Page 44 - Extraterrestrials, Foreign and Domestic

Anthropic Fallacies

defeat them with prayer and the power of Jesus Christ. Isn’t that
right, Ray?”
The pizza delivery-man opened his mouth to utter a platitude of
assent or to yawn. But his oral exercise was aborted by Heinzeit
banging his fist on the table.
“You don’t get it yet; maybe you won’t. Words might not suffice
to convince you. Your fallacy is a theology standing or falling on
man’s special relationship to the deity. Created in God’s image, are
we? The only occupants of creation to possess souls, commit sins,
attain salvation? The extraterrestrial ship did not come from Mars,
Reverend Upchurch. Its origin is so distant in time and space that
the ‘big bang’ with which our corner of existence began was
perceived by the inhabitants of that world when their own solar
system was old and decrepit. Tell me, then: why did God create
them first, and would not any holy covenants made with them be
of considerably greater primacy than any made with us? Perhaps in
their theology we are the degenerate ones, outcasts or
afterthoughts of a God whose idea of perfection was realized in
their creation.”
“Nonsense!” spluttered Upchurch. “I know a devil when I see
one. Outer space is no different than the bowels of the earth. I am
not going to sit here and listen to any more of this blasphemy. If
you will not take action against these aliens who are kidnapping
and raping and torturing our people at will, then Ray has no
choice but to go public with his story and his pictures.”
“Please hear us out, Mr. Zorbach,” said George Buck in tones
of mollification. He had sensed that the preacher’s influence over
his follower was not absolute. “Your cooperation is essential to
maintaining public safety during the final phase of a rather delicate
operation. I do have the power to make your life very unpleasant
if you choose not to play ball. Let me explain this in my own way,
Dr. Heinzeit. The alien ship first landed on the dark side of the
moon, invisible to us at the time. It sent us radio messages on a
frequency and in a code reserved for top secret communication. It
was therefore immediately evident that its occupants desired
anonymity and possessed sufficient knowledge and discretion to
achieve it. As I said before, we had little choice but to acquiesce to

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