Weekend Roundup: My New CNN Piece, Coulthart on Divine Aliens, and More!

Just in time for Monday's total solar eclipse, I have a new piece for CNN on the history of eclipses, the superstitions that surround them, and the slow progress of public education in correcting erroneous eclipse beliefs. It's remarkable to realize that in relatively recent times, there were still people in industrialized countries who thought they had gone blind because the light in the sky went out.  You can read the complete piece over at CNN Opinion: "Ancient Superstitions about Eclipses Paved the Way for This Scientific Truth."

This week on NewsNation's YouTube channel, Ross Coulthart held a discussion with Rep. Tim Burchett about aliens in the Bible, reading aloud passages from Acts and Ezekiel that he felt sounded like aliens. "Aren't we talking here about the possibility of nonhuman intelligence, flying saucers, UFOs, Tim?" Coulthart asked. "Ezekiel--I think he's talking about a flying saucer," Burchett replied moments after admitting that he was unaware what language the Hebrew Bible was written in and confusing it with he Aramaic spoken by Jesus in the New Testament. Coulthart suggested God is a space alien (shades of the classic God Drives a Flying Saucer), to pushback from his guests. A long segment involved the participants in the conversation speculating about the influence of demons, and and longer one speculated about the Vatican covering up UFOs and aliens.

Meanwhile, Reuters ran a depressing piece about the way Peruvian grave robbers are using North American interest in space aliens and ancient astronauts to goose the market for looted human bones and other ancient artifacts.

​In some cases, alien enthusiasts exploit a lack of understanding of cranial remodeling, a documented social practice in Pre-Colombian times that involved binding a child's head to manipulate the shape, Lombardi said.

"There were no people who were born like this, as some of the theorists of 'ancestral aliens' also try to make us believe," he said. "There's a whole contemporary mythology around this topic, and that generates a market."
​
While cranial modification was a practice in some of Peru's ancient cultures, Estrada said it is likely that grave robbers altered the Nazca remains to make it look like they had only three fingers on their hands in a bid to appeal to those who subscribe to the notion of extraterrestrials.

Peru is fighting back, but Reuters says they may be losing the battle to a well-funded online community using social media to source, purchase, and move looted remains, often to alien enthusiasts.