Columnist Susan Snyder: Confounded by Raelian beings

Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 | 9:07 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

Religion, as all life, is best approached with a sense of humor.

Many of the estimated 40 people who attended the Raelians' lecture at a Las Vegas library Wednesday night were merely curious. A handful already embraced the Raelian claim that we are a cloned race created by space aliens. Others believed in everything -- UFOs, God and evolution.

Me? I need a Palm Pilot just to remember where I was last week. Pinpointing the origin of the human race makes my head hurt.

Nadine Gary, a high school foreign language teacher and a Raelian, said Wednesday's goal was to present a new point of view, not amass converts.

"We all have different ideas of how we came to be," Gary said. "Some people say evolution. Other people say, 'God made it.' Tonight we'll look at the third explanation."

That explanation, she said, is that all life was first imagined by people "just like us. They drew it and gave it to a scientist who made it come alive."

Kind of makes you glad they didn't think of "The Simpsons" first.

One of three videos the Raelians showed Wednesday said these creators were mastering genetic engineering when "something went wrong and public opinion turned against them." Their government forbade them from further work.

They boarded a spaceship and found Earth, a planet covered by water. Through genetic engineering, they created land, flora and every organism from bacteria to humans.

So, we're the galactic equivalent of Australia?

Before you snortle and chuckle, consider: Moses parting an ocean, Jesus trotting across water or Eve emerging from Adam's rib. (Like Eve would have settled for taking only his rib.)

OK, now laugh. Every religion's followers should be able to laugh at themselves and fester less over what others believe. If we could do both we would fight fewer wars and not have suicide bombers or terrorist cells.

Oh well. We're primitive by design, said Ricky Roehr, the Raelians' Las Vegas-area president. All civilizations need to evolve on their own and learn to overcome innate aggressions that destroy harmony.

"If they don't master their aggression by the time they get to where we are now, they destroy themselves," Roehr told the group.

Or they elect W. to the White House. Same dif.

We were not told this version of creation before because we couldn't grasp the technology, Roehr said.

When we dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, we proved to the "Elohim" (our alien creators) we were advanced enough to comprehend the science. (Although, we obviously still had some aggression issues.)

So they sent a final prophet -- Rael. Hence, "Raelians." He met with the Elohim in 1973 and 1975 to learn the true story of creation. They introduced him to prophets they sent before him (Jesus, Moses, Muhammad, Buddha).

It wasn't clear where Rael lives, but they showed a video by him Wednesday. He predicted a future where we can be cloned as adults. We'll have brains wired to hold our memories and knowledge that are transferred via computer when we die.

"You can awake in a new body and you can remember where you put your keys," Rael said.

Cool. I can't remember where I put them now.