Why do people think Ancient Egypt knew more about astronomy and the universe than NASA does?
No, we have better and much more complete knowledge. Fringe science of many types is perennially popular because people consciously or intuitively feel that the scientific process, the scientific view point limits what they can believe in, what they can wish to be true. People have an almost universal desire to believe there are exceptions to what they see around them. To believe in what is called, simply, “magical thinking”. Part of this is a dislike of the idea that people smarter than them get to say what is true, where the limits of knowledge are. And that to dispute them they will have to become as educated, and can only dispute them on their (scientists) level. So the old idea that there is “ancient knowledge, known only to the few” is attractive. No, this doesn’t really make sense, because this little known knowledge is pretty widely known about – but somehow the details are always elusive. As contrasted to conventional science, where if the details aren’t widely known to be exa
