Lightning and the Gods Every once in a while, we hear or have read about something I consider strange. I was reading an article about the weather and came across a point where it was claimed someone found proof that the UFO triangles in the sky were causing the lightning. Of course there are those that disagree with this. Think about this for a second, could it be there was no lightning on earth until UFOs first came here? Sometimes lightning has a positive charge and sometimes a negative one. A lightning bolt carries about 10 billion watts. It has been said this meets the power needs of about 32 million people per year. On top of all this about 50 bolts hit the earth a second. The power is there to power the earth, if we could figure out how to harness it. It turns out that lightning is good for agriculture. It can turn nitrogen into a beneficial form that the crops can use. The heat from a lightning strike on the ground is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun and can turn parts of the soil into a rich fertilizer for the crops. The strike from lightning can kill many crop pests. Some scientists believe lightning strikes can cause more rain which is good for the crops. The dangers of lightning are there for all of us to see. A couple of thousand people a year die from being hit with lightning, yet the chance of being hit by lightning is less than one in one million. Even with these odds there are those who have been struck more than once and even those who have lived through the experience. Some people wonder if lightning can strike the same place more than once. As incredible as it seems, the answer is yes. Britannica talks about this. Why haven’t we been able to harness the power of lightning? According to some scientists it is just too difficult. It is claimed it is just too hard to pinpoint the future location of a strike. I always thought we could attract lightning with a tall metal rod during a storm, but I guess this is not good enough. The idea lightning can carry a positive or negative charge also means the device we might build to capture the energy would need to be able to handle both charges. Since the charge is as I said 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun, it would be very hard to handle. I think the idea capturing energy from a lightning bolt would have to be a world-wide effort, and rightfully so since it would benefit every nation. Back to the idea UFOs are causing the bolts. What possible reason could an alien race have for wanting to create lightning bolts? Could the electricity in lightning bolts have more beneficial effects than we currently know? It turns out there were some ancient societies who worshiped gods who they thought had a connection to lightning. One of the ones which was made even more famous thanks to the movies was Thor, the Norse god of lightning, among other things, but I think most of us knew that. I think lightning was such a powerful force that is why the ancients thought the gods controlled it. Take the ancient Greeks for example, do you remember who their god of lightning was? Oh yeah, it was our old friend Zeus, the ruler of all their gods. I think this proves they thought of lightning as the most powerful force on earth. They are also said to have had Astrape and Bronte, two goddesses of lightning and thunder. They weren’t taking any chances. The Babylonians also must have thought lightning was a very powerful force and wanted protection from it so they also had a god of lightning, but I would be surprised if you recognized this one. Its name was Adad. They must have felt they needed a god to pray to for protection from lightning. Adad was also the god of storms. This brings me to the ancient Egyptians who had their share of gods so of course they also ad a god of lightning and storms and this god was much more famous than Adad. Its name was Set who was also known as Seth or Sutekh. Set had many other titles however, it was the god of the sky, desert, warfare and disorder. This was a very busy god. While the Romans were not as ancient, they still had their god of lightning and it was Jupiter. The Romans were kind of lazy when they selected who their gods might be. I can just see the meeting of Romans who were to select them arguing constantly and finally agreeing to just use the Greek gods, but changing their names, because that was essentially what they did. Zeus had become Jupiter. One might have thought they would have adapted the god of lightning the Etruscans had, who were their forerunners. That was Tinia, who was also the god of the sky. It didn’t seem to matter where the ancients were they all seemed to have the same idea, hey we need a god to protect us from this powerful force which was lightning. Xolotl was the Aztec god of lightning, but also the god of death and fire. The Incas had their own god and it was llapa, and it was a god responsible for a few different duties. It was the god of lightning, rain, thunder, weather and war. I think he was too busy to be of much help with the lightning. The Hindus had a god of lightning who was responsible for all weather events including lightning. It is starting to make me wonder if there was any ancient who didn’t have a god of lightning? This is a subject not covered very well. There were many more ancient races who had gods of lightning, but one has to wonder who was the first. When I tried to research it, what came up was Zeus, but I do not believe that result. The earliest humans on earth were Homo habilis according to scientists. They were said to appear about 2.4 million years ago. Even they with their limited intelligence, were probably scared of lightning and may have appointed a god to pray to. Homo sapiens were said to appear 200,000 years ago, but some believe it could have been 400,000 years ago. But Neanderthals were here ahead of them and probably had their own gods, and I bet they had a god of lightning.
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