Graham Hancock's "Magicians of the Gods" | F.A.C.T.S.: Forum for Active Critical Thinking & Skepticism

raybar
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Graham Hancock's "Magicians of the Gods" Sept 27, 2017 11:37:50 GMT -5

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Post by raybar on Sept 27, 2017 11:37:50 GMT -5

Here's a long review of Graham Hancock's "Magicians of the Gods: Forgotten Wisdom of Earth’s Lost Civilization"

www.skeptic.com/reading_room/defant-analysis-of-hancock-claims-in-magicians-of-the-gods/?utm_source=eSkeptic&utm_campaign=a4dfaaf735-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8c0a740eb4-a4dfaaf735-73442805&mc_cid=a4dfaaf735&mc_eid=4937f920b5

As usual, Hancock's views are mostly wild speculation and extrapolation based on the scantiest of evidence, or no evidence at all. The review is worth reading, if you're interested. The book is not, except as an example of how science is not done.

Here's the Joe Rogan Experience podcast mentioned in the review with Michael Shermer of the Skeptic Society. There are several other Joe Rogan interviews of Hancock on youtube as well. I have only seen the this one.

Last Edit: Sept 28, 2017 0:08:54 GMT -5 by raybar

rmarks1
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Graham Hancock's "Magicians of the Gods" Sept 28, 2017 14:03:51 GMT -5

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Post by rmarks1 on Sept 28, 2017 14:03:51 GMT -5

Good article. These "There must have been a lost civilization" people are always saying that primitive people could not have built such structures. But they could have and they did. In several cases, people actually showed how they could have done it.

Hunter-gatherers had plenty of free time on their hands, a lot more than farmers. And they did have brains. They may have been primitive, but they were far from being stupid.

Bob

faskew
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Graham Hancock's "Magicians of the Gods" Sept 30, 2017 9:12:09 GMT -5

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Post by faskew on Sept 30, 2017 9:12:09 GMT -5

The hunter-gatherer life was pretty sweet. Depending on where they lived, a typical day might require 2-4 hours of work, total. Compare that to a modern person who works 40 hours per week, travels at least 1 hour per day to and from work, and then still has to buy groceries, do laundry, etc., on top of that.

The Old Ones didn't know the stuff we know now, but they weren't stupid. Our large monkey hands and brains were very useful for all sorts of things. A fun project that archeologists often do is try to reproduce ancient things with the tools available back then. These projects usually require a lot of time, but aren't all that difficult otherwise. Want to carve an animal into soft stone with a piece of flint? Put in an hour a day over a couple of weeks, et voila! 8->

Deleted
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Graham Hancock's "Magicians of the Gods" Sept 30, 2017 20:26:52 GMT -5

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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2017 20:26:52 GMT -5

Let's also not forget that farming isn't mutually exclusive with hunter-gatherer lifestyle. People could plant crops in the area where they hunted, then they would move to another area next season, cycling through different areas until they came back for harvest season where they could then harvest and store their food before winter. Basically, these people would be halfway between hunter-gatherer and full-scale sedentary agriculture.

I believe there are hunter-gatherer tribes in the Amazonas that still do things this way.

And yea, like Fred said, it doesn't really take sophisticated technology to carve up stones, just a lot of time.

Last Edit: Sept 30, 2017 20:29:37 GMT -5 by Deleted