Post by Tamrin on Jul 4, 2008 16:26:47 GMT 10
SitchinIsWrong.com
Dr. Mike Heiser
"For every credibility gap there is a gullibility fill"
- Richard Clopton -
(Excerpt)
Dr. Mike Heiser
"For every credibility gap there is a gullibility fill"
- Richard Clopton -
(Excerpt)
In a nutshell, I'm a trained scholar in Hebrew Bible and ancient Semitic languages and care about my field and its resources. That means I have taken real classes in these languages and the ancient texts from real professors in real universities. I am not stumbling around in the dark. My knowledge isn't just based on the fact that I can use a library. Getting a Ph.D. in this area really does matter. I know many who come to this website are frustrated by "academese" and a seeming unwillingness (it's more than imaginary) of academics to consider alternative research on the ancient world. I would agree with you that there is a "knowledge filter" in academia (I think of Cremo and Thompson's amazing efforts in "Forbidden Archaeology" when I say that), but that does not justify poor scholarship and fabrication of "data" to prop up ideas. It is illegitimate to complain that academics should look at alternate ideas and then turn around and refuse to look at what the original sources say. Whether you want to accept it or not, when you take Sitchin's interpretations of stories over the word meanings the scribes themselves left us (they made dictionaries back then too!), this justifies academics treating alternate material with disdain. This situation should not be. We should look and be willing to slay academic (and even theological) sacred cows; you should respect the results of centuries of work in the field by people who do this for a living.
