Argument and Counterargument

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                 ARGUMENT AND COUNTERARGUMENT 





My argument for my research paper is as follows: 

Regardless of differing philosophies, geographical, archaeological, and historical factors demonstrate that the need to source water in the desert plain influenced ancient man’s creation of the Nazca Lines. Similar to a modern day utility map, the Nazca people created a 1:1 map onto the landscape in an effort to mark and trace the location of subterranean water.

Erich Von Daniken however, presents an opposing theory in his book, Chariots of the Gods, where he proposed that the Nazca Lines were the runways of an ancient airfield for extraterrestrial beings who have been visiting the Earth since the dawn of time influencing, and quite possibly directing, humanity in the creation of geometrical lines and dwellings. Von Daniken hypothesized that the enormous drawings found on mountainsides in many parts of Peru were “undoubtedly meant as signals for a being floating in the air” (Von Daniken 21). However, Jesse Harrasta, author of The Nazca Lines: History’s Greatest Mysteries, states that Von Daniken's theory is “a poorly constructed hodge-podge riddled with inconsistency and factual inaccuracy” (Harrasta 29). Von Daniken's hypothesis is purely based on his own opinion and fails to provide concrete evidence to support his speculations. An additional piece of evidence that critiques Von Daniken's theory is a book written by Brien Foerster who quoted astrophysicist Carl Sagan: '"writing as careless as Von Daniken’s, whose principal thesis is that our ancestors were dummies, is a sober commentary on the credulousness and despair of our times- the idea that beings from elsewhere will save us from ourselves is a very dangerous doctrine (Sagan 27)'' (Foerster).

While Von Daniken's argument was subjective and biased, David Johnson's theory was objective and provided a more reasonable explanation for the Nazca lines.


Sources used for my counterargument and rebuttal:


Däniken, Erich von, and Michael Heron. Chariots of the Gods. Berkley, 2018.

Foerster, Brien. Nazca: Decoding the Riddle of the Lines. Traveler's Edition. 1st ed., CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015.

Harasta, Jesse. History's Greatest Mysteries: The Nazca Lines. Charles River Editors, 2013. 

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