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12:39 pm
January 12, 2011
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Patrick
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| Investigator | posts 190 |
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Revenant said:
Trixie said:
But, I have to defend Souki for his passion at what he believes in and in his work.
Who?
The Oompa Loompa.
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12:41 pm
January 12, 2011
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Nosfer
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Giorgio (the guy who hasn't figured out that toasters and water don't mix)
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1:00 pm
January 12, 2011
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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Oh…ok. I thought that Trixie might have been referring to someone else on the show…
Giorgio…being passionate. Um…ok. I guess I'll give him that. But…if I'm going to try to sell you something, I'm going to be passionate too. I'm going to do what it takes. I mean…if I'm rewriting history and redefining scientific concepts backed up by my "Sports Information Communications" degree from Ithaca College..then yes…I'm going to smile and wave my hands while I speak and do everything that I can to get you on my side. That's only good business.
So Trixie, I understand what you're saying, but a get a bit queasy attributing something positive and almost admirable about a guy who sees aliens in everything…from the Arc of the Covenant to our own DNA. Some may say "passion"…some say "crazy"…and some, like me, leans more towards "carnival barker making two bits…"
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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1:25 pm
January 12, 2011
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Trixie
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Yes, I did mean Giorgio Tsoukalos (for some reason my husband calls him Souki baby, don't ask me why). I understand what you're saying about him trying to sell something and make people believe, but if they are smart enough they will not fall for that crap. I believe in a lot of paranormal things but the alien stuff is taking it too far. I just admire someone with an eclectic and eccentric personality (something you don't see too much of these days) and not some zombie who walks around being boring as hell. Yeah, he may be nutty but that's the great part. Who wants a world full of conformists??? At least he seems to love what he does and we don't have to believe him, and the gullible ones who will believe anything someone says…oh well.
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4:28 pm
January 12, 2011
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Trixie
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Listen, cut the poor guy a break. He’s not spewing hate or trying to convince you of some horrible hateful idea like the propaganda some groups vomit out, he just wants you to believe you’re part alien. Which we all know is crap so let’s just chill with it and enjoy his crazy hair and crazy spaceship pin and appreciate him for the individual he is. He isn’t going to be changing science or redefining scientific concepts, trust me. No offense, as much as I can’t help but like him, I don’t think anything will come of his ideas in any significant way. Besides, expressing your opinion is what we are doing right now, isn’t it? So, he has that same right. And this is coming from a girl who watches the show sometimes and says “oh please!”. I don’t believe any of it but hey, he can say what he thinks and people will either believe it or they won’t. And the ones who do probably believed it anyway!!!!
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4:39 pm
January 12, 2011
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Nosfer
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Trixie said:
I don’t believe any of it but hey, he can say what he thinks and people will either believe it or they won’t.
Yup, and so can we. And we are. To let his "spewing" go unchallenged and to not point out the raving flaws is to turn off our brains and we don't do that here. So, you'll have to forgive us if we counter his points. Was Applewhite spewing hate prior to the arrival of Hale-Bopp? Applewhite had adopted the Ancient Astronaut idea too. No hatred that I know of, but his lunacy cost the lives of 39 people including himself.
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3:52 pm
January 17, 2011
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CrowTRobot
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Post edited 3:54 pm – January 17, 2011 by CrowTRobot
Oubliette said:
Somehow this "Ancient Alien" theory really bothers me. I just find it so….I'm searching for the right word here. Absurd is one, but there's more to it than that.
Why do so many people find it hard to accept the FACT that Ancient Civilizations (i.e., Egypt, Mayans, Aztecs etc.) possessed the necessary skills, expertise and dedication to produce the wonderful edifices we see today? Yes, we still don't understand how they were able to build some monuments without benefit of modern technology. …Grrr…
Oubliette.
Totally agree. However I admittedly find these shows fascinating in some sort of weird way – I also never miss the episode where every event in the Bible is traceable to aliens. I made my wife watch it once; the only thing of interest to her was the guy with hair…
Anyway, as I was reading your post, I recalled something I'd heard or read a long time ago: Perhaps the invention of the wheel wasn't a step forward; but a step back.
And even now, with all our technological advances, you could argue that some things today aren't built or made as well as they were 50-60 years ago: homes, cars, etc.
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6:30 pm
January 17, 2011
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Wallydraigle
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| Investigator | posts 114 |
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Hitler was pretty passionate about his beliefs too.
In a way, shows like this *are* spreading hate and bigotry. They're trying to assert that people who aren't like us couldn't have achieved great things. It's no different than a teacher saying that a minority student must have cheated on her assignment because she couldn't have possibly done so well on her own. No different. But more than that. They're trying to spread stupid. I think stupid is at least as bad as bigoted. At least if you're not stupid you've got a chance of reasoning yourself out of bigotry. And that's another way these shows promote hate. By feeding people who already don't know any better a bunch of made up bullshit (come on, that's what it is!) in a convenient package and keeping stupid people stupid. There aren't too many things you can do to someone that are worse than that.
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7:02 pm
January 17, 2011
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Nosfer
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"Von Daniken's extraterrestrials thus become more elusive the closer we examine the evidence. What emerges from his work is a pattern of denying the ability of non-Europeans to construct their own monuments. Archaeologist Professor Ken Feder of Central Connecticut State University analyzed the geography of von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods? and found that of fifty-one examples of extraterrestrial intervention only two came from Europe. Von Daniken has subsequently dealt with some prehistoric European sites, but the emphasis is still very much on nonwesterners needing outside help. The whole ancient astronauts case is actually a kind of racism through time."
Excerpted from Chapter Three – Architectural Wonders in Ancient Mysteries.
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9:02 pm
January 17, 2011
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Axel Olrik
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Post edited 10:58 pm – January 17, 2011 by Axel Olrik
Post edited 11:03 pm – January 17, 2011 by Axel Olrik
Is it possible the omission of evidence in Europe is due to the relative scarcity of very early advanced cultures?
Is it possible our European ancestors were just too primitive for the Ancient Aliens to mess with?
Is it possible admixtures of Homo sapien and Homo neanderthalensis DNA were too quirky to make genetic engineering and cultural advancement in Northern Europe appealing to our Ancient Alien Overlords?
No one with an ounce of scientific training believes any of this…but is it possible?
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7:14 pm
January 18, 2011
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Revenant
| | Hopelessly Locked In A "Fear Cage" | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 1393 |
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Stephen said:
My favorite moment came when they claimed that perhaps a bunch of really smart people, like Einstein, Oppenheimer, and Leonardo Da Vinci were contacted by aliens, because… well, because they were really smart. Oh, and that 80% of our genetics comes from aliens. Did the aliens upgrade gorillas, chimps, and orangutans while they were at it?
I was channel-surfing today and the movie "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" was on. Let's work through the alien-believin' check list according to Ancient Aliens:
1) Aliens exist – Check…they're all over the place at the end.
2) Aliens are coming to Earth – Check…see #1.
3) Aliens have a psychic link with humans – Check…this can also prompt one to ask "how?" and the genetic aspects comes into play.
4) Aliens are amongst us – Check…there's an actual exchange between two guys when the aliens start coming at the end. The first guy says "Einstein WAS right!" In which the other guy replies "Einstein was probably one of them."
5) Aliens are abducting us – Check…a bunch of humans get off the mother ship at the end.
6) Aliens have been visiting us for a long time – Check…those humans were from different time era's.
So…really…"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is actually a training film of sorts. Kind of funny, right? 
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"Skepticism is not a position, it's a process." -Dr Michael Shermer
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8:21 pm
January 18, 2011
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Oubliette
| | Igloo in NJ | |
| Lead Investigator | posts 574 |
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Good point, Revenant. I remember when "Close Encounters" came
out–audiences were really eating the premise up. Sometimes things do go
in cycles.
Actually, my favorite line from that movie is when the scruffy
chap says "I saw Bigfoot once". We always get a laugh out of it.
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If 50 million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Anatole France
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11:18 pm
April 12, 2011
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elwyn5150
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| Investigator in Training | posts 21 |
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I'm not sure why everyone is picking on just poor Tsouki! What about that guy who had the really short mohawk?
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11:24 pm
April 12, 2011
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elwyn5150
| | Sydney, Australia | |
| Investigator in Training | posts 21 |
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I thought Londo was a better comparison than Oompa Loompas. After all, he came from a TV series that was based around the ancient astronauts theory.
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