May 11, 2012
The Idiocy, Fabrications and Lies of Ancient Aliens
Despite what basic cable cranks might say, Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops were not driven to extinction by aliens. Photo by the author, taken at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.
Until now, I have assiduously avoided Ancient Aliens. I had a feeling that if I watched the show—which popularizes far-fetched, evidence-free idiocy about how human history has been molded by extra-terrestrial visitors—my brain would jostle its way out of my skull and stalk the earth in search of a kinder host. Or, at the very least, watching the show would kill about as many brain cells as a weekend bender in Las Vegas. But then I heard the History Channel’s slurry of pseudoscience had taken on dinosaurs. I steeled myself for the pain and watched the mind-melting madness unfold.
I’m actually glad that my editors don’t allow me to cuss a blue streak on this blog. If they did, my entire review would be little more than a string of expletives. Given my restrictions, I have little choice but to try to encapsulate the shiny, documentary-format rubbish in a more coherent and reader-sensitive way.
The episode is what you would get if you dropped some creationist propaganda, Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods and stock footage from Jurassic Fight Club into a blender. What results is a slimy and incomprehensible mixture of idle speculation and outright fabrications which pit the enthusiastic “ancient alien theorists,” as the narrator generously calls them, against “mainstream science.” I would say “You can’t make this stuff up,” but I have a feeling that that is exactly what most of the show’s personalities were doing.
There was so much wrong with the Ancient Aliens episode that I could spend all week trying to counteract every incorrect assertion. This is a common technique among cranks and self-appointed challengers of science; it is called Gish Gallop after young earth creationist Duane Gish. When giving public presentations about evolution and creationism, Gish rapidly spouted off a series of misinterpretations and falsehoods to bury his opponent under an avalanche of fictions and distortions. If Gish’s opponent tried to dig themselves out, they would never be able to make enough progress to free themselves to take on Gish directly. Ancient Aliens uses the same tactic—the fictions come fast and furious.
While the main point of the episode is that aliens exterminated dinosaurs to make way for our species—a sci-fi scenario accompanied by some hilarious, mashed-together footage of dinosaurs fleeing from strafing alien craft, perhaps a preview of Dinosaurs vs. Aliens the movie—the various ancient alien experts do little more than assert that such an event must have happened. Surprise, surprise, they provide no actual evidence for their claims. Instead, they borrow evidence for fundamentalist Christians, who are never actually identified as such. Creationist Michael Cremo is identified only as the author of Forbidden Archeology, and Willie E. Dye is credited as a biblical archaeologist without any mention of his young earth creationist views. Ancient Aliens producers clearly did not care about the credentials or expertise of the talking heads they employed—just so long as someone said the right things in front of the camera.
And the creationists didn’t disappoint. About halfway through the program, Cremo says, “Some researchers found human footprints alongside the footprints of dinosaurs.” The quote is a line out of context from Cremo’s interview, but is played in a section claiming that American Museum of Natural History paleontologist Roland T. Bird found human footprints associated with dinosaur trackways in the vicinity of Glen Rose, Texas.
Bird didn’t find any such thing. He found many dinosaur footprints and trackways—one of which he and his crew partially excavated and anachronistically placed behind the AMNH’s “Brontosaurus“—but no human tracks. Strangely, though, hoaxed human tracks did have a role to play in Bird’s decision to initially visit the tracksites.
Bird wasn’t the first person to notice the dinosaur tracks, and selling the sauropod and theropod tracks was a cottage industry in the vicinity of Glen Rose. And a few local people carved fake human tracks in the same stone. Bird actually saw a pair of such forgeries at a trading post in Gallup, New Mexico, along with dinosaur tracks removed from the Glen Rose area, shortly before he left to investigate the site himself.
Bird wasn’t fooled by the fakes. He saw them for what they were, and was much more interested in the real dinosaur tracks imprinted in the same stone. But some creationists, blinded by dogma, have put their faith behind fakes and even dinosaur tracks that they have misinterpreted as being human footprints. When theropod dinosaurs squatted down, for example, the backs of their lower legs, the metatarsals, left slightly curved depressions in the Cretaceous sediment, and creationists have misconstrued these markings to be the footsteps of ancient people.
Dye takes up the standard creationist line that humans and dinosaurs coexisted and reappears a little later in the episode to throw his support to a different icon of creationist nonsense—the Ica stones from Peru. These famous fakes are stones engraved with images of dinosaurs and humans interacting. They were created by farmer Basilio Uschuya and his wife, using pop culture depictions of dinosaurs in books as their guides. Despite this, both Dye and the Ancient Aliens program present the stones as if they were authentic ancient artifacts that record the survival of dinosaurs such as Triceratops to almost the present day. Dye says that ancient people must have known a lot about dinosaurs because the stones are engraved so precisely, even though we know that precision came from Uschuya copying mid-20th century dinosaur art so carefully. Our narrator says that scientists are skeptical about the origin of the stones, but nothing more.
The show offers a few other awful gems. Our narrator goes on at length about how carbon-14 dating is unreliable for telling the age of dinosaurs, but paleontologists do not use carbon-14 to estimate the age of non-avian dinosaurs. Radiocarbon dating only works for carbon-bearing materials up to about 60,000 years old. Instead, paleontologists use different radiometric dating techniques to constrain the history of non-avian dinosaurs. In uranium-lead dating, for example, geologists investigate the relative abundance of uranium and lead, the element uranium decays into, to determine the age of the rock the materials were sampled from.
Different dating systems are used for rocks of different ages, and these techniques have put time estimates on when dinosaurs lived. The key is finding layers such as ash beds that contain radioactive materials and are above or below layers containing dinosaurs. Since dinosaur bones themselves can’t be reliably dated, geochronologists determine the age of the under- or overlying rock to constrain the timeframe for when the dinosaur lived. Ancient Aliens, reliant on tired creationist talking points, casts aspersions over a process that the show’s creators clearly don’t understand.
But my favorite bit of babble involves the ultimate fate of the dinosaurs. The show can’t even keep its own story straight. Fringe television personality Franklin Ruehl makes a case for the modern or recent existence of non-avian dinosaurs by way of the coelacanth. These archaic lobe-finned fish, which Ruehl rightly points out were around long before the first dinosaurs evolved, were thought to be extinct before a live one was hauled up off South Africa in 1938. Since then, a handful of fossil coelacanth finds has bridged the gap between their modern representatives and those that lived at the end of the Cretaceous 66 million years ago. Their unexpected reappearance has often been used by cryptozoologists and true-believers of various stripes to claim that some other prehistoric lineage may really still be out there, even if there’s no actual evidence to suggest this is so.
As paleontologist Darren Naish has pointed out multiple times, though, the coelacanth is a red herring. In strata from the past 66 million years or so, at least, coelacanth fossils are rare and hard to identify. It’s not really surprising that their fossil record appears to have petered out. Non-avian dinosaurs, however, had bones that were far more diagnostic. In fact, the resolution of prehistoric eras gets better as we investigate slices of time approaching the present. If creatures as large and distinctive as Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Apatosaurus and Tyrannosaurus really did thrive for millions of years after the end-Cretaceous asteroid impact, they would have turned up in the fossil record by now. The evidence is clear—with the exception of avian dinosaurs, all other dinosaur lineages went extinct about 66 million years ago.
Shortly after Ruehl makes his proclamation, however, the program entirely forgets what he said. Near the show’s conclusion, the narrator speculates that aliens manipulated dinosaur DNA to turn the imposing creatures into smaller, less-dangerous animals like the coelacanth. Never mind that coelacanths were already present in the world’s oceans more than 360 million years ago—more than 130 million years before the very first dinosaurs evolved. The suggestion is unadulterated bunk (as is they whole show, really). And then crazy-haired alien fanatic Giorgio Tsoukalos throws out another idea. The coelacanth really did go extinct, he suggests, but was revived by a “direct guarantee from extraterrestrials” millions of years later. Why? Tsoukalos doesn’t seem to care. And his talking head peers generally mutter about aliens clearing the way for our species somehow.
The show can’t seem to decide whether aliens exterminated dinosaurs 66 million years ago or whether dinosaurs somehow survived to the modern era. Which is it? Did aliens clear away dinosaurs so that we might live? Or did some dinosaurs escape extinction somehow? Competing ideas bounce around like ping-pong balls during the whole episode. Grandpa Simpson tells more coherent stories.
There were a few real scientists on the program. Paleontologists Luis Chiappe and Mark Wilson, for example, make appearances throughout the show. I can’t help but feel bad for them, and wonder whether scientists should simply boycott appearing on such programs. While I think it’s worthwhile and essential to call out false claims made in the name of science—such as intelligent design and myths of living dinosaurs—programs like Ancient Aliens only abuse scientists. Responsible researchers are typically taken out of context to help set up unsupported fictions spewed by the alien fan club. Shows like Ancient Aliens, MonsterQuest and Finding Bigfoot apparently have little or no interest in actually talking about science. The most sensationalist speculation will always triumph. On these shows, scientists just can’t win.
Ancient Aliens is some of the most noxious sludge in television’s bottomless chum bucket. Actual experts are brought in to deliver sound bites that are twisted and taken out of context while fanatics are given free reign. Fiction is presented as fact, and real scientific research is so grossly misrepresented that I can only conclude that the program is actively lying to viewers. To present the show as a documentary, on a non-fiction network, is a loathsome move by the History Channel spinoff. (Technically, Ancient Aliens airs on an offshoot of the History Channel called H2.) If the network and the show’s creators want to present Ancient Aliens as a light survey of fringe ideas and make it clear that the ideas aren’t meant to be taken seriously, I can’t quarrel with that. But Ancient Aliens and shows like it winnow away at actual scientific understanding by promoting absolute dreck. Ancient Aliens is worse than bad television. The program shows a sheer contempt for science and what we really know about nature.
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I am no scientist or doctor or writer. I am just a simple man. I just started watching ancient aliens and these are just theories. As for the episode in question, I have not seen it but as I always do after watching the episodes, I say to myself. ” If all this is true then it is a very interesting theory. Just like I would say when I would go to church and listen to sermons. The fact is that nobody really knows how life started. We have the big bang theory, the evolution theory,the religious theories the ancient alien theories. I think that constructive criticism is good but insulting should be left out and again after reading this I have to say to myself “Well if is this is true then it is a very interesting theory. “
Hello all,
I personaly love the show, but to me it’s about entertainment, but the author is completly correct, alo statements made on the show are based on absolutely no evidence other than the ancient aliens theorists interpretations… I do shudder at the thought of less knowledgable people watching it as it makes people with little or no knowledge of actual sciéntific facts actually think about it and put pieçes togetjer which arent there…
I think that it is quite bad that this kind of fringe science is on a channel such as the history channel as it is just bad, the theories are utter crap, and make it seem like ancient man wasnt capable of doing anything on its own, they always exclude the fact that humans do t have an imagination and that anything which was depicted MUST HAVE BEEN REAL, but thats just it, they make wild claims then the only back up is that other civilizations dis something similar, why would it be similar? Just ne explanation, aliens!
And everyone commenting complain, oh but you cant disprove them, actually you can in many many instances, dont make your own decision just because they say it with such conviction, if you are considering beleiving these theories do some research first and you will find that none of what they say makes any sense.
Those of you that question saying oh how were the piramids built with what we had back then? Just look up the process do the calculations yourself based on what the more accepted theories are, just because ite wás difficult doesnt mesn it was impossible, if they really had alien technologies back then to make these techs why would they build with basic tools and materials? Why werent they building skyscapers and suff like that?
Alas i digress, mu tip to all you haters of this author, just do some research yourself and pickup a sciencebook…. Not saying aliens dont exist, because i beleive they do.. But use some common sense before beleiving in theories like this one which have no basis in fact or logic.
Btw i am a cristian evolutionist, so i get hate from both sides… But i do not dismiss facts nor logical theories which are put forth by science and true research
@197 I think people who complain about the article are complaining about the fact that this article is biased to the bone and very shortsighted for science.. They’re not saying everything in the show is fact.. Science means questioning stuff. And I’m pretty sure most people agree with the fact that alot of stuff told in AA is too ridiculous to believe, but there are things u can’t explain and why can’t it be aliens? I’m not saying it is, but it’s not impossible either! on a sidenote: a christian evolutionist.. how does that work?
#189. Ditto lol
Well said
the “mainstream scientists” which are attacking aa so viciously, stiflin any an all possibilities of any an all parts of ancient astronaut theory with such malice do seem vaguely familiar… creation evolutionists maybe? LOL haters gona hate… and hate… and hate…
First off, 189, couldn’t have said it better myself. The arrogance of certainty is a major human flaw.
I looked through the episodes to the part a lot of you were getting angry about, the part where the show says that its theories are true and every other theory or accepted doctrine is inherently false. Oh wait… that’s just pissy humans being pissy humans.
One thing I need to address. To the one who said Michael Cremo is Hindu and Hindu’s believe in creationism, let me school your ignorant ass.
Hindu’s believe the universe was created by an explosion of anti-matter fused by a Higgs Boson (An explosions of positive and negative energy) This created a Big Bang that reversed the universal geomagnetic poles which are controlled (or put into a course of chaos) by black holes which creates the great emptiness before a new cycle begins with a new big bang. Hindu’s believe that the universe is immortal and so time is a non-factor to the universe. Ultimately, this was not the first cycle and we have no proof that an end of a cycle ends all intelligent life in that cycle or ones that have survived the previous cycle.
@198 The article is only slightly biased, but most arguments the author makes are based on real science with more than just interpretations but real research behind it – I don’t agree that it’s short sighted for science, it’s spot on, you cannot make claims with only interpretations as your evidence, that’s not how science works, yes science is the pursuit of the truth and questioning everything, but “science” used in the Ancient Aliens theory, just isn’t science as it’s only based on coincidences and the theorists interpretation.
I also agree it’s not impossible that aliens have visited us, that’s not up for debate, what is up for debate is the fact the the ancient astronaut theory as it stands links every major accomplishment by humanity to aliens and gives little or no credit to us with no proof.
Re, your side note (christian evolutionist) – It works for me because I have faith in god, and to me evolution does not disprove god and there is a lot of good evidence for evolution, as Einstein once said Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind
Where did you find out what Hindus believe in big bang etc from ?,
Did any hindu text ever try to explain how earth was created?
Or did they even bother about earth? Earft was is and will be a silly thing For Hindus there is a unity essentially called as ‘ATMA’, THere is no English meaning for that one, THough many say it is soul or life or whatever. Hindus always thought what you essentially sees are all fake and not real, They call it ‘MAYA’, They also dont real care about even your body, IT is ‘ATHMA’ which matters, and Atma is so powerful , indestrictible and remains forever, and IT is a part of what they call god. Every Hindu believes god is in fact in everything, So …..
Well as for aliens , Hindus wont bother, They believed in at least 14 known worlds and always thought beings from all these frequented other worlds at the flick of an eyelid. So they wont find any problem with aliens or other planets too…
Mainstream scientists are the bullies of society. Always downplaying, rejecting and characterizing those with different ideas.
I think Ancient Aliens is very entertaining! For one thing, it takes the viewer to some very interesting and bizarre places we might not otherwise see, like Puma Puku which I’d never heard of before, and gives us a good detailed look at some of them. In our distant past, main- stream science has also “gotten it wrong” with non-repeatable theories about things, so its not a good idea to get too entrenched in one position. The programs are interesting enough with enough real science scattered throughout, that viewers might learn a few things they will no longer learn in our abysmal modern education system. It might open a mind or two to new ideas, but like politics the True Believers will never change their views, they are intractable and mired by belief.
Wow, i cannot even believe how biased and close-minded this blog is ,as well as some of the comments posted. If you had actually payed any sort of attention to the message Ancient Aliens is portraying, you would realize that they are trying to broaden the horizon of human understanding of our earths history by offering alternative explanations to certain anomalies that NO ONE can explain. And for you to suggest that you have all of the answers regarding the dinosaurs is just simply ..CRAZY! All that the Ancient Alien Theorist are trying to say is that aliens MAY have had a part in the extinction of dinosaurs they DO NOT state that this is fact. However, after reading this blog the author is stating that everything we know about dating rocks and bones and the era of dinosaurs is 100% true..for me that is hard to believe seeing how the author WAS NOT ALIVE at that point in time, none of us were (meaning no one actually knows the ultimate truth).NO ONE knows EXACTLY what happened and to close your mind to any other possibilities because of the lies our society has been told for many many years is absolutely ridiculous and almost makes me feel sad for those humans that are so close-minded. AND YES they are based on SCi-Fi films because as you may know most SCIENCE FICTION is now SCIENCE FACT so to say that science fiction is just “fantasy” is very naive. Ancient ALiens is not trying to provide people with false facts but is actually providing explanations or suggestions for many things that SCIENTISTS cannot answer. Another point.. i am very sorry to say but many theories proposed by the scientific community have been proven wrong by no other than SCIENCE itself so to say that what we know now is the ULTIMATE TRUTH is just laughable.
“There was so much wrong with the Ancient Aliens episode that I could spend all week trying to counteract every incorrect assertion”…What gives this author the authority to say that everything is INCORRECT!! All we have are assumptions of the past and some scientific evidence to prove points in history. However most of the evidence does contradict itself and there are no FACTUAL explanations for the pyramids and other ancient structures that we are only beginning to understand.
So once again, all i am trying to say is that scientific evidence will always be subjected to criticism because what we currently know is not what actually was, but only a small PORTION of the truth. And ancient aliens is merely a different explanation of our past. Now to say that only ONE is right and the other is a JOKE is absolutely disheartening. And I, as a human being hope that we change our attitudes towards human identity and beliefs (targeted towards many of these comments). Remember that EVERYONE has the right to believe in what they think is true and this article is ripping that LAW away from those ancient alien believers.
To conclude, it is absolutely false to say that the ancient alien theory is not true because it has neither been proven to be true nor false. So as of know it is just another theory. I hope that one day it will be proven to be true just to show humanity that we are NOT as perfect as we think, and that we know very little about ourselves and our planet, therefore to state that everything within the series about dinosaurs is FALSE , is just the authors biased opinion.
@ Brian Switek and all other closed minded ignorant people
You and the rest of your followers are so ignorant its unbelievable.
1st of all, Ancient Aliens is a great show and all they are doing is giving their OWN THEORIES on what mainstream science says. What mainstream science says about the past is WAY more fiction than ANYTHING Ancient Aliens has ever said.At no point does anyone on Ancient Aliens say that they are 100% right BUT you “smart educated scientist” claim to be right about EVERYTHING you say with NO probable FACT,your way worse than Ancient Aliens. Thats the problem with you people, you have to know everything even though you have no clue what happened in the past,so stop being so high and mighty and showing your ignorance, just as YOU SPECULATE what happened in the past so are they.
2nd of all, you (Brian and your followers) are insanely close minded. When you and your followers are either religious or scientist. As being religious you cant say anything because you believe a book written by some man is 100% factual, no that is crazy and as a scientist you should be OPEN MINDED to other possibilities but you just have to know everything which proves not only are you ignorant but you are no good scientist. As a scientist you are suppose to be open to any suggestion and analyze it and determine if it is plausable. all Ancient Aliens is doing is giving another explanation for something that NONE of us knows the answer to.
I truly enjoy the show. I do not take it super seriously , as I found out that the scenes seem to contradict at some points. I take it more like exploration of these ideas and lets see how far we are going to get. It presented so many interesting points that I ne’er knew of and am in full research of now. Discovered sunken city is more real evidence to me than existence of God.
Best show ever. I love that Giorgio’s hair get bigger and carrier every episode.
Thank you History Channel for great and factual documentaries like Ancient Aliens. I’m an 8th grade science teacher and since this show started I have adjusted my syllabus to spend 1/3 of the semester on this show. 3rd year now and going strong – my kids love it!
You only KNOW what you are taught. Try to THINK for a change, for your SELF. ACCEPT that you can never really UNDERSTAND someone else’s point of view. TRY to break out of your own EGO, find another PERSPECTIVE and you will SEE that ANYTHING is POSSIBLE. (KEEP AN OPEN MIND)
I personally enjoy the show very much. The most controversal part, I believe, is that the AA has chosen the History Channel.
*almost* no commercial program is supposed to let down their sponsers. In most of the episodes that I watched, they just raise questions without giving a firm answer.
The more I read these blogs the more I become concerned, realizing that it is going to be difficult as a whole society to move to the 5th dimension. We need kindness and knowledge to get there and even though we have a lot of individuals who fall under these requirements, I still feel the masses do not. I read here on these blogs that people think scientific theories are a fact of life and in fact it is just a theory based off certain beliefs. Once those beliefs are proved without any doubt to be false with scientific research, new technologies and archeological finds then those theories go by the wayside, and it becomes Newtonian physics and history. I wish our mainstream educational institutions did have the answers to these ancient artifacts, our history books are based on theories with often the case NO facts to back them up. Mainstream professors refuse to look at the facts because they are not well educated in all the arts, just their specific chosen career. To get to the truth you need a background in engineering, metaphysical sciences, religious texts, astronomy, quantum physics, newtonian physics, cell biology and DNA, ufo’s, astral travel, hypnosis, ESP, mental telepathy, mediumship, Near death experiences, reincarnation and past lives, clairvoyants, ancient texts, ancient civilizations, modern miracles, kinesiology, spiritualism etc.etc. Once you have a pretty good grasp of all these sciences then you can see more of the big picture and all the pieces of the puzzle start to make more sense. When we go in the classroom and teach from the same book year in and year out, we only get one perspective or piece of the puzzle, and the big picture still remains a mystery. I look at life as a journey that started thousands if not millions of years ago, I believe at one time we understood more on how this universe works on the quantum level, but we have lost our way and have forgotten, it is like we have amnesia. Now we are trying to remember to get ourselves and society back on track. I think it is like buying a puzzle at a discount store where the finish picture is missing from the cover. Every time we put another piece in the puzzle, or read another book on another theory or latest research, we get closer to the answers. If we continue for years to look at a few pieces of the puzzle or in this case read the same books over and over again, it will be just that a unfinished picture and we could never possibly get to the truths. When you think you finally have the answers, read another book or download another interview or documentary, and you may find it will open up a whole new puzzle.
207.@ Brian Switek and all other closed minded ignorant people
brian why don’t you take every single acient alien show , and show us why they are saying things that are so wrong……then maybe just maybe i will not think you are a complete idiot. go ahead big mouth show us the way , stop flapping and start proving (working) go ahead make a show of your own prove all to be so wrong….go ahead do it now !!!!! oh so smart one ….give us the ultimate answers to everything !!!
The Ancient Alien theory’s make more sense than the theories about religion.
I was just thinking about the good ole days when I had tired of all of the silly nonsense that was going on and decided to put an end to mankind with a good old fashioned flood. I liked Noah and thought that he would be a good one to spare. After reading some of the comments on here, that might be something to think about again.
There seems to be a number of self righteous folks around that speak out of both sides of their mouths. They act like they are all me-fearing people that make fun of other’s hair or criticize TV shows that they aren’t smart enough to understand. They put down people that have
comments or beliefs that differ from theirs. Many are narrow minded and not willing to think about the world around them.
The only problem is going to be finding another Noah in this mass of inhumanity……and the price of lumber these days……whew.
Hmm. There’s actually lots of evidence. Read a book. Or books. There are tons of them on this subject.
The whole point of science is that testing and reevaluation of the data occurs constantly. Scientists are skeptical of new ideas(hypotheses) for the very fact that they are untested and new. Once sufficient evidence is on the side of the new theory true scientists will happily side with the newest, most accurate theory-or look like fools. Obviously people will have different interpretations of the findings, but this general consensus is what then gets taught and accepted as “fact.” Of course we don’t know everything about earth’s history but that is no reason to claim we know nothing about it! And although there is a chance, however small, that dinosaurs went extinct because of alien hunts, where is the evidence? On the other hand we have a big hole in the ground in Central America, worldwide agreement in dating of the disappearance of dinosaurs, space dust, evidence of meteorite fragments…Which one looks more likely? Kind of like knowing your ex has a grudge against you and a certain criminal proclivity, coming home to the smoking ruins of your house, finding the remains of a gas can and half your divorce paper…and blaming aliens.
Was God an Alien?
In World War 2 an American fighter pilot crash-landed in the Brazilian rainforest where he was discovered by an isolated tribe of natives. Impressed by his technical gadgetry and his descent from the sky, these primitive people elevated him to the status of a god and created a religion around him. Today, the “proof” of their religion consists of a series of artifacts hanging from tree branches, including items such as a broken plane engine, an empty cigarette lighter and a rusting pocketknife. But to the educated reader, these artifacts are instead testimony to the fact that the artifacts of a religion are not proof of the religion itself but rather proof of the actual event which occurred (and was quite possibly misinterpreted). As Arthur C. Clarke once said, “any sufficiently advanced technology is perceived as miracle”. Could Christianity be the product of a similar misinterpretation?
#214 Ancient Aliens and Religion are fighting over the same bone, it all depends on who’s looking at it. It’s the same thing. #218 God IS the chief Alien. The Earth is as old as the universe, the possibility, well just think about it. it’s our job to sift and find out what went before us. we want (all of us) to know the truth and stop being so stupid about it we all live on this planet. Chris Weber.
The bible is the most misinterpreted writing that has ever existed. People waste their lives away believing in things that didn’t exist. The truth is the truth and reality is reality.
God was an alien and Jesus was a half breed. No matter how many people believe in a certain set of criteria, or how many “facts” that any one person can deliver on a topic or how many people gather to rejoice in that common belief, the real facts are the real facts.
If someone needs the crutch of religion and some belief in a higher being to get thru the day that is their choice. But that still doesn’t change what is myth and what is reality.
For anyone who is interested, here is our take on the ancient aliens thesis:
http://www.skepticblogs.com/tippling/2012/09/21/skeptical-about-aliens-history-channel-style/
Dubious, to say the least!
It is so amazing to me how we humans, Americans in particular, are so afraid of different ideas and are so quick to condem and thinking that is NOT their own. “Everybody is totally wrong but them”. This kind of thinking has gotten us into very severe trouble in the past and will continue to put us behind the “Eight Ball”, in the future. Keep beloieving all the “Educated Idiots” out there who are the only one who have the answers to EVERYTHING!!! “GOD help us all”……..
I cant believe how nieve people are. AA is the best show ever. Open your eyes and minds! Crop circles prove they exist have a look at the sacred geometry or do u think pranksters with planks make them. A team of surveyors would take a week just to set abasic one out let alone in a field at night between 2 & 4am As for megalithic structures, modern cranes would find it very difficult to move 350tn blocks of granite, Puma Punku is a perfect example of precision machine cutting. If u still cant accept I suggest u watch “The Fourth Kind” where a ufo is captured on an american police surveliance camera. Dont u ever consider how far technology has lept in the past 60 years since Roswell- mobile phones;led lighting,fibre optics,stealth technology & the laptop you are on- all reverse engineered. Even the bible talks of ufos- Ezekiels wheels, but there is no mention of dinosaurs. The catholic church did not know back then- they would burn you alive if u thought the sun didnt revolve around the earth. A lot more people should learn their history or do they still believe a dingo could not have taken Lindy”s baby!
The well being of over educated people seem to be quickly degraded by the notion of higher -anything
The real fact is:
There’s some explaining to do about some things.
A program like AA is offering ideas.
Debunk this concept is more wasteful than generating your own ideas, in my opinion.
Progress people.
Hi.
This Ancient Aliens Show is really interesting.
Look at all the comments it generates.
I believe there could be some truth to it.
Obviously not everything is true.
Another theory I have, is that Human Civilization was much more advanced in the past.
And not just once…but a couple of times.
Through some natural disasters (volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, solar flares, etc) we lost our technology plus population numbers and became primitive again.
It took us thousands of years to become advanced again…
only to be decimated by disasters again.
And so the cycle continues.
We build it up – it gets destroyed – we start again.
The Mayans might have tried to document that.
And all the old unexplained artifacts and myths might also be an attempt to let future generations know about these disasters and about what technology was achieved before.
Bye.
There is “things” like inventions in 2000/3000/4000/5000 years ago.
Example : the main capital of many ancient folks are aligned miraculously and theses capital are in different continents.
Only in sky it can be done, there is no way or other explanations to it beyond that.
And btw, the “ancient aliens” did not know it was their own realm and the bots they “wore”, made by that traitorous realm, that caused the BIG BANG. The “aliens” were just dead people who had been deceived. The “Alien” is actually a conspiracy of ONE plus its bitchXmen wives who lie and deceive. The maker of the “bots” is the dark matter and black holes in the universe, which is ONE self-aware evil entity that hides its self-awareness and is the most vile, and disgusting energy thug imaginable. It has many “bots” aka ROS or robots of satan it works as puppets who are completely soulless and act goody-goody and nice as it plots and plans to blow up the universe. None of the bots are free to speak about that evil realm; it is only real humans who can tell the truth.
Tara
No one’s strapping you to a chair and forcing you to watch AA, and while you’re very entitled to your opinions, why not lose the hard on for modern science (merely a giant book of scratched out and revised hypothesis) and at least sit ON the fence and learn something?
I agree, and I LOL as I type this, the thought of an Arquillian battle-cruiser strafing Littlefoot is pretty absurd, but there are some valid points made on the show… SUCH AS: The golden idols found in Columbia that seem to show little men in spacesuits complete with helmets and breathing apparati… Hmmm, now why on Earth (pun INTENDED) would ancient people depict their “gods”, who we would assume are perfect in every way, as obviously needing mechanical help to breathe in the atmosphere they themselves supposedly created? Now I realize this isn’t hardcore in your face proof, but then again I’m just a lonely dude on a fence remember?
Climb on up fellas, there’s plenty of room…
So lets get worked up because there’s no alien bones to dig up in a desert, or Nessie hasn’t washed up on the banks of the loch… But just think… How often do you take a nature hike and walk up on an old gray deer that has just passed away from natural causes? Geez, whatever happened to the good old days of scientific “exploration”? Now we’re stuck with scientific nazism, headed by ignorant nimrods like Master Switek here, who cling to, and dry-hump to death, what is known (and I use the word “known” quite loosely) by modern science, instead of searching for more answers… So yeah I think we can all agree that an Arquillian battle-cruiser probably didn’t come through and strafe Littlefoot and company, but why not look at the fact that most, if not all, ancient cultures seem to reference “Sky Gods”? Need I remind everyone that science is nothing but a constantly rewritten book of THEORIES??? Let’s all just calmly climb down from humanity’s high horse, and maybe think about the fact that we are a mere silent fart in the shitstorm that has been time and space so far…
scientist like to pretend like they are sooo very different from religious people. its funny though how easily they get themselves past the hard questions, the chicken or the egg is a very valid argument, i think, evolution lost. im not saying evolution doesnt make alot of sense and isnt the most reasonable answer we have, but its important to acknowledge the holes in our own beliefs. ancient aliens is cool because it presents another idea, because the truth of the matter is, that neither science or religion can stand up under heavy fire
It appears I walked into a room of people drinking the special koolaid. I can see the educational system is doing a fine job. A fine, fine job.
Was a little discouraged by the negativity in the blog, but then I started reading the responses. Awesome to see people having an open mind and not letting an over-fluffed, scientific “bible thumper” dictate what is “true” or “false”. Go Team!!
Notice how the author states he’d NEVER watched the show yet claimed to know everything about it reviewing it as “a show which popularizes far-fetched, evidence-free idiocy about how human history has been molded by extra-terrestrial visitors”…interesting.
How can you know what something is about if you’ve never watched it? Do you review scientific literature without actually reading the studies?
Delusions of grandeur much…?
32 Yo Mama – A couple things. There were over two hundred comments with this article with varying views. Many of the original ones were bible thumpin fanboys of teh author B.S., so ample named by the way.
I too have sampled the koolaid, my favorite is the one named “reality”. Set the bible down and try it.
The article was funny, but what is funnier are the comments. The same old dull crap about keeping an open mind and closed minded Scientists and Science being a religion. The old bromide that Scientists only having theories etc. It is oh so old hat and oh so boring.
It is also rather obvious that many if not all of the commenters don’t have a clue about ancient civlizations. But they are more than willing to pour contemot on those who have devouted their lives to the detailed study of same.
Oh and those interested in monumental buildings at Tiwanaku and among the Incas you might want to read stuff by Jean-Pierre Protzen. He at least as actually experimented on various methods the Incas likely used.
TV Hosts (Them) Vs. Blogger (Brian Switek)
They do research. You do not.
They have published books on the subject. You have not.
They have their own TV show. You do not.
Looks like a 3-0 score for them!
Yes they are a bit nutty. But if you look at just the evidence presented and do your own research you will learn something.
For example, Archaeologists have told us that the Pharaohs were buried in the pyramids.
The truth is that in the 100 pyramids in Egypt there have never been any bodies found. Why has the scientific world lied about this?
Food for thought…
RM
For starters, Brian, how about a few less adjectives and more substance. Brian makes very few valid points and totally bashes a show (Ancient Aliens = AA) that is admittedly based on a “THEORY”. Furthermore, Brian admits this is the only AA episode he has seen. AA theory provides more evidence than christianity or any one god ( or multi-god) belief system. Explain Puma Punku and/or Gobekli Tepe just to name a few of hundreds. Science is the epitome of change – The earth is the center of the universe, the earth is flat…enter quantum mechanics. If you people want to remain as fearful mushrooms in the dark reading middle school, lackluster critiques…stay hear and learn nothing. If you want to actually admit you don’t know everything, get away from main stream science and start reading Jordan Maxwell, David Icke and Robert Monroe…just to name a few. Those of you more advanced check out The Leading Edge Research Group at http://www.trufax.org – hands down the best website…EVER. Better hurry though.
First of all, AA is a very interesting show. People, whom i would gladly call as narrow-minded people, think that modern science proves everything and that AA talks about false and stupid ideas. If you take a closer look at it, AA provides BETTER and i repeat, BETTER theories and suggestions regarding our ancient past than what religions of today impose as facts. Open your minds people. I’m not saying or whatsoever that religions of today are teaching false beliefs, but what I do WANT to say is that people should learn how to let the skeptics be skeptics and the believers as believers. Get my point? FYI, i’m not atheist. I do believe that there is one Divine Intelligence behind all of this. AA is just giving out theories about how distantly related were the cultures of the past and the reference to “Sky Gods” may indeed, be the Modern Aliens or UFO’s that we’re referring to as of today. All i want to say is that people should learn how to properly RESPECT what other people has to say and believe. Let’s keep this world as open-minded as possible. Thank you, and good day everyone.
I believe in Aliens!!
AA is a very interesting show. Author may have his own opinion of AA…but still there are lot of questions to answer. Why should Egyptians build a Pyramid? and how they constructed it? How come the Mayan civilizations know the details of Stars and galaxies with out a having a single telescope ? I strongly believe in intelligent life in Cosmos.
LOL. we are on our way to become type 1. I strongly believe the Type 3 /Type 2 knows about us and our lifes.then why don’t they come and contact us? well, we are not a worthy alliance for them….challenges will come once we achieve type 1.Thanks ….:)
main stream scientiest agrees to this and they have classified 3 types of intelligent life. Type 1 -> Who controls weather, earth quakes ,Volcanic eruptions and Tsunamis. These guys can change a desert to a dense forest. Type 2 -> These are dudes who control a star. They can utilize the enegry of their star and near by planets in a most efficent way for their purposes. Type 3 are the ones who controls Galaxies.who can control death of a star and can deal with Black holes.Now where are we? we are type 0
just to correct your blog, they do not say that aliens killed the dinosaurs.. they only ask the question ”could aliens have killed the dinosaurs?” and IF they did what would be their reasons for this..
I love AA. Can’t wait until the next season begins. Very thought prevoking, informative, and entertaining. I may not agree with everything that is said but I respect what is being presented as an alternate viewpoint.
I would like to challenge the belief behind god then too. I have not seen or heard of any actual evidence that there was a god or any such thing. The bible is simply a book. It has been translated so many times that things have been lost an thing could have been changed. Scientific evidence is stated in this show and is backed up by scientist. If you can explain some things of the world please go ahead and try. Dont be bias or anything else. Back yourself up by facts and knowledgeable reasoning. Give me proof that god has created everything at one time an such… we cannot come from nothing… please inlighten me!
“Fiction is presented as fact, and real scientific research is so grossly misrepresented that I can only conclude that the program is actively lying to viewers. To present the show as a documentary, on a non-fiction network, is a loathsome move by the History Channel spinoff.”
Completely true. This show just takes anything remotely mysterious and applies their silver bullet. Aliens. Then they justify their claims the same way people “prove” their god exists.
Pawn stars, Cajun Pawn Stars, American/Canadian Pickers, American restoration, Finding Bigfoot, finding Bigfoot Canada, Brad Meltzer’s Decoded… And all these garbage “documentaries” about boring jobs–like truck driving, crab caging–pretending to be intense, suspenseful, and awesome.
Instead of going to the lowest common denominator, can we have decent TV?