Science Fridays!

My apologies as I was away in Mexico the last couple weeks.  To make these posts a little more organized and to put a little order on things, I am going to start designating certain days for certain topics, and I start with Science Fridays!

Science in this case can relate to anything science, whether it be scientific fact, NASA activity, things you or I read in scientific journals, space.com or even science fiction.

While in Mexico these last two weeks with friends, I visited the quite a few Mayan ruins in the Yucatan Peninsula, from the sites called Chichen Itza to Uxmal way in the southwest corner of the Yucatan state.  I get excited by the history of a lot of things, especially these ruins.  But I could not help but wonder at how I have been watching some science-fiction type program on the History channel called "Ancient Aliens," a program that brings historians, archaeologists and authors together to try to explain the mysteries of sites like the Mayan ruins by explaining that hundreds and thousands of years ago, our ancestors were being visited by advanced alien beings from the cosmos.

The program shows authors who seem to believe for the most part that these aliens were not violent in nature, and that there is evidence in places like the Mayan ruins and other ancient sites around the world that not only did they visit us, but they helped our society advance by telling us things such as how to build sophisticated structures and how the universe is full of life.

I must say once again that this is a case of science fiction because as fascinating as it is and as much as I'm sure there are plenty of people that want to believe in the possibility of other worldly visitations from the stars that have helped us humans along our evolutionary path, there still isn't concrete evidence for it. Even while visiting these Mayan ruins the last two weeks, sure I thought about the subject and was even interested enough to buy a book by Erich von Daniken called "Chariots of the Gods" that focuses on these beliefs, but I certainly could not come to the conclusion that these fascinating Mayan temples were built by or influenced by alien architecture, rather just human ingenuity and ultimately great, creative and resourceful minds working together.

What do you think about this subject?  Great story?  Is it us trying to connect dots that aren't there?  Or is it a way for us to say that ancient peoples could not create vast structurally sound complexes without the help of others?

Next Friday, I promise I'll get to a scientific subject more earthly...