EARTH: 'Nessie' and necessity

Truth is a necessity for many of us. Freedom from cookie-cutter unaccountable educational systems is important (see Regan articles).

The last time we visited Scotland and Loch Ness (see Sholeh Patrick articles), we wound up discussing Earth history with a Welsh family while keeping a lookout for “Nessie!”

My study of the Anglo-Saxon poem “Beowulf” happened when I was 16. What a puzzle for me then!

In “Beowulf” (died AD 583), the male Grindel is described as “the terrifying ugly one,” “solitary walker,” “death shadow.” The female Grindel is “alien monster,” “avenger.” Another creature is a flying reptile — “venomous foe,” “dragon,” “giant.” And there is a “sea beast” or “sea dragon.”

Now, my teacher graduated from U.C. Berkeley, where they teach that dinosaurs died millions of years ago, therefore, our early forefathers could not have lived with dinosaurs? Now the Bible mentions the Behemoth and Leviathan in Job 40:15-41:34 (2,000 B.C.). More than 200 cultures speak of dragons.

British author Bill Cooper spent more than 25 years researching his book, AFTER THE FLOOD: THE EARLY POST FLOOD HISTORY OF EUROPE (1995). Cooper’s book includes fascinating, meticulously documented early European history, including dragons/dinosaurs. The 256 pages can be read online.

All the continents have some outstanding fossil sites. Some fossils even have skin, fur, color pigmentation and soft-tissue preservation, including some dinosaurs. The timescale of how long ideal fossil preservation or oil deposits can be maintained can be calculated by students, good at algebra, using coefficients of permeability of the relatively impermeable shales and mudstones. It is less than 10,000 years — certainly not millions of years.

JIM PEARL

Geologist

Hayden Lake