Once again, AD White has been quoted on a religion/science subject in this
forum. I've talked about this before, but I really must protest against
virtually any use of AD White without a critical analysis: he's almost
always dead wrong in his interpretation of the "facts" he gives, and often
his "facts" are wrong also. Glenn Morton's recent post on the antipodes
entirely overlooks the fact that the ancient Greek writers orginated the
idea of the uninhabitability of the torrid zone (as they called it), and
that Augustine was simply reflecting good science in his day. And it wasn't
Magellan who provided the evidence against it, it was earlier Portuguese
navigators who circumnavigated Africa--events that led later to the slave
trade. Above all, it is the absurdly biased tone of White's discussion that
utterly defeats its use as a scholarly source. He's just entirely unwilling
to put events into their context, and to realize that church writers are
using good science from their day. He wouldn't get tenure at a decent
university if he were working today without a change in attitude.
So, PLEASE stop quoting this guy.
Ted Davis
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