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Richard L. Thompson also known as Sadaputa Dasa, (1947 - September 18, 2008) was a mathematician, academic, author and American Vaishnava. He published several books and articles, including Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race (1993), co-authored with Michael Cremo. With his writings on cosmology, Darwinism and religion, he is sometimes identified[by whom?] as a "Vedic Creationist".
Richard L. Thompson | |
|---|---|
| File:Sd1.jpg Richard L. Thompson | |
| Born | 1947 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Author, editor |
Thompson was a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement or ISKCON) and a disciple of the movement's founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He was also a founding member of the "Bhaktivedanta Institute", an ISKCON academic think tank.
Biography
He was born in Binghamton, New York, in 1947. In 1974, Thompson received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Cornell University. He specialized in probability theory and statistical mechanics. Later, he conducted research in quantum physics and mathematical biology at the La Jolla Institute in San Diego, the State University of New York at Binghamton, and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He died on September 18, 2008.[citation needed]
Publications
Thompson a wrote many articles for scientific journals and for Back To Godhead, the official magazine of ISKCON, and published seven monographs.[citation needed]
In 1993 Thompson co-wrote Forbidden Archeology, a pseudoscientific tract proposing antievolutionism from a Hindu perspective.[1][2][3][4]
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 for extreme human antiquity.[5] The authors speak about a "knowledge filter" as the reason for this suppression. Forbidden Archeology has attracted some attention from creationists and paranormalists.[clarification needed][6]
Meera Nanda in the Indian magazine Frontline called Cremo and Thompson "the intellectual force driving Vedic creationism".[7]
In 1996 Thompson and Cremo appeared on the NBC special The Mysterious Origins of Man, which was widely criticized by the scientific community.[citation needed]
Thompson also researched UFO phenomena. In 1993 he wrote Alien Identities in which he explored parallels between modern UFO accounts and descriptions found within the ancient Sanskrit writings of India.[8]
He wrote two books on Hindu cosmology, Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy (1989) and Mysteries of the Sacred Universe (2000).[9][10]
In his final book, Maya: The World as Virtual Reality (2003), Thompson utilized virtual reality as a metaphor for the Hindu concept of maya:
- "The basic theme is that what we can imagine doing in a virtual reality system may actually be happening in nature on a vastly greater scale. Nature may be like a computer simulation interfaced with conscious observer / participant."[11]
The virtual reality model is also employed to show "how both paranormal phenomena and religious experiences can be reconciled in a natural way with the laws of physics."[This quote needs a citation]
See also
References
- ^ Hidden History, Hidden Agenda, Bradley T. Lepper
- ^ Creationism: The Hindu View, Colin Groves
- ^ Forbidden Archaeology : Antievolutionism Outside the Christian Arena, Wade Tarzia
- ^ "This remarkable compendium of pseudoscience [Forbidden Archeology] is premised on the assumption that modern science is a prisoner of Western cultural and religious biases..." Scientific Values and Civic Virtues, Noretta Koertge, Oxford University Press
- ^ "Michael (A.) Cremo". Contemporary Authors Online. September 23, 2002. Retrieved on August 17, 2008.
- ^ "Cremo, Michael". Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained. Ed. Una McGovern. Chambers, 2007. p. 135.
- ^ Nada, Merra. "Vedic creationism in America". Frontline. January 14–27, 2006. Retrieved on August 18, 2008.
- ^ Alien Identities
- ^ Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy
- ^ Mysteries of the Sacred Universe
- ^ Maya: The World as Virtual Reality
Bibliography
- Mechanistic and Nonmechanistic Science: An Investigation Into the Nature Of Consciousness and Form
- Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy
- Alien Identities: Ancient Insights into Modern UFO Phenomena
- Mysteries of the Sacred Universe: The Cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana
- Maya: The World As Virtual Reality
- God and Science: Divine Causation and the Laws of Nature. [Selected essays]