Could E.T. have influenced religion?

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Ok, to many people this is going to sound like some crazy idea

Crazy? No? Just tediously unoriginal and naive. It comes up with monotonous regularity every few years,as a fresh crop of gullible ignoramuses (ignorami?) learn to read.

In logic the argument is a called "argument from incredulity" or "argument from lack of imagination". Theists use it all the time, except then we call it "god of the gaps". A blunt way of putting it is "I'm too ignorant and too unimaginative to think of anything else,therefore aliens//god did it"

This broad area may be called the Von Daniken school of history and archaeology. A fraud and pathological liar, Erich Von Daniken spawned an entire new area of crackpottery; "god was an alien" in the 1970's


Do I believe in sentient aliens? Not yet,due to lack of evidence. IE there isn't any. I think it's 'most likely',but am in no hurry to meet an alien. I have no reason to assume they will be benign.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

The entire wiki article is worth reading as good place to begin if you are interested in the topic at a serious level..

Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (born 14 April 1935) is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968. Däniken is one of the main figures responsible for popularizing the "paleo-contact" and ancient astronaut hypotheses.

The evidence that Däniken has put forward to support his paleo-contact hypotheses can be categorized as follows:

Artifacts have been found which are alleged to represent a higher technological knowledge than existed at the times when they were manufactured. Däniken maintains that these artifacts have been manufactured either by extraterrestrial visitors, or by humans who obtained the necessary knowledge from them. Such artifacts include the Antikythera mechanism, Stonehenge, the statues of Easter Island, and the Piri Reis map.
In ancient art throughout the world, themes are observed which can be interpreted to illustrate astronauts, air and space vehicles, non-human but intelligent creatures, and artifacts of a high technology. Däniken also points out details that are similar in the art of unrelated cultures.
Origins of religions might be a reaction to contact with an alien race by primitive humans. The humans considered the technology of the aliens to be supernatural and the aliens themselves to be gods. According to Däniken, the oral and literal traditions of most religions contain references to visitors from "stars" and vehicles traveling through air and space. These, he says, should be interpreted as literal descriptions which have changed during the passage of time and have become more obscure, rather than as symbolic or mythical fiction. One such is Ezekiel's revelation in the Old Testament, which he interprets as a detailed description of a landing spacecraft.

Several scientists, such as Carl Sagan and I. S. Shklovskii, have written about Däniken's paleocontact and extraterrestrial visitation claims. Although Sagan did not rule out the possibility of visitation, he insisted that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", which Däniken fails to provide.[7]

Däniken claimed that a non-rusting iron pillar in India was evidence of extraterrestrial influence.[8] Later, Däniken admitted in a Playboy interview that the pillar was rusty and man-made, and that as far as supporting his hypotheses goes "we can forget about this iron thing."[9]

Some also question von Däniken's credibility, as he has also knowingly put forward fraudulent evidence to advance his hypotheses, such as photographs of pottery "depicting UFOs", supposedly from an archaeological dig dating back to the biblical era. The PBS television series Nova determined that this was a fraud, and even located the potter who made them. When confronted with this evidence, von Däniken argued that the deception was justified because some people would only believe his ideas if they saw actual proof.[10]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Von_Daniken