At first glance, the danger in believing in pseudo-scientific claims does not readily present itself. Often society grants us a bit of leniency when it comes to personal belief, so long as said belief does not directly harm another individual. However, when the overall public perceives these flawed claims to be authentic scientific work, the overall level of scientific understanding, along with the importance of critical thought, is degraded. Uninformed, non-critical thinkers are led to believe these “alternative” assertions about the past, which can lead to incorrect conclusions about the present and the development of society.

    The idea of “Ancient astronauts”, while not overly harmful, is an excellent example of how artifacts and archaeological sites can be taken out of their respective contexts and used as fodder to further a crackpot theory. While both artifacts and sites are excellent tools for learning about the past, they must be observed within the overall context of the society and location from which they originated. Context allows an archaeologist to form conclusions and understand the true significance of what they have discovered. Simply assigning meaning to these items goes against every principle of authentic archaeological study, as well as opening the door to more radical interpretations of past events.

These interpretations can be twisted in order to justify disturbing ideologies. The nationalist archaeological missions conducted by the Nazi Regime during World War II is a chilling example of how belief in non-scientific claims rationalized by flawed logic and biased interpretation can lead to horrendous acts. Even in the modern era, radical groups still use these crackpot beliefs in order to justify prejudice and hatred towards others, such as the tiki torch carrying idiots in Charlottesville. The constant informational flood of social media grants these ideas a platform with which they are able to spread misinformation to the general public at an unprecedented rate. Ideas are no longer reviewed critically, nor are they presented with credible information to back them up leading to the distrust of actual scientific research under the guise that it is somehow part of a grander conspiracy.

Today, there is a growing trend of pseudo-scientific ideas being given a platform and being presented as authentic scientific claims. These claims, despite lacking the fundamental strategies used in the most basic level of scientific research, are being taken as legitimate “theories”, leading to an overall detrimental effect on the general population’s ability to think critically.