Astounding tales from beyond the outer limits of the twilight zone

Last updated on: May 12, 2021 at 7:20 pm by Fred Clark

Astounding tales from beyond the outer limits of the twilight zone 2021-05-12T19:20:13-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A few recent items that both intrigued and disappointed me for their untapped Rod Serling-esque potential.

• Meet Tom Horn, who “Says an Asteroid Will Strike Earth in 2029, Unleashing an ‘Alien Virus’ That Will Give Rise to the Antichrist.”

Horn said this, most recently, on televangelist-grifter Jim Bakker’s show, which often features guests from the worlds of “End Times Bible-prophecy scholars” and of self-proclaimed “prophets.” Horn is both of those, sort of, but mainly I think he’s just a failed sci-fi writer — the kind who manages to dream up entertaining premises, but then can’t figure out where to go from there.

I’ll admit it: If the SyFy channel cranked out a B-movie involving an asteroid striking the Earth and unleashing a zombifying alien virus that gave rise to the Antichrist, I’d watch that movie. That’s not bad. Or, rather, it sounds terrible — but potentially bad in a fun way.

And Tom Horn seems like he’s full of such ideas. His author’s page at Amazon is quite the read. his first book, from 2005, was a novel called The Ahriman Gate: “This supernatural thriller tells the incredible story of a young Marine and his sister who discover information connecting the U.S. Government with UFO’s.” Apparently it was a *Stargate/*Nephilim or Ancient Astronauts/Book of Enoch story, but it wasn’t a huge success.

So Horn stopped writing fiction — or, at least, he started writing his fiction as though it were nonfiction, cranking out a series of books alleging Vatican-UFO conspiracies, delirious manifestos about the Illuminati, and a couple of attempts to cash in on QAnon fantasies. This all led up to his latest sci-fi End Times anti-vaxx mash-up, The Wormwood Prophecy: NASA, Donald Trump, and a Cosmic Cover-up of End-Time Proportions. Phew.

I’ll give Horn credit for his enthusiastic ability to try to include every disparate bonkers conspiracy theory in his work, it’s a bit like the manic charm of Patton Oswalt’s epic “citizens filibuster” monologue from Parks & Rec. Oddly, though, it still feels like he’s holding back. If the initial overwhelming sense one gets from Tom Horn’s oeuvre is that this guy is bonkers, that sadly gives way to the realization that his problem is he’s not bonkers enough.

• Undine brings us “The Case of the Time-Traveling Priest.” This is the story of Benedictine priest Fr. Pellegrino Ernetti, who claimed to have invented a “chronovisor” — a kind of television/DVR that allowed him to view and record events in the past by peering backward through time. (Tasha Shayne and Marco Margaritoff have also written about Ernetti’s supposed invention.)

Ernetti said his device used “mysterious alloys” and that it worked by “processing residual electromagnetic radiation left over by numerous processes.” I’m no scientist, by I’m guessing that it also involves reversing the polarity of the tachyon field.

Ernetti also claimed that famed scientists Enrico Fermi and Werner von Braun helped him develop his invention, although he didn’t start saying that part until after both Fermi and von Braun were dead. Ernetti never mentioned any assistance from T.L. Sherred, even though his 1947 short story “E for Effort” is probably where he got the idea.

Ernetti said he’d used his device to witness (and record) the crucifixion of Christ, Cicero’s speech to the Roman Senate, the Last Supper, and even a performance of Thyestes, a lost play by the Roman poet Quintus Ennius, which Ernetti “transcribed” (in anachronistic Latin).

In his final years before his death in 1994, Pellegrino Ernetti stopped talking about his time-traveling TV. One theory is that he was ordered to shut up about it because the Vatican did not wish to be further embarrassed by his fabulous forgeries. Another theory is that a Vatican conspiracy silenced him because his amazing device was Too Powerful and had to be kept from Falling Into The Wrong Hands or perhaps for Darker Purposes. One can find multiple short articles arguing the former theory and several very long books arguing the latter.

I find all of this terribly disappointing. Neither Ernetti himself nor any of the folks trying to spin conspiratorial webs based on his claims seems to have realized the full potential of the stories that could be told based on this premise. The raw material here ought to be enough to provide a mind-bending, genre-mixing Umberto Eco-meets-Philip K. Dick-meets-Dan Brown thrill ride but instead these folks just squandered it on poorly mimeographed photos of an Italian Jesus. Meh.

• The eminently patient science-blogger Joel Duff discusses “The False Hope of a Mature Creation.” This is about the omphalos hypothesis (so named because it puts a huge significance on whether or not Adam and Eve had belly buttons). Duff focuses on the young-Earth creationist critiques of this idea and how it’s mainly used as a dodge to avoid the implications of thinking too much about the meaning of deep time.

And so, alas, he doesn’t get into the really fun-to-play-with implications of this dodge — the reason why it’s also sometimes called “Last Thursday-ism.” If God was willing and able to create an apparently ancient universe just 6,000 years ago, then God must be just as willing and able to create an apparently ancient universe just 6 seconds ago. That raises the possibility that everything you think you know or remember isn’t real. All of your texts and photos, your memories of your now-deceased love ones, everything in every book you mistakenly believe you’ve read, and even your recollections of earlier today might well be — just like dinosaur fossils or the Martian landscape — merely apparent histories placed there by God as part of a “mature creation.” If those fossils and sedimentary layers are not real, then perhaps your own memories are not real and, thus, perhaps you are not real in any meaningful sense. (Jean-Luc Picard voice: “All this might just be an elaborate simulation, running inside a little device sitting on someone’s table.”)

The elegant aspect of this theory is that it’s impossible to prove it’s not true. The inelegant aspect is that it’s a theory of “creation” that completely undermines the doctrine of creation (and the doctrines of incarnation, resurrection, redemption …).

Another downside is that it makes you sound like you’re really, really, really high.

Previous Post

May 12, 2021

Postcards from the class & culture wars (5.12.21)

Next Post

May 14, 2021 The Flying Baptist and other stories

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who did Joseph eventually forgive and provide for in Egypt?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Potiphar His brothers Pharaoh His captors