How Good is the Original Source?
April 3rd, 2007 by Dan Klarmann
Information Reliability. This is a pet peeve of mine. Stephen Jay Gould was a stickler for finding out where ideas "that everybody knows" came from, and often finding the original source to be dubious.
Came across this on a blog today. Nice to know someone else shares my own pet peeves!
Areas of recent annoyance:
Quotations: "Edmund Burke said all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". This was the theme of a poem of mine, and I wanted to include it in my notes. Alas, I could not track down the source in Burke because it isn't there!
Dawkins: not his anti-religious stance, but his attack on Steven Jay Gould's Noma which takes a simplistic reading of Gould's "Rock of Ages" (if Dawkins ever read it) and then trashes it.
Peck: His "People of the Lie" section on excorcism draws heavily on Malachi Martin, who was a fantasist, conman, and possibly a rather wicked man (cf "Clerical Error: A True Story") (see also http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1394702/posts)
False History: S.V. Peddle is the latest in a long line of people to concoct a history to say what they want it to be, in his "Pagan Channel Islands: Europe's Hidden Heritage". Lovely photos, but for a serious exploration, Heather Sebire is much much better by far!
Synopsis (from Amazon) with my comments.
Around three to five thousand years ago, an ancient people began building stone sites and monuments on the Channel Islands, creating a landscape as rich in mythology as any archaeological site in Greece or Egypt.
But without any text to explain their beliefs unlike those in Egypt, for example.
Since early Christian times, the dolmens (stone chambers) and menhirs (single standing stones) have been reviled as the domain of witches, ghosts, and dragons. They were thought to bring bad luck and sudden death to all who came near.
This is amazing! I've lived on this island all my life, read numerous histories, and I've never come across anything like the fantasy presented here. Some dolmens were linked to druids, none as I recall were linked to witches.Rocqueberg, a Jersey site notorious in folklore tales (two different tales) has no neolithic remains.
Yet, they have also been cherished as sources of healing, female fertility, good harvests and buried treasure, as well as the dwelling place of friendly fairies.
Where does "female fertility" creep into the dolmens and menhirs? A menhir, for goodness sake, is a phallic object par excellence!
Despite the fact that these structures were seen as a threat by the Christian Church, which was determined to erase the Paganism of the past, a good number of them remain.
Actually, it was farmers keen on building material who were the greatest threat!
The superstitions surrounding the dolmens and menhirs, in particular the dire consequences said to ensue following their destruction, have preserved many of them to this day. The authors recount the terrible fates which have befallen several Channel Islanders who have dared to disturb or destroy these ancient sites.
The Curse of Hougue Bie! Hasn't got the same ring as Tutenkamen!
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