I certainly admit that the tone of my post was intended to be both comic and dismissive. I did not intend it to be a definitive reproof to all claims of ancient alien visitation theories. Or even current alien visitation claims.

However, I’d be happy to point you towards some people far more qualified than me for that debunking, like Robert T. Carroll and his online Skeptic Dictionary. Go here for ancient astronauts, http://www.skepdic.com/vondanik.html

And here for alien contacts, http://www.skepdic.com/aliens.html

Another excellent source who has been writing about these issues for decades is Benjamin Radford. Here’s a recent article of his on ancient astronaut claims http://www.space.com/13189-ufos-aliens-mayans-mexico-film-claim.html

I do not doubt that you, or your close friends, had an “insane experience” or a even a non-physical “close encounter.” It is not the reality of these experiences that I question, it is their interpretation.

My take is that everything about alleged alien encounters, past or present, is more the result of terrestrial intelligence than anything other worldly. No physical evidence has ever surfaced despite the 64 years of active UFO sitings since pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing disks “shaped like a pie plate” in 1947.

In past centuries people saw ghosts, demons and wheels of fire in the sky. I don’t think any of those existed in reality. Today the reports of aliens, UFOs and Bigfoot come from the same deep recesses of the human mind in my view.

And hey, if the (hopefully benevolent) aliens ever land their saucer ship at 12 noon in Times Square on live TV, I’ll be prepared to accept them as real.

I registered on this site just to comment towards what you said. First off your entire “debunking” is based off of one person. One single person out of the 1000′s of brilliant scientists that are astounded by flattened mountain tops with runways carved in them, helicopters that look just like ours clearly carved into stone over 4,000 years old… my dad went there and saw it with his own two eyes. In depth-detailed ships with fuselages, wings, and an upper facing FIN that not only goes against nature, but only makes sense in today’s knowledge of how to fly. The fact is, even if these few things didn’t exist, there’s plenty of other evidence to go around. So it doesn’t stop there.

This is the tiny tiny tiny tiny, very itty bitty TIP of the proof found that actually does physically exist in these tombs, or carved on these pyramids that are over 4,000 years old even if it was 500 it still doesn’t even matter.

Something my mom taught me when I was really young “You can make anything sound good & justifiable, even when it’s wrong.” That sir, is aimed directly at what you said. No one cares about one guy, the fact that you actually latch on to one single guy as your point of debunking is just hilarious! I don’t care if it was 20, 50, or 100 people, the majority of legitimacy still outweighs any argument you could come up with 10 fold.

You act like he’s the only one that matters when in fact he’s maybe equal to half of a percent in the real world of Ancient Astronaut evidence. You may think this is hilarious, but not only I have had an insane experience, or close encounter if you will (not physical) but so many people have in this world, that even some of my closest friends have had similar experiences. Thanks

Your response is an argument from ignorance. Because you cannot explain the cherry-picked images you site as evidence of alleged ancient astronauts, does not make your case. Trained anthropologists and archeologists can easily explain all these. See this link for more http://www.skepdic.com/vondanik.html

As for Erich von Däniken, author of “Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past”, instead of a background in archeology he has an extensive criminal record (from his Wikipedia entry):

“Däniken’s run-ins with the law started at an early age. In the 1960s, while working in hotels and restaurants across Switzerland, he was convicted of fraud, serving a prison sentence for defrauding his boss at one hotel. In 1967, soon after Chariots of the Gods? was published he was arrested and charged by Interpol with fraud and tax evasion for non-payment of GB£7,000. During the investigation, authorities uncovered a large personal debt totaling about GB£350,000. Däniken was found guilty of embezzlement, and served more than three years in Swiss prisons.”

You should address the real argument, not one that is easily debunked.

There does in fact exist images, such as these, of artifacts and historical sites that elude easy explanation:

http://www.ufoarea.com/pictures/ancientastronauts.jpg
http://www.nephilimskulls.com/Articles.asp?ID=149