Erich von DÃĪniken (1935-2026) was a shady Swiss German hotel manager who is best known for writing “Chariots of the Gods?” (1968). In the book he tried to prove archaeologically that the Earth was visited by beings from another planet in ancient times – the ancient astronauts. He was popular in the 1970s and again in the 1990s. His books sold 63 million copies in 32 languages. That puts him on a level with Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House on the Prairie books (60 million).
Carl Sagan, an astronomer and trained scientist who was an expert on extraterrestrial life, said in 1976:
That writing as careless as DÃĪniken’s, whose principal thesis is that our ancestors were dummies, should be so popular is a sober commentary on the credulousness and despair of our times. I also hope for the continuing popularity of books like Chariots of the Gods? in high school and college logic courses, as object lessons in sloppy thinking. I know of no recent books so riddled with logical and factual errors as the works of DÃĪniken.
Sloppy: DÃĪniken could not even get his facts right! For example the Piri Reis map of 1513 that he says shows Antarctica only goes to 5 degrees south of the equator! It does not even show all of Brazil!
Pseudoscience: His books show all the signs of pseudoscience. For example:
- Makes sensationalist claims – most science is dry as dust.
- Disagrees with nearly all the experts in the field.
- Not trained in the relevant fields – astronomy and archaeology in this case, not hotel management.
- Proceeds from conclusions to facts, not the other way round.
- Makes no predictions that can be proved wrong.
- Does not look for the simplest explanations (Occam’s Razor).
Egypt, circa -1345. Probably Akhenaton as a boy. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Ancient astronauts explain nothing because they can explain anything!
The Alien Fallacy: Just because we cannot explain something does not mean we have to jump straight to “Aliens did it!” You see the same style of thinking about UFOs. DÃĪniken loved UFOs. He simply applied the same fallacy to ancient mysteries. Like the iron Pillar of Delhi, which has not rusted for 1500 years – but which turned out to have a very human explanation after all. No aliens need apply.
Or take the Great Pyramid of Giza. We might not know how it was built, but it did not spring out of nowhere like an alien technology would. Instead it was preceded by older, simpler, smaller, even failed pyramids, like the Bent Pyramid (pictured below).
The Bent Pyramid, built c. -2600.
Racist: DÃĪniken, as far as I know, never broke down into a racist rant to remove all doubt, like Scott Adams did. But his theory is in fact built on a profoundly racist assumption:
Ancient dark-skinned people were incapable of anything that exceeds present-day Western technology. Therefore beings from another planet must have helped them.Â
Only White people are capable of technological wonders. He never says this straight out, but it is assumed.
Notice that all the ancient mysteries always seem to be in non-Western countries: India, Peru, Mexico, Egypt, etc. Why is it never Greece or Rome? It always seems to be non-White people whose abilities are doubted. It is dehumanizing.
– Abagond, 2026.Â
See also:
- pseudoscience
- Ancient Egypt and ancient astronauts
- Egypt in 2600 BC
- The white racist guide to writing history
- Scott Adams
- The whiteness of Laura Ingalls Wilder
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Abagond 
