I am an avid reader of the New York Times Obituary section and I use this series to comment on notable passings, not always in a laudatory manner. Writer Erich von Daniken, writer of several best sellers including “Chariots of the Gods” recently passed away at 90 years old. It posited that space aliens visited earth in the early days of human development and gave them the ability to create wonders, including directing the building of pyramids and other wonders, possibly intermarried and mingled with us and the flew off to other adventures in the universe.

I remember distinctly reading his first book in paperback when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I was a voracious reader and was enthusiastic after reading it, until I shared my thoughts with my mother, another devoted reader who started me along my path. She easily took apart the specious claims and failed logic in the book and taught me to be a more careful and skeptical reader. She urged me to seek out writers of more depth and thoughtfulness, like Carl Sagan and James Burke if I was interested in cosmology and human development. Ironically one of the books I happen to be re-reading right now is James Burke’s “The Day the University Changed.” I heartily recommend his books and his BBC/PBS series to interested readers and thinkers. They are exceptional and hold up still today. Seek them out.

I had seldom thought about von Daniken in these last 50 some years until I read his obituary. Today in the age of the internet this silly view of the world is easily and widely disseminated until some people do not know what to believe or how to think critically, leaving them bewildered by world news and racing back to their gaming consoles to make sense of their lives. Pity.