Pseudo-History
Pseudo-history can be defined as an alternative take on historical facts and accounts based on speculation, and not on primary sources. Pseudo-history relies on facts that cannot be adequately explained by neither historians nor scientists. Pseudo-science is usually used to bolster pseudo-history. Pseudo-history makes sensationalist claims that cannot be backed by conclusive evidence (“How Thinking Goes Wrong: Common Fallacies in Pseudo-Science and conspiracy thinking,” n.d). There is usually a lot of distaste in accepting logical explanations. Unlike history, pseudo-history seeks to explain everything for how it is today. Pseudo-historians pride themselves in being revolutionary thinkers who see the world for what it was. Disillusioned by mainstream thinking, pseudo-history has a bigoted mistrust of historical accounts.
History is still a big puzzle to modern day humans and sometimes, some entire epochs of time have been defined from single source manuscripts. With more gaps than answers to history, our ancient civilizations have left pseudo-historians with a treasure trove of questions to be answered. Ancient humans are not given enough credit for their ingenuity and architectural prowess owing to the fact that they did not leave us explicit blueprints on how they went about building mega structures and not develop a proper bibliography (Shermer, 1997, p. 51).
"Is there evidence that extraterrestrials visited ancient civilizations"? This is perhaps the most talked about the question in the community of pseudo-history. Its biggest proponent is a conspiracy theorist’s failure to distinguish between correlations of two events and causation of the same events. To explain this, for instance, pseudo-history would say that since A came before B, then it is A that caused B. Von Daniken, in his 1970 publication made an assessment of historical findings that show ‘compelling’ evidence proving extraterrestrials visited ancient man. Some go as far as giving aliens credit for sparking critical, scientific thinking. In the ancient astronaut theory, Von Daniken draws relation to the unexplained texts, artworks, and monuments left behind by an old man and the possibility of alien intervention. According to Von Daniken, aliens influenced cultural practices and religions from the past.
Von Daniken borrows heavily from science and pseudo-science first to explain the iconic shape of flying saucers, and then give his scientific opinion that the flying saucer would be fuel efficient compared to pencil shaped space rockets (Daniken, 1970, p. 71). Characteristic of pseudo-science, Von Daniken’s observation has no backing from actual rocket scientists but is indeed compelling. In his book, “Gods from Outer Space,” Von Daniken cites similarities in the creation theories of indigenous tribes in Central America and Polynesian cultures. One recurrent theme in all of them is the coming from a light above and the god descending from the light, sometimes in vessels (in the shape of a disk/sphere). According to Von Daniken, this, coupled with traditional inscriptions like the Inca’s in Peru (showing figures in spherical objects) is proof of early man’s encounter with aliens, who they ‘mistook’ for their gods (Daniken, 1970, p.77).
Ancient humans left many marvelous artifacts and monuments that suggest a higher understanding of Physics, Architecture, Geometry and Geography far beyond what we give them credit for. A good example is the Egyptian pyramids, Moai of Easter Island, the Stonehenge, Nazca lines and the Piri Reis map. In the example of the medieval Piri Reis maps, conspiracy theorists cannot possibly see how medieval map makers could have charted earth as seen from outer space. The Nazca lines are precisely straight, immense and can only be appreciated at great heights to look like landing strips, perhaps for alien spacecraft as suggested by pseudo-historians.
Pseudo-history is not conclusive in its argument but conflates the unexplained with the inexplicable, making it difficult to give counter arguments to the ancient alien theory. Until mainstream science proves otherwise, the ancient alien theory might just as well be true the truth.
References
Daniken, E. (1970). Gods from Outer Space (1st ed., pp. Chapter 5. 70-90). New York.
“How Thinking Goes Wrong: Common Fallacies in Pseudo-Science and conspiracy thinking”
Shermer, M. (1997). Why people Believe Weird Things. Chapter 3 (1st Ed.). New York: W.H.Freeman And Company.
