"Ancient Aliens"

The "History" Channel has, for the past few years, been airing a show called "Ancient Aliens" the premise being that just about every technological and architectural advance the Human race has achieved is not an example of basic logic and Human ingenuity, but rather the result of "Estraterrestrial"(if you've seen the show, you'll get the reference) construction.

The Great Pyramid? Aliens. Stonehenge? Aliens. Machu Pichu? Aliens. The Moon Landings? Aliens!

If this was presented in as an hour TV show like Stargate SG1(great show btw) it would be an entertaining way to explore this absurd idea, but it's not. It's presented in a documentary format on a channel whose name suggests that it takes Earth history seriously.

Before someone might get the idea that I'm some sort of elitist who thinks this kind of programming is somehow "beneath" me I should mention that I'm a long time fan of shows like the original "In Search of..." starring Leonard Nimoy from the 1970s and I enjoy hearing tales of "real" ghost stories. I am open to the idea of "paranormal phenomena", it's just that every time I watch or read these show I do so with a very skeptical eye.

My guess about the popularity of shows like "Ancient Aliens" has it's roots in the fantastic technological advances Humans have made since the beginning of the 20th Century. Airplanes, Radios, Televisions, Computers, Space Flight.

In the past if a Human happened upon something like the wonder of the Great Pyramid of Giza they'd see one thing straight away, and that is, that it's definitely not a natural object, just looking at it you can see a lot of thought and care took place in designing and building it. So ancient humans would assume that it was created by "the gods". Flash forward to the late 20th and Early 21st Century and the very idea of "gods" or a singular "God" is very out of fashion, so how do we explain these wonders our ancestors designed and built? It's not the gods, but Aliens!

Aliens have become the 21st century version of the ancient "gods" because, I think that they can dress the idea of extraterrestrial life in a cloak of "science". after all  real scientists are right this minute spending millions of dollars searching for life beyond Earth.

(more later, tired right now).