I’m sooooo confused! 
On the one side, we have Von Daniken’s Chariots Of The Gods horsecrap.
On the other, a Creationist Freak Fuckwad who wants to shut him up.
Who do we back?
Which side is less of a threat to our Fight Against Ignorance?
Why do I twitch when I read the article?
Help?
What a dilemma!
I say you don’t back either one, just cry yourself to sleep at night for humanities sake, just as I do…
I say we dig a deep pit and throw 'em both in armed with Bowie knives.
Normally, the one that climbs out at the end has a stone engraved for the other, but in this case, when we get them both into the pit we start up the bulldozer…
Actually I think the creationists are just jealous that Daniken’s Museum and pseudoscience is more popular then theirs.
The whole article is ironic. It’s like reading about people who believe that fairies are interacting with humans are having an argument with people who believe that trolls are interacting with humans. Both sides saying that the other is silly, when in reality both sides are silly.
I’m going with Von Däniken in a no-holds barred cage match. Most people know he’s a crack-pot. But creationism and it’s frequent concurrent drive for a theocracy is more dangerous and popular.
A couple of select quotes shows these credulous fools to be surrounded by even more credulous idiots.
I was unaware that these were widespread or mainstream ideas. But if they’re widespread in their haunts, then they have surrounded themselves with people lacking enough in critical thinking skills to believe their drivel – likely at the same time as believing Von Däniken. They’ll meld the two ideas to say that God sent the Aliens or some such twaddle.
Two Gods Enter. One God Leaves. Two Gods Enter. One God Leaves.
I’m with Homebrew on this. While Von Daniken is an idiot, at least he isn’t trying to force his ideas into public school curriculums.
Von Däniken’s ideas gave us the movie and TV series Stargate. The creationists gave us the Left Behind books. I’m rooting for von Däniken…his fiction is cooler.
Don’t forget Battlestar Galactica.
Wait, now I’m not sure who to root for.
So, what about the idea of a Skeptics Theme Park?
Think of all the potential exhibits and attractions - the Hall of Laughable Religious Tomfoolery, a Homeopathic Mass Suicide musical show (repeated daily onstage), and a Colon Cleanse Ride for the kiddies, just to name a few.
I agree with Meatros that AIG just seems to be pissed that Von Daniken’s pseudo-museum is attracting more suckers than than their creationist pseudo-museum.
I like when the article says “don’t laugh” at the notion of Ezekiel’s Wheel being a flying saucer. These are people who believe that dinosaurs lived with humans and that Noah’s Ark was real. They don’t have a lot of room to mock anyone else.
I would have to take Von Daniken’s side (I guess), not because there’s any merit whatsoever in his theories but because at least he’s just confining himself to using it a a way to separate suckers from their Euros and isn’t trying to teach it in schools or infiltrate the government.
Because we all know that NO ONE gives money to their church, or to Oral Roberts and his 900-foot-floating-up-in-the-air-Jesus.
Personally, I’m rooting for the meteor.
Neither. Let them bleed each other to exaustion, and then we can step in and take their sweet, sweet candy.
Ummm…candy…
The Creationists will win. There really isn’t a fight. This is just a scare tactic they’re using to make money, which seems to be the principle end of Answers in Genesis.
Still, I’ve gotta support Von Danekin. He may be Bat-poo nuts but he’s not threatening to impose a “values” based theocracy over the U.S.
And no matter how loony his theories are, they are far, far more plausible than Young earth Creationism.
Not to mention way more entertaining to read=)
One visit to the lovely island of Bimini, I even had his book along and we went to see the bimini blocks=) fun afternoon diving them, unfortunately it was pre 1980 and i didnt have an underwater camera so no pix of me or my BF of the time=(
At one time I thought it would be a blast [if one had the money] to actually make a tour trip based on von Daniken sites just for giggles=)
I agree that Von Daniken deserves our support in this Creutzfeld Jacob cage match.
In fact, if we ever do an international Dopefest, I think we should organize it so we can all do a mass tour of his museum. Wouldn’t it be fun to have like five hundred people all show up at once?
I was trying to think why an idea like that is more plausible than Young Earth Creationism (and to me, it is, just barely)… all I came up with off the top of my head is that, having read a lot of differing theories and ideas on how extraterrestrials may have influenced or interacted with us in human history, at least these guys try to mesh their theories with accepted and established scientific fact in most cases. They may add a bunch of stuff with totally no basis in reality, but they aren’t trying to go against established ideas like saying the earth is really 4000 years old or whatever. They just embellish history with a bunch of stuff that, though highly unlikely, is impossible to prove either way.
Besides, he’s just one in a sea of many that believe for whatever reason that part of our evolution/advancement is due to ET interference, and they all argue with each other about who is right and contradict each other constantly. The ones that claim they have actual telepathic communication with aliens now (look up the Zetas) are especially entertaining. They pretty much end up discrediting each other, or at least assuring no one takes them too seriously.
OTOH, Young Earth creationism has the clout of a 2000+ year old religion behind it, which somehow legitimizes the beliefs of its followers, or at least makes one pretend to respect them, because it is religion. Even though if you introduced the ideas outside of the context of religion, it makes even less sense than the alien guy’s story.
That’s pretty much it, JinWicked
As far as I can tell, (And it’s been nearly thirty years since I read his books (God, I’m Old :eek: )) Von Danekin mostly accepts the Universe as described by modern science. The Universe is billions of years old, dinosaurs died out tens of millions of years before man, etc. etc. To this he adds aliens influencing human and, I gather, natural history. Now this is very very implausible, and there isn’t a shred of evidence for it, but at least it doesn’t contradict stuff we absolutely know to be true about the world.
YEC’s on the other hand believe the world was created a few thousand years ago ( it wasn’t) and that dinos and man co-existed (they didn’t). I’m 100% certain YEC’s are wrong, only 99.9% certain that Von Danekin is wrong. And that 0.1% is alot.
From Russia With Love anyone:
All we need is a plan to defeat the winner.