A  Visitor From MARS -  in 1934 ?   
Mars Global Surveyor New images from
Global Surveyor
   PASADENA, Calif.
The Martian surface has undergone dramatic changes in the last few years with the appearance of new gullies and fresh boulder tracks,  new images released Tuesday show.  The photos, taken by the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft,  suggest that the Red Planet is perhaps more active than previously thought.  The spacecraft,  in its ninth year in orbit, spotted two fresh gullies on a Martian sand dune that were not present in 2002.  Scientists think the gullies might have formed when frozen carbon dioxide trapped by windblown sand vaporized,  releasing gas that allowed the sand to flow freely.
The spacecraft also took images of boulder tracks at another site that were not there two years ago.  The tracks were probably caused by dozens of boulders rolling down a slope from strong wind or a quake,  scientists said.
    Researchers also noted that impact craters forming since the 1970s suggest that crater-formation is a slow process,  occurring at one-fifth the pace previously thought.  The pace is important because it is used to estimate the age of Martian surfaces,  said Michael Malin, principal investigator of the camera aboard the spacecraft.  The planet may be undergoing a climate change,  according to images that show a shrinking of carbon dioxide deposits near the south pole.  For the last three Martian summers,  the deposits have shrunk from the previous year.  The Mars Global Surveyor was launched in 1996 and entered orbit a year later.


The project is managed by NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory.


Photograph of Mars,  and moons:  Phobos,  and Deimos.
Get the  clearest visions of the Universe!  Hubba!  Hubble!
Down  and Dirty:  The Latest Scoop!
Cave Men?   Life—  on Mars?
Another dose  of  Martian awesome!

A  MARTIAN  EXAMINES  CHRISTIANITY
by  Arthur Levett,     first published 1934
Printed and Published in Great Britain by  C.A. WATTS & CO. Limited
5 & 6 Johnson’s Court,  Fleet Street,  London,  E.C.4
       Quoted from front cover:
A  young Martian inventor,
having discovered the secret of gravity control,  gets out into space on an inter-planetary visit.  Great astonishment was caused when he landed on the Earth in a strange-looking shell,  which bore no resemblance to an aeroplane,  and announced that he was an inhabitant of Mars  and begged our hospitality.
     The main objective of the visitor  was to gain knowledge,  and in this work  are set out his experiences when seeking the meaning of religion — to him  a strange,  mysterious subject.		  
    The inquiries are put to a committee  consisting of a Modernist,  a Roman Catholic Priest,  a Rabbi,  and a Fundamentalist,  and of these  the Martian asks,  “Who is God? ”
     He goes on to inquire  concerning Prayer,  Sin,  God’s Word,  Miracles,  Everlasting Life,  etc.,  and the reader is compelled to acknowledge that his acute questioning is always illuminating and impressive.

FOREWARD
    My theme is centuries old,  my points are not new, and my  Man from Mars  is,  I fear,  hackneyed.  But where on earth could I find a man that had never heard of religion and was intelligent enough to ask questions?
    Why write at all, then,  if there is nothing new to say and no new way to say it?
    My first excuse is that the literature on religion is so vast that few can find the
time to delve into its many phases,  and I know of no single volume that attempts to present what might perhaps be called a bird’s-eye view of the Christian religion.		     My Martian,  totally ignorant of the entire subject and with an unprejudiced mind,  seeks information on many points.  It is my hope that the report of his investigation,  with the notes indicating the sources of the information he acquired,  may serve as a starting-point for those who wish to go more fully into the subject.
      My second excuse  is that  when one has unthinkingly accepted  time-honoured  absurd beliefs  as a matter of course,  sometimes  a direct question or two  tersely put  will startle him  into wondering  why  he has been  so  child-like  and credulous.

              Blind faith,  which holds in bondage reason
              May,  by  a question  aptly posed,
              Be  put to flight.
              And  superstition’s  strangling clutch
              From  progress’ throat  be  loosed.

                    Contents
    Chapter
  1. The Martian Visits The Earth
  2. The Martian Inquires    As To GOD
  3. The Martian Inquires    As To PRAYER
  4. The Martian Inquires    As To SIN
  5. The Martian Inquires    As To GOD’S WORD
  6. The Martian Examines The OLD TESTAMENT
  7. The Martian Examines The NEW TESTAMENT
  8. The Martian Examines The Characters of The Christian Saviour
  9. The Martian Inquires    As To Everlasting Life
  10. The Martian Examines The Moral Precepts Of Christianity
  11. The Martian Inquires    As To Miracles
  12. The Martian Examines Into Faith
  13. The Martian Examines Into The Value Of Religion
Chapter  I
The Martian Visits The Earth
It was such a day of rejoicing as had never before been known upon Mars.  After centuries of thought and experiment,  Gravity had been conquered.  At last would Martians be able to explore in person  that distant planet which they had long known was inhabited by beings like themselves,  whose goings and comings they had observed for many years through their super-telescopes,  whose languages they had learned through their sensitive radios,  and whose intimate life they were just beginning to observe through their  long-since-perfected  television receivers.
     With what acclaim Martians throughout the planet listened to the words addressed by the president of the Scientists’ Association to the young inventor,  as he prepared to step into his machine which would carry him through space to that planet upon which never before had stepped one who had not there seen his first light of day.
     “Throughout the ages,”  spoke the president,  “our scientists have laboured for the benefit of mankind,  impelled by the thirst for knowledge and the good that ensues therefrom.  They have spent their lives in her pursuit to such effect that Nature,  although reluctantly,  has yielded to us nearly all of her secrets.  We have explored the universe with our telescopes,  our spectroscopes,  and our radios, and from the outlook of our own planet we have little to learn.  We have,  it is true,  failed to solve what we shall probably never solve -  the why and wherefore of our existence.

Page  2
     “One other great problem of the ages has been the control of the force of gravity.  Without that control we have been tied to our planet,  and our field of inquiry has been practically exhausted.
     “To you,  my brother,  has been given the great ability to solve this problem.  To-day we,  in our search for truth, no longer are bound by the ties of gravity.  Through your efforts  that force has become our handmaiden.
     “It is therefore fitting that you,  as the perfector of gravity control,  should have the honour to be the first to set forth on interplanetary travel to visit the denizens of our sister planet;  to gather at first hand such fruits of knowledge as we   in our limited field have heretofore been precluded from reaping.  You have learned their principal languages,  and are well equipped to converse with them and obtain from them such knowledge as they possess.  It is our hope that when you return to us  you will bring with you much knowledge of  things  which to us will be as new,  and that such knowledge will assist us in our march towards the goal of truth -  the only goal towards which a true scientist directs his step.  Above all,  we trust that upon your return  you will be able to enlighten us as to the meaning of that strange word ‘ religion,’  of which we have heard so much from our sister planet  and have been able to understand so little.
     “Peace be with you.  May you have a safe journey and a happy and profitable sojourn on that distant shore.”

     Who on this earth will forget that memorable afternoon when from out of the sky there landed on the International Aviation Field  a strange-looking shell  bearing no resemblance whatever to an aeroplane?  With no engine,  no propeller,  no helicopter,  it nevertheless settled as lightly as a bird on the field.

Page  3
With what wonder we gazed at its curious series of levers,  its oxygen tanks,  its store of concentrated food capsules,  and,  above all,  its lone passenger of calm and dignified mein  who stepped forth to announce that he was an inhabitant of the planet Mars and begged our hospitality.
     Nor will anyone forget the cry of scepticism and of ridicule that broke forth over the land as the news went forth,  till the stranger,  always courteous and understanding,  demonstrated how his flight had been made possible by his control of the force of gravity.  Scientists,  engineers,  and newspaper reporters gasped as  by a simple shift of a lever  the vessel rose from the ground and  with incredible speed  disappeared from sight -  to return in a few minutes after having covered a distance of hundreds of miles away from earth.
     Scepticism ceased,  and all the world to-day knows how much science has advanced through the information imparted by our Martian visitor before he turned his way to the planet of his birth.  Much has been written and much will be written of what he imparted to us of the wisdom gathered by the inhabitants of our sister planet  before man appeared on this earth.
     It should be remembered,  however,  that the main objective of our visitor was not to impart  but to gain knowledge.  It is therefore meet to record his experience when,  in seeking the meaning of religion,  to him a strange mysterious subject,  he met with the committee of churchmen appointed to enlighten him.  No one can object to the fairness displayed in selecting as members of this committee  a Modernist,  a Roman Catholic Priest,  a Rabbi,  and a Fundamentalist.


Chapter  II      The Martian Inquires
                        As To GOD
Chapter  III     The Martian Inquires
                        As To PRAYER
Chapter  IV     The Martian Inquires
                        As To SIN
Chapter   V      The Martian Inquires
                        As To GOD’S WORD
Chapter  VI      The Martian Examines
                        The OLD TESTAMENT
Chapter  VII     The Martian Examines
                         The NEW TESTAMENT
Chapter  VIII   The Martian Examines The
                         Character of The Christian Saviour
Chapter  IX      The Martian Inquires
                         As To Everlasting Life
Chapter  X       The Martian Examines The
                         Moral Precepts Of Christianity
Chapter  XI      The Martian Inquires
                         As To Miracles
Chapter  XII     The Martian Examines Into Faith

Chapter  XIII    The Martian Examines Into
                         The Value Of Religion
Martian Visitor:  Quoted excerpts
    and Footnotes to:  Bible Myths.
    INDEX  of  Subjects.

Introduction to Metaphysics.
Metaphysics:  Which is  PRIMARY?
Darwin on Trial. 
   The Pagan origins of Easter:
 Chapter  XI,  Page 88.
“from the accounts I have read,  these other saviours to whom I have just referred  also rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven  about the same time of the year?
As a matter of fact,  I learn that your very word  ‘Easter’  receives its name from a celebration in honour of the Saxon goddess Eostre.”

Earliest known  Hebrew writing: 10th century BCE.
Individual Rights  or  Sacred Rites?
     Harry Blackmun:  1973 decision  Roe v. Wade.
Sarah Palin,  by  Sam Harris,  NEWSWEEK
“Slaughter of  Ph. D.’s.”  John R. NEAL
   set the stage  for the  Scopes Trial: 
   The Butler Act,   Trial,   ReTrial Petition,
   Decision of  Supreme Court of  Tennessee.
   This act  “requires nothing  to be taught.”   “It prohibits merely.”
   “It is purely  an act of  neutrality.”   No theory shall be taught
   “which denies that  God  is the Creator  of  man --”
Parisian Jewel—  Crown,  pieces of  True Cross?
Avatar,  Incarnation of  Vishnou, 74;  Yishnou,  represented  with  four  arms, 82;  84;  Jesus  considered  an, 112:  113;  Buddha, 118;  137;  a  star  at  birth  of  every, 143,  163;  167;  an  “Angel-Messiah,”  a  God-man,  a  “Christ,” 196;  “virgin-born gods,” 327;   expected  about  every  600 years, 426.