Sorry, but I dont think "serious" can be mentioned in the context of this particular topic.
Provide actual evidence of anything. Not supposition framed by a pre-conceived notion. Not "gut feelings" and suspicions. Not events proven as a clear hoax. Not circumstantial occurances. "Circumstantial evidence" is nothing more than a random event. It doesn't accumulate into real evidence.
I have a scientific mind and so I am able to recognize clear pseudo science. I dont care how many thousand page diatribes are written and how many four hour speeches are given.
Until I see genuine hard evidence, or even a genuine *rational* theory, all of this is no more or less plausible to me than organized religion (meaning not very)
And I do very much view it as deeply insulting to Egyptians (and I have Egyptian friends infuriated by this) that the collective ego of Western Civilization simply cannot deal with the fact that there was a time when the Euro male was not the master of the earth.
I mean if we're going to talk soft sciences, lets throw in some psychology. Why is it, exactly, that it is always the works of ancient *non-Euro* civilizations that are being questioned (mezo-American, Egyptian, etc) and the questioning is always being done by men of European descent?
Maybe aliens built Buckingham Palace and the Roman Aqueducts. I mean really, why not? In Egyptian society, the Pharoah was god. It is purely a modern conceit (and an ethnocentric one as well) to harp on the idea that there simply *must* be some metaphysical motivation behind the resources they devoted to constructing those monuments. Why don't we question the Great Wall? Because we believe we understand its purpose. I would argue that those who worship "aliens" as a divinity (because psychologically, I truly believe thats what this is about), sieze on the pyramids because they seem enigmatic enough. Siezing on a wall (even though it is just as breathtaking of an accomplishment) would seem ridiculous. If these structures are a "warning" or a "message" then they are an epic failure because 99% of the population thinks they are what they appear to be - tombs. I guess our alien masters in their endless and massive knowledge and wisdom, working in hand with the ancients, goofed on this one. Maybe they should have just carved the "message" into the hieroglyphs which, surprisingly enough, we are actually able to *read* up to this day. Wouldnt it have made a *lot* more sense to use *language* to convey some giant message? After all, every human civilization shares the same flaw in assuming it is immortal. Unless you're going to now tell me that the Egyptians worked under the assumption that they would one day see their empire collapse into dust and so assumed that their language would be lost and only a giant mysterious building would be adequate in passing on the knowledge. If that was the case, why fill it with hieroglyphs at all? And since they did, why not take a gamble and include the message anyway? And what IS this message exactly? That there is a vast nuclear stockpile buried beneath them? Are you really serious?
Ski-banker, with all due respect, no matter how ironic and glib you may manage to be jousting on forums like this, I view the things you wrote as a roadmap laid down to a pre-determined destination. Not a path discovered by someone seeking genuine truth. Good science doesn't blindly assume a destination and then chart its way there and in "debates" on this topic, that is all I see.
Everytime I bother getting into a discussion like this, I inevitably come away marveling over the parallels with the discussions I have engaged in with those who believe in intelligent design (the folks who refute evolution). It is the exact same personality and mindset. The mythology has simply been updated in the minds of many modern folks so it is more compatible with modern science.
What we know for sure is no more or less than the following:
It is possible that there is other life in the universe
It is possible that extra-terrestrial life forms have visited earth
There is no hard evidence that there is life anywhere else in the universe and, outside of some mathematical models, there is mounting evidence that sentient life may be far more rare than we think (absence of RF chatter, prevalence of binary stars, frequency of atmosphere killing cosmic events, etc)
There is no evidence that extra-terrestrial life has visited earth and, unless we have a staggering misunderstaning of physics (maybe the aliens didnt want us to know too much), or unless aliens have some kind of "magic technology", it is damn likely that such a voyage would be, if not impossible, hardly worth the effort
The dinosaurs were heading pretty much nowhere before a planetary event (or series of events) rendered them extinct and paved the way for human evolution and dominance. If not for that one twist of chance, the earth woudld be populated by giant, brainless, animals. Anyone who thinks they're using "common sense" and playing some game of averages should give serious thought to that. Billions of stars? Try trillions. But now eliminate the binaries... Eliminate the systems that cannot support planets that can sustain life... Now eliminate the planets that suffered planet-killing events... Now eliminate the planets where *intelligent* life simply never evolved (it wasnt evolving here until the dinosaurs were cleared)... Suddenly the idea of 23km wide motherships hovering over human cities doesnt seem quite as likely...
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