Evolution and fake fossils

  • Thread starter Thread starter edwest2
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
edwest2 said:
To my fellow Catholics -

Fake fossils are not a thing of the past. They are being made in China:

paleodirect.com/fakechinesefossils1.htm

The Chinese are doctoring real fossils to make money and apparently their craftsmanship is very good.

God bless,
Ed
Click to expand...
Yep. I understand that they have a great selection of human/dinosaur prints for sale!

I’m not sure what that has to do with evolution, though.

Peace

Tim
 
Hopefully this will not turn into a “because one is false… all are false…”

If anyone does want to take it there, and say that logic is valid… then someone else can just as easily, And just as validly per this logic, say that because one person lied about Christ, all people lie about Christ…

In Christ
 
No, this is an example of the Chinese craftsmen knowing what people want to see and giving it to them. They are using a certain bias to make money.

God bless,
Ed
 
edwest2 said:
No, this is an example of the Chinese craftsmen knowing what people want to see and giving it to them. They are using a certain bias to make money.

God bless,
Ed
Click to expand...
Kinda like those who make fake religious relics based on a certain bias to make money? As heisenburg noted, that logic cuts both ways.

Peace

Tim
 
The website itself sells fossils. It was just warning people to be careful of buying fake fossils. What’s the controversy?
 
God created people and all the species on earth. How do we know he didn’t create dinosaur bones and put them in the ground so that people would have something to dig for all these years?
 
als10062008 said:
God created people and all the species on earth. How do we know he didn’t create dinosaur bones and put them in the ground so that people would have something to dig for all these years?
Click to expand...
Because God’s not deceptive. Isn’t creation supposed to reveal the glory of God, not mislead us?
 
When people at National Geographic magazine were taken in by a fake, that created a problem. Their “discovery” was widely distributed but it was based on fake evidence. The public tends to view a publication that’s been around over a hundred years a little more seriously than, say, People.

God bless,
Ed
 
edwest2 said:
When people at National Geographic magazine were taken in by a fake, that created a problem. Their “discovery” was widely distributed but it was based on fake evidence. The public tends to view a publication that’s been around over a hundred years a little more seriously than, say, People.
Click to expand...
And that was discovered and corrected. They admitted that they were wrong. Something you don’t know about, do you.

This is so weak I can’t even say “good try Ed”.

Peace

Tim
 
edwest2 said:
When people at National Geographic magazine were taken in by a fake, that created a problem. Their “discovery” was widely distributed but it was based on fake evidence. The public tends to view a publication that’s been around over a hundred years a little more seriously than, say, People.

God bless,
Ed
Click to expand...
Okay, I understand the controversy now. I take it you are not just pointing out that National Geographic made a mistake and was fooled by a fake fossil, but that belief in evolutionary theory made them especially susceptible to be taken in by such a fake?
 
Actually, someone else said that. He is Storrs L. Olson, Curator of Birds, National Museum Of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. In a letter to National Geographic, he wrote:

“The idea of feathered dinosaurs and the theropod origin of birds is being actively promulgated by a cadre of zealous scientists acting in concert with certain editors at Nature and National Geographic who themselves have become outspoken and highly biased proselytizers of the faith. Truth and careful weighing of evidence have been among the first casualties in their program which is now fast becoming one of the grandest scientific hoaxes of our age – the paleontological equivalent of cold fusion.”

I am not saying all fossils are fakes.

God bless,
Ed
 
edwest2 said:
Actually, someone else said that. He is Storrs L. Olson, Curator of Birds, National Museum Of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. In a letter to National Geographic, he wrote:

“The idea of feathered dinosaurs and the theropod origin of birds is being actively promulgated by a cadre of zealous scientists acting in concert with certain editors at Nature and National Geographic who themselves have become outspoken and highly biased proselytizers of the faith. Truth and careful weighing of evidence have been among the first casualties in their program which is now fast becoming one of the grandest scientific hoaxes of our age – the paleontological equivalent of cold fusion.”

I am not saying all fossils are fakes.

God bless,
Ed
Click to expand...
Careful Ed. Olson accepts evolution. His is a much narrower argument regarding the evolution of birds. He was not speaking of evolution but of the idea that birds are the direct descendents of dinosaurs.

Peace

Tim
 
edwest2 said:
What should I be careful about?

Peace,
Ed
Click to expand...
Quote mining that letter to the editor that Olsen wrote and/or making the assumption that Olsen somehow is arguing against evolution. He is a staunch supporter of evolution.

Peace

Tim
 
My point is that bias exists among scientists who should know better, to the point where they feel compelled to escape the bounds of careful examination of the evidence and just make proclamations based on what they think ought to be the case. I’m not saying they are all like that. I am saying that the cadre involved was working with editors at Nature and National Geographic to get this unproven idea out to other scientists and the public.

I’m also not singling out this group out for ridicule. They are, I hope the reader of this understands, imperfect people reacting to outside pressure. I have read on atheist sites, and the forum I moderate, questions that boil down to: “What kind of scientific evidence for evolution would stop those knuckle dragging, stupid, uneducated fundies in their tracks?” It appears that these scientists and editors were under pressure to get those “fundies” to shut up.

God bless,
Ed
 
I am confused…

It was mentioned already that NatGeo acknowledged the error, and corrected it… That the website even WARNS that some may be fake…

There’s nothing there… no conspiracy… no cover up… just honest people making honest mistakes…

Protestants would say Catholics are mistaken, we would say they are…

People get misled… It happens, it’s sad, but it does…

Try not to explain something as malice, or as a cover up when it can even more easily be explained with stupidity or ignorance…

I’m sorry, but I really do feel like you are creating a straw man argument using some fake fossils as evidence…

If you want to argue against Evolution, use real subjects, not straw man arguments…

IN Christ
 
Why are you taking a clear example off track? Some here contend that science is pure - just observations, assessments and facts. All I’m showing is that science is done by human beings. Human beings that can, working as a group, choose to present speculation as fact. If this was one or two people, perhaps it could be viewed differently but it was the editors at two magazines, Nature and National Geographic, and some scientists.

Do you think they did this so they would get caught? It appears these people understood what they were doing and did not want to be caught.

God bless,
Ed
 
als10062008 said:
God created people and all the species on earth. How do we know he didn’t create dinosaur bones and put them in the ground so that people would have something to dig for all these years?
Click to expand...
Theodosius Dobzhansky explains why God did not do this in his essay Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution:One of the early antievolutionists, P. H. Gosse, published a book entitled Omphalos (“the Navel”). The gist of this amazing book is that Adam, though he had no mother, was created with a navel, and that fossils were placed by the Creator where we find them now - a deliberate act on His part, to give the appearance of great antiquity and geologic upheaveals. It is easy to see the fatal flaw in all such notions. They are blasphemies, accusing God of absurd deceitfulness. This is as revolting as it is uncalled for.
He says it far better than I could.

rossum
 
edwest2 said:
My point is that bias exists among scientists who should know better, to the point where they feel compelled to escape the bounds of careful examination of the evidence and just make proclamations based on what they think ought to be the case.
Click to expand...
That sounds eerily like what Evangelicals do to justify their unbiblical religion.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top