No Sacred Cows

by David G. McAfee

  Because we don’t know with certainty that extraterrestrial life exists, attributing events on earth—such as ancient buildings, crop circles, UFOs, etc.—to aliens is putting the cart before the horse. Personally, I think it’s likely that life does exist elsewhere in the universe, but I’m skeptical toward believers’ claims that extraterrestrials have visited humans on Earth—either now or in the distant past—because I haven’t seen hard evidence suggesting that’s the case. If credible data surfaces showing that aliens have been to Earth, I’d believe it. But until then, I’ll continue to treat those extraordinary claims in the same way as I would those made by Bigfoot believers and Christians who claim to have been visited by Jesus.

  ANCIENT ALIENS

  Ancient Aliens, a documentary-style television series propagating the ancient alien hypothesis previously proposed by Erich von Däniken and others, recently repopularized the self-centered notion that all (or at least a vast majority) of the miracles in ancient times, usually recorded in the Bible or in archaic Greek and Egyptian texts, were actual events that should be attributed to alien visitors. The show’s creators not only take a number of ancient cultures’ religious and mythological tales at face value, but also attempt to “explain” those occurrences using ET overseers—as opposed to gods or, the most likely explanation, human ingenuity and imagination. Ancient alien hypothesizers often focus on our ancestors’ stories and structures, which can seem mysterious to us, but ignore the fact that people continue to write about and experience similar things today. Many of these believers, for instance, ignore alleged miracles present in the Book of Mormon, the tales of L. Ron Hubbard in Dianetics, and even the alleged divine visions of cult-leader David Koresh. Where does one draw the line regarding which stories do and do not require the intervention of unproven extraterrestrial or divine beings? The fact is we don’t need gods or aliens to explain the origins of religions, and there are plenty of modern examples that prove this beyond a reasonable doubt.

  Many people have suggested that psychotropic plants and drugs played a role in the development of many religions, and, while that’s entirely possible,7 it’s also unnecessary. Humans are and always have been imaginative, creative, and intelligent. We know how religions arose in the past and can see how they do today. In fact, through historical and archaeological analyses, researchers can actually witness how religion itself evolved from simple sun-worship systems to multifaceted anthropomorphized god-based hierarchies over time. This knowledge we have as a society makes it completely unnecessary and counterproductive to invent mysteries that require alien intervention, but that doesn’t stop some ancient alien believers from making arguments based on ignorance. For example, many hypothesizers argue that numerous civilizations wouldn’t have worshiped sky-dwelling rulers if they didn’t really exist in some form, in this case as flesh-and-blood creatures. However, this is a known misconception to anyone who has studied religions and their origins. Not only are there ancient sea gods, earth gods, underworld gods, etc., but many gods came from the sky because our ancestors looked there for their answers, just as we do today. Water, warmth, mystery, and more are all contained in the sky and they always were, so it’s natural that any mythology would hold it in such high esteem.

  One doesn’t need to believe Jesus walked on water to understand the origin of Christianity or believe Muhammad ascended to Heaven on a winged steed to understand how Islam began. Taking ancient rumors as mistranslated facts is intellectually dishonest. If we believed everything people who lived thousands of years ago said about developments in their lifetimes and about other ancient people, this would be a very different world. We might think flying, fire-breathing dragons existed and that Atlantis was a historical landmark, or we may believe, as Aristotle argued, that the heart—and not the brain—was the center of sensation and movement.8 When considering these assertions, we have to look at plausibility, historical precedence, independent verification, and more; a claim simply isn’t enough.

  ALIEN OF THE GAPS

  The ancient alien hypothesis, much like a lot of spiritual and religious conclusions, is based on conjecture and gaps in knowledge. Believers identify occurrences for which they don’t have (or accept) a satisfactory explanation and, instead of attributing the unknown events to gods or other supernatural forces, they suggest a different type of extraterrestrial life form must have been responsible. The difference between the “God” answer and the ancient alien answer is that aliens are natural and arise biologically, which means they are more likely to exist, but their presence also wouldn’t answer any questions about the origins of life or matter itself. The ancient alien idea just pushes the biggest mysteries back even further. Believers who accept the notion of ancient aliens often think humans needed help to evolve and to get where we are today, but that, somehow, our alien overlords did not. The questions remains: if we were created by aliens, who created them?

  More specifically, the ancient alien idea is similar to the religiously motivated intelligent design (ID) movement, especially when it is applied to the construction of pyramids and other ancient structures. In each case, believers analyze a final product—either an archaic monument or the earth itself—and then make up an answer as to its origins. Ancient alien hypothesizers and ID believers alike will often ignore any mistakes or flaws in the creation of the product and then leap to the conclusion that an unknown yet supremely powerful force must have created something so “perfect.” In the same way that ID proponents might consider the earth’s features a clear signature of divine force(s), ancient alien believers may suggest strange cave paintings and other ancient artworks depicting alienesque creatures point to ET visitation. While creationists discard the natural processes that shaped our planet and the solar system itself, those who subscribe to the ancient alien hypothesis ignore that humans are creative storytellers. We know from historical records that art has always been around and we know from surrealist artists that not all drawings of humans look exactly the way humans look. There were representations of unicorns and dragons and countless other mythical beasts across a variety of cultures, as well, but that doesn’t mean that the creatures were real; it just means people were people.

  Michael Shermer explains that the ancient alien hypothesis itself is “grounded in a logical fallacy called argumentum ad ingorantiam, or ‘argument from ignorance.’” The illogical reasoning, he says, concludes that a lack of a satisfactory explanation for the origins of the Nazca lines of Peru, the Easter Island statutes, the Egyptian pyramids, and more means aliens from outer space must have built them.

  “Ancient aliens arguments from ignorance resemble intelligent design ‘God of the gaps’ arguments: wherever a gap in scientific knowledge exists, there is evidence of divine design. In this way, ancient aliens serve as small ‘g’ gods of the archaeological gaps, with the same shortcoming as the gods of the evolutionary gaps—the holes are already filled or soon will be, and then whence goes your theory?” Shermer wrote for Scientific American.9 “In science, for a new theory to be accepted, it is not enough to identify only the gaps in the prevailing theory (negative evidence). Proponents must provide positive evidence in favor of their new theory. And as skeptics like to say, before you say something is out of this world, first make sure that it is not in this world.”

  The ancient alien idea is harmful not only because it is a false belief, but also because it takes appreciation for our ancestors’ hard work and redirects it toward imagined, unseen, and unknowable beings—in much the same way modern religious believers’ wonder toward the natural world is often surrendered to god(s). Our ancestors were creative, intelligent, and resourceful people who were capable of amazing feats without extraterrestrial or divine intervention. So, while an ancient alien believer might point to complex pyramids and cross-culture similarities between large structures as proof of ET intervention, to me it shows that our ancient relatives were industrious, talented, and able to independently figure out the best ways to stack rocks. As
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the original Star Trek series, has said, “Ancient astronauts didn’t build the pyramids. Human beings built the pyramids, because they’re clever and they work hard.”

  WHERE’S THE EVIDENCE?

  While it may be possible, as ancient alien hypothesizers suggest, that an alien life form came to earth to mine gold,10 help our ancestors to build pyramids, or otherwise substantially change the course of human history, I just don’t see it as very probable. Those aliens would have had to intentionally erase all evidence of their existence, just as a deity would. And while many believers have faith that the aliens would be capable of such a feat, you can’t make a successful case for their existence by basing all the “evidence” on the fact that the evidence isn’t there. “Aliens/gods would be too smart to leave evidence!” and, “The Government hid the evidence!” are not acceptable answers, either. If you follow that line of thinking, you may as well believe in trolls who steal your socks at night. After all, sometimes your socks are missing, and trolls would certainly know better than to reveal themselves and jeopardize their mission. There are a lot of explanations as to how our ancestors accomplished many of the feats that some claim to be impossible, and most of those explanations don’t involve unproven interstellar travel and are therefore better alternatives. Even if one of these ancient methods is completely unknown to us scientifically, I’m fairly certain I’m capable of making up something more likely than hyper-intelligent aliens who came here to command humans to do manual labor before leaving without a trace of their ever having been here.

  I want to be clear in stating that I’m not opposed to the ancient alien hypothesis; I’m just against unsubstantiated claims and pseudoscience in general. If intelligent alien beings were discovered, and scientists confirmed that these aliens were indeed responsible for various events throughout our history, I would be excited to spread the word and tell the world. I would write essays and books about the amazing new discovery and I would happily admit to having been wrong all those years for doubting it. It would truly be an incredible find. All that said, I hope I’d get the chance to ask these exceptionally advanced beings about their motives for traveling such vast distances just to help our ancestors use blocks in a more efficient manner.

  Ancient alien intervention and ancestry should be handled, like most far-fetched and unsubstantiated claims, with Occam’s razor. If something is confusing to you, you should investigate it and look at all possibilities, but don’t simply conclude that unverifiable and unseen forces must be responsible. Think about what makes the most sense. What’s the simplest solution? Does your conclusion require numerous assumptions about beings that have never been shown to exist? If so, it may be time to rethink your position.

  MODERN ALIEN SIGHTINGS AND UFOS

  It’s important to note that not all alien beliefs are of the ancient variety. From alleged government conspiracies in Roswell, New Mexico, to crop circles and ever-convincing stories from farmers who say they’ve been probed, modern alien visitation is another commonly held (yet equally unsubstantiated) belief. Surveys suggest up to 77 percent of American adults believe there are signs that aliens could have been to earth11 and about 45 percent think extraterrestrials have actually visited our planet.12 Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has even been quoted as saying she thinks we “may have been” already visited by aliens, but she added that “we don’t know for sure.”13 Additionally, according to Colorado-based Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), one of the largest and oldest UFO investigation organizations, more than 6,000 people in the United States reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in 2011 alone. A number of other well-known people, including American politician Dennis Kucinich,14 have also reported UFO sightings. While Kucinich stopped short of saying he believed in alien visitation, only noting mysterious lights in the sky, many alleged UFO witnesses insist on identifying the objects they see as necessarily out-of-this world—despite the “unidentified” qualifier. Neil deGrasse Tyson, in his book Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, cautions people to remember what the “U” in “UFO” stands for.

  “You see lights flashing in the sky. You’ve never seen anything like this before and don’t understand what it is. You say, ‘It’s a UFO!’ The ‘U’ stands for ‘unidentified,’” Tyson wrote. “But then you say, ‘I don’t know what it is; it must be aliens from outer space, visiting from another planet.’ The issue here is that if you don’t know what something is, your interpretation of it should stop immediately. You don’t then say it must be X or Y or Z. That’s argument from ignorance.”

  Tyson is referring to “UFO” as it is commonly used, but that isn’t the only definition. The U.S. Air Force, which coined the term in 1952, first stated that a UFO was “any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object.”15 Because of this definition, UFOs were defined as such only after remaining unidentified following an investigation by experts. That limited definition has largely been forgotten as colloquial use of the term has evolved, however, and many people even started using other descriptors, such as unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP), to disassociate strange objects in the sky from extraterrestrial assumptions.16

  One thing we should all be able to agree on is that UFO doesn’t necessarily mean “alien.” If someone sees something unidentified, I accept that. What I’m not willing to do, however, is make the enormous leap of faith it would take to classify that alleged sighting as an example of extraterrestrial visitation. Those who insist they’ve been abducted or otherwise contacted by extraterrestrials will often provide photos and videos of “unidentified flying objects,” and then in the next breath attempt to identify them as vehicles from another planet—effectively making them IFOs. But they are called “unidentified” for a reason, and there is usually a natural (and terrestrial) explanation readily available for each of these events. UFO sightings in no way prove alien visitation, and to make that assumption is to adopt the argument from ignorance in a manner akin to the “alien of the gaps” discussed above. Knowing that weather balloons, drones, and Chinese (sky) lanterns exist, and that the military tests new aircraft all the time, it’s hard to imagine how people can see mysterious lights or objects in the sky and assume aliens must be the source. In addition to those just named, many UFOs can be explained by atmospheric phenomena, light aberrations, mass hallucinations, swamp gas, hoaxes, and even earthquake lights—rare glowing lights sometimes seen prior to seismic events.17

  Sightings of UFOs or, more commonly, UFLs—unidentified flying lights—are common for many reasons, including the fact that some people simply don’t have the research skills or background information required to identify certain terrestrial craft. Perspective is also important; many people have reported seeing an alien-seeming ship only to later see it at another angle and discover it was something as simple as an airplane or helicopter. And sometimes lights in the sky are just that—lights, in the sky, produced from an earthly source, either as an unintended consequence of normal activity or as a deliberate hoax. These are, of course, not the only rational explanations for UFO sightings, but these answers are almost always more probable than superintelligent alien beings traveling throughout the galaxy just to give a few humans and their neighbors a personal light show. For these reasons and many others, the blurry pictures you’ve seen don’t prove aliens exist. Photos of lights in the sky are proof of aliens just like pieces of toast that seem to resemble Jesus are proof that Christianity is the one True religion. If you think you see an alien spacecraft, however, I would still recommend trying to capture it the best way you can. The only thing less impressive than photos are unsupported anecdotes. While images of lights in the sky don’t prove aliens exist, stories about lights in the sky don’t prove anything at all.

  Alien visitation belief isn’t all about ligh
ts in the sky—there are also those who claim to have been abducted by aliens. The authors of one poll estimated that nearly four million Americans may have been abducted by ETs,18 and other researchers have claimed that between 5.5 and 6 percent of the population have reported having similar experiences.19 I don’t think all these people are lying, nor do I believe they were picked up by a sky lantern or swamp gas, but I do think these claimants are mistaken about what they’ve experienced. In fact, I compare these abduction stories to those of religious visions, which are often quite similar. People say gods or angels visit them as they sleep, or cause a “sign” to appear in the sky, in the same way other believers might claim to have been visited by extraterrestrials. But in each case, there is an explanation, usually involving general confusion, sleep paralysis, abuse of hallucinogens, mental disorder, or fraud.

  To get a more complete picture regarding the belief in modern alien visitation, I sought out Robert Sheaffer,20 one of the leading skeptical UFO investigators and a founding member of the UFO subcommittee of the well-known Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP). He’s also the author of Bad UFOs and a founding director and past chairman of the Bay Area Skeptics, a skeptics group in the San Francisco Bay Area.

  McAfee: A huge number of people claim to see UFOs each year, and some of those objects are said to defy natural laws as we understand them. Do you think all these people are simply mistaken? What would you tell them about their purported experiences?

  Sheaffer: The great majority of the public cannot identify Venus and Jupiter, or bright stars, or a satellite passing overhead. So when a person having no familiarity with astronomy reports seeing something unknown to them, there is no reason to think that anything unusual is happening. As for objects alleged to defy natural laws, that is a very strong indication that the reported sighting is inaccurate. It has been said many times, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof,” and in the absence of extraordinary proof—multiple independent and consistent observers, with photos and videos, and even radar and other technological detections—you don’t have anything. “Extraordinary claims with little or no proof” is just not going to cut it.