A few months ago, I scanned a headline about a group seeking the removal of a dinosaur statue outside a McDonalds in Tucson, AZ. Having lived in Tucson and familiar with the landmark, I was intrigued to the point of actually reading the article.
The
group is called ‘Christians Against Dinosaurs’ (aka CAD) which maintains a
Facebook page with a dead link to christiansagainstdinosaurs.com (I guess the
CAD admins don’t make enough money or haven’t heard about free web hosting).
Per the Facebook page, the philosophy – such as it is – maintains: There is no
evidence dinosaurs ever existed, that dinosaurs ever existed is based on
assumptions, Jurassic Park is not a
documentary (I wasn’t aware anyone thought that), dinosaurs in musea(?) are
made of plaster, carbon dating is not reliable, and that chickens are not
modern dinosaurs. The group admins repeatedly assert they have done the scientific research and have concluded –
with no help from their faith – that dinosaurs never existed. Furthermore, to
believe in dinosaurs is dangerous because, well, it’s false and naturally leads
people away from the Christian god.
Of
course, I couldn’t help but be tempted to join the group and weigh in on their
discussions. I also knew it would be fruitless to change anyone’s mind, so why
would I bother? Because insanity doesn’t get a free pass, ever, even when you
can’t cure the ill. I’m glad I did join, though, because what I discovered is a
potentially dangerous group of people.
Let’s
begin with their denial of the evidence, of which there is a lot. What I mean
is that we’ve recovered fossilized bones (NOT the bones themselves, which CAD
members don’t seem to understand) of many exceptionally sized animals that
would be classified as lizards. (Lizards being their classification based on
anatomy and physiology, and in this case, supposedly their behavior; based on
modern lizards). We’ve recovered LOTS of fossils of these lizards and as the
evidence mounted, yes, assumptions were made that these fossilized bones
belonged to (often large) lizards that we do not see anymore. Because what else
could they be?
Ah,
the ‘fossilized’ bones are either all fakes and/or were put in place by Satan
to deceive all of us about there ever being dinosaurs, because the more time
you spend obsessing about dinosaurs the less time you spend with God. (The
devil couldn’t come up with a better plan than that? That’s disappointing.)
Certainly,
nevermind that most adults spend more time at church than on dinosaurs even if
they did go through a dinosaur phase as a child. I mean, no one is missing
church to go catch the latest Jurassic
Park movie. Sheesh. So we can dismiss the Satan Theory as being childish
nonsense but to claim all the recoveries are fake? That would be a massive
undertaking and human beings aren’t exactly known for keeping their mouths shut
the larger a conspiracy becomes. BUT, the fakes are driven by money, prestige
and power, leading us to the perpetrators of the conspiracy – Big Paleo. Ooo,
scary.
I
think CAD’s claim about Big Paleo being in it for the money is so ludicrous
that it highlights the lack of research group members must avoid. Their
assertion is that the field of paleontology makes so much money, that is what
drives the industry to lie about what they’ve discovered and what they do. Now,
I couldn’t find any estimates on how much money the field of paleontology makes
annually, but literally no one thinks of paleontologists first when asked to
make a short list of opportunistic careers. (Click here for a list of the most
influential – not richest – paleontologists https://paleontologyworld.com/paleontologists-curiosities/12-most-influential-paleontologists
). By comparison, the faith industry in the U.S. alone makes approximately a trillion dollars a year. So, if money is
the motivating factor for paleontologists, why aren’t they pastor instead? They’re
in the wrong industry! And I won’t even mention the fact that you need at least
a Masters degree to make any money in paleontology whereas you don’t need any
education to lead a flock astray. So why go through the trouble? By the way,
can you can name at least one mega-rich pastor off the top of your head? Who
can’t! The lie about Big Paleo is an attempt to cash-in on the hysteria of
phrases like Big Pharma and Big Oil which are seen as inherently evil, which in
this case is an outright lie. (I know what you’re thinking, why would a
Christian lie about something? Perhaps being Christian, they’re already immune
to facts. I’m not sure. Actually I do know why but that’s not important right
now.)
Could
it be that Big Paleo is driven by prestige and power? That is possibly more
likely since we know spiritual leaders are likely motivated by the same
factors; it’s just a human thing to do, pretend you hold special knowledge. So
that’s a possible explanation for the ‘lie’ but since that motivation applies
to so many people in so many fields, the point is perhaps moot. Except when it
comes to fossilized bones there is no special knowledge: We have a bunch of
bones that when we compare them can be classified in a certain way and leads us
to certain conclusions. As I mentioned the conclusion may be somewhat inexact,
but the overall conclusion that really large lizards once roamed the earth is
inescapable. (Or at least that’s what Satan wants us to think. I keep
mentioning to CAD members that the evidence is there but they just don’t want
to hear it; it would be too much mental work for them to draw any conclusions
from it.)
I
also point out that even if we take it as a matter of faith that dinosaurs
existed, this is no different than any of them believing in God on faith.
Naturally, they always counter this by saying matters of faith are not subject
to scientific inquiry as if they’re being clever in avoiding the ‘evidence
trap.’ So CAD gets upset that paleontologists tell everyone that dinosaurs
existed based on the evidence. What they don’t realize is that,
epistemologically speaking, ultimately every belief is a matter of faith, which
circles back to my point about just believing in dinosaurs on faith as a
non-starter. In other words, they shouldn’t be getting upset if, really,
believing dinosaurs existed is a matter of faith since evidence isn’t required
for beliefs. CAD doesn’t realize any analysis of their argument in dividing the
beliefs undermines that argument. (I’d like to add here that there is evidence
for every belief we have, though that evidence may be falsified or be a false
claim. No one is born with a belief in God, though it seems human beings are
born with an innate ability to believe in the nonsensical or the flimsiest of
‘evidence,’ like a book written by superstitious tribal men.)
But
aren’t all the dinosaur bones in museums fakes, made of plaster? Many are
because fossilized bones which really aren’t ‘bones’ in the way we understand
them are very fragile. (This link speaks to the definition and fragility of fossils
https://www.amnh.org/dinosaurs/dinosaur-bones#:~:text=The%20%22dinosaur%20bones%22%20that%20you,bones%20are%20turned%20into%20rock.
) Yet many real fossils do appear in museums around the world. Sure, some are
plaster replicas made from molds or are guesswork where skeletons have been
recovered incomplete, but even forensic scientists do the latter with human
bodies. (So I guess we should consider human skeletons that aren’t recovered
fully intact fake? I know, that’s a stretch, but it was fun to write.)
At
this point I’m going to move on to their disdain for (radio)carbon dating which
everyone knows can only date organic material back 50,000 years or so.
Paleontologists use a different kind of radiometric dating to determine the age
of the rock and sediment fossilized bones are found in and that helps estimate
the age of a recovery. The most rudimentary research can point this out, so for
a group that claims to be scientifically minded they goofed one of their
primary talking points. Good grief, CAD’s not doing so well so far.
Hold
on! You mean chickens aren’t modern
dinosaurs? Let’s file this under ‘N’ for No Shit, Sherlock. Chickens aren’t
even lizards. Alas, the evidence seems to indicate birds have descended from
dinosaurs, because evolution. I won’t get into evolution here because many of
its detractors either can’t grasp the basic concepts involved or refuse to
believe it on religious grounds. Anyone who says chickens are modern dinosaurs
means they are descendants, not that they’re actually dinosaurs. But leave it
to CAD not to understand this.
Behind
all their misleading and outright false drivel is something inevitably more
sinister, however. Checking in on them this evening (you gotta keep an eye on
these people) sees one CAD member going on a rant because he came across a
dinosaur’s face plastered on a case of beer. That’s being a little triggered, wouldn’t
you say? CAD members often post such pictures with such pithy captions as, “This
is not okay!” or “Dinosaurs never existed!” Similarly, for every new report of
a recovery, a CAD member will inevitably remark, “Jesus is really testing us,”
making it clear that at least some members really do think dinosaur bones were
put in place by Satan.
CAD’s
desire to see dinosaurs erased from all aspects of culture indicate the worst
tendencies of humanity. Among them, the inability to understand science, the
declaration of special knowledge, and to be clearly divorced from reality while
insisting their religious beliefs have nothing to do with their denial of the
evidence. And the group is clearly religiously motivated, which can never be
not troubling. Then there’s the fact that they
are a group, having consciously sought each other out for the purposes of
locking themselves into an echo chamber. Sure, you can try to reason with them,
but the echo is too loud and we know by now that reason is not enough to make
people abandon false beliefs.
Unsurprisingly,
member as the group will go out of their way to lie and create memes such as
the David Attenborough one here, giving a quote the man never said. Perhaps
they missed the commandment (not optional) against bearing false witness? Called
out on their lies, they never acknowledge it. Like so many people, their truth
is the only truth that matters. Fortunately, science – and courtrooms to a
lesser degree – don’t give a fuck about what you think is reality. This raises
a question: Should people be allowed to believe their own ‘facts’? Both the
far-right and far-left think so, and this is what has made such a cultural and
political mess of the United States.
What
is to be done with CAD, then, leave them to their own device? Ignoring them is
more dangerous than fruitlessly trying to reason with them because if we can
prevent even one more indoctrination, it’s worth it. Plus, it makes ourselves
feel better to insult intentionally stupid people, does it not? It seems to
work for them. Interesting that they don’t like it when the shoe’s on the other
foot.
All Rights Reserved (C) Theory Parker Dec. 2020
