My theory regarding the True Origin of religion.

[nogodsforme]

Recently finished a 9-day road trip through the national parks of southern Utah, and saw lots of native American petroglyphs.  I gotta admit, many of the figures looked like otherworldly creatures.  But that's looking through my 21st century eyes. Settlers traveling cross-country 150 years ago probably would have completely different opinions of the figures, since space helmets, antennas, and aliens from outerspace hadn't been dreamt of yet.

True dat. I have seen pre-Columbian petroglyphs in caves that looked like people flying in airplanes. WTF? But what looks like a helmet to us might have been depicting dreams coming out of people's heads, and what we think is a spaceship could be showing that someone had bad body odor. 

[12 Monkeys]

Guys,guys,guys,,,,as any Haida will tell you aliens had nothing to do with it.....the old man at the bottom of the sea gave The Raven some stones to blow on and throw as far as he could into the seas....these stones grew,then became the land we now live on....no aliens,no God just a pesky curious Raven

 He (the Raven) then stole the sun,moon and stars from boxes an old man had. The old man was hiding the light because he did not want to know if his daughter was ugly or not......everything you have now you owe to the Raven's curious nature and his insane appetite  That is all.

[inveni0]

Religion began as a very natural part of social evolution.  It gave us a way to separate into groups and follow agreed upon rules.  The problem with religion is that we are now advanced enough socially that religion is no longer needed.  In fact, it hinders our ability to be compassionate because of its inherent barriers.

[joebbowers]

Sorry OP. Crock of crap, thouroughly and easily disproven.

Religion is the result of hyperactive agent detection. That's it, it's that simple.

[Graybeard]

Aliens have not been "revisiting us for centuries now". Because there is not a single shred of physical evidence supporting such an assertion.

Or are you going to claim that the aliens, or the US government, or the UN, or the Chinese, or the Freemasons, or the Trilateral Commission, or the Jewish bankers have been able to locate and hide every scrap of evidence, kidnap and silence every witness, divert every researcher, buy off every scientist and blackmail every official in the entire world for lo these many years?

You cannot objectively say there is no evidence

Looking at it objectively, I say, "There is no evidence."

Evidence is substantiated facts that logically support of a claim.

Let me tell you about Arnold Trimble, who, in 1732, claimed that cats heard through their legs. To prove this, he placed a cat on a table, and fired a pistol behind it - the cat ran away.

Trimble then cut off the cat's legs and did the same thing. The cat did not move, thus proving that cats hear through their legs.

Now, was there objective evidence that cats hear through their legs?

There are facts out there, but no evidence to ascribe them to aliens or even as proof of aliens.

For every event credited to aliens, it would be possible to substitute the word "fairy" for alien, and thus prove fairies.

Do you believe in fairies?

All of this Erich von Daniken rubbish is tiresome sloppy thinking designed to sell books to the gullible. Look on it as a tax on stupidity.

What you can say is, you've been made aware of evidence and that some very knowledgeable people who have looked at it have not found anything conclusive

i.e. there is no evidence.

[nogodsforme]

Evidence of alien presence: A physical object that is of undeniably alien origin. Something made of materials or elements that are not present on earth, or an object that cannot be replicated on earth. The door handle from the spaceship. A scrap of fabric from the little guy's uniform. The anal probe he used on you.[1] Anything. That is all it would take. You don't even have to produce an alien being. Just any object that was brought here by one.

It is basically the same evidence we want for god or any supernatural force. Something that is clearly beyond the power of natural processes, something that violates scientific principles. Like, say, a person's amputated limb growing back. 

1.	Why are aliens so obsessed with the human rectum? You would think they would want to probe our brains. Or maybe they think that is what they are doing.....

[Wrec]

Unless you have proof it's called a hypothesis. A theory is a hypothesis which has been proven to be true and has withstood falsification.

I'd be very interested on what facts you base your hypothesis, and what means of falsification you've used on your facts in order to establish if they point to your specific hypothesis, or if they equally well can explain some other hypothesis.

Also, with the risk of being rude and improper (in which case you have my deepest and heartfelt apologies), have you been reading von Däniken lately?

PS.
Also, please remember that it is the person making the claim that has to provide evidence. You can't prove that something that isn't, isn't, which is why us realists have such an easy time.