Another succinct and interesting post by Jason Colavito on that nemesis of clear thinking, the ancient astronaut theory. It’s about Soviet interest in the theory. Some Russians are just as gullible as those in the good old USA.
I’m guessing all PaleoBabble readers know about the Ancient Aliens series put out by the Fantasy Channel (still though of by many as the History Channel). I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be interviewed later this summer for the documentary film response, Ancient Aliens Debunked. If you visit the link you can sign up for email notification when the documentary is released. It will be FREE and viewable online. The trailer is below. The film is being produced by Chris White. Since the documentary will be free, all of the expense incurred by Chris is his own. This has been true of his online and YouTube ministry since its inception. Please visit his site to donate and help support this project!
I just wanted to alert readers to this page on the NASA astrobiology website. It’s a Q&A regarding the 2012 hysteria. The page answers the questions that the more conspiratorially-minded think are “gotchas” that really aren’t. Very worthwhile. (Thanks to Guy for the heads up!)
You’ll notice that one of the links the NASA people refer people to is my site debunking Zecharia’ Sitchin’s Nibiru nonsense. Nice to get the love!
I saw two items today that have convinced me that the PaleoBabble blog needs to begin awarding the PhD in Non Sequitur Thinking for ancient astronaut theorists.
The first is this wonderful post from the Skeptophilia blog. Please read it. It is an uncannily accurate accounting of how ancient astronaut conspiracy theorists think (and it’s entertaining). I loved it since I’ve lived it (too many times). I hereby infer, with all the authority invested in me by virtue of the possession of a sound mind, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Non Sequitur Thinking on the student referred to in Gordon Bennet’s Skeptophilia post. May he wear the mantle well. My thanks to professor Bennet for recommending his student for the degree.
The second item comes from my comments page. Karku asked my thoughts on one Maximillen de Lafayette, whom the commenter is apparently having trouble tracking down in terms of credential verification (what a surprise). Basically, de Lafayette seems to want to be the heir apparent to Zecharia Sitchin’s gold train, and so claims expertise in about everything pertaining to the ancient world, along with authoring hundreds of books and thousands of other items worth reading (!). After yawning and chuckling, here was my short response:
1. It matters not how many publications one has if one is writing only for the uninformed. Rather, when one subjects one’s views to experts in the relevant fields (i.e., subjects one’s work to peer review) and they determine that such writings pass muster, THEN and only then should we care.
2. If Mr. de Lafayette lacks real credentials from real universities, then he is a liar when it comes to his credibility for saying anything about any ancient language. I don’t know if he’s lying. I’m giving you a chance to defend him.
3. Who cares if he “takes Sitchin further” when Sitchin’s material is bogus? Taking ideas that do not exist in ancient Mesopotamian records is like taking the anatomical study of unicorns “further.” Caring about his work would therefore be a waste of time.
My guess, of course, is that Lafayette knows even less about ancient languages than Sitchin did, which wasn’t much, as I have noted elsewhere. But maybe he studied something somewhere and can prove it. All this before we even get to the non sequitur nature of his work.
Many readers are familiar with Coast to Coast AM, the most-listened to late night talk show in the world. I’ll be on the evening of Feb 2. I’ve been on Coast over twenty times, and it’s always fun and unpredictable. The topics tend to be fairly wide-ranging when I’m on, but no doubt things like ancient astronauts and other PaleoBabble fodder will come up for discussion. One new item I am offering listeners is English translations to the only three scholarly articles on the Anunnaki that I know of. They are all in German, and over the past two years I have had them translated into English. Hopefully Coast listeners will want to actually engage the original sources in regard to the Anunnaki, which are a favorite candidate for ancient astronaut mythology.
Some readers know about my website devoted to demonstrating the nonsense put forth by Zecharia Sitchin. Part of that site includes an open letter to Sitchin (now deceased of course) and his worshippers. It’s been there over 10 years (Sitchin never responded) but at long last someone has stepped forward to defend their hero. I have to give him points for that. The response, however, runs the gamut from excuses, misreadings, incoherence, and the obligatory “the Asyriologists just didn’t have the benefit of reading Sitchin when they translated these tablets” pablum. <Sigh> Just what I expected when I originally posted it. Here is the response along with my inserted replies (it’s a PDF; double-click on the sticky notes for my replies).
I know what many of you are thinking: “Why do you bother, Mike?” I’ve had people ask me that many times, including scholars in the various fields Sitchin stumbles through. Honestly, I do it for people who sincerely want to think through the data, not for people already blinded by what Sitchin says because they were bored or offended with something else (like mainstream Judaism or Christianity or materialist science). I don’t do it to win the blinded disciples, because no matter what data you put in front of those people, it just doesn’t matter. But there are people who haven’t been brainwashed but are genuinely curious. They are still reachable.
Here’s a link to a pretty lengthy piece by a science writer for Discovery News (“Nibiru: Imaginary Planet Blamed for Earth’s Woes“). It’s well worth the read. The writer calls the Nibiru notion what it is: pseudo-science largely based on a chick channeling aliens. Got to love that! (I wish the article had linked to my own nibiru page, though).
I get asked all the time, “How do you know Sitchin is wrong about aliens in Sumerian tablets?” Short answer: Because I get my information from the actual ancient scribes. Here’s one example among many that could be offered. It’ s a free PDF paper (28 pp) on the planets in Mesopotamian sources (i.e., the actual cuneiform astronomical texts — also known as the stuff Zecharia Sitchin hides from his readers). I thought those of you interested in divine into the actual source material for this sort of thing might like it. If you are committed to the ancient Anunnaki astronaut nonsense already, you might want to avoid that link. Actual sources have a way of demolishing this belief system.
A few things to notice as you read:
1. Take this information back to Zecharia Sitchin’s works and check and see if the way he explains the gods and astronomical bodies align with the source texts (Hint: it doesn’t — but don’t rely on my word). Then ask yourself why Sitchin didn’t get this right. I’ll leave it to you to speculate on why.
2. Look at page 9 – the list of planets and their deity names. Notice anything? Count them. According to Sumerian sources, the Sumerians did *not* know twelve planets, contra Sitchin. And the chart shows no knowledge of a planet beyond Saturn (they are all visible to the trained naked eye). This is devastating proof that from their own tablets that the Sumerians had no advanced astronomical knowledge from aliens.
I’ve blogged before about “Pan-Babylonianism” — the idea that the content of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is basically plagiarized from Babylonian (more widely, Sumero-Mesopotamian) material. No serious biblical studies scholar or Assyriologist believes this today, but this approach became a majority paradigm in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the wake of two events: (1) the decipherment of cuneiform and (2) Friedrich Delitzsch’s “Babel und Bible” lectures delivered in 1902 to the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft attended by Kaisar Wilhelm II and his staff. In other words, anyone (like Zecharia Sitchin) who supposed or still supposes this approach is novel or cutting edge or “research the mainstream cannot cope with” is behind the curve by 100 years.
The death pf Pan-Babylonianism actually came shortly after it’s rise to prominence due to the famous German scholar Hermann Gunkel’s classic rebuttal-essay, Babylonien und Israel (1903). Gunkel was *not* an evangelical or fundamentalist. He is well know to many people in that crowd as a “liberal” scholar. Regardless of labels, his famous work initiated the lethal injection to Pan-Babylonianism.
Gunkel’s important work is now available in a new English translation. Readers can read a review here, as well as get information for ordering this new work. Bear in mind this is a scholarly work; it is not light reading.The review alludes to an earlier translations of Gunkel’s work by published in 1904 by John Joseph McVey. That earlier translation is available online for free here.
I feel a little embarrassed. I can’t believe I forgot to blog this, though I probably intended to redo the page and make it look nice. Oh well.
The last time I was on Coast to Coast, I threw this page together (in about an hour – I know, it shows) since I knew people would ask about “the alien technology” of ancient flight. The page sketches some of the “evidence” for planes/gliders in ancient Egypt, helicopters at Abydos, and rockets at Byblos. Pure PaleoBabble. As brilliant as some ancient engineers were, there is no evidence that their technology moved in this direction.
My apologies for letting this go months without posting it