I watched a show on the History Channel this evening because the topic aroused my curiosity; it was called Ancient Aliens. Here is a brief summary about the program:
Unearthly visitations… Heavenly messengers… Close encounters… Accounts of humans interacting with celestial beings have existed since the beginning of mankind. Many of these encounters resulted in moral, philosophical and artistic inspirations. But did these contacts involve ethereal beings from heaven or extraterrestrials from other worlds? Are holy books the word of God, or guidebooks passed down by more advanced civilizations? Who told Joan of Arc how to defeat the English Army–saints or extraterrestrials? Could a young boy from India have learned advanced mathematical formulas from a Hindu goddess? What message did an American serviceman receive while touching an alien aircraft? If the Ancient astronaut theory is correct, then are beings from other worlds communicating with us for our benefit… or theirs? Just what is the purpose of these alien contacts?
Ancient alien theory grew out of the centuries-old idea that life exists on other planets, and that humans and extraterrestrials have crossed paths before. The theme of human-alien interaction came into view in the 1960s, driven by a wave of UFO sightings and popular films like 2001: A Space Odyssey. The space program played a part in this as well: If mankind could travel to other planets, why couldn’t extraterrestrials visit Earth?
In 1968, the Swiss author Erich von Däniken published Chariots of the Gods?. He writes that thousands of years ago space travelers from other planets visited Earth, where they taught humans about technology and influenced ancient religions. He is regarded by many as the father of ancient alien theory, also known as the ancient astronaut theory.
Most ancient alien theorists point to two types of evidence to support their ideas.
- The first is ancient religious texts in which humans witness and interact with gods or other heavenly beings who descend from the sky (sometimes in vehicles resembling spaceships) and possess spectacular powers.
- The second is physical specimens such as artwork depicting alien-like figures and ancient architectural marvels like Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt.
If aliens visited Earth in the past, could they make an appearance in the future? For ancient alien theorists, the answer is yes. They believe that, by sharing their views with the world, they can help prepare future generations for the inevitable encounter that awaits them.
The pyramids, Stonehenge, Atlantis, the Mayans… all advanced for the times. The program mentioned another example of an ancient alien visit; a mythical island called Brazil, or Hy-Brazil (sometimes called the other Atlantis). It is a phantom island mentioned in many Irish myths. It was said to be cloaked in mist, except for one day each seven years, when it became visible but could still not be reached.
From a non-biblical perspective, they would have us believe that the encounters we read about in the Bible where angels (or a pre-incarnate theophany) are visiting God’s faithful would actually be encounters with E.T. For example:
- Noah (Genesis 6:13): God approaches Noah about destroying the world by a flood. The Gilgamesh Epic records that he is to transform his own house into the ship he would save himself and the animals; it’s even shaped like a cube (could it be Borg? Resistance is futile). The point is that alien technology (far more advanced than the times) was utilized to save mankind.
- Abraham (Genesis 18:1, 2-3, 19:1): God visits Abraham at his tent, and some angels go to visit Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Job and Isaiah (Isaiah 40:22, Job 26:7): When Isaiah wrote this verse he used a Hebrew word to describe the shape of the earth. Although the word is commonly translated into the English word “circle,” the literal meaning of this word is “a sphere.” In the Job passage, when we consider that twenty-eight centuries ago the prevailing view of the earth was that it was flat and resting on the back of an animal or Greek god, the biblical view of a spherical earth suspended on nothing is astonishing. The point is, how would this be known unless these men were taken up in a spaceship to see the Earth from orbit?
- Moses (Exodus 3:2, 34:29): The burning bush experience and the shining face from being with God up on the mountain.
- Joshua (Joshua 5:13, 14, 15): The captain of the Lord’s army with a drawn sword.
- Paul (Acts 9:3, 4-5): Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
Why is it so difficult to accept the fact that God actually exists, yet it is so easy for someone to promote the notion of extra-terrestrials from other planets? The Christian seems to be the one with a foolish belief system? The origin of life coming from alien DNA makes more sense than the supernatural creation of God? If people can be convinced about the existence of aliens coming back to earth, what better explanation for the rapture, when Jesus returns and takes his faithful home?
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Sorry, but insulting me does not get you posted on my site. It seems to me that if the Intelligent Life out there is so intelligent why do they always contact the most gullible of our species? Throwing out words like “evidence” and “proof” don’t make your case. I see there are two questions here, 1) does God exist? and 2) do aliens exist?
1) Does God Exist?
The origin of the universe appears to point toward a divine being of unlimited power and design. If the universe is expanding as most scientist say, then if you go back in time, the universe actually had a beginning; and (perhaps) the Big Bang got it started. The question is, “where did these original elements come from?” Since there is no logical way to have an infinite regress of causes, one cannot say something else caused them to be there; like setting up another domino that pushed over the earliest one. At some point there has to be an uncaused first cause that caused everything else to get started. That would be called God, not leaving out the possibility of aliens being a part of the created universe.
2) Do Aliens Exist?
The second question appears obvious to some people, having unanswered difficult questions as to how ancient humans could build structures like the pyramids. Since we can’t explain how mankind did it, it must be alien technology? If you have the assumption that aliens are involved, your theory will always include aliens.
Experts on Ancient Civilizations on the Construction of the Pyramids
The men below are scientists and archaeologists, and they have a logical interpretation of what happened (and it does not include God). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/who-built-the-pyramids.html
Here’s part of an INTERVIEW WITH MARK LEHNER, Archeologist, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and Harvard Semitic Museum:
NOVA: In your extensive work and research at Giza have you ever once questioned whether humans built the Pyramids?
MARK LEHNER: No. But have I ever questioned whether they had divine or super-intelligent inspiration? (After years in Egypt) I went over, starting from that point of view, but everything I saw told me, day by day, year by year, that they were very human and the marks of humanity are everywhere on them.
And you see there’s this curious reversal where sometimes New Age theorists say that Egyptologists and archeologists are denigrating the ancient culture. They sometimes put up a scarecrow argument that we say they were primitive. And the New Agers sometimes want to say these were very technologically sophisticated people who built these things; they were not primitive. Well, actually there’s a certain irony here, because they say they were very sophisticated technological civilizations and societies that built the Pyramids and the Sphinx, and yet they weren’t the ones that we find. So to me, it’s these suggestions that are really denigrating the people whose names, bodies, family relationships, tools, and bakeries we actually find.
Everything that I have found convinces me more and more that indeed it is this society that built the Sphinx and the Pyramids. Every time I go back to Giza my respect increases for those people and that society, that they could do it. You see, to me it’s even more fascinating that they did this. And that by doing this they contributed something to the human career and its overall development. Rather than just copping out and saying, “There’s no way they could have done this.” I think that denigrates the people whose evidence we actually find.
NOVA: What about the numbers of ancients being able to do this?
MARK LEHNER: (We did an experiment) Certainly we didn’t replicate ancient technology 100 percent, because there’s no way we could replicate the entire ancient society that surrounded this technology. Basically what we were doing is, that we’re setting up the ability to test particular tools, techniques, and operations, without testing the entire building project.
One of the things that most impressed me, though, was the fact that in 21 days, 12 men in bare feet, living out in the Eastern Desert, opened a new quarry in about the time we needed stone for our NOVA Pyramid, and in 21 days they quarried 186 stones.
(The prestigious construction firm DMJM) contacted me and other Egyptologists, and we gave them some references. Here’s what we know about their tools, the inclined plane, the lever, and so on. And without any secret sophistication or hidden technology, just basically what archeologists say, this is what these folks had. DMJM came up with 4,000 to 5,000 men could build the Great Pyramid within a 20- to 40-year period. They have very specific calculations on every single aspect, from the gravel for the ramps to baking the bread.
NOVA: Let’s address the question of who built the Pyramids.
ZAHI HAWASS (the Director General of Giza): We are lucky because we found this whole evidence of the workmen who built the Pyramids. We found the artisans. Mark found the bakery, and we found this settlement of the camp, and hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Overseer of the Site of the Pyramid, the Overseer of the West Side of the Pyramid. We found the craftsmen, the man who makes the statue of the Overseer of the Craftsmen, the Inspector of Building Tombs, Director of Building Tombs—I’m telling you all the titles. We found 25 unique new titles connected with these people.
Then who built the Pyramids? It was the Egyptians who built the Pyramids. The Great Pyramid is dated with all the evidence, I’m telling you now, to 4,600 years, the reign of Khufu. The Great Pyramid of Khufu is one of 104 Pyramids in Egypt with superstructure, and there are 54 Pyramids with substructure. There is support that the builders of the Pyramids were Egyptians. They are not the Jews as has been said. They are not people from a lost civilization. They are not from outer space. They are Egyptian, and their skeletons are here and were examined by scholars and doctors. The race of all the people we found are completely supporting that they are Egyptians.