Why do people believe in atlantis

But now Alan F. Alford, one of the world's authorities on ancient mythology, claims to have uncovered the truth: the Greek philosopher invented Atlantis as a metaphor for the ancient version of our 'Big Bang' theory.

It has long been acknowledged that there is strong scientific evidence for the explosion of one or more planets in our solar system from about to BC around the time Plato was writing , rationalised then by the creation of the 'exploded planet myth'.

According to Plato, Atlantis sank around BC by our modern-day system of dating. Furthermore, despite modern advances in oceanography and ocean-floor mapping, no trace of such a sunken civilization has ever been found. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you.

Live TV. This Day In History. Or, more importantly: Did it even exist? The short answer to both: No. All available evidence indicates that the philosopher Plato, sometime around BCE, invented the island nation in order to illustrate a point about the dangers of aggressive imperialism. Plato laid out the details for what such a state would look like in his famous work, The Republic. According to Gentzler, it should be small and virtuous, and reject ostentation. It was situated in the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere outward from the Strait of Gibraltar.

So how did Atlantis come to represent a lost utopic civilization? For that, you can mostly blame or thank Ignatius Donnelly. Sprague de Camp noted in his book "Lost Continents," "You cannot change all the details of Plato's story and still claim to have Plato's story. That is like saying the legendary King Arthur is 'really' Cleopatra; all you have to do is to change Cleopatra's sex, nationality, period, temperament, moral character, and other details, and the resemblance becomes obvious.

The most obvious sign that Atlantis is a myth is that no trace of it has ever been found despite advances in oceanography and ocean floor mapping in past decades. For nearly two millennia readers could be forgiven for suspecting that the vast depths might somehow hide a sunken city or continent. Though there remains much mystery at the bottom of the world's oceans, it is inconceivable that the world's oceanographers, submariners, and deep-sea probes have some how missed a landmass "larger than Libya and Asia together.

Furthermore plate tectonics demonstrate that Atlantis is impossible; as the continents have drifted, the seafloor has spread over time, not contracted. There would simply be no place for Atlantis to sink into. As Ken Feder notes, "The geology is clear; there could have been no large land surface that then sank in the area where Plato places Atlantis.

Together, modern archaeology and geology provide an unambiguous verdict: There was no Atlantic continent; there was no great civilization called Atlantis.

Ignatius Donnelly was certain of his theory, predicting that hard evidence of the sunken city would soon be found, and that museums around the world would one day be filled with artifacts from Atlantis. Yet over years have passed without a trace of evidence.