I woke up Saturday and sat down in front of the TV only expecting to catch a little news and then begin my (completely unplanned) day. As is usually the case with CNN and other cable news channels, they typically have a billion commercial breaks. So during one of these breaks I flipped over to the History channel just to see what else was on. As it turns out there was a show on called “Ancient Aliens.” Turns out it’s an entire series. Not just a series but a “new” series, which is always nice. I hate when the History channel reruns shows from 5 years ago. I’m always left saying “what’s happened since then?”

Anyway, I’m not a big fan of UFO shows or stuff like that anymore because it’s always the same crap over and over again. However this series really peaked my interest.

Basically, the series centers around the premise that aliens have been visiting earth for thousands of years and may possibly be responsible for seeding humanity on this planet and teaching us things. The series also goes on to say that religions throughout history may not be telling stories about the supernatural, but instead about aliens who have acted like watchers over humanity. There is a name for this belief, it’s called the “ancient astronaut theory.” Google it if you’d like.

This is not a new concept, you’ve probably heard it before in some way or another. One of my favorite movies and tv series is built off this concept; Stargate. I was 14 years old when the movie Stargate came out. I saw it at the theater 3 times that summer. So you can see that it made an impression on me. Since I was a child I had always been fascinated with ancient Egypt and by that time in my life I had also started taking an interest in religions. Add to that science fiction being my favorite genre and you’ve got a perfect storm to attract my interest. That’s what Stargate was for me. At that time in my life I had never considered blending the idea of aliens and conventional religion. So this was new and exciting to me. It’s is also the same reason this series pulled me in. It’s a concept that seems to keep my interest, even 16 years later.

Now the question is, do I believe any of it? I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t and I know how that probably sounds. My fellow skeptic readers are probably shaking their heads at this point while my religious readers are probably doing the same thing. Hey maybe this is the one time the two groups can agree. lol.

That said, here are my thoughts. I don’t believe all the stories and all of the supposed “evidence.” For instance I believe crop circles to be a hoax. I also don’t believe in any of that planet X shit that 2012 doomsayers talk about. You’ve probably also heard me mention in the past my disbelief in ancients peoples knowing more about the stars and the world than we do today. But I do believe there is a lot of mystery left in the world and I do admit that the show (even thought it’s a biased History channel show) does present a lot of interesting questions and “for instances” about certain ancient cultures, monuments and structures that leave me scratching my head.

I was particually baffled at the precise stonework done at Puma Punku. This is a fallen structure that is thousands of years old. Predating written language and supposedly even the invention of the wheel. Yet these peoples managed to haul 200-450 ton stones onto a plateau and carve them with such precise detail that today we we require a CNC machine to achieve such detail. This particular type of stone is so hard that the only thing that could cut it would be diamond tipped tools. Conventional scientists don’t seem to have an explanation yet, which is not to say there may not be a rational explanation, but either way it seems to show that there were ancient cultures more advanced in at least stonework then we might like to believe.

According to ancient astronaut theory, these structures (including structures like the great pyramid at Giza) were not built by just humans, they were built by humans with the assistance and tools of extra terrestrials. Is this possible? Well anything is technically possible, but is it likely? Honestly I don’t know. I really don’t want to discredit human ingenuity, after all, look at the shit we’ve built today. I don’t really see flying saucers floating around helping to lift steel beams into place on skyscrapers. That said, how does one lift 200 ton stones without big machines to help? The difference with our structures today is that we can look all around us and see the tools that were used. We can see the big cranes, the heavy trucks and the power tools. Our world has an infrastructure in place to support our advancements. We didn’t just suddenly build skyscrapers. We first had to build the machines, the steel mills, the tools and the quarries to support such efforts. There doesn’t seem to be evidence of any of this infrastructure in ancient times. The type of infrastruture for such precise and heavy work.

As mentioned before, the series also talks about how ancient aliens may very well have been viewed as gods to early man. Going so far as to manipulate our world, ourselves and teach us things that may give us a jump start. This stories would have been written down and that texts such as the Holy Bible could very well be one of those records.

Most of you know by now that I consider myself a deist. By definition a deist is someone who believes in a prime source. A creator that begin all things but may not mingle in the daily lives of mankind. This puts me in a unique mindset. Unlike many of my atheists/skeptic friends who don’t believe anything until presented with evidence and unlike my Christian friends who put all their stock in the supernatural glory of God, I’m of the mindset of one who “believes” things without strong evidence, yet is open enough not to pass everything off as the work of God.

The ancient astronaut theory does not conflict with my core beliefs. If anything, it helps further fill in some blanks for me if true. Because if true, according to my beliefs, God (the creator, the source) may very well have begun all things and left them to their clockwork, while separately an alien race may very well have spawned human culture and acted as the god and angels of Christianity and other religions.

In fact the more I think about it, the more it seems to make sense to me. If you replace much of the supernatural in the bible with an extra terrestrial race, it all begins to make a little more sense and take on a degree of believability that hasn’t existed for me in a good long while. Suddenly the idea that mankind was created 6-10,000 years ago actually might be true. At least to the extent that aliens may have seeded mankind here or came here and took primitive man out of the age of hunter/gathers and into the age of agriculture and civic mindedness. 

It may not go so far as to explain the origin of all things, but most of these religions are pretty vague on that topic anyway. It’s possible the aliens don’t know how it ALL started. But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t seed or help a race much like themselves. It’s something that we as a human race could potentially find ourselves doing in the far future.

Once again, I don’t believe all of this stuff. But I will admit there are some interesting mysteries and religions do take on a certain credibility for me when we introduce these concepts. But most of all this series has peaked my interest and requires further examination on my part, which in my mind makes it a good series. Check it out. I’m sure they’ll be rerunning over the coming weeks.