Mysterious Origins of Man
Publicly questioning or debating the received wisdom on human origins is
not usually permitted on Television in Britain and America.
One unique and honourable exception was NBC's
decision in 1996 to broadcast the film Mysterious
Origins of Man, made by
Emmy-award winning director Bill Cote, in which independent investigators had a
rare opportunity to present anomalous evidence of historical geology, and
mankind's past, so that viewers could evaluate this alternative evidence for
themselves.
The program proved immensely popular with many
viewers, attracting audiences of around 20 million on each of the two occasions
when it was shown. The producers also received dozens of abusive responses,
which included virtually no attempts to rebut the scientific issues raised but
took the consensus position that students and the public should not be given
access to such contradictory evidence.
They included terms such as; 'horrible';
'atrocious'; 'garbage'; 'anti-intellectual trash'; 'evil'; 'deliberate,
fraudulent misinformation'; 'claptrap'; 'utter rubbish'; 'nonsense'; A bunch of
hooey; 'unadulterated hogwash'; 'bullshit'; 'A piece of junk'; 'crap'; 'shame on
you, liars and opportunists', and "Frankly, you are
either morons or liars."
You might imagine that these remarks came from
the keyboards of pharmaceutically-challenged undergraduates or semiliterate
teenagers. In fact they are the words of senior scientists and academics
(including several professors) from Yale, University of California at Berkeley,
State University of New York, University of Texas at Austin, Wisconsin, New Mexico State, Colorado,
Northwestern, and other universities.
Two such academics were so upset by the broadcast they
injudiciously let the cat out of the bag completely:
"Thanks largely to the efforts of people like yourself, the American
public is generally not capable of evaluating the "arguments" and
"evidence" you present." fulminated one.
Another was even more candid. "You should be banned from the
airwaves."
Here the programme's critics finally came out
into the The American people are incapable of evaluating scientific
arguments and evidence for themselves. Consequently, people who provide
evidence or arguments that contradict the accepted view should be banned from
broadcasting.
It is unlikely that any film such as
Mysterious Origins of Man would ever be shown in Britain, where Darwinism is
such a strictly observed taboo subject that no science programme has ever been
shown or is ever likely to be shown questioning any aspect of the Darwinian
theory. One British filmmaker told me that few of his fellow directors would
risk making a television film that questioned Darwinism because to question such
a scientific sacred cow would be bad for his or her career.
Curiously neither the press nor television in
America or Britain feels any compunction about airing highly contentious
political or social issues. In fact, they will risk considerable
controversy to assert their right to cover what they consider to be in the
public interest, thus properly fulfilling their role as champions of the
public's right to know about things done with its money and in its name. But
when it comes to contentious scientific matters, they become much more reticent.
This is probably because if they dare to give
space or air time to political controversy, they are merely branded as
troublemakers, which is good for their image, whereas if they give such
attention to taboo science subjects, they risk being derided as crackpots.
It is impossible here to cover all the territory
dealt with in the film but one subject which generated intense hostility is the
question of the antiquity of mankind in America.
Click here to find out more about the video of Mysterious
Origins of Man
