Question by Talowah Solomon: How plausible do you find the ancient alien astronauts theory in comparison with The 5 Major Religions?
For the creation of Mankind that is.
For those who have/haven’t heard of the Ancient Astronaut theory:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts
http://www.world-mysteries.com/aa.htm
Best answer:
Answer by Lisa M
Yes, I’ve heard of it, however, I always found that it seems quite impossible that a alien species, even the most evolved could create humans.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
They are all equally likely.
It’s just as silly. Throughout history, people have always idealized human consciousness in supernatural forms (and yes, aliens, being outside our natural understanding of things, can be considered supernatural, even though they’re a sci-fi staple). Aliens are just a substitution for ‘Gods’ or ‘angels’ in the ancient astronaut theory, and the evidence in favor of them is basically an appeal to the same ‘god of the gaps’ theory which people use to justify god— ‘here seems something we cannot explain, thus it must be the result of a higher intelligence’.
Often, the massive efforts that went into the pyramids, the geometric brilliance of their design, and their correlation to astronomical and geo-magnetic forces are seen as ‘evidence’ that aliens must have intervened on behalf of a dim-witted humanity which simply couldn’t have done it without help. This theory seemed much easier to believe in a few decades ago, when we didn’t have as much compelling evidence to back the claim that Egyptians, Mayans, and other cultures with pyramids and ‘ancient astronaut lore’ were actually quite advanced. Consider the moving of a whole CITY of Pyramis, in ancient Egypt! We know that giant statues and monuments were dragged for hundreds of miles in the desert by thousands of slaves, all in the name of a supernatural ‘god-king’… so yes, reasons for an action may have been primitive, but human effort and ingenuity can be implemented in the name of any silly cause; and perhaps the ancient astronaut theory is more proof of that.
A lot of the evidence in favor of ‘ancient astronauts’ is also a matter of interpretation… many of the bits of ancient art which portray ‘aliens’ in spaceships, for instance, have been shown by the anthropologists of the cultures referenced to be representations of holy shrines, holy seats, and such. To argue a representation of a human in an odd helmet/mask is an astronaut, rather than someone in a costume (the remains of which have in many cases been unearthed) is a bit of wishful thinking.
As someone who finds the 5 major religions pretty implausible, I admit that if we must endorse some non-human intelligence, I think the argument of probability for the existence of aliens is stronger than the case of ‘faith’ for supernatural gods. But this is something of a faulty dualism. It may just be that ancient human beings are considerably smarter than we give them credit for being. The unfortunate fact that ancient societies had a massive and expendable slave-labor force allowed all sorts of impressive feats, and many of the impressive structures built took generations to create… when you have that sort of time and energy, you can achieve quite a lot.
As for the creation of mankind as a result of alien intelligence… again, this is a ‘god of the gaps’ theory, endorsing aliens in lieu of gods. We can explain our origins with evolution, and great leaps forward in evolution often happen in a relatively short period of time (punctuated equilibrium) before they ‘even out’ in a population. If we reject evolution as our explanation, then sure, aliens are more plausible than magical god-beings… but it’s choosing a really silly idea over an insultingly dehumanizing idea.
edit: the ‘insultingly dehumanizing idea’ would be the religious idea, not evolution. Evolution gives us some mad props for becoming the dominant intelligence in the world we know, whereas religion denies that.
Daniken’s book and the movie and cult phenomena it inspired are riddled with flawed logic and conclusions not supported by facts in evidence. I’d say that makes it as plausible and implausible as any religion I’m familiar with.
Stupid. I guess aliens are a step above magic but we have evidence humans made these anyway..