Saturday, March 22, 2014

#966: Robert Morley


Robert Morley is a columnist for The Trumpet, and a notoriously dense creationist. Short story: Morley does not have the faintest clue about how science work or what scientific evidence means. So for instance, with respect to the 2010 neanderthal genome sequencing, Morley concluded: “What did the scientists find? Simply put: Neanderthals are human. There was virtually no difference between the two codes […] The data suggests Neanderthals are as closely related to humans as Chinese are to Germans, or French to Javanese.” That, of course, was not quite what the scientists found. It is unlikely that Morley actually read the paper, but then again, it is doubtful that it would have mattered – one suspects he would have come to the same conclusion no matter what the paper had said, and no matter how carefully the scientists had stated their conclusion.

From there on, it is the standard slide to absurdity: “It is a startling admission for evolutionists because it throws a monkey wrench into conventional evolutionary theory,” to the conclusion that “science proves the Bible correct”, and that the Neandertals were actually the pre-Flood Nephilim – you know, the bad guys who provoked God to kill everyone except Noah and his family. Morley didn’t try to back up the last claim with citations from the paper he was discussion.

You can probably predict the tenor of the rest of his Trumpet columns. The correct response to the Sandy Hook massacre, for instance? Discussion about gun control is a “false dilemma”; we need to return to God.

In fact, Morley’s level of crazy goes quite a bit deeper. In this one (coauthored with one Andrew Miller) he laments Britain’s loss of its colonies and the fact that the US and Britain no longer control two-thirds of the world. How did it happen? Well, the US and Britain originally ascended to power beginning “with a promise made to the ancient patriarch Abraham in which God promised to give his descendants control of the ‘gates’ of their enemies. God gave Britain and America these commercial gates.” And why did they lose the control? Well, “God also warned that if America and Britain did not obey Him, then not only would those sea gates be taken away, but they would be used against these nations.” Precisely. And woe the situation of today. “Malta is now a member of the European Union and the eurozone. Germany is dominating the EU, and Malta is swiftly becoming a German vassal state.” Clearly a sign of the endtimes (Germany is a recurring villain (together with China) in Morley’s writings, and it is a bit unclear why). Not only is the loss of colonial imperialism a sad thing – it is, according to Morley and Miller, also a fulfillment of the prophecies of Herbert Armstrong. Yes, that Herbert Armstrong.

Diagnosis: And so it goes.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks very much; a small correction: in the Biblical story of Noakh, it was the wickedness of _humanity_ that provoked the Flood, there is no mention made of the moral character of the Nephilim.

    He sounds as if he's a British Israelitist, a movement which is notable for starting intensely philo-semitic (funding missions to convert the Jews so that the cousin tribes might be reunited) but is now almost entirely anti-semitic (basically, 'Death to the imposters!'), though Armstrong was an exception so far as I know.

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