Zach's Post:
I recently finished a book titled Chariots of the Gods? Was God an Astronaut? It was written by Erich Von Daniken. Von Daniken is German and this book first appeared in Germany in 1968. Its first English publication was in 1969. The copy I read was a reprinted version from 1998. It had been reprinted 8 times before that. All that to say a lot of people have read this book and after finishing it I can see why. His theories and research are truly fascinating.
I recently finished a book titled Chariots of the Gods? Was God an Astronaut? It was written by Erich Von Daniken. Von Daniken is German and this book first appeared in Germany in 1968. Its first English publication was in 1969. The copy I read was a reprinted version from 1998. It had been reprinted 8 times before that. All that to say a lot of people have read this book and after finishing it I can see why. His theories and research are truly fascinating.
If you are a person interested in anthropology, history,
religion, mythology, astronomy, physics, mathematics, engineering or just
questions about where humans came from than you will enjoy this book. Von
Daniken takes his readers on a journey into some of the earliest known
civilizations of the past. He explores the myths/religion surrounding those
cultures through the archeological evidence they left behind and theorizes that
this planet has been visited by aliens from another world in the past. He
postulates that these aliens may have even been the ones to provide humanity
with many of the tools and technology necessary for the beginning of our
civilizations. He takes you many places including the ancient civilizations of the
Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, Incans, Mayans and others. He examines all the information these people
left behind about themselves whether it be through their texts, temples,
monuments, myths, customs/rituals, or even the layout of their cities. The
historical information alone makes the book worth reading.
When I began the book it was hard not to chuckle at the
author and his theory that aliens visited the earth thousands of years ago and that
they may have even been the main source for the beginning of our religions,
rituals, and early technology. But as I read more I had to stop and ask myself
why I was so dismissive of his idea? I found I had no real cause to be so
outright dismissive except that the idea was so foreign to me that it just
seemed silly. I came to realize that if I had been raised to believe these
things about our past (aliens came to earth) than I would likely believe them
or at least understand why other people did. I mean not long ago I believed in
talking snakes and magic trees of knowledge and I never gave the silliness of those
beliefs a second thought.
I found Von Daniken’s research on South and Central America the most interesting. This is in part because the history of those areas are the most foreign to me as I have not studied them much. One example from this section is the city of Tiahuanaco. It lies in the jungles of Peru and brings with it numerous oddities and questions. The ruins include blocks of sandstone weighing up to 100 tons topped with other 60 ton blocks. There are no quarries anywhere near this site so where did the blocks come from? And how did they arrive at a site over 13,000 feet about sea level? There are also holes 8 feet long found cut perfectly into blocks weighing 10 tons and as of yet no one knows how they were made or what purpose they served. The city also contains a very precise system for water and plumbing. Yet all of this occurred at a time when the tools and skills that seem to be needed for this kind of work simply didn’t exist.
Easter Island is also interesting. Most people are familiar with the huge statues that are scattered about the island but people still can’t definitively explain how these statues were made, where they came from or how they got there. There are hundreds of statues some as high as 66 feet high and weighing up to 50 tons. It is not clear how these stones were dressed or moved to their current location, particularly with the tiny population that the small island can sustain. There were wooden tablets with hieroglyphic characters connected to the statues but European missionaries, as usual, burnt those tablets. There are now only 10 fragments of those tablets scarred in museums around the world but they have yet to be translated. The statues of Easter Island are often connected to Tiahuanaco because one finds that many of the same questions asked by archeologists concerning Tiahuanaco they also ask about Easter Island. More issues surround these two locations beyond merely the size and complexity of the statues and walls they left behind. One must also examine the myths and stories these two cultures had concerning their beginnings. Both Easter Island and Tiahuanaco have creations stories that include golden space ships and flying men or bird men who came from the stars who gave them the tools and knowledge necessary to move out of the dark and into the light.
Lastly, the plain of Nazca is a level strip of land that is 37 miles long and 1 mile wide located in the Andes mountains. On the ground one finds various stones lined up, which don’t seem like much but when one flies over the plain one can see various geometric patterns laid out including lines that run perfectly parallel to one another. These strips are not likely to be roads as most of them don’t interest but even if they were roads it does not explain how the builders were able to makes such precise patterns without somehow viewing them from the air. Of course none of these examples proves aliens have visited this earth but they do create very difficult problems to solve particularly based on the things we do know about the civilizations that existed at the time. There are many more fascinating issues and examples that Von Daniken brings up, most of which I cannot give justice to in this forum but they are worth reading.
I found Von Daniken’s research on South and Central America the most interesting. This is in part because the history of those areas are the most foreign to me as I have not studied them much. One example from this section is the city of Tiahuanaco. It lies in the jungles of Peru and brings with it numerous oddities and questions. The ruins include blocks of sandstone weighing up to 100 tons topped with other 60 ton blocks. There are no quarries anywhere near this site so where did the blocks come from? And how did they arrive at a site over 13,000 feet about sea level? There are also holes 8 feet long found cut perfectly into blocks weighing 10 tons and as of yet no one knows how they were made or what purpose they served. The city also contains a very precise system for water and plumbing. Yet all of this occurred at a time when the tools and skills that seem to be needed for this kind of work simply didn’t exist.
Easter Island is also interesting. Most people are familiar with the huge statues that are scattered about the island but people still can’t definitively explain how these statues were made, where they came from or how they got there. There are hundreds of statues some as high as 66 feet high and weighing up to 50 tons. It is not clear how these stones were dressed or moved to their current location, particularly with the tiny population that the small island can sustain. There were wooden tablets with hieroglyphic characters connected to the statues but European missionaries, as usual, burnt those tablets. There are now only 10 fragments of those tablets scarred in museums around the world but they have yet to be translated. The statues of Easter Island are often connected to Tiahuanaco because one finds that many of the same questions asked by archeologists concerning Tiahuanaco they also ask about Easter Island. More issues surround these two locations beyond merely the size and complexity of the statues and walls they left behind. One must also examine the myths and stories these two cultures had concerning their beginnings. Both Easter Island and Tiahuanaco have creations stories that include golden space ships and flying men or bird men who came from the stars who gave them the tools and knowledge necessary to move out of the dark and into the light.
Lastly, the plain of Nazca is a level strip of land that is 37 miles long and 1 mile wide located in the Andes mountains. On the ground one finds various stones lined up, which don’t seem like much but when one flies over the plain one can see various geometric patterns laid out including lines that run perfectly parallel to one another. These strips are not likely to be roads as most of them don’t interest but even if they were roads it does not explain how the builders were able to makes such precise patterns without somehow viewing them from the air. Of course none of these examples proves aliens have visited this earth but they do create very difficult problems to solve particularly based on the things we do know about the civilizations that existed at the time. There are many more fascinating issues and examples that Von Daniken brings up, most of which I cannot give justice to in this forum but they are worth reading.
Now while I won’t say I was convinced by Von Daniken’s work
to support his hypothesis I must say he did his homework and has a lot of valuable
things to teach people if they choose to read this book. What I do fully
support, as I did before I read this book, is the idea that other intelligent
life does exist in the universe. Simple math makes that hard to deny. But I am
not ready to take the next step that Von Daniken does and say that aliens have
visited earth at some point in our history and may even be the source of much
of humanity’s religions, rituals and early technology.
This book really was a fun book to read and it reads quite
quickly. It is less than 200 pages and is so engaging that I read it in only 2
sittings over 2 days. For those open to the exploration of the universe and
questions about humanity’s past this book will be a joy to read and provide a
lot of good information. Whereas for those who have already
formulated/conformed to more traditional western religious constructs
concerning humanity and the universe this book will (should) provide some
challenging things to think about. The temptation for these people will be to
quickly dismiss the book as silly, like I almost did, but I would encourage
them to take a step back and think about the things being said and the evidence
being shown by Von Daniken before rejecting his ideas. One thing is for certain
about Von Daniken, he provides a more likely explanation for our past and uses
far more evidence to support it than do the most of the major religions of the
world.
All of that to say it’s a good book well worth the read.
If you don't have time to read check out these two videos that address the city of Tiahuanaco and the Nazca lines. They are both from the show Ancient Aliens on the History Channel. There are other programs and people who address this but this show is fairly easy to follow and makes the topic a bit more fun rather than just purely academic.
City of Tiahuanaco
If you don't have time to read check out these two videos that address the city of Tiahuanaco and the Nazca lines. They are both from the show Ancient Aliens on the History Channel. There are other programs and people who address this but this show is fairly easy to follow and makes the topic a bit more fun rather than just purely academic.
City of Tiahuanaco
The Nazca lines
Side note: Von Daniken also wrote two more books to follow up this one and I am sure I will read those at some point in the future.
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