# Erich von Däniken has died **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [January 11, 2026, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576 "2026-01-11T22:37:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/41 "2026-01-12T16:47:25Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > For me it was Sagan’s _Cosmos_ This reminds of Sagan’s other excellent book, _The Demon Haunted World_. It explains why people fall for crap like this, they either don’t understand the scientific method yet or are just plain scared or don’t care to understand science. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/42 "2026-01-12T17:05:25Z")
Was he really a Von, or did he make that bit up as well? ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/43 "2026-01-12T17:13:57Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Von Däniken was the first recipient of the Ig Nobel Prize. for literature. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/44 "2026-01-12T17:15:50Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > for literature. Fiction section? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/45 "2026-01-12T17:20:53Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > Was he really a Von, or did he make that bit up as well? Yes, he was, but he was a _Swiss_ Von. Does that even count? ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/46 "2026-01-13T11:56:21Z")
I remember eating his stuff up in the mid to late 70s when I was around 10 or so. It all made so much sense and seemed obvious. It was the same time as I watched In Search Of and just about any “documentary” on Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the like. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/47 "2026-01-13T15:40:44Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > the ads ending with a voiceover announcer who rattled off the local cities and theaters where it’d be playing (and massacring the pronunciation of many of the small Wisconsin towns). HA! You fellow Wisconsinite! I STILL make fun of that! Man eh TOE Wok. Ash wa BEEN non. Wah KEY shaw > [@Jackmannii](#): > > So he was a pioneer of Just Asking Questions? No sir, we are NOT relations! > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > You had a terrific teacher. OTOH my otherwise seemingly great 7th and 8th grade teacher gave a presentation on Immanuel Velikovsky’s bizarre history theories. I think the presentation was given in seriousness, not as a learning exercise on critical thinking. If there was follow up, I missed it or don’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/48 "2026-01-13T16:16:13Z")
> [@Cumberdale](#): > > I remember eating his stuff up in the mid to late 70s when I was around 10 or so. It all made so much sense and seemed obvious. It was the same time as I watched In Search Of and just about any “documentary” on Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the like. Same with me. 10 is the perfect age for it. Some people never grow out of it. _In Search of_ was my favorite show. Ezekiel saw a wheel. This is the wheel he said he saw. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/49 "2026-01-13T16:19:41Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > HA! You fellow Wisconsinite! I STILL make fun of that! > > Man eh TOE Wok. Ash wa BEEN non. Wah KEY shaw And Shah WAH no. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/50 "2026-01-13T16:45:31Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Yes, he was, but he was a _Swiss_ Von. Does that even count? “My rank is the highest known in Switzerland: I’m a free citizen.” —G.B. Shaw, _Arms and the Man_ ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/51 "2026-01-13T16:58:09Z")
I learned of it when I was 13 and browsing the paperbacks at the corner store. An anti-Däniken book titled _Crash Go the Chariots_. It refuted claims made in _Chariots of the Gods?_ so that I never had any respect for EvD. It was by a Christian fundamentalist author, who based his arguments on the Bible, but nonetheless it destroyed EvD for me permanently before I even read _CotG?_. I bought it, hate-read it and sneered at it the whole time. When I was 17, I took a Judaism class for Catholic kids taught by a rabbi. When he was talking about events in the Torah, one of the kids suggested _CotG?_ as insight into Jewish history. The class took up the idea and decided to have a field trip to the rabbi’s office in the synagogue to watch the movie. It was a videotape cassette viewed on a TV set, as was done back in the 1970s. We didn’t take it seriously in the least, so we smoked a lot of pot on the way there and got so stoned the whole thing became a joke. But the rabbi was a good sport about it. One chill dude. The first I learned of Velikovsky was reading Isaac Asimov’s takedown of _Worlds in Collision_ when I was 14. So I never had any respect for Velikovsky either. Asimov mocked him for confusing hydrocarbons with carbohydrates, LOL. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/52 "2026-01-13T17:20:53Z")
I seem to recall a TV show that did a systematic take down of CotG. Maybe it was an episode of Nova? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/53 "2026-01-13T23:01:28Z")
… And all the ones on the Alamo began with “Tell ya whut….” 😁 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/54 "2026-01-13T23:08:05Z")
I believe so. I think it was one of the first episodes l ever watched, way back in the early ‘80s, right around the time Urey explained the iridium layer. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576/55 "2026-01-13T23:32:08Z")
Back in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, I regularly attended planetarium shows at the Minneapolis Public Library. On one occasion, I picked up a pamphlet written by Kriswell, the whacko who introduced _ **Plan** _ _ **Nine** _ _ **from** _ _ **Outer** _ _ **Space** _. At first, I thought it was a serious scientific work, but it rapidly became a treatise on Velikovsky’s universe. What it was doing at the Planetarium, I don’t know, but I still laugh when I think about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/erich-von-daniken-has-died/1026576.md?page=2)