# Ancient Aliens **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 20, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083 "2010-05-20T01:28:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/21 "2010-05-21T23:18:21Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Does this leave a market niche open for “The Real-Life Serious History Channel”? > > Probably not. ☹ I miss the old History Channel that was made up of real history not what ifs, maybes and strong possibilities. ---
**Author:** ![Meme\_Chose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Meme\_Chose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meme_Chose)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/22 "2010-05-22T06:30:51Z")
Those depictions of UFOs in medieval art are actually representations of deities, celestial bodies, or a combination thereof. I ran across a very informative website on it a while back. [http://www.sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte\_UFO\_1\_eng.htm](http://www.sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte_UFO_1_eng.htm) When i rule the world, the paranormal, cryptozoology, and alien history will be banished to one channel, and there will be actual history, arts, science, and geography on their respective channels. ---
**Author:** ![Meme\_Chose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Meme\_Chose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meme_Chose)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/23 "2010-05-22T06:31:57Z")
retry [http://www.sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte\_UFO\_1\_eng.htm](http://www.sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte_UFO_1_eng.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/24 "2010-05-22T12:02:18Z")
I’ve also always been interested to read that Mahabarata passage for myself. I’m sure the mahabarata is online in several places, but does anyone know where the passage in question is in that work? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/25 "2010-05-22T13:05:44Z")
> [@Meme\_Chose](#): > > When i rule the world, the paranormal, cryptozoology, and alien history will be banished to one channel… I hope you’d banish them entirely from existence, otherwise I’m not voting for you. ---
**Author:** ![BrianJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/54ee81/32.png) [@BrianJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrianJ)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/26 "2010-05-22T13:08:48Z")
I saw something similar once, not on a specialty channel though. They claimed the Sphinx was built 10,000 years ago by ‘Atlanteans’. At the end was the not too surprising appeal for money to continue the ‘research’. Did this show ask for money at the end? ---
**Author:** ![Meme\_Chose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Meme\_Chose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meme_Chose)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/27 "2010-05-22T15:16:23Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I hope you’d banish them entirely from existence, otherwise I’m not voting for you. We need something to keep the morons busy, or they’ll be emailing us a bazillion offers for Viagra. ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/28 "2010-05-23T04:24:11Z")
> [@BrianJ4](#): > > I saw something similar once, not on a specialty channel though. They claimed the Sphinx was built 10,000 years ago by ‘Atlanteans’. > > At the end was the not too surprising appeal for money to continue the ‘research’. > > Did this show ask for money at the end? I fell asleep before the end of the program. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DarkProphet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DarkProphet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkProphet)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/29 "2010-12-19T13:39:48Z")
Instead of going around talking about what you dont understand maybe you should all read the Mahabharata ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/30 "2010-12-19T14:04:06Z")
> [@DarkProphet](#): > > Instead of going around talking about what you dont understand maybe you should all read the Mahabharata But talking about what we don’t understand is so much more FUN!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/31 "2010-12-19T14:12:20Z")
They should just change the name of the channel. Maybe call it Hystyry or something. ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/32 "2010-12-19T14:46:34Z")
> [@DarkProphet](#): > > Instead of going around talking about what you dont understand maybe you should all read the Mahabharata Does the Mahabharata contain a section on raising zombie threads? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/33 "2010-12-19T15:02:32Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > I’ve watched the show and find it to be mostly enjoyable. It’s great background entertainment - I can listen to it while I surf the web or do chores, and occasionally something interesting enough to pay real attention will come up. > > I of course don’t subscribe to the idea that every single odd thing in history can be explained by aliens. And in fact the series is more like “wonders and oddities of the ancient world… hey maybe aliens did it!” > > The wonders and oddities, out of place artifacts, amazing feats of ancient engineering, strangely modern seeming art and myths, are all quite interesting independent of what might be their ultimate explanations. The alien stuff is interesting in the same way that watching an episode of Stargate is. And while ‘aliens’ is probably thinking too far ‘outside of the box’, creative thinking might ultimately bring new evidence or ideas to light that bring us closer to the real answers. > > To sum up: some meat, some fluff. The meat is interesting, and the fluff is harmless and occasionally entertaining. I had a really funny WTF moment the other week watching it .. Karnak standing stones right? A funky grid of fair size of standing stones. Some how the jackass took Apollo, made him an alien. I have no problem with that. It seems he goes to Hyperborea for a quick vacation or whatever every 20 years. So .. an alien, flying some ship that was able to get here through the depths of space needs to follow piles of rocks to find his way somewhere?! :dubious::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/34 "2010-12-19T15:49:15Z")
> [@DarkProphet](#): > > Instead of going around talking about what you dont understand maybe you should all read the Mahabharata Why? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/35 "2010-12-19T16:37:25Z")
> [@Perciful](#): > > I miss the old History Channel that was made up of real history not what ifs, maybes and strong possibilities. That’s still there, it’s just decreasing as a % of the overall content. My “favorite” of these types of pseudo-science shows is “Monster Quest”, where they pretend to explain Bigfoot et al. Oddly, they never actually get the goods. Never. I can’t remember which channel that is on, but on my comcast box I’ve got Science Channel, Nat Geo, and History Channel right next to each other. They all serve up this type of crap 90% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/36 "2010-12-19T16:59:24Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > That’s still there, it’s just decreasing as a % of the overall content. > > My “favorite” of these types of pseudo-science shows is “Monster Quest”, where they pretend to explain Bigfoot et al. Oddly, they never actually get the goods. Never. > > I can’t remember which channel that is on, but on my comcast box I’ve got Science Channel, Nat Geo, and History Channel right next to each other. They all serve up this type of crap 90% of the time. Yeah - and every episode ends with the line: While Monster Quest was unable to prove the existence of \, science has not been able to rule out the possibility either and we have raised some interesting questions. It was/is a bad show, but it was mindless entertainment when I was sick and recovering. Alas, I know longer get the History Channel. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/37 "2010-12-19T17:02:38Z")
> [@DarkProphet](#): > > Instead of going around talking about what you dont understand maybe you should all read the Mahabharata Do you have any idea how long the _Mahabharata_ is? It’s like 13,000 pages long, and typically published in volumes numbering in the dozens. Nobody reads the whole thing. I had a prof in College who had a PhD in Sanskrit and had done his dissertation on the _Mahabharata_, and he wasn’t expected to have read the whole thing when he defended it. We would need to know the specific Gita this dumb special was talking about. It sounds like it might have been the _Baghavad-Gita_ (the only one that most westerners have heard of or read), but maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/38 "2010-12-19T17:17:37Z")
> [@Apocalypso](#): > > More from the episode: The Black Plague was caused by aliens. Mysterious grim reaper types were spotted on the outskirts of cities and villages shortly before outbreaks. These strange beings wielded scythe like weapons that released a “mist” that made everyone sick. :rolleyes: Yep, them aliens were cutting down on the population… Fortunately for the human race, a quartet of strangely attired individuals, led by one who only identified himself as a “Doctor”, confronted the mysterious grim reaper figure (actually a gaudily colored robot/android wearing a shawl) and the reptillian alien creatures controlling it, defeated their diabolical plans, but inadvertantly sparking the firestorm that consumed London. [Pesky aliens](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Visitation_(Doctor_Who)). And that ain’t no shlocky pseudo-science from the History Channel. I saw this on PBS, so it _must_ be true! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/39 "2010-12-19T18:41:16Z")
Von Daniken and his ilk never could conceive of ancient people having any imagination. “This cave drawing shows people appearing to fly- clearly they had no concept of people flying like the birds they saw everyday, so obviously this is a 10,000 year old investigative journalism on aliens from the Vega system dropping in to say howdy and get some earth tail!” I suppose that after watching brilliant historically analytical masterpieces like _Ice Road Truckers_ and _Gangland_ I got spoiled. I remember when The Learning Channel (TLC) had really good history documentaries and shows that had nothing to do with hermaphrodites decorating doghouses or whatever. Now National Geographic is about the only channel that shows actual good history programming and even they have a lot more _Dog Whisperers_ and _Locked Up Abroad_ airings than they do quality stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083/40 "2010-12-19T19:47:44Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Von Daniken and his ilk never could conceive of ancient people having any imagination. “This cave drawing shows people appearing to fly- clearly they had no concept of people flying like the birds they saw everyday, so obviously this is a 10,000 year old investigative journalism on aliens from the Vega system dropping in to say howdy and get some earth tail!” That’s what really annoys me with these clowns. “Oh, no way Humans could have done this, it had to be SPACE ALIENS!” :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-aliens/540083.md?page=3)