[ WP ] You discover that Earth is the `` North Korea '' of the galaxy

Part 1: 
 
 
 The year was 2047. The alien ships appeared in the lawns of the capital building of every major nation simultaneously. The capital in DC, Moscow, Beijing, London, Paris, New Dehli, Tokyo, the UN building in NYC, etc. etc. 
 
 We were not prepared for what they would tell us. So many movies had told us aliens wanted to enslave us, eat us, steal our resources. We listened with trepidation as they spoke to us in our native languages. 
 
 “ People of this sphere, you are now free. The entity that goes by many names has been arrested and taken to a holding facility in another galactic system. You call it God, Allah, the Devil, Ahura Mazda, Shaytan, Shiva, Vishnu and a thousand other names. Irrelevant of what you call it, it has been captured, and you are free now ” 
 We sat around incredulous. God is real? God and the Devil are the same thing? We were slaves? When were we slaves? Besides, most of us don ’ t even believe in religion anymore. Sure we may go to church on the holidays, but it isn ’ t a big part of our lives anymore. You are telling us not only is God real, but he is also the Devil, and you ’ ve arrested him? What for? This makes no sense. This isn ’ t the 17th century when everyone was religious; most of us are non-believers now that this is the 21st century. Why now? 
 
 The aliens spoke to us again: 
 “ Thousands of years ago a powerful energy entity roamed this galaxy in search of a home. It needed energy to sustain itself just as any life form does and there was none it could use among the stars. Just as animals need food and plants need sunlight, this entity needed energy from biological life forms to sustain itself and grow. Eventually it came across your planet as your species was evolving into ones whose brains could process and understand the existence of this entity. 
 
 At first, it showed itself to you by creating avatars. It would possess people, give directions, mandate rules, interact but eventually it grew so strong that this was no longer needed. According to our records this entity has not had to directly interact with humans for over a thousand years. It had grown strong enough. It created the major faiths in the world, and each acknowledgement of its existence made it that much stronger. Soon millions, then billions, of humans were acknowledging the existence of the entity every day. It didn ’ t matter if they called it God or Allah, the Devil or Vishnu. Each prayer, each cry for help, each discussion of its wisdom and justice or lack thereof, each reading of its books, each rejection of the Devil made it stronger. It fed on your attention and used that energy to isolate you from the galactic community. 
 
 However this was not a benevolent entity, it was and is an amoral energy parasite that feeds on conscious attention from sentient biological life forms. Your galaxy is teeming with advanced civilizations. Problems you on this sphere consider insurmountable like hunger, war, disease, cruelty and poverty are child ’ s play to solve for civilizations that evolved millions of years before yours. We look at your insurmountable problems the way you look at a 2 year old who cries hopelessly because they can not find their favorite toy that is hidden behind the couch. The entity knows that the more knowledge you gain and the more you are able to solve your own problems, the less need you have for it. It wanted to keep you desperate, ignorant, in pain and hopeless because it knew you would cry out to it for help. The more ignorant and helpless you are, the more you depend on the entity for answers and the stronger it grows. The entity doesn ’ t dare help you solve your problems, other than rare instances where false hope of its concern for you needed to be provided ( you called these events miracles ). But it needed you to beg it for help to keep itself in power. 
 
 We tried to help, but the entity had grown so strong that we could not penetrate this planet ’ s atmosphere. We could not send knowledge of the universe directly to you, as the entity had blocked the borders of your sphere from outside broadcasts and diplomatic missions. So we sent in undercover agents who could sneak into your sphere to help you free yourselves. Many of your great discoveries in medicine, engineering and science in the last several hundred years were initiated by spies working for us. We wanted to help your species become self sufficient, because we knew the more self sufficiency you had the less you would need the entity. The more you could solve your own problems and explain the universe without having to use the entity to explain these things, the weaker it would get. Every disease that could be cured by what you call medicine meant one fewer prayer for healing. Every new geological and astronomical explanation of the history of your sphere meant one fewer person who believed your sphere was created 6,000 years ago by the entity. Every new advance in meteorology meant one fewer person who thought hurricanes were due to gods wrath. Each time a child ’ s education was done via textbook instead of religious text, the entity grew weaker.
