Reception
Despite the proponents' own interpretations of ancient writings and artifacts, there has yet to be found any evidence to support the ancient astronaut hypothesis.
Alan F. Alford, author of Gods of the New Millennium (1996), was an adherent of the ancient astronaut theory. Much of his work draws on Sitchin's theories. However, he now finds fault with Sitchin's theory after deeper analysis, stating that: "I am now firmly of the opinion that these gods personified the falling sky; in other words, the descent of the gods was a poetic rendition of the cataclysm myth which stood at the heart of ancient Near Eastern religions."
The Christian creationist community is highly critical of many of the ancient astronaut ideas, the young earth creationist author Clifford A. Wilson published Crash Go the Chariots in 1972 in which he attempted to discredit all claims made in Von Daniken's book Chariots of the Gods.
In a 2004 article in Skeptic magazine, Jason Colavito claims that von Däniken plagiarized many of the book's concepts from Le Matin des Magiciens (Morning of the Magicians), that this book in turn was heavily influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos, and that the core of the ancient astronaut theory originates in H. P. Lovecraft's short stories "The Call of Cthulhu" and "At the Mountains of Madness".
Read more about this topic: Ancient Astronauts
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)