Someone should give Jason a medal. He's actually six chapters into his review. You can read the series here: Reviewing EVD's "Twilight of the Gods" (Pt. 1) Reviewing EVD's "Twilight of the Gods" (Pt. 2) Reviewing EVD's "Twilight of the Gods" (Pt. 3) Reviewing EVD's...
pseudoarchaeology
Richard Bauckham on the Flimsy Evidence for Talpiot B as the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea
I hope you all read the short but clear-headed guest post on Mark Goodacre's NT Blog by guest blogger Richard Bauckham. Professor Bauckham does a nice job of succinctly demonstrating the tenuous nature of what seems to be the only data point approximating evidence for...
Update on Jaime Maussan’s Fake Alien Mummy Circus
The UFO Watchdog blog recently posted an update on the alleged alien mummy brought to Gaia TV by Jaime Maussan. Jaime of course has a long, glorious history of hoaxing. You can read the update here in full, but it's basically about how the World Congress on Mummy...
A Blow to Racist Fringe History
Jason Colavito has an interesting post on some recent research that damages the Solutrean Hypothesis. For those who haven't heard of this, Jason explains: Fringe history believers have long used the Solutrean claim as evidence for European primacy in the Americas, a...
The Map Behind the Piri Reis Map
That's the title of this intriguing essay on the Piri Reis map -- an early 16th century map that allegedly shows the coastline of Antarctica not covered by ice. The image above of the Piri Reis map comes from this much longer and more detailed analysis, the effort of...
David Hatcher Childress: A Survey of His Self- Contradictions
I wanted to draw readers' attention to this post by Jason Colavito. It documents the "confusion" of Hatcher-Childress on whether he believes in ancient aliens or not. Is it confusion, or opportunism?
The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy and the Talpiot Tomb
That's the title of Mark Goodacre's recent post on the Talpiot tomb debate. I highly recommend the post, as it illustrates this logical fallacy very clearly and applies it to the Talpiot tomb material.
How Research Reaches the Public and PaleoBabble is Born
Robert Cargill posted this today on his blog. It's funny because we've all seen it happen, again and again. Although the creators forgot to include the Fantasy Channel (formerly known as the History Channel).
Yahweh and Asherah: More Archaeo-Porn for the Masses
[ADDENDUM: March 23, 2011 I just wanted to direct readers to three items I have written, two of which are free. I offer them since the issue below gets into the issue of monotheism in Israel. First, there is a pre-publication version of an article that was published...
Dinosaur Petroglyphs and a Lesson in Intellectual Dishonesty
I was alerted to a new scholarly article today on the issue of so-called dinosaur petroglyphs. Here is the citation (the article is free): Senter and Cole. 2011. "Dinosaur" petroglyphs at Kachina Bridge site, Natural Bridges National Monument, southeastern Utah: not...
Intelligent Design Usurped by Alien Astronaut Theory?
As many of you will know, I think the intelligent design approach to origins has merit, since it attempts to bring to light the weaknesses of an undirected, random Darwinism. You may also know that I've been saying for years how easy it will be for those who promote...
Pseudo-History in the Classroom
This is the title of another old article I found prepping for teaching. It was written in 1975 -- amazing how much PaleoBabble has been put out since then! Editor's note: Excerpt from the article below: ARE WE descendants of ancient astronauts? Was the flaming...
Fantasy Channel Special on Ancient Astronauts
Well, I guess some of you may have caught last night's Fantasy Channel (what I used to refer to as the History Channel) special promoting the ancient astronaut idea. I didn't watch it since there's nothing new here except better special effects and CGI to help shovel...
Of Denderah and Dim Bulbs: Is There Visual Evidence for Lightbulbs in Ancient Egypt?
I'll let viewers decide. Try not to laugh at Ancient Aliens when you see this. I know. It's hard.
There’s PaleoBabble in the Evangelical World, Too
What's fair is fair. Sanctified paleobabble is still paleobabble. The excellent Evangelical Textual Criticism blog posted this back in February: "Debunking Silly Statements about the Bible." Most of the items are examples of claims that over-extend the data. That sort...