An Assessment of the Ancient Alien Theory
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An Assessment of the Ancient Alien Theory
Archeology and anthropology in general are relatively new sciences. Both have only been around as full-fledged fields of study for about a hundred years. In addition, they are seen by many as “soft” sciences since there is not much within them that is concrete or quantifiable. Both of these facts leave archeology particularly open to pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is a practice that imitates science but usually ends up relying on faith or an appeal to higher powers and often claims to offer certain and concrete answers. Because of this confidence in a conclusion pseudoscience frequently will ignore or dispute data that does not directly support their idea and will use outdated data if it supports their verdict. Pseudoscience research usually only involves the reading of texts and not direct field-work or experimentation. Pseudoscience publications are usually targeted at the public, not professionals, as they undergo no peer-review process what-so-ever, yet pseudoscience often cites itself for credibility. In science, however, everything said is tentative and subject to change with new evidence, not concrete and certain. Science bases its ideas on data collected through direct research such as experimentation or field-work. Publications must be peer-reviewed and one must give rigorous detail about research methods so that any field-work or research can be reproduced. New evidence is considered using the scientific method (Coker 2001). Archeology is admittedly a very speculative science, but it does adhere to the ideals of science: field-work is approached using the scientific method, archeologist speak about theories and interpretations not concrete conclusions, generally accepted theories are based upon a wide data-source that was collected using the scientific method and then peer-reviewed, accepted theories are always open to debate and change. Pseudoarcheology calls upon evidence uncovered by scientific field-work,...
Archeology and anthropology in general are relatively new sciences. Both have only been around as full-fledged fields of study for about a hundred years. In addition, they are seen by many as “soft” sciences since there is not much within them that is concrete or quantifiable. Both of these facts leave archeology particularly open to pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is a practice that imitates science but usually ends up relying on faith or an appeal to higher powers and often claims to offer certain and concrete answers. Because of this confidence in a conclusion pseudoscience frequently will ignore or dispute data that does not directly support their idea and will use outdated data if it supports their verdict. Pseudoscience research usually only involves the reading of texts and not direct field-work or experimentation. Pseudoscience publications are usually targeted at the public, not professionals, as they undergo no peer-review process what-so-ever, yet pseudoscience often cites itself for credibility. In science, however, everything said is tentative and subject to change with new evidence, not concrete and certain. Science bases its ideas on data collected through direct research such as experimentation or field-work. Publications must be peer-reviewed and one must give rigorous detail about research methods so that any field-work or research can be reproduced. New evidence is considered using the scientific method (Coker 2001). Archeology is admittedly a very speculative science, but it does adhere to the ideals of science: field-work is approached using the scientific method, archeologist speak about theories and interpretations not concrete conclusions, generally accepted theories are based upon a wide data-source that was collected using the scientific method and then peer-reviewed, accepted theories are always open to debate and change. Pseudoarcheology calls upon evidence uncovered by scientific field-work,...