I’m sure most of my readers will have seen Mike Bara on Ancient Aliens, and most will probably vaguely recall that he’s a NASA conspiracy theorist. He, along with his colleague, Richard Hoagland, imagine all sorts of alien ruins on the moon and Mars and accuse NASA of covering them up, despite, of course, the obvious fact that much of the imagery they used to find these “ruins” was given to them by NASA itself.
Bara has previously attributed the origins of his alleged conspiracies to spiritual motives, including, in The Choice the hand of God. After appearing on Ancient Aliens, he changed his tune (like David Childress) and has published Ancient Aliens on the Moon (not coincidentally through Childress’s Adventures Unlimited Press) “to examine whether that unseen hand” that created the moon “might be ‘gods,’ with a lower case ‘g,’” and not God himself. Mike Bara describes himself as a former “engineering consultant” for aerospace companies, which makes me wonder how exactly he managed that feat given how terrible he is at a basic understanding of the conventions of mathematics. Let’s look at a claim from The Choice that is also reprinted in Ancient Aliens on the Moon:
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Today, let's look at a very interesting survival of popular tradition and ask what it means for alternative history claims. If you aren't familiar with the story of the Greek hero Perseus, I'd recommend reviewing the elements of his life before reading the following story that comes from Tuscany and was recorded in the nineteenth century as current among the illiterate peasantry.
Since I went above and beyond my usual time and effort in preparing yesterday’s exhaustive examination of why Oannes is extremely poor evidence for ancient alien contact, I’m going to take a bit of a breather today and instead talk a little bit about why I write this blog and the importance of engaging audiences online.
Monday on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Philip Coppens discussed Ancient Aliens Debunked and the “very clever” ways Chris White attempted to make criticism of Ancient Aliens: The Series as synonymous with debunking the ancient astronaut hypothesis as a whole. Coppens specifically told host Joe Rogan that White’s biggest omission was his failure to address the Babylonian tale of Oannes (which he mistakenly claims was known to the Sumerians; this cannot be proved). Coppens claims this story is the “amongst the best evidence that we might have potentially been visited by” extraterrestrials in prehistory.
Earlier today Sonja Brentjes, the co-author of the recent Skeptical Inquirer piece criticizing the traveling exhibition 1001 Inventions, replied to my October 20 blog post about her article. Her criticism was lengthy and sustained, so as I did with Philip Coppens' reply to me, I am presenting Brentjes' criticism below in the left-hand column with my reply in the right-hand column. Please do read the original piece before reading the following discussion.
In sum, Brentjes is correct that my broader criticism was inelegantly stated and implied more than I had warrant to assume, but my specific criticisms of the medieval texts in question are not wrong. A later comment from Brentjes noting that I incorrectly called Ibn Firnas a Moor when he was in fact a Berber is completely right, and I apologize for the error. (As per Brentjes' later comment about typographic errors, I have slightly amended her comments to correct obvious typos.) I lieu of a blog post today, I would like to direct everyone to Swans magazine where I have a new article out today: "Of Atlantis and Aliens: Alternatives to History as Cultural Mirror." The article is part of their special issue focusing on the New Age and covers the way alternative history theories have served as a mirror of cultural preoccupations, especially as they relate to politics and religion.
One small note: Due to an editing error, the first paragraph of the article incorrectly identifies yazona as the Persian word for ayazana, the Median holy sites, when in fact ayazana is the Persian word and yazona the Median. I have requested that a correction be made to restore the line to the way I originally (and correctly) wrote it. So, please, no angry comments about me misunderstanding Persian and Median dialect forms of the word for sacred sites! Update: Swans has generously corrected the mistake, and the article is now correct. How often have we heard people say that ancient history is boring, and that Atlantis, ancient astronauts, or wandering Phoenicians help to spice up the subject? Eighty years ago Lord Raglan complained that “Many educated people, however, continue to believe in [Great Zimbabwe’s] fabled construction by King Solomon, merely because they like to do so, and because the truth is ‘so dull,’ an expression that I have often heard applied to it.” Many ask, what’s the harm in believing something romantic and irrational?
The following example is perhaps not the most important, but it is certainly a fascinating look at how a false belief can snowball and significantly impact cultural practices. Our example is the humble fork. Yesterday I looked at some of the ways folklore, mythology, legends, and traditions have gotten the facts wrong and asked the question of how we can therefore trust that alternative history writers’ selections are somehow unquestionably true. Today I’d like to continue by examining the work of Sir John Boardman, a retired Oxford professor of Classical archaeology. His 2002 book The Archaeology of Nostalgia explains clearly how the ancient Greeks used the shards left over from the preceding Mycenaean civilization to fabricate an ancient past that never was.
According to ancient astronaut pundits, we are supposed to believe that ancient myths and legends are literal records of extraterrestrial intervention, while alternative historians argue that these same myths and legends instead record the intervention in the human past of an advanced, lost civilization on the order of Atlantis. Both groups, of course, selectively interpret myths and legends to support their preconceived points of view.
But what does it really mean to say that we must take myths and legends literally? Let’s look at a few and then compare them to the stories these speculators won’t tell you about. Fans of H. P. Lovecraft remember "Irem, the City of Pillars" from Lovecraft's "The Nameless City" (1921), where the ancient Arabian city (today spelled Iram) is mentioned in connection with a fabulous race of lizard people, and again in the "Call of Cthulhu" (1926), where it is a cult center for the Old Ones. It is also found in the Arabian Nights. The city is described in the Qur'an (89:6-13):
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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