# stories where something completely normal is misunderstood and feared/worshipped/etc. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 4, 2006, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376 "2006-01-04T09:27:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/41 "2006-01-05T23:07:51Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay. Besides the premise itself, one of the funny things about this book was how human civilization ended- it was smothered by a barrage of junk mail. (Seeing as we are gradually switching to a computer society, this scenario probably wouldn’t happen today, although maybe the world’s computers could be shut down by spam _en masse_). The setting of the discovery of the ancient civilization was the Toot 'N Come On Hotel in the “mysterious” land of Usa. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/42 "2006-01-05T23:36:44Z")
I don’t know if it’s true, because the only place I read of it is in Hunter Thompson’s _The Curse of Lono_, but early Hawaiians thought that Captain Cook was the god Lono, who was predicted to arrive at such-and-such a time in a giant white canoe. He was worshipped during his first visit, but his return a few months later to provision his ship seemed to strip away any illusion of divinity, so the natives killed him. The aggression was probably encouraged by the priests, who naturally were out of a job when their gods descended to earth. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/43 "2006-01-06T00:36:54Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Another (very strange) episode of Star Trek had the inhabitants of a planet worship the US Constitution… What episode was that? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/44 "2006-01-06T00:48:19Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > What episode was that? 😕 It was the one with the Yangs (think Dances With Wolves) and the Coms (think evil Asiatics). They would read it “E Plem Eesta.” ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/45 "2006-01-06T00:56:43Z")
There’s also Monty Python’s _Life of Brian_, which of course was loosely based on this other book someone mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/46 "2006-01-06T01:00:21Z")
> [@Phnord Prephect](#): > > How about that one book that takes the fact that humans exist and postulates this whole elaborate fantasy about a garden and a snake? […] > I forgot the name of this book, but I think they made a movie about it. I think it was called **The Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down**. I often wonder how much our archaeologists have gotten wrong, how many children’s toys and wastebaskets we’ve called idols and religious urns. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/47 "2006-01-06T01:47:55Z")
I think I remember a bit of another one, that I leafed through, once…some kind of postapocalyptic society (maybe a matriarchy?) where, at one point, the tribe medicine woman was reciting a “healing spell” over a sick patient—which turned out to be a mangled version of the Hippocratic Oath. “I will give no deadly med-sun…” ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/48 "2006-01-06T01:56:49Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > It was the one with the Yangs (think Dances With Wolves) and the Coms (think evil Asiatics). They would read it “E Plem Eesta.” Was it a TOS episode? ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/49 "2006-01-06T02:09:32Z")
Yes, it was. I can remember seeing it, IIRC, Spock recognized what the priest was reciting, and quietly let Kirk know. This gave Kirk the ability to win their trust and settle things by reciting the Preamble. (Didn’t they also hold the Declaration of Independence to be sacred too, or am I misremembering?) It’s been quite a while since I saw that episode last, it’s a rare one I do believe. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/50 "2006-01-06T02:35:17Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Was it a TOS episode? Season 2, episode 54. “The Omega Glory” [Plot summary here.](http://www.ericweisstein.com/fun/startrek/TheOmegaGlory.html) Oh my Og, I’ve been unmasked as a Trekkie Geek… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2006, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376/51 "2006-01-06T02:46:48Z")
In the Isaac Asimov short story (yes, I know it was later expanded into a novel, let’s ignore that) Nightfall has a religion based on a series of eclipses. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-where-something-completely-normal-is-misunderstood-and-feared-worshipped-etc/338376.md?page=2)