Not saying the 8 survivors didn't know what's up, but stuff like this is definitely how religious stories get formed in general.
It's like how the smart thing to do is run to the side of a tree that's starting to fall over (perpendicular to it's projected fall).
A good way of describing it to the locals might be that 'bad gasses come from the lake and cling to the ground, like a leaden miasma from hell'.
Wiki tells that one loses conscience after couple of inhales of CO2.
I assume that those folks went on high ground just after they've heard sound.
Not to say you could have figured out the carbon dioxide part, but you could have developed an understanding deeper than "god" or "spirits".
"I mean, you don't have to know about quantum mechanics, but honestly thinking that there's some magic invisible energy causing the universe to expand? I mean seriously, I think I probably could have come up with some kind of explanation better than 'Dark Energy.'"
His name is James, James Cameron
The bravest pioneer
No budget too steep, no sea too deep
Who's that?
It's him, James Cameron
James, James Cameron explorer of the sea
With a dying thirst to be the first
Could it be? Yeah that's him!
James Cameron
--credit: South ParkCould you elaborate on this? I've never heard or read anybody say anything like this before.
If aliens are visiting earth then it seems to me they're like E.T. (the movie): botanists who could give two shits about humans other than not getting caught. Or entomologists, geologist, what have you. There's a lot more interesting stuff happening on the planet than humans. But humans are full of self-importance and gods and aliens play a role in reemphasizing that self-importance.
that would be strange. A lot of science fiction contains a notion of an alien(s) perceived as a God(s) by native people of the planet being visited.
In case of Jesus we have all the typical stuff - medical nanobots and food replicators, alien species in the "skies" who conquered space and time, and we have pretty clear message (well, we have millions of pages of philosophy written about it, so it is my brief short take on it) - take control over and minimize your violence and develop empathy, and that would speed up (or remove the main obstacles to) the development of your civilization to be able to join the others. Tightly managed, if not abolished, violence and high communication capabilities (direct mind to mind like) are what we think as among the characteristics of developed civilizations. May be it is not the result, may be it is the tool to get there?
Anyway, such attempts to help the development of native civilizations is known to be futile (again, well explored in science fiction) and Jesus obviously was an inexperienced eager to help and frustrated by what he observed observer who went rogue. And thus we have the "Cup of Wrath", the communication with the Mission Command when the Command orders that to minimize consequences of the perpetrated Prime Directive violation the "god scenario" would proceed to completion (which probably didn't include real or full death, yet it was obviously something that one would be happy to avoid - may be something like real death with upload moments before, again going along science fiction lines one can interpret that way the communication with "God" during the crucifixion as well as obvious initial weakness/discomfort with the the new body ("don't touch") when Jesus met Mary after the resurrection (also the 2 angels [dressed] in white busy with some chores right there in the cave after Jesus was resurrected) while some time later he gets used to the body and lets Tomas to inspect it). There is a lot in the story that can be clearly interpreted in the science fiction style, and between God and aliens i bet on aliens :)
Now, here is the really fun part - an idea that we probably do have sample of the Jesus' alien DNA somewhere around (despite the aliens' precautions taken like the hard ultra-violet cleaning of all the biological material in the cave tomb of Jesus) - the "Holy Grail" whatever it is, like say the Dan Brown's child/ancestors of Jesus. Would you like to sequence that DNA? And according to the legends the medical nanobots were still on/with the Holy Grail and still functioning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth#Claims_of_historici...
I like the Persian gulf one, after all the Sumerians who lived there later had a myth of which the Noah story seems like a retelling.