conclude that Atlantis never really existed, but was merely a fable. Those who think it did exist have sought evidence or at least clues in almost every corner of the globe. Edgar Cayce's famous prophecies said remnants of Atlantis would be found around Bermuda, and in 1969, geometric stone formations were found near Bimini that believers said confirmed Cayce's prediction. Other proposed locations for Atlantis include Antarctica, Mexico, off the coast of England, possibly even off the coast of Cuba (see below). Writer Alan Alford makes the case that Atlantis was not an island at all, but an exploded planet. The controversy and theories will likely continue until someone uncovers a sign saying: "Atlantis, pop. 58,234."

5. Mayan Calendar There's been a lot of hand-wringing over the supposed prophecies of the Mayan calendar. More people fear it, perhaps, than feared the ominous predicted catastrophes of the year 2000. All the fretting is based on the finding that the Mayan "Long Count" calendar ends on a date that corresponds to our December 21, 2012. What does this mean? The end of the world through some global cataclysm or war? The beginning of a new era, a new Age for mankind? Such prophecies have a long tradition of not coming to pass. But the only way we'll find out for sure is to wait and see. Just in case, however, in 2012 you might want to do your Christmas shopping early. 6. Japan's Underwater Ruins Off the southern shore of Okinawa, Japan, under 20 to 100 feet of water lie enigmatic structures that may have been built by some ancient, lost civilization. Skeptics say the large, tiered formations are probably natural in origin. "Then, in late summer of the following year," writes Frank Joseph in an article for Atlantis

Rising, "another diver in Okinawa waters was shocked to see a massive arch or gateway of huge stone blocks beautifully fitted together in the manner of prehistoric masonry found among the Inca cities on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in the Andes Mountains of South America." This seems to confirm that these are manmade ruins. The architecture includes what appear to be paved streets and crossroads, large altar-like formations, staircases leading to broad plazas and processional ways surmounted by pairs of towering features resembling pylons. If it is a sunken city, it is huge. It's been suggested that it might be the lost civilization of Mu or Lemuria (see below). 7. Voyages to the Americas We were all taught that Columbus discovered America; what they meant to teach us, however, was that Columbus began the official European invasion of the Americas. People had "discovered" the continent long before Columbus, of course. What are known as Native Americans arrived here many centuries before Columbus, and there is good evidence that explorers from other civilizations beat Columbus here, too. It is widely accepted that Leif Ericsson successfully sailed to North America in the year 1000. Far stranger, artifacts have been found suggesting that ancient cultures explored the continent. Greek and Roman coins and pottery have been found in the U.S. and Mexico; Egyptian statues of Osis and Isiris were found in Mexico, to say nothing of the Grand Canyon discovery, see above; ancient Hebrew and Asian artifacts have also been found. The truth is, we know very little about early, far-traveling cultures.

8. Sunken City off Cuba In May 2001, an exciting discovery was made by Advanced Digital Communications (ADC), a Canadian company that was mapping the ocean bottom of Cuba's territorial waters. Sonar readings revealed something unexpected and quite amazing 2,200 feet down: stones laid out in a geometric pattern that looked very much like the ruins of a city. "What we have here is a mystery," said Paul Weinzweig, of ADC. "Nature couldn't have built anything so symmetrical. This isn't natural, but we don't know what it is." A great sunken city? It must be Atlantis, was the immediate suggestion of many enthusiasts. National Geographic showed a great deal of interest in the site and was involved in subsequent investigations. In 2003, a minisub dove down to explore the structures. Paulina Zelitsky of ADC said they saw a structure that "looks like it could have been a large urban center. However, it would be totally irresponsible to say what it was before we have evidence." Further explorations are forthcoming. More information: 9. Mu or Lemuria Nearly as famous as Atlantis is the legendary lost world of Mu, sometimes call Lemuria. According to tradition among many Pacific islands, Mu was an Eden-like tropical paradise located somewhere in the Pacific that sunk, along with all of its beautiful inhabitants, thousands of years ago. Like Atlantis, there is ongoing debate as to whether it really existed and, if so, where. Madame Elena Petrovna Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophy movement in the 1800s, believed it was in the Indian Ocean. The ancient residents of Mu have become a favorite of channelers who bring their enlightened messages to present times.

10. Caribbean Underwater Pyramids One of the most intriguing tales of the discovery of ruins of a lost civilization is the story of Dr. Ray Brown. In 1970, while diving near the Bari Islands in the Bahamas, Dr. Brown claimed to have come across a pyramid "shining like a mirror" that he estimated was 120 feet tall, although he could see only the top 90 feet. The pyramid had a colored capstone and was surrounded by the ruins of other buildings. Swimming into a chamber he found a crystal held by two metallic hands. Over the crystal hung a brass rod from the center of the ceiling, at the end of which was a red multifaceted gem of some kind. Brown said he took the crystal, which allegedly has strange, mystical powers.

Brown's story sounds fictitious - it's just too spectacular. But it excites the imagination and wonder about all the mysteries that could be down there - lost worlds awaiting rediscovery.

Mars: Evidence of Life and Past Civilizations?

Intriguing photographs from orbiting probes hint at large, growing life forms, and perhaps even the ruins of a technologically advanced Martian culture What's up with Mars? Mars the mysterious. Mars the enigmatic. Since ancient man began tracking the unique red world across the night sky, we have always known there is something special about Mars. The invention of the telescope brought it in to clearer view, and for the first time we could distinguish intriguing markings on the planet's surface that Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli in 1877 called canali. American astronomer Percival Lowell, publicized by the popular media of the time, literally (and mistakenly) interpreted Schiaparelli's term with the idea that there were artificial canals on Mars - and the notion that Mars was inhabited by intelligent life became more widespread. In the decades that followed, science fiction stories and motion pictures explored the fantasy of Mars life, while science produced more powerful telescopes and rocket-propelled probes that revealed an equally awesome reality: a planet of gigantic canyons, dust storms and massive volcanoes that dwarf their Earthly counterparts. What draws us to Mars? Although it is much smaller than Earth, Mars is the most Earth-like planet in our solar system, bearing many similar geological features, including polar ice caps and what appear to be ancient (but now dry) river beds. In fact, many planetary scientists suspect that in the distant past Mars was even more Earth-like, with raging river systems and vast oceans. And this theory is strengthened by the recent discovery of evidence that there are vast amounts of water ice lying just beneath the surface of Mars. And where there's water, many researchers conclude, there may be life. But is there life on Mars? Despite the controversy surrounding Mars meteorites that some scientists think contain fossils of ancient Martian bacteria-like life forms, there is no conclusive evidence that life currently or ever existed on Mars. That, however, does not mean that life wasn't - or isn't - present. And is that what really draws us to Mars? Is our fascination with Mars a factor of life seeking life? Living creatures in startling variety have been found thriving in even the most inhospitable places on Earth, from the frozen Arctic to the sunless depths of the oceans. So life on Mars today is far from a ridiculous idea. Although there is no conclusive evidence for life on Mars, there are some tantalizing photos sent back from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) that some mainstream scientists think might show Martian life

forms, and other photos that some less-mainstream researchers suggest could depict evidence of intelligent life on Mars!

Martian Trees and Shrubs

Recently released photos, seen at right, taken by MGS look quite like aerial photos of an Earth desert dotted with shrub growth. But these sand dunes are in the southern hemisphere of Mars. A Hungarian research team, which has been analyzing the photos (and other photos of the same area over time), has concluded that the black dots are indeed living organisms. "Each spring," writes David Leonard in an article for Space.com, "[the Hungarians] report, 'gray fuzzy spots' appear in the bottom of the ice cover. By the middle of the first half of spring, these spots become darker, are bounded, and grow in size. By early summer defrosting, the naked dark soil of the dune is visible, and surrounded by a lighter ring. Year by year, the dark dune spots 'renew' on the same place with almost the same configuration, or 'constellation' of patches. This repeat action, the team asserts, strengthens their suggestion of fixed, biological causes of spot formation." The Hungarian scientists conclude that this strongly suggests the life cycle of some kind of plant life. NASA and its associated research teams don't agree with this conclusion. Their theory is that the dark spots are "the result of springtime defrosting process on Mars, not signs of biology." A somewhat less dismissive opinion from Bruce Jakosky, a Mars researcher at the University of Colorado in Boulder, states that the conclusion for Martian biology is "premature... when other, simpler processes have not been ruled out." Another controversial photo, shown at right, reveals much larger forms that look like spreading trees as seen from above. No less a personage than respected author Arthur C. Clarke opined that they resemble Earth's Banyan trees. He too noted that these forms appear to change with the seasons, growing with the warmth and increased sunlight of Mars's spring season, just as vegetation would. But NASA has likewise explained these shapes as some kind of freezing/defrosting phenomenon or a part of the "bizarre geology" of Mars. Both theories are just that, however - theories. NASA doesn't know any better than the Hungarians what these changing forms on the Martian surface really are. The only way to find out for certain is to direct one of our upcoming Martian rovers to the area and photograph them. It seems it would certainly be worth the effort to find out conclusively. And while they're at it, perhaps they could send another probe to examine some perplexing Martian features that look as though they were built by intelligent creatures. The idea that Mars was once the home of an ancient civilization is, of course, far more controversial than the contention that there are trees growing there. NASA and most mainstream scientists won't even consider the notion with any degree of seriousness. Yet there are many very interesting photos that show structures that do not look natural and have led some open-minded researchers to raise the possibility that they might be artificial - that is, created by intelligent beings. One of the most fascinating images, pictured at right, shows a ribbed tube or tunnel-like structure. Partially covered by the surface terrain, the structure looks as through it has been unearthed (unmarsed?) by some geologic process. The structure resembles the so-called "glass worms" discovered in other photos, although this one lacks the "transparent" or "translucent" quality of the worms. The official NASA stance on these structures is that they are quite natural and are, in fact, "dune trains" rows of sand dunes. The article "Is This an Artificial Construct on Mars" compares this photo with another photo of actual Martian dune trains. They don't look anything alike. While the photo of "actual" dunes indeed look like sand dunes, this enigmatic structure does not.

One of the most intriguing photos to recently come to light is the so-called "port," (see photo at right) which has been examined in some detail at Mars Unearthed. This highly geometric structure, appearing on a Martian cliffside, looks like an artificially constructed twostory building of some unknown purpose. In the opinion of the article, "the first floor walls of [the port] are facing camera and in shadow. The second floor is a well-defined square and is turned at a precise 45degree angle to the first floor. Centered in the midst of the roof of that squared second floor is an abrupt, sharp circle... a 'landing pad' as for helicopters atop tall buildings and on decks of ships." Near this structure, the article continues, is a large, open, U-shaped culvert or conduit out of which is flowing a great deal of liquid. Still another anomaly examined by Mars Unearthed is "The Tower," which seems to show a tall tower or stack with a white tip casting a long shadow. If it is indeed a tower of some kind, it stands at an incredible 6.3 kilometers high - 12 times taller than the largest skyscraper on Earth. Could these "structures" be optical illusions of natural geological formations? Of course. But to dismiss them outright as not possibly being artificial in origin is just as unscientific as declaring that they absolutely are created by intelligent beings. The suggestion that they are artificial is such a large claim, however, that these images should be examined carefully and with skepticism - but with an open mind. These images of seemingly artificial structures could dissolve into natural formations with more detailed, higher resolution photographs - just as, by most examinations, the so-called "Face on Mars" has resolved into a large mesa. More missions are planned by NASA to photograph and explore the surface of Mars, but it may not be until a manned mission is sent to the Red Planet that some of Mars's most fascinating puzzles are finally and conclusively solved.

Strange Things on the Moon

Several anomalous shapes and structures on the lunar surface have been photographed. What could they be? There's a lot we know about the moon. It's roughly one-sixth the size of the Earth; it's about 4.6 billion years old; it's approximately 238,000 miles distant from the Earth; it has no atmosphere and no water (except what was recently found to exist as ice in craters near the poles); it's covered with an incredibly fine gray powder. We've walked on the moon six times during the Apollo missions, and we've sent many more probes there to map it and study it. But there's much we don't know about it, too. We're not sure where it came from. Some think it might be a broken-off chunk of Earth. Although there's evidence that the moon once had active volcanoes, we're not sure if it's still geologically active (the prevailing theory is that it is not). The moon has its more controversial mysteries, too. Some think extraterrestrials have or once had bases there. Some think there's stuff on the moon -- other than the hardware, flags, and debris left there by the Apollo astronauts - that the government knows about, but is not telling us. Decades - even centuries before we sent ships to the moon, observers with telescopes have claimed to see signs of intelligent life or design there. Indeed, there are many enigmatic photos that seem to show shapes and structures on the lunar surface that don't fit conventional explanations. Perhaps there are reasonable answers for them, but those answers are not easy to find. Here's a look at some of those lunar anomalies: The Shard. This one, in a photo snapped by the Lunar Orbiter, has been named "the shard" or "the tower," by Richard C. Hoagland, who comments on this photo at Richard Hoagland's Lunar Anomalies.

Taken from a distance of about 250 miles, the strange structure (if that's what it is) would be enormous seven miles high, by Hoagland's calculations. (The star-like shape above the tower is a camera registration mark.) It's difficult to believe that such a huge structure actually stands on the moon... so what are we seeing in this photo? Is it a plume of "smoke" from some lunar gaseous emission? Are we seeing the ejecta from a meteorite impact? What is it? The Castle. This strange object, photographed during an Apollo mission, has been named "the castle" by Hoagland. It seems to have a definite structure, like the remnant wall of some ancient building. The bottom looks as if it has rows of support columns, above which is a high spire. Whatever it is, it's much brighter than the surrounding landscape. Is it just a trick of light and shadow? A photographic anomaly? Or is it all that remains of some rich Martian's get-away retreat? The Ukert Crater. The Ukert crater, located near the center of the moon as it is viewed from the Earth, contains this amazing equilateral triangle. According to Luna: Arcologies on the Moon, each side of the triangle is 16 miles in length. And note the three bright objects around the perimeter of the crater - if they are joined by straight lines, they too would from an equilateral triangle. Is this evidence of intelligent design, or merely a fantastic coincidence? Strange Reflection. This is one of my favorites because it comes directly from a famous photo from the second Apollo mission to land on the moon, Apollo 12. The photo is of astronaut Alan Bean and was taken by Pete Conrad as both stand on the lunar surface. You can see Conrad in the reflection in Bean's visor. You can also see some instrumentation in the foreground of the reflection. But what the heck is that thing hovering in the sky in the background, pointed out here as "artifact" by Luna: Astronauts Among the Ruins? You can even see the shadow it casts on the ground behind Conrad. It's been seen as everything from a UFO to a hanging light fixture by those who think the Apollo landings were faked. Yet this photo is really puzzling. We can usually find reasonable, or at least plausible, explanations for the other photos shown here and elsewhere, but this one is truly enigmatic. What about it NASA? What the heck is that thing? As mentioned above, strange things have been seen on the moon for centuries -- usually flashes of light or color, or lights that appear to move across the lunar surface. These are known as transient lunar phenomena (TLP), and many of the reports, dating from 1540 to 1969, have been cataloged by NASA. But perhaps the best source for this kind of information is The Lunascan Project, an organized effort by amateur astronomers to record and document TLPs. Such flashes of light and color could be attributed to meteor impacts or perhaps some kind of gaseous emissions, but harder to explain are the "fastwalkers" that have been videotaped by several amateur observers. This one, from the Lunascan Project, is a capture from a video taken by an amateur Japanese astronomer several years ago. The dark object (circled in the upper photo and pointed out in the close-up in the lower photo) moved from north to south some unknown distance above the lunar surface. What could account for this anomaly? A satellite orbiting the moon? (It would have to be enormous to show up like this.) A satellite orbiting the Earth that happened to cross the the observer's field of view as he or she was videotaping the moon? (Steve Davis at Lunascan puts this idea in doubt, too.) So what could the unexplained object be? Yes, we've been to the moon, we have mapped it extensively, and we have brought back lots of rocks for study. But the moon still remains a great source of mystery and wonder.