Ancient Astronauts

Ok, ok... this is fascinating! Ancient astronauts. Nuff said. Well, not really... this is a mind-blowing concept that makes my tummy tingle when I really think about it. In this topic there is intrigue, adventure, inter-dimentional travel, gods, myths, history, pre-history, artifacts, anachronistic artifacts, ancient technology, evidence of ancient technology, UFO's, conspiracies, and on and on... WOW! Proponents of ancient astronaut theories claim that humans are either descendants of (or creations of) extraterrestrial beings who landed on Earth thousands of years ago. They also claim that much of human knowledge, religion, and culture came from extraterrestrial visitors in ancient times, in that ancient “astronauts” acted as a “mother culture”. Other proposals include the idea that civilization may have evolved on Earth twice, and that the visitation of ancient astronauts may actually show the return of descendants of ancient humans whose population was separated from earthbound humans. These ideas are generally not accepted by most scientists. Proponents argue that the evidence for ancient astronauts comes from supposed gaps in historical and archaeological records, and they also maintain that absent or incomplete explanations of historical or archaeological data point to the existence of ancient astronauts. The evidence is said to include archaeological artifacts that they argue are anachronistic or beyond the presumed technical capabilities of the historical cultures with which they are associated (sometimes referred to as "Out-of-place artifacts"); and artwork and legends which are interpreted as depicting extraterrestrial contact or technologies. Mainstream academics say that a gap in contemporary knowledge of the past doesn’t prove that the ancient astronaut ideas are a necessary, or even plausible, conclusion to draw. Academic researchers in related disciplines generally maintain that there is no evidence to support the proposals of ancient astronauts or “paleocontact”. Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, however strongly believed in the concept that earth was 'seeded' with life by some intelligent extraterrestrial species, for the purpose of ensuring life. He believed that this could have been done on any number of planets, possibly using unmanned shuttles. He talks at length about this theory in his book Life Itself. Further reading...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_astronauts

Also, if interested, there are a couple books you MUST read on the subject.
#1. Chariot of the Gods, by Erich von Däniken
#2. The Earth Chronicles, by Zecharia Sitchin

Also, check these websites out!
http://arcturi.com/AncientAliens.html http://www.s8int.com/
http://www.legendarytimes.com/index.php

Here is another cool website showing some "evidence"... http://www.alienswerehere.com/AncientAlienEvidence.html

Of course most, if not all of it, is pure hogwash, but it is still interesting and intellectually stimulating. Peace out!