{"id":72856,"date":"2019-04-13T14:47:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-13T20:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=72856"},"modified":"2019-04-13T14:47:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T20:47:07","slug":"a-brutal-dinosaur-who-isnt-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/04\/a-brutal-dinosaur-who-isnt-me.html","title":{"rendered":"A brutal dinosaur who isn’t me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Not<\/a>
The Straight Cliffs of the Kaiparowits Plateau in Utah, looking northwest from the plateau\u2019s eastern end
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For posting this link, I\u2019ll be criticized as an enemy of science who always tries to tear it down and to weaken public confidence in science and in scientists. \u00a0But that charge is no more true of me for posting the link to the article than it is true of the Ph.D. astrophysicist who wrote the article in the first place:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCould All Our Scientific Knowledge Come Tumbling Down Like A House Of Cards?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet another item about the background to that remarkable image of the black hole located at the center of\u00a0galaxy Messier 87 (M87):<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo undermine Katherine Bouman\u2019s role in the black hole photo, trolls held up a white man as the real hero \u2014 until he fought back\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other distant-astronomical news:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA new super-Earth may orbit the star next door: Subtle shifts in the motion of the nearby star Proxima Centauri suggest that it may host not one but two alien worlds.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Extreme Crystals Hiding Inside Giant Planets\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It has a Utah connection and it\u2019s about a vicious and terrifying dinosaur. \u00a0That\u2019s why I thought for just a split second, at first glance, that the article could potentially be about me. \u00a0<\/em>Of course, the \u201csmart\u201d adjective should have clued me in right away, as well as the suggestion that the animal had a social life:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTyrannosaurus Rex: Scary. Smart. Social? \u00a0A new fossil site in Utah reopens an old debate about whether\u00a0T. rex<\/em>\u00a0and its ancestors lived in complex social groups. \u201c<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I like to imagine tyrannosaurus bowling leagues, garden clubs, and fraternal associations. \u00a0Perhaps a beleaguered society of tyrannosaur vegans? \u00a0\u201cTastes just like triceratops. \u00a0But it\u2019s made from\u00a0ferns, cycads, and palms, and it won\u2019t raise your cholesterol!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In that context, you might enjoy this article:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGod Is the Supreme Scientist, Says Curator of BYU\u2019s Museum of Paleontology\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can read more about \u201cDinosaur Jim\u201d Jensen here:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.dinosaurjim.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

You might also like this testimony<\/a> from Dr. Wade E. Miller, on my (eventually to be renamed) \u00a0\u201cMormon Scholars Testify\u201d website:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.fairmormon.org\/testimonies\/scholars\/wade-e-miller<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been interested in dinosaurs, so it has been with some considerable surprise that I\u2019ve learned from the internet that I don\u2019t believe in them. \u00a0It seems that my conviction of a young Earth doesn\u2019t allow enough time for them ever to have lived, and \u2014 according to several experts \u2014 I believe that dinosaur fossils exist on our planet either as divinely-placed false clues, designed to mislead the heathen, or as a result of our planet having been created from fragments of earlier worlds in a kind of supernatural trash-compactor.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The things I can learn online!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from San Diego, California<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 For posting this link, I\u2019ll be criticized as an enemy of science who always tries to tear it down and to weaken public confidence in science and in scientists. \u00a0But that charge is no more true of me for posting the link to the article than it is true of the Ph.D. astrophysicist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA brutal dinosaur who isn't me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    For posting this link, I'll be criticized as an enemy of science who always tries to tear it down and to weaken public confidence in science\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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