Creationists believe the world is a divine creation. Scientists that the universe came about as a result of the Big Bang. Supporters of paleocontact believe that in ancient times aliens flew to Earth and it was they who first created and then taught humanity.
Descended from the sky
All the peoples of the world claim that the gods came from heaven. Of course, some deities did not descend from heaven, but always lived and live somewhere underground, in stones, in trees, in objects - anywhere. But the main gods live only in heaven!
It is unlikely that such a belief could randomly arise simultaneously among completely different peoples. There must have been some reason that forced the ancient people to place the gods, not just anywhere, but in heaven. And, of course, there were such reasons.
The likeness of the gods
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The version of the paleocontact is perfectly confirmed by the Cargo Cult. Indeed, the likelihood that primitive mankind communicated with gods who were aliens from distant stars is very high.
Many peoples of the world have identical descriptions of the gods and their magical skills. For example, they are all immortal (they cannot be killed), they can appear from nowhere or disappear, change their appearance (turn into someone, into something), fly across the sky (on wings or in chariots), command the elements, send or heal diseases, build incredible structures, use fantastic weapons, create magic items.
Only a select few were allowed to communicate with the gods, who later became a caste of priests. All others who dared to contradict them in anything were declared sorcerers and severely punished.
The gods deliberately kept people at a distance by communicating through intermediaries. Perhaps they were afraid of something, or they were the usual precautions. After all, our world was alien to them.
How, where and why they came here, one can only guess.
Great catastrophe
Considering that the distance to the nearest star Proxima Centauri is about 40092800000000 kilometers, and only light itself can move at the speed of light, interstellar travel is unlikely. Therefore, most likely the gods came to us from one of the planets of our solar system. And not just like that, but something forced them to leave their planet. And such a reason could be a planetary catastrophe, the traces of which are present in the solar system.
Between Mars and Jupiter is the asteroid belt - a planetary trajectory along which numerous debris from the once-lost planet now rotate. Most likely this planet (Phaethon) died as a result of a collision with a large asteroid or comet. But it was on it, like on neighboring Mars, that life could be. But most likely, our gods are still Martians.
The solar system is 4.6 billion years old. Life on Earth appeared about 4 billion years ago. And the age of today's humanity is only 40-50 thousand years. Naturally, over these billions of years, life could appear not only on Earth, but also on neighboring planets. And evolution before the acquisition of reason could have happened a couple of million years earlier than on Earth.
And now our gods live on Mars, develop, explore nearby planets, and then bang - a catastrophe that not only destroys Phaeton, but also cripples Mars.
By the way, traces of life on Mars have already been found.
Few of the surviving Martians have nothing left. How to move to Earth, where people have already been.
Teachers of primitive humanity
I do not believe in Sitchin's version of the Anunnaki who, for mercenary purposes, modified the bestial primates (thus creating people) so that they would work for them - mined gold. Is it possible that a highly developed civilization did not find other methods of gold mining other than using slaves?
Therefore, when the Martians (or other aliens) appeared on Earth, humanity already existed.
Based on this, it is possible to determine the approximate time of the death of Phaeton and the death of Mars - 25-30 thousand years ago. In principle, this is enough to completely lose any material traces of the aliens. Moreover, there were not many of them.
For some reason, they could not continue their race on Earth and became extinct for several centuries. Leaving as a legacy to humanity any buildings, objects and scattered fragments of knowledge. They did not have a goal to enlighten mankind, most likely, they had to teach people the basics of agriculture, metallurgy and social structure, so that they would not be constantly among the primitive savages.
Someday we will find out everything, but for now we can only guess.