Overlords Research Papers

As The Overlords sit in the sky and watch over humanity, they plan what life will be like when they take over and how they are going to do it. Karellen, the most powerful of the Overlords, decides to take a trip to Earth and has dinner with some of the humans. While at dinner he says something that leaves everyone with a blank face, he says “Your race in its present stage of evolution, cannot face that stupendous challenge. One of my duties has been to protect you from the powers and forces that lie among the stars forces beyond anything that you can ever imagine” (Clarke 129). Humankind over the years has become focused on the least amount of work that needs to be done to make sure that it gets done, in other words, humans are lazy. People

By Karellen saying that he is protecting and watching over them, humans are most likely to stop what they were doing in the past, whether it be through religion and prayer or having faith in a God, that is no longer a thought because safety was just assured by the Overlords. Due to the fact that the Overlords believe that they, as a collective total, are the most powerful thing, they do not believe in the religions on Earth; the author says “All the world's religions cannot be right, and they know it, sooner or later man has to learn the truth” (Clarke 116). The truth is the Overlords rule all. Once the human population discovers the truth, their religions are left in the past for the want of being with the best. Humankind cannot stay loyal to one thing, everything changes, hence why there are so many branches of religion. With the Overlords taking over the craving for the power they hold will eat away at the human population until they are apart of it too, and eventually the humans begin to identify with

After Karellen (the most powerful of them all) showed himself, people became more apparent of their presence. With their new-found knowledge, it became clear that Earth, religion, and humankind were a thing of the past, the narrator says “It might be too, that he was beginning to identify with the Overlords and thus to become detached from humanity” (Clarke 20). As humans begin to be one with them, not only is the lifestyle of the Overlords taken on, but their old life is left in the past with everything including religion. Power is enticing, quite frankly, it is something that more often than not is never passed up, with the discovery of the Overlords, humans are drawn to the power they held disregarding the power of faith and religion. Power over people trumps power through religion mostly throughout this book. The author says: “Man, was therefore still a prisoner on his own planet” (Clarke 85). With the main focus being associated with the Overlords, enjoying the protection and power they bestowed upon humans, religion was left. When the opportunity of power presents itself, it is always taken. It makes people feel stronger and bigger leading to believe one is on top of the world, religion cannot create that sense of power, and therefore is abandon to for something that