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In a recent post on the Dinosaur List G.S.Paul referred to the NBC TV show on human origins as a "creationist" program. Although at least two strict creationists (Carl Baugh and Don Patton) appeared on the show, it actually promoted concepts starkly at odds with creationsm, especially the theme that that humans existed tens of millions of years ago. This idea is not only opposed by most creationists (who generally believe that humans and all life forms were created by fiat only several thousand years ago), but is even more distasteful to them than "evolutionism" which places early humans at only a few million years ago. Therefore, major creationist groups such as ICR (Institute for Creation Research) and AIG (Answers in Genesis) were quite unhappy with the show, and issued negative reviews on it. Also, Baugh and Patton are among the most disreputable creationists (even most creationists want nothing to do with them), but I would not be surprised if Baugh and Patton did not even know their comments would be used to promote anti-creationist ideas. Of course, this invites the question: if the odd ideas in the show did not come from creationism, where did they come from? Part of the answer may be that some of those who put the show together have ties to the Hare Hrishna religion, which evidently subscribes to the notion of hyper-ancient humans and the concept of time "cycles"--also promoted in the show. For more information on this, you may want to check out the following article in the talk.origins archive: http://rumba.ics.uci.edu:8080/faqs/mom.html I also have a commentary of the show (with other Paluxy articles) on my web page at: http://memebrs.aol.com/paluxy2/paluxy.htm Oddly, the show producers apparently had trouple finding a single critical article on the Paluxy "man track" claims, claiming knew of no scientific rebuttals to them. Even when they were informed (after the show) that dozens of mainstream articles had been written on the subject, they suggested that "the article" by Ron Hastings and me was questionable because we did not have degrees in archaeology. Never mind that we have degrees in other fields of science; that the main issue is evidence, not credentials; that Hastings, I, and other mainstream workers have written not only one but dozens of articles on the topic; and that the producer's two "experts" have no valid degrees themselves, nor have published any scientific papers, and most disturbingly, claimed degrees they do not even have. See my article "A matter of Degree.") NBC tried to relieve itself of any responsibility by claiming the show was maily for entertainment, even though the show hyped itself as legitimate, cutting edge science. Is the idea of millions of viewers, including many school children, being fed misinformation, pseudoscience, and a distorted view of science really NBC's idea of entertainment? As someone recently suggested, before long NBC will probably do a story on the deplorable condition of science education in America. Thanks, Glen Kuban paleo@ix.netcom.com
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