Richard L. Thompson

Richard Leslie Thompson also known as Sadaputa Dasa^[2] (February 4, 1947 - September 18, 2008) was an American author and Gaudiya Vaishnava religious figure, known principally for his promotion of Vedic creationism and as the co-author (with Michael Cremo) of Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race (1993), which has been widely criticised by the scientific community.^[3][4] Thompson also published several books and articles on religion and science, Hindu cosmology and astronomy. He was a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement or ISKCON) and a founding member of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, the branch of ISKCON dedicated to examining the relationship of modern scientific theories to Vaishnava worldview.^[1] In the 'science and religion' community he was known for his articulation of the ISKCON's view of science.^[2] Danish historian of religion Mikael Rothstein described Thompson as "the single dominating writer on science" in ISKCON whom ISKCON has chosen to "cover the field of science more or less on his own".^[5] C. Mackenzie Brown, professor of religion at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, described him as "the leading figure" in the ISKCON's critique of modern science.^[1]

Biography

Richard L. Thompson was born in Binghamton, New York, in 1947.^[6] In 1974 he received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Cornell University.^[1] In the same year he formally became a member of ISKCON, receiving spiritual initiation from ISKCON's founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and adopting the spiritual name Sadaputa Dasa.^[1] Thompson carried out research in the fields of statistical mechanics, probability theory, and mathematical biology.^[1] He has published scholarly articles in refereed journals and series, such as Journal of Mathematical Geology, Remote Sensing of the Environment, Biosystems, and International Review of Cytology.^[1] In 1976 he became a founding member of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, the scientific branch of ISKCON dedicated to examining the relationship of modern scientific theories to Swami Prabhupada’s Vaishnava worldview.^[1] Soon after joining ISKCON, Thompson became "ISKCON's dominating figure in science" and "established himself as the leading figure in the movement's critique of modern science in the light of Vedic spiritual (or "higher dimensional") science".^[1] He formulated the ISKCON's view on the concept of 'higher dimensional science' and wrote extensively on scientific subjects from this perspective.^[2] In an effort to legitimize ISKCON's theology, he made research and analysis of the relation between the Vaishnava theological worldview and modern science.^[7]

Thompson died on September 18, 2008.^[8]

Forbidden Archeology

In 1993 Thompson and Michael Cremo co-wrote Forbidden Archeology. The book attracted vehement criticism as a pseudoscientific tract proposing antievolutionism from a Hindu perspective.^[9] The book seeks to debunk the existing palaeoanthropological consensus that anatomically modern hominids emerged of the order of a hundred thousand years ago. They then claim that the scientific establishment either ignores or suppresses anomalous evidence.^[10] Meera Nanda in the Indian magazine Frontline called Cremo and Thompson "the intellectual force driving Vedic creationism".^[4]

The claims of anomalies has been widely disputed. Tom Morrow, citing an earlier review of the book by archaeologist Kenneth Feder, states that a large proportion of the book is devoted to "absolutely useless" analysis of outdated and poor-quality documentation, in obscure literature, of archaeological specimens that no longer exist.^[11] Wade Tarzia states that such outdated sources are "inadequate for a book that seeks to overturn the well-established paradigm of human evolution", and suggests that the book fails to test simpler hypotheses before introducing more complex and sensationalistic ones.^[12] Anthropologist Colin Groves states that 19th century finds were generally "found by accident and by amateurs", and were thus generally lacking proper documentation of crucial contextual information, and that the dates assigned were therefore "hearsay and supposition". Cremo and Thompson fail to take account of this, and seem to want to accord equal value to all finds. Groves also states that their discussion of radiometric dating is a "hatchet job", that fails to take account of the on-going refinement of these methods, and the resulting fact that later results are more reliable than earlier ones. He concludes that the book is only "superficially scholarly".^[13]

As a publicity stunt, the book was mailed, unsolicited, to a large number of paleoanthropologists.^[11] Prominent paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey responded to a request for a book blurb by stating: "Your book is pure humbug and does not deserve to be taken seriously by anyone but a fool".^[12]

In 1996 Thompson and Cremo appeared on the NBC special The Mysterious Origins of Man, which was based upon the book,^[14] and which was similarly criticized by the scientific community.^[15]

Selected Bibliography

Books

• Thompson, Richard L. (1974). Equilibrium States of Thin Energy Shells. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 0821818503. 
• Thompson, Richard L. (1981). Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science: An Investigation Into the Nature of Consciousness and Form. Lynbrook, NY: Bala Books. ISBN 0896470148. 
• Goel, Narendra S.; Thompson, Richard L. (1988). Computer Simulations of Self-Organizations in Biological Systems. London: Croom Helm. ISBN 0029479223. 
• Thompson, Richard L. (1989). Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy. Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. ISBN 00892132698. 
• Cremo, Michael A.; Thompson, Richard L. (1993). Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race. San Diego: Bhaktivedanta Institute. ISBN 0963530984. 
• Thompson, Richard L. (1995). Alien Identities: Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Phenomena, 2nd Edition. Alachua, FL: Govardhan Hill Publishing. ISBN 0963530941. 
• Thompson, Richard L. (2003). Maya: The World as Virtual Reality. Alachua, FL: Govardhan Hill Publishing. ISBN 0963530909. 
• Thompson, Richard L. (2006). The Cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana: Mysteries of the Sacred Universe. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 08120819195. 
• Thompson, Richard L. (2007). God and Science: Divine Causation and the Laws of Nature. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 9788120832541. 

Papers and other professional works

• Thompson, Richard (1980). "A Measure of Shared Information in Classes of Patterns". Pattern Recognition 12: 369–379. 
• Thompson, Richard (1984). "A Stochastic Model of Sedimentation". Journal of Mathematical Geology 16: 753–778. 
• Thompson, Richard L.; Narendra S. Goel (1985). "A Simulation of T4 Bacteriophage Assembly and Operation". Biosystems 18: 23–45. 
• Thompson, Richard L.; Narendra S. Goel (1988). "Movable Finite Automata (MFA) Models for Biological Systems I: Bacteriophage Assembly and Operation". Journal of Theoretical Biology 131: 351–385. 
• Goel, Narendra S.; Richard Thompson (1989). "Movable Finite Automata (MFA): A New Tool for Computer Modeling of Living Systems". Artificial Life: the proceedings of an Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, held September, 1987, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, edited by Christopher G. Langton: 317–340. ISBN 0201093464. 
• Thompson, Richard; Narendra S. Goel (1990). "Biological Automata Models and Evolution II: The evolution of macromolecular machinery". Organizational Constraints on the Dynamics of Evolution, edited by John Maynard Smith and G. Vida: 409-413. ISBN 0719026709. 
• Thompson, Richard L.; Narendra S. Goel (1998). "Two Models for Rapidly Calculation Bi-direction Reflectance of Complex Vegetation Scenes: Photon Spread (PS) Model and Statistical Photon Spread (SPS) Model". Remote Sensing Review 16: 157–207. 

See also

• Hindu views on evolution
• Quantum mysticism

Notes

References

• Brown, C. Mackenzie (2009), "Hindu Responses to Darwinism: Assimilation and Rejection in a Colonial and Post-Colonial Context", Science & Education 19 (6-8): 705–738, http://www.springerlink.com/content/8700u67h5635pk07/ 
• Henry, Granville C. (1984), "Review: Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science: An Investigation Into the Nature of Consciousness and Form by Richard L. Thompson", Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science 19 (2): 377–380, http://books.google.com/books?id=5EIKAQAAMAAJ 
• Midwest Book Review (2004), "Review: God & Science", Internet Bookwatch 14 (12), http://www.godandscience.net/gasrev.html 
• Rothstein, Mikael (1996), Belief Transformations: Some Aspects of the Relation Between Science and Religion in Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, ISBN 8772884215, http://books.google.com/books?id=WVN-AAAAMAAJ 
• Rothstein, Mikael (2003), "UFO Beliefs as Syncretistic Components", in Christopher H. Partridge, UFO Religions, London; New York: Routledge, pp. 256–273, ISBN 0415263247, http://books.google.com/books?id=zHT8CeeiWlIC&pg=PA266 
• Wodak, Jo; Oldroyd, David (1996), "Review: 'Vedic Creationism': A Further Twist to the Evolution Debate", Social Studies of Science 26 (1): 192–213, http://www.jstor.org/stable/285746 
• Raman, Varadaraja V. (April 25, 2005), "Hinduism and Physics Merge in ‘God & Science’", Science & Theology News: 42, http://www.godandscience.net/gasrev.html 

Further reading

• Feder, K. L. (1994). "Forbidden archaeology (review)". Geoarchaeology 9 (4): 337. doi:10.1002/gea.3340090408. 
• Marks, J. (1994). "Forbidden archaeology (review)". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 93: 140–141. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330930113. 
• Murray, T. (1995). "Michael A. Cremo and Richard L. Thompson, Forbidden Archeology (review)". British Journal for the History of Science 28 (3): 377. doi:10.1017/S0007087400033410. 

External links

• Biography from an official website of the Bhaktivedanta Institute