I’m smitten. My only grief is that it took so long to discover them, thus many years of pondering and marvelling have been wasted. Oh, and that it is an avenue littered with nutcases and conspiracy theorists, and people who think we descended from aliens.
Since my initial post, I have read two books on OOPARTS, and come to realize that it is an area fraught with speculation, which, I suppose, should not come as a surprise, in light of the nature of these discoveries.
Worlds Before Our Own, by Brad Steiger, is full of interesting finds, and does not come under the “crazy UFO proponent” tag. For the first three quarters of the book there were many, “read aloud to anyone nearby” moments, and my daughter (11 yrs) was reading up to where I left off, when I put it down. The last part of the book changes tone somewhat and goes from a reporting style to a presentation of the authors own ideas; something that I felt detracted from the book.
From a Christian perspective, it is interesting to read the author’s use of the Bible accounts. A description of a manna “machine” could be quite remarkable if you don’t read the Bible as a literal account of history (which I do). The description even allowed for the directive that the Israelites were not to collect on the Sabbath, the theory being that the machine produced enough for each day, plus a little over, which went into a holding tank to be eaten on the Sabbath. Of course, from a Biblical perspective, this could never be, as the manna could not be stored for more than the day before the Sabbath or it would spoil, so certainly the excess produced by a machine, after five days, would be inedible.
However, there were many fascinating things presented that made this book worth reading.
Recently I watched a debate between Dr. John Polkinghorne KBE, FRS, Canon Theological of the Liverpool Cathedral, and John Mackay, International Director of Creation Research, on the subject “Is evolution compatible with the Christian faith?” Among the many interesting things mentioned was a comment from John Mackay, about the number of fossilized people found in comparison to the number of fossilized people reported on.
Perhaps it is that the scientific community are mindful of protecting their theories and text books, or perhaps it is that they feel the lay person would be a danger to correct thought, given the opportunity to ponder and marvel some of these interesting discoveries for himself. Which ever the case, I can only feel that science discovery would have an avid audience, should discoveries of ooparts be more widely reported. That is, without the wild theories, and sensationalism some authors feel duty bound to provide…
Jul 10, 2008 @ 12:39:23
You know, these things totally fascinate me-they also strike a huge fear in me–that of being labeled a kook who will believe any urban legend or myth that comes along-thus ruining my testimony that the Bible is true beyond a doubt. Sort of like my relative who is as SURE “they” can watch you through the cable tv as she is of her salvation. It can be a slippery slope.
Sometimes it is hard to get past my early indoctrination that man has not always been “smart”. Adams sons were making musical instruments and working with compound metals so a lot of those objects really ARE possible- once I remember that man has always been in GODS image and was not at all primitive.
Jul 10, 2008 @ 13:21:11
It is unfortunate that these out of place objects are so often attached to some of the wilder theories out there, but looking at the plain fact of each discovery, it is quite thrilling.
I have always thought (even during my indoctrination at state school) that it seemed rather arrogant to assume that man existed for millions of years, and yet, it is only in the “yesterday” of history, just mere moments in the grand scheme of things, that we have been smart enough to understand our world.
To completely go out on a limb here (brace yourself for a revelation of my own ‘weirdness’) I can very easily accept the idea of a cycle of cataclysmic events, causing the rise and fall of human society.
It takes only one generation for knowledge to be lost. After a catastrophe of epic proportions, people are forced back to a culture that focuses on the essentials – food, water, shelter. Thus, they are forced to focus on the frailty of humanity, and humanity’s dependence on the God given bounty – soil, rain, seed, animals, etc.
In today society, we can afford to be entertainment oriented, as so few of us have occupations that are actually essential to survival. As such it is very easy to feel that man is a god unto himself. Being driven back to basics, while it may seem a harsh judgment from a cruel God, could well be an act of mercy, causing us to remember from whence we came.
When you look at some of the amazing areas where our ancestors were actually more advanced than we are today (medicine is one example), it is…mind boggling!
Jul 10, 2008 @ 15:45:01
2 quotes from Gordon H. Clark’s “A Philosophy of Science and Belief in God”
Science is forever incapable of producing valid arguments against the existence of God. Science is always false, but is often useful.
Dry reading sometimes but I believe an important contributor to alot of questions still discussed.
http://www.apuritansmind.com/GordonClark/GordonClarkMainPage.htm