Ok - and this is purely a "Biblical Sci-Fi" scenario...
I sometimes ponder what a coming "Great Deception" might look like and why taking the "Mark of the Beast" secures eternal punishment...
At the heart of sin is a rebellion against God and a desire instead to be your own 'god', whether that takes the form of defiant independence like Frank Sinatra "I did it my way", or delusions of godhood and ascention to "higher planes" which seems to be attractive to many in this selfie generation!
What if there was a conflict, a disappearence explained by abduction and "rescue" of many followed by the arrival of "aliens" perhaps physically, but perhaps even more insidious, from "another dimension".
What if these visitors told us they had "seeded our evolution" with their intelligence, as they had long since transcended biological life to become what new agers like to refer to as "ascended masters" or "gods". What if the offer was that we could be like them?
This new information would no doubt connect with the last 50 years worth of sci-fi programming and esoteric spirituality such as the "Law of ONE" as mentioned by
@Antipapirus to create a compelling narrative.
If these asceded ones were to offer a technology that could enable you to be identified, enhance your faulty genome, connect you to the thoughts of these ascended ones and ultimately for you to transcend ordinary biological life, how many people might reach out to pluck the fruit from the "Tree of Life" and take what in reality would be the Mark of the Beast?
Just my musings, no evidence to prove it but pure conjecture...