Unlike when the Washington Post screws up and then issues a tiny correction buried in the nether regions of the newspaper (like on the 'Al Gore said he invented the internet' myth), when I screw up here, I'll make sure you know about it. A few weeks ago, I reported on a report from PEER that the Park Service at the Grand Canyon were no longer allowed to discuss the age of the Grand Canyon with park visitors so as to not offend the Christianists who believed the Sky Fairy made the Grand Canyon during Noah's flood, and that the P.S. bookstore was selling a book that told that same ridiculous story. Problem is, the first part isn't true. From the Skeptic:
Unfortunately, in our eagerness to find additional examples of the inappropriate intrusion of religion in American public life (as if we actually needed more), we accepted this claim by PEER without calling the National Park Service (NPS) or the Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) to check it. As a testimony to the quality of our readers, however, dozens immediately phoned both NPS and GCNP, only to discover that the claim is absolutely false. Callers were told that the Grand Canyon is millions of years old, that no one is being pressured from Bush administration appointees — or by anyone else — to withhold scientific information, and all were referred to a statement by David Barna, Chief of Public Affairs, National Park Service as to the park’s official position. “Therefore, our interpretive talks, way-side exhibits, visitor center films, etc. use the following explanation for the age of the geologic features at Grand Canyon,” the document explains.So, shame on me (and Skeptic) for not doing a little bit of fact-checking. Now if we could only get the Christianists to do some fact-checking as well, we might have some true progress.
If asked the age of the Grand Canyon, our rangers use the following answer: ‘The principal consensus among geologists is that the Colorado River basin has developed in the past 40 million years and that the Grand Canyon itself is probably less than five to six million years old. The result of all this erosion is one of the most complete geologic columns on the planet.’
1 comment:
Oh, don't feel too bad, in its own, much more subtle way, the quote offered in your retraction is just as bad:
‘The principal consensus among geologists is that the Colorado River basin has developed in the past 40 million years and that the Grand Canyon itself is probably less than five to six million years old. The result of all this erosion is one of the most complete geologic columns on the planet.’
In other words, it's phrased in such a way that you are free to believe (and point to the ambiguity of the National Park Service as support) that despite "The principal consensus", it is only a "consensus", not scientifically supported “evidence”, you are totally free and justified to believe that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the Canyon without feeling like a rube.
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