I've been enjoying Scientific Mythologies: How Science and Science Fiction Forge New Religious Beliefs by James Herrick, and thought it appropriate to quote a related poem by (I believe) L. Sprague de Camp:Ah, little green fellows from Venus
Or some other planet afar;
From Mars or Calypso or, maybe,
A world of an alien star!
According to best-selling authors —
Blavatsky to von Däniken —
They taught us the skills that were needed
To make super-apes into men.
They guided our faltering footsteps
From savagery into the dawns
Of burgeoning civilization,
With cities and writing and bronze.
By them were the Pyramids builded;
They reared the first temples in Hind;
Drew lines at Peruvian Nazca
To uplift the poor Amerind.
With all of these wonders they gave us,
It's sad these divine astronauts
Revealed not the answers to questions
That foil our most rational thoughts.
Such puzzles as riches and paupers,
The problems of peace and of war,
Relations between the two sexes,
Or crime and chastisement therefor.
So when we feel dim and defeated
By problems immune to attack,
Let's send out a prayer electronic:
"O little green fellows, come back!"
