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Summary: 10th Planet Discovered in 2002
Review: This is in response to the posting by Doomsdayer of April, 2003 who claims "Mainstream astronomy has found zero evidence of an extra planet, much less one that improbably swings into our area (the key is measuring gravitational pull, the process that led to the discovery of Neptune and Pluto)." A 10th planet (i.e., 12th planet if you include the moon and Sun) was discovered in 2002 in the Kupler belt by astronomers. Apparently you are not really to hip on the latest astronomy findings with your unbelievably wrong statement. This is a quote of someone who posted to a forum on 10/9/02 "In my local paper today it said they discovered a 10th planet. Its a billion miles past Pluto and about 1/8 the size of earth. Its located in the Kuplar belt (where the ice and astroids are.) And its sun rotation is something like 288 earth years."
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Summary: One of the best books in the UFO genre!
Review: Having read the TOP Four books in the UFO/Alien/ Government Coverup Genre; My FAVORITE is 'Alien Rapture' by Brad Steiger (Great fiction-soon to be a movie); and Alien Agenda by the best selling author of 'Crossfire' Jim Marrs (Best reference on UFOlogy); and Unconventional Flying Objects (NASA UFO Investigator for 30 years) by the scientist Dr. Paul Hill, I'd say Corso's book is a MUST READ! Sitchin's research is second to none. Read up on his credentials. I've read all of his books and this is the best! If you read this excellent book and the others, you will know that they are indeed true. Two well respected American Astronauts have come forward to proclaim they had seen evidence of the Roswell UFO crash and stated they know the cover-up is real. Many books have been written about the Catholic church's cover-up of ancient manuscripts. You be the judge.
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Summary: Facts that read like science fiction
Review: I learned so much from this book in such an enjoyable manner. It is an eye-opener and not to be read by people with closed minds, especially those who take every word in the Bible literally. The Sumerian civilization existed thousands of years before Abraham and the Israelites. The Sumerians left records written on tablets, the contents of which were passed on to the Babylonians and some to the Jews. Comparisons are made with the accounts in Genesis of the creation of man and the flood, for instance. Since the author is an eminent Biblical scholar and orientalist, he was able to go to the source and translate for himself. The book has an extensive index and list of sources. As with most scholarly fields, there may be those who will be very protective of their own theories and refuse to listen to fact. The fact that the world was round was dismissed for centuries. The Sumerians knew it was round and had the science to prove it.This is what I mean by people who read this book must read with an open mind, able to accept facts such as the world is round.
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Summary: What's important: the conformed truth or the real truth?
Review: Are you comfortable with the conformed truth about our human history and its origins, according to our conventional teachings or are you prepared to accept or swallow the real truth of our dubious and murkier history of humanity and its actual origins, like Sitchin, Hancock and others who dared to defy or challenge conventional beliefs and teachings? Legends and myths were made to give later generations the "fog" of history: to create illusions through entertaining oral storytellings to off-set any real inquiry or curiosity into humanity's deepest, murkier pasts. Ever wonders why priesthood in most ancient civilizations such as Sumer, Egypt, Babylon and even the Hebrews were known to be very powerful? They were considered as "guardians" of secrets and knowledges of the past and about the gods. They didn't wanted the uneducated or working mass to know anything more or deep except to expect them to work to benefit and appease the "gods"! Do you believe that we are truly that alone in the universe? Do you believe we have made so much progress in such quick fashion with technology like splitting atoms, telephone, airflight/spaceflight, cloning and computer chips for the past 100 and so years, that which took mankind centuries to achieve? Remember: in ancient times, the sun and the moons (including Earth's) were thought to be planets! So whether you wish to deride, reject or laugh at Sitchin's fascinating and compelling research of the Sumerian civilization, its correlationship with aliens (assumed to be "gods") and mankind's origins on the basis of accepting the conventional and conformed truths that you grew up with or believe in? Or venture into the rabbit's hole so far, so deep that you would have to unlearn everything you've learned? Only you decide if you wish to be open-minded to any or not at all. Sometimes, the truth can be very hard to swallow.
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Summary: In reply to the RI reviewer
Review: Since you have said some anti-religious things, and no one minds, I have a reply to offer. This is not for any missionary reasons, but to clear up the little confusion you bestowed on me through your review. It is to keep the balance on this page and to suggest for no one to read the book that makes so little sense and so much confusion. 1) God is not for us, sinful humans, to understand
2) He is LOVE, TRUTH, LIGHT
We are fallen, sinful, proud
3) If you are so well-versed in Old Testament, then you might remember that God created man to "share" His eternal JOY with man
4) Satan, the beginning of all evil, fell away from this JOY through pride, and through jealousy tempted (and tempts each one of us to this minute) Adam and Eve to DISOBEY and also fall away from it
5) God, Who man in the beginning could hear and see, knew that Adam broke the simple commendment He gave him, ate the apple. He called for Adam.
6) Adam hid, and did not want to repent, but blamed everything on Eve; she - on the serpent
7) The fallen, new-evil-doer Adam, could not remain in close proximity to God. The gate of Heaven was closed. Adam lost the Holy Spirit of God that was given to him in the beginning, for the Holy Spirit cannot be with anything impure and evil.
8) But even then God promised for a Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to come and through His sacrifice, make our return to God possible. Old Testament is the preparation of Israel to receive the Savior. He, Man and God, was born from the Most Holy Virgin, lived and showed us the way to salvation. He was crucified by these very people, rose from the dead, and ascended to His Father. He sent the Holy Spirit to us, Who procedes from the Father, and Who will guide Christ's Church to the end of times.
9) God, the Holy Trinity, is all-merciful, all-knowing; He is not in time; He knew of all that was to happen with His creation, and in His eternal council decided for all of this to happen
10) Because eternal life with GOD is better than anything ever imaginable and conceivable
11) The reason of our existance is to come closer to God I'm not a theologist, and draw the above from the little knowledge of my all-satisfying Religion and Faith. I hope I am not wrong and ask forgiveness if I confused anyone, annoyed, or angered. Yet, if you can't comprehend something, do not think that it is wrong, a fairy-tale, a myth. Only through humbleness and repentance, like of the Good Theif on the Cross, may we inherit understanding and salvation in this life and in the life to come. Inherit that what we have lost in the very beginning.
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Summary: Garbage
Review: This book is just crazy. Proves that if you keep an open mind, people will chuck all their garbage in it. If you believe any of this, get your relatives to send for the men with the white coats and butterfly nets.
Scientific and archeological gibberish and nonsense.
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Summary: Much False Information
Review: This would have been an otherwise good book had it not been for the false claims that Sitchin repeatedly makes. First of all, if the 12th planet comes into our orbit and passes by Earth every 3600 years, annihilating everything on Earth through means of cataclysmic flooding, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and a sudden 90-degree pole shift, then how can we still bear witness to the CLEARLY VISIBLE evidence of civilizations that were flourishing over four thousand years ago? Sitchin's research and the excavations of Sumer are a contradiction themselves...If a planet many times denser and larger than our own, with a monumental force of gravity, came within the "vicinity" (cosmically speaking, millions of miles roughly) of Earth every 3600 years, then there would be no evidence remaining to prove it, as it would have been destroyed by the devastation and destruction of Nibiru (the alleged 12th planet). I don't doubt the existence of such a planet, I just don't agree with Sitchin's theory of it returning every 3600 years. Secondly, he makes the terribly uneducated (or perhaps political?) choice of discrediting the authenticity, antiquity, and Indian origin of the Ancient Vedic civilization. In his book, Sitchin explains and accepts the "Aryan invasion theory" as truth, although there is no evidence supporting such an absurd claim. This theory, that a race of light-skinned Europeans came to India and established civilization there, was created by British imperialists to keep India and her people in slavery by fabricating the history of the world's most ancient and advanced civilization. This theory both represents and reflects the western attitude towards indigenous peoples from around the world, believing that they are "too barbaric" or "primitive" to be able to build a highly advanced society with a spiritual foundation. This theory is the epitome of racism and western supremacy and whether he knows it or not, Sitchin is helping to spread misinformation by including the theory in his book and being a major proponent of it. If he's wrong (or blatantly lying) about India's ancient civilizations, then who knows what else he may be wrong (or lying) about.
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Summary: engrossing
Review: yes, i finished the book with lots of questions of the "does this really make sense" variety but the book brings me to the edge of atheism for several reasons:
1. having read the old testament several times, i have been struck by the polytheistic language which crops up again and again and the contradictions in God's attitudes and decisions. Presuming God to be unknowable to man seems to me a non-answer: if we are in His image, He also should have some recognizable motivations, but often He does not. Why did He make us? Why try to destroy us, why hang His son out to dry and then say He was doing it for our sakes (implying that He had to appease someone else)? At the very least understanding the Old Testament as a hidden polytheistic text really clarifies meaning for me. Of course, Sitchin is not the first person to wonder about this but he does it well.
2. Having thought about #1, with all due respect to the scientific critiques offered here, I think alien invasions are more empirically testable than presuming a deity, and Sitchin makes, I think, a good argument that the Sumerian relics are more consistent with astronaut "gods" than presumed Gods.
I cannot verify the facts presented, but the thesis--while hampered on occasion by dry language--is forcibly argued and worth reading
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Summary: The Longest Arms in the Solar System
Review: I find it rather sad that Zecharia Sitchin has spent 20 years and six books obsessing over the ridiculous theories that get started here. Sitchin is surely an expert on the cuneiform tablets of ancient Sumer and Akkadia, but has misinterpreted them into the completely laughable stipulations found in his "12th Planet" thesis. According to Sitchin, something big happens on Earth about every 3600 years - the first settled villages, the beginning of Christianity, etc. First of all, this is a coincidence that is hardly a basis for a large theory. You could just as easily pick out events that happened every 36 days then jump and shout about how important that interval is. Sitchin then looks to his Sumerian texts for evidence and determines that there is a 12th planet in the solar system. (Note: he uses the ancient method of counting the sun and moon as planets, so with the nine actual planets, eleven are known). This 12th planet supposedly has an extremely eccentric orbit that takes it way out beyond Pluto, but every 3600 years it swings in so close to Earth that its inhabitants can jump over and influence humanity in ways that make new-agers swoon with unctuous reverence. Any critical thinker can see that this is a classic example of forming the theory first, then bending the evidence to fit preconceived notions. Sitchin sees spaceships and aliens in any of his ancient tablets that are otherwise unexplained or doubtful, which is the same mistake Erich von Daniken made with Mesoamerican forms in his equally atrocious "Chariots of the Gods." Sitchin and von Daniken are in the same faulty mindset - if it's not explained, it must be aliens! Not to mention, this theory of a 12th planet and its extreme orbit violates both Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion and Newton's Laws of Gravitation. Mainstream astronomy has found zero evidence of an extra planet, much less one that improbably swings into our area (the key is measuring gravitational pull, the process that led to the discovery of Neptune and Pluto). Sitchin does so much stretching here to make the so-called evidence fit his theory, that you'd swear his arms are ten feet long. If Sitchin manages to convince anyone with this drivel, then more power to him. But critical thinkers, prepare for a good laugh.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: This is the most intriguing and awe inspiring book that I have read in a long time. I was captivated from the first page until the last, and this chronical of the past of the human species is the most believable and enlightening of any that I have ever heard or read. Sitchin has a way of presenting his claims supported by vast reseach, no matter how seemingly ludacrous, and making them truth. This book has reshaped my perception of the world and the universe, and it will be my starting point of thought whenever I am involved in a theological conversation ever again. One will not be disappointed with this book, and its potential for effect on the reader is endless.
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