Ronald H. Fritze

On his book Invented Knowledge: False History, Fake Science and Pseudo-Religions

Cover Interview of July 07, 2009

Lastly

While researching and writing Invented Knowledge, I would sometimes worry that the topic of pseudo-history and pseudo-science would become passé. In fact, there is no danger of that happening any time soon.

Shortly after I submitted my manuscript to the publisher, Gavin Menzies brought out his 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance. The title says it all—though it is a little perplexing to scholars of fifteenth-century Italy how the myriad of historians and chroniclers living in Italy at that time failed to comment on the Chinese visit.

Later, at about the time that Invented Knowledge appeared in print, the History Channel aired a new documentary titled Ancient Aliens. The producers provided the window dressing of giving both the true believers and the skeptics some screen time. In the end, however, the final presentation was heavily stacked in favor of those who believe in ancient astronauts. The documentary also managed to resurrect the clearly irrepressible Erik von DÃ¤niken one more time. As an editor at a major publishing company told a friend of mine several years ago, bunk sells, debunking doesn’t.

But my hope is that Invented Knowledge will inform and entertain my readers about a topic that can be fascinating, silly, and sometimes rather ominous and frightening—often all at the same time.

history / science / polemics / religion / academia / education / pop culture / archaeology / myth / occultism /

[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.

Carolyn J. Dean,
Interview of February 01, 2011

The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.

Jerome Kagan,
Interview of September 17, 2009