Posted on 08/22/2008 6:29:13 PM PDT by Ron Jeremy
Dinosaurs helped build the pyramids, school director says
Raphael Vassallo
Far from becoming extinct 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs actually co-existed with early humans, and even helped in the construction of the pyramids. This is the word of Vince Fenech, Evangelist pastor and director of a fully licensed, State-approved Creationist institution which admits children aged between four and 18. “Of course the ‘dinoceros’ existed (as Fenech pronounces the word). It is mentioned in the Book of Job. They were used to help build the pyramids,” he says, adding that this latter observation is only “his personal belief”, and that it does not form part of the school’s curriculum.
But the curriculum of the Accelerated Christian Academy in Mosta is not exactly free of such fanciful reinventions of history. Fenech reiterates the basic Evangelist tenet that the entire universe was created in 4004 BC… and this time, he also supplies “proof”. “When man landed on the moon (in 1969), they expected the landing module to sink in a deep layer of dust. But the layer was only a few inches deep. This proves that the universe is still young!”
Does it? I would have thought it merely illustrates that unlike the Earth, the moon has little or nothing in the way of atmosphere… and dust is usually generated as a result of particles which combine as they are buffeted around by the movement of atmospheric molecules. Also, the moon’s gravity is two thirds less than it is on Earth… which in turn means that dust is practically weightless, and therefore doesn’t settle. But of course there is little point in saying so, because as far as Fenech in concerned, it is the word of God alone that counts. Fenech confirmed this during an impromptu interview at the MaltaToday office in San Gwann, where he irrupted last Thursday on a Divine Mission to correct my misconceptions about his Mosta academy.
“Your write-up last Sunday was full of mistakes,” he pointed out. Foremost among the mistakes is the incorrect identification of Fenech as “headmaster” instead of director… an error which I acknowledge, and for which I apologise.
“You also wrote last Sunday that God created Adam and Eve,” Fenech continues. “This is not true. The first woman did not have a name; she was made from Adam’s rib and was known only as ‘woman’. She got the name ‘Eve’ only after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. You can quote me on that…”
Fenech suddenly seems very keen on being quoted. “We don’t just teach our students about evolution,” he continues enthusiastically. “We also teach them, for example, that abortion is murder… and you can quote me on that, too!”
This was evidently intended as an automatic trump card, in a country where any public assertion of pro-life values automatically entitles one to instant respectability. Intrigued, I ask Fenech for more details about the school’s approach to controversial social issues. To teach that “abortion is murder” – regardless of one’s opinion in the matter – presupposes at least a basic knowledge of the human reproductive system. In other words, sex. Considering that the ACA accepts students as young as four: how old are students when they are taught about sex, abortion and murder?
Strangely, however, Vincent Fenech appears incapable of giving a straight answer. Instead, after humming and hawing and generally avoiding the issue, he suddenly denies having made the claim in the first place. “We do not teach that abortion is murder,” he insists, contradicting himself totally in less than five minutes. “What we teach is ‘Thou shalt not kill’.”
Pressed further, Fenech eventually admits that the classes at the ACA at not composed according to the traditional model. Instead, it seems that children of varying ages are mixed together in one class… although the school’s director will not be drawn into explaining precisely how.
“But you, what do you believe in?” he suddenly asks. “What do you think will happen to you after you die?” I don’t know, I answer. I imagine my body will decompose, rot and eventually disappear… Assuming an air of lofty superiority, Fenech places his hand on heart as he simpers: “I, on the other hand, know exactly what will happen to me. I will go to Heaven. It is written in the Scriptures: only those who are reborn in Christ will see the Kingdom of God…”
That may well be the case, but it is not written in the National Curriculum. So for the second time in two weeks, I sent questions to Education Director Cecilia M. Borg on the subject of the Accelerated Christian Academy in Mosta, and all the unscientific nonsense evidently taught therein.
I asked Dr Borg, whether the education division was aware of resolution no. 1580, passed by the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly on 4 October 2007, entitled “The dangers of creationism in education”. The resolution observes that “the war on the theory of evolution and on its proponents most often originates in forms of religious extremism which are closely allied to extreme right-wing political movements”, and urges EU member states to “to firmly oppose the teaching of creationism as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution and in general resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion?”
Dr Borg promptly sent the following reply: “From previous correspondence I am sure you could clearly deduce that the position of the Education Division is perfectly aligned to the Council of Europe Resolution 1580 since it was made amply clear that while every school is obliged by law to follow the National Minimum Curriculum in all curricular matters, religious, moral and ethical instruction is imparted in respect to the freedom of belief as guaranteed by the Constitution and in the light of ‘the right of every parent of a minor to give his decision with regard to any matter concerning the education which the minor is to receive,’ as entrenched in article 6. of the Education Act.”
Looks like a great starting place … thanks.
There’s more to this sort of story, and in fact reasons to think that the Egyptians had technologies beyond ours for dealing with stone. They had vases made of diurite, which is terribly hard, which nobody could produce with bronze tools. Some people, particularly a French scholar named Davidovitz, believe they had the technology to liquify and pour hard stone and that, if this technology could be rediscovered, we’d be looking at highways which never needed to be repaired.
80% wastage? You’ve obviously never seen rock being quarried. The tools and methods are much the same today as they’ve always been, saws, wedges, drills. Today the tools are powered but function as they have for thousands of years.
I live near active atone quarries, They cut huge blocks and do not waste 80% of the stone. Find a stone quarry, talk to the people doing the work as I have, take time to understand what they’re doing, maybe even watch the History channel and when you’ve learned something about the subject of stone quarrying, come back.
Further if you have ANY EVIDENCE of formed concrete-like material for the ancient Egyptians bring it forward instead of, well how does one describe your assertions?
Post 41
I've been looking at rock art for nearly forty years and my main conclusion is:
Rorschach did not live in vain.
Seriously though, do you have any idea what that image is supposed to represent? A fish perhaps?
I have long since given up trying to decipher these paintings. I have been out with groups to some of these sites and had everyone come up with a different interpretation (and frequently half of the group is local Indians).
Here is the text associated with the one I posted:
Plateau Pictograph.Aboriginal rock paintings, or pictographs, are common through the southern interior of British Columbia. With few exceptions they were painted with red-ochre pigment, probably originally mixed with animal oil or fish eggs as binding agents. They depict a tremendous variety of subjects, ranging from simple maps, through hunting scenes, to mythological and spiritual figures. This rock painting, in the Okanagan area of the southern Plateau, seems to represent a supernatural creature. Such designs may have been created by adolescents on ritual solo quests for a personal guardian spirit. Most surviving pictographs are believed to be no more than 200-300 years old, although none have been positively dated. Source
Explain that, and you'll explain why so many cultures that were so isolated from each other have the same accounts of Bigfoot.
It probably has more to do with getting unruly children to shut up and go to sleep than anything else.
Explain that, and you'll explain why so many cultures that were so isolated from each other have the same accounts of Bigfoot.
Or accounts of a devastating flood, through which only a few survived on a boat...
Post # 41 reference (Concrete Pyramids) is mostly about a book touting concrete pyramids by Morris and Davidovits.
This is one silly assertion made at the web site referenced at # 41, “If laborers were cutting the stones, where is the scrap from the trimming, bad blocks, and the blocks that fractured or were damaged in transit? There are not any[11]. With concrete, the rocks were beaten to a powder, hauled to the site, burned, mixed, and cast. Everything is consumed and can be reused by powdering and heating it again.”
Not “if” since the quarries are still in existence today where laborers removed the cut stone.
“Burned”? With what as fuel? “Beaten to a powder”? By what means? What kind of “rocks”? Only one kind is used to make concrete by heating, not “burning”.
Utter rubbish! Why not claim space aliens with mysterious tractor beams?
Nut job logic says that if they don’t understand something then it’s a mystery that no one understands. That leaves them free to come up with some whacko theory that ignores all the obvious evidence and allows them to say no one can disprove what they have failed to demonstrate in the first instance. Just make and keep making the same silly assertions as though they were fact and maybe gather the whole mess into a book.
We as humans are very ignorant of our history, and are only aware of a small percentage. Written records that do exist we ALWAYS doubt, unless we find archaelogical proof, e.g. the Hebrew King David, the existence of Troy, Jerico, etc. Even so, numerous libraries of antiquity have been lost to fire, pilaging and decay. We don't know how they built the pyramids, for there are no records. If it were not for the fact that they still exist, we'd not even be aware that they had been built.
no need to beat anything to powder. The formers were mainly filled up with stone, and then some sort of liquid was poured in. That’s the only possible way it could have been done. The amount of work which would have been involved in carving all of those stones is totally prohibitive; it could not have been done.
You really don’t know anything about concrete, forms, or stone cutting, do you?
But you do have the mysterious “some sort of liquid” that somehow does everything including disappearing so that none of it exists today.
Amazing, truly amazing.
If Fenech believes everything in the article exactly as it’s stated, I don’t agree completely.
However, the writer of the article takes many liberties himself. For example:
“Strangely, however, Vincent Fenech appears incapable of giving a straight answer. Instead, after humming and hawing and generally avoiding the issue, he suddenly denies having made the claim in the first place. “We do not teach that abortion is murder,” he insists, contradicting himself totally in less than five minutes. “What we teach is ‘Thou shalt not kill’.”
I do believe from the context that Fenech meant both statements although there was a contradiction. “We don’t just teach our students about evolution,” he continues enthusiastically. “We also teach them, for example, that abortion is murder… and you can quote me on that, too!”
He stated that he believes abortion is murder, and that he teaches children, “Thou shalt not kill”. It’s probably a matter of the age at which you correlate the two or if you simply explain to children we are commanded by God not to kill (murder) and let them draw their own conclusions about whether tearing a child to pieces in the mothers womb or sucking it’s brains out with a vacuum constitute murder.
What this does bring to remembrance is the fact that it’s a bad idea to talk to people who’s only mission in life is to discredit you. I’m sure that after Fenech’s time with the writer of the article and his cronies, he could come up with a lot of quotes showing them in a bad light.
“the war on the theory of evolution and on its proponents most often originates in forms of religious extremism which are closely allied to extreme right-wing political movements”
This statement, no matter how rooted in the government proves that the “believers” in evolution are promoting a form of religion. Evolution is and always has been (and always will be) a theory. That hasn’t changed and there is no imperical evidence to the contrary. The quote above actually lines out every person in the entire world that believes the Bible is God’s Word as a right-wing extremist. So be it! The religious zealots in the bible looked at Jesus exactly the same way and eventually crucified Him. We can’t expect to be treated any differently by the extreme left-wing, environ’mental’ whacko, communist-lovin’, God-hating, alternative-lifestyle-embracin’, evolution worshippers in the world now.
I would prefer not to be persecuted for my beliefs... wouldn’t everyone? But we shouldn’t be surprised when it happens.
Articles like this from evolutionist zealots will not stop until we see heaven (or hell, as the case may be).
Thanks for the heads-up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.