Indian gods = space aliens

Indiana Jones and the Power of God?The notion that the gods were actually space aliens visiting Earth is not new. In the late 1960s and 1970s, this idea was popularized by Erich von Daniken, whose book "Chariots of the Gods?" sold millions of copies around the world. In this and later writings, he propounded the notion that the technology of the ancient world was given by visiting space aliens. Whether it was the building of the pyramids, Ezekiel's vision of the heavenly chariots, the statues on Easter Island or Babylonian stories of heavenly travel, Von Daniken sees them as evidence of visiting aliens.

But Von Daniken's favorite body of evidence are the Mayan, Incan and other Central and South American sites of massive temples and pyramids. From the Mexican site of Palenque, Von Daniken identifies a pictorial carving of a human sacrifice on an altar as a spaceman sitting in a space capsule. A picture of a priest in an elaborate headdress becomes for him an astronaut with a space helmet.

So this new Indiana Jones film taps into Von Daniken's ideas, even the fascination with South American ruins, and identifies gods as space aliens. Gods are not divine, supernatural beings, but flesh-and-blood creatures (or rather flesh-and-crystal-skull beings) with advanced technology. It suggests we poor superstitious humans have mistaken technology for divinity.Comment:  For more on the subject, see Indiana Jones and the Stereotypes of Doom.