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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 »
Michael Cremo
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
Creationists and Atlantis *
Creationists and Atlantis are not regular bedfellows, so I was rather intrigued when I first encountered the work of James Nienhuis. He is a self-confessed ‘young-earth’ creationist, who claims that the last Ice Age ended around 1500 BC. He is quite happy to accept that Plato wrote of a real ancient civilisation albeit within his chosen timeframe.
Creationists are currently expanding their assault on science with attempts to have the teaching of global warming banned(a). Consequently, it was another surprise to find that Bodie Hodge, a writer with The Museum of Creation in Kentucky and its propaganda wing Answers in Genesis(b), ventured to accept the existence of Plato’s Atlantis. Professor P.Z. Myers was similarly surprised and responded accordingly(c). Hodge ignores Plato’s date for the destruction of Atlantis and instead opts for a period between 1818 BC and 600 BC. To even include the latter date seems like rather careless research as it would mean that Atlantis sank during Solon’s lifetime. Hodge also considers the Greek ‘gods’, Atlas, Poseidon and Cronos as real people!
Vedic creationism is totally different than Christian creationism, the former, as promoted by Michael Cremo & Richaed Thompson, claims that humans have lived on Earth for millions if not billions of years, while the timescale proposed by the latter varies, it is far more modest.
Although this is not the place for a debate on creationism, I must point out that there are conservative Christians who also accept scientific evidence and advocate a biblical chronology based on fact(d). While young earth creationists nitpick over minor problems that have been found with all dating methods, they fail to explain the overwhelming evidence provided by radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, varves, ice cores and corals, ALL of which consistently tell the same story of a very ancient earth.
So far, it appears that creationists have little to add to the Atlantis debate, or indeed much else.
Although I am personally opposed to the idea of divine creation, I am not prepared to ignore evidence. Consequently, when I read of a US scientist, Mark Armitage, being fired because he offered evidence that seemed to cast doubt on evolution(e), I was interested. He discovered soft tissue in a triceratops horn and since soft tissue is not meant to survive more than a few thousand years, let alone 65 million of them, Armitage claimed that this undermined Darwinian evolution and by extension supported creationism! Some interesting background information on Armitage and his claim is also available online(f).
“The university says it settled for $399,500 to avoid a protracted legal battle, but some scientists say the outcome has implications for how scientists critique creationist colleagues going forward…….but if Northridge employees had known about the deep-pocket legal groups that were committed to pursuing Armitage’s case, they would have handled themselves very differently from the get-go”(h). It would appear that Armitage won his case because of religious discrimination rather than his scientific conclusions.
The latest evolutionary claim is that humans parted from apes earlier than previously thought and that this separation may have taken place in the Mediterranean region(g).
(b) https://www.answersingenesis.org/
(c) https://theappleeaters.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/using-the-bible-to-learn-aboutatlantis/
(d) The Biblical Chronologist (archive.org) *
(e) https://www.christianpost.com/news/scientist-sues-calif-university-for-firing-him-after-his-dinosaur-discovery-supported-creationism-123906/
(f) https://sensuouscurmudgeon.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/mark-armitage-update-05-nov-2014/
(g) https://www.q-mag.org/did-humans-split-from-apes-in-the-mediterranean.html