My friend Chad at CCK kindly acknowledges that one of his earlier posts was based not on accurate information, but on a hoax. Here is the gist of the original story:
Washington, DC — Grand Canyon National Park is not permitted to give an official estimate of the geologic age of its principal feature, due to pressure from Bush administration appointees.
In other words, the Bush administration is siding with the most extreme creationists, the Young-Earthers, who believe that the world is only a few thousand years old. There are indeed such people, and they base their crypto-geology on the Old Testament. From the original story, one would guess that the Bush Administration agrees, and has pressured the National Park Service to go along.
The only trouble with this story is that it is a lie. The quote above is from a PEER press release, PEER being the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The press release was at first reported uncritically by Skeptic magazine (which I happen to admire: Long Live the De-bunkers!), but Skeptic failed to do the simple fact check and did not call the National Park Service at the Grand Canyon. Skeptic now acknowledges that it has egg on its face.
In our eagerness to find additional examples of the inappropriate intrusion of religion in American public life (as if we actually needed more), we accepted this claim by PEER without calling the National Park Service (NPS) or the Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) to check it. As a testimony to the quality of our readers, however, dozens immediately phoned both NPS and GCNP, only to discover that the claim is absolutely false. Callers were told that the Grand Canyon is millions of years old, that no one is being pressured from Bush administration appointees — or by anyone else — to withhold scientific information.
I was skeptical about this story from the start. Bush is a Christian, to be sure, and so no doubt are many powerful members of his administration. But I never saw any sign that the Bushies were Creationists, let alone Young Earthers. This looked like a smear, which it was. Chad has only a little to apologize for. He relied on a journal with a reputation for getting the facts right. Skeptic is properly embarrassed, but it has now come clean.
I blog on this in part because it reminds me of a visit several years ago to Blanchard Springs Caverns (no relation). These marvelous caves in the Ozark National Forest in North Central Arkansas are a pretty good testament to the age of the Earth. When I was there with my family I asked the Park Service guide about a huge pile of Bat guano, about the size of a small submarine. "How long did it take for that to be deposited?", I asked. The guide was very cautious in answering. At first I could not understand her hesitance, but after a little conversation I learned that she was frequently attacked by creationists. Park Service personnel aren't paid enough to have to do battle with these gopher heads on a daily basis. If there is any pressure on them to be quiet about the scientific age estimates, it doesn't come from George W. It comes from the Young Earthers who probably plan their vacations precisely for this purpose.
Chad and I have a lot of things to disagree about. The age of the Grand Canyon isn't one of them.
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