- Michael Cremo
-
Michael A. Cremo 
Michael A. CremoBorn July 15, 1948
Schenectady, New YorkResidence Los Angeles, CA Nationality American Occupation Author, editor Religion Gaudiya Vaishnavism Website www.MCremo.com Michael A. Cremo (born July 15, 1948, Schenectady, New York), also known as Drutakarma Dasa, is an American Hindu creationist whose work argues that modern humans have lived on the earth for billions of years.[1] Cremo's book, Forbidden Archeology, has attracted attention from Hindu creationists and paranormalists,[2] but has been criticized by scholars for ignorance of basic archeology.[3][4] Scholars of the mainstream archaeological and paleoanthropological communities have described his work as pseudoscience.[5][6] Cremo identifies himself as a "Vedic creationist."[7][8]
Contents
Early life and education
Cremo's father, Salvatore Cremo, was a United States military intelligence officer. Michael Cremo lived with his family in Germany, where he went to high school. They spent several summers travelling throughout Europe. He attended George Washington University from 1966 to 1968, then served in the United States Navy.[9]
Religious views
Cremo is a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and the Bhaktivedanta Institute. He has written several books and articles about Hindu spirituality under the name Drutakarma Dasa. He has also been a contributing editor to the magazine Back to Godhead and a bhakti yoga teacher. Cremo told Contemporary Authors that he decided to devote his life to Krishna in the early 1970s, after receiving a copy of the Bhagavad Gita at a Grateful Dead concert.[9] In the end of 1990s he authored a paper on the official ISKCON statement on capital punishment.[10] His work on "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record" was published in ISKCON Communications Journal[11] and Time and Archaeology.[12]
Forbidden Archeology
In 1993 Cremo co-wrote Forbidden Archeology with Richard L. Thompson. The book claims that humans have lived on the earth for millions, or billions, of years, and that the scientific establishment has suppressed the fossil evidence of extreme human antiquity.[9] He speaks about a knowledge filter (confirmation bias) as the cause of this suppression.
Cremo continues this theme in Forbidden Archeology's Impact (1998) and Human Devolution (2003). Cremo identifies as a "Vedic archeologist", since he believes his findings support the story of humanity described in the Vedas.[2] The Indian magazine Frontline called Cremo and Thompson "the intellectual force driving Vedic creationism in America".[13]
Cremo's work has attracted attention from Hindu creationists and paranormalists.[2] He has been a frequent guest on the late-night talk radio show Coast to Coast AM, which specialises in the paranormal and conspiracy theories.[14] His books provided much of the content for the widely criticized 1996 NBC special The Mysterious Origins of Man.[15]
Forbidden Archeology has been criticized for failing to test simpler hypotheses before proceeding to propose more complex ones (a violation of Occam's razor); and for cherry picking outdated evidence (often from the 19th and early 20th centuries) that supports the authors' position, while ignoring or ridiculing more recent information that refutes or challenges their claims.[16] Tom Morrow of the National Center for Science Education noted that Cremo's "specimens no longer exist" and called his work pseudoscience.[1]
His book Human Devolution, which like Forbidden Archeology claims that modern man has existed for millions of years, attempts to prove this by citing "every possible research into the paranormal ever conducted anywhere to 'prove' the truth of holist Vedic cosmology which proposes the presence of a spiritual element in all matter (which takes different forms, thereby explaining the theory of 'devolution')."[17]
Recent years
In recent years, Cremo has organized a number of conferences where ISKCON associated academics exchanged views and experiences.[18] In March 2009, Cremo appeared in a History Channel television series called Ancient Aliens, and in 2010 a mini series of the same name.[19]
See also
References
- ^ a b Morrow, Tom. "Forbidden Archeology's Impact by Michael A Cremo". RNCSE 19 (3): 14–17. http://ncse.com/rncse/19/3/review-forbidden-archaeologys-impact
- ^ a b c "Cremo, Michael". Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. Ed. Una McGovern. Chambers, 2007. p. 135.
- ^ Bradley T. Lepper, Hidden History, Hidden Agenda, Talk Origins
- ^ Creationism: The Hindu View, Colin Groves
- ^ Wade Tarzia, Forbidden Archaeology : Antievolutionism Outside the Christian Arena
- ^ Noretta Koertge, Scientific Values and Civic Virtues, Oxford University Press. Quote: "This remarkable compendium of pseudoscience [Forbidden Archeology] is premised on the assumption that modern science is a prisoner of Western cultural and religious biases..."
- ^ Cremo, Michael A., [http://www.mcremo.com/rutot.html "The Discoveries of Belgian Geologist Aimé Louis Rutot at Boncelles, Belgium: An Unresolved Archeological Controversy from the Early Twentieth Century"], XXIVth Congress of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, Liège, Belgium, Sep. 2-8, 2001. Retrieved 23 June 2009.
- ^ Nanda, Meera. "Vedic creationism in America", Frontline, Vol 23, Issue 01, Jan. 14 - 27, 2006 (India)
- ^ a b c "Michael (A.) Cremo". Contemporary Authors Online. September 23, 2002. Retrieved on August 17, 2008.
- ^ "Position Statements - ISKCON News Weekly". iskcon.com. http://news.iskcon.com/position_statements. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record". www.iskcon.com. http://content.iskcon.com/icj/2_2/drutakarma.html. Retrieved 2009-02-20.
- ^ Cremo, M.A., 1999. "Puranic time and the archaeological record", In T. Murray (ed.), Time and Archaeology 38-48. London: Routledge
- ^ Nada, Merra. "Vedic creationism in America". Frontline. January 14–27, 2006. Retrieved on August 18, 2008.
- ^ Michael Cremo. Coast to Coast AM. Retrieved on August 17, 2008.
- ^ Peet, Preston. (2005). Underground! : the disinformation guide to ancient civilizations, astonishing archaeology and hidden history. New York: Disinformation. pp. 320. ISBN 1-932857-19-2.
- ^ Tarzia, Wade (1994). "Forbidden Archaeology : Antievolutionism Outside the Christian Arena". Creation/Evolution (34): 13–25. http://www.ramtops.co.uk/tarzia.html
- ^ Nanda, Meera "Postmodernism, Hindu Nationalism and 'Vedic Science'" in Koertge, Noretta (ed.) Scientific Values and Civic Virtues OUP USA (25 Aug 2005) ISBN 978-0195172256 p. 232
- ^ "ISKCON Academy of Arts and Sciences conference (2006) at Bhaktivedanta College". www.bhaktivedantacollege.com. http://www.bhaktivedantacollege.com/index.php?p=news&id=172.
- ^ Erbs, Lory. "Drutakarma Dasa Featured on The History Channel". news.iskcon.com. http://news.iskcon.com/node/1788/2009-03-07/drutakarma_dasa_featured_history_channel. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
External links
- Official website
- Michael Cremo. "Hidden History of the Human Race" (pdf). http://images.indymedia.org/imc/newmexico/michael_a._cremo___richard_l._thompson_-_the_hidden_history_of_the_human_race__1998_.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-20. Abridged version of Forbidden Archeology
- Michael Cremo. "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record - Vedic Encyclopedia". http://veda.krishna.com/encyclopedia/purantime.htm.
Categories:- 1948 births
- Living people
- American Hindus
- American writers
- People from Schenectady, New York
- American Hare Krishnas
- George Washington University alumni
- Hindu creationists
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