Ragnarok by moonlight

An object falls from the sky. How to respond?
Obviously, it is an evil god, to be worshipped "by staying away."
Of course, it is a meteorite, easily explained by modern scientific methods.
Two world views - the sacred and the profane.
One is a story to tell around the camp fire - or in a warm bar - over a mug of ale.
The other, a question in need of an answer and a paper in need of publication in a respectable scientific journal, to be shelved in a forgotten corner of the library, gathering dust as it is read by no one.
The locals are not American and will not be persuaded or bought; too superstitious to want anything to do with disturbing an evil god.
Fortunately, not all the Norsemen are Norwegian. One was "born and raised in Pensacola" and will go as soon as a price is agreed.
All religious faith, we are told, is but the living of life by superstition. There is no desire in the Norsemen to discover what it really is that fell from the sky. They choose to allow their superstition to keep them in ignorance.
The Americans, with their faith placed firmly in the science that will provide them answers, literally go crashing into the dark. And death follows with them.
What they find is a naval vessel on board which "Time got lost!"
But, of course, it isn't possible to lose time. It is, after all, a "universal invariant." (cf. Pilot)
With no ready answers to hand, the scientism begins to slip. Captain Barclay's death is "more than rapid aging… It's almost as if he's turning into a pillar of salt." It seems nobody told him not to look back!
Surely, there must be a prevailing theory? Free radicals! They just want to connect. Oh, and steal an electron. Useful for neutralising viruses and bacteria, they can, however, get rowdy and the party ends with the house destroyed.
But, nope, it's not them! It's in the water!
The guy from Pensacola was wrong. Sure, first it was one thing, then another and, boy, are these two full of theories? But, they figured it out before they died.
Knowledge is good, it staves off ignorance. Demands a high price, though. Twenty-seven people die!
Those Norsemen, too superstitious to put to sea? They're safely back in Tildeskan, downing another round of ale as they listen to the stories of the sea. Whatever they believe in, it no longer requires human sacrifice. The days of offering up entire enemy armies to Odin are long past.
The worshippers at the altar of science scoff and ridicule those who retain some belief in the old stories. Look at the death and destruction lying in the wake of the good ship Religion, they say!
Of course, we can't look at the bodies of those who died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for like the aliens, their bodies disappeared upon death!
Where's Tildeskan? I fancy an ale!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nothing more than what we are

What makes a person who they are? The X Files asked this question back in Season One’s ‘ Ice ’ when Richter announced, “We’re not … who … we are.” It has continued to ask this question through Mulder and Scully, both of whom have had plenty of cause to question just who they are, who they would like to be, and whether they like being who they appear to be. Mulder’s crisis of faith has forced him to face this question, as Scully has had to face it after meeting Emily and the choices she felt she needed to make for ‘her’ child. All of us are faced with this question, probably more often than we know. In a toxic relationship, we must ask ourselves if we wish to be the person we seemed forced to be? In a job that makes us unhappy, we must ask if we wish to force ourselves to be someone we’d prefer not to be? Returning home after many years away, we must ask ourselves if we are the person remembered by those who stayed or someone who has grown beyond what they can know? Who is Alex K...
Read more

Sky Commander Winky wrote this script!

Let’s get something straight right away. I hate this episode. But, then, I hate William! It’s not the baby’s fault. He’s probably as adorable as Scully thinks him. I hate what he did to my all-time favourite TV character. I hate that he reduced her to, well - dare I say it? - a mother. I hope you women out there – if there are any who read this blog – don’t misunderstand me. I have nothing against motherhood. Or fatherhood, for that matter. My wife and I have two of the most beautiful, wonderful, gush gush children imaginable. Only in the context of the X Files, and specifically, Scully, do I hate the baby. I am gloriously happy for her as a human being. She had previously lamented her inability to have children in ‘ Home ’ and ‘ Emily ’, for instance. As a person, she is blessed by the birth of William. But, Scully isn’t a person, is she? She’s a character in a TV show. Not just any character, mind, oh no. She’s a rational female character whose job it is to rationalize the ...
Read more

Empedocles

According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , Empedocles “has been regarded variously as a materialist physicist, a shamanic magician, a mystical theologian, a healer, a democratic politician, a living god, and a fraud.” Evidently not a “ stable genius ”, then, and, very likely, someone who would utilise Twitter to his own aggrandizement, but, nevertheless, someone who is regarded as “one of the most important of the philosophers working before Socrates ”, to quote, once again, the IEP. Empedocles it was who gave us the perennially popular idea of the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Out of these four elements all things stem. According to Empedocles, all that exists is some mixture of these four, with the whole being something other than its constituents, while they, in turn, retain their own individual nature. Just think on that for a moment. Before Socrates – that is, before Athens and all that it gifted to the political, philosophical and literary world – ...
Read more