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Re: orion Analysis of an unfalsifiable theory
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The difference between the radiocarbon situation vis a vis the DSS and the
scenario as depicted by Asia Lerner is that in her scenario someone has
some theory or other to which the data donīt conform. I have repeatedly
stressed that I have no expectation whatever as to the dates of the DSS,
although my research associate, Greg Doudna, does. In fact, I stated last
year that it was too early to make definite pronouncements about the
authors and ideologies of the DSS, given the fact that we do not even have
a secure date for the documents. The perception that some texts are
outliers is a matter of observing how distributions normally occur, and
then noting the curious patterns that have occurred in conjunction with the
Zurich and Tucson tests. The same perception: ah, outliers! was arrived at
with no further ado by the head of the radiocarbon section in the National
Museum in Copenhagen, and he knows nothing whatever about the DSS -- in
fact, he finds the expectations of humanistic scholars towards the dating
process as sometimes quite funny. No doubt correctly, from his point of
view.
Fred Cryer