Letter: A new mammoth myth?

A story in today’s Advocate tells of the discovery of a well-preserved mammoth in Siberia. A comment in the story says “Siberian cultural myths paint them as primordial creatures who moved underground and helped to create the Earth.”

Does this mean Louisiana science teachers will be required to teach it in science classes as an alternative to the theory of evolution?

Doug Johnson

retired engineer

Watson

Comments

1) Comment by [e-mail] - 11/10/2012

Chucky is right; such evidence can't be ignored. It's just like the unfairness the deer hunter enjoys; the great majority of pictorial evidence shows them tied to trees upside down so obviously they were trussed up and helpless at the time of their demise.

2) Comment by potkcalb - 11/10/2012

Love your post Chucky. Why didn't I think of that?

3) Comment by Chucky - 11/10/2012

Well of course the mammoth lived underground, because that is the only place they have ever been found.

4) Comment by potkcalb - 11/10/2012

Is sneering the best you can do Mildred Citizen?

5) Comment by Mildred Citizen - 10/10/2012

Retired engineer, huh? No longer turning up the dial on your little Lionel set?

6) Comment by potkcalb - 10/10/2012

To begin with twink you refer to "God" as an established fact. God is a belief in a supernatural entity. HIstory classes can appropriately address world religions. Separately, an elective course in world religions would not be amiss. Theories of earth origins do not belong in a history class because they are not history. Please try to understand that beliefs, opinions, conjectures, ideas are not scientific theories.

7) Comment by twinkie1cat - 10/10/2012

Creationism should be taught in the schools, only not in science class. It belongs in HISTORY classes as part of man's explanation how the world began and the origins of mankind's efforts to explain and relate to God. The theories of the origins of the earth would make an interesting and valuable elective in middle, high school and college.

8) Comment by Being_Stupid - 10/10/2012

@prbeav, you wouldn't last 1 second on Venus. Actually now that I think about it... An atmospheric pressure of approximately 1288 psi, sulfuric rain, and temperatures that can exceed 860 to 890 degrees Fahrenheit, I don't think many of us would last too long on Venus, let alone a mammoth that can't make it here on Earth, let alone the planet Venus too.

9) Comment by Bighug - 10/10/2012

That is exactly the point, DMJ.

10) Comment by prbeav - 10/10/2012

Now someone belittles imagination and creationism! Frozen mammoth remains that are on Venus are there due to adaptation to the environment--have a high melting point.>>>>Intellectual mistakes like that can be avoided if people just realize that science must accommodate religion but religious ideas cannot be construed as religion. (Forgive the repetition from my earlier post, but I do want to recognize Louisiana law, RS 17:285.1.)

11) Comment by DMJ - 10/10/2012

Wrong. A good point would be....if we're going to teach creation myths...why not teach all of them?

12) Comment by Being_Stupid - 10/10/2012

This letter brings up a very good point. You will not find a frozen mammoth on Venus, because 1) Venus is too hot for anything to be frozen there, and 2) Mammoths never lived on the planet Venus.

13) Comment by prbeav - 10/10/2012

What's missing in these comments is appreciation for sincerity. If a person is sincere in the speculation that creation occurred underground, their story should be heard in science class. After all, science must accommodate freedom of religion, even though Louisiana law forbids recognition of the story as religion. Besides, why should fictional literature have a monopoly on good stories. Science should play that game, too.

14) Comment by DMJ - 10/10/2012

Come on, Doug. You know we should teach the controversy. I mean....there's two sides to this debate. See how stupid this whole thing is when we look at other creation myths? You'd think we'd have the power to look at our (your) own creation myths with the same amount of objectivity, realizing that such myths have no place in a science classroom. Oh well...

15) Comment by [e-mail] - 10/10/2012

I think that mammoth is a victim and it was planted there by evolution activists; we need to see what can we learn from the untimely, unwarranted, and needless death of this mammoth. Has the SPCA and PETA been notified? Was this mammoth a victim of mammoth fighting? We need a law that protects these mammoths from such horrendous acts.

16) Comment by potkcalb - 10/10/2012

Ofd course you realize Doug that if the mammoth myth is considered in science classes it will create a lot of "legitimate controversy" and necessitate a lot of "critical thinking," data gathering, cutting edge scientific analysis, and investigation to determine whether dinosaurs created the earth or whether the Hopi Indians are correct in their belief that people came from the underworld.

17) Comment by Wallop - 10/10/2012

Yes! Let's add another act to this three-ring circus!

18) Comment by gary - 10/10/2012

Doug, excellent letter.