Ancient Aliens: I Don’t Want to Believe

on July 26, 2013

The History Channel’s “Ancient Aliens” suggests that space aliens lived amongst humans and helped build the foundations of human society (Photo Credit: History Channel).

By Alexander Griswold (@HashtagGriswold)

The Christian Left” is the most popular Facebook page for liberal Christians, with over 142,000 Likes. Just last month it received a glowing profile from Huffington Post Religion, which called it “a breath of fresh air.” It’s usually filled with typical posts about why Christians should support abortion-on-demand, high taxes, gay marriage, etc. But browsing the other day, there was one post that was so bizarre I had to highlight it:

We don’t agree with everything they say on “Ancient Aliens,” but in general we don’t have a problem with the notion that extraterrestrial species may have influenced our civilizations in the past, and probably do in the present. Genesis 6:1-8 talks about “The Nephilim being on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” God is still God, regardless of any intelligent extraterrestrial species that may be around. It’s God’s universe, and God created them too.

The Christian Left’s post prompted nearly 700 Likes, and several supportive comments. Ancient Aliens, for the uninitiated, is a History Channel show devoted to the “ancient astronaut” hypothesis that aliens lived amongst humans and helped build the foundations of human society. The show is renowned for being, well, basically full of nonsense and lies.

Entire websites and videos are devoted to debunking the show, but the most popular one is Ancient Aliens Debunked. The site is actually run by a conservative Christian named Chris White, who takes particular umbrage to the way Ancient Aliens twists Christian stories to back their wacky hypothesis. Among some of Ancient Aliens’ claims: Ezekiel’s vision of a wheel was a UFO, taking communion is based on cannibalistic alien technology, aliens were behind Noah’s flood, Noah was the son of an alien, aliens gave Moses the Ten Commandments, angels are aliens, aliens destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, aliens gave John his Revelation, aliens, aliens, aliens.

Going through and debunking each of these notions wouldn’t be worth anyone’s time. Anyone delusional enough to believe them despite clear and obvious contradictions with the text of the Bible is unlikely to be swayed by my comments. But I will note that they all feature pretty much the same pattern. Step One: Locate miraculous occurrence in the Bible. Step Two: Remove God. Step Three: Insert aliens.

To be fair, The Christian Left’s post specifically notes they don’t believe everything in Ancient Aliens.  But they specifically cite at least one Bible verse as referring to aliens, so I will debunk that theory at the very least.

The Nephilim have been a source of debate in biblical scholarship since before the birth of Christ. As Genesis tells us, the Nephilim were giants formed “when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them.” The most common interpretation is that “sons of God” refers to angels, specifically fallen angels, while others think they refer to descendants of Seth. Or, as The Christian Left and Ancient Aliens seem to believe, the “sons of God” are aliens. However, the only other time the phrase “sons of God” is used in the Old Testament is Job 1:6, where the “sons of God” and Satan are described as meeting with God. Unless Ancient Aliens is suggesting that God keeps aliens in his divine council, it seems fairly clear that their interpretation is seriously flawed.

The Christian Left’s comment also mentioned that aliens “probably” continue to influence our society today. In addition, it responded to a fan comment claiming the United States has recovered UFOs in the past with “We agree, but most folks won’t accept it.” It’s seems that the people who run the page go beyond a mere curiosity of aliens and into tinfoil hat territory. But perhaps I’m being unfair. Maybe other posts on The Christian Left show they can be rational about conspiracy theories…

“The use of the term “Conspiracy Theory” has been fashioned into a tool used to brand anyone who questions the “Official Story” a loon. Some people take conspiracy theories too far (Alex Jones), but to think that conspiracies don’t happen is infantile and ignorant.”

Maybe not.

There are many Christians who believe in aliens, and with good reason. Many scientists tell us that with the billions upon billions of planets in the universe, it’s a near mathematical certainty life exists on other planets. But Ancient Aliens takes that belief several steps too far, claiming that virtually all human progress is a result of humanoid extraterrestrials who continue to visit Earth to this day and interfere in human affairs. At the point at which they write off all miraculous occurrences in the Bible as the work of little green men is the point where Christians ought to write off the show for good.

  1. Comment by John Hartung on July 26, 2013 at 11:24 am

    Scientists tell us that the existence of a universe that sustains life at all are astronomical. Yet you think that there could be other intelligent life in our universe at some other place and time to be likely?

  2. Comment by Brian on July 26, 2013 at 7:22 pm

    As ridiculous as the ancient alien hypothesis is, it’s still slightly more plausible than the Christian hypothesis.

    Pot meet kettle.

  3. Comment by Tunaman on February 20, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    Really? How can you then explain that “the empty tomb of Christ”, witnessed by atheists and non-believers as well and documented in history books as readily as, say, the Berlin Wall existence, is or was a hoax? THAT is physical evidence, not some supposed alien intervention that, even with our updated cell phone in existence today, cannot be verified by even one shred of evidenced “pic” with someone’s cell. When somebody can explain that biased belief that Christ and His various miracles was just a hoax, then maybe I myself will hop on that mythical “gravy train” of belief that thinks Christianity is bunk. Besides that, how would one explain for a fact that a good deal of folks prayed for “in the name of Jesus” were cancer-free after diagnosed as such? There’s your physical evidence. Something to consider here…

  4. Comment by TMN on March 1, 2020 at 6:29 am

    The Berlin wall is a verifiable fact. The empty tomb that you are referring to isn’t. Big difference.

  5. Comment by Adrian Croft on July 28, 2013 at 12:41 pm

    The first person I ever met who believed in ETs was a PK (i.e., “preacher’s kid”), who was rebelling against his parents’ faith. This is a common phenomenon, actually – the “scientific” person who regards Christianity as an outmoded superstition but who grabs on firmly to something as loony as belief in life on other planets, despite there being no evidence for it. As Martin Luther put, “the shrine will not remain empty.” If you discard God, you’ll replace him with something absurd. These people are pathetic. They want to believe there’s “something out there,” but they reject the One who made everything.

  6. Comment by Poqui on July 29, 2013 at 1:22 pm

    If Mormon theology teaches that God lives in a planet near the star Kolob then that would make God an “alien.” Makes sense then…

  7. Comment by cynthia curran on August 11, 2013 at 6:42 pm

    Eusebius believe when they were giants in those days they were fallen angels mixing with human women.

  8. Comment by tushar shinde on August 17, 2013 at 12:47 pm

    In future
    if humans become aliens due to the improvement of human body and brain than what will happend…?

  9. Comment by rreactor on August 21, 2013 at 11:41 am

    The mysteries of the universe are known to God. We can speculate all we want and it may be interesting to do so, but entertaining these alien theories, is simply a waste of time.

  10. Comment by Sean on October 5, 2013 at 2:54 pm

    One can only believe in his senses and intellect. I have read the bible from start to end, been in catholic education etc. For me, it simply does not ring true or even make sense. Who is to say there is one god, what evidence is there? One cannot point to the bible as I reject that collection of lies out of hand. Aliens making us what we are now makes more sense to me. I would not void people of their beliefs, everyone needs some comfort in the face of death. Personally I believe that is another matrix that cannot be detected, yet and I comfort myself that there is order and goodness in that matrix and that my soul will slip into it when I die. I am very interested in the theories around ancient aliens and it makes sense to me. If anyone has good links/forums etc, please post it so I can read further.

  11. Comment by David Cavallo on July 31, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    “People are afraid too admit it could be true. The OT admits there are other gods! Creator gods are not the source of life;only the manipulaters of life. This is a multiverse,has always existed,eternally changing. If we had use of 40% of our brain we would have control over matter,so just imagine other beings much more evolved in many ways. The Gita says there are beings who live for thousands of yrs,who begin to believe they are gods , but who eventually pass away!!”

  12. Comment by David Cavallo on July 31, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    “Creator gods like Yahweh live for thousands of yrs,but they pass away eventually. The real god is life itself;and is sensing itself through us,no end/no beginning. The OT admits there are other gods. This is a multi-verse,has always existed;eternally changing!The big I am is within the small I am,you & I…”

  13. Comment by Tim Tempest on April 4, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    Funny how ignorant garbage like this floats to the top of the search engine results

  14. Comment by George Powell on June 7, 2019 at 4:03 pm

    If you pay attention to the description of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, with a blinding light and the person turning into a puller of salt and with evidence of glass beads caused by very high heat, it sounds to me that, it was an atomic explosion. Same evidence from a nuclear test site.

  15. Comment by Ray on August 4, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    Lifting Heavy Blocks

    Use a raising fulcrum pedestal:

    Dig under the block in the middle.

    Cover the underside middle with graphite.

    Slide supporting blocks under the supported block.

    Dig out the rest of the supported block.

    The supported block is now a teeter-totter.

    Put weight at one end of the teeter-totter.

    Add a supporting block at the raised middle.

    Move the weight to the other end of the teeter-totter.

    Add another supporting block at the raised middle.

    Repeat until the block is raised to the needed height.

    The graphite makes it easier to rotate the raised block.

    No aliens are needed!

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