Zecharia Sitchin: Why You Can Safely Ignore Himby Mike Heiser 
(Copyright © 2009 Mike Heiser)
Lastly, real scholars are careful with how they note and represent
the work of others. Followers of Sitchin love to point out that he
quotes a number of books written by Sumerian and Mesopotamian scholars,
but they miss two important items: Sitchin often does not record full
titles or page numbers (so he can be checked), and he to date has
offered no instances where the scholars whose books he quotes agree
with his extraterrestrial interpretations. It is simply dishonest to
quote a Sumerian scholar in regard to the birth of Sumerian
civilization and then later claim that source backs up his work in
other regards. This is to create a façade of academic approval where
none exists.
Should you worry about Sitchin’s vast output in defense of ancient
astronauts? Only if you prefer to base your worldview on data that
contains outright errors, or doesn’t exist, or that has never been
subject to the scrutiny of knowing peers. The emperor simply doesn’t
have any clothes.
Dr. Michael S. Heiser is currently the Academic Editor for Logos
Bible Software in Bellingham, WA. You can follow his research and blogs
at www.drmsh.com.
[1] Michael
Heiser earned an M.A. (1998) and Ph.D. (2004) in Hebrew and Semitic
Languages from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also has an M.A.
in Ancient History from the ivy-league’s University of Pennsylvania
(1992).
[2] See www.sitchiniswrong.com and the Sitchin archive on my blog, PaleoBabble.
[3] Readers can learn about lexical lists here.
[4] In the spirit of that challenge, my own resume has been online for years: http://www.michaelsheiser.com/MHeiserCV.pdf.
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