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| '17th Century Welsh Drovers Bridge' © Gary Hill 2011 |
On October 14th 2011 on the Creation Today Show (“impacting our world with the creation message”) broadcast from Pensacola, Florida, Eric Hovind and Paul Taylor answered viewers’ questions on such diverse topics as dinosaurs, the earth’s magnetic field and the possibility of extraterrestrials visiting earth. The particular topic that came to my attention was that of dinosaurs. Both Hovind and Taylor relayed to their audience that there was serious doubt as whether dinosaurs were actually extinct and, if they were, that their extinction was a recent event, measured at most in a few hundreds of years. As Hovind put it, “they’ve lived with man, as is very, very evident”.
To quote Paul Taylor:
“I’m really not prepared to say that dinosaurs actually are extinct. As I said, I’ll go so far as to say I think they probably are, ‘cause I haven’t seen any, but if they have gone extinct, it’s only fairly recently. You know, you can certainly find historic accounts of people having seen what they might refer to as dragons. Even as recently as two hundred years ago, there’s an account of a civil war battle, sorry I should make clear, English Civil War, not the American Civil War, the English Civil War battle, the battle of St Fagans, which although is in the English Civil war actually took place in Wales. And after the battle in which there were a lot of people dead on the battlefield, there are some eyewitnesses who wrote about it at the time, who reckon that this large huge bird without feathers, this dragon type thing, swooped over the battlefield and was sort of, it was obviously a carrion eating thing, it was having it’s fill of dead bodies, a rather gruesome story but the description sounds very like a pterodactyl type”.
A video of the discourse can be seen here
Now, apart from my being utterly incredulous, this quote is of interest to me for three reasons; first, Wales is my adopted country and I have lived here for nearly twenty years; second, I know the village of St Fagans quite well and third, I have an interest in Welsh history.
To give you some background to the alleged event: St Fagans is a small village on the outskirts of western Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The battle of St Fagan’s occurred near the end of the English Civil War in 1648. It is estimated that 3,000 well trained and equipped Roundhead soldiers supporting Parliament confronted 8,000 Royalist soldiers supporting King Charles. The Royalist army were referred to as ‘Clubmen’, being largely made up of untrained soldiers armed with only clubs and billhooks. It was the largest battle ever to take place on Welsh soil, and quite possibly the shortest. Beginning at 7.00am, it was all over by 9.00am with many hundreds of Royalists killed or taken prisoner.
The National Museum of Wales has a very large open-air facility at St. Fagans, including a completely rebuilt traditional Welsh village with exhibits pertaining to Welsh life over the centuries. You would expect, therefore, that the largest battle to take place in Wales would feature prominently in the exhibits, and of course it does. Indeed, in the intervening years, a number of skeletons, cannon balls, musket balls, pykes and buttons have been found on the battle site, many of which are on display.
And you would equally expect that such a significant event as written eyewitness reports of a pterodactyl-like bird swooping down and having it’s fill of dead bodies would also warrant mention. Except that the event is conspicuous by it’s absence. There is simply no mention of pterodactyls at St. Fagans. Indeed there is no mention of pterodactyls at St. Fagans at all, anywhere in the historical literature or even on the internet, apart from Paul Taylor’s claim, broadcast on the Creation Today Show of October 14th. This is especially surprising as, in common with the other Celtic nations, Wales has a long history of imaginative storytelling. Walk around anywhere in the Welsh landscape and choose any landform and there will be a story attached to it. The large collection of ancient stories known as the Mabinogi, for example, detail the mythical origins of many Welsh landmarks and the dragons, giants and wizards who dwelt among them. Pterodactyls would certainly not be out of place in Welsh folklore.
Now Paul Taylor is no stranger to Cardiff, or South Wales for that matter. He studied for his Masters Degree at Cardiff University, perhaps 12km from St Fagans. He then taught chemistry in high schools in South Wales, rising to head of department before quitting teaching in 1999. So why would Paul Taylor make such an extraordinary claim about a geographical area with which he is familiar, without either verifiable historical evidence, or even folklore, to back it up? Logically, there can be only two possibilities; either he has been told of the occurrence by someone else and believed it to be true, which would surely label him as being supremely gullible (and unfit to teach science), or he is simply being dishonest.
My money is on the latter. After all, the founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther wrote:
"What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church … a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them."
Although he has never been a practising scientist and has never had a peer reviewed paper published in a scientific journal, he has taught science and should be well aware of the protocols employed in the evaluation of evidence. Nevertheless, during his teaching career he is remembered as strongly pushing an anti-science Christian fundamentalist agenda, including creationism, onto students thereby alienating his teaching colleagues.
While this is considered unacceptable in a UK state school, it is not the case in private Christian schools, especially in the USA. Below is a page extracted from a science textbook 'Science 4 Christian Schools' published by Bob Jones University, a for-profit 'educational' establishment:
"What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church … a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them."
Although he has never been a practising scientist and has never had a peer reviewed paper published in a scientific journal, he has taught science and should be well aware of the protocols employed in the evaluation of evidence. Nevertheless, during his teaching career he is remembered as strongly pushing an anti-science Christian fundamentalist agenda, including creationism, onto students thereby alienating his teaching colleagues.
While this is considered unacceptable in a UK state school, it is not the case in private Christian schools, especially in the USA. Below is a page extracted from a science textbook 'Science 4 Christian Schools' published by Bob Jones University, a for-profit 'educational' establishment:
The information provided to children in this textbook is clear, unadulterated lying. Science has long ascertained exactly what electricity is and what the sources of electricity are. There is no mystery or disagreement whatsoever. But what would you expect from a company that recently published a biology textbook for Christian primary schools which claims that the Loch Ness monster exists, is "probably a plesiosaurus", and this fact alone refutes the theory of evolution? Here's the quote:
"Some scientists speculate that Noah took small or baby dinosaurs on the Ark … are dinosaurs still alive today? With some recent photographs and testimonies of those who claimed to have seen one, scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence ….....Have you heard of the ‘Loch Ness Monster’ in Scotland? ‘Nessie,’ for short, has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur".
Some children are not only taught this sort of nonsense but actually rewarded when they are able to regurgitate it when being assessed. The image below is a typical test administered by the Blue Ridge Christian Academy in South Carolina, USA which received a perfect score. This is not a parody; it is a verified copy of an actual science test. Yes, a science test......
I'd like to see their evidence that dinosaurs lived with people (excepting modern birds, of course). Note the exclusive use of multiple choice, 'fill in the blank' and one or two word answers. This is a hallmark of fundamentalist Christian education. Students are actively discouraged from developing comprehensive arguments using empirical evidence and critical thought in favour of regurgitating simplistic 'off-the shelf'' explanations of complex issues. After all, what's the point of the CERN Large Hadron Collider when we already have "The History Book of the Universe"? Below is a page from a biology test given to high school students in the UK in schools which use the 'Accelerated Christian Education' teaching system. Note the less than subtle linking of Adolf Hitler with evolution and genetics in the first two questions.
Accelerated Christian Education includes no secular books in the curriculum. English literature classes contain no works of fiction. Instead students study biographies of missionaries alongside anti-evolution books such as 'When Science Fails' and 'After the Flood: The Early Post-Flood History of Europe Traced Back to Noah' (the latter considered to be non-fiction).
This is in no sense a 'children-first' movement. It is primarily an ideologically-based education with pedagogical parallels to that used in despotic states such as North Korea. We should pity children who are subject to such facile indoctrination. How are they ever going to be able to make informed decisions when it comes to matters of public policy involving science? Not surprisingly research from the United States clearly shows that biblical fundamentalism and education make very poor bedfellows. Longitudinal studies show that biblical fundamentalism has a substantial negative effect on educational attainment, especially so for girls. For example, there is compelling evidence that Christian fundamentalist students have smaller vocabularies than their non-fundamental counterparts. Christian fundamentalists who do gain access to higher education are far more likely to choose private, overtly religious colleges and universities which offer substantially fewer course options.
This choice is essentially due to a high level of paranoia. The starting point for fundamentalist Christians is not one of honest inquiry but the premise that they hold normative, correct beliefs. Those with views contrary to their own, including science, are seen to have an 'agenda' and thus attempting to 'indoctrinate' those with faith. In this regard, fundamentalists are essentially scared of evidence. They perceive that the best way to preserve their beliefs is not to have them challenged, but to hide the evidence from believers for as long as possible.
The private institutions favoured by fundamentalists are generally considered by conventional universities as ‘diploma mills’ with unreasonably low graduation requirements. For example Eric Hovind’s education was entirely received from the perspective of young earth creationism and biblical literalism; firstly at home, then at the non-state accredited Pensacola Christian Academy, followed by the unaccredited Jackson Hole Bible College and finally, at Baptist Tennessee Temple University. Eric Hovind's father, the creationist doyen 'Dr' Kent Hovind ("the most colorful creationist at the bottom of the barrel") received his PhD in 'Christian Education' in 1991 from the unaccredited (read 'diploma mill') 'Patriot Bible University' whose 'campus' is not much larger than an affluent suburban home. Actually Patriot Bible University do claim accreditation - from an organisation calling themselves 'Accrediting Commission International' - who are not recognised by the education departments of any US state.
Despite the convention and etiquette of PhD theses being made available for anyone to inspect, Kent Hovind and Patriot Bible University had repeatedly denied requests for his thesis to be made available until Wikileaks made the thesis freely available on its website in 2009. It is not difficult to understand why they were so coy. Entitled 'The Effects of Teaching Evolution on the Students in our Public School System' Hovind's 'thesis' has become somewhat of an internet joke. He fails to properly address his subject matter in a document that is far too short to qualify for a PhD level dissertation and is replete with factual, and has some even spelling and grammatical errors. His opening sentences succinctly demonstrate the rigorous academic style expected of Patriot Bible University's graduate level students:
After attempting to establish his credentials as an objective science guy (though he has never taught science in any state accredited school, from 1976-1989 he taught only in unaccredited church schools, one of which he had set up himself) Hovind then proceeds to make his case based on a definition of evolution that is wholly erroneous:
To cap it all off there is no reference section or bibliography of any kind. That's right, a successful PhD thesis lacking a reference section! In fact there are no citations at all in the first nine pages (you have to count them yourself - there are no page numbers) and that's from the Bible. The quality of of historical analysis is, not surprisingly, positively childlike despite the author being 38-years old:
“All of the ancient writings we have show a young age of the earth. Why don’t we have people writing about kings that lived fifty thousand years ago? Why is it that all of recorded history happened in the last four thousand years?”
“For instance, Communism is a direct offshoot of evolution.”
Despite the fact that Marx published his 'Communist Manifesto' almost a decade before Darwin had published anything at all on evolution. These are the people who want to be tasked with teaching science and history in schools........Children are currently safe from Kent Hovind, however. He is currently Federal Prisoner Register # 06452-017, serving 10 years for 12 tax fraud offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and 45 counts of illegally structuring cash transactions.
Unsurprisingly, very few overtly religious universities are recognised as research centres of note and the majority that are recognised as such are Catholic. Thus, critical analysis of data, not only from within the sciences, but also from such fields as political science, history, philosophy and sociology often proves difficult for Christian fundamentalists. No wonder we observe that fundamentalism tends to diminish rapidly when faced with higher levels of education.
Philip Larkin could have written his poem 'This Be The Verse' with fundamentalists in mind. As the first verse reads:
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
The target audience of programs such as the Creation Today Show is just this scientifically-illiterate demographic. They have been primed, usually since childhood, to be susceptible to believe utterly incredulous and patently dishonest statements by supposedly authoritative people like Paul Taylor and Eric Hovind. Taylor typically talks to church groups and his modus operandi is to plant seeds of doubt about the veracity of science. As he has written, “scientific models, while helpful, must never take the place of scripture. The scientific model can be superseded. Scripture cannot”.
Thus, people like Eric Hovind and Paul Taylor argue from belief, not reason. Any arguments that address their beliefs are therefore measured not in terms of evidence, or reasonableness, but in the degree to which they agree with their beliefs. Thus they have no need or reason to understand any field of study not based on scripture. It is a profoundly dishonest position.
Thus, people like Eric Hovind and Paul Taylor argue from belief, not reason. Any arguments that address their beliefs are therefore measured not in terms of evidence, or reasonableness, but in the degree to which they agree with their beliefs. Thus they have no need or reason to understand any field of study not based on scripture. It is a profoundly dishonest position.
Well I'm sorry Eric Hovind and Paul Taylor, whether you like it or not your extraordinary claims require me to be presented with extraordinary evidence. Pterodactyls in 17th century Cardiff.......for Christ’s sake!
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There's only one way 3000 Parliamentarians could have defeated 8000 Royalists: pterodactyls.
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