Most listeners of "Coast To Coast A.M." have a nodding acquaintance with the "forbidden archeology" theories of Michael Cremo. What is often overlooked is that Cremo's theories have a strong religious foundation: Wikipedia describes Cremo as an "American Hindu creationist" (something that, until now, I did not know). It was Cremo's name that popped into my mind while perusing the Creation Evidence Museum (which apparently has not registered a domain name yet). The artifacts listed on this creationist website are truly fascinating, from a Fortean viewpoint. The site attempts to persuade the general public that these artifacts prove that human beings co-inhabited the earth at the same time as dinosaurs. Years ago, when I was enrolled at a well-known local Christian Bible college, I picked up a pamphlet that tried to argue the same thing. The evidence for evolution, which is almost definitively suggested by the fossil record, would have to be discredited in order for the creationist viewpoint to prevail. I just found it amusing to stumble upon such evidence at a website that espouses a viewpoint that I discarded decades ago, if, indeed, I ever seriously held it.
This general phenomenon of discovering artifacts where they cannot, scientifically, exist is known in Forteana as "out of place artifacts," and science has no explanation for their existence. The preponderance of evidence--in both the fossil record and in contemporary genetics research--overwhelmingly supports the theories of natural selection and evolution... although what we think of as "evolution" may merely be a small part of a much larger, more complex process that is not yet completely documented. The theory of evolution also reinforces the universal perception of time as being linear and progressive. To me, out of place artifacts do not prove or disprove anything, except to suggest that, perhaps, time is not as absolute or as linear as we perceive it to be.... which, to me, is a far more radical and fascinating concept than evolution or creationism.
Hiya Ishmael, I'm deeply dubious of the ooparts fraternity. Cremo is indeed a subscriber to the idea of ancient civilisations through his religious beliefs. When we see people chipping away at the Theory of Evolution, it's often due to financial or religious incentives.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, there are next to none oopart proponents who have revised their claims in the light of contrary evidence. Hancock and Schoch are the only ones that spring to mind right now.
The link leads to a typical example of the oopart agenda. 'Stegosaurus' or chameleon? Beneath that is the 'London Hammer' which has been explained as a turn-of-the-century hammer embedded in a concretion.
So far, I haven't read of an artefact that is truly out of place. They tend to lack provenance, are hearsay or have been allegedly 'disappeared' by the Smithsonian.