More scientifically literate world, "Chariots of the Gods" falls flat?

This was the book published by Erich von Däniken in 1968, and yep, it became a major best seller. Give me a path to a more scientifically literate world in which this doesn't happen.
 
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And look how he (and/or the publisher) sells it! :p

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"DID ASTRONAUTS VISIT THE EARTH 40,000 YEARS AGO?
"IS THERE EVIDENCE OF A PREHISTORIC AIRFIELD IN THE ANDES?"
 
I invariably read a book cover to cover, but this was one of the 3-4 exceptions. I was in my early teens & like most that age my BS alarm was very sensitive. After a few chapters I set the thing aside & never went back. Later reading such as guys like Velikovsky made more sense, least in their presentation.
 
https://fontfolly.net/2016/02/17/chariots-of-the-who-part-two/

'So, fast forward to 1973…

'My dad had been promoted and we had moved back to the town where my grandparents lived, becoming members of the Southern Baptist Church there, again. A documentary based on Chariots of the Gods had been dubbed into English with Rod Serling narrating and was released as a theatrical film. Not realizing that In Search of Ancient Astronauts was from the same book I had already been skeptical of, and since a friend wanted to go see it in the little theatre in town, I went. Based on conversations at school the next week, at least half the kids in town saw it during the three days it was playing [emphasis added] [narrator was age 13 and in middle school].

'A quick digression: the movie theatre in that small town played all movies on a very strict schedule: one movie would come to town and play Monday through Wednesday. Another movie would play Thursday through Sunday. No matter how sold out a movie was, it would not be held over. And because we were such a small town, there was only one movie distributor that would send movies our way, and they gave the theatre a limited set of choices. . . '
I think this writer does a good job weaving together personal narrative and broader events of the time.
 
. . . I set the thing aside & never went back. . .
Just to show some people like chocolate and some vanilla, I think the guy's a good writer! Plus, he has this whole foreign name going for him, but still eminently pronounceable.

I think the problem was that his whole theory was setting up a big reveal like in a magic act, and he just couldn't deliver.
 
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Unless the scientific knowledge that becomes widespread is specifically of the sort that would refute Chariots Of The Gods, it probably wouldn't make much difference. I've known engineers who believed the Virgin Mary was making appearances around the world.

I don't have the source on hand, but I also recall reading somewhere that believing in creationism does not in general make one likely to reject other scientifically based knowledge, eg. if a creationist is told that smoking is healthy, he'll probably still think that's stupid, even though he completely rejects the scientific method when it comes to the origin of species.

Granted, a lot of creationists probably also think global warming is a hoax, but I think that has more to do with an overall adherence to right-wing politics. Most New Age crystal-healers likely accept the consensus on global warming, because they tend to be left-wing on ecological issues generally.
 
And look how he (and/or the publisher) sells it! :p

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"DID ASTRONAUTS VISIT THE EARTH 40,000 YEARS AGO?
"IS THERE EVIDENCE OF A PREHISTORIC AIRFIELD IN THE ANDES?"

Not to mention the In Search Of endorsement. Which is actually not all that wacked-out, given the time period. I remember adults in the 1970s describing that show as "educational". Was was somewhat shocked when I mentioned in class that you could find water through dowsing(as I had seen on ISO), and my teacher replied "Well, if you're weird, you might do that".
 
Maybe a broader view of history other than the usual one-dimensional Egyptians—Greeks—Romans—Western Europeans.

For von Däniken's theory was criticized, I think largely accurately, for playing off racist stereotypes that Eastern Islanders, Incas, Egyptians, etc., were basically too stupid to build their ancient wonders without help from extraterrestrials. And yes, the Egyptians are on that main line taught in school, so admittedly things are a little cloudy in this regard.
 
. . I've known engineers who believed the Virgin Mary was making appearances around the world. .
People are weird and wonderful! :) For example, I'd love to find someone who's active in an atheist group, but who'd also argue with great passion that there really are 'Big Foot' living in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. I haven't found that one yet
 
People are weird and wonderful! :) For example, I'd love to find someone who's active in an atheist group, but who'd also argue with great passion that there really are 'Big Foot' living in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. I haven't found that one yet

I don't think there'd be anything about Bigfoot that would make him a priori incompatible with atheism. AFAIK, he is not claimed to be a god or a spirit, just a type of animal that has so far gone undiscovered.

I wonder what the religious beliefs of Grover Krantz were. Another guy who turned up on In Search Of in the 70s.
 
Not to mention the In Search Of endorsement. Which is actually not all that wacked-out, given the time period. I remember adults in the 1970s describing that show as "educational". . .
But it looks like ISO did not start till April 1977.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0074007/episodes/?season=1

And I remember episodes on feral children, and on the Vikings coming to North America. So, it looks like the show may have been a combo between the lesser known but probably true, and the really way out.
 
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Something that played into the book's success is that the era it came out in was the right time for it. The 70s were one: big on the New Age vibe, two: into conspiracy theories and ancient mysteries, and three: there was a fascination with the idea that our space brothers would come down and save us in this world of assassinations, wars, decay, social civil war and disenchantment. Look at films like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". Ziggy Stardust. "Oh You Pretty Things" by David Bowie as well. Friggin' ELO's UFO logo. And so on and so forth. The planet felt f***ed and the movies said Mr. Spock and little green men were out there, watching our advancement, and we were gonna be on Mars by the 1980s but not yet. So the one way ticket off was a benevolent benefactor from the sky who would never force their flock to return to the miserable and cruel humans of Earth. It is a pivotal genre of thought but one which no one seems to mention.

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I mean, "Life on Mars" man. "My parents don't care, and these people are spiteful and crass, and all their creations are nothing but something that's screamed me deaf as I wander jaded at all the sound and fury signifying nothing but vindication for my silent disappointment in this species that makes me quietly plead to be let off the ride."

 
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In continuing the above, going into the 1970s, aliens were the new gods. All the old mysticism gave way to a new sort of scientific mysticism. But for all the same reasons. One was a lack of the individual imagination of a person to think people could do something, or something could happen without some sort of super intervention or super power. In that past, it was super-natural, in the present it became super science. People hold perceptions of reality to their own limitations of knowledge. "I couldn't build the pyramids. I can't think how other people could build the pyramids. Something else must have". Another is this sad plea of hope to a cold, uncaring universe for someone to care. Aliens visiting us meant we had space friends and could feel warm and safe in that knowledge. Which oddly gets distorted to the other end of there also being evil aliens who want to get us, which satiates our instinctual need for hate and fear and grows out of our human instinct towards paranoia that what we felt was good (alien friends) is fleeting. Preparing for the bad feeling by making it happen by inventing the idea of bad aliens. And visiting aliens are both made up anyway.

If you feel that means your fellow humans are emotionally primitive, wrap themselves up in knots of their own invented phobias and happiness and psychosis, and that because of their flaws the humans race can never fix the human race, then you may fall into that camp of people who are looking to the stars for someone to save you because only an outside intelligence could then make that change. And we've tied ourselves into an interesting knot there.
 
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