Lightning: God’s Punishment
In the mid-1700s, Benjamin Franklin observed that electrical shocks used in parlor tricks were similar to lightning, which was seen as a method of divine retribution.
After considering different experiments, he settled on the kite and key one we are all familiar with. He intended to show that electrical charge would transfer through the string to the key at the bottom. To his delight, the key gave off mild electric shocks as a thunderstorm approached. As the rain started (increasing the conductivity of the kite string), sparks flew off the key!
One application of this new knowledge was the installation of lightning rods on chapels. Being the tallest structures in the area, they proved deadly to many bell ringers doing their duty during a thunderstorm.
However, some religious leaders objected to this development, claiming Franklin was interfering with one of God’s most effective methods of punishing sinners.
He responds, “Surely the thunder of Heaven is no more supernatural than the rain, hail, or sunshine of Heaven.”
5G Radio
In May 2020, the next generation of cellular networks rolled out amid unrelated armed conflicts worldwide. And there was that COVID thing.
Conspiracy theories about mobile phone technologies have circulated since the 1990s. They have deeper roots in the ‘radiophobia’ of the early 1900s and even the fears about power lines and microwaves in the 1970s.
One version of this theory claimed the coronavirus crisis was created to keep people at home while 5G engineers installed the technology everywhere. Others insist that 5G radiation weakens people’s immune systems.
The reality is that 5G is unrelated to all of these things. Cellular companies benefit from rolling out the technology because it can handle more connected devices than previous networks. More devices means more customers and more money.
It also benefits customers by providing increased speed and reducing latency—the time it takes for your phone to receive a response from the Internet.
One irony in the concerns about high-band 5G networks is that the signals don’t travel very far. Because the wavelength is between 1 and 10 millimeters, they have trouble penetrating walls, doors, and skin.
Tie-In: The Apocalypse
In our stories, the asteroid Apophis causes the apocalypse. And like lightning, it has its religious and fanatical ties.
The asteroid’s discoverers dubbed it Apophis because they were fans of Stargate SG-1, which had a persistent villain named Apophis, the Egyptian deity of chaos.
What counters chaos? Truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. The Egyptian goddess Ma’at personified those concepts, so it follows that some people would seek the comfort of meaning over fear.
Was the asteroid some random event we have no control over? Was it divine retribution? Or is it something we can counter through our divine service?
The Order of the Sanguine Feather thinks so. Using the symbol of the goddess Ma’at—the ostrich feather—they have devised a ‘blood test’ to weed out the unclean, believing that if they can eliminate them, they can prevent the second coming of Apophis.
There’s nothing like being pursued by a fanatical organization to spice things up.
