Academics are not always so Academic: Academic Blindness: Academic Bias: Academic Prejudice.
A Lesson for Academia:
Using Levity to provide Enlightenment
Tonto's Indian Intelligence
The Lone Ranger and Tonto went camping in the desert. After they got their tent all set up, both men fell sound asleep. Some hours later, Tonto wakes the Lone Ranger and says,
"Kemo Sabe, look towards sky, what you see?"
The Lone Ranger replies, "I see millions of stars."
"What that tell you?" asked Tonto.
The Lone Ranger ponders for a minute then says,
Astronomically speaking, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.
Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo.
Time wise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three in the morning.
Theologically, the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant.
Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.
What's it tell you, Tonto?"
"You dumber than buffalo s**t. Someone stole tent."
Sorta like 'You can't see the forest for the trees, isn't it?
Sometimes it takes a joke to make us see the truth in life. For the Academic point of this joke, check this out: Anti-American Graffiti by Mary Grabar
I paid good money to study fiction writing under a program with the theme of "faith." But I was treated to the vitriol of the program director, slightly older than I, who carried on the tradition of using his place in the academy to present his anti-establishment sentiments. His anti-Bush diatribes echoed the sentiments of the worst adolescent profanity-studded "poetry" that was read there.
Scientists who exhibit bias in their scientific work are violating a basic norm of the scientific community. They are injecting their opinions (values) rather than letting the facts speak for themselves. Science (from the Latin word for knowledge) is about getting things right, not setting them right.
What is the Point? What is the Lesson?
The Lone Ranger joke was sent to me by email, and around that time I had read a lot of articles about Academic Stupidity and Blindness. Today we live in a world where everyone has an opinion on everything. But Academics, particularly researchers, are supposed to stick to the facts. Unfortunately, they are often blindsided by their own desire to succeed.
For example: For 20 years I copped crap for eating butter, which, according to the scientists, was bad for me. Then they discovered that while butter did contain cholesterol which the body had the ability to dissolve, the polyunsaturated margarine they were recommending, was actually inhibiting the body's ability to dissolve cholesterol. So in fact, their medical advice had actually been negatively impacting people's health.
In my particular field, it annoys me that many academics write articles which seem to contain conclusive results, when in fact they are nothing but educated guesses. Sometimes educated guesses and circumstantial evidence are all we have to go on. I find no fault with that. But when people start quoting as fact, something which is only a theory, or worse, when other academics start quoting circumstantial evidence as proof of something, then we are led astray.
Sometimes, like Kemo Sabe, we are so eager for answers that we don't see the whole picture. We don't see the forest for the tree. We can come up with wonderful possibilities, and yet not notice the most obvious fact. The Damn Tent is missing Kemo Sabe!
In my field there are some excellent researchers who make startling and definitive statements that really do fit that tiny frame of history within which they are working. But when you look beyond that tiny section, you see quite plainly that they have been too busy trying to come up with explanations that ignore the plainly obvious. (1 kings 6:1 The 480 Years)
It's also like all those bleeding heart people in the west who blame Israel for all the sufferings of the Palestinian People, when it is obvious that it is their own Palestinian leadership that is responsible for so much of their suffering. That fact has now been publically declared by an Hamas Leader. Chaos in Palestine : Arab Violence in Gaza
Academics need to get over themselves!
Now you know what the Lone ranger joke is all about.
The social engineering of society, to accommodate 'ideological agendas' which sound so great, usually fall victim to 'The Law of Unintended Consequences'.
But when the 'rights' of ideologues, social engineers and political activists start impinging on our personal and traditional identity; which is to say, 'our national culture', then it is time to sit back and say 'enough!
We really do need to pay more attention to how our own minds operate, and how we are both consciously and subconsciously effected by Media Propaganda.
It's very easy to 'take sides' in an issue, and it is very easy to be persuaded of a cause, but at the end of the day, unless it is our specific purpose to blind ourselves to the truth, it is encumbent upon us to do our best to look at every situation from as many persepectives as possible...to make sure that we are not 'obsessive and compulsive' in our political and social judgements.
Is it possible that we and our kids are living in a state of 'stupor', controlled by external forces that seek to mould us to their wills? Does the media and do the Universities engineer what we think? Do they try to cast a spell over our minds and our thoughts?
Humankind (I'm afraid to write 'mankind') loves and admires charasmatic speakers and leaders, and naturally we expect students to 'look up to' their teachers. What happens when those leaders and teachers are not worthy of honour, or are teaching that which is contrary to our own (family/ social/ cultural or traditional) culture?
Political Correctness is ultimately a game where the one who is speaking is free to speak, and anyone who speaks against him/her is in the wrong, unless of course what you are saying, has the support of the majority of the 'socio-political' elites. In truth, Free Speech is a Myth
The Premise: Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE (but continuing down to at least 104 BCE), Sectarian redactors transcribed the legitimate 'solar year' chronological records of Israel and Judah, into an artificial form, with listed years as each comprised of 12 months of 4 weeks of 7 days, or 336 days per year, thus creating a 13th artificial year where 12 solar years existed.
When the Synchronous Chronological Data provided in the Books of Kings and Chronicles for the Divided Kingdom Period are measured in years of 336 days, the synchronisms actually align. [Refer to Appendix Five to see how it synchronises the Divided Kingdom Period]
General formula for Biblical Data conversion:
The formula for constructing the artificial calendar was:
'X' times 364 equals 'Y' days
'Y' days divided by 336 equals 'Z' artificial years.
Values are:
'X' = any given number of 'real/solar' years
364 = perceived days in the sectarian calendar
'Y' = number of days calculated
336 = number of days in an artificial year
'Z' = artificial years = 1.083'X' and represents the original number of the converted years plus 8%.
To reverse the process by hand:
'Z' years times 336 equals 'Y' divided by 364 equals the Number of 'X' years converted.
To see how effective this method is, SEE:Appendix 5:Diagrammatic Reconstruction of Israelite History from 936 to 586 BCE:
The Principle of Linear Causality
The King's Calendar is a very simple approach to Biblical Chronology. It substitutes a value of 336 days for every year listed in Scripture. As far as the Divided Kingdom is concerned, when you use this 336 day year value, the synchronisms actually work. To see how effective this method is, SEE:Appendix 5: Diagrammatic Reconstruction of Israelite History from 936 to 586 BCE
Because it is a mathematical system, the King's Calendar must abide by certain mathematical rules, the most important of which, is that if you change any date for any day, month, or year every other day, month, or year is effected and must also change. It's like a 'domino effect'. Chronological references cannot be 'forced' to fit, and nor can they simply be ignored or 'compressed' as is the usual case with historians and archaeologists.
If any King's Calendar chronological determination disagrees with anything in the history books, it must argue the case as to why the history books are wrong, or why the evidence for an assertion is untrustworthy. If the King's Calendar successfully defends its' position, then the history books cannot be treated as definitive, and if the King's Calendar is 'proven' wrong, then every other chronological reference it provides is also wrong.
Because of this, the King's Calendar Chronological Reconstruction of Israel's history is unique, in that its' methodology can be scientifically (mathematically) tested and demonstrated to be either true or false. Its' chronological predictions are able to be 'proved' or 'disproved'.
R.P.BenDedek is from Brisbane Australia and is the author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' at http://www.kingscalendar.com His academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
He writes photographic 'Stories from China' and social editorial commentaries, both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing newspaper columnist. He currently teaches Conversational English in China and in addition to his English Lessons at KingsCalendar, he has created specific sites for Students of English.
