This would all be discouraging were not Jason Colavito’s lengthy reviews of this stuff so entertaining.
Both of these essays were posted this month. Annotations are mine.
Creationist “Bigfoot” Veterinarian Wants Cash to Sequence Nephilim “Giant” DNA
- Readers will appreciate the photographic sleight-of-hand (read: deception) by Dr. Melba Ketchum of the recent Bigfoot DNA fiasco. Talk about depending on reader credulity.
- I saw this book at a Barnes and Noble recently. Thank you, Jason, for saving me the self-torture.
- Readers will appreciate how Jason documents the poor methodology, outright errors, and plagiarism in this book.
- I’ve collected a few dozen PDFs of accounts of giant human skeletons in the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I can tell you firsthand that it is quite inadequate to end your research with newspapers. Just because it’s in a newspaper, especially that era, doesn’t mean it’s true or that the “find” has been processed correctly. Newspaper reporters aren’t doing scientific testing. Hard to believe we have to point that out.
- Once again, it’s pseudo-research (and non sequitur thinking) like this that gives the idea that there was a Creator a bad name. Pretty sad.
Love your posts, man. Always so insightful.
then what do you think of Steve Quayle’s “True Legends”. How about Dr. Tom Horn’s views on the subject? Remember, it was Genesis 10 in the days of Peleg when the land mass was first separated / divided into some version of “continents” – til then all the waters were gathered into one place and so was the land. Thus travel was facilitated easily before the need for sea faring. Gen 6 says the nephilim were on the earth before the flood and AFTER.
I realise the book of Enoch 1 goes into more detail, but it would seem to me that if nephilim (the fallen, children of the fallen) were hybrids, and that if Azazel taught advanced concepts to mankind, that Yahweh had forbidden to that point, as well as being gigantic along with some supernatural powers (today we still couldn’t build the pyramid @ Giza or duplicate the stuff in Peru, and other areas of Central / South America), that some could’ve made their way or been on the land separated in Peleg’s era, that we know now as North, Central and South America?
A couple thoughts:
1) All of the ancient giant stuff lacks physical evidence (for a race, as opposed a skeleton here and there). Neither Steve nor Tom has put forth evidence for that (a skeleton here and there isn’t a race).
2) Neither Tom nor Steve has produced data that refute Adrienne Mayor’s work (The First Fossil Hunters, Fossil Legends of the First Americans – both Princeton Univ. Press titles and reasonably priced). Mayor shows how ancient testimony of giant human skeletons were misidentifications of prehistoric mammoths.
3) Newspaper articles from the late 19th and early 19th centuries may or may not be proof of giant human skeletons (Mayor’s second book demonstrates misidentifications certainly happened, but not every story has been tracked down). Saying the proof was hidden by the Smithsonian isn’t data, nor is it proof. It’s the equivalent of the dog ate my homework. http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/is-the-smithsonian-conspiring-to-suppress-the-truth-about-giants
4) The Bible has the nephilim dying out in David’s time (Masoretic Text) or Jeremiah’s time (LXX). It doesn’t tell us anything about any such person later than that (and it can’t since the Bible was complete by the end of hte 1st century).
5) No giant skeleton has ever been found in Canaan / Israel. I wouldn’t expect there to be such a find, even though I believe there were such people per the OT. Why? because there are no remains for most of the people who EVER lived in biblical days. Israelites and Canaanites didn’t embalm. Finding any skeletal remains from the BC era is rare. I know. I’ve checked the Israeli Antiquities database for such things and emailed the guy currently in charge of inputting most of the human skeletal data. If someone reads this and says, “Oh yeah, Mike – I saw something on YouTube about a professor – Jonathan Tubb was his name – a real archaeologist. He says he found two female skeletons over 7 feet tall on a dig, so what about that?” Well, I’ve corresponded with Dr. Tubb. I’ll be reproducing that email exchange on the companion website to Unseen World. The remains he discovered were not giant in size. (The whole claim originated from a footnote in a commentary by a professor at one of my graduate schools – Univ Penn – where Tubb spoke. Tubb says a comment he made was misunderstood and the rest is lamentable (for him) history. But you’ll all get to see the email next year.
6) The elongated skulls / Peruvian mummy thing is nonsense. Where is the verse in the Bible that says nephilim had big heads, anyway? What’s the Hebrew word for “big, long skull”? While we’re at it, where’s the verse about the nephilim building megalithic structures and pyramids? And when will Foerster (spelling?) give us all the name of the geneticist who ran his alleged DNA test – and the address to the lab? I’d like to check credentials and what sort of test were conducted. Because I actually DO know geneticists to check that stuff. Goof grief, even Steven Greer gave the world that much with his Atacama alien nonsense, but people who claim to be doing this in the name of the Bible won’t? I can only think of one reason why, and it ain’t flattering.
In short, there is no physical evidence for what Steve, Tom, and others claim here. But I like them both. I’d love it if some of what gets talked about had physical evidence. But there is none. I hold Christians to the same level of truth-telling accountability that I did for Zecharia Sitchin. It’s simple: show me the data. We can all enjoy the excitement together then.
6) The bible is generally a very shitty source for factual information. It is ridiculously profuse with words describing same things over and over again. The fact that it doesn’t describe something interesting or notable about people’s appearance or the country where events are taking place is no proof it never happened.
It’s notable as well how the bible writers had chosen to mention “god letting them profit from spoiling the egyptians”, but don’t mention the pyramids.
to borrow your scatological eloquence, this is a shitty criticism of the Bible. In other words, when I read it, I didn’t think I was in the presence of a powerful intellect.
Smithsonian hiding giant skeletons.What do you think about that?
http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/smithsonian-admits-to-destruction-of-thousands-of-giant-human-skeletons-in-early-1900s/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOfKbUv2Y8I
Read the website disclaimer – this is a known spoof/hoax news site.
Giant Skeletons Newspaper Headlines
http://www.sydhav.no/giants/newspapers.htm
Where are the remains? It’s well known that these newspaper stories were often phony. It’s something late 19th century / early 20th century newspapers were known for. But I think some of the reports were likely valid – in that something was found. But the remains need to be produced so the claims can be verified.
It’s a little thing I like to call “real data” (as opposed to speculation or hearsay).
If you were on trial, would you want the evidence presented to judge you be hearsay or verified as real?
Where are the remains?
Hidden by evolutionists and ruler of the darkness of this world.
1 John Chapter 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
Ephesians Chapter 6:12
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Quit making excuses and baptizing them with verses. That’s actually trifling with the word of God. It needs to stop.
Instead of “the dog ate my homework” it’s “the powers of darkness are more powerful than God’s providence to get the truth out.”
Talk about awful theology.
Giants from Sardinia http://youtu.be/S-RL-BxO7Xk
It wouldn’t play; perhaps You Tube is down right now. But I don’t do my research by YouTube. No one credible does. Since you have apparently watched it, please give me the short cut:
1. Where are the remains of the giants so that scientists can study them under peer review?
2. If the video claims this has happened, what are the names of the labs, scientists, anthropologists, etc. who did the study? Where was it published?
Now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-RL-BxO7Xk
and have labs and remnants of large teeth just look at the video to the end , normal museums who want to hide.
Who did the testing on the teeth? What were the results? where were they published? Saying “labs tested them” is nothing. Names, dates, places, procedures, and peer review of the material = honesty. Without that, those making the claims are the ones hiding something (or they’re incompetent).
A 30 foot long “tomb” that’s less than 3 feet wide? Really. It’s utterly disproportional.
This is no more mysterious than Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants%27_grave
And see the same style here:
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/scotland/arran/ancient-sites/giants-graves.html
And then pictures of the same “giant human femur” from the creationist museum that’s never been DNA tested.
Come on.
Look, I’d love to have someone find a truly giant skeleton. But you have to have real evidence under peer review. That way large animals (prehistoric or otherwise) can be ruled out. It’s not an unreasonable request.
where there’s smoke, there’s fire
seriously? That’s like saying “where there’s a data point there’s X conclusion” — the existence of data doesn’t mean a particular conclusion MUST extend from the data. You’re falling into “cart before the horse” logic.
Dr Heiser
In your opinion, do you think Sasquatch actually exists?
no idea.