I am fortunate to keep the company of some really thoughtful people here at USU—theists and atheists alike. And in keeping this high-caliber company, it’s easy to forget just how unthoughtful many people are. But I had a rude reminder of this fact last week, when I received the following e-mail forward from a relative:
Subject: FW: Nephilim bones found, (GIANTS) (UNCLASSIFIED)
Very interesting pictures! They don’t appear to be touched up but it is hard to tell. I can’t imagine people ever being that tall but who knows. The Bible talks about tribes of giants.
**** Adams
Do a quick Google search, though, and you’ll discover that these pictures are doctored.
I respect and love the person who sent me this e-mail. This relative is an educated person. So that he could send me this forward, in all serious, really startled me.
Worse, one of my Christian friends recently posted this video—claiming scientific proof for Christ’s divinity—to Facebook:
Ron Wyatt, the man featured in the video, has also claimed the following outlandish discoveries: remnants of Noah’s Ark, the tombs of Noah and his wife, the site of the Tower of Babel, and the location of the Israelite’s crossing of the Red Sea.
I anticipate that our theist readers will protest that I’m erecting a strawman against religion—that the above instances represent the worst of religion, not the best. But I do not mean to saddle all theists with the ridiculous forward and video. It’s just worth remembering that there are a lot of religious people out there who aren’t as thoughtful about their faith as some of our readers are theirs. And I fear that the thoughtful religious people are outnumbered (a point I lamented in yesterday’s post about the LDS Church and General Conference). Indeed, I fear thoughtful people are outnumbered period.
In my semi-professional opinion, those photos are a mediocre Photoshop job.
Skepticism is healthy … up to a certain point. It is worth keeping in mind that there is often a seed of truth behind the exaggeration. The above photos show skulls way too large to be even remotely credible.
Giants in the Bible accounts fit within the genetic variation seen between the current African tribes (e.g., pygmy and Masai). One would expect a tribe of giants to be more like the Mandinka of Africa who average 7′ men and 6′ women with occasional extremes. Given that typical heights from poor agrarian cultures were often closer to 5′ feet or less, then a tribe of 6′+ men would be approaching the giant category. There is no reason to doubt the biblical accounts of tribes having this type of genetic variation.
Exaggeration always seems to enter into descriptions of a distant giant tribe. Pliny the Younger (a Roman governor of Asia Minor who writes about problems with Christians in his district around 120ce) writes about an Ethiopian tribe with 12′ giants. He is obviously referring to the Masai ancestors, but the size is definitely enhanced some traveler who exaggerated his ‘fish tail’.
I don’t know how many times I have offended my Christian friends and acquaintances because I cannot contain my “eye rolls” when they mention someone finding Noah’s Ark or chariots at the bottom of the Red Sea. I try to be polite to incredible claims. People frequently ask me to read their favorite book on creationism when they find out I am physicist and a Christian. I used to read them, but now I try to say something like ‘No thank you, but as a scientist I do not find creation science to be the best explanation of the observations.’ Then I try to not roll my eyes, disrespectfully … sometimes failing.
There are quality archeology magazines. If the findings make it to a few quality periodicals, then I will listen to the evidences of biblical history.
Those pictures are obviously ‘shopped. You can see the break in the ground in the first one where a different photo from a closer perspective was pasted in. The bones aren’t lit the same way as objects around them, and the skull in the second one seems like it might even be at a lower resolution than the surrounding photo.
I’m surprised that so many people seem unaware of the existence of photo editing software (or even just oldschool photo tricks like the UFO pie tin thing).
As well as getting your science news from email forwards instead of like, science journals or magazines.
If you guys haven’t watched the video in this post, you need to. The entire thing. It’s crazy.
Wow, it’s amazing what people will believe when they want to believe.
Yeah, if I remember correctly, it was Eli’s friend Miles who posted this.
Or the email forwards about some student completely taking apart his “atheist scientific philosophy” professor with a few cheap talking points to the applause of his classmates, where the student just so happens to be Einstein or someone else. One of the points Sherlock brings up in his Ethics of Biotech class is the problem of over information. Not everyone has the time to learn things fully, but there’s also so much shit that people cling on to what they can quickly get, so you have email forwards and blogs with no content overtaking the reading of British Medicine etc. Yeah, the photos are pretty bad, but the belief predates even Roswell. People have always sort of held to the magic of photography as being infallible, “the camera doesn’t lie.” When film was first gaining steam people were taking photos fairies and skeletons and things through exposure tricks, and like the panicing masses after the War of the Worlds broadcast, people bought it hook line and sinker as evidenced truth.
Silly as it might be, I don’t know if that wonder of photography will leave us anytime soon. I think as a species we’re still getting used to seeing ourselves in such a way.
Notice, too, how the skulls in the second and third photos appear to be the same.
Here is an example of archeology that is too good to be true.
Read this newspaper article which seems almost credible. Read the entire article because it seems to provide an excellent and naturalistic explanation for the Eden story of Genesis 1-3:
Eden found?
After the article note that the article’s author has authored a book of fiction:
The Genesis Secret
And finally you can follow up the real archeological interpretations of the dig at:
Gobekli tepe
The newspaper is duped into advertising the story inside a speculative fictional book rather than the good archeological find.
I actually came across these on google images while doing some research on the Book of Enoch. Made me laugh. I did crazy stuff like this all the time in high school when I was supposed to be placing photos for the newspaper. I think everyone should take an introductory course on photoshop to help dispell belief in this sort of thing.
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I just did a term a paper on the Nephilim and used a bunch of these pictures in my class presentation. It is super interesting how many ways they are used to bolster modern religious beliefs, especially with regard to scientific advancement.
Those pictures are not fakes and I find it offensive and blasphemous to even suggest that. They are obviously from biblical times. I believe the 1st picture is Goliath himself. See the dent in his skull?