The Gods Were Astronauts: Evidence of the True Identities of the Old 'Gods' [Paperback]

Erich von Daniken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2003

Why do nearly all the world's major religions share such similar myths and legends? Erich Von Däniken, author of the runaway international bestseller Chariots of the Gods, believes he knows--and the answer is as wondrous and awe-inspiring as it is controversial: the winged angels populating the Bible, Koran, and other religious texts from cultures the world over were in reality extraterrestrials who visited the Earth in ages long past. Fully illustrated with compelling full-color and black-and-white photographs, the book takes us from the jungles of Myanmar, where ancient pagodas point heavenward in the unmistakable shape of spacecraft, to Portugal's mysterious legend of Fatima and on to the unexplained "landing strips" of Peru and Egypt, offering persuasive evidence that actual living beings inspired the legends that became the basis for many of our religious traditions. Intellectually challenging and provocative, these findings shake the foundations of both science and faith.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Erich von Daniken is probably the world's foremost Ufologist. In over twenty publications he has provided evidence for his theory that extraterrestrial beings visited the earth. In The Gods Were Astronauts! he again asks the question that has intrigued humankind for millennia, researching and analysing the major world religions, probing their myths and accepted truths.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Vega (March 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843336251
• ISBN-13: 978-1843336259
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,386,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Material is excellent; narrator is terrible!, July 18, 2011

By 

Jill (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gods Were Astronauts: Evidence of the True Identities of the Old 'Gods' (Audible Audio Edition)

This review is for the audio version, purchased at Audible.

While Erich von Daniken's material is EXCELLENT and definitely worthy of 5 stars, the narrator was so bad (IMO) that I am having a hard time finishing this one. It may just be a personal idiosyncrasy, but I think this narrator does a great job of making the material seem BORING, with his antiquated non-expressive reading and phony-sounding radio-announcer voice... makes my ears gloss over after just a few minutes and leaves my mind wandering. It reminds of the most boring of educational films I saw in school as a kid... like the ones from the 1950s... awful!

I am going to buy the Kindle version (I hope there is a Kindle version!) of this book and read it myself, as I know the content is fascinating - I just can't stomach the narration. Wish I could give this book the 5 stars that the book deserves, but with this narrator, I just can't.

The other Erich von Danikon audio-book (Twilight of the Gods) that I purchased at the same time as this one is EXCELLENT (as is the narrator) and I do plan on purchasing at least one more (probably more) of this author's audio-books - but will definitely listen to the samples first to make sure the narrator is good!

18 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly the same old stuff, January 19, 2004

By 

D. Cullen "maylardave" (Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Gods Were Astronauts: Evidence of the True Identities of the Old 'Gods' (Paperback)

This book seems to be a collection of scattered thoughts that have only a small thread of commonality, and it's not all about ancient astronauts.

Von Daniken begins by describing his own concept of what "God" is, namely an infallible, timeless, omnipresent and omnipotent spiritual being. He then points out some of the inconsistencies of the Old Testament that contradict this concept, and concludes that the Biblical God can't be the real deal. All this has been covered before by others, though he doesn't get into the specifics of god comparisons that authors like Sitchin have done.

Chapter two deals with apparitions and miracles associated with Mary, the Mother of God. He says that any theologian worth his PhD knows Jesus wasn't God, therefore there's no Mother of God, therefore these miracles must be caused by someone else. He suggests that perhaps there's an extraterrestrial power at work doing this stuff. Uh huh... OK, Erich.

By now you're half way through the book (there's only 4 chapters), and nothing's been said about gods from space.

Chapter three talks about the religion and archetecture of the country of Myanmar (Burma). It seems their temples all look like golden spaceships or something. (Yawn)

The last chapter is the meat of the book, where he writes about the gods of ancient India, and the tremendous volumes of stories that exist in their literature. Flying craft the size of cities, celestial battles and outrageous weapons of the gods. That's what I bought the book for, but I'm not sure it was worth the price.

Throughout this book, Von Daniken gets on his soap box and preaches about how the scientific, religious, and media communities squash any free thinking that falls outside the mainstream. The Vatican lies about what they know (really?), Archeologists hide anything that could counter conventional thought, etc, etc. Yes, we know this. But (sorry, Mr. Von Daniken), nobody who reads this book will ever be able to change that.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good one, July 20, 2008

By 

Erik (Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gods Were Astronauts: Evidence of the True Identities of the Old 'Gods' (Paperback)

Von Däniken has an interesting theory about the ancient gods. It is a theory worth reading and thinking about. No one knows what the true is; maybe the Bible is right, maybe von Däniken, maybe.....