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NEWS October 2024
OCTOBER 2024 The recent cyber attack on the Internet Archive is deplorable and can be reasonably compared with the repeated burning of the Great Library of Alexandria. I have used the Wayback Machine extensively, but, until the full extent of the permanent damage is clear, I am unable to assess its effect on Atlantipedia. At […]Read More »
Joining The Dots
I have now published my new book, Joining The Dots, which offers a fresh look at the Atlantis mystery. I have addressed the critical questions of when, where and who, using Plato’s own words, tempered with some critical thinking and a modicum of common sense.Read More »
creationists
Cremo, Michael A.
Michael A. Cremo (1948- ) together with Richard L. Thompson are the authors of Forbidden Archaeology (FA) [1703]. This is a huge work of over 900 pages.
To be candid, I have not read all of it, but usually use it as a reference work. Both authors are Vedic creationists with a core belief that mankind has existed on Earth for millions if not billions of years. Consequently, readers can be forgiven for expecting that this book is primarily intended to promote a creationist agenda.
FA is greatly concerned with archaeological anomalies, but one reviewer found it odd that “FA devotes 400 pages to analyzing anomalous stone tools depicted in obscure literature over the past 150 years. Worse, these specimens no longer exist. So FA compensated by providing page after page of drawings taken from their original sources. But in his reprinted review on page 103, Kenneth Feder frets that these illustrations are absolutely useless because it is impossible to determine whether these Paleolithic tools are drawn to scale or accurately rendered.”(a)
>A more jaundiced review of Cremo’s work can be found on the Rationalwiki website(b). Two of the best-known refutations of Cremo’s book are on offer from Wade Tarzia(c) and Bradley Lepper(d) to whom Cremo responded and in turn had his response reviewed by Tom Morrow of the National Center for Science Education(e).<
My overall impression is that Forbidden Archaeology is another instance of quantity triumphing over quality. Equally depressing is Cremo’s belief that conventional science is engaged in a huge conspiracy to conceal historical facts, reminiscent of Graham Hancock‘s paranoidal rants!
(a) https://ncse.ngo/review-forbidden-archaeologys-impact
(b) https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Michael_Cremo
(c) http://www.ramtops.co.uk/tarzia.html
Bananas
Bananas were introduced into the Atlantis debate by Ignatius Donnelly who adapted the views of Otto Kuntze and questioned[021.57] whether “it was more reasonable to suppose that the plantain or banana was cultivated by the people of Atlantis and carried by their civilised agricultural colonies to the east and the west?” Over a century later it was still being suggested that only the existence of Atlantis could explain the global spread of the seedless, sexless fruit that we enjoy today(a). David Hatcher Childress in his Lost Cities of Ancient Lemuria and the Pacific[1229] suggested that ancient genetic engineering led to the banana we have today. Theosophical belief is that “the banana was developed from a melon on the lost continent of Atlantis.”(d) Not to be outdone, Erich von Däniken claimed[0272.202] that the banana has been brought to Earth by extraterrestrials(e)!
>At the other end of the belief spectrum, Ray Comfort, a Christian creationist and televangelist, used the banana to demolish the theory of evolution. In 2006 video clip(f) he offered up the ‘ironclad argument’ that bananas are proof of God’s intelligent design of the natural world because “the banana and the hand are perfectly made, one for the other.”
“Behold, the atheists’ nightmare!” declares Comfort, before detailing the many user-friendly features of bananas, which include its “non-slip surface,” “tab at the top” for easy opening, and convenient shape which is “even curved toward the face to make the whole process so much easier.”(f)
I can only say that with such an idiotic statement, Mr. Comfort himself cannot claim to be the result of intelligent design.<
A more sober view of the diffusion of the banana from southeast Asia is to be found on the academia.edu website(b). The BBC also offers an article on the cultural importance of the fruit in the region(g).
(a) https://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.ie/search/label/Bananas (link broken July 2018) See: Archive 3586
(c) http://www.mondoernesto.com/2010/06/who-genetically-engineered-banana.html
(d) https://in5d.com/plants-trees-and-foods-brought-to-earth-by-alien-gods/
(e) forgetomori » Erich von Daniken: Fraud, Lies and Bananas (archive.org)
(f) https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/ray-comforts-banana-argument_n_4847082.html