by. William L. Saylor
Leila M. Coyne
Woody Allen
A universal attribute of the “gods” was their immortality, or at least their very long lives compared to humans. Several references to this characteristic follows:
This represents a time dilation factor of 1/365,000.
Also a time dilation factor of 1/365,000.
A time dilation factor of 1/360 or 1/432,000, whichever way it is interpreted.
A time dilation factor of 1/52,840 for a 60 year lifetime.
- Mead (1921) writes,
Translating we have 1 day of light = 1000 Earth years; 1 year of the light = 365 days of the light = 365,000 Earth days = 36.5 myriads of Earth years, i.e. as used here "myriad" represents the multiplier 10,000.
- From The Vision of Isaiah:
A time dilation factor of 1/140,160.
These references seem to imply that the AAs did not live forever, but so much longer than humans that they appeared to be immortal. The texts report that the Sumerian goddess Inanna did age, but she was considered immortal.
One obvious advantage of being even relatively immortal is that one could move about the galaxy without having to achieve very high, and very expensive, speeds. As astronomer Sandy Faber noted, “If we could live longer we wouldn’t have to accelerate to high speeds”. Living longer instead of going faster is of course a familiar science fiction theme.
I can think of four possibilities to account for the alleged immortality of the gods:
(1) Organ replacement, if the gods are biological, or parts replacement if they are not (some of the ‘angels’ and other emissaries of the gods seemed suspiciously robotic:
“Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him.” (Exodus 23:20-21)).
(2) Rejuvenation by somatic cell nuclear transfer.
(3) Time dilation via travel at relativistic speeds relative to Earth.
(4) Gravitational time dilation by orbiting a large black hole.
I am not aware of any references to organ or parts replacement by the gods; however rejuvenation was likely since there was a “Tree of Life” which the gods had access to but humans did not. Zecharia Sitchin (1980) suggests that to be taken up in ancient Egypt meant that one would be immortal, so the rocket ship represented the “tree of life”, and was also symbolized by the obelisks. According to the ancient king lists the 1st god-king of Ur reigned for 28,800 Earth years, but the texts also mention that the goddess Inanna grew old and fat after being on Earth for an extended period. So was the Tree of Life a repository of spare parts, a cellular rejuvenator, or was it a location such as the vicinity of a black hole?
Time dilation via high speeds seems unlikely, since the degree of time dilation implied by all of the foregoing statements would require velocities very close to the speed of light, which we currently consider to be impossible (although physicists have recently claimed to have transmitted photons, which have no mass, faster than the speed of light, moving a spacecraft faster than the speed of light would seem to require most of the energy in the entire universe).
Rejuvenation by somatic cell nuclear transfer was probably employed since the gods possessed a very advanced biotechnology. In this “still largely theoretical procedure…(the procedure) can ‘rejuvenate’ an aged cell, restoring the proliferative capacity inherent in cells at the beginning of life.” (West, 2000).
Rejuvenation (replacement) by cloning is also very probable. This procedure, which can be used to produce “young cells of any type”, avoids the "Hayflick limit" in which the “telemeres” on the ends of the chromosomes are reduced every time the cell divides until they are used up and division stops (Cibelli, 2000).
I think it’s also logical that the gods might reside, at least some of the time, in an equilibrium orbit about a black-hole which is massive enough to provide an acceptable tidal force across the width of their spacecraft. How massive? If we assume a spacecraft of any length, but having a width of a kilometer (this is a big spaceship folks!), orbiting a black-hole of 32,425 solar masses, the tidal force across the width of the craft would be a comfortable 1g (the pull of gravity at the Earth’s surface). For the case of “1200 divine years of 432,000 human years”, i.e. a time dilation of 0.00278, the ratio of the circumference of the event horizon to the circumference of the orbit of the spacecraft is 0.999992. Since the horizon circumference for this mass is only about 601,585 kms, our gods would need to drive very carefully! But in this orbit, one Earth year in the life of the gods is 360 years on Earth. The case of “…a thousand years, in your eyes, are as yesterday when it passes” is more difficult since the orbit of the spacecraft would essentially have to coincide with the event horizon.
But there is another clue. In the Sumerian tale of Nergal and Ereshkigal (Pritchard, 1975), there are hints that there were periods when the gods were not able to travel from one location to another, perhaps because their orbital positions or the planetary alignments were not favorable:
Anu opened his mouth to say to Kaka:
I will send thee, Kaka, to the Land of no Return,
To Ereshkigal…thou shalt say: "‘Thou art not able to come up,
In thy year thou canst not ascend to our presence, And we cannot go down,
In our month we cannot descend to thy presence…”
Gravitational time dilation is the logical explanation here. The time dilation factor is of course 1/12, so that the 96,410 km radius of Anu's orbit is now a comfortable 665 km greater than the horizon radius. Notice that even this modest time dilation, if not close to a black-hole, would require a speed of 99.6% the speed of light - not possible according to current knowledge.
Although astronomers are convinced that the Milky Way’s core contains a massive black hole of about 2.6 million solar masses (Science News, 153:59) it is over 30,000 LY from Earth. So how likely is it that there is a suitably large black hole reasonably close to us, say in the Orion nebula? (The solar system used to be in the Orion nebula but is now about 1500 LY away). One clue may come from Stephen Hawking’s (1988) observation that “The number of black holes may well be greater even than the number of visible stars (about 10^11 in our galaxy)…then the black hole nearest to us would probably be at a distance of about a thousand million kilometers, or about as far away as Pluto…”. Furthermore the Space Telescope Science Institute reports recent observations which suggest that they may be numerous: “Two international teams of astronomers using NASA’S Hubble Space Telescope and ground based telescopes in Australia and Chile have discovered the first examples of isolated stellar-mass black holes adrift among the stars in our galaxy.” (stsci, 2000) . Finally astrophysicists have recently postulated that there may be as many as 25,000 black holes within 15 LYs of the center of our galaxy (Escude, 2000).
Lacking other clues I'll speculate that a combination of cellular rejuvenation for those that are biological, parts replacement for those who are not, and gravitational time dilation are probably how the gods achieved their incredibly long lives, relative to Earthlings.
“The more science learns what life is, the more reluctant scientists are to define it “
Leila M. Coyne
"Eternity is very long, especially near the end"
Woody Allen
A universal attribute of the “gods” was their immortality, or at least their very long lives compared to humans. Several references to this characteristic follows:
- “For a thousand years, in your eyes, are as yesterday when it passes, and as a watch in the night.” (Green, Jay, 1986, Psalm 90:4).
This represents a time dilation factor of 1/365,000.
- “…that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (Green, Jay, 1986, 2 Peter 3:8).
Also a time dilation factor of 1/365,000.
- “…adding up to 1200 divine years of 432,000 Earth years” – The Vishnu Purana, as quoted by Zecharia Sitchin (Sitchin,1993).
A time dilation factor of 1/360 or 1/432,000, whichever way it is interpreted.
- “Put not thy faith in length of years, for the gods regard a lifetime as but an hour.” (Frankfort, 1948).
A time dilation factor of 1/52,840 for a 60 year lifetime.
- Mead (1921) writes,
“Jesus tells his initiated of the dissolution of the universe after its expansion is completed ‘in the years of the light’. Mary Magdalene asks him: ‘My Lord, how many years of the years of the world is a year of the light?’ Jesus answered: ‘A day of the light is a thousand years in the world, so that thirty-six myriads of years and a half myriad of years of the world are a single year of the light.’”
Translating we have 1 day of light = 1000 Earth years; 1 year of the light = 365 days of the light = 365,000 Earth days = 36.5 myriads of Earth years, i.e. as used here "myriad" represents the multiplier 10,000.
- From The Vision of Isaiah:
“After taking Isaiah to Heaven, the angel was requested to return the prophet to Earth. Isaiah said: ‘Why so soon? I have only been here two hours.’ The angel said: ‘Not two hours, but thirty-two years…’” (Slemen, 2000).
A time dilation factor of 1/140,160.
These references seem to imply that the AAs did not live forever, but so much longer than humans that they appeared to be immortal. The texts report that the Sumerian goddess Inanna did age, but she was considered immortal.
One obvious advantage of being even relatively immortal is that one could move about the galaxy without having to achieve very high, and very expensive, speeds. As astronomer Sandy Faber noted, “If we could live longer we wouldn’t have to accelerate to high speeds”. Living longer instead of going faster is of course a familiar science fiction theme.
I can think of four possibilities to account for the alleged immortality of the gods:
(1) Organ replacement, if the gods are biological, or parts replacement if they are not (some of the ‘angels’ and other emissaries of the gods seemed suspiciously robotic:
“Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him.” (Exodus 23:20-21)).
(2) Rejuvenation by somatic cell nuclear transfer.
(3) Time dilation via travel at relativistic speeds relative to Earth.
(4) Gravitational time dilation by orbiting a large black hole.
I am not aware of any references to organ or parts replacement by the gods; however rejuvenation was likely since there was a “Tree of Life” which the gods had access to but humans did not. Zecharia Sitchin (1980) suggests that to be taken up in ancient Egypt meant that one would be immortal, so the rocket ship represented the “tree of life”, and was also symbolized by the obelisks. According to the ancient king lists the 1st god-king of Ur reigned for 28,800 Earth years, but the texts also mention that the goddess Inanna grew old and fat after being on Earth for an extended period. So was the Tree of Life a repository of spare parts, a cellular rejuvenator, or was it a location such as the vicinity of a black hole?
Time dilation via high speeds seems unlikely, since the degree of time dilation implied by all of the foregoing statements would require velocities very close to the speed of light, which we currently consider to be impossible (although physicists have recently claimed to have transmitted photons, which have no mass, faster than the speed of light, moving a spacecraft faster than the speed of light would seem to require most of the energy in the entire universe).
Rejuvenation by somatic cell nuclear transfer was probably employed since the gods possessed a very advanced biotechnology. In this “still largely theoretical procedure…(the procedure) can ‘rejuvenate’ an aged cell, restoring the proliferative capacity inherent in cells at the beginning of life.” (West, 2000).
Rejuvenation (replacement) by cloning is also very probable. This procedure, which can be used to produce “young cells of any type”, avoids the "Hayflick limit" in which the “telemeres” on the ends of the chromosomes are reduced every time the cell divides until they are used up and division stops (Cibelli, 2000).
I think it’s also logical that the gods might reside, at least some of the time, in an equilibrium orbit about a black-hole which is massive enough to provide an acceptable tidal force across the width of their spacecraft. How massive? If we assume a spacecraft of any length, but having a width of a kilometer (this is a big spaceship folks!), orbiting a black-hole of 32,425 solar masses, the tidal force across the width of the craft would be a comfortable 1g (the pull of gravity at the Earth’s surface). For the case of “1200 divine years of 432,000 human years”, i.e. a time dilation of 0.00278, the ratio of the circumference of the event horizon to the circumference of the orbit of the spacecraft is 0.999992. Since the horizon circumference for this mass is only about 601,585 kms, our gods would need to drive very carefully! But in this orbit, one Earth year in the life of the gods is 360 years on Earth. The case of “…a thousand years, in your eyes, are as yesterday when it passes” is more difficult since the orbit of the spacecraft would essentially have to coincide with the event horizon.
But there is another clue. In the Sumerian tale of Nergal and Ereshkigal (Pritchard, 1975), there are hints that there were periods when the gods were not able to travel from one location to another, perhaps because their orbital positions or the planetary alignments were not favorable:
Anu opened his mouth to say to Kaka:
I will send thee, Kaka, to the Land of no Return,
To Ereshkigal…thou shalt say: "‘Thou art not able to come up,
In thy year thou canst not ascend to our presence, And we cannot go down,
In our month we cannot descend to thy presence…”
Gravitational time dilation is the logical explanation here. The time dilation factor is of course 1/12, so that the 96,410 km radius of Anu's orbit is now a comfortable 665 km greater than the horizon radius. Notice that even this modest time dilation, if not close to a black-hole, would require a speed of 99.6% the speed of light - not possible according to current knowledge.
Although astronomers are convinced that the Milky Way’s core contains a massive black hole of about 2.6 million solar masses (Science News, 153:59) it is over 30,000 LY from Earth. So how likely is it that there is a suitably large black hole reasonably close to us, say in the Orion nebula? (The solar system used to be in the Orion nebula but is now about 1500 LY away). One clue may come from Stephen Hawking’s (1988) observation that “The number of black holes may well be greater even than the number of visible stars (about 10^11 in our galaxy)…then the black hole nearest to us would probably be at a distance of about a thousand million kilometers, or about as far away as Pluto…”. Furthermore the Space Telescope Science Institute reports recent observations which suggest that they may be numerous: “Two international teams of astronomers using NASA’S Hubble Space Telescope and ground based telescopes in Australia and Chile have discovered the first examples of isolated stellar-mass black holes adrift among the stars in our galaxy.” (stsci, 2000) . Finally astrophysicists have recently postulated that there may be as many as 25,000 black holes within 15 LYs of the center of our galaxy (Escude, 2000).
Lacking other clues I'll speculate that a combination of cellular rejuvenation for those that are biological, parts replacement for those who are not, and gravitational time dilation are probably how the gods achieved their incredibly long lives, relative to Earthlings.
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