Hmmm ... sometimes I think my mind's a touch too critical to truly enjoy a radical theory. Currently trying to wade my way through Slave Species of god by Michael Tellinger (ISBN 1-920070-13-3). Given that I tend to zip through a standard five hundred page book in about 24 hours, 'wade' is appropriate because I've been reading this for the last 3 weeks and I'm just not getting through it.

Don't be mistaken ... it's not because it contains so much information that its a difficult read. Rather more like not enough research and rigorous testing to make the hypothesis compelling. This is what the back copy has to say:

In Slave Species of god, Michael Tellinger takes his readers on a remarkable odyssey of the true origins of humankind in which he:

• draws clear and startling analogies between new discoveries in genetic engineering and ancient archaeological finds...
• highlights emerging scientific information overlooked in the past...
• unravels the Bible's often obscure stories by linking these to their original forms in Sumerian clay tablets and other prehistoric writings...
• provides explicit answers to why our modern world has become so senseless and chaotic by revealing the very secrets of our prehistory...

While shattering myths about evolution and God, Michael Tellinger's Slave Species of god enables evolutionists and creationists to finally co-exist in one pond. The arguments are compelling, simple and refreshing, retracing the path of human evolution from the murky distant past to the religious dogma that haunts humankind today. The question of who we are and where we come from takes on a new meaning as we discover that our DNA may have been manipulated by our CREATOR some 200 000 years ago to produce a less intelligent 'primitive species'.

With back copy like that, you can't really blame me for giving the book a try - it sounded quite astounding.

Unfortunately, my experience has been less than thrilling. Supernatural by Graham Hancock (ISBN 1-8441-3876-3) was thought provoking ... but that's a tale for another post. In comparison Slave Species of god just doesn't stand a chance.

The basic premise of the book is that Homo Sapiens (that's modern man) is a genetic hybrid of Homo Erectus and an alien species called the Annunaki - residents of the planet Nibiru, which has a highly eccentric orbit with a period of 3 600 years. Nibiru's atmosphere is highly unstable and the only solution is to 'spray' fine gold particles into the atmosphere to stabilize it. They identified Earth as having vast deposits of this and therefore ventured forth to mine it in order to save Nibiru. They figured it was too much hard work, so they created us hybrid humans to do all the slogging for them.

The theory arises from the 'translations' of various Sumerian tablets by one Zecharia Sitchen. Michael's arguments for the truth of these tablets are many, but can be reduced to the following:

• Why do archaeologists and anthropologists automatically assign the stories contained in the Sumerian tablets to mythology? Our human DNA is only 3% active, the other 97% is termed 'junk DNA' because it contains no genes that code for anything - less than any other species on Earth;
• Tracing our genetic ancestry via both the male and female line, Y-Chromosome Adam and Mitochondrial Eve both arrived on the scene about 200 000 years ago;
• Our insatiable lust for gold throughout history, despite the evident lack of practical applications for the soft metal;
• The disparity between the 'God' of the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible - the 'vengeful' versus the 'loving';
• Evidence of advanced mining techniques in Greater Zimbabwe - the potential King Solomon's Mines;
• The similarities between the various world religions in terms of 'obey and you'll be saved' and punitive measures against disobedience;
• The similarities between the mythological pantheons of various cultures.

Now here's where the 'critical mind' thing comes in. Firstly - the tablets themselves. The assumption in the book is that the stories and therefore the translations need to be taken at face value, as these were found in a 'library' with other tablets that included mathematical lessons and inventory tallies which are mundane and practical. And are ultimately 'verifiable' as truth.

Fast forward 200 000 years into the future (bear with me here ...). Human civilization has managed to disappear off the face of the planet, be it via their own actions or some catastrophic event that led to our extinction. Miraculously, the national library in Cape Town (South Africa) manages to survive this event mainly intact, the only casualty being the indexing system. Some other alien species comes along and excavates said library and finds ... 1 million volumes of what we'd call fiction today, coupled with various academic books and encyclopaedia. These visitors have no reference to be able to determine the difference between non-fiction and fiction. Therefore, the assumption would be that either all of it is the truth or all of it is mythology - 'not truth'.

So if you think about it - the various space odysseys, tales of witches and elves etc would carry equal weight in terms of authenticity. I'd think that these visitors would build up a pretty warped view of what human civilization and culture was.

So, what if these 'stories' of genetic engineering, hybridization and the quest for gold were just that - fiction, bedtime tales of an imaginative civilization as a foil for the daily grind? We're sitting in the same situation - no reference to what is non-fiction and what is pure fabrication. Some of you might argue that these ancient civilisations would have no concept of 'alien species from another planet' or 'genetic engineering'.

Maybe ... but think on this. The original Star Trek series (I think this was the eighties) had devices that allowed them to communicate with their teammates on the other side of the planet or with the ship orbiting above. Now take a look at the prevalence of cellular phones - in essence, a device that allows us to communicate with others on the other side of the planet. And what about communications technology that allows us to converse with the astronauts on the International Space Station? Reality has come to mirror the science fiction. Could the same not be true for the Sumerians - the fact that they'd developed concepts for things that were 'science-fiction' in their time?

Now, on to the genetics. We've recently managed to sequence the entire human genome. We've also sequenced a couple of other species for comparison. A plethora of intelligent people are spending hours (and many research dollars) on figuring out how all of the basic genetic code fits together to form the myriad of species we see around us today. The holy grail at the moment is to sequence the entire 'proteome' - the various sections of DNA that code for proteins and the various folding shapes they assume, the functions these have within the human body and how the whole system hangs together so that we can survive.

We still have a long way to go before we understand what makes us tick genetically.

Creating hybrids between two different species is another matter entirely. We have difficulty in transplanting human organs to other humans because of rejection. So imagine the difficulties in creating a creature that contains the genetic information from two very disparate species - say a dog and a fish. We would have to have a really in-depth knowledge of both genomes in order to create a successful hybrid.

Michael Tellinger claims that the Annunaki 'switched off' large parts of our genome in order to create an obedient primitive species - which is why we only utilise 3% of our DNA. If the Annunaki were such an advanced species in terms of genetic engineering to create a viable hybrid between themselves and Home Erectus, is it such a stretch of the imagination to assume that they knew their own genome well enough to be able to 'delete' the unnecessary genes instead of just inactivating them? Why leave the 'genes' for curiosity, intelligence and individuality in place if these would ultimately lead to us becoming something other than what they wanted?

Another little wrinkle in the saga ... the 'translations' done by Zecharia Sitchen. Other linguists have had a look at the tablets and the translations done and have pointed out that Zecharia has made some fundamental errors in translation - errors that a knowledgeable translator would not have made because of his/her intimate knowledge of the structure of cuneiform writing.

We've all had a run in with the 'translations' from Japanese into English that come with some DVD players and other technological devices. If you've ever had to read through those 'instructions', it would be clear that an intimate knowledge of both languages would have improved the comprehension of the translation no end.

Could it be possible that Zecharia might have misinterpreted the meaning of the cuneiform writing on the tablets? It is as likely a scenario as any other.

My other bugbear with the book - Michael makes a sweeping statement or generalisation and proceeds to write one or two sentences that 'prove' the statement. In reading them, my initial reaction is typically 'yeah right - how does this prove your theory in any way?' My overall impression is that he's taking the translations of the tablets as the gospel truth and picking a couple of info snippets from other sources to support the theory. Much like a creationist would take a passage in the Bible out of context to prove that creationism is a viable explanation. The contradictory facts are not mentioned and refuted. From my perspective, there isn't a particularly rigorous exploration of how he comes to his conclusions.

Yes, the book raises some interesting questions and exposes some interesting similarities and coincidences. But I'm left with this overwhelming feeling of disappointment ... the back copy promises much, but the inside does not deliver on these promises. Do I buy his theory? At present, no. There are too many unanswered questions and sweeping assumptions for me to accept it.

But it does make for some really yummy discussions over red wine and dinner.