Dinner at the Bilderberg was drawing to a close, as Justin leant back at an awkward angle on his chair and patted his belly. In front of him, two empty sundae glasses showed the extent of his indulgence. To Justin’s left, Dave was explaining to Chris and Louisa why it was imperative they found out what was going on back in England. Chris did not look overly interested, as Dave droned on about how important the artefacts they carried were.
Carl was sitting alone, studying the group. He found that watching people interact in a social environment was often the easiest way to discern what sort of people they were. It was certainly far easier than asking random questions on unimportant topics.
Pinpointing Dave’s motivations was easy. The man was a worm. His smiles were fake, his posture aggressive, and his voice irritatingly pitched to sound authoritative. Even if he did not know anything about him, he would instantly dislike the man.
Louisa on the other hand was a breath of fresh air. She held herself with grace, her elegant body movements pleasing to the eye. She radiated warmth and charm, her smile effervescently disarming. It was clear she was an intelligent woman, yet somehow she tempered her looks against her mental acuity in a way that did not make men apprehensive. Carl had witnessed bright, comely women attempt this before, but had never seen it accomplished so expertly.
Lastly was Justin. The young man made Carl smile. Sure, he looked like a starving Scotsman, but he was energetically engaged in every conversation. It was as if he was still a schoolchild; his brain desperate to soak up every piece of information that came its way. He fidgeted as people spoke, one leg shaking constantly; its frenzied bouncing increasing in pace as his interest heightened. It was good to see someone so young so engaged in intelligent pursuits.
Still smirking, Carl walked over to Justin and pulled up a chair to his side. Justin was so enthralled in Louisa’s current argument with Dave about the validity of radiocarbon dating techniques he did not notice his arrival.
“Justin.” said Carl, with mirth. “Come in Justin.”
“Sorry Carl.” said Justin, surprised to find Carl sitting by his side. “It’s difficult not to be a little zoned out with what’s going on.”
“Don’t worry about things so much. Chris is an old warhorse. He knows what he’s doing. Some of us are born soldiers and some of us are born to think; he has a knack of doing both.”
“It appears you do too, Carl.”
“Chris is the fighter around here.” said Carl, laughing heartily. “I may have been trained in the army, but I’m a nerd at heart. Look at what I do for a living!”
Carl’s conversation was interrupted by a bleep from a phone.
“They’re here.” Chris said, replacing his mobile in his pocket and dragging out a battered pack of Marlboro. “I’m going for a smoke and to pick up your documents. Then I’m going to get a brandy from the bar.”
“We’re not going anywhere, man. Take your time.” said Carl.
As Chris disappeared, Carl could see Justin weighing up a question. His eyes were wide, and his mouth slightly open as if trying to vocalise his ruminations.
“I’ve never been very religious.” said Justin, finally blurting out his thoughts. “What made you change your mind?”
Carl was happy to respond. It was clear Justin was interested in what he had to say.
“I looked at the three great monotheistic texts for signs of man’s hand in their writing. Blatant plagiarisms, continuity faults; the sort of mistakes a man would make, but God wouldn’t. There’s one in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament, and one in the Qur’an.”
“Surely one fault in each isn’t enough?”
“These are not small errors I am talking about. They are fundamental mistakes.” said Carl, as he tried to coalesce his knowledge into something Justin could relate to. “To understand them, you have to realise that all three religions are practically identical. They all include stories about Abraham, Moses, Adam and Eve, the exodus from Egypt, and the great flood. Most people are not even aware that Jesus is a prophet of Islam.”
“Jesus is a what?” asked Justin, surprised.
Carl knew to most Christians, or at least those educated in Christian countries that comment was like a slap in the face. He also knew it probably needed a little context. “In the Biblical story, Jesus is born of the Virgin Mary, right? Well, in the Qur’an, Jesus is still born to Mary, it’s just that he’s not quite the ‘son of God’ he’s portrayed as in the New Testament. He’s actually born miraculously to Mary whilst she’s out in the desert; in a story very similar to Jesus’ forty days in the desert where he’s tempted by the devil. After his birth, he starts doing tricks like bringing dead animals back to life, so it’s clear he’s not entirely ‘normal’. He goes on to speak about Allah being the one true God, and even spreads his word in the same locations as he does in the Bible. Most Christian scholars see it as a tip of the hat to Christianity, to help convert its believers to Islam.”
“I never knew.” said Justin, startled.
“So, returning to your original question,” said Carl, moving on, “I will start with the book you are obviously least familiar with, the Qur’an. It’s the holy book of the Muslims and was supposedly handed down from Allah to the prophet Muhammad sometime around six hundred AD. Many people have suggested it’s simply a regurgitation of the earlier Christian works with the plot holes removed, but I think that’s unfair. The book should live or die by the information and rules it contains.” In Carl’s diverse career, what he was about to say had caused him a lot of trouble. Justin, hopefully, was educated enough not be as insulted as others. “Unfortunately for the Qur’an, it has a rule that effectively kills it as being originated by God and actually means if you believe in the word of Allah as unquestionable, it should be thrown away. Surah four, verse eighty-two; Will they not then ponder on the Qur'an ? If it had been from other than Allah they would have found therein much incongruity. This effectively states that if you find a contradiction in the Qur’an it means it isn’t the word of Allah. It then goes on to contradict itself hundreds of times, most notably in reference to something we talked about earlier. Surah twenty-two, verse forty-seven; A Day with Allah is as a thousand years of what ye reckon.”
“That’s two Peter from the Bible!”
“Like I said, some people think it’s just a copy of the original Christian texts.” Carl was impressed. It appeared Justin not only listened to what others said, but he learnt from it, remembering the important, and measuring the information rationally against his knowledge. In his experience, that was the only true trait of an erudite mind. “Later you find that Surah seventy, verse four states; Unto Him in a Day whereof the span is fifty thousand years. This is clearly a massive contradiction. Therefore, if you believe in the divine word of Allah, you actually have to throw the Qur’an away because Allah has set a law telling you to! It’s a total catch twenty-two slip by an obviously fallible, human writer.”
“Surely someone has picked up on that?”
“They have, but the Qur’an is not to be questioned, upon pain of death in many Muslim countries, so nobody ever bothers. When people like me raise the point, we simply get called a kafir. One Muslim apologist called me a Kufrul Istihzaha when I brought it up at a seminar, which translates as a ‘degenerate mocker of Allah’. So, I called him a Kufrul Kurh, or a ‘denier of Allah’s laws’, for not accepting Allah’s wishes in the matter. I honestly thought he was going to kill me after that!”
“Was that for the insult or for the tedious manner of your delivery?” said Dave, raising Carl’s hackles.
“Moving on again.” said Carl, trying to remain calm. “This is from the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, so it’s a Jewish issue really. God is supposedly all knowing and all-powerful; what theologians call omniscience and omnipotence. The ability to see all time, past and future, as a single point in the present, and being able to create anything you want when you want it. The problem with this is God says he created the
world and saw it was very good, Genesis one, verse thirty-one. However, he then has to kill everything in a flood because it was bad. If he were truly omniscient, he would have seen it was going to be bad before he created it, and thus would have created it in a better way, but he didn’t. The other problem is that omniscience and omnipotence are classified as separate abilities because they are mutually exclusive, as owning both creates a logical paradox, but that’s way too involved to explain now.”
“Good heavens you’re a dull man!” Dave said, raising his hands in the air to punctuate what he was saying. “I’m surprised anyone is still awake.”
“Come on professor.” said Justin, stepping in to defend Carl. “I’ve sat through sermons enough times to know boring from interesting.”
“You obviously weren’t paying enough attention, child.” said Dave, dismissively.
“Getting back to the New Testament.” Carl said, trying to finish his point. “And this one I really can’t believe I missed for all those years in the priesthood. Jesus is known as the Messiah, right? That’s because the Messiah is the Biblical name given to the prophesied saviour of the Jews, and Jesus was given the title because his story fits the facts required, including being of the paternal bloodline of King David. The books of Acts, Romans, Hebrews, and even the gospel of Luke all clearly show paternal lineages of King David that end with Joseph and his son Jesus. However, Jesus cannot be of the paternal bloodline of David and thus cannot be the Messiah because he’s born of a virgin and is the son of God! Think about it. If Jesus is the son of God, he’s not the son of Joseph and so is not of the bloodline required to be the Messiah. And don’t let modern Christian scholars try to tell you it was actually Mary who was of the bloodline of King David and so the prophecy is still fulfilled. The Bible is very specific about what is required, that’s why all those books have paternal and not maternal lineages in them, because it’s the father’s bloodline that needs to tie back to David, and Jesus’ simply cannot. That is of course unless Jesus was just a man and not the son of God at all, which obviously the church could never admit because it makes all the miracles, the virgin birth, and the resurrection complete fantasy.”
“Oh my!” said Justin, laughing. “I never thought of that! That’s outrageously bad. Surely something that simple couldn’t have been overlooked?”
“Unfortunately it was, and that’s why I can’t believe it anymore. Because it’s all so awfully invented, or perverted, by men.”
“So what are these things we’re carrying around?” asked Louisa, joining the conversation. “If Moses stole them from Egypt, how did they get there for him to steal? And why does it have anything to do with the Bible if you say it’s all myth?”
Louisa’s points were astutely logical and Carl knew it. These were not unintelligent laymen he was dealing with. He had to find another way of expressing his thoughts. “You just have to change your perspective slightly. I know for most Christians this is impossible because dogma is entrenched at birth, but give it a go. When we sent the Pioneer spacecraft on its voyage, what did we put on it in case some alien life form picked it up?”
“There was a golden plaque bearing some pictograms that explained who we were and where we were from.” said Justin, instantly.
“Correct, kid. So why did we send our knowledge encoded in such a way? Why didn’t we just send a textbook?”
“Because, without a Rosetta Stone, deciphering languages you don’t understand is almost impossible from just text.”
“Once again Justin; bang on the money! You are very good at this. Therefore, we didn’t send text, we sent pictures and an example of our technology. We showed hydrogen atoms, pulsar locations that included their variance so they could be identified, and diagrams of our sexes; we encoded our knowledge in a way we thought could be interpreted by others, the spacecraft itself an example of our achievements.”
“And so,” said Justin, his eyes wide with revelation, “our ancient ancestors may have done the same! They tried to leave a message behind here on Earth! However, they left the information in a form the primitive civilisations following them confused as being a message from the divine!”
“And so we finally head toward the truth. About ten thousand to ten thousand five hundred BC, a now lost civilisation was on the brink of extinction. It doesn’t need to be a concrete and steel, high-tech society like today; a city-state like Carthage fits just as well. Then along comes a natural disaster, something out of the blue; the Biblical deluge. In a flash, all their achievements are to be lost. So, they hatch a plan. They try to find ways to have something of them survive. They encode what they know of the motion of the stars in their buildings so that we can place them historically, and they store their most precious artefacts away to preserve them for all time. The early Bible recounts their story as fable and you guys are in possession of the things they left behind; our Pioneer People’s greatest achievements.”
“Utter rot.” said Dave, his voice loaded with disdain. “This isn’t an episode of Stargate. You’ll be telling us next that aliens are involved! It’s no wonder the Vatican wanted nothing to do with you.”
“That’s completely unfair.” said Justin. “I’ve seen loads of information on the web that backs up what Carl is saying.”
“You really should get out of the house more!” Dave said, in frustration. “I wouldn’t trust the information on the internet any more than I would trust the garbage Mister Walters keeps dribbling on about. Just look at Wikipedia! It’s got to be seventy per cent inaccurate and the other thirty per cent is only there for some base, comedic value.”
“Oh come on, professor!” Justin said, equally loudly and equally frustrated. “The web has connected the planet. It allows opinion and information to be spread everywhere; a world without boundaries.”
“Most of that information young man is just unfounded speculation. The internet is just one giant pub conversation. Thousands of morons spouting ill-conceived fantasies that every gullible idiot then picks up and passes back to the populace as truth! If we started teaching our children exclusively by what was on the web, civilisation would go backward at an alarming rate.”
“You’re just afraid of what the web has managed to accomplish. Look at the moon landings, the JFK assassination, and nine eleven. None of them would have been exposed for what they were without the web.”
“And what exactly are they Justin?” said Dave, grimacing. “The greatest scientific advance of a generation, one of the saddest days in American political history, and the single most defining moment of recent times? Or, are you going to win my argument for me by showing what the web has really proven: If you give enough monkeys enough information they will eventually come up with the theory that Shakespeare plotted the death of Princess Dianna! There’s a mass of sad, lonely, deranged people that plague this planet young man, you included it appears, and all the web has done is give you lunatics a soapbox from which to shout to the world ‘Look at me! I failed GCSE Maths and English, but I’ve figured out a clandestine plot to take over the world from the ingredients of cornflakes!’ You’re an idiot, boy!”
Justin’s face turned red and he slumped back into his chair, folding his arms across his chest.
“Justin has a point though professor.” said Carl, trying to regain control of the conversation. “Once you actually look at the evidence, there is little doubt the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish faiths are, and probably were always intended to be, based on the astrological cults of Neolithic humans. The date for the birth of Christ, December twenty-fifth, is the same date as the heathen festival of worship for the rebirth of the sun. Easter, even by name, is a direct copy of the ancient festival of the Eastern Star, which celebrated Sirius’ importance to early man around March twenty-fourth. Even the major characters in the Bible follow the ancient numerical patterns of three, four, and twelve that are prevalent all over the planet to represent seasonal changes and astrological star signs.”
“Characters in
the Bible are astrological in nature? I’ve never heard such drivel! And besides, what does any of this to do with the deluge? Are you going to tell me that’s astrological too? Maybe, there’s a hidden code somewhere in the story of the great flood that you have to decode using information deciphered from statues in Naples! Or maybe, it links to Edgar Cayce’s mysterious Hall of Records, or even the lost treasure of Atlantis! Give me a break.”
“If it’s all fantasy, then how do you explain the fact that the world’s flood myths are all practically identical?” said Carl, meeting Dave’s challenge.
“Easy.” said Dave, calmly. “Because floods happen all over the planet and the events are of a large enough impact to require recording in some way.”
Carl laughed. “Now it’s my turn to call trash professor.” He took a deep breath, trying to recall the best example, and turned to face Louisa. “Do you know how many flood myths there are on Earth? Especially those recounted by civilisations we know were around before Christianity.”
Louisa shook her head. “Like the professor I would assume, even though I don’t like to agree with him, it’s probable that floods are commonly written into myths because they are memorable. Does every civilisation have one?”
Carl nodded, again that was perfectly logical. “They do, but that’s not where I’m going. My point is, how many of those myths would you say were similar? And by that I mean similar characters, similar storyline, similar events etcetera.”
“Flood stories I would suppose are usually fairly similar by their nature; water, plus loss of livestock, plus landslides, plus death. But characters and events, that’s probably unlikely.”
Carl smiled. “What would you say then if I told you that I know of at least a hundred flood myths from around the globe that are almost identical in every detail; each from civilisations that could have had no contact with the other, and thus could not have spread the stories by word of mouth.”
“I would say you are an idiot.” said Dave, sighing as Louisa twisted at the interruption. “You’re a clever girl. Don’t believe a word this… this wretch of a man has to say about anything.”
“OK professor,” said Carl, not letting Dave derail what he was conveying, “let me give Louisa an example, and we’ll see just how much of an idiot she thinks I am.”
Louisa returned her focus to Carl, leaning forward slightly as she waited for him to begin. It was clear she wanted to hear what he had to say.
“First thing is to make sure everyone knows the story of the Biblical deluge.” said Carl, slowing his words. “God gets angry with men for not doing as he wants, God tells Noah to build an Ark and bring on-board breeding animals from every species, God sends flood, Noah survives with family in Ark, Noah sends three birds to find land, Dove returns with olive branch in beak, Noah follows it to a drying mountain top, Noah brings life back to the world from there. Everyone got it? Good. So, I’ll give you an example of a different one. In the beginning, there was a great snow. A mouse gnawed a hole in the bag, in which the heat of the sun was held. The heat escaped and melted all the snow. The melt water rose rapidly and covered even the highest of mountains. An old, grey-bearded man had foreseen the flood and ran to the nearest village to warn everybody, but they had already left to seek refuge on the hillsides. The old man prepared a canoe and survived as the water engulfed even the highest mountain, rescuing animals he came across as he went. After being adrift for a month he sent, in turn, a beaver, an otter, a muskrat, and finally a duck to find a safe place to land. Only the duck returned, with some mud in its bill, which told the old man that land was visible again.”
“Oh wow! That’s like a kid’s version of the Noah story! Where’s that from?” said Justin.
“It’s a story from the Chippewa tribe of North America. It could date from as far back as five hundred BC.”
“You are making the leap that the stories are the same because you know one story and are looking for the similarities in the other. Noah’s flood doesn’t have a beaver in the story, it doesn’t have people running up hillsides, and it isn’t set in America! Everything else is vaguely reminiscent of the story, but that’s it.” said Dave, a hint of anger brewing in his tone.
“What? You can’t honestly believe the similarity is purely coincidental?”
“Absolutely. One is the word of the divine, the other is a story told by a race of people who wore grass skirts. I know which one I believe.”
“All right, I can play your game professor. Here’s one from the North American Choctaw people. An old, grey-haired prophet was sent by god to warn of a flood that was coming, but everyone refused to listen. Before the flood arrived, the prophet prepared a raft and sailed upon it when the waters came. After a while, he saw a blackbird, which he tried to get to come to him, but the bird refused and flew away. Later, he spied a blue dove, which he once again tried to get to come to him. After some persuasion, the bird called back to the prophet and guided the raft towards a shaft of light from the heavens. The next morning, he landed on the top of a hillside, which had become as an island, and found it populated by every kind of animal. Now that’s a hell of a coincidental storyline! But, how about one from further south? This one comes from the Apache of New Mexico. Before the Apache emerged from the underworld, there were other people on the Earth. The gods told an old, grey-haired man and his wife that it would rain for forty days and nights and that all the evil men that dwelled in the world would be washed away. When the old couple told everyone, the people laughed at them and refused to listen. When the rains came, only a few people made it to the mountain tops by following the couple.”
“Those stories are localised. The similarity is due to the proximity of the people. It is not due to some unseen originator.”
“The Toltec people of Mexico said that one of their founder gods transformed himself into the Sun and created the first humans in an attempt to make the other gods feel stupid. They, in return, became angry at his audacity and made another founder god destroy the Earth and all the people in it with a flood. Or, how about the Mayan people? They believed that their gods destroyed the people of the First Time with a flood because of their carelessness in their observation of custom, which made them evil in their gods’ eyes. Still want more? The Eskimos believe that at the beginning of the world the Earth was flooded except for a very high mountain, which sat at its centre. The animals escaped to this mountain and a few people survived by travelling there in a boat. The people landed and, as the water subsided, followed the retreating shore, repopulating the world as they went. However, maybe all those stories contain nothing more than a coincidental similarity?”
“Very possibly. All those locations are not too geographically distant from one another. It’s entirely plausible to believe that they shared local knowledge during trading with one another and precipitated the spread of the story.” said Dave, one eyebrow raised as if in challenge to the information presented.
“That’s a fair point. So, maybe we need to move further away. Is New Guinea far enough for you? Those people have always believed the world was drowned because people ate a goodly fish. Notice the link to Christian symbolism in that. They believe that a good natured, old, grey-haired man and his wife saw the fish from behind a tree. When they saw it, they became afraid that eating the fish was wrong. They tried to tell all the other people, but they wouldn’t listen. The people caught the fish and, heedless of the warning, ate it. When the good man saw what was going on, he quickly drove a pair of every kind of animal into the trees and climbed into another with his family. As soon as the men finished, water, from the rivers that they say were ‘below this firmament’, in another freakish Biblical coincidence, violently burst from the ground, drowning everyone. As soon as the water reached the treetops it sank back, and the good man and his family came down and started the world anew.” Carl did not even pause for breath as he continued, Dave would not be given chance to interrupt again. “Or maybe even New Guinea isn’t remote
enough for you? How about Northern Australia? The Aborigines have been there since time immemorial and they believe that their creator god was angry with people because of the evil they did, so he caused the ocean to flood. All the people were destroyed, save for a man and a woman who climbed a tall tree on a mountain, and from whom the present human race is descended. All that said, why don’t we finish with the closest flood myth to the Biblical story; the epic of Gilgamesh. Written by the Sumerians in around three thousand BC, it predates the story of Noah’s Ark by at least fifteen hundred years. Scholars excavating the ruins of Nineveh, located in modern Iraq, found it in the mid-nineteenth century. In the story, Gilgamesh travels the world and has numerous adventures. Whilst on one of these he encounters a man called Utnapishtim, who became immortal after building a ship to weather a great flood sent by the gods to destroy mankind. The story tells how Utnapishtim’s ship contained all his relatives and two of every type of animal, to save them from the flood. It goes on to describe how after six days of rain, Utnapishtim released birds to find land. One of which, a dove, returned with an olive blossom in its mouth. He followed the bird to a Mountaintop, which had become as an Island, and repopulated the earth from there. Now if that’s not the same story as Noah, then I don’t know what is!”
“But it’s not the same story.” said Dave, standing and gesticulating wildly. “Carl has abridged it to make it sound similar. In reality, there is little to be found. For example, in the Biblical account it rains for forty days and nights, in the Gilgamesh epic it rains for just six. Noah only took his wife and close relatives, Utnapishtim took cooks and carpenters as well. The mountains the two arks landed on are in different locations. Noah received his warning from God himself, Utnapishtim got drunk and dreamt it. I could go on forever.”
“Don’t you see the hypocrisy here?” said Carl, looking round like a lawyer pleading his case. “All those differences are cosmetic at best, and would have been what any writer would have done to make the story his own; especially if he was simply plagiarising another text.”
“How dare you! I will tolerate you discussing your misguided views on religion, but I will not stand by as you classify the word of God as a plagiarism!” said Dave.
“Oh, get over yourself!” said Carl, standing and facing Dave head on. “Decent people have to deal with religious intolerance, and by that I mean the intolerance of religion toward anything that stands in its way, every single day of their lives. You’d never hear an atheist whining on about someone disrespecting Einstein. Why should you get more privileges than anyone else just because there are more of you ignorant bumwads than there are of us? Religious dogma isn’t worth the paper it sets non-believers on fire with! The Epic of Gilgamesh was plagiarised to create the story of Noah’s flood, and that’s a fact.”
Louisa grabbed Carl’s arm, returning his focus to her, and making him realise he needed to sit down, Dave following suit, only after defiantly buttoning his jacket.
“Have you ever heard of Occam’s razor?” asked Carl, raising a hand apologetically and trying to quell his emotions.
“The theory the more complex an argument is, the less likely it is to be correct?” said Chris, walking back into the room and surprising the group.
“It still works, I see.” said Carl, tapping his temple with his index finger and winking. “Well, apply Occam’s razor to all religious texts. On one side, we have a book that states an invisible and yet all-powerful being created the universe in just seven days; a book that details rafts of prophets, angels, resurrections, healing acts, plagues, and even miracles, which Jesus himself repeatedly states shouldn’t be done in public or they’ll give proof where faith is needed. Once you have fully considered the ramifications of that comment, you’ll find it is such a ludicrous intellectual position as to make the entire New Testament absurd.” Carl paused, glancing at the furious stare coming from Dave. “Or, on the other hand, you have a mortal human civilisation that tried to leave a Pioneer style message for us to remember them by and we just got the interpretation of it all wrong.”
Silence hung in the room. Louisa, Justin, and even Dave dropping their heads in thought.
“That’s the problem you’re facing right now. It’s the conundrum that has faced humanity since we became sentient: Is there a God?” said Carl, trying to reach his audience. “Well, if you find the Ark, there almost certainly isn’t.”
“What Ark?” said Chris.
“Listen carefully.” said Carl, as everyone raised their heads once more. “You are carrying around the items from the Ark of Ra. If they are real, then the Ark is real, and it’s the Ark everyone has always been interested in. The Ark of the Covenant is a religious icon known around the world, and it’s power is the bedrock for all Judeo-Christian belief. However, if I’m right, the Ark isn’t a religious relic at all. It’s the creation of an ancient civilisation. Finding it is not going to provide evidence that God exists, it’s going to prove once and for all that he doesn’t. The ramifications for humanity to finally get evidence there is no God would be enormous. That’s the reason you are being hunted. There are powerful people on this planet who simply are not going to allow this story to get out. You don’t have any options. You have to get to the Ark first and use it as leverage for your lives, or you’re all as good as dead.”
“Powerful people who may want to stop us finding the Ark?” said Chris, turning to Dave. “I think it’s time for that brandy and a little chat, don’t you professor?”
Chapter 20