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Meaning that he didn't believe in curses and omens. He mentions it in one of the adventures.

There have been numerous sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs in short, over the years.
There have been countless debates about the possibility of extraterrestrial life in the great expanse of the cosmos.
Hergé believed that aliens existed, which he went on to show in Flight 714 to Sydney.

But the actual question still remains unanswered: is there really any life out there?

Recent science hints at the presence of microbes in several potentially habitable planets including our very own neighbour Mars. But what about intelligent life?

Some scientists believe that intelligent life forms are more likely to exist in the future than now, while others believe that intelligent life already does exist and is waiting for us to discover them.

It is with keeping the latter viewpoint in mind that NASA has undertaken a fresh project to detect life in other planets with the help of technosignatures. Technosignatures are a kind of energy that are emitted from life-bearing planets. NASA are very hopeful of this project bearing fruit.

Erich von Däniken speculates in his book The Return of the Gods that if the four vital bases that are essential for life as we know are taken into sole consideration then the Universe is virtually teeming with life.
Even if other factors essential for life are also taken into consideration, it still retains an impressive figure.

Däniken, in his books, Chariot of the Gods? and The Return of the Gods, declares that not only that intelligent life exists, they also payed us a visit in the distant past. Although the author sometimes biases his theory against sound scientific facts, he certainly brings into light a number of things that give one food for thought. I recommend these books to anyone who is interested in this subject.

With our science and technology improving by leaps and bounds, and growing scientific facts indicating presence of life outside the Earth, it may not be many years before a certain breakthrough changes the way we view our world. Then, the pages of science fiction will no longer be considered as mere imagination but as future prophecies grounded firmly in our everyday life.
Truth can sometimes really be stranger than fiction, what do you say? ;-)

I think that the jury is out on that - he was interested, perhaps, but that doesn't imply belief.
It's also necessary to define terms: I believe that probability alone demands that alien life exists - our star isn't special, our planet not so significantly unexpected that the same conditions won't exist in other star systems in our own galaxy (40bn such planets are estimated to exist, 11bn orbiting stars like our own), let alone the many many other galaxies too. And that's not even including those forms of life which have arisen in conditions unlike our own, about which we know nothing.

But if you mean "aliens and UFOs have visited or are visiting our planet", then that's a different sort of belief.

Because while one can look at the conditions of distant places remotely, and say that life is possible, or that there is nothing to rule it out, travel between star systems in any meaningful sense isn't currently possible to achieve, and would potentially have so many obstacles in its path that it may never be practical, no matter what the belief in it might be, so while not impossible, probability has to suggest that we most likely haven't been visited by intelligent alien life.

We have discussed Erich von Däniken on here before (including in this thread to which I have moved your post), and he isn't in any way reliable as a source of information - it's easy to find information about how he twisted data and selectively and deliberately misinterpreted photos to make something out of nothing.
He found a lucrative seam of sensational pseudo-science to mine for a while, but his time passed quickly once it was found to be so easy to debunk his "evidence", and I'm a little surprised to find that he still has adherents.

jock123
Yes, I am a fan of Däniken's books, not because I strive to dwell in pseudo-science (which I certainly do not) but because I read these books only recently and the ideas struck me as original if not totally believable.

I did not search about any counter theories to this book yet. I read all your posts about this and will certainly look further into it.

Even so, it is perfectly alright to have a particular view on a subject but degrading a book (or the author) for having a different view about the subject seems unfair.

It may well be that science is against him and he may well be wrong, but he must be commended for bringing such an event into mainstream discussion.

Innovative ideas and the daring to imagine, supported by sound scientific facts,has been the path to success for the humans.

Could the people in the 14th century believe that two people separated by thousands of miles can write to each other without even moving? And yet,that is what is happening now. Similarly, we will never be able to imagine what is in store for us in 2099.

My point is simple: Keep the door open for new ideas - anything under the Sun or over it.
Then the ideas must be verified by logic, experimentation and observation.

If everything matches, so much the better and if it does not then better luck with your next try.

We should never look down on people who dare to take a different approach to science and in viewing our world, because if we do so, people will cease to think about new ideas and blindly accept the accepted.

This is not just for Däniken's books, but in general. Because we never know, someone may be really up to something!

Why? It's not a question of "degrading" him, it's just a statement of the facts.
There have been forty-odd years since his books were published and not one single thing that he said has withstood examination.
He is known to have lied about things, and certainly admits that he made things up to make his books more "interesting".

No, he need not, any more than any other charlatan. He presented events in his books which he said he had been involved in (visiting man-made tunnels full of gold, and special inscribed tablets, for example), then had to change that to he hadn't actually visited them (when the man he said was his guide denied that such a visit took place), then had to face up to the fact that there are no tunnels in the area he suggested.
Nobody who just makes stuff up and presents it as fact is to be commended for it.

Secondly, he wasn't even the first to peddle these stories, and he didn't in many cases acknowledge the people who he copied much of his material from - this too has been clear for decades.

Exactly - that's the antithesis of Von Däniken: he's the flim-flam man, the huckster, the anti-scientist, who makes unsubstantiated and false claims, passed off as his own work, when he already knows them to be false.

Exactly, but in the case of Von Däniken and his ilk, they have been tested and fail the standards of logic, experimentation and observation.

Was that a white flag waving? Yes, that is mine. I once again bow to your process in debate. It is indeed that Von Däniken twisted scientific facts and fabricated evidence in order to gain sympathy with readers like the iron pillar in New Delhi. So I have nothing to say more about it. Yet I really like the idea.

I do not think that is so simple. It is nice to take probability into account but it can be applied in the other sense too. What is the probability that other planets would have the same amount of elements and conditions to make life possible on Earth? Even if planets are situated at an ideal distance from the star,some planets may have too fast a spin ,while others may not have the elements that made life on Earth possible in the first place. Lifeforms which are not based on carbon is surely a plausible hypothesis but can be subjected to the same criticism as the ancient astronauts.

Since my post has been moved here, let me dwell in this area a bit, to keep the connection with the original thread. Hergé was certainly interested in this topic. I do not think he would have needed to go to such heights of fantasy if he really needed to keep the plot moving. In fact, Tintin was doing quite well without the alien intervention.

Moreover, I do not think that you can give your 100% to a work of art if you do not believe it in the first place. Hergé may have added this part for his young readers' enjoyment, as much as his own.