Pseudohistory, Creationism, and Dinosaurs.

While most are aware that creationism provides an alternative to accepted science, many are not aware that it also offers an alternative to history as well as zoology. But of course it does. If one reads the Bible carefully, and takes the results literally, beginning with Adam and then calculating lifespans and genealogies with great precision, then adding on the known history that takes place after the Biblical stories end, the results reveal approximately 6,000 years of story. And if one takes the writings literally, something I've never seen as either necessary nor as a sign of devotion (nor have I ever seen non-Fundamentalist Bible reading as sacrilegious), that means that there has only been approximately 6,000 years of history since the Creation of the Earth. 

A dinosaur in medieval Europe from "The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible." 

[(What? Have I just questioned the literal truth of the Bible? Does this mean I am saying God does not exist? Come on, do you believe George Washington and Abraham Lincoln really existed? Hmm, I'll reckon a guess that you do. But does this mean that you believe everything that was ever written about them? Probably not. And with that, the analogy is now ended and my theological musings put to rest for the moment. Suffice it to say that I admit my limitations and do not claim to offer easily palatable truth about either God or the nature of the Universe. With luck, if pressed, the best I can hope for is to occasionally share a really, really good question.)]

The Dinosaurs and other animals boarding Noah's Ark

It also means, that not only is your version of the Earth, only 6,000 years old but that those 6,000 years of history must include such important events as the Tower of Babel and the story of Noah's Ark and the Flood. Which is interesting enough, but, well, what about the dinosaurs? How do they fit in? 

I've seen at least four responses to this question. They are: 

1. Dinosaurs were never real. The fossils that look like dinosaur fossils were actually something else, perhaps created by Satan to mislead people and cause them to doubt the reality of the stories in the Bible. 

2. Dinosaurs were real but somehow predated the Garden of Eden and died out long before it. (This one is not very common, but it has had some interesting adherents.) 

A pterodactyl flying over the pyramids in ancient times

3. Dinosaurs were real but they all died out in the global flood described in the story of Noah. 

4. Dinosaurs were real, they survived the flood because Noah brought them on the Ark with all the other animals, they then got off the Ark with all the other animals, but they have become increasingly rare since the days of Noah's Ark, but are quite real and always have been and still might be encountered today. Interestingly this one seems to be the most common among "young Earth" Creationists (the Creationists who believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old) in my experience. Such a claim, tends to be tied in with cryptologists claims of the reality of the Loch Ness monster as well as Mkele Mbembe, a living dinosaur claimed to still survive deep in the Congo .

And, if you are some kind of Fundamentalist parent, and your kids are going through the Dinosaur phase, --all kids go through the dinosaur phase, don't they-- then clearly the last one has the most appeal for them. 

Which means that, if you have this sort of bent, and are either inclined to lie to children ("for their own good" -no comment) or are so scientifically illiterate that the Loch Ness monster seems provably real to you and the theory of evolution does not, then you can picture a view of human history where dinosaurs interacted with humans throughout known history and believe this is a fine book for you to give to your children. 

Or you can tell them that Truth is important, any meaning to life that is based on lies is fragile and hence temporary, science is a quest for truth, and, if done right, religion too is a quest for truth and real meaning. It's up to you. But either way, dinosaurs are cool.

All illustrations come from the following book and no copyright infringement or ownership is intended. 

The Great Dinosaur Mystery and Bible, by Paul S. Taylor, 1987, 1989, Chariot Victor Publishing, Colorado Springs, Colorado, a division of Cook Communication, Paris Ontario. Copies are easily available second hand. (There are other books on the subject available.) 

  

Dinosaurs in ancient China

Did the Chinese discover America? Is Gavin Menzies a genius? Hell, no. Smallpox shows they did not.

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Sometime around 2003, a man named Gavin Menzies wrote a book entitled "1421, the year China Discovered the World." In this book, he advocated that the Chinese had built a large fleet and sailed around the world discovering new lands such as Australia and the Americas and trading and interacting with the people there long before the Europeans did. It was an exciting idea and it captured the imagination of many people around the world.

Menzies based his theory on the fact that around that time the Chinese did build a large fleet of vessels and ships and sailed around Asia going as far as the east coast of Africa near Eritria. Since many records of the voyages were lost or even deliberately destroyed soon after (for reasons having to do with Chinese politics of the time and differing opinions on the voyages) Menzies felt free to assume the Chinese might have done virtually anything imaginable during that time when he could find gaps in the record. Furthermore, Menzies liked to travel the world seeing different countries and different things and when he did, whenever he encountered things he personally could not understand (which was frequent) he would often tie what he saw in with his theory that the Chinese of that time had gone on vast global voyages around the world and create an explanation for these things, an explanation that often only made sense to him, and universally used these unproven Chinese historical voyages as the explanation. (If you've ever read Von Daniken's equally goofy book, Chariot of the Gods, in which we learn that the key to understanding much of ancient history is to insert space aliens whenever possible, you have seen this style of thinking before.)

Unfortunately, there were often large leaps in his logic and gaps in his knowledge of actual history and the result is a very silly book full of silly claims. The book is universally panned by Chinese historians, who at best, don't wish to talk about the book and others who scream when the topic comes up.


"But wait," someone will say, "Pete, how do you KNOW, yes, really KNOW, that the book and its premise is false? Is it not possible that you are too locked into a certain framework and tradition and pattern of thinking to see its brilliance? Isn't it possible that Gavin Menzies might be right, after all his books were best sellers and almost no one anywhere reads your books, and you might be wrong? Who can say?"

Well, sorry boys and girls, although history is a social science, and does require large amounts of interpretation with much room for discussion, debate, and disagreement, some things are not arbitrary. Some things are firmly grounded in evidence. And one of these things is the idea that the
Chinese did not arrive or settle or explore the "New World" in the pre-Colombian times.

And how do we know this?

Simple. Smallpox. Smallpox was a deadly disease endemic to both much of Europe and much of China during this time. (In many parts of China, smallpox was considered a normal part of childhood and some Chinese medical practitioners of the time thought it had something to do with material or energies in the mother's womb. -forgive me. I'll try and find a citation for this. I did write a paper on smallpox in China once at Cornell when I earned my MA. OK, not good enough. You deserve better. Here's one. http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15734218-12341377#FN60 Check around endnote 60. Follow it, tap into the vein, and you shall be blessed with the chance to learn a great deal about how the Chinese of centuries ago sometimes connected the disease smallpox with "fetal poisons." Lucky you. Ask and you shall receive.) 

So, okay, smallpox was endemic to much of China.

Smallpox was endemic to much of Europe.

Smallpox was unknown in the new world until the arrival of Columbus in 1492.

How can we be sure of this? Because when the Europeans arrived in the Americas, they brought smallpox and it killed huge swathes of the native American peoples. They were hit with the disease like they'd never been hit with it before.

Why?

BECAUSE THEY'D NEVER BEEN HIT WITH IT BEFORE, -SIMPLE HUH?

Yeah, and if Gavin Menzies was right, well, those poor, sorry, smallpox infected Indians who died in such large numbers from smallpox contagion when the Europeans arrived, well, they would have been hit with it before and the devastation would not have been so great when the Europeans would have arrived.

Yup, simple, huh? Yup, Gavin Menzies books are stupid. Nevertheless, I hope to write more about  them, and other varieties of pseudohistory here in the future.

By the way, as if the subject weren't ridiculous enough already, Gavin Menzies book, "1421, when China discovered the world," was released under a new title for the American audience -"1421, when China discovered America." Apparently it was felt Americans did not really care too much about the rest of the world. Sadly, there's probably more truth to this than to the rest of Menzies thinking.

Bad Native American maps and politics

Notes: 

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Perhaps you've heard of this new thing called "the internet"? It's a global technology system that is used to spread, among other things, pornography and misinformation, as well as "memes" where people reinforce their own political and religious views, and here's an example.

I'm not going to worry about the politics too much. They are, for better or worse, not too far from my own. But is the map correct? Is it a true and accurate representation of America before Columbus's arrival?      --absolutely not!

The more one looks, the more problems one finds. What the heck is the "Apache Empire"? And how could such an entity exist when the Apaches lacked a centralized government?

The Aztecs are portrayed as having a huge empire, when books such as Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control , by Ross Hassig (1995, University of Oklahoma Press) explain very clearly why they never had an empire this huge. (hint, logistics is tricky. Logistics without beasts of burden is even trickier.)  And why in the world are the Aztecs and the Olmecs shown as co-existing at the same time?

As for the Iroquois Confederacy, although it is properly named, it stretches too far to the west.

So what the heck is this thing? And why is it dated 2015, another major tip off?  

Noting these things, I went to snopes. ( Snopes  ) They uncovered the source. A hobbyist of some kind decided to make an imaginary map of a North America that was never discovered by Europeans and this was the result.  .