If the Bible is as Much Fable as Fact, Did God Create Man or Did Man Create God?

Have you ever questioned the biblical myths in light of reason vs. religious rhetoric? I certainly have and so did the intellectual giant and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. He discarded most of the supernatural myths, thus creating his own personal and sanitized version of the Bible. In my search for the truth, I too bring to light many of those ancient Sumerian, Babylonian and Egyptian myths which bare a striking similarity to stories appearing two millennia later in the Jewish Tanakh (500+/- BCE). Was this plagiarism, albeit with a well-intentioned religious motive? Probably, but one must remember that for nearly a millennia prior to the Common Era, the 12 Hebrew tribes had borne the oppressive domination of numerous larger neighbors, ultimately succumbing to the much hated Roman Empire. Earlier, the religious prophets, seeking freedom from foreign domination for their people, wrote of, and prayed for, a Messiah who would help them achieve this goal. Perhaps hoping for someone similar to their idealized warrior King David, when a charismatic teacher from Nazareth rose from obscurity teaching love, peace and tolerance, Jesus was the antithesis of their expectations. Seen more as a threat to their orthodox religion and its laws than as a benefactor, the Sanhedrin condemned him to death at the hands of their Roman overlords. With his death, however, arose an opportunity for many Jews and some Gentiles to form a new religious order, codified as Christianity in 325 CE at the First Council of Nicaea. Since the many versions of the Christian Bible are the most published and read book in human history, I presented it as a popular comingling of ancient myths and flawed history, but possessing a powerful moral and spiritual message. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, the text is not divinely inspired as portrayed by theologians; instead it is the product of everyday mortal men, directed by Roman Emperor Constantine, with completely “down-to-earth” motivations. My search for answers follows a rather superficial historical chronology which was necessary for readers to get the Big Picture of events, attitudes and conditions prevalent when the key texts, the Jewish Septuagint (aka Tanakh), Christian Bible and the Muslim Quran, were written. This approach is necessary if we are to bridge the generational and historical gap between then, when the major aspects of contemporary organized religion were being formulated, and now. Within the Roman Empire, as superstitious God-initiated natural events gave way to the light of scientific-reason, polytheism reluctantly transitioned to monotheism; the Jewish belief in one all powerful, all present God, Yahweh. Religious dogma has been, and still is, threatened by logic, reason, and emerging scientific facts which tend to eat away at the flawed underpinnings of their institutions. Science seeks answers through verifiable facts, while religions seek answers through unsupported faith. Over the ages, religion and God have become two separate, and not necessarily complementary, entities. Religion has morphed from a simple collection of like-minded individuals attempting to seek God in their own way, to large orchestrated “businesses”; one, the Catholic Church, even assuming Nation-State status and retaining the “pomp, ceremony and regal paraphernalia” it enjoyed during the age of European Monarchies. Several sections of the book are devoted to possible alien involvement in both ancient and recent human development, and poses the provocative question whether or not ancient aliens may have altered the human genome. If early man misidentified a visiting intellectually and technologically advanced alien species as gods, are we a product of their genetic engineering; created in their image and likeness? Popular and prolific author Zecharia Sitchin, developed a controversial alien thesis around the Annunaki, based on his interpretations of ancient Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform clay tablets written over 5,000 years ago. His ideas and those of the popular researcher and lecturer Eric Von Daniken, author of Chariots of the Gods, have introduced a new way of looking at ancient history, a paradigm which is slowly and reluctantly working its way into revised contemporary history. Within the pages of this book you will be introduced to such things as: - ancient megalithic structures world-wide, possibly built with alien assistance, - possible nuclear warfare two millennia before the Current Era, - flying saucer technology emerging from WWII German research, - provocative statements made by such notable people as: -- Werner Von Braun (NASA) -- J. Robert Oppenheimer (Manhattan A-Bomb Project) -- Admiral Richard E. Byrd (Artic Explorer) -- Ronald W. Reagan (California Governor/US President) -- Paul Hellyer (Ex-Canadian Minister of Defense) -- Ben Rich (Lockheed super-secret Skunk Works) -- Numerous astronauts, commercial and military pilots, police, etc. - translation problems related to early biblical writings, - life’s possible origins (abiogenesis, panspermia, & divine hypotheses), - challenges to the assertion that Jesus was divine and rose from the dead, - erroneous Christian theological support of Geocentrism vs. Heliocentrism, - biological and cultural evolution of mankind, - the Big Bang hypothesis and the Universe, - religious warfare through the ages, - UFO sightings around the world and throughout history, - Dark Age Christianity and the Age of Enlightenment, - probable errors regarding the founding religious fathers: -- Moses - Judaism, -- Jesus - Christianity, - these and many, many other interesting facts, propositions and presumptions. While I and others can present you with numerous facts and reasonable hypothesis’ regarding the possible existence, or non-existence, of a God, you must search for your own answers in the pursuit of your own truth. What I consider to be the preponderance of compelling facts yielding my conclusion, you may see them in an entirely different light. “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people” (Karl Marx). Was he correct? Challenge your current paradigm regarding religion, the religious texts, and the possible role of extraterrestrials in human development; if for no other reason than to reinforce your own fundamental beliefs, or to discredit mine! Join in my search for answers.