Doing science …

Christian Century, April 20, 2004 by Peter E. Kane, Robert A. Navias

THE CONTROVERSY that J. Maxwell Miller discusses in his article "History or legend?" (Feb. 24) involves two ways of doing science. Like the creationists, many biblical archaeologists begin with the Bible and then seek evidence to prove the truth of the Genesis-Kings story. Every ambiguous fragment is hailed as proof of the historical accuracy of the Bible.

The other way of doing science is to begin with a blank page and an open mind and then seek whatever evidence can be found. These folks have found little or nothing to confirm the history of Genesis-Kings.

Some researchers are willing to go further. Since there is no physical evidence of the monumental events described in the Bible, they argue that these stories must be myth rather than history. As I understand biblical minimalists such as Thomas Thompson, arguing about historical accuracy defleets us from serious consideration of the profound religious truths that these myths have to tell.

Peter E. Kane

Canandaigua, N.Y.

As a geologist I am perturbed by J. Maxwell Miller's article. It contains two obvious errors:

First, the Carbon 14 method of dating archaeological organic materials was announced by Willard F. Libby in 1948, not in 1933. This was the first chemical method by which the age of ancient objects could be determined. Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960 for this work.

Second, chemical methods for dating pottery, such as thermoluminescence, were developed during the 1960s and '70s, not in 1920, as Miller claims.

Robert A. Navias

Honeoye Falls, N.Y.

J. Maxwell Miller replies:

Robert Navias is correct. The Carbon 14 method of dating was announced in 1948 rather than 1933, and I apologize for this misinformation. But archaeologists depend heavily on ceramic typology for dating, which rests in turn on various sources of information (such as ancient written records). Flinders Petrie pioneered the typological study of ancient Palestinian pottery in the 1890s; a basic typology of Palestinian pottery had been worked out by the mid-1920s; and archaeologists still continue to improve and "fine-tune" this typology. Carbon 14 and thermoluminescence dating have figured in the fine-tuning process, but not revolutionized it.