As I was watching the documentary, it was pretty easy to explain all their claims from a biblical point-of-view. So I decided to write my response on the documentary.
Did the Catholic church really acknowledge the possibility that intelligent life may exist beyond Earth? Well, one scientist from the Vatican space observatory wrote an article that he believes aliens may exist. Since the Bible says nothing about aliens, that certainly leaves rooms for speculation by some Christians. Although other Christians say the idea is theologically impossible, because then Jesus would have to die on every planet. However, the whole deal with aliens, is not merely about curiosity of finding little green man in outer space. Aliens are becoming as sort of a replacement for God's intelligence. You see, we don't want to believe there is an intelligent God out there, who could solve our problems, and set our planet straight. Nevertheless, deep inside we all want someone to be out there, to help us. This whole documentary was a prime example of such a desire. The aliens landed on our planet thousands of years ago and shared some secrets on how to build all these incredible structures.
The church got influenced by recent scientific discoveries? What are you talking about? Just because they found ice on Mars, doesn't mean they found life on Mars. There is just way more stuff that you need, to create life, besides water. As we read the book of Genesis, we find out that the universe was created from water. On day one, you see a formless volume of water floating in space. Then God separated the waters above the firmament from the waters below the firmament. Where the waters above the firmament just a protective layer above the Earth's atmosphere? Or did God create the rest of the space objects from water, just like He did with our planet.
One of the star hosts of the show, Erich Van Daniken, the author of "The chariots of the gods?" claims to be a Catholic, and tells his story of how his new interpretation of the Bible in fully aligned with the alien theory. He discovered that any ancient religion he looked at, is very similar in their descriptions of someone, believed to be gods, decending unto Earth. He asked the question, where primitive human beings influenced by extra-terrestrials, not gods? Throughout the 45 years of research, he discovered thousands of artifacts showing simply remarkable technological feats from the past. His hypothesis is that all these incredible structures must have been built by extra-terrestrials. You see, today's humans are capable of remarkable technological inventions, but the ancient people couldn't be, they must be too primitive for that according to the secular model of evolution of humans. Gods from outer space had to come down to help build these civilizations.
Erich Van Daniken brings out a passage from the book of Ezekiel, where strange creatures having four faces, and riding on a strange machine that had wheels inside of wheels. Who are these creatures? Could they be aliens in a strange spaceship? Well, if you are trying to find aliens in the Bible, you might see them in this passage. Only I would call them angels. If you want to claim that the angels came on machines, I don't see anything that diminishes the power of God in that. When we need to go somewhere, we could either walk there, ride a bicycle, ride a car, or fly a helicopter. If we used a car, doesn't mean we are too weak to walk, right? By the way, did you know that the idea for the design of the Meriner's spaceship that landed on Mars was taken from a description of the machine described in the book of Ezekiel?
The thing is that there are non-human beings out there. In fact, the Bible says there are a whole hierarchy of them, archangels, cherubs, seraphims. But they did not create us. They do not live on some planet. We should not worship them or pray to them for help. Instead they were created by God, just like us. They used to all worship God, until a third of them revolted against God, led by one of the highest angels.
Could the ancient people worship these angels and maybe even expect help from them? I bet they did. The whole idea about aliens is nothing new. Apostle Paul in his letters clearly states that those whom their contemporaries called gods, where really angels of the dark. So when people where worshipping gods, they really were worshipping devils. Are we going back to the same state? Are we expecting some supernatural beings to come and bring order to our lives, rather than going to God for help?
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if they showed a real green alien on TV who said they came to help us or hurt us. Would we fall for that and start worshipping them? Would we walk away from God who created us, and start worshipping creatures, just like the ancients did? Well, let's suppose it wouldn't go to that extreme, and let's talk about some of the other things mentioned in the documentary.
The Book of Enoch is brought up into the conversation. For information, the book of Enoch is what they call an apocryphal book, one of those ancient books that appear to be written by the authors of the books of the Bible, but where not included into the synod of the Bible for what seems to me, obvious reasons. The book of Enoch is written by an author who claims to be Enoch himself, the Enoch whom God took from the Earth. This author says that Enoch was not really taken by God into heaven, like the book of Genesis says, but simply was taken on a trip for 300 hundred years (if I'm not mistaken), after which he returned to Earth. Would you believe another passage of the book that said that in those times there were people several kilometers tall? Well, the book of Enoch says there are angels behind every object on Earth, (i.e. trees, winds, snow, etc.) I could see how this could be connected with worshipping different gods responsible for every object under the heaven.
So does the Bible really talk about beings who are not human. Yes it does. But not quite in the sense the modern alien theory would describe.
Could these angels have helped the ancients build all the great structures we marvel at. Well, it's possible, in the sense that structures like the Stonehenge where built for worship of the heavenly bodies as one of the main purposes. But the main idea behind the "ancient astronauts" theory is not about that. The main idea is that these beings taught the ancients how to build these structures. You see, today's people are fully capable of making the most fascinating technological breakthroughs. But the ancient people couldn't have done the same. They are supposed to be too primitive for anything advanced. This documentary is a prime example of people who find evidence but cannot accept it because they can't get rid of their preconceived notions. I watched another video on YouTube today. In that video they show an incredible structure under the ocean in Japan, and describe the incredible engineering skills it would require to build something like that. But then they go, but wait... people in those days where too primitive for anything like this. It must have been the aliens who built this structure. You see, we would rather believe the aliens (whom we never saw) built those structures; rather than accept the idea that human beings where created by God with full intelligence on their first day of life, and have not evolved from apes over a long period of time.
But as I was saying, the documentary has some nice footage on the technological inventions of the past, and I really enjoyed learning about those. I have been encountering this type of information for some time now. It seems unbelievable when you first hear about these claims. But such feats of the past are very possible if you look at humankind from a biblical point-of-view. Let's bring out some of the examples from the documentary...
An ancient map was found which showed the geography of our world with greatest accuracy at a time when Antarctica was... ice-free. A map created with the help of aircraft by a pre-flood civilization?
An ancient light-bulb was found in the Egyptian tombs to harness electricity for the dark chambers of the pyramids. Did you know that there is simply not enough air inside those pyramids to light a match? How else would the ancient Egyptians light their way through those pyramids.
Nazca desert of Peru: countless geometric figures and patterns decorate the landscape, that are several kilometers in size. The shapes are representations of monkeys, fishes, spiders... The only way to see these patterns is from the air. The only way to build them would probably be from the air. If that was incredible, get a load of this... In the middle of the regular mountains with full summits, some mountains' summits are taken off and the top is flattened like a flat field for miles. Do they look like airports? That would be one of the possible theories. But where they constructed as signs for aliens? Did we build our airports for aliens?
During the WWII, American soldiers landed on remote pacific islands bringing free food to the primitive tribes inhabiting them. When they were gone, the people of these tribes wondered why these "gods" disappeared. Entire religious cults sprang up, building prototypes of the planes that came to bring them food, and worshipping the "gods" who brought them food. Couldn't the same thing have happened with the ancient people after aliens helped them build their civilizations and disappeared? Is that the reason they drew all of those pictures of strange flying machines? No, how about accepting the idea that they built those machines for their everyday use, just like we build our machines for everyday use.
Did you know that in ancient India, people flew around in these machines called "vimanas". These machines could swim underwater, than surface, and fly through the air. These machines could produce concentrated streams of light which, when pointed at an object, would burn it in flames. Are these descriptions talking about alien UFOs? No, why couldn't they be human UFOs. By the way, did you know that the Nazis in Germany used the blueprints of these vimanas to build their war planes?
Assuming the pictures are not a hoax, they found ancient images of people dressed in astronaut suits. Where they trying to depict the aliens who visited them? Or maybe they just drew pictures of their own fellow human astronauts? There are all sorts of information and pictures of stange objects on the Moon, that look like nothing but designed structures. Of course, all of these pictures could be a result of creative Photoshop work; but if we landed on the Moon, why couldn't have the previous civilizations done the same thing.
Now, what about the fact that similar technological inventions and structures where found in different parts of the world, across the oceans? For example, strikingly similar replicas of the Egyptian pyramids where found in Asia, Arizona, and South America. Was that because they all came in contact with the aliens? Or maybe it was because ancient people were intelligent and they lived as one community prior to the separation at the tower of Babel; then brought ideas from previous civilizations to their new places of inhabitance all over the world?
By the way, when you see some ancient cave drawings of creatures looking like aliens from our science fiction movies, don't be quick to think they are aliens. Ancient people did some strange things to their kids. For example, the modern image of an alien came from an ancient Chinese civilization who put metal helmets on their kids' heads as a fashion trend. When those helmets where removed, the skull was distorted in a triangular shape with eyes blown up to huge size. (Source: Ancient Egyptian Artifacts Found in Grand Canyon ~David Hatcher Childress).
Did you know that in Columbia, were found thousands of artifacts that look like modern-day airplanes? Did they have planes before? Why not?
Did you know that people knew the Sun was the center of the universe thousands of years before the Western civilization realized that?
Sources: "Ancient Aliens Series" - History Channel
"Ancient Egyptian Artifacts Found in Grand Canyon" ~David Hatcher Childress