Could Earth have been visited by Aliens in the distant past?

Tbh, science began as alchemy and it sprang from religion. The idea behind the Ancient Astronauts theory is that the ancients were confused and mistook aliens for gods. At the same time, science itself is disputing this along several lines including the fact that ancient peoples were more advanced than we give them credit for. Science is trying to prove that ghosts are real, that the gods are aliens and after decades of saying religion is bunk... they are finding ancient cities listed in religious books exactly where they say they are, that cultures mentioned actually did exist, that plagues mentioned could in fact have happened exactly as the Bible says and Noahs flood was possible but wasn't world wide. Likewise, people of religious faith are increasingly believing that science and archaeology are disproving religious tradition but not disproving their religious faith... in fact, many modern Christians are even more devout because modern discoveries are making sense of religious issues and answering questions for them that no one else answered or they were actually told to stop asking these questions.

Many of todays scientists are actually religious people rather than Atheists and they are fascinated by questions like Ancient Astronauts because it focuses mostly on non Abrahamic faiths. Where it does focus on on these faiths, it doesn't actually contradict most of what they believe... it's just fascinating to them. Most of my Christian friends believe in dinosaurs, think the world has been here for billions of years and they believe in extraterrestrial life. I find it odd that many non Christians assume they understand them because they obviously understand nothing as Christians have evolved their views just like no Christians do... what you believe now you may not believe ten years from now.

I myself have been fascinated with the idea of ancient astronauts since my childhood and even if what I was learning proved bunk eventually... it fascinated me to the point I wanted to learn more about the people involved in these stories. This greatly increased my desire to learn more about history and archaeology.

People who believe in Ancient Astronauts are scoffed at and ridiculed no different than people of religious faith... because even if they base this in science and facts, it's all about belief.

In a way, the belief in Ancient Astronauts reveals the flaw in Atheist thinking that science is about facts. If you look at the idea of Ancient Astronauts, it follows the rules of science that theories must be backed by facts to prove the theory... they have done this with the theory of Ancient Astronauts. But the theory of Ancient Astronauts also feeds into religious beliefs stating that religious people may not be as mistaken as we thought they were... and since many Christians actually support the idea of Ancient Astronauts, Anti Theists immediately turn against it and ridicule the theory.