Another conspiracy theory, this one is being pushed on Netflix.
I've seen guys like this before, Immanuel Velikovsky was convinced of his cosmic pinball theory using Venus, although he never could find any actual evidence, and griped about "the evidence was being covered up."
Outside of the Hysteria Channel...I mean History Channel, Eric Von Daniken and his "ancient aliens" has been discredited and debunked completely.
With Netflixs Ancient Apocalypse, Graham Hancock has declared war on archaeologists
Netflixs enormously popular new show, Ancient Apocalypse, is an all out attack on archaeologists. As an archaeologist committed to public engagement who strongly believes in the relevance of studying ancient people, I feel a full-throated defense is necessary.
Author Graham Hancock is back, defending his well-trodden theory about an advanced global ice age civilisation, which he connects in Ancient Apocalypse to the legend of Atlantis. His argument, as laid out in this show and in several books, is that this advanced civilization was destroyed in a cataclysmic flood.
https://www.rawstory.com/with-netflixs-ancient-apocalypse-graham-hancock-has-declared-war-on-archaeologists/
Alexander Of Assyria
(7,839 posts)multigraincracker
(33,913 posts)No peer-review articles quoted.
sop
(11,078 posts)A good friend teaches Art History at the local University, one of his areas of expertise is ancient Mesoamerican art. He's had a lot of students cite von Däniken in their research papers. He's been forced to expressly prohibit citing such "sources" in his course syllabus, yet every year he has to reject papers for citing these junk sources.
doc03
(36,518 posts)Von Doniken been completely discredited? How did people thousands of years ago accomplish things we would have a problem doing today?
Archae
(46,748 posts)He was an embezzler and liar in Denmark, and his books used altered drawings to "prove" his theory that we couldn't tie our shoelaces until the aliens came along.
https://skepdic.com/vondanik.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_D%C3%A4niken
doc03
(36,518 posts)primitive tools. How did they move 100 ton rocks when they didn't even have domesticated horses? It would take our heaviest construction cranes to build the pyramids today.
Archae
(46,748 posts)The Egyptian Pyramid builders were mostly farmers who would be idled by the Nile flooding each year, so they'd work on the Pyramids for their "God." (The Pharaoh.)
In the Pyramids REAL archaeologists found graffiti, "Work crew #5! We did it!"
No need for "aliens" to cut stones that fit together nicely, with lots of manpower.
Several people have also pointed out that Von Daniken had his "ancient aliens" helping Africans, Asians and Central and South American people, but Europeans didn't need any help according to Von Daniken.
Yes. It is racial.
sop
(11,078 posts)"Von Daniken sold more than 45 million copies of his books, including one, 'Gold of the Gods,' in which he finds a hidden, enormous labyrinth in South America containing vast treasures of gold and such irrefutable proof of alien technology as a plastic chair."
"He wrote that he was driven away from the site by primitive, hostile Indians and couldn't ever find it again. Later still he admitted he made the whole thing up: 'That did not happen,' he said, adding pathetically, 'All the facts do exist but with other interpretations.' (As a young man von Daniken was described by a court psychiatrist as a liar and criminal psychopath just before serving a year in prison for forgery, embezzlement and fraud.)"
"Von Daniken's message was ultimately racist: He exploited the simple-minded idea that primitives in places like the Andes and Central America could not possibly have managed their engineering feats without some kind of outside help. You know how backward those people are! Aliens must have shown them how to build those pyramids."
"Debunker James Randi writes in 'Flim Flam!' that at no point does von Daniken cite such architectural marvels as the Chartres Cathedral, Stonehenge, or the Parthenon, 'because these wonders are European, built by people he EXPECTS to have the intelligence and ability to do such work. He cannot conceive of our brown and black brothers having the wit to conceive or the skill to build the great structures that they did leave behind.'"
https://www.deseret.com/1989/12/24/18839036/tale-of-outer-space-ancestors-is-literary-fraud
AZSkiffyGeek
(12,518 posts)That was enough for me to tap out.
tulipsandroses
(6,085 posts)I turned to something else. Why the hell should I take seriously, anyone not an expert?
This is what got us here. Too many people listening to people that have no expertise.
Our president was taking advice from the my pillow guy and the overstock guy that got duped by a Russian spy. The media fawned over Jenny McCarthy and her anti vax foolery.