Dealing with PaleoBabble

This post was written by guest blogger, Courtney Phillips¹

How to Deal With Paleo Babble

Paleo-babble can sometimes be very frustrating; at other times, it can be ridiculous to the point of hilarity.  In either case, there are people out there eating up these theories with a spoon and they simply can’t get enough of this speculative garbage.  Using loose interpretations and marginal “experts,” opinions and theories are corroborated in new and unusual ways, which ultimately perpetuate these unfounded versions of history.

Certainly, historical study does require the connecting of some dots and some educated guessing.  However, making giant leaps of faith and staggering claims like aliens frequented earth and helped construct pyramids, etc., is not only laughable, but irresponsible.  What follows is a brief list of things you can do to deal with paleo-babble.

Change the Channel

While it’s great to know what the other side is saying, it is probably better if you don’t help support programs that propagate these kinds of theories as anything besides just that.  Whether you watch it or record it, you are only feeding the monster and making it stronger.

Read More

Read on both sides of the issues and make your own decisions.  When someone makes a fantastic claim, find out how they came about that information.  You will soon be able to come to your own conclusions.  Always evaluate source material and be willing to take any and all information that speculates about ancient history with a grain of salt.

Conduct Your Own Research

Ideas and theories come from meticulous researching of the past.  If you have some time on your hands, you may want to do just that.  Keep in mind that the truth and history are relative and are not nearly as objective as they seem.  Human perception is what creates what we know as our own reality.  If you want to formulate your own ideas, look at what the scholars have looked at.  You don’t always have to agree.

Healthy Skepticism

As research and archaeological finds continue to make advances in the study of the ancient world, there will no doubt be developments and amendments to what we refer to as history.  However, any time someone comes to the table with a radical new idea related to ancient history and discoveries it is always better to err on the side of caution.  Don’t allow yourself to be duped and you won’t feel bad later on down the road.