Dear friends at the National Trust and Caleb Foundation,
I write to congratulate you on your recent collaboration to ensure a Young Earth Creationist viewpoint is given prominence at the Giant's Causeway interpretive centre in Antrim. I'm sure you share my view that science has brought us many wonderful benefits and would not seek to stand against it. I feel you likely share my view that science is a useful tool, but that too often the blinkers of the majority opinion mean we see only one possible interpretation of the evidence.
I, too, represent a group that seeks to understand scientific discoveries with proper respect and in the context of my beliefs. Although not a Young Earth Creationist, or indeed a Christian, I have been impressed with the Caleb Foundation's ability to make a case against overwhelming scientific consensus, and the National Trust's willingness to be open to other viewpoints.
My group has experienced much the same discrimination and, dare I say it, mockery as the Caleb Foundation. I represent the Dublin branch of Na Fianna, an organisation devoted to maintaining the traditional ways of the poets, warriors, Druids and kings of old Ireland.
It has not been a positive few years for us - as with many, the economic downturn has hit us rather hard and a legal battle with a political party that unjustly uses our name has proven rather costly. Our sacred ceremony, the thumbing of the salmon of knowledge, has been severely curtailed by the 2006 ban on salmon fishing and our requests for a religious exemption have fallen on deaf ears. We try to make do with frozen Alaskan salmon, but the experience is not quite the same and some of the Druids feel the ceremony is incomplete. (Did you know that there is now a proven link between the fatty oils in salmon and increased brain function? It just goes to show the wonders that science can contribute to religious belief!)
I fear I've digressed. The modern scientific interpretation says that 60 million years ago molten basalt was forced through chalk beds, forming the distinctive columns we see today at the Giant's Causeway. Let me state that this is a perfectly fair interpretation of the facts if you come to the matter from an agiantist perspective. Indeed, the giant rock hurling hypothesis does not require any significant modification to the existing scientific model. It may very well be that this molten basalt growth is exactly what happened - in Scotland!
For evidence, look at the identical columns on Staffa island off the Scottish coast. This strengthens our case considerably. It's perfectly conceivable that a giant, hurling a stone column of that size and weight, would have adopted a technique similar to what is found in modern Highland games. The elevation and velocity required to move such weight over such a long distance would have resulted in extreme temperatures on re-entry, allowing for some return to a molten state before landing in its new home and recooling next to other columns.
I ask the National Trust to consider, in addition to the mildly patronising but very well produced details on Irish history, including some of the scientific theories backing our legitimate interpretation of the evidence available to us.
And I ask the Caleb foundation to hear us out. We are of different faiths but we share a belief in giants. Amos 2:9-10 describes an Amorite thusly:
Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaksIn Deuteronomy, we see further evidence of giants:
For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.If my maths is correct this puts him at over thirteen feet! And naturally, we have Goliath, a man of towering height, capable of carrying extensive weight in weapons and armor, and quite likely capable of hurling large rocks.
If you are willing to give us a fair hearing I can have our Druids and researchers put together an information pack for your perusal. I'm sure as that your trust would not wish to be seen to favour one religion over another, and I feel that the Caleb foundation's experiences and our shared belief in giants will mean, despite our differences, that we can work together.
With best wishes,
Addendum: they've replied. Read more.