Von Daniken? Really??

[REP]

Wasn't he discredited by everybody back when I was in grade school (ie, dark ages)? Why is there an Ancient Aliens TeeVee show (that I have to explain is not GD material)? For fucks sake. Yes, our ancestors were dumb shits who needed fucking aliens to teach them to clean their asses. Argh!

Rant off. Thank you.

[immoderate]

1. What inspired this?

Link?

--imm

[REP]

2. This, and the need to vent

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002211851

[immoderate]

3. Oh.

--imm

[Warpy]

4. He was great fun to read when I was eight and heavily into sci fi

I was picking major holes in his crap when I was ten and by the time I was twelve, I'd completely dismissed him as the same sort of idiot who wrote the bible and came up with other creation myths: a man with too much time on his hands and no useful work to do.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Lost Continent of Mu

I'm hoping for a revival any day now.

[Responder3]

6. Easily dismissed

Like Velikovsky. Remember him?

[REP]

7. I think the Oedipus-Akhnaten theory is interesting

It's been so long since I've read Worlds in Collision I can't remember if the current thinking about an asteroid strike vindicates or vilifies him on that.

[onager]

10. Von Daniken almost made Velikovsky seem reasonable.

Boy, do I remember Velikovsky. One of my Marine Corps buddies read "Worlds In Collision" and wouldn't shut up about it.

His trump card: "Did you know Albert Einstein was reading Velikovsky when he died?"

After I read that POS, I told him -if that were true - it made me happy to think that Einstein had probably died laughing.

[Codeine]

8. When I was about nine I got into the Bermuda Triangle,

Chariots of the Gods, and UFOs like mad. Bought lots of books (they used to sell that stuff in these little book catalogs we would get in class) and read them like crazy for a year or two, then I had a fifth grade teacher who told us about critical thinking and skepticism -- I dropped all that nonsense in a hurry.

If you're out there anywhere, Mr. Ossenmacher, I thank you for giving me skills that still serve me today.

[REP]

9. One of my buds, who teaches 4th grade, is using Ancient Aliens to teach critical thinking

And how to discern fact from opinion. She's hoping to prevent future FOX viewers.