Today I had another look at the Russia Stones, referred to by Robin Heath as a prehistoric megalithic alignment, precisely aligned east - west. This photo shows the biggest of the stones, and it is indeed pretty spectacular. But as we now know, this one was put in place in 1977 by the local farmers while they were clearing their fields. Not far away is another massive stone, with a chain still wrapped round it -- they obviously gave up on that one, since it was TOO heavy. But this vertical stone is covered with gouges and scratches made by the JCBs and other vehicles used to move it -- I'm surprised that Robin never noticed these surface markings, which are still very fresh.......... If he had done, he would have realized that this stone has NOT been in position since the Neolithic or the Bronze age.
And by the way, the three stones that are supposed to be aligned are not aligned at all. And the other two, used as gateposts just along the lane, close to the ruined cottage called Russia, are also covered with fresh machinery markings made when the stones were manoevred into position and pressed into service as gateposts.
Brian,
ReplyDeleteI am not at all surprised with Heath's blind spot. It is a human characteristic. We can only recognize in the world what we deeply believe and can never question! I see this in every endeavor, whether in social relations or even 'hard science' like Physics. The Indians standing on the shore and looking out the sea could see ripples of Columbus's boats in the water but did not see the boats themselves. These just were not in their conscious reality, so they were not observable.
Just imagine what 'boats' sailing through our reality go by us everyday and we are not ever aware of their existence. And I don't mean Robert's boats that he claims build Stonehenge! Robert is grasping for reed in building his dreamboat! The way he justifies the impossibility of Neolithic men transporting the bluestones to Stonehenge is by inventing even greater capabilities of prehistoric men in order to perform such impossible tasks. He is of course supported in this by all others that likewise believe in this 'glorious myth'. When the 'need' is overpowering, the logic falters.
Kostas
Good points, Kostas. I hesitate to be TOO critical of Robin, because we all tend to create our hypotheses maybe earlier than we should, and then devote large amounts of energy seeking to assemble evidence which will convince others that we are right. Science is a pretty adversarial business -- and the lines between honest reporting of the facts, advocacy and scientific fraud are often difficult to define! Popper argued that the only way for science to advance, and for the truth to emerge, is through the process of falsification. we should all accept -- and indeed welcome -- falsification; but the trouble is that we as human beings love the approval of others, and depend upon it for our self-esteem, so instead of welcoming those who seek to falsify our ideas we feel threatened by them. This gets even more messy when people have academic reputations to protect, and power bases that they wish to enlarge or enhance. In the end, this is not a matter of science and the scientific method, but psychology. Deep stuff indeed!
ReplyDeleteBrian,
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I believe in 'falsifiability'. But I also believe in Truth. And Truth, in essence, can never be 'falsified'. Belief is likewise not 'falsifiable' to a 'true believer'. And that is the problem! How can we recognize Truth from Belief? Being Just helps. Considering others 'beliefs' is becoming Just. Ultimately this leads to Objective Reason.
So what does all this have to do with Stonehenge? Everything and nothing!
Kostas
Sorry to be pedantic but Popper was concerned about the scientific method , truth is something else . You can only refute scientific laws but because of the induction problem you can't verify a scientific law .
ReplyDeleteI agree, and am also concerned about protestations of seeking the Truth. The truth is always much more complex than we wish it to be -- and your truth may not be the same as my truth. Best to stick to the attempts to understand scientific laws -- and even though these might be "indisputable" they may still be expressed imperfectly either in words or in mathematical equations. By using the principle of falsification, we can seek constantly to refine the ways in which a law is expressed, and get closer and closer to an "ultimately refined" law which can then only be tweaked in increasingly sophisticated and detailed ways. Some very crude "laws" which are falsified, and demonstrably shown to be wrong, are just rejected -- and others which were more or less right to begin with are refined and perfected as falsification knocks off the rough edges.
ReplyDeleteSorry , I should have pointed out that my pedantry was in connection with the use of truth in "Popper argued that the only way for science to advance, and for the truth to emerge, is through the process of falsification."
ReplyDeleteOK -- I see your point. Sloppy use of words! Mea culpa....
ReplyDeleteThis could get very deep -- I see "truth" as something which is continuously verifiable through observation and experiment -- as distinct from falsehood, which can be exposed by the means explained by Popper. Time to move on...
I suggest that Robin Heath is simply a fanatic. He sees things the rest of us don't.
ReplyDeleteFrom 1968, Paul Simon said and sang it best in his song sung with his sidekick Art Garfunkel:-
All lies and jest...............
Still, a man hears ['sees' in this context] what he wants to hear [see]
And disregards [doesn't fit with his fanaticism] the rest.
Li di li...li di li li li li li
Li di li
There will always be false prophets.
Interesting, too, that Heath endowed these non-aligned recently positioned stones the "Russia Stones", despite their not being aligned either east-west or any which way. Perhaps Heath, with this nomenclature, is seeking to endow them with added mystique to the unsuspecting, non-technical, average punter who simply is bedazzled by the flashy vibrant multicoloured cover while on holiday in Pembrokeshire or just surfing closer to home on the tecnicoloured Internet.
ReplyDeleteOn this occasion it probably IS best to judge [very cautiously] a book by its cover, and swiftly put it back.
Perhaps the farmers who moved these stones so they might be transformed into gateposts, were unwittingly the mere instruments of a (on this occasion rather disoriented) Ley Line Force??!?
ReplyDeletePerhaps Something distorted the normally reliable Alignment production. Cider?
Who knows what mysteries there may be connected to 1970's gatepost erections? I suppose that the farmers involved may well have been subject to the same mysterious forces that caused Neolithic tribesmen, Bronze Age mystics and medieval monks to locate all their sacred places in precisely located (well, almost) auspicious positions...........
ReplyDeleteAs for the cider, I'm not sure, but Bessie's famous pub (renowned throughout the land and maybe throughout the universe) is just down the road.....
Hello. I passed this gatepost while returning from Fishguard on my birthday this year. Very impressive. Meant to look it up to see if it was a scheduled monument or not (presuming not). Finally got round to it and ended up here after a bit of googling. Thanks for the info!
ReplyDelete