Subject:
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Re: Adventurer Maps
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:45:12 GMT
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Viewed:
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451 times
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Nephilim wrote in message ...
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, James Simpson writes:
> > In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Michael Horvath writes:
> >
> > >
> > > I'm sure you're aware of the Mayan pyramids in Mexico (I believe). Well • the
> > > idea of alien intervention did have a profound impact on culture, lore, • and
> > > spirituality among those pyramid builders, though it did not survive past • the
> > > millenium.
> > > Just a thought for cognitive digestion.
> > > Mike
> >
> > I think that the Mayan pyramids are in Guatemala, although I might be • mistaken.
> > Anyway, I'm willing to digest alien intervention, but what evidence have • we?
> If
> > none of the culural impact surived the millenium, then how do we know that • it
> > was indeed aliens?
>
> Occam's razor: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/OCCAMRAZ.html
> "one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities
> required to explain anything"
I find this interesting. I didn't check the link, but the quote above
has a certain je ne sais quoi. While it sounds good, its not believable.
Just because five state emplyees can install a new patch of road doesn't
mean that the state sends five people to do the job. They probably send
twenty. Just because it is conceivable (to some of us with vision) that
humans could have done the inexplicable, its just as well to guess something
else did. Either theory is only a theory. Neither is a better explanation.
To some one would appeal more than the other and vice versa. Not for your
own reasons, but for another, I find your chosen explanation more
acceptable. I have seen men do amazing things. I haven't seen an alien.
So, the folowing holds true with me, too.
> No reason to add aliens into the mix to explain the pinacles of
> ancient human achievements. Humans are amazingly clever enough to be
> explanation enough.
>
> The idea of ancient astronauts is a nice romantic idea, but it seems
> insulting to me, too. Humans are, as I said, an amazingly clever
> lot. We like to think of our modern culture, with our high tech
> gadgets, as being smarter than people in the past, but, the truth
> is, we just have more toys. People's brains were just as big back then.
> The capacity to generate a Leonardo Da Vinci or an Einstein has been
> with us as long as we've had this genetic structure that makes us
> homo sapiens.
You and I are in the same room.
> What is amazing about the pyramids is to think about the
> staggering social structure capable of ruling that many people
> that tightly to bind their subjects into working that hard and
> that long to build such massive structures. That's the awe-inspiring
> thing to me. Not imagining that UFOs helped build them.
You just hopped off the planet. We have a pretty staggering social
structure now, don't you think? Take a look at it. An example... measured
in money (its an easy way), 80% of the planet's inhabitants earn less
(individually) in one year of what an American being paid US minimum wage
for full time gets paid in two weeks. If you are one of those four billion
people, I feel for ya, I really do, and I doubt you are. Thats a little
staggering to me. There are a lot of ways to display facts. I chose that
one. I'll find the source if wanted.
> I recommend reading the old book "Crash Go The Chariots," a thorough
> debunking of Erich Von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" books. I'm
> sure there are more recent books that address more recent claims.
>
> On the other hand, some of those mayan carvings really do look
> a bit like space-suited aliens at the controls of spaceships.
> I do have a bit of the romantic in me. It's a fun idea. But
> I'd rather give people the credit for building the pyramids.
I agree here, because they did. Its not difficult at all to believe
that. Its not even an argument, really. The Pyramids don't fall into the
category of inexplicable that I mentioned at the beginning of my ramble. I
find New York City to be much more impressive than the Pyramids. Not saying
they aren't cool, and mysterious, but they are not a good reason to spread
rumors about aliens.
> --
>
> jthompson@esker.com "Float on a river, forever and ever, Emily"
--
Have fun!
John
The Legos you've been dreaming of...
http://www114.pair.com/ig88/lego
my weird Lego site:
http://www114.pair.com/ig88/
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Adventurer Maps
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| (...) mistaken. (...) If (...) Occam's razor: (URL) should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything" No reason to add aliens into the mix to explain the pinacles of ancient human achievements. (...) (25 years ago, 14-Dec-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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