That kind of reminds me of a discussion we had in the classroom about four years after the publication of Chariots of the Gods. Somewhere around 72 or 73.
We had a book report to do for English and I picked that one. My English teacher was highly religious and did not like the book I chose to do a report on. We had to submit a written report and then the class chose books that they wanted an oral discussion on. Among the ones chosen was mine. This highly irritated my teacher.
She tried controlling the questions the other students had, but we muddled through that.
I could clearly see how much this was irritating her, so in my closing statement, I decided to give her a way out and a dig at the same time.
"Miss Scott, Rest assured that the only reason this book was written and such a hit, emminates totally from the human ego. Ya know that ego that thinks we are important enough for someone to travel vast distances to study and observe us!"
This just totally blew her mind and left her speechless. I got an A for the written report and extra credit A for the oral.
I guess it was a good thing I didn't add the last part that I had in mind. I probably wouldn't have gotten those A's.
I was going to say something on the order of, "That's the same human ego that thinks this omnipotent God hears and answers our individual requests and prayers . Luckily I had already learned that discretion is the better part of valor.
That book report was brought up in conversation a few years later in science class in high school by one of my friends. It was Bobby. He was a science geek like me but he was an extremely talented artist. Bobby drew up detailed plans of the Starship Enterprise.
He asked me flat out if I still felt the same way about the book. I said yeah, but with a bit of a twist. " If we are being visited by someone outside the Earth, then it's not aliens that are doing it. It's us traveling back in time and checking on ourselves."
With that statement being said, the alien issue went out the window! The discussion went to whether time travel was possible or not!
