Von Daniken’s Evidence of Extraterrestrials Visits to Earth
Von Daniken mentions the Tassili sphere where Henri Lhote found images underneath a semicircular rock. In the image, a woman is pulling a man and behind her is a sphere with concentric circles. On the upper side of the sphere, a hatch is open with a television aerial protruding from it. There are hands with outspread fingers on the right half of the sphere. There are also five floating figures wearing helmets with white and red dots accompanying the sphere.
Von Daniken also uses a gigantic stone egg discovered in 1940 by an archeologist known as Professor Marcel Homet (Von Daniken, n.d.). The rock contained countless letters, crosses, and symbols. Von Daniken says the archeologist assured him that the egg was not formed naturally but it was the work of many masons over many decades. Von Daniken says that he visited Costa Rica to see this sensation for himself. On the way, he found several groups of balls on top of hills and riverbeds with some of them having unintelligible shapes that he says must have been deliberate. He says to get to two enormous balls he had to traverse a rough terrain constantly pulling his Land Rover from ruts. He found 12 balls with no evidence of nearby quarries where the balls could have been created or any trace of the manufacturer.
Von Daniken’s arguments are not persuasive because it contains no real evidence. He argues that the people who draw the pictures were unintelligent and most probably drew what they saw. Ancient people were known to be hunters so they could have worn deer skins and antlers on their heads. Von Daniken also argues that men could not have made the giant egg rocks because they did not have tools. This is also not convincing because we know of Egypt where pyramids were built from a long time ago. Another assumption is that the rocks could not be have been pushed up the hill by ordinary men because of the murky terrain. As a fact, we know the geographical features of areas change over time, so it is possible that the terrains were not murky when the rocks were formed.
Problems in Pseudo-scientific Thinking
Shermer says that rumor does not make something reality, although some rumors may be true they have to be backed up with evidence. This can be used to dismiss various theories put across by many people including Von Daniken. In his argument concerning the rock eggs, he says that Professor Homet, who discovered the rock told him that the rock could not have been formed naturally. This makes it a rumor because the professor does not give any evidence to back up his claim.
Another statement that Shermer puts across is unexplained is not inexplicable (Shermer, n.d.). He says that if people cannot explain something, they assume it to be a mystery that can only be paranormal. This also applies to the case of rock eggs that Von Daniken cannot explain how they got on top of mountains and assumed that it must extraterrestrials made and carried the rocks up the mountain using alien technology.
Interesting Information from the Readings
Von Daniken explicitly says that he is no rocket designer but still goes ahead to make claims concerning what an ideal spacecraft should be shaped like. He puts across baseless arguments about how a space sphere will allow lightning avoid actions and quick turns in all directions.
Shermer also puts across a fact; he says that coincidence is seen to have deep significance in the paranormal world (Shermer, n.d.). Most believe that mysterious forces at work is what causes coincidence. What they do not understand is that this is simply the laws of probability at work.
References
Shermer (n.d.). Twenty-five Fallacies that Lead us to Believe weird Things. In How Thinking Goes Wrong
Von Daniken (n.d.). The Sphere the Ideal Shape for Spacecraft. In Gods of Outer Space
