Elder Gods and the case for Ancient Aliens.

This post originally appeared on my blog in 2015.

In the thirties a young writer by the name of Howard Phillip Lovecraft created an ethos that is still going strong to this day. Dubbed the Cthulhu Mythos, he wrote of ancient gods who came to this planet long before man emerged, arriving upon astral winds from the fathomless depths of deepest space. Before man’s arrival the great Cthulhu retreated to the briny depths of the ocean’s deepest parts where it is said he lies dreaming to this day. 

While for most people this seems like a pretty far fetched idea, the concept of  Cthulhu makes an appearance in modern works. Most notably as the visage of Davy Jones in the blockbuster series “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Lovecraft himself drew a picture of Cthulhu that presented the body of a man with the face of a squid whose tentacles formed a beard. In its distilled form every writer of note has put forth their own take on the concept of ancient alien gods.

When you look to the stars, can you honestly say you believe that among the thousands of spots of light spread across the night sky, representing a very small fraction of what can be seen with the naked eye, that we are alone in the universe?

Many find it difficult to  wrap their minds around the concept of time beyond the measure of a human life, which is but a brief twinkle, a nanosecond if you will, when compared to the immensity of cosmic time. Current estimates place the age of the Universe at around 13.75 billion years. But there are those within the scientific community who believe we’ve underestimated that number. Keeping with the current estimate the Earth, by comparison has only been around for 4.5 billion of those years. The Universe was 9.21 billion years old when the Earth, and the solar system it inhabits, first formed.

Allowing sufficient time to cool to support life, let’s say it was 4.6 billion years after the big bang before the first single cell organisms could have conceivably formed on earth like planets. A point in time over 9 billion years ago. Life on Earth has had 4.54 billion years to develop into the intelligent beings of today. What’s to say intelligent alien life wasn’t standing at the point we currently find ourselves, when the Earth first formed? Giving them a 4.5 billion year head start on humans.

Granted some alien societies would not have survived beyond the nuclear age. We ourselves face the possibility of extinction as a direct result of our nuclear proliferation. I’m sorry, but while others may disagree with me, there are some nations and leaders who should never possess such capabilities. Iran and Korea being the first that comes to mind.

Yet we face unlimited potential. Given time I’m confident electricity can be generated in a safe, low cost, manner that protects what natural resources we have. Just as I’m confident many alien societies faced the same hurdles we do now, back when the Earth was but a spinning cloud of vaporous rock whipping around a newly formed star.

Those that didn’t succeed perished. But not all of them would have fallen to extinction. Some would have realized the potential we now face. Some would have overcome their internal bickering to become a single species united in a common goal. Be it a life of leisure, or one of exploration. Some would have chosen to live their lives in eternal comfort, focusing on their concept of beauty and the arts.

Others would have followed their curiosity to the stars in vehicles capable of reaching across the vast expanses of time and space. Quite possibly visiting our world at a time when man viewed these visitors from the stars as gods.

Could it be the legends of the past were inspired by these otherworldly visitors?

Are the creations of H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith, mere imaginings, or did they come to the same conclusions? Would an early predecessor to man view these visiting aliens as Gods? Is it possible these visitors seeded a young earth with Homo sapiens? Or is there a more sinister reason we accompanied them?

We are left with the question, What if?

What if we were nothing more than food for this alien visitor? Cattle in the field that left to its own devices managed to evolve into the intelligent human being of today. There are as many possibilities as there are stars in the sky.

What do you believe?