Richard L. Thompson
Encyclopedia
Richard Leslie Thompson also known as Sadaputa Dasa (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. 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. In the 'science and religion' community he was known for his articulation of the ISKCON's view of science. 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". 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.
, in 1947. In 1974 he received a Ph.D.
in mathematics from Cornell University
. 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. Thompson carried out research in the fields of statistical mechanics
, probability theory
, and mathematical biology
. 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. 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. 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". He formulated the ISKCON's view on the concept of 'higher dimensional science' and wrote extensively on scientific subjects from this perspective. In an effort to legitimize ISKCON's theology, he made research and analysis of the relation between the Vaishnava theological worldview and modern science.
Thompson died on September 18, 2008.
tract proposing antievolutionism from a Hindu perspective. 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. Meera Nanda
in the India
n magazine Frontline
called Cremo and Thompson "the intellectual force driving Vedic creationism".
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. 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. 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".
As a publicity stunt, the book was mailed, unsolicited, to a large number of paleoanthropologists. 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".
In 1996 Thompson and Cremo appeared on the NBC
special The Mysterious Origins of Man
, which was based upon the book, and which was similarly criticized by the scientific community.
Thompson tried to show in the book "that the common mechanistic and reductionistic paradigms of science contain serious instabilities and internal contradictions" and therefore cannot explain what we know about human consciousness and the external world. Henry notes that according to Thompson, it is "through the nonmechanistic though verifiable process of bhakti-yoga we can make sense of ourselves and our place in the world in strict compatibility with modern science". According to Henry, one of the attractive qualities of this book is that "Thompson writes as a scientist about science with a clarity, accuracy, and objectivity that should engender respect both from scientists and from those whose religious persuasions are other than his own". Henry is of the opinion that in Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science Thompson presented "the philosophical instabilities of contemporary scientific theory in a clear scientific language without a recourse to ad hoc religious explanations". Henry also writes that Thompson shows throughout the book love and respect for good science. Because of his love for science, "he is pained by its contradictions and seeks its intelligibility in a larger context".
. Above all Thompson attempts to show that the content of the Fifth Canto of the Bhagavata Purana
and of the Hindu astrological texts Jyotisa-sastras
is not mythological (as most people would expect). According to Thompson those texts provide "distinct yet mutually consistent ways of comprehending a universe with important features beyond the range of ordinary sense perseption".
The book is written from the perspective of "higher dimensional science". In one part of the book, Thompson discusses a mythological episode from the Bhagavata Purana, which describes the relations between Krishna
and Brahma
in his many forms. According to the story in the Bhagavata Purana, once millions of Brahmas from different universes came to visit Krishna. It is described that Brahmas "had varying numbers of heads, raging from four to hundreds of millions". Recounting this story, Thompson writes that "It is rather difficult to understand how millions of heads could be arranged on one body in three-dimensional space, and it is also difficult to see how millions of Brahmas could all be seen simultaneously within one room". Thompson suggests that these things only were made possible by the fact that "the underlying space is not three-dimensional".
Further elaborating on this point, Thompson presents another mythological story from the Puranas
. According to the puranic description, demon Banasura in his fight with Krishna used "1000 arms to work 500 bows and shoot 2000 arrows at a time". Thompson notes, that in this case the hero is a "materially embodied being living on earth". 500 arms could not be possibly mounted on one shoulder without interfering with one another. Also, it would not be possible to aim 500 bows in the same direction at once. Thompson concludes that the stories of this kind "implicitly require higher-dimensional conseptions of space".
Cosmographic examples, presented in the book, show the same pattern. Part of his book Thompson dedicates to discussing the structure of the universe as presented in the Fifth Canto of the Bhagavata Purana, known for its complexity.
. In his articles, Thompson extensively discussed ISKCON's relation to science. His articles were meant for readers with some scientific background and were difficult to comprehend for readers with no education. Although Back to Godhead presented itself as a "one of the uniting medias of all ISKCON members", Thompson's articles were not directed to every ISKCON devotee and were of interest only to ISKCON's intellectual elite.
Michael Cremo
Michael A. Cremo , 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...
) of Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race (1993), which has been widely criticised by the scientific community. Thompson also published several books and articles on religion and science, Hindu cosmology
Hindu cosmology
In Hindu cosmology the universe is, according to Hindu mythology and Vedic cosmology, cyclically created and destroyed.-Description:The Hindu cosmology and timeline is the closest to modern scientific timelines and even more which might indicate that the Big Bang is not the beginning of everything...
and astronomy. He was a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness , known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization. It was founded in 1966 in New York City by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...
(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. In the 'science and religion' community he was known for his articulation of the ISKCON's view of science. Danish historian of religion Mikael Rothstein
Mikael Rothstein
Mikael Rothstein is an associate professor of religious history at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2002 he was on the board of the Danish Association for the History of Religions and the editorial boards of the publications Renner Studies on New Religions and Nye...
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". C. Mackenzie Brown, professor of religion at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
Trinity University (Texas)
Trinity University is a private, independent, primarily undergraduate, university in San Antonio, Texas. Its campus is located in the Monte Vista Historic District and adjacent to Brackenridge Park....
, described him as "the leading figure" in the ISKCON's critique of modern science.
Biography
Richard L. Thompson was born in Binghamton, New YorkBinghamton, New York
Binghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...
, in 1947. In 1974 he received a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in mathematics from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
. In the same year he formally became a member of ISKCON, receiving spiritual initiation from ISKCON's founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was a Gaudiya Vaishnava teacher and the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, commonly known as the "Hare Krishna Movement"...
and adopting the spiritual name Sadaputa Dasa. Thompson carried out research in the fields of statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics
Statistical mechanics or statistical thermodynamicsThe terms statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics are used interchangeably...
, probability theory
Probability theory
Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single...
, and mathematical biology
Mathematical biology
Mathematical and theoretical biology is an interdisciplinary scientific research field with a range of applications in biology, medicine and biotechnology...
. 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. 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. 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
Vedic
Vedic may refer to:* the Vedas, the oldest preserved Indic texts** Vedic Sanskrit, the language of these texts** Vedic period, during which these texts were produced** Vedic pantheon of gods mentioned in Vedas/vedic period...
spiritual (or "higher dimensional") science". He formulated the ISKCON's view on the concept of 'higher dimensional science' and wrote extensively on scientific subjects from this perspective. In an effort to legitimize ISKCON's theology, he made research and analysis of the relation between the Vaishnava theological worldview and modern science.
Thompson died on September 18, 2008.
Forbidden Archeology
In 1993 Thompson and Michael Cremo co-wrote Forbidden Archeology. The book attracted vehement criticism as a pseudoscientificPseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
tract proposing antievolutionism from a Hindu perspective. The book seeks to debunk the existing palaeoanthropological consensus that anatomically modern hominids
Anatomically modern humans
The term anatomically modern humans in paleoanthropology refers to early individuals of Homo sapiens with an appearance consistent with the range of phenotypes in modern humans....
emerged of the order of a hundred thousand years ago. They then claim that the scientific establishment either ignores or suppresses anomalous evidence. Meera Nanda
Meera Nanda
Meera Nanda is an Indian writer, historian and philosopher of science and was a visiting fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi during 2009. She is a John Templeton Foundation Fellow in Religion and Science , with a Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an initial training in...
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n magazine Frontline
Frontline (magazine)
Frontline is a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications from Chennai, India. Narasimhan Ram is the editor-in-chief of the magazine. As a current affairs magazine, it covers domestic and International news. Frontline gives a prominent place to various...
called Cremo and Thompson "the intellectual force driving Vedic creationism".
The claims of anomalies has been widely disputed. Tom Morrow, citing an earlier review of the book by archaeologist Kenneth Feder
Kenneth Feder
Kenneth L. Feder is a professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University. He has authored several books on archaeology and criticism of pseudoarchaeology such as Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology...
, 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. 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. Anthropologist Colin Groves
Colin Groves
Colin Peter Groves is Professor of Biological Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia.Born in England on 24 June 1942, Colin Groves completed a Bachelor of Science at University College London in 1963, and a Doctor of Philosophy at the Royal Free Hospital School of...
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
Radiometric dating
Radiometric dating is a technique used to date materials such as rocks, usually based on a comparison between the observed abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, using known decay rates...
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".
As a publicity stunt, the book was mailed, unsolicited, to a large number of paleoanthropologists. Prominent paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey is a politician, paleoanthropologist and conservationist. He is second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey, and is the younger brother of Colin Leakey...
responded to a request for a book blurb
Blurb
A blurb is a short summary or some words of praise accompanying a creative work, usually used on books without giving away any details, that is usually referring to the words on the back of the book jacket but also commonly seen on DVD and video cases, web portals, and news websites.- History :The...
by stating: "Your book is pure humbug and does not deserve to be taken seriously by anyone but a fool".
In 1996 Thompson and Cremo appeared on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
special The Mysterious Origins of Man
The Mysterious Origins of Man
The Mysterious Origins of Man was a television special that originally aired on NBC on February 25, 1996. Hosted by Charlton Heston, the program argued that mankind has lived on the Earth for tens of millions of years, and that mainstream scientists have suppressed the fossil evidence for this...
, which was based upon the book, and which was similarly criticized by the scientific community.
Other writing
Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science
The book Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science: An Investigation Into the Nature of Consciousness and Form (1981) was described by Granville C. Henry in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science review as "a clear apology for the religious philosophy of the Hare Krishna movement from the perspective of a scientist and mathematician". Henry called the book "a very valuable addition to the current literature in science and religion".Thompson tried to show in the book "that the common mechanistic and reductionistic paradigms of science contain serious instabilities and internal contradictions" and therefore cannot explain what we know about human consciousness and the external world. Henry notes that according to Thompson, it is "through the nonmechanistic though verifiable process of bhakti-yoga we can make sense of ourselves and our place in the world in strict compatibility with modern science". According to Henry, one of the attractive qualities of this book is that "Thompson writes as a scientist about science with a clarity, accuracy, and objectivity that should engender respect both from scientists and from those whose religious persuasions are other than his own". Henry is of the opinion that in Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science Thompson presented "the philosophical instabilities of contemporary scientific theory in a clear scientific language without a recourse to ad hoc religious explanations". Henry also writes that Thompson shows throughout the book love and respect for good science. Because of his love for science, "he is pained by its contradictions and seeks its intelligibility in a larger context".
Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy
In the book Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy (1989) Thompson presents the religious critique of modern astronomyAstronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
. Above all Thompson attempts to show that the content of the Fifth Canto of the Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...
and of the Hindu astrological texts Jyotisa-sastras
Vedanga Jyotisha
The ' is an Indian text on Jyotisha, redacted by Lagadha .The text is foundational to the Vedanga discipline of Jyotisha. It is dated to the final centuries BCE...
is not mythological (as most people would expect). According to Thompson those texts provide "distinct yet mutually consistent ways of comprehending a universe with important features beyond the range of ordinary sense perseption".
The book is written from the perspective of "higher dimensional science". In one part of the book, Thompson discusses a mythological episode from the Bhagavata Purana, which describes the relations between Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
and Brahma
Brahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
in his many forms. According to the story in the Bhagavata Purana, once millions of Brahmas from different universes came to visit Krishna. It is described that Brahmas "had varying numbers of heads, raging from four to hundreds of millions". Recounting this story, Thompson writes that "It is rather difficult to understand how millions of heads could be arranged on one body in three-dimensional space, and it is also difficult to see how millions of Brahmas could all be seen simultaneously within one room". Thompson suggests that these things only were made possible by the fact that "the underlying space is not three-dimensional".
Further elaborating on this point, Thompson presents another mythological story from the Puranas
Puranas
The Puranas are a genre of important Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious texts, notably consisting of narratives of the history of the universe from creation to destruction, genealogies of kings, heroes, sages, and demigods, and descriptions of Hindu cosmology, philosophy, and geography.Puranas...
. According to the puranic description, demon Banasura in his fight with Krishna used "1000 arms to work 500 bows and shoot 2000 arrows at a time". Thompson notes, that in this case the hero is a "materially embodied being living on earth". 500 arms could not be possibly mounted on one shoulder without interfering with one another. Also, it would not be possible to aim 500 bows in the same direction at once. Thompson concludes that the stories of this kind "implicitly require higher-dimensional conseptions of space".
Cosmographic examples, presented in the book, show the same pattern. Part of his book Thompson dedicates to discussing the structure of the universe as presented in the Fifth Canto of the Bhagavata Purana, known for its complexity.
Back to Godhead
In the 1980s and 1990s Thompson wrote about "Science: The Vedic View" in every issue of ISKCON's bimonthly magazine Back to GodheadBack to Godhead
Back to Godhead, also known as BTG, is the main magazine of the Hare Krishna Movement. It was originally published by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and later by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami and Jayadvaita Swami.-External links:**...
. In his articles, Thompson extensively discussed ISKCON's relation to science. His articles were meant for readers with some scientific background and were difficult to comprehend for readers with no education. Although Back to Godhead presented itself as a "one of the uniting medias of all ISKCON members", Thompson's articles were not directed to every ISKCON devotee and were of interest only to ISKCON's intellectual elite.