Aphrodite

Born from the genitals of Cronus as his sons used a sickle on him for revenge. They were thrown into the sea which foamed up with a beautiful girl within. Aphrodite was born in a wave of foam on a shell, as the myth goes, leaving the sea, onto the island of Cyprus. She was greeted and as each drop of water fell from her body, they turned into pearls. The Horae (Goddesses of the Seasons) that met her gave her jewels and golden robes to wear. After getting royally dressed she was taken to Mount Olympus to greet the other Gods.
Aphrodite is one of most known of the gods. Mortals and Gods were always after her favour, including Zeus. When Zeus asked to be his wife however, she scorned him and made her marry Hephaestus. He was the crippled God of Blacksmiths and was very boring, to a sensuous and loving goddess.
She was a very promiscuous  Goddess who found joy and beauty. She did have an evil side though. She took revenge on mortals and gods alike when they interfered with the natural order of love. With her power of love, good and bad, she was a powerful Goddess who was adored but feared at the same time. She started the Trojan War infact by offering Helen of Sparta to Prince Paris of Troy at a wedding between Peleus and Thetis. Of course Helen's husband, Menelaus was not too pleased and the war broke out. With the passion and spark of love, she could manipulate the importance of a lot of episodes in mythological history.
Aphrodite had many lovers and many children by them. They were all passed off as Hephaestus's offspring.
Her most known of all affairs is with Ares, the God of War. He was the favourite of so the myth tells. They had a child together, Anteros who punished people who never returned love. Adonis was another suitor who stayed with Aphrodite for a third of a year with Aphrodite, a third by himself and a third with the Goddess of the Underworld, Persephone. The goddesses were fighting over him and so Zeus sorted the solution to the argument.
The openness of the affairs with Ares was noticed by Gods and soon filtered down to Hephaestus. He made a golden web for revenge and threw it over them when they were naked and in each others arms. Both were totally humiliated and embarrassed by the act.
She did have a child to Zeus, Cupid (Eros). He became the god of sensual love. Aphrodite actually turned down Zeus when he made his intensions known to be his wife.
By Hermes she was the mother of Hermaphroditus, who was welded with a nymph into a body with both male and female.
By Dionysus she had two sons, Hymen and Priapus. While Hymen was worshipped as the god of marriage, his ugly brother, Priapus represented human lust. They were exact opposites
One of Aphrodite's mortal children was Aeneas, her son by the shepherd, Anchises. Aeneas became the mythological God of Italy and the Roman countrymen. Therefore he is well remembered in Italian history
With all the passions of herself and her offspring together, they had the most control of every felling known to God and mortal alike.
A tourist guide to Cyprus, Paphos, The Mayfair Hotel, and our apartment within.
http://www.apartment5137.com

Donna owns an apartment within a hotel complex in Paphos, Cyprus. Her site [http://www.apartment5137.com] provides information on the apartment and its surroundings.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Donna_Mclaren

The Forgotten Greek Gods

Mention Greek gods and people immediately think of Zeus and the like. Before these well-known gods came on the scene, however, there were another group of Gods.
There were many figures featured in the Greek mythological world, from gods and goddesses to mythical fantasy creatures. While the gods and goddesses themselves often got the most attention, it was the mythical characters that really made the stories work. Without the interaction of the god figures, mortals and these creatures, the stories told would not have been fully fleshed. One of these groups of characters was the Titans, and their story is an interesting one.
The Titans were a race of gods and goddesses that ruled Greece during the Golden Age. There were originally twelve Titans, with a thirteenth Titan coming into play after a literary appearance in the Bibliotheke. The mother and father of the Titans were Uranus and Gaia, and Uranus was overthrown by his son Cronus, who was the youngest of the group. Additionally, the Titans gave birth to more Titans, including Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas and Menoetius; these were the sons of Iapetus.
The Titans preceded the twelve gods of Mount Olympus, who were headed by Zeus and battled them in the Titanomachy (War of the Titans). The Titans lost this war, and were imprisoned by the Olympic gods in Tartarus, the lowest points of the underworld. The twelve Titans were grouped in pairs, or couples; they included Oceanus and Tethys, Hyperion and Theia, Coeus and Phoebe, Cronus and Rhea and four separate gods: Mnemosyne, Themis, Crius and Iapetus. The thirteenth Titan was Dione, who was a double of Theia.
It is said that Chronos was the most monstrous and cunning of the twelve, and when he was born to his mother Gaia, he formed an intense hatred of his father. Uranus sensed this, and imprisoned his son in the bowels of the Earth. Once there, Chronos enlisted the help of the Cyclopses and other creatures and escaped; then he castrated his father Uranus and took the beautiful Rhea for his bride. From this union, the new generation of gods was born, including Zeus.
The Titans played an important role in the creation myth of the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, and while they themselves did not mean much in the religious arena past the Classical Age of Greece, the fact that they birthed the Mount Olympus deities made them an important part of Greek culture.

Richard Monk is with http://www.factsmonk.com - a site with facts about everything.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Monk

How Zeus Came to Power - Greek Mythology

Metis the Goddess of wisdom was pregnant with Athene. Because Zeus felt that Athene would be so wise he felt it would be a threat to his power. He felt that Athena would be stronger than even his bolts. In order to prevent this from happening he tricked Metis and swallowed her whole. However, Metis was still able to conceive Athene and gods gave her birth through the way of his head. This is very important because it symbolically represents the birth of many great things in Greek thought and culture. Athena was a goddess of wisdom, war, and defender of heroes and justice. All the aspects combined create a unique and complex civilization.

There used to be a popular cartoon that would come on television that, Hercules. The cartoon was a series based off of the Disney movie which was the cartoon version of the Greek tale. In this cartoon Hercules had amazing adventures battling Gods and Creatures.

Unsurprisingly the Disney version changes the Greek story, so that Hercules main enemy is Hades (the god of the underworld). Although Disney did a horrible job of telling the story of Hercules, they were able to expose many people to Greek mythology.

I recognize Zeus from the cartoon, he was the most powerful God and he was the father of Hercules. In the cartoon Zeus is portrayed as a humble, loving, and kind father. Some of the other names I recognized were: Athene, Apollo, Artemis, Posedion, and Hera.

In order to rise to power Zeus had to first overthrow the ruler Cronos and the Titans. How he did this was with a clever strategy and with his might. What he did was gather a team of Gods to join his side. Then he made friends with the Cyclopes and other creatures. The combination of the Gods and boulders hurled from the powerful creatures was what led to Zeus becoming the ruler of the Gods. The war was ended with one last bolt that was driven by all of Zeus's fury and might.

The way Zeus came to power was similar to the way humans do things. There was a higher power in which no force at the time could stop. Zeus wanted to take them down and bring himself to the top. His method of doing so was gathering large forces because there is strength in numbers. It was simply a game of politics.

If Cronos had befriended the other Gods before Zeus had a chance to, Zeus would not have been able to fight him. The way the war is described is even similar to that of a war between human forces. Weapons were being hurled back and forth and it was very loud. In order for Zeus to become victorious he had to give every last bit of energy into the fight.
Another important factor was the help from the Cyclopes who were hurling boulders at the opposing Gods. One would think that Rocks, no matter the size would be ineffective in causing damage to the gods.

Athena's creation was symbolizes the birth of a new way of thinking for the Greeks. She represented war, justice, and wisdom. There is an importance placed on the word wisdom throughout the reading. Greeks believed it to be so valuable that they suggested Zeus feared it and that is why he did not want to give birth to Athena. It was a threat to his power. This reading also suggests the importance of being powerful in societies.

What you can gain from this reading, is that cultures from earlier eras reflected their beliefs through mythology. Each god represented an appreciation or an acknowledgment of a certain aspect of life. The way the gods behaved was similar to the way humans behaved in a sense. The way they fought, loved, politicized, and belonged to a ranking system.

Visit [http://www.religionanddeath.com/content/greek-mythology]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=O_Brittian

Mythology's Extraterrestrial Gods: The Giant Cyclopes?

One of the major themes of mythologies around the world relate to the concept of giants. It's easy to extrapolate and super-size up the human body to giant proportions (Hollywood's done that a few times in Grade-B sci-fi flicks), and there are many tall tales and fairy tales/folklore about giants like the American Paul Bunyan or the kiddie favorite "Jack and the Beanstalk". However, while it's easy to imagine human giants, however, it becomes obvious pretty quickly that these giants can't be the case in reality without major anatomical alternations to the human physique.

Now let's say the average human is six foot tall. The maximum height for a human male is a fraction under nine feet; for a human female a fraction over 8 feet according to the "Guinness Book of Records", but humans much above 7 ½ feet are very rare indeed. 7 ½ feet and below isn't really giant-sized, just very tall. A real giant say is at least double the human average - say 12 foot high - and that and more is not all that uncommon in the mythological literature and all cultures have tales of people of exceptional size. However, most of the mythological giants tend to be under twelve feet - like Goliath cited as being somewhere from a bit under seven feet to just under ten feet.

The main problem regarding human giants is, if you double the height, and associated width and breadth as well, you increase the body's mass by a factor of eight. The person weighs eight times as much. However, the supporting structure, the cross-section (width and breadth) of the legs (muscle and bone) has only increased by a factor of four. So your legs are four times as thick, but they must support a weight eight times as great. If you triple the dimensions you have 27 times the mass, but only nine times the supporting area for that weight. A fourfold increase sees a massive increase in weight to 64 times normal; the supporting structure is however only 16 times greater. The ecological catchcry of 'limits to growth' takes on a new meaning here.

Thus, while human giants are grand Hollywood entertainment, films like "The Amazing Colossal Man" or "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman" can't be taken for anything more than that - pure (put your brain on the shelf for the duration) entertainment.

So there are limits to growth. If some of the giants of mythology can't be human, and if they aren't purely figments of the imagination, then they are probably extraterrestrials.

It doesn't take too awfully long for giants to make their appearance on Earth according to the Bible.

Apparently way back towards the near beginning of all things, the Biblical 'sons of God' and the 'daughters of men' did their 'be fruitful and multiply bit'.

Now what's this 'sons of God' and 'daughters of men' bit? In Genesis 6:2 [New King James Version] we have: "that the sons of God saw the daughters of men; that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose."

According to the Old Testament [New King James Version], "There were giants [Nephilim] on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them." (Genesis 6:4). However, since these giants are the products of the sons of God* (who must therefore also be gods) and human women, these giants must only be demigods.

Now the 'sons of God' couldn't have been too giant-sized in their own right if they were to have their wicked way with the 'daughters of men', yet their giant-sized offspring were - well, giant-sized that is. Numbers 13:33 [New King James Version] states "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." If humans were like grasshoppers in size relative to the giants (the offspring of the 'sons of God' and the 'daughters of men') then something's screwy somewhere, unless either the 'sons of God' or their giant [Nephilim] offspring were shape-shifters. That something is screwy somewhere actually comes as no real surprise considering it's the Bible - the most contradictory text ever written.

Those other 'gods', the polytheistic deities, also spent a lot of time screwing each other and us humans. The sexual exploits of the 'gods' (especially the Greek 'gods') would put modern swinging and swingers to shame. The 'gods' were really quite a randy lot and not just the male 'gods' but a fair few of the fairer sex 'goddesses' as well. We're well acquainted with Eros (Cupid) and Aphrodite (Venus) as to their job descriptions.

For example, according to ancient Greek mythology, in the beginning there was the Earth Goddess Gaia and her son the Sky God Uranus who had a bit of a role in the hay together and produced not only the 12 Titans but also the Cyclopes trio of Arges (Bright), Brontes (Thunderer) and Steropes (Lightning-Maker). The Titans eventually went head-to-head with the Olympians (Zeus and company) for world (or at least Mediterranean) domination, but the Cyclopes, treated somewhat badly by daddy, all turned turncoats and helped Zeus defeat the Titans.

Now the Cyclopes were expert metal-smiths, and they fashioned the thunderbolts for Zeus, Poseidon's trident, and Hades' helmet of invisibility which played key roles in that epic war-in-heaven. The Cyclopes are said by the Roman epic poet Virgil to have been as tall as forest trees, so a height way more than 12 feet would not be out of order.

Now as gods in their own right (being the offspring of Gaia and Uranus), the Cyclopes are immortal (or quasi-immortal as nothing lives forever); but they, like most other quasi-immortal gods, well the various Cyclopes weren't invincible or invulnerable. In fact the Greek god Apollo bumped off our trio in revenge for Zeus killing Apollo's son with a thunderbolt that the Cyclopes had made for Zeus in the first place; Zeus then had to punish Apollo, but that's another story.

Odysseus did some major damage to the Cyclops Polyphemus (a second generation Cyclops fathered by the God of the Sea, Poseidon) in Homer's "The Odyssey", thus incurring the wrath of the Sea God who made Odysseus' life quite a miserable one for many years.

So why not consider Polyphemus purely fictitious? Well, "The Odyssey" is the sequel and companion volume to "The Illiad", and it was Heinrich Schliemann who had such faith in the historical accuracy of "The Illiad" that he used it has the historical text in which to find and uncover the apparent mythological or fictitious city of Troy. He did! So, if the "Illiad" isn't pure storytelling; perhaps the "The Odyssey" isn't either.

Now the Cyclopes are clearly too large to be based on the purely human anatomical plan. A real human the size of a forest tree would have to have leg bones made of metal or stone.

The one eye of the Cyclopes suggests something non-terrestrial. No terrestrial species has one eye, very rare mutations (called obviously enough 'cyclopia') aside.

The Cyclopes clearly possessed very advanced technology that enabled the Olympians to defeat the Titans.

Now more likely as not, the Cyclopes collectively were either an alien race in their own right and not literally the offspring of Gaia and Uranus, or the results of the 'gods' experiments in genetic engineering. The later makes the idea of a creation, of offspring, more understandable.

Now mother and son (Gaia and Uranus) weren't quite through producing giants. They actually parented another trio of giants, the Hecatoncheires, who had 50 heads and 100 arms/hands each! Perhaps these giants were again really the end result of some more genetic tinkering on the part of the 'gods'. Anyway, the Hecatoncheires were also treated badly by daddy, so they too ultimately joined forces with Zeus against the Titans. Daddy meantime came to a bad end having his private parts cut off, but again, that's another story.

As to the liaison between the Earth Goddess Gaia (mother) and the Sky God Uranus (son), well if they were both really extraterrestrials, then you couldn't expect their moral or ethical codes to mirror ours of necessity.

But the one-eyed creatures of mythology don't start and stop with the first and second generation of the Cyclopes of Greek (or Roman) mythology. While there's not room to make a detailed account of them all, there's the legendary Norse/German half-human character of Hagen who in a few accounts is one-eyed. Hagen is today probably best known for his role in the downfall and slaying of Siegfried in Richard Wagner's concluding opera of his epic Ring Cycle, "Gotterdammerung".

Then there's Balor of the Evil Eye, a god of death who was a king of the Fomorians, a race of giants in Irish mythology. Balor (or Balar or Bolar) had one eye in the middle of his forehead and you most certainly didn't want him looking at you! Fortunately, he too came to a sticky end at the hand of his grandson.

In conclusion, when it comes to giants in general or the Cyclopes in particular, we have yet again a universal theme in mythology. When it comes to mythology, my basic premise is that anytime you have near universal themes between wildly dispersed in space and/or time cultures, ethnic groups, nationalities, whatever, then you sit up and take notice that something more than just human imagination is at work.

*So Jesus Christ had brothers, presumably older and far larger brothers! The Big Question however is who was God's wife (or mistress) by which God fathered the 'sons of God', or does God reproduce asexually? Maybe there isn't a Mrs. God or she's kept well out of sight. God doesn't seem to be an equal opportunity player. His offspring are all male (J.C. and the 'sons of God'); so are his cast and crew (the angels) entirely male and he deals with males like Noah, Moses, Enoch, Abraham, etc. Even Adam came before Eve and those two only produced male offspring (which is another whole can of worms glossed over by the faithful). It would appear that the polytheistic gods are heads and shoulders above the monotheistic God when it comes to the status of women.

Science librarian; retired.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Prytz

Clash Of The Deities, Or Perhaps Here Be Aliens

Throughout human history humans have populated their world with thousands of gods (like Zeus), goddesses (like Hera - Mrs. Zeus) and demigods (like Hercules, son of Zeus, but not of Hera), along with many associated assortment of beasties, often half-human, half-something else (usually animal), or else humanoid with associated 'defects' like the one-eyed Cyclops or the Medusa. Add to that zoo, our monotheistic God and associated hangers-on, like angels, etc. What are we to make of this menagerie?

Postulate One: All of these beings are mythical and imaginary. To be honest, that's the most likely scenario, though of course millions of Christians, Muslims, and Jews would have one survivor from the deity zoo - God. However, if thousands of gods don't exist, then isn't it logical to assume that thousands and one, gods plus God don't exist?

Assuming neither the gods nor God exists - then we play the 'what if' game...

'What if' no deities exist or have ever existed?

Then billions of people, over thousands of years, have spent trillions of ultimately wasted hours in prayer, attending church, observing/attending various religious rituals, spent in religious/Biblical study, door-knocking, preaching, discussing, arguing, going on pilgrimages, etc.

Then all those religious rituals, the do and do not rules that govern things regarding food, dress codes, ceremonies, relationships, and etc. ultimately have been meaningless.

Then millions of people have been tortured, murdered or executed, imprisoned, ridiculed, humiliated, exiled, and hated for no reason.

Then billions of dollars have been spent on cathedrals instead of say hospitals; Bibles instead of textbooks; educating priests instead of medical doctors, nurses and scientists.

Then for those formally educated and qualified in religious studies, spending entire careers preaching, etc. they have wasted their lives in devotion to an invisible friend(s) that has all the reality of Casper, the Friendly Ghost.

Then multi-millions of animals have been sacrificed and offered up to a supernatural being(s) that doesn't exist.

Then you can't blame all your aches and pains, your bad back and creaky joints, on some all knowing great intelligent designer(s), who apparently bioengineered you (from dust or a rib or whatever) while simultaneously failing Bioengineering 101. I mean placing the food tube right next to the breathing tube was a disaster waiting to happen, as evidenced by all those people who choke to death every year. And how many women have died giving birth because the compatibility between the birth canal and the size of the baby, well just wasn't! A divinely created human wouldn't be flawed and have need of eyeglasses or a hearing aid. God wouldn't create a human with jaws to small to allow for wisdom teeth. As to the appendix organ, that's just another oops.

Postulate Two: Some or all of these beings exist and are associated with the realm of the supernatural.

Assuming both supernatural God and gods exist...

1) Both might exist quite independently from each other in space, in time, or both. One doesn't know about the existence of the other.

2) Both might exist as independent entities (not of the same family) in the same time and space, but choose to have no interactions.

3) Both might exist as independent entities (not of the same family) in the same time and space frame and interact.

4) Both might exist, but God is just one of the gods. That is, there is no independence between God and the gods; they're all kin.

5) God and the gods do not get along, be it #3 or #4. But while the gods are silent on God, God doesn't overly love His god kin, since He instructs us not to have any other gods before Him!

God or the gods: who comes first?

1) In terms of human history, the gods existed before God. Polytheism existed prior to monotheism.

2) Therefore, the gods, if responsible for all things created, created God. Monotheism is subservant to polytheism. God answers to the gods.

3) If God came before the gods, and God is the supreme creator, then God created the gods. Polytheism is subservant to monotheism. The gods answer to God.

4) However, if God created the gods, God is ultimately jealous of the gods (as per His Commandments), and therefore of His own creation. God, being all-knowing, foresaw this, but did it anyway. That's illogical.

Assuming God exists and the gods don't - well, that's pretty much the status quo today. What few believers still exist in worshiping Zeus, Jupiter, Odin and associates aren't sufficient to cause any resurgence in polytheism.

Assuming the gods exist, and God doesn't - well, a significant percentage of the inhabitants of Planet Earth over the past several millennia have got lots of collective egg on their faces. Much of the 'what if' given above applies equally well. However, in one sense, the gods make more sense than God. Contrast the following. There's this God, your invisible friend who art in heaven, which is also invisible and a place you can not travel to. Contrast that vis-à-vis the Greek gods say, who were visible to and interacted (i.e. - mated usually) with the mortal Greeks. Further, they lived right next door up on Mount Olympus, a place you could actually climb up and visit. I mean the gods are practically your next door neighbour. How could the Greeks get something that obvious so wrong? Maybe they didn't - get it wrong that is. So who is more likely to be mistaken, the monotheist who has never seen God or heaven, or the Greek polytheist who has their gods living in the neighbourhood? Who has more credibility?

Postulate Three: Some or all of these beings exist but do not reside in the realm of the supernatural. Perhaps they are terrestrial flesh-and-blood natives! But if they are terrestrial flesh-and-blood life forms, they are extinct now, which is, as far as we're practically concerned, the same as their non-existence in the first place. There's no fossil evidence for any of the assumed mythological beasties (like the Minotaur - half bull; or satyrs - half goat; or centaurs - half horse; or a sphinx - half lion), or tombs or gravesites for the gods, goddesses or demigods with actual bodies in them. That might not be surprising seeing as how they (gods and goddesses and demigods) are supposed to be immortal.

Postulate Four: Some or all of these beings exist but likewise do not belong to the realm of the supernatural. Since they aren't terrestrial, they must be extraterrestrial.

If there is any historical evidence for a god, gods or The God, then that evidence could just as easily be equally interpreted as evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence(s), whose purpose(s) or objective(s) may not be all that obvious or even benign.

What would an extraterrestrial 'god' ('sky being' might be a good synonym in many cases) do that a bona-fide supernatural god wouldn't do - or vice versa? I'll be damned if I know the answer to that, and it's probably an unanswerable question. It's at least not illogical to equate a god, goddess or demigod with an extraterrestrial or extraterrestrial intelligence. Any sufficiently advanced (extraterrestrial) technology is just the supernatural to entities that are too primitive yet to know what advanced technology is. A television set or jet airplane to someone living 2000 years ago would be pure magic.

Taking another approach, I'd imagine a theoretical advanced extraterrestrial being or race, like the gods, don't have attributes that are self-contradictory, unlike God (or the idealized concept of God). The gods are not depicted as all-powerful (just powerful); not all-knowing (yet knowledgeable); not omnipresent; and hardly all-loving. The one attribute usually attributed to the gods is immortality as noted earlier, though that doesn't mean they can't be bumped off. They're immortal, but not invincible or invulnerable. To a human, especially humans living thousands of years ago, immortality could equally translate to and mean a very, very long lifespan (akin to some of the life spans given to a select few in the Biblical texts). Now very long life spans is something one might desire when postulating getting ET from there (wherever there is - somewhere out there among the stars) to here (Planet Earth).

Is there any suggestive evidence to associate and equate the gods with extraterrestrials? Well, appearance could be a clue. Our modern world is full of images from ancient times of entities or beings that wouldn't be out of place in any "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" movie. Translated, whatever these images represent, they most certainly aren't your everyday terrestrial species you're likely to see in a zoo. I mean you have all seen figures depicted as gargoyles - definitely not terrestrial beasties. Nor are the gorgons likely to be terrestrial. Many of the gods, like say the ancient Egyptian ones, while humanoid, are anything but human in appearance. Lots of beings, creatures depicted as rock or cave art around the world appear very other-worldly. For example, the Tassili frescoes in the Sahara, some going back to 6,000 BC, are very suggestive of ET. One was actually dubbed by an archaeologist 'the great Martian god', although there's no actual evidence to connect the image with the Red Planet Mars. The puzzling statues on Easter Island are very nearly human but just weird enough to be distinctive - close but yet odd. You can ask this logical question - are demons really supernatural, or just rather ugly and potentially nasty aliens?

Even the very well known arch sceptic (when it came to UFOs and 'ancient astronauts'), the late Dr. Carl Sagan was impressed enough by a combination of ancient text translations coupled with images on ancient cylinder seals to suggest that this might be a bona fide contact between extraterrestrials and humans. The 'this' had to do with strange appearing beings who brought knowledge to the ancient Sumerians. Images depicted on later cylinder seals associated such beings (who look quite unworldly) with the stars and stellar planetary systems.*

Last, but hardly least, is, as noted above, one of the interactions between the gods and humans is sex - by trickery, by force, by any means fair or foul, often with disastrous consequences - as demigod Hercules, or Medusa could testify to. In modern UFO lore, sex or sex-related themes, albeit of the more impersonal kind, is a common theme in abduction cases. Whether or not there's any connect I don't know, but it's an interesting 'virgin' area for further research.

Conclusions: All the gods and God and all their associated supernatural baggage are total inventions of our fertile imaginations, OR, some or all of those gods (probably including God) are actual flesh-and-blood extraterrestrial entities. The middle ground, belief in the supernatural, gods and/or God with actual magical powers, is not really a credible option, IMHO.

*Sagan, Carl & Shklovskii, I.S.; Intelligent Life in the Universe; Holden-Day, San Francisco; 1966; p.455-462.

Science librarian; retired.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Prytz