I’ve always had an interest in ancient history and civilizations.  I’ve often wondered how the universe came to be out of a “Big Bang” if nothing before the bang existed.  That makes no sense.   A new interesting theory suggests that our universe may be inside a black hole which is part of another universe.  That may explain how our universe came to be but what about the very first universe, if we are to entertain the thought of such a theory?  It’s mind-boggling to think of such things and it’s a good reminder for us all to  realize that we don’t know a whole lot about space, the universe or how exactly we got here.  Of course, the bigger question remains:  why are we are?  That question has perplexed man from day one.

Erich Von Daniken’s “Chariots of the Gods” is a dated book but it does bring up interesting questions.  Von Daniken’s most famous theory is that “ancient astronauts” visited earth many thousands of years ago.   Von Daniken believes that these technologically superior visitors from another planet shared their expertise with ancient human civilizations.  To this day, modern man still hasn’t quite figured out how the Great Pyramids were built, though we’re supposedly technologically superior.  Both the Egyptians and the Mayan cultures had an outstanding understanding of the stars, their movements, and made precise calculations based upon that knowledge. Their precise calculations equals or exceeds that of modern computers.

I’m not sold on the Von Daniken theory because I believe ancient humans, if they possessed the same brain power as we do today, could have created technologically advanced societies.  The mythological, or maybe not so mythological, civilization of Atlantis intrigues me.  No one knows for sure if Atlantis truly existed but I find such an ancient civilization plausible.  Just pick up a newspaper or turn on your 24 hour news station and nearly every day another earthquake or natural disaster has taken place somewhere on earth.  Only about 10,000 years ago, the very spot on which I’m sitting was under several thousand feet of ice during our most recent ice age.  Thousands of years from now another ice age will occur again, right here in Central Illinois.  Civilizations could easily be swept away without much of a trace, especially after many thousands of years on an ever-changing planet.

Of course I could be totally off my rocker – it wouldn’t be the first time but all these things interest me.  I’ll be beginning my anthropology studies in a few weeks, so I’ll probably have more tinfoil hat articles to come but maybe with better answers, or at  least, better questions!