[oriesdan]

So basically, on a planet whose surface is covered mainly by oceans, a meteorite fall in an urban area, is big enough not to disintegrate in the atmosphere and small enough not to blow the house and kill the man (I mean, what happened to craters?), and it suddenly makes him rich.

I'm not a religious person myself but I totally get why this man decided to build a church. I just hope he won't make it any weirder by proclaiming himself a chosen one or something, because there's room for that.

[chrismorgan]

I don’t get the impression that the proposed church is connected in any way to the meteor or himself as a personality, but since you raise the point:

Some time around 54 AD, silversmiths started a riot in Ephesus because their trade in idols was being threatened by people listening to Paul’s teachings of Jesus as Christ; then Acts 19:35 says:

> And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?

(The town clerk’s speech was largely, “c’mon, guys, you know better than to throw a tantrum/riot over this—use the legal system if you’ve got a complaint”.)

There’s some uncertainty as to exactly what that meant and referred to, but it would seem to suggest that a meteorite had come to be an important part of their worship.

[FooBarBizBazz]

That's interesting, thanks.

Your post motivated me to google... Wikipedia has a list of uses of meteoric iron dating to 2.5k BC and earlier:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoric_iron

The earliest dagger listed there seems to come from the Hattian people of Anatolia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattians

It sounds like they were a pre-Indo-European group later absorbed/conquered by the Hittites...

[Raphmedia]

Wouldn't be the first time.

"This stone [a black conical meteorite] is worshipped as though it were sent from heaven; on it there are some small projecting pieces and markings that are pointed out, which the people would like to believe are a rough picture of the sun, because this is how they see them."

"A six horse chariot carried the divinity [the meteorite], the horses huge and flawlessly white, with expensive gold fittings and rich ornaments. No one held the reins, and no one rode in the chariot; the vehicle was escorted as if the god himself were the charioteer. Elagabalus ran backward in front of the chariot, facing the god and holding the horses reins. He made the whole journey in this reverse fashion, looking up into the face of his god."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elagabalus_(deity)#:~:text=The....

[gadders]

See also:

"Islamic tradition holds that it fell from heaven as a guide for Adam and Eve to build an altar. It has often been described as a meteorite."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone

[driverdan]

The law of large numbers says this should happen regularly.