Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Yigal:

Even in the “hard” sciences there is bias. For example, many physicists
started trusting mathematical models more than lab experimentation, which
led to Einstein’s Relativity Theory, which was rejected by the most
influential scientist of that time, Tesla (influential in that his
discoveries led to many things we take for granted today), because it did
not accurately reflect the results he was getting in his lab. But Einstein
was only following a pattern of trusting models more than research,
perverting science away from scientific method, that was already widespread,
as practiced by such as Charles Lyell, Thomas Huxley, Charles Darwin, and
many others.

What I understand Kenneth Greifer as saying is that it is hard to accept
what people claim when they do not admit to their biases. Even just calling
oneself a “Christian”, “orthodox Jew” or even “fundamentalist” means little
in this post-modern age when words can mean whatever the speaker wants them
to mean (same as Humpty Dumpty in *Alice Through the Looking Glass*). There
are also many who live a practical schizophrenia, claiming one set of
beliefs from Friday evening to Sunday, but teaching incompatible beliefs
Monday through Friday. That is why I have been open about my beliefs, not as
an effort in proselytism (though I wouldn’t mind that if it occurred),
rather so that people can evaluate what I claim and recognize where my
biases may distort my understanding of Biblical Hebrew. Likewise I
understand Kenneth as calling for all to wear their biases on their sleeves
so that all can see them, rather than keeping them hidden behind a false
claim of academic neutrality.

Karl W. Randolph.