I was going to say "but I'm not 100% on ancient American history, Ed knows stacks more than me so maybe he'll expand on that a bit for me..."

@Taw

Regarding the seemingly never ending shock and surprise at the precision in astronomy that the ancients were able to exercise.

We have evidence of very precise and exacting astronomical feats performed by the Chinese, the Sumerians/Babylonians, Egyptians, Maya and Inca and I am sure countless more that we haven't thought much about. Even the Anasazi peoples of the American Southwest have exhibited tremendous skill in astronomical tracking and marking.

My point: AND WHY SHOULDN'T THEY?

The ability to mark time, predictably and to be able to travel from place to place, whether on land or at sea was just as important to the ancients, if not more so than ever for modern man. It does not surprise me one bit that ancient cultures, many of which lasted for a millenia, would exert a lot of resource and time to trying to get things right or as right as possible.

The precision of the Mayan calendar should not be thought to be so out of the reach of Man that it HAD to be "given" to us by aliens ... because we are too stupid otherwise, yadda yadda yadda.

What I find objectionable about these "aliens helped us" fans is that they are really saying that the human race is too inept to do things on it own. That's poppycock.

@indy & taw

don't get me wrong. If someone shows me something about history i will look at it but it takes a great deal of evidence to make me believe. I perhaps made it come across when i started this as though i firmly beleive aliens built pyramids. The whole aliens and pyramid thing, is only 1 possible theory as to the creation of them. you are right though. Man has made the wheel, we have space travel we have science, music and mathmatics. The list is endless. Not to mention the other 6 wonders of the world. The way some historians do look at it though is how so much accuracy went in to the creation of the pyramids and the alignment with the stars. Unless there is some major discovery to correct me, but the egyptians didn't have huge telescopes that we have now. Now, chances are as taw said, the only mystery is how they were astronomically alligned. Its also more than certain that slaves/labourers built the pyramids.

Personally i like the idea that perhaps, at points in human history, we were influenced by outside sources. However, wheather we did or not is a different story and i wouldn't mind either way.

Edited by - Bret Bretonian on 7/26/2004 3:08:30 PM

Edited by - Bret Bretonian on 7/26/2004 3:13:45 PM

Edited by - Bret Bretonian on 7/26/2004 3:16:20 PM

well, i wasn't chiding you. Really i was trying to say that the History Channel is ok, it's not "wrong" and it doesn't "lie" in fact it's veracity is generally q high; it's only a partial picture and serves very well as an introduction.

I'm not chiding either but it is rather irritating to see the notion of aliens influencing ancient civilization elevated to the level of a "theory" as in a theory actually posited by serious historians.....NOT.

Of course, if you are of the EvD school of history, it is a valid "theory" I suppose. It is NOT a theory, however, if you are talking about serious accredited and scholarly historical research.

taw, indy, I didn't intend for that to come across as though i was being offended in anyway. i didn't think you were chiding at all. I understan exactly what you both were saying and another reason for starting this thread was to get the thoughts of different viewpoints. Sorry if my reply came across wrong as well.

havnt read this whole thing yet, but Humanity didnt evolve, there is no proof, and God created us all

regarding the entire "earth has right factors" thing. Who says any "aliens" have to be even remotely humanoid? They could be ten square miles of blubber floating on some ocean somewhere.

Actually, I saw this documentary the other day on TV called "Stargate." It turns out that the pyramids are landing pads for gualuld mother ships that enslaved the earth for hundreds of years, until we revolted and burried the Stargate. So there's the answer, there's life out there and Aliens enslaved people to build the pyramids. A compromise, we still did it, but we had a little help from our friends with snakes in their necks. --- VH16

sounds like "Macguyver" to me