Think Critically
so you don’t
become a . . .
Both the popular
media and politically
motivated research
organizations have
created an image of
widespread sexual
abuse of teenage
girls by sexually
deviant adult men.
However, a critical analysis of that research
presents a very different picture . . .
In his New York Times article, “It's Awful! It's Terrible! It's . . . Never
Mind”, Stephen A. Holmes shows that this image is, upon closer
examination, VERY inaccurate.
1. Regarding teenage pregnancies, Holmes states that
several research organizations reported that as high as
65 percent of teen-age mothers had babies by adult
men.
2. However, researchers did not differentiate between
married and single teen-agers.
3. Also, studies ignored the fact that 62 percent of the
teen-age mothers were 18 or 19 years old and,
therefore, like the fathers of their babies, adults.
4. In fact, only 8 percent those age 15 to 17 who gave
birth, were unmarried girls made pregnant by men at
least five years older.
Similarly, the impression given in the media and
promoted by several organizations is that children
are regularly being kidnapped by strangers, . . .
1. The Department of Health and Human Services estimated
in 1983 that 1.5 million children were reported missing
each year.
2. Later, more rigorous studies would find that 3,200 to 4,600
children a year are abducted by strangers.
3. This amounts to 1% of all the children reported missing.
4. And most missing children have been taken by the noncustodial parent in a divorce dispute.
.
5. Over 350,000 children are taken by their parents.
6. In other words, 99% of all “kidnappings” are committed by
parents.
Note the last name of
the child and the adult.
The Myth of Rampant Teenage Promiscuity
Talk show host Tyra Banks declared a teen sex crisis last fall after her
show surveyed girls about sexual behavior. A few years ago, Oprah
Winfrey warned parents of a teenage oral-sex epidemic.
The Facts . . .
A 2002 Department of Health and Human Services survey
found that:
•
30% of 15- to 17-year-old girls had experienced sex,
down from 38% in 1995.
•
During the same period, the percentage of sexually
experienced boys in that age group dropped from 43%
to 31%.
Rates also went down among younger teenagers:
•
In 1995, about 20% said they had had sex before age
15, but by 2002 those numbers had dropped to 13% of
girls and 15% of boys.
The
Ecological
Indian . . .
...a
Romantic
Myth
Chief Seattle’s Speech
What does the history
of “Chief Seattle’s
Speech” tell us about
the willingness of
even highly educated
people to uncritically
accept nonsensical
ideas and facts that
confirm their personal
beliefs?
Chief Seattle Quotes . . .
•
“I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie
left by the white man who shot them from a passing train,”
•
“What is there to life if a man cannot hear the lovely cry of
a whippoorwill?”
•
“Yonder sky that had wept tears of compassion upon our
fathers for centuries untold ...”
•
“This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man
belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the
blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life,
he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web,
he does to himself.”
Chief Seattle’s Speech has been quoted by a variety of
groups, including:
•
The United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
•
The Woman’s Day World of Prayer
•
Passages (Northwest Airline’s in-flight magazine),
•
Environmental Action
•
Greenpeace
•
The Sierra Club
•
Canada’s Green Plan
•
NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth
•
Joseph Campbell in his book, The Power of Myth, with Bill
Moyers and in his videoseries, Transformation of Myth
through Time.
The Myth vs. the Reality
Susan Jeffers chose a
Plains Indian people
(Lakota) to illustrate her
book, Brother Eagle,
Sister Sky, which
contains the text of a
speech attributed to
Chief Seattle.
The cover of Jeffers’ book
portrayed Chief Seattle
wearing a Plain’s Indian
headdress, even though
Chief Seattle was not
Lakota but rather a
Suguamish Indian from
the Northwest Coast.
The implication is that all
Indians are the same.
In her book, Jeffers perpetuates popular notions
about Plains Indian ecology:
“To all of the Native American
people, every creature and part
of the earth was sacred; it was
their belief that to waste or
destroy nature and its wonders
is to destroy life itself.”
--Susan Jeffers (1991)
Significantly, two copies of this
book are in the Muhlenberg
Library.
Many Native Americans have promoted the
romantic Indian myth as well:
"My people, the Blackfeet
Indians, have always had a
sense of reverence for nature
that made them want to move
through the world carefully,
leaving as little mark behind
them as possible."
--Jamake Highwater (1983)
Some Scholars have even romanticized Native
American Ecology:
"Hunting was not a war upon animals, not a
slaughter for food or profit, but a holy occupation.“
--Frank G. Speck (1939)
"Indians … lived here for twenty, thirty, forty thousand
years. Everywhere they went, they learned to live with
nature. … And they did this without destroying,
without polluting, without using up the living
resources of the natural world.”
--Donald Hughes (1983)
Evidence to the Contrary
However, ample evidence exists which
demonstrates that American Indians, including
the Plains Indians, exploited their environments
to suit their needs and at times treated those
environments badly.
Plains Indian Use of Fire:
1. Indians used fire to create clearings for their villages
and fields.
2. They used fire to drive or enclose game.
3. They used fire to reduce forests in order to expand
grazing lands for bison.
4. They set fire to forests in order to improve traveling
and visibility, and to destroy unwanted pests.
Principal reasons why Indians set fire to the plains:
1.
Improve vegetation
2.
Clear an area
3.
Facilitate hunting
4.
Ceremonial activities
5.
Interpersonal relations
6.
Interethnic and intra-ethnic relations --60%
a. Communication
b. Warfare
c. Increase exchange rates in fur trade
Early Observations of Fire on the Plains:
"The prairies burning form some of the most beautiful
scenes that are witnessed in this country, and also the
most sublime.“
--George Catlin (1830's)
Fires are made by war parties, particularly when returning
unsuccessful, or after a defeat, to prevent their enemies
from tracing their steps.“
--(Bradbury 1809)
"Cree set the prairie on fire … to drive Assiniboine from
Cree hunting grounds and force them back into their own
former territory.“
--Rudolph Kurtz (1851)
The Buffalo Drive
Reports of waste by Indians:
"The Osage leave one hundred to one hundred and
fifty pounds of excellent meat on every carcass."
--Victor Tixier (1839-40)
A large band of Sioux killed 1,400 buffalo and traded
the tongues for whiskey, leaving the meat and hides to
rot.
--George Catlin (1832)
Reported Buffalo Kills by Indians:
1821:
700 Cheyenne lodges were reported to be consuming
100 bison per day or 36,500 per year.
1830:
25-30,000 buffalo robes exported per year from the
Missouri River region by the American Fur Company
1846:
100,000 buffalo robes traded annually at Bent’s Fort
in Colorado.
1847:
75,000 buffalo robes sold at Upper Missouri Agency.
1855:
3,150 Cheyenne were killing 40,000 bison per year
(44 per man) at Bent’s second Arkansas River Fort.
Decline in Bison Population
Year
Bison
Population
1800
1850
1865
40,000,000
20,000,000
15,000,000
--
-----
1870
1880
1889
14,000,000
395,000
1,091
Whites did not begin hunting bison
in large numbers until the 1870s.
Rationalizations:
"While the herds were falling in the
thousands before White men's guns,
it is not surprising that some Indians
abandoned older practices of
conservation and killed as many
buffalo as they wanted, disregarding
their elders' pleas and admonitions,
since they could see that if they did
not do so, the White men would
shoot them anyway.“
--Donald Hughes, 1983
___________________________________
Does this statement agree with the table on the previous slide?
Such Rationalizations:
1.
Give different explanations for the
same behavior (Occam’s Razor)
2.
Treat Native Americans Paternalistically
3.
Assign “blame” to adaptive and
evolutionary processes
4.
Violate the Uniformitarian Principle
X
Native Americans cannot be an exception to the
Uniformitarian Principle.
"There are lies, damned
lies, and statistics."
--Benjamin Disraeli
American Association of
University Women (1991)
How valid was the operational definition of “Self-Esteem” used in this
study? How did restricting the definition of self-esteem serve the
interests of the AAUW?
Why did the AAUW leave out the data below the line and only include the
data on top? How might this have served their interests?
A National Public Radio (NPR) story on
hate crimes in the U.S. . . .
. . . Stated that 65% of the perpetrators
of hate crimes were White.
How does this compare to the percentage of
the U.S. population that is White?
FBI
Hate Crime Statistics
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Total
8433
10,706 9,861
9,235
9,301
9,430
9,239
White
4,991
4,892 4,523
4,045
4,092
4,111
6,054
(75%)
(59.2%)
(45.7%) (45.9%)
(43.0%)
(44.0%)
(43.5%)
(65.5%)
Black
2,253
1,258
1,157
1,021
1,885
(12.3%)
(26.7%)
(11.8%)
(11.7%)
(10.3%)
(10.2%)
(10.8%)
(20.4%)
615
2,211
3,858
3,877
3.973
3,339
Unknown
?
958
947
758
(7.3%)
(20.7%) (39.1%) (42.0%) (42.7%) (35.4%)
(8.2%)
______________________________________________________
The more important question is why does the incidence of hate crime vary over time,
and how does the high proportion of “unknown” perpetrators undermine any ability to
determine the relationship between ethnicity and hate crimes?
The Public Broadcasting System has used
Gary Null as a source of fundraising, giving
his books and tapes away in return for
donations to PBS. Null is a “nutritional
entrepreneur” who promotes his books and
tapes on the claim that he has a Ph.D. in
science and to have conducted extensive
scientific research on the subject of
nutrition.
The reality is that Null’s Ph.D. is a
“bought” degree from the Union Institute
and University, which requires only 35
days on campus to earn a degree and has
the doctoral candidate’s thesis evaluated
by a committee chosen by the candidate.
How does this compare to individuals who
have
earned
Ph.D
degrees
from
established universities?
Pastor Lundmark
argues that Evolution
is “Sheer Nonsense”.
*
*
*
What is wrong with
his argument?
*
*
*
What “Baloney”
Arguments does he
use?
Amazon Forest Still Burning Despite
the Good Intentions
By LARRY ROHTER
New York Times
August 23, 2002
“In spite of efforts to
limit deforestation and
encourage "sustainable
development," the
assault on the Amazon
basin continues in
Brazil.”
According to the article . . .
1. “The Brazilian jungle is . . . disappearing at a rate of more than 6,000
square miles a year, an area the size of Connecticut.”
2. “The Amazon . . . accounts for nearly 60 percent of Brazil's territory.”
3. “80 percent of deforestation in the Amazon occurs in a 31-mile corridor
on either side of highways and roads.”
4. “More than 385,000 square miles, or 12 percent of Brazil's territory, an
area larger than England and France combined, has been formally
transferred to Indian control.”
5. "The cost of doing business as a logger has increased and the profit
margins have gone down,
6. “Deforestation in Mato Grosso, which has had the fastest growing
economy of any Brazilian state, has declined by more than half, to
about 4,600 square miles over the two-year period that ended on Jan 1.”
However, an examination of the facts presented in
the article suggests a very different conclusion:
If Indians control 385,000 square miles of land . . .
And if Indian land accounts for 12% of Brazil . . . .
Then, all of Brazil equals about 3,208,333 square miles.
In addition . . .
If the rain forest equals 60% of Brazil . . .
Then the rain forest equals about 1,925,000 square miles.
Consequently,
1. The 6,000 square miles of forest being cut each year
represents .31% (0.0031) of Brazil’s rain forest.
2. At the present rate of cutting, it will take 320 years
before Brazil’s rain forest is removed.
“Logging Jobs Benefit Pygmies, but Imperil Their Forest Home”
As with the previous article, the facts included in the second article do not
suggest that the forest of the Congo Basin is in imminent danger of overexploitation either.
According to this article,
1.
The Congo Basin comprises 840,000 square miles.
2.
Logging within the Congo Basin consumes 3,125 square miles
of forest every year.
Thus,
1. The 3,125 square miles of forest being cut each year represents
.37% (0.0037) of the Congo Basin forest.
2.
At the present rate of logging, it will take 268 years before the
Congo's rain forest is completely removed (again, assuming that
no additional trees are either planted or grow naturally).
We hear much about the
loss of natural resources
in the U.S. However, . . .
. . . between 1952 and 1987,
forest land in the U.S.
increased from 664 to 731
million acres.
and
. . . annual timber growth in
the U.S. exceeds harvest by
37% and has exceeded
harvest every year since 1952.
Landfills vs. Recycling?
According to popular wisdom, it is better for the environment to use
paper cups than polystyrene cups. As a result, considerable
pressure was placed on fast food restaurants, such as McDonalds,
to switch from plastic to paper products. However, the facts
suggest that using paper products actually create more pollution.
Because 6 times as much wood pulp as polystyrene is required to
produce a cup, the paper cup consumes about 12 times as much
steam, 36 times as much electricity, and twice as much cooling
water as a polystyrene foam cup. About 580 times the volume of
waste paper is produced for the pulp required for the paper cup as
compared to the polystyrene requirement for the polyfoam cup. The
contaminants present in the wastewater from pulping and bleaching
operations are removed to a varying degree depending on site-specific
details, but the residuals present in all categories except metal salts
still amount to 10 to 100 times those present in the wastewater
system from polystyrene processing.
Similarly, it is generally assumed that recycling is always
preferable to using landfills. For some products, this may be the
case. However, for others it may not be . . .
“Recycling . . . exacts and environmental price. The reuse
of paper, for example, involves processes that generate a
considerable amount of hazardous waste. In order to recycle
newspapers, magazines, and, indeed, any printed paper, the
paper must first be de-inked. At the end of the de-inking
process one is left with essentially two products: on the one
hand, de-inked fiber that will be turned into new paper; and on
the other, a large quantity of toxic sludge.”
--W. Rathje, RUBBISH: The Archaeology of Garbage, p. 209)
It also requires an additional 5,000 gallons of water to produce
one ton of paper from recycled paper than from wood pulp.
Consequently, U.S. Office of Technology Assessment
has determined . . .
“It is not clear whether secondary manufacturing
processes produce less pollution per ton of material
processed than primary manufacturing.”
--U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (1988)
Landfills
 According to several calculations, if the U.S. continues
to create waste at the same rate that it currently does,
a landfill 35 miles long by 35 miles wide and 100 yards
deep (approximately .03% of U.S. land surface) could
accommodate U.S. trash for 1,000 years.
 Landfills in the U.S., according to one source, cover
approximately the same amount of land surface as
cemeteries.
Yuppie
Environmentalism:
Use an "environmentally
responsible" credit card
to ease your conscience
while you buy your TV's,
VCRs, designer clothes
made in Chinese prisons
and the gas to feed you
new Sports Utility
Vehicle!
The Bible
Water from the Rock
*
*
*
Exodus 17: 2-7
Water from the Rock
*
*
*
Numbers 20: 2-14
The Exodus
Palestine
at the
time of
Jesus
Bandits,
Prophets and
Messiahs at
the Time of
Jesus
Jesus:
Aphorisms
and
Parables
Stories
about
Jesus
Primitive
Christian
Gospel
The early Christian Church was centered in
Jerusalem and was originally under the
leadership of James, the brother of Jesus (see
Acts 21:18, 15:6-22).
Paul frequently refers to James as the Lord’s
Brother (Corinthians 1:9; Galatians 1:19)
Matthew 13:55: "Isn't this the carpenter's son?
Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his
brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?
(see also Mark 6:3; 16:40)
“. . . extra-biblical sources contain more reliable
information about James than about Jesus.”
--Robert Eisenmann, James: The Brother of Jesus
The Development of the four “Canonical” Gospels
There are 16 other gospels, known
collectively as the Gnostic Gospels.
*
*
*
Gnostic Christianity existed
throughout Europe and the Middle
East until the 4th century when the
Roman Catholic Church became the
official religion of the Roman Empire
and declared the Gnostics heretics.
Gnostic Christians rejected the virgin
birth, the resurrection and the divinity
of Jesus. They also appointed women
as priests and bishops
How do scholars explain the existence and disappearance of
these other gospels?
A popular belief in
France, which dates to
the Middle Ages, claims
that Mary Magdalene left
Palestine and lived as a
naked hermit in southern
France for 33 years
following the death of
Jesus.
*
*
*
The Gospel of Mary
Magdalene was rediscovered in 1947 in
which Mary is portrayed
as “The One Who Knew
the All.”
Gospel of Mary Magdalene:
“Then Mary wept and said to Peter, "My brother
Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I
thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am
lying about the Saviour? Levi answered and
said to Peter, "Peter, you have always been hot tempered. Now I see you contending against the
woman like the adversaries. But if the Saviour
made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject
her? Surely the Saviour knows her very well.
That is why He loved her more than us.”
--Nag Hammadi library
Gospel of Phillip:
“And the companion of the Saviour is Mary
Magdalene. But Christ loved her more than all
the disciples and used to kiss her often on the
mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended
by it and expressed disapproval. They said to
him Why do you love her more than all of us?
The Saviour answered and said to them,Why
do I not love you like her?”
--Nag Hammadi Library
Mary Magdalene
In southern France
Sts. Maries de
la Mer . . .
. . . where Mary
the mother and Mary
the aunt of Jesus
are believed to have
lived after the death
of Jesus.
Martha
of Bethany
This should be a caution adopted by all students!
This is not a bad philosophy to adopt either.
After all, how many things that people were so
sure were correct in the past are not longer taken
seriously?
Few people learn how to think scientifically.
If we are going to attempt to explain human social behavior in a
rigorous and systematic way, then we must adopt the same
scientific methods in the social sciences that are used in the
physical and biological sciences.
We must begin
by adopting the
Uniformitarian
Principle . . .
And we need to maintain
a highly developed . . .
Bullshit Detector!