I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a scientist nor do I have a lot of scientific basis for the theory I currently hold. Then again, I think most of us think we know a lot more than we really do. I can’t help but feeling that all of us (that is mankind in general) are far more arrogant about what we THINK we know and have a hard time admitting what we DON’T know about God and the riddle of “life”. As the author of “Slave Species of the Gods” points out, just 500 years ago the modern educated man would have burned someone at the stake for suggesting that earth was not the center of the universe. Those who most arrogantly think they are right about “the science” will probably look like fools 200 years from now. Therefore, permit me to share my uneducated opinions about God and “meaning of life” based on my limited understanding of biology and some supporting evidence from “Slave Species of the Gods”.
For a while now I have had a personal theory about “God” (or what I refer to as the “creator of the physical universe”) that is loosely based on a combination of stem cell biology, Christian Gnosticism, Buddhism and a pinch of esoteric knowledge. Reading “Slave Species of the Gods” simply added a new layer to my current working theory so I’ll try to summarize my theory and share a few points the author added that compliments my theory thus far. Keep in mind that the author of “Slave Species” is far more reluctant to delve into the “god” issue than I am so the religious/theological portions are more my own.
Signs of Genetic Manipulation
What the author seems to be proposing is that human DNA shows signs of being genetically manipulated. He seems to agree with researchers such as Zachariah Sitchin who speculated that an advanced race of beings in our ancient past (perhaps 250,000 years ago) came to a an “earth” teeming with life, found a natural resource worth harvesting, then manipulated the most advanced lifeform on earth and genetically created/manipulated a new “worker” to mine resources for them. To put it in simpler terms, perhaps these beings found the closest “worker” type on earth to be the ape or monkey with it’s opposable thumbs and began altering it’s genetic code thus creating various jumps in evolution such as Neanderthal man. Eventually these beings created a suitable “worker” to mine resources for them and set themselves up as our masters (or gods), essentially enslaving the new “human” genetic mutation.
The other major point the author appears prepared to make in this book is that large portions of the human genome remain a mystery to modern scientists who have no idea what the genetic coding is for. It is as if large portions of our DNA have been “switched off” and are currently useless to us. These large portions of mystery DNA have been given the name “junk DNA” because science doesn’t know what it’s use is. Now I don’t know about you, but to me it seems a huge arrogance to just label something you don’t understand as “junk”. In any case, the author’s point is to suggest that it appears as if someone has purposefully “switched off” large portions of our human potential in order to keep man from evolving too far down the physical or spiritual path. In other words, all indications are that someone or something has purposefully altered human genetic code to create a worker/slave just smart enough to do the work but not too smart that they get too big for their own britches and realize their TRUE potential. In my opinion, these ideas are not just random “pulled out of my ass” type theories but actually based on what ancient religious texts tell us about the history of man and his/her interactions with the “gods”.
The Stem Cell Model of God (Gnosticism)
In simplistic terms, life begins as a stem cell. That cell divides and becomes two identical stem cells. These divide again and create more identical stem cells and so on. Eventually, however, cells begin to mutate or take on specialized roles. Something signals the perfect stem cell to mutate and start to specialize to become a heart cell or a liver cell or a skin cell. The new mutated cell is no longer the perfect stem cell as it’s parent and is now limited. Another way to say this is that some of it’s coding has been “switched off”. The cell no longer has unlimited potential but now can only become a liver cell or a skin cell. So who is in control of signaling when to switch off part of the code? What, or who, determines when a cell will now become a skin cell? And what happens to all the original genomes contained in the cell before it specialized and was switched off?
To summarize my theory, I have come to believe that God is like a stem cell with unlimited potential to be anything it chooses. At some point God started to “reproduce” itself or “expand” and began dividing. Each division created another exact copy of itself like the stem cell. But then one cell decided to specialize and limit itself and thus physical creation began. The cell no longer was a stem cell with unlimited potential but now became cells that created “life” in the form of fish, animals, etc. Someone, or something, switched off the unlimited potential of the cell and determined that this cell would only become one thing.
Christian Gnostics believed, in summary, that one of these stem cells decided to create the physical universe and thus created lesser/mutated versions of itself in the form of angels. Those angels then helped created more mutations becoming fish, animals, etc. This “god” or “gods” essentially switched off the mutated cells coding so it no longer could have unlimited potential. In other words, the gods altered the genetic code so man could not be “like god”. This, to me, is in total line with the biblical texts that indicate that god created man in his image but put him into a deep fog and made him forget. Man’s DNA was manipulated and modified so that man forgot what he really is and no longer could tap into the genetic code that lies switched off within us. The Bible even documents numerous times when God decides man is becoming “like them” and takes steps to keep man subverted by kicking him out of the garden of eden or confusing man’s languages so we can’t communicate effectively. God also effectively altered man’s DNA after the flood and told man his days had been shortened. Did the gods simply alter our genetic code, switching off our potential for long life and greater understanding? And did the gods do this in order to keep us from becoming like them? Was it for the purpose of creating a slave race? I think the book will delve into the topic quite a bit and I’m interested to see how it furthers my hypothesis.