Monday, February 20, 2012

Chariots of the Gods?

Chariots of the Gods? is a book written in 1968 by Erich von Däniken. The concept the book goes to prove is that alien beings visited and gave advanced technology to ancient civilizations, which in turn led to them being worshiped as gods. The issue becomes did aliens really influence the ancient peoples of the world? The information he provides comes from ancient artifacts, which include the pyramids, stonehenge, ancient inscriptions and art. These artifacts are then interpreted by him to prove his point. The assumptions he makes are that aliens exist and have visited earth, this also leads assumes they had enough contact to influence ancient humans. From the point of view of other scientists his theories have been rejected, and the evidence was faulty, fabricated and/or fraudulent.

However, copies of this book still sell, which is not surprising. This theory is very tantalizing, and many people want to believe that aliens influenced us as a civilization. I even want to believe in this but it can not be proven, therefor it cannot be taken as fact. This idea can however make a great fiction and is the basis for my favorite cult/ science-fiction movie Stargate.

2 comments:

  1. Obviously, with today's technologies and sciences, it is hard to prove aliens even exist. I am pretty sure everyone is smart enough to realize this, but it is fun to think of abstract things. Even though what "science" tells us is accurate, I still find it fun to think that aliens help build the pyramids. I mean seriously, how else did the gold tip of the pyramids get there?

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  2. Interesting topic, I had never heard of this book before, but I did hear of the idea that aliens visited ancient civilizations. It is cool to know what one of the sources is that the believers will reference.

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