At the risk of offending a few of my colleagues and friends I have to ask the following.
Are we returning to the Middle Ages? I ask because the false prophets (to use the appropriate descriptor) are at it again. Yes, spending $25 million on a Creationist Museum (this, in itself, making a mockery of the term museum). Does the fact that it is in Kentucky have any relevance? It might well have been in several other states; Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, for example.
Over one hundred and fifty years of painstaking evidentoriary data collection, the application of countless hours by dedicated scholars and professionals, coupled with the overwhelming amassing of minutiae to support worldwide efforts - special reference to Ernst Mayr (b. 1905, first survey 1928), and for what? To make a mockery of the word Museum and 'Science'.
Fossils and sophisticated nuclear dating technology show that Earth is more than 4 billion years old, the first dinosaurs appeared around 200 million years ago, and they died out well before the first human ancestors arose a few million years ago.
“Genesis is not science,” said Mary Dawson, curator emeritus of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. “Genesis is a tale that was handed down for generations by people who really knew nothing about science, who knew nothing about natural history, and certainly knew nothing about what fossils were.”
Ken Ham, the 'Museum' founder, on the other hand, says he believes most fossils are the result of the Great Flood described in Genesis. Surely, we can do better than this? I am not saying that we have mutually exclusive points of view here. You can take a truly scientific approach and yet still wonder about a higher being who can consider an ordered universe. This 'Museum', however, which I'm sure is very entertaining and a fun to walk around, is presenting something quite different. Fiction as fact or, as I put it in my title, pseudo-science.
Monday, February 24, 2003
Monday, July 22, 2002
Started re-visiting Paul Johnson's 'History of the American People'. What a great author he is. Lucid, imaginative in the sense of holding your interest while not sacrificing accuracy, powerful.
That reminds me, I really must write to him in his home in London, England, and ask if he knows where I might be able to get hold of a copy of his 'History of the English Speaking People'. I can't find it anywhere. I've tried all sorts of online searches and have spoken to a couple of companies that find books for you - all to no avail.
Another wonderful book is Sir Kenneth Clark' 'Civilisation'. I remember when I first saw his television series - it must have been back in the early 70's. Actually, this book is composed of the scripts from that series.
How so much more substantial and untainted this book is from the
vast majority of historical/artistic books prevalent since those days. It's gotten to the point that I check the date on books of this nature before I start to browse them. I do this as part of my vetting process. Political correctness has now been in the vernacular since the latter part of the 90's but, in actual fact, the practice has been taking place for at least a couple of decades. What a malignant an vile thing it is.
I'll be expanding on this at some other time.
That reminds me, I really must write to him in his home in London, England, and ask if he knows where I might be able to get hold of a copy of his 'History of the English Speaking People'. I can't find it anywhere. I've tried all sorts of online searches and have spoken to a couple of companies that find books for you - all to no avail.
Another wonderful book is Sir Kenneth Clark' 'Civilisation'. I remember when I first saw his television series - it must have been back in the early 70's. Actually, this book is composed of the scripts from that series.
How so much more substantial and untainted this book is from the
vast majority of historical/artistic books prevalent since those days. It's gotten to the point that I check the date on books of this nature before I start to browse them. I do this as part of my vetting process. Political correctness has now been in the vernacular since the latter part of the 90's but, in actual fact, the practice has been taking place for at least a couple of decades. What a malignant an vile thing it is.
I'll be expanding on this at some other time.
Tuesday, July 24, 2001
Strange, how the subject of history can crop up.
There we were, my son and I, chatting with a friend at a party in Saudi Arabia. The friend, who actually was really more my son's friend at that point, had an American father and an Ethiopian mother. Now, he'd spent a fair amount of time in the Middle East although had completed his education the U.S. Somehow the subject of France came up. We (my son and I) made a few disparaging remarks and so the friend shook his head and said, "What is it with you guys and the French?" "Listen", we responded, "when you've been fighting someone for a thousand years you get to know them pretty bloody well!"
Yes, we English do have a certain 'understanding' of the French, don't we?
There we were, my son and I, chatting with a friend at a party in Saudi Arabia. The friend, who actually was really more my son's friend at that point, had an American father and an Ethiopian mother. Now, he'd spent a fair amount of time in the Middle East although had completed his education the U.S. Somehow the subject of France came up. We (my son and I) made a few disparaging remarks and so the friend shook his head and said, "What is it with you guys and the French?" "Listen", we responded, "when you've been fighting someone for a thousand years you get to know them pretty bloody well!"
Yes, we English do have a certain 'understanding' of the French, don't we?
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