Author: James Lippard (lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu) Title: How Not to Argue with Creat
======================================================================
Author: James Lippard (lippard@skyblu.ccit.arizona.edu)
Title: How Not to Argue with Creationists
======================================================================
Jim Lippard
Department of Philosophy
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
lippard@ccit.arizona.edu
May 18, 1993
To: Australia: Barry Price, Ian Plimer*, Barry Williams,
Mark Plummer, Allan Lang, Ken Smith*,
Tim O'Neill*, Robert Doolan
Canada: Rob Day*
USA: John Cole, Eugenie Scott, Robert Schadewald,
Thomas Jukes, Stanley Weinberg, Tom McIver,
Ronald Numbers, James McGaha, Barry Karr,
Ron Harvey*, Ted Karren*, Mike Norton*, John Blanton*,
Chris Stassen*
* electronic communication
Enclosed is a copy of my response to the long, unpublished version
of Barry Price's "A Response to James Lippard" which was announced
in _Creation/Evolution_ issue 31, Winter 1992, p. 45. Since no
further discussion on this subject is to appear in
_Creation/Evolution_, this response will not be published. I am
therefore sending copies to various involved persons and
observers.
I believe my response speaks for itself. I welcome any
serious communications on the issues addressed in this article,
whether supportive or critical.
Sincerely,
Jim Lippard
How Not to Respond to Criticism: Barry Price Compounds His Errors
By Jim Lippard
In the Winter 1990-91 issue of _Creation/Evolution_ appeared an
article I authored titled "How Not to Argue with Creationists."
In that article, I strongly criticized Australian skeptics Ian
Plimer and Barry Price for their tactics in combating creationism.
Specifically, my major criticisms were that: (1) Plimer behaved
poorly in a debate with Duane Gish in 1988; (2) Plimer
misrepresented the views of Michael Denton, author of _Evolution:
A Theory in Crisis_, in that debate, falsely claiming that Denton
had "admitted he was wrong" (apparently with respect to his entire
book) and that "he was unaware of the fossil record when he wrote
it"; (3) Plimer issued a challenge to creationists in 1986 and
1987 (which Price quoted in his book) to produce evidence for
their claims that fossil gold chains had been found in Australian
coal seams, when in fact the creationists made no such claim; (4)
Barry Price's book, _The Creation Science Controversy_, contains
numerous errors and _ad hominems_; (5) Both Plimer and Price have
made unsupported (and false) claims about alleged financial fraud
involving the Australian Creation Science Foundation, which led to
an apology for Plimer's remarks by the magazine _Media Information
Australia_; (6) One error in Price's book has led to a defamation
suit by former CSF director Robert Stephen Gustafson, and Price's
book has been withdrawn by the publisher; (7) Plimer falsely
claimed on an Australian national radio broadcast in 1989 that the
CSF had not submitted financial reports for 1986, 1987, or 1988, a
claim which led to an apology by the Australian Broadcasting
Company; Price claimed in his book that the 1986 and 1987 reports
"do not seem to be available"; (8) Price and Plimer have both
quoted from an article in a Christian school magazine on
"Reviewing and Correcting Encyclopedias" about how to remove
sections on evolution, followed by reporting that book vandalism
discovered at the University of Newcastle--implying that the
vandalism was performed by creationists inspired by the article;
(9) Plimer wrote a letter to a creationist following the debate
with Gish in which he offered unsupported sexual innuendo about
Gish.
In April 1992, an unsigned sixteen-page article titled
"Response to Lippard" was faxed to John Cole, editor of
_Creation/Evolution_. This was later revised and edited down into
Barry Price's "A Response to James Lippard" published in the
Winter 1992 _Creation/Evolution_. At the end of the published
article, it is stated that "A comprehensive, referenced version of
this paper which refutes every charge made by Lippard was
submitted to Cole. The full length paper is obtainable from
Professor Ian Plimer, Head of the School of Earth Science,
University of Melbourne, Vic. 3052, Australia." (Plimer's
involvement in the production of this response is indicated by
_Creation/Evolution_, issue 31, p. 58, which says that Plimer
"assisted with Price's reply article.") What follows is a
response to the full-length, unpublished paper of April 1992.
Some Further Background
"How Not to Argue with Creationists" is not the first article I
wrote about poor quality criticisms of creationists in Australia.
In the January 1990 issue of _The Arizona Skeptic_ appeared an
article I wrote titled "Some Failures of Organized Skepticism."
In that article, I took the Australian Skeptics to task for their
publication of an article summarizing the 1988 Ian Plimer/Duane
Gish debate. The Australian Skeptics' summary misquoted Gish
several times, completely reversing the meaning of his statements
on more than one occasion. This led to an erroneous story in the
_Creation/Evolution Newsletter_ about Michael Denton recanting his
views on evolution (for more details see footnote 4 of "How Not to
Argue with Creationists"). [Note added January 26, 1994: This
error was corrected by Rob Day in the _Creation/Evolution
Newsletter_, vol. 8, no. 5, September-October 1988, pp. 2-3.] I
obtained a copy of Ian Plimer's videotape of the debate and
observed the discrepancies, publishing the results in "Some
Failures of Organized Skepticism" and in a letter in the Summer
1991 issue of _NCSE Reports_. _The Arizona Skeptic_ article led
to a one-page news article in the Australian creationist magazine
_Creation Ex Nihilo_ titled "U.S. Skeptic says Aussie Skeptics
misrepresented Gish" (July 1990) which the creationists used
against the Australian Skeptics. I wrote a letter to the
Australian Skeptics' magazine, _The Skeptic_, pointing out that my
criticism was of a single article in what I considered to be a
high-quality publication, but this letter was never printed and
_The Skeptic_ never retracted the false statements from its debate
summary. Instead, Australian Skeptics president Barry Williams
falsely claimed (in the pages of _The Skeptic_, Spring 1990) that
corrections had already been published, while the president of the
Victorian Branch of the Australian Skeptics, Mark Plummer, asked
me a series of irrelevant questions about my article as part of an
"investigation" of its allegations. (A chronology of these
events, with references, is "Postscript to 'Some Failures of
Organized Skepticism'" in the November/December 1991 issue of _The
Arizona Skeptic_.)
On September 28, 1990, I wrote to _Creation Ex Nihilo_ about
a completely unrelated issue--a quotation of Phoenix-based
creationist Walter Brown (whom I had been debating in the pages of
_Creation/Evolution_) supporting the speed-of-light-decay theory
of Australian Barry Setterfield. Brown had disclaimed the quote
in his debate with me, but refused to ask _Creation Ex Nihilo_ to
print a retraction. So I did it for him. Robert Doolan, the
editor of _Creation Ex Nihilo_, rejected my letter (he later
accepted and published an edited version in vol. 13, no. 2, March-
May 1991) and sent me a copy of the second (October 1990) edition
of a booklet titled _A Response to Deception_, published by the
Creation Science Foundation. This booklet was an attack on Barry
Price's book, _The Creation Science Controversy_, which had been
published earlier in the year. The booklet contained the
criticisms I later made in "How Not to Argue with Creationists,"
and many others. My response was to send letters to Ian Plimer
and Barry Price asking them about the charges in this booklet, as
well as to ask the Creation Science Foundation for documentation
to support their claims. The CSF came through with evidence,
while Plimer and Price did not--despite repeated requests. This
led to a draft of "How Not to Argue with Creationists" which I
sent on March 20, 1991 to Plimer and Price for their comments.
Neither of them rebutted any of the above nine major criticisms.
On August 20, 1991, I submitted my article to _Creation/Evolution_
and after some revision (including the deletion of several
sections) it was accepted for publication in November 1991.
Some General Remarks on Price's Reply
Although it is billed as containing refutations of every charge I
make, this is untrue. Several of my criticisms (1, 2, parts of 7,
and 9) are not really addressed at all, and I believe that every
single one of them still stands unrefuted. The only ones which
Price challenges with any seriousness are 5 and 6. Price's
article is filled with unsubstantiated charges, errors, and _ad
hominems_. At one point (footnote 5 on page 16), Price accuses me
of having collaborated in the writing of the first edition
(September 1990) of _A Response to Deception_. Since I had no
contact with the CSF until my September 28, 1990 letter about
Walter Brown reached them and never heard of _A Response to
Deception_ until a copy of the second (October 1990) edition
reached me in late October 1990, this charge is absurd. (I have
still never seen the first edition of _A Response to Deception_.)
I will discuss the errors in Price's reasoning to this conclusion
below.
Price uses a large portion of his article criticizing me for
things I did not address in my article. I agree with Price that
there are things to criticize in the CSF's _A Response to
Deception_, but that was simply not the focus of my article.
(While Price claims on the first page of his reply that I "chose
to ignore the dozens of lies, distortions, misquotes and
defamation in _Response to Deception_," he doesn't point out that
I asked him on more than one occasion for specific examples and he
did not reply.) My basic point was that opponents of creationism
should not use the same tactics that creationists often use; they
should be careful, honest, and accurate. I also agree that there
are things of value in Price's book, such as his description of
the events at the Emma C. Smith school in Livermore, California,
where creationist materials were used in a public school
classroom. (I cited Price's book as a good summary of these
events in footnote 7 of "How Not to Argue with Creationists.")
My position on the creation/evolution controversy is
misrepresented by Price when he writes on the first page of his
article that "Lippard told me that he believed in neither
evolution nor creationism, but leaned towards one. Occupying the
infinitetesmally [sic] small point between two contradictions?" I
never told Price any such thing--I do believe in evolution and
disbelieve in creationism. What I did tell him was that my
disbelief in creationism could not be translated into _certainty_
of belief in contemporary theories of evolution (i.e., regarding
the mechanisms of evolution, over which debate continues in the
scientific community). I also stated that I supported truth and
accuracy over simply giving unquestioning support to someone on
the same "side" (evolution) as me.
I wrote my article in good faith, attempting to be fair and
objective. I queried the principals involved and attempted to get
complete information from them. Unfortunately, my attempts were
largely unsuccessful. Plimer gave fairly straightforward answers
to my questions, but they did not rebut the charges made against
him. He seemed more concerned to convince me that the
creation/evolution debate is entirely political. Price, on the
other hand, did not answer direct questions but instead went off
on tangents--criticizing my youthful idealism, telling me to read
the first chapter of Nietzsche's _Beyond Good and Evil_ (saying
that if I did so I would be "thanking [him] for the rest of [my]
life"--which was not the result), asking me whether I have a "God
image," and so forth. (Price's reply characterizes our exchange
of letters as "what seemed an interminable correspondence." It
might have been shorter had he simply answered my questions. I
sent him six letters between December 31, 1990 and May 28, 1991;
he sent me five letters in the same period and two more in
February 1992 (one being an empty envelope) after my article was
published. In Price's last letter, he stated that my article
contained "more than sufficient falsehood ... to justify a
defamation suit," but he never replied to my March 23, 1992 letter
asking for specifics and offering to publicly correct my
mistakes.)
Price's reply, on the other hand, was written without any
input from me. I did not see a copy of his reply until it was
published in _Creation/Evolution_. I wrote to Ian Plimer on
February 10, 1993 to ask for a copy of the most up-to-date version
of the longer, unpublished Price reply, but have yet to receive a
copy from him. (On March 5, 1993, I received electronic mail from
Plimer, signed by "Professor Plimer's Office," stating that he "is
unavailable until mid April, and he will reply then." I sent
electronic mail to Plimer on April 12, 1993, reminding him of my
request for the long Price reply, but have received no response to
date.) I obtained my copy of the April 1992 full-length version
of Price's reply from John Cole.
Charge (1): Plimer behaved poorly in a debate with Duane Gish in
1988.
Pages 3-6 of Price's reply discuss the Plimer/Gish debate by
quoting from newspaper accounts which praise Plimer for his "20
blistering minutes" in which he "mocked, ridiculed, and challenged
every tenet the movement holds dear, and made a string of blunt
personal allegations about some of its more prominent members."
He criticizes Gish as a propagandist for pseudoscience, a
criticism I agree with. He maintains that Plimer's debate was a
political, not scientific, action, and that it was successful
because the Institute for Creation Research has not debated in
Australia since.
Price does not take issue with my description of Plimer's
behavior; instead, he argues that the end justifies the means. I
have three complaints with this response. First, I am frankly
skeptical that the long-term effects of Plimer's tactics will be
quite so rosy. Robert Doolan of the CSF (personal communication,
May 12, 1993) informs me that the circulation of their
publications is significantly higher than it was at the time of
the Gish/Plimer debate. Second, I am skeptical that even the
short-term results are as Price says. Price claims (p. 3) that
"Before the debate there was a procession from the U.S. of ICR
debaters to Australia. Since, there has been none." While it is
true that no one from the ICR has debated in Australia since Gish,
the only one to do so prior to this was Gary Parker. Carl Wieland
of the CSF did debate at the tenth annual convention of the
Australian Skeptics, at which he brought up misrepresentations by
skeptics. No ICR visits or scheduled debates have been cancelled
or postponed. Third, I question the view that the most desirable
end for skeptics and critics of creationism is the eradication of
opposing views rather than the promotion of critical thinking and
reasoning.
I should also point out a misrepresentation by Price on page
3 of his reply, where he states that "the moderator [of the
Gish/Plimer debate], a Christian barrister, chosen by the
creationists, agreed with me that Gish was shown up as a fraud."
The moderator of this debate was Rod Skiller, who stated in a
letter to Warwick Armstrong dated April 30, 1993 that
I would like to confirm in writing that, at no time did I
refer to Dr. Gish as a fraud, fraudulent, or by any similar
description, during the debate which I adjudicated some 4
years ago at NSW University. I do recall saying words to the
effect of 'I consider neither side has persuaded me more than
the other to accept its position.'
As I pointed out in my original article (footnote 2, page 18), the
Australian Skeptics' report on the debate states that "The
adjudicator summed up by saying that, rather than a debate, the
evening was more like a presentation by Dr. Gish and a series of
derogatory replies by Dr. Plimer. He would award poor marks to
both speakers, neither of whom had properly expounded his point of
view as a science."
Charge (2): Plimer misrepresented the views of Michael Denton,
author of _Evolution: A Theory in Crisis_, in that debate, falsely
claiming that Denton had "admitted he was wrong" (apparently with
respect to his entire book) and that "he was unaware of the fossil
record when he wrote it."
All Price has to say about this is on pages 3 and 5: "Of the 600
words in this section [about the debate] Lippard chooses to write
about 500 words on his own opinions as to whether or not, or how
much, Michael Denton has changed his views on evolution. ...
Again, Lippard is selective. His account comprises creationist
quotes plus a sounding board for his own revelations about
Denton."
Price is mistaken to state that my remarks about Denton are
my own opinions--I asked Denton what his own views are. I quoted
his answers in my article. The fact is that Plimer misrepresented
Denton's views, according to Denton himself. (I should point out
that I do not agree with Denton; I simply think he should be
allowed to speak for himself about what he believes.)
Charge (3): Plimer issued a challenge to creationists in 1986 and
1987 (which Price quoted in his book) to produce evidence for
their claims that fossil gold chains had been found in Australian
coal seams, when in fact the creationists made no such claim.
Plimer claimed that Creation Science Foundation geologist Andrew
Snelling had claimed to find fossil gold chains in Australian coal
seams, first in the _Australian Geologist_ and then in a newspaper
challenge. Snelling and others denied making any such claim, and
asked Plimer to produce evidence. When I asked Plimer about this,
he told me that the article in question was in the _Ex Nihilo
Technical Journal_, and that Snelling was the editor, not the
author. This led to my statement in "How Not to Argue with
Creationists" that there is no such article in the five volumes of
that journal published between 1984 and 1991.
Price's response, on page 2 of his reply, in its entirety, is
as follows:
_Fossil Gold Chains_, _Ex Nihilo_ _C/E 10_
Lippard claims to have searched five years of the Creation
Science Foundation's _Ex Nihilo Technical Journal_, implying
Plimer was lying about Snelling editing an article where gold
chains were found in coal seams. Lippard was searching in
the wrong place.
In the 1988 Creation Science Foundation Quarterly
_Creation ex Nihilo_ page 4 Vol 10 No 4 (Sept.Dec.) there is
an article detailing the finding of a gold chain, an iron
pot, a steel drill kit, coins et al in coal seams. Snelling
at the time was technical director, as well as a member of
the editorial board and presumably refereed the paper.
Nor does Lippard bother to state that _Creation Science
Controversy_, addendum 1, accompanied the errata sheet. It
clearly states that Snelling "vigorously denied" Plimer's
claim that he (Snelling) had found "gold chains and anchors
in seams". The reference is given.
Through Lippard's paper there are similar deletions.
Price is right that this article exists, but the article was
published _after_ Plimer's public challenges. I wrote the
following in my last (March 23, 1992) letter to Barry Price:
You may have seen some of my recent correspondence with
Thomas Jukes. If so, you will note that while rereading some
of our correspondence, I noticed that I had overlooked the
fact that your letter of April 29, 1991 gave a reference for
the "fossil gold chains in coal seams" claim. You gave the
reference as "_Creation Ex Nihilo_ 10, 4, p. 1 (1988) ...
Andrew Snelling was on the editorial board and technical
director of the journal at the time." I regret not having
obtained the article you cite (which is actually on p. 41)
before publishing my article, but it does not affect the
truth of anything I wrote. The article in question is by Ron
Calais, and its only reference to a gold chain (singular) is
the same 1891 gold chain from Morrisonville, Illinois which I
referred to in footnote six of "How Not to Argue with
Creationists." This reference does clearly show that the CSF
has endorsed the claim that fossil gold chains have been
found in coal in their literature. What it does not show is
that Ian Plimer's challenge and criticism of Andrew Snelling
was sound. The article in question was published in
September 1988. Up to that time, I am aware of no claims of
fossil gold chains in the CSF literature. But Ian Plimer's
criticism was published in the December 20, 1986 issue of
_The Australian Geologist_, where he wrote (p. 6) that "Other
enlightened _new_ data _by Snelling_ are reports in the CSF
literature of the occurrence of fossil gold chains and iron
anchors _in Australian coal seams_ supporting the CSF concept
that coal seams are young, were destroyed by catastrophic
volcanic explosions and formed instantaneously" (emphases
added). The article you cite cannot be what Plimer was here
referring to, since it is a report of an old claim (from
1891) in an article by Ron Calais (not Snelling) about a gold
chain in U.S. coal (not Australian) and was not published
until nearly two years after Plimer's statement.
I think this article is worth bringing up in regard to
my criticisms, but it does not answer them.
I stand behind these March 23, 1992 remarks, and wonder why
Price's reply does not take them into consideration. (I should
add that Andrew Snelling, on page 29 of "Where Are All the Human
Fossils?" _Creation Ex Nihilo_ vol. 14, no. 1, December 1991-
February 1992, pp. 28-33, questions the Illinois gold chain in
coal claim.)
The third paragraph of Price's response does point out a genuine
mistake on my part, though not one in pages 10-11 of my article
where I discuss Plimer and the fossil gold chains. My mistake is
on page 12, where I wrote:
In the case of Ian Plimer's "fossil gold chains" claim, Price
should have been aware that every time Plimer published the
claim, a rebuttal has been issued in the same publication
(Malcolm, 1987; Snelling, 1988). Yet Price never mentions
these rebuttals and appears to have made no attempt to find
the claim in the creationist literature.
As Price correctly points out in his reply, the addendum on the
errata sheet to his book does refer to the Snelling rebuttal. It
does not, however, give any reference to the source of the "gold
chains" claim.
Charge (4): Barry Price's book, _The Creation Science
Controversy_, contains numerous errors and _ad hominems_.
Pages 10-14 of Price's reply (more than a fourth) are devoted to
answering this charge, as are pages 44-46 of his published article
(three-fourths of it). I consider his effort disproportionate to
the seriousness of the charge. He spends most of his reply to
this charge addressing a single phrase of my article: my
description of his book as "polemical, light on science, and heavy
on _ad hominem_ argument." He agrees that it is polemical
("Unashamedly and deliberately so"), but says that more than half
of the book is about science and quotes from various positive
reviews of his book as evidence that it is not heavy on _ad
hominem_. (One review he doesn't quote is one I quoted in my
article, by his fellow Australian skeptic Martin Bridgstock, who
wrote in the July/August 1990 issue of _Search_ that Price's book
"is clear and punchy, occasionally veering into stridency" and is
"peppered with errors.")
_A Response to Deception_'s third (January 1991) edition
contains 28 pages of criticisms of Price's book. While I agree
with Price that many of these criticisms are weak or minor
(typographical errors, for instance), others are more serious--
such as the ones I brought up in "How Not to Argue with
Creationists" and am discussing in this very response to Price.
I should point out that I take the side of Price and Alex
Ritchie (the latter of whom discusses this issue in the March 1991
issue of _The Australian Biologist_) with regard to Duane Gish's
alleged quotation from Marcellin Boule's 1937 _L'Anthropologie_
article on p. 129 of _Evolution: The Fossils Say No!_ Gish cited
Boule, but quoted the translation of Boule from pp. 119-120 of
Patrick O'Connell's _Science of Today and the Problems of
Genesis_, a book which Gish cites elsewhere in his book.
Unfortunately for Gish, O'Connell's translation is somewhat
inaccurate, implying that Boule thought Peking Man to be "monkey-
like." (An accurate translation of Boule is found in Boule and
Henri Vallois's 1957 book, _Fossil Men_, which Gish also quotes in
his book but ignored in this particular instance.) The CSF
maintains in _A Response to Deception_ that the O'Connell
translation is accurate, though in private correspondence, Robert
Doolan stated that perhaps it was slightly misleading. _A
Response to Deception_ points out that Price has performed exactly
the same sort of second-hand quotation (while citing the primary
source) that Gish did--Price's quotation from Gish's book repeats
the same typographical errors found in Frank Zindler's March 1986
_American Atheist_ article which first pointed out the
mistranslation in Gish's _Evolution: The Fossils Say No!_
(Zindler did not discover that O'Connell was the source of Gish's
translation; that was discovered by the CSF and then publicized by
Price and Ritchie.) [Note added July 5, 1993: Zindler did, in
fact, discover this, and noted it in the transcript of his January
11, 1990 debate with Gish (p. 24). Gish said in that debate that
"I deleted [the Boule quotation in _Evolution: The Fossils Say
No!_ when it was revised as _Evolution: The Challenge of the
Fossil Record_] because I quoted a secondary source." (The
Zindler/Gish transcript is available from the National Center for
Science Education.)]
Charge (5): Both Plimer and Price have made unsupported (and
apparently false) claims about alleged financial fraud involving
the Australian Creation Science Foundation, which led to an
apology for Plimer's remarks by the magazine _Media Information
Australia_.
Price addresses this charge on pages 6-8 of his reply. He begins
by writing:
Bridgstock, whom Lippard quotes but apparently has not read
beyond the first paragraph, gives the Creation Science
Foundation marked down losses as $92538 of which $83370.24 is
a loss in Goldmark. The Foundation has refused to name their
"investment agents" or where the discrepant $9K was invested.
Price made a similar statement to me in his letter of February 13,
1992 and in a letter to Thomas Jukes of February 21, 1991 which he
asked Jukes to forward to me. In his letter to Jukes, he writes
to request that I demand from the CSF "details of the $9K
difference between CSF $92K total losses and the $83K in
Goldstock." (This was the first I heard from Price that he
thought there was a discrepancy, despite my having repeatedly
asked him what financial impropriety he was alleging.)
Price has his facts wrong. First, he has managed to get the
name of the company wrong twice. "Goldmark" is apparently a chain
of discount jewelry stores in Australia. I don't know where
"Goldstock" comes from. The name of the company in which the CSF
invested its funds was Goldcom. Goldcom in turn invested money in
International Commodity Traders Association (ICTA), which was
responsible for the loss, which wiped out Goldcom. The CSF had
also invested a smaller amount of money directly in ICTA. Second,
Price's numbers are wrong. The CSF lost a total of $92,360.14,
all of which was lost due to ICTA's embezzlement. Of this amount,
$85,370.24 ($74,000 capital and $11,370.24 in interest) was
invested through Goldcom and $6,989.90 ($5,000 capital and
$1,989.90 in interest) directly in ICTA. (In my original article,
I report the loss as $92,363 (p. 13, quoting Bridgstock) and
$92,358 (p. 13, quoting Plimer). The source of these
discrepancies has not been tracked down, but it is at most a $5
discrepancy, not the $9,000 discrepancy Price is claiming.)
Price's $9,000 appears to be the approximately $7,000 lost from
direct investment in ICTA combined with a $2,000 error regarding
the amount lost through Goldcom.
Price claims I have not read Martin Bridgstock's article on
this loss; that is incorrect. Bridgstock says that there were two
companies involved in the loss but names only ICTA. The other
company he was referring to was Goldcom. Price's remarks suggest
that he thinks there is yet another company responsible for $9,000
of the loss, but there is nothing in Bridgstock's article to
suggest this.
Price also writes regarding the loss that "By 1986 it was
known that no one would receive one cent back on their
investments." In fact, the CSF received about twenty percent of
the amount it lost which was invested directly in ICTA, and is
expected to receive a smaller percentage of what was invested
through Goldcom.
Price states that he "will walk from Sydney to Darwin on
[his] hands and knees" (p. 9) if I can obtain two pieces of
information from the CSF: (i) the identity of the "investment
agents" mentioned in the CSF's 1984 return and (ii) an explanation
for the "discrepant $9K." I have received both pieces of
information from Robert Doolan. The 1984 return's reference to
"failure of the company's investment agents" refers to Goldcom,
which failed as a result of its investment in ICTA. There is no
"discrepant $9K," as I have already explained. I hope that Mr.
Price enjoys his walk.
Price claims that my description of payment to CSF director John
Andrew Thallon through his investment company, Tralil Pty. Ltd.,
is incorrect. According to Price, the losses were known on
September 1, 1984, and thus my statement in my original article
(p. 13) that the contract with Thallon was made before, not after
the losses, is incorrect. Price is right on this count--in fact,
the losses were first known on July 11, 1984. The loss was, in
fact, part of the reason for the contract with Thallon. In
January 1984, Thallon had resigned from a paying job in order to
devote more time to the CSF as a full-time volunteer. When the
losses took place, he personally lost more money than the CSF did
(Price gives the amount lost by Tralil, Thallon's investment
company, as $97,000 on p. 6 of his reply). Thallon could thus no
longer afford to work for the CSF on a volunteer basis, and he was
contracted to provide his services on an hourly basis, to be paid
weekly. According to the CSF, Thallon frequently worked more than
40 hours a week for the CSF, yet never charged for more than 40
hours per week. Price appears to assume that the $8,118.75 paid
to Thallon was made in one lump sum; this is not the case
according to the CSF.
Price claims that "Thallon was required by law and also by
the Foundation's _Articles of Association_ to declare his interest
in Tralil two years earlier." Price gives no evidence for this
claim. According to the CSF, Thallon was only legally required to
declare his interest in Tralil upon entering into a contract with
the CSF, and this was done. Before this time, Thallon did not
receive any payment from the CSF, despite his having done much
work for them.
Price states, in response to my claim that the CSF funds which
were lost were interest-free loans, that "This would be
embezzlement." That would only be the case if the loans were not
repaid, which they were. Some percentage of the funds the CSF had
invested was money which had been loaned free of interest to the
CSF for the purpose of investment. The CSF sent out a letter to
supporters after the loss; those supporters donated money which
was used to repay all of these loans. These donations are the
"accumulated surpluses" referred to in the CSF returns.
Price's second footnote (p. 15) is rather confused when it
says that "Prior disclosure means that the annual returns of a
company are accessible to the public." This is incorrect. "Prior
disclosure" refers to the requirement that a company provide
information about its financial situation to investors. The CSF's
Section 23(e) tax exemption does not exempt it from prior
disclosure. Those who inquire about making interest-free loans to
the CSF are sent a prior disclosure document as required by
Corporate Affairs. The difference between non-profit, tax-exempt
companies and others is the amount of detail required in such a
document. As for the CSF's financial returns, they have always
been public.
Price distinguishes investigations by the Australian Tax Office,
the Australian Securities Commission, and the Fraud Squad, stating
that the former only checks whether or not the tax exemption
privilege is being abused, while the latter two investigate for
financial improprieties. He takes issue with my pointing out that
the CSF has received a clean bill of health from the Australian
Tax Office, stating that "A clean bill of health by one does not
prove a clean bill of health by the other. To imply that it does
is disinformation." Price suggests that the CSF would not receive
a clean bill of health from the Australian Securities Commission
or the Fraud Squad. He writes that "The above is as much as I am
prepared to say on the Creation Science Foundation's finances but
there is more to come, possibly by the time this paper is
published." Price is no doubt referring to an investigation by
the Queensland Police Service Fraud and Corporate Crime Squad,
which investigated the CSF and its financial loss as a result of a
complaint from Mark Plummer, president of the Victorian Branch of
the Australian Skeptics. The "more to come" has arrived. The
following quotation from a November 10, 1992 letter from Detective
Superintendent C.J. Crawford to Carl Wieland reveals the result of
that investigation:
Inquiries made into the conduct of the Creation Science
Foundation Limited concerning these investments and other
matters raised by a Mr Barry PRICE of Sydney, have failed to
substantiate any evidence that an offence has been committed
with respect to the statute law of Queensland.
This matter, as concerns the Queensland Police Service
has been finalised.
The Australian Securities Commission has apparently not
investigated the CSF, despite being urged to do so. This is
because they will not investigate without a prima facie reason for
doing so, and they have not been given such a reason. Given the
results of the Queensland Fraud Squad's investigation, this is not
likely to change.
Regarding the resignations of CSF directors, Price admits he was
mistaken to claim that Ken Ham resigned from his position as a CSF
director. He suggests that other resignations are related to the
financial loss, but declines to say so explicitly. This is
because, with the exception of Thallon's resignation, which
Thallon offered on June 19, 1986 because of his own feelings of
responsibility for having suggested the investment which led to
the loss, there are other reasons for the resignations, some of
which I gave in my article. Thallon's resignation was accepted
"with regret" on July 16, 1986.
Price wrongly lists David Bardsley as a CSF director who was
"replaced." Bardsley was company secretary for a short time, but
was never a director nor member of the CSF Board.
Charge (6): One error in Price's book has led to a defamation
suit by former CSF director Robert Stephen Gustafson, and Price's
book has been withdrawn by the publisher.
Price admits that this was an error in his book, describing a
payment which was made to John Thallon as being a payment to
Gustafson, but maintains that it was a trivial error--the
substitution of Gustafson's name for Thallon's. There is little
question that such a substitution error occurred. What Price
wrote on page 191 of his book was that "the name of one of their
directors, Robert Stephen Gustafson, who was also secretary,
disappeared without explanation from company records after a
payment of $8719 was made by the board of directors to a company
in which he had an interest." Gustafson was not secretary of the
CSF; Thallon was. The next sentence of Price's book, however,
says "He still serves as attorney to the company." This
accurately describes Gustafson rather than Thallon, and was
probably added after the substitution mistake. But there is more
wrong here than the substitution. If Thallon's name is replaced
in the first sentence and the second sentence is deleted, the
resulting claim seems to be that a lump-sum payment of $8719 was
made to Thallon's company, and then his name disappeared from
company records "without explanation." Neither is the case, as I
have already pointed out regarding charge (5), above. (Price also
appears to have been suggesting in his reply that this payment to
Thallon was somehow related to the nonexistent "$9K discrepancy,"
but, as Price himself admits as a possibility in his first
footnote on p. 15 of his reply, he has gotten the amount of the
payment to Thallon wrong. As I pointed out in both my original
article and above, Thallon was paid $8,118.75, not $8,719.)
Price writes of the change of CSF auditors in March 1985,
questioning the CSF claim that they had "an offer from a Christian
firm to do the audit for a far cheaper price" by pointing out that
while KPMG Peat Marwick (then Peat Marwick Mitchell) had charged
$1,200 for the 1984 returns, the new auditor, C.L. Lunt, charged
$3,000. What Price doesn't realize is that KPMG Peat Marwick had
reviewed the CSF account and determined that they would need to
charge more for their services. (This is according to a letter I
received from D.L. Russell, Partner in KPMG Peat Marwick, April 2,
1992.)
Charge (7): Plimer falsely claimed on an Australian national
radio broadcast in 1989 that the CSF had not submitted financial
reports for 1986, 1987, or 1988, a claim which led to an apology
by the Australian Broadcasting Company; Price claimed in his book
that the 1986 and 1987 reports "do not seem to be available."
Price writes on page 9 of his reply that:
I have in front of me as I write an A.S.C. receipt for $10
dated 22 May 1991, reference no. 47231/1. It is for Creation
Science Foundation returns 1980-1990 on microfiche. 1987 is
missing. I applied again pointing out on this second
application form that 1987 was missing. A recent
conversation with the Australian Securities Commission
informed me that this was not an uncommon occurrence and that
there is difficulty even now in obtaining documents prior to
the changeover from Corporate Affairs, which are stored in
another building.
I have the second receipt, reference 571518/1, dated 26
June 1991, for another set of microfiche. 1987 is still
missing. Response to Deception 20, n88 calls this
"unscrupulous, contemptible, false and defamatory," rather a
mouthful. Lippard tones it down to "false statement." In
the circumstances, both Lippard and the Creation Science
Foundation leave themselves open to defamation charges.
Plimer stated that no returns were submitted for the years 1986,
1987, and 1988, when in fact returns were submitted for each of
those years, as I documented in "How Not to Argue with
Creationists." Price said that the returns for 1986 and 1987 "do
not seem to be available," but he implies above that he has
microfiche with all of the returns from 1980-1990 except for 1987.
If he has the 1986 returns, then his statement that neither the
1986 or 1987 returns seem to be available is a false statement.
The fact that the Australian Securities Commission says that "this
was not an uncommon occurrence" (i.e., that they can't find the
returns) is a fact which Price does not mention in his book,
despite its obvious relevance. The very next sentence of his book
indicates that Price thinks the reports were not filed (a claim
Plimer made explicitly): "Presumably extensions have been granted
by the Corporate Affairs Commission because of extenuating
circumstances." That implication is incorrect, for both the 1986
and 1987 returns, and it is that implication which was criticized
by both myself and the CSF.
Charge (8): Price and Plimer have both quoted from an article in
a Christian school magazine on "Reviewing and Correcting
Encyclopedias" about how to remove sections on evolution, followed
by reporting that book vandalism discovered at the University of
Newcastle--implying that the vandalism was performed by
creationists inspired by the article.
Price's response to this is relegated to a footnote, number 5 on
page 16, where he writes:
Lippard states "Price and Plimer both imply (sic) that the
University of Newcastle vandalism (removing references to
evolution in the palaeontology sections of the library) was
performed by creationists, inspired by the Martin article."
Even by Lippard's standards this is utter nonsense.
_The Creation Science Controversy_ 166 states
_After_ receiving a copy of this quote, the librarian at
the University of Newcastle checked through some
books... (emphasis mine)
While Lippard has admitted to me he gave assistance to the
Creation Science Foundation by obtaining for them the M.E.
Marty quote, a comparison of what he has written in C/E with
page 17, n185-186, Sept. 90 edition of _Response to
Deception_ indicates conclusively he assisted in the writing
of it. This was four to five months before he contacted me.
Of the three versions _Creation Science Controversy_ is
the only one not to make the "distinction" that vandalising
should be confined to librarians at Christian schools. As a
final note, the Martin article seems a bit too pat. One
wonders whether the article, published on April 9, was
actually scheduled for April 1st?
I do not understand why Price emphasizes the word "After" in the
quotation from his book, and his placing "sic" after the word
"imply" when he quotes my article suggests that he doesn't
understand the difference between "imply" and "infer." I also
fail to understand why he calls my statement "utter nonsense."
Both Price and Plimer quote an article by Ray E. Martin from
_Christian School Builder_ magazine about excising references to
evolution from textbooks and encyclopedias in Christian schools.
Both of them quote this source second-hand, citing an article by
Martin E. Marty in the _Christian Century_. Both of them follow
this quotation with a report on the vandalism at the University of
Newcastle; the clear implication is that the Martin article
inspired the vandalism, and that it was done by creationists. But
from reading the entire Marty article, it is clear that what is
advocated is not vandalizing books on evolution in places like
public school libraries, but only censoring textbooks owned by
private Christian schools (still bad, as I pointed out in "How Not
to Argue with Creationists"). Neither Price nor Plimer make this
clear in what they quote.
Price fails to address what I find very curious about the
University of Newcastle vandalism: that it only came to light
after Plimer provided a copy of the quote from the Ray Martin
article to the university librarian, and that similar vandalism
has apparently not been found anywhere else. Instead, he accuses
me of collusion with the CSF in the authorship of _A Response to
Deception_ from the very beginning (the first, September 1990
edition), and thinks he has "conclusive" evidence of this
falsehood.
Price is very confused. As I pointed out above, my first
contact with the Creation Science Foundation was after both the
first and second editions of _A Response to Deception_ had been
published, and I have never seen the first edition. It is true
that I provided the CSF with a copy of the Martin E. Marty
article, which they did not possess until I sent it to them. How,
then, is it the case that all editions of _A Response to
Deception_ (and my article) recognize the distinction between
vandalism and a Christian school censoring its own books? It just
isn't so. The second edition (October 1990) does not recognize
this distinction, but relies entirely upon what Price and Plimer
have written. It says that "Apparently, Mr Martin advocates
slashing pages out of books dealing with evolution, with a razor
blade." It is only the third edition (January 1991) that makes
the distinction: "Apparently he has written in a Christian school
magazine in USA that Christian schools cut or paste pages dealing
with evolution in encyclopaedias _in their own school libraries_"
(emphasis in original).
The third edition makes the distinction because by this time
the Marty article was in the CSF's possession. Robert Doolan of
the CSF asked me for a copy of the article on December 7, 1990; I
obtained and sent a copy on December 13, 1990, and mentioned that
I had done so in my December 31, 1990 letters to Price and Plimer.
The only words in any edition of _A Response to Deception_
authored by me are quotations from my "Some Failures of Organized
Skepticism" article. My role in the writing, editing, and
publishing of the CSF booklet is considerably smaller than that of
either Price or Plimer, whose words and actions instigated its
production.
Charge (9): Plimer wrote a letter to a creationist following the
debate with Gish in which he offered unsupported sexual innuendo
about Gish.
Price writes on page 2 of his reply:
Under Australian law the publisher of a defamatory letter is
guilty of defamation, not the writer. Otherwise half the
world's population would be guilty of defamation at one time
or another. Plimer has a clear cut case against the Creation
Science Foundation which he could proceed with at any time if
he thought it worthwhile. The only thing lower than Creation
Science Foundation's publishing the letter is Lippard's
repeating it. If people do start to wonder about Gish's
sexual preferences it will be the fault of the Creation
Science Foundation and Lippard, not Plimer. Lippard's
actions are a very serious ethical lapse. An attempt to
smear Plimer, no more and no less.
I find this response mind-boggling. Price actually maintains that
quoting Plimer's own words is "an attempt to smear Plimer" and
that _Plimer_ has grounds for defamation. In fact, Australian law
is not as absurd as Price seems to be suggesting here. Writers
may be liable for defamation as well as publishers, as is
illustrated by the fact that Price, as well as his publisher, have
been sued for defamation by Gustafson. In the case of a letter,
the writer is in effect also the publisher. According to Geoffrey
Sawer's _A Guide to Australian Law for Journalists, Authors,
Printers and Publishers_ (third edition, section 67, paragraph
iv), the following are the grounds for criminal prosecution in a
defamation action:
In Victoria and South Australia, publication to person
defamed is sufficient; elsewhere (as with civil defamation in
all States and Territories) publication must be to some
person other than the one defamed.
Since Plimer and the recipient of the letter in question were both
located in New South Wales, there would be a case only if the
letter were sent to someone other than the person defamed. Since
the letter's recipient was not Duane Gish, the conditions
described in the above quotation were met, and Plimer would be
liable for any defamatory statements about Gish. The CSF and
_Creation/Evolution_ did also publish the quotation in question,
but did so in such a way as to preclude the plausibility (if not
possibility) of any action by Gish against them.
Since Plimer's name is not even mentioned in the quoted
passage from his letter, it is extremely difficult to see how he
can claim to have been defamed by its publication.
Conclusions
In short, I stand behind everything I wrote in "How Not to Argue
with Creationists" with the exception of the minor errors which I
have corrected in this article. Price's reply is weak,
misleading, and filled with errors, which serves only to confirm
the importance of my advice about "proper skepticism" in the
conclusion of my original article. If this is all that Price and
Plimer have to say in their defense, then it is in the interest of
everyone who comes in contact with them to scrutinize carefully
any claims they make about creationism and creationists.
I welcome inquiries and comments on this subject.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for the comments and suggestions of Robert Doolan
and of Mike Norton regarding an earlier draft of this article.
Jim Lippard
Department of Philosophy
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Internet: lippard@ccit.arizona.edu
BITNET: lippard@arizvms.bitnet
GEnie: JIM.LIPPARD
May 17, 1993
Appendix: A Reply to Stanley Weinberg
In the same issue of _Creation/Evolution_ which printed the short
version of Barry Price's response to "How Not to Argue with
Creationists" appeared the following letter from Stanley L.
Weinberg (p. 58):
In C/E 29 (Winter 1991-'92) Jim Lippard refers to a
disagreement in Australia between Ian Plimer and Duane Gish
over Michael Denton's book, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis.
Lippard criticizes Plimer's "remarks" and tentatively
attributes them to me: "A possible source of Plimer's
remarks (or perhaps they share a common source) is Stan
Weinberg's (1985[sic]:22) report in the Creation/Evolution
Newsletter" (Weinberg, 1986, "Creation-Evolution Literature
from Australia," Creation/Evolution Newsletter 6(6):20-22).
Lippard's attribution is without foundation. I had no
communication with Plimer while he was having discussions
with Gish and Denton or while I was writing my article. My
information came from Michael Archer, who knew Denton quite
well.
I have recently talked with Plimer [Summer 1992]. He
also bases his evaluations on Denton's book and on face-to-
face interviews with [Denton]. Plimer tells me that he never
said Denton "knows nothing" of fossils or mammal-like
reptiles. Plimer did sense--and say--that Denton's knowledge
in these areas seems to be recently-acquired and very weak.
Plimer also reaffirmed, quite emphatically, Denton's
statement that he knew very little about these areas when he
began his writing, and he would have written his book quite
differently had he been better informed.
As you already know, Plimer feels the Lippard article is
a shoddy job, poorly written and edited, and weak in
research. I concur; Creation/Evolution deserves better.
I sent the following letter to Weinberg via _Creation/Evolution_
editor John Cole on February 9, 1993:
Dear Stan:
I received my copy of _Creation/Evolution_ number 31 today,
and read your letter on page 58. In your letter, you
"concur" with Ian Plimer that my article, "How Not to Argue
with Creationists," is "a shoddy job, poorly written and
edited, and weak in research." You are certainly entitled to
your opinion, but I would be interested in hearing from you
why you think that this quotation accurately describes my
work. In particular, I would like you to tell me where my
research is weak.
I am especially curious in light of the fact that the
only criticisms you bring against my article are unfounded,
and appear to be based in part on a misreading of my article.
You write that I have attributed remarks by Plimer to you in
my statement that "A possible source of Plimer's remarks (or
perhaps they share a common source) is Stan Weinberg's (1985
[sic]:22) report in the _Creation/Evolution Newsletter_."
You disclaim this by writing "Lippard's attribution is
without foundation. I had no communication with Plimer while
he was having discussions with Gish or Denton or while I was
writing my article. My information came from Michael Archer,
who knew Denton quite well."
I am quite aware that the source of your information was
Michael Archer (whom I refer to as the possible "common
source" above), and in fact I explicitly stated this in the
footnote you have quoted from. Your statement that you had
no communication with Plimer is simply not to the point.
Plimer made a statement in a debate in 1988 which bore a
striking resemblance to statements made in your 1986 article.
All I was saying in my footnote was that Plimer possibly read
your article or had himself spoken with Michael Archer.
Nowhere did I state or imply that you and Plimer had any
personal communication which led to his statement in his
debate with Gish.
You write that "Plimer tells me that he never said
Denton 'knows nothing' of fossils or mammal-like reptiles."
But Plimer did say exactly what I said he did in my article
(I have it on tape): He held up Denton's book and said "What
we were not told was that Michael Denton, at this university
last year, said and admitted he was wrong. That was
published. He also said that he was unaware of the fossil
record when he wrote it." In your article, which I cited and
quoted accurately in my footnote, you wrote that "According
to Archer, Denton acknowledged that before he wrote his book
he had never heard of the mammal-like reptiles. He added
that had he known of them beforehand, he would have written
his book differently. But there are no indications that a
corrected edition is forthcoming." Your statements and
Plimer's are quite similar in that they both claim that
Denton lacked knowledge of (aspects of) the fossil record
when he wrote his book and that he would have written his
book differently had he been better informed. According to
Denton, both you and Plimer have incorrectly described what
it was he lacked knowledge of and how he would have written
his book differently. Plimer was certainly incorrect in his
implication that Denton has retracted his book, as can be
clearly seen by examining the blurb from Denton on the cover
of Phillip Johnson's _Darwin on Trial_. (The fact that
Denton thinks so highly of Johnson, by the way, is evidence
that he really is poorly informed about the evidence for
evolution--at least in my own humble opinion.)
On another subject, I am curious about your letter in
the Spring/Summer 1991 issue of _Origins Research_, which I
commented on in the 1992 issue. Was my interpretation of
your remarks correct, or was _OR_'s? I suspect they were
right and I was wrong, in which case I agree with Mims and
_OR_ that your position is unreasonable.
[This last paragraph refers to a statement by Weinberg
regarding the controversy over _Scientific American_'s
refusal to publish amateur scientist columns by Forrest Mims
because of his creationism. Weinberg wrote that "Should
_Scientific American_ publish an occasional article by an
outside contributor who is clearly identified as a
creationist, the magazine would not be compromised" (_OR_
vol. 14, no. 1, p. 12). Mims and _OR_ interpreted Weinberg's
suggestion to mean that contributions by creationists
published by _Scientific American_ would be "clearly
identified" as such, via some kind of labeling procedure. I
wrote, in Weinberg's defense, that I read his sentence to
mean "clearly identified" as in "well-known"--that is, that
it would be acceptable for _Scientific American_ to publish
contributions from outside contributors who are well known as
creationists, but not to have well-known creationists on the
magazine's regular staff of contributors (_OR_ vol. 14, no.
2, p. 9).]
To date, I have not heard a word from Weinberg.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following has been submitted for publication in _Skeptic_ vol. 2,
no. 4:
Update on the Ark Hoax
Jim Lippard
There have been a number of noteworthy comments on George Jammal's Noah's
Ark hoax since I wrote my article on the subject for the last issue of
_Skeptic_ (Lippard 1994). Of these, two have come from individuals
criticized in my article. (Others are listed below.) First, John Morris
of the Institute for Creation Research published an article in which he
admitted that he had been hoaxed (Morris 1994). Second, David Balsiger
issued a press release in which he claimed to have uncovered evidence
that the hoax was part of a massive humanist conspiracy to discredit
Christianity in general and Sun International Pictures in particular
(Balsiger 1994). Both of these commentaries are highly misleading.
Morris's article, far from being the repentant apology and
retraction which was warranted, makes the following claims:
(1) His initial response to the hoax charges pointed out "certain
inaccuracies" in the _Time_ magazine article, in particular that "LaRue
[sic] could not have made up the story himself, as he claimed." _Time_
did err in reporting that Larue initiated the hoax, but this does not
appear to be something Larue has ever claimed. This is the only error in
the _Time_ article Morris pointed out, so he is mistaken to speak of
"inaccuracies."
(2) "Many have subsequently charged me in print and on the nationally
syndicated TV show 'Inside Edition' with impropriety, claiming that since
I had placed Sun in touch with Jammal, I must take full responsibility."
I have read numerous articles on the Ark hoax and viewed the "Inside
Edition" show, but nowhere have I seen anyone claim that Morris "must
take full responsibility." Instead, I have seen claims that he must bear
some responsibility, and that is certainly true. Nowhere in Morris's
pseudo-retraction does he accept any responsibility.
(3) Jammal's story "differed remarkably from those of all other
eyewitnesses, and I suspected he was mistaken." Morris doesn't say what
he thinks Jammal was mistaken about, and he omits to mention his
statement to Sun International Pictures that "It is my impression that
[Jammal] was on Mt. Ararat. He seems to know Lake Kop and described in
reasonable detail the area nearby." Morris made no public criticisms of
Jammal's story until after the hoax allegations surfaced, and even then
his first reaction was to defend Jammal.
(4) "It is only when Dr. LaRue [sic], a man who certainly knows better,
got involved, that the story escalated to the sensational, for without
the doctored wood, Jammal's story would probably not have been used."
This is mistaken. Jammal had already prepared his wood independently of
advice from Larue. Morris also conveniently forgets that it was Sun
International Pictures that escalated the story to the sensational.
Morris concludes that "If nothing else, this event shows the depth
to which some people will stoop to try to discredit those who believe in
the Bible." In fact, it is Morris and Sun International Pictures who have
discredited themselves by demonstrating excessive carelessness about the
facts. It is amazing to me that Morris bends over backwards to avoid
accepting the slightest responsibility for the success of the hoax, or
even acknowledging that any criticisms of Sun International Pictures
might be deserved.
Former Sun International Pictures researcher David Balsiger's
press release also neglects to take any responsibility for the airing of
the hoax, and makes numerous claims including that:
(1) Jammal's hoax "was part of a fully orchestrated effort in the news
media by atheists and secular humanists with their advocacy organizations
to discredit the entire Noah's Ark TV Special, the CBS-Television Network
for running biblical-themed shows, and my reputation as a TV researcher
and field producer-director of family and biblical-themed shows." As my
article in the last _Skeptic_ showed, the only person involved in the
original hoax was George Jammal. Gerald Larue got involved when Sun
International Pictures became interested in Jammal, and no one else got
involved until after the pseudo-documentary was aired.
(2) "Balsiger has determined that the entire media discrediting campaign
was orchestrated by Dr. Larue and his well-known humanist associate, Dr.
Paul Kurtz, the president, chairman, or editor of several humanist
organizations and publications." Paul Kurtz's only involvement was to aid
in the distribution of a press release revealing the hoax and to publish
several excellent and accurate articles about the hoax.
(3) "Through the influence of Larue, Kurtz, and various overlapping
members of directors and advisory boards, several humanist organizations
and their publications played a role in the discrediting media blitz
against the Noah's Ark TV Show. These included the Los Angeles Skeptics
Society, the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH), the
Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, the Committee for
the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the
American Humanist Association, the National Center for Science Education,
and their various house publications including _Skeptic_, _Free Inquiry_,
_The Skeptical Inquirer_, _The Humanist_, and the _NCSE Report_." Skeptics
Society, which publishes _Skeptic_, had not published an article about
Jammal's hoax at the time of Balsiger's press release. It had, however,
published Sun International Pictures' press release and a summary of John
Morris' defense of Sun's program in the Institute for Creation Research's
_Acts & Facts_ (September 1993). CSER is a subcommittee of CODESH, not an
independent organization. CODESH's _Free Inquiry_ indeed published several
articles criticizing the Ark show, including an excellent critique by
Richard Fox (Summer 1993) authored without knowledge of the Jammal hoax--
which Balsiger neither mentions or responds to. CSICOP, which does have
some connections to CODESH, published nothing about the Ark hoax in its
_Skeptical Inquirer_ until its Winter 1994 issue, which came out at about
the same time (possibly after) Balsiger's press release. CSICOP's
_Skeptical Briefs_ published some letters regarding Sun's program,
but nothing about the Jammal hoax to date except a letter from Balsiger in
its December 1993 issue (an open letter from which many of Balsiger's
self-quotations in this press release were taken.) The AHA publishes _The
Humanist_, and I'm unfortunately unaware of what coverage it has had of
these events. The NCSE publishes _NCSE Reports_, and its coverage has been
more or less independent of the others (there are no connections between
the NCSE and the other organizations listed here, except perhaps common
members, and the fact that the NCSE purchased the journal
_Creation/Evolution_ from the AHA a few years ago). There was no
orchestrated media conspiracy by skeptics and humanists, and Balsiger
fails to mention the negative coverage of his Ark show which appeared in
Christian publications such as _Ararat Report_ (May 1993), _Facts & Faith_
(Spring 1993), _Does God Exist?_ (September/October 1993), _Christian News_
(several 1993 issues), and the _Bible-Science News_ (31:5, 1993).
(4) "No one has come forward with claims or evidence that any of these
remaining eyewitness accounts are perpetrated hoaxes on CBS." Balsiger
has made this claim numerous times, and it has been false every time he
has made it--and he knows this. The May 1993 _Ararat Report_ (as well as
earlier issues of that publication) gave substantial evidence that Ed
Behling, Ed Davis, and Fernand Navarra are not eyewitnesses of Noah's
Ark. Balsiger was also personally warned (and given the evidence) long
before Sun's program aired by Bill Crouse, the editor of _Ararat Report_,
that these alleged witnesses were unreliable.
The failure of Balsiger and Morris to admit their errors, to take
any responsibility for the success of Jammal's hoax, or to even attempt
to address the substantial criticisms which have been raised against
Sun's Ark program demonstrates that they are unreliable sources of
information on the subject of NoahÕs Ark. Creationists in particular and
Christians in general would be wise to avoid reliance on either of them,
and to publicly distance themselves from inaccurate claims of these men.
References
Anonymous (1994) "CBS to Withdraw Projects with Sun International," Free
Inquiry 14(1, Winter 1993/94):24.
Balsiger, David W. (1994) "Noah's Ark TV Show Field Producer Exposes
Humanist Efforts To Get Biblical Themed Shows Off Network Television,"
January press release.
Bloomberg, David (1994) "Noah's Ark Hoax Update," REALL News 2(1,
January):1-3.
Frazier, Kendrick (1994) "The Sorry Saga of CBS and Ark Pseudoscience:
Network Drops Two Sun Programs, Keeps One," Skeptical Inquirer 18(2,
Winter):117-118.
Larue, Gerald (1994a) "Update on Noah's Ark," Free Inquiry 14(1, Winter
1993/94):23.
--- (1994b) "When Will They Ever Learn?" Free Inquiry 14(2, Spring):40.
Lippard, Jim (1994) "Sun Goes Down in Flames: The Jammal Ark Hoax,"
Skeptic 2(3):22-33.
Morris, John (1994) "Special Report: Noah's Ark: Setting the Record
Straight," Acts & Facts 23(1, January):2-3.
Sun International Pictures (1994) "The Incredible Nondiscovery of Noah's
Ark," Freethought Today 11(1, January/February 1994):10. (The same Sun
press release published in Skeptic 2(2):14-17.)
E-Mail Fredric L. Rice / The Skeptic Tank