Letters From Grandpa #115
- LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
- 115
Dearest grandchild,
The late Mike Pratt, a very close friend of our family, warned everyone to be careful who your heroes are. He was right! Jesus said that when the blind follow the blind, both fall into the ditch. This is of special concern for those of you who are in college. I fear that instead of being a place where you are free to examine and discuss all ideas, our modern colleges have become centers of propaganda and indoctrination. Just because someone is dogmatic, doesn’t mean they are right! Here are some examples of dogmatic people who were wrong!
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Seven years ago Al Gore predicted that the North Pole could be completely liquidated by 2014 due to global warming. Actually, the opposite is true. Today there is a dramatic increase in the amount of ice covering the pole.
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In December 2013 global warming alarmists set sail for Antarctica to document how the ice was melting. Instead, their Russian ship became frozen in the ice as ice levels reached new highs. Another Russian ship, and a Chinese vessel that came to the rescue, also got trapped in the ice.
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A royal committee appointed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1490 insisted that the voyage proposed by Christopher Columbus was impossible.
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The Quarterly Review stated in 1825 that the idea that a steam locomotive could travel twice as fast as a stage coach was nonsense.
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Congressman Orange Ferriss stated in 1868 that purchasing Alaska would provide no honor wealth, or power, and would be a constant source of weakness and expense.
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In 1876 a Philadelphia newspaper described Alexander Graham Bell as a “harmless madman with a useless toy”.
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Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst stated in 1918 that the Bolsheviks in Russia were the “truest democracy in the world”.
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On Jan. 13, 1920 the New York Times criticized Professor Goddard for suggesting that a rocket could operate in outer space. To their credit, 49 years later on July 17, 1969, they apologized. This was, incidently, just prior to the Apollo moon landing.
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Adm. William Leahy told President Truman in 1945 that the atomic bomb would never go off. He emphasized: “and I speak as an expert in explosives”.
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On Dec. 18, 1912 Charles Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward announced their discovery of the Piltdown Man. The scientific community celebrated this discovery as the “missing link between apes and men. In November 1953, authorities of the British Natural History Museum finally admitted that the Piltdown Man was a hoax. It turns out that someone took a human skull and fitted it together with the jawbone and teeth of an orangutan. When examined more carefully, they noticed file marks on the teeth to make them fit, and both teeth and bone had been treated with chemicals to make them look old.
- Evolutionist Earnst Haaeckel has been credited with the “Piltdown Embryo”. In 1866
Haeckel displayed drawings of 24 embryos purporting to support evolution. These were also a hoax. Unfortunately, this fraudulent “evidence” still appears in many modern textbooks.
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In 1874 Othniel Marsh came up with the Piltdown Horse. He put together “evidence” that is supposed to prove that the modern horse evolved from a primitive ancestor with four toes. While we now know this is not true, this phony “evidence” is also still being used in many modern text books.
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In 1999 a Chinese farmer rigged together what he claimed to be a fossil of a dinosaur with bird like plumage. It was smuggled out of China and initially created such a sensation that even the National Geographic Society was abuzz with excitement. Unfortunately, this also turn out to be another hoax. It has been called “The Piltdown Chicken”.
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Dr. Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis died in an insane asylum in 1865 because the doctors of his day refused to believe the evidence he presented about germs therefore refused to wash their hands.
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Reporter Alpheus Drinkwater refused to believe that the Wright Brothers had flown in 1903 because the renown astronomer, Simon Newcomb, said it was impossible to fly a heavier than air device. It was five years later when this reluctant reporter finally faced reality.
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When Donald Bruce Salley wired the Cleveland Leader in 1908 that he had seen the Wright machine leave the ground the editor flashed back: “Cut out the wildcat stuff. We can’t handle it”. Salley sent the same story to the New York Herald and they replied “confine yourself to the facts”.
I suppose that history provides an almost endless list of similar errors and miscalculations. Most of them, however, are not of eternal significance.
What you believe about Jesus, however, is of eternal significance!
Remember! Be careful who your heroes are, for when the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch!.
I love you,
Grandpa Boyce