The Morning After

Out flew the web and floated wide;  

The mirror crack'd from side to side;

"The curse is come upon me," cried

    The Lady of Shalott. 

Alfred Tennyson

Once upon a time, in a castle, in an island, there lived a mystical lady who was forbidden to look outside the window. This island was near Camelot.

Though she cannot look through the castle windows, she can still view everything using a magic mirror. She can see people, knights, practically, she can see all things via the reflection of the mirror.

One day, while weaving tapestry, she saw a knight named Lancelot, riding on a horse. Perhaps out of loneliness, she left the mirror and looked directly through the window to see Lancelot. Yes, the window was off limits but she did it anyway.

The mirror shattered. The mirror cracked from side to side.

"The curse is upon me," said she in horror of the mistake that she made. This horror was probably the same feeling atheists felt when the fake ape-man in Piltdown, England was revealed to be a hoax (yes, we're still talking about evolution).

Imagine the shame, the ridicule, the embarrassment atheists endured when "the missing link" was exposed as a phony. The curse was upon them.

They had it coming.

The Piltdown Gang

Above is a painting made by John Cooke in 1915 called the Piltdown Gang. Arthur Keith (anatomist) was the one in a white coat, behind him to the right, was Arthur Woodward (Natural History Museum). Next to him was the criminal mastermind Charles Dawson, the creator of the ape-man skeleton.

"Gang" had probably a different connotation at the time (1915). However, today, "gang" can not be more appropriate.

gang

1  [gang] 

noun

1.

a group or band: A gang of boys gathered around the winning pitcher.

* * *

5.

a group of persons associated for some criminal or other antisocial purpose: a gang of thieves.

No doubt about it, what Dawson did was a crime. And Dawson was the head criminal.

Guess whose portrait hangs on the wall in that Piltdown Gang painting? The evil Charles Darwin.

To better grasp the entire story, The National History Museum in London created a wonderful timeline for us (I have edited some parts for easier reading):

1859	Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.
1871	Darwin publishes The Descent of Man, his book on human evolution.

1908	The first fragment of Piltdown Man's skull is found
1912	May 24: Dawson visits Smith Woodward and shows him skull fragments and other fossils from Piltdown.

1912	June 2: Dawson, Smith Woodward and Teilhard de Chardin start digging at Piltdown and find another piece of skull.

1912	November 21: The Guardian runs a story on the finds at Piltdown.

1912	December 18: Smith Woodward announces Piltdown Man at a meeting of the Geological Society in London.

1949	Kenneth Oakley runs flourine tests that reveal the Piltdown fossils are more like 50,000 than 500,000 years old.
1953	Joseph Weiner and Wilfrid Le Gros Clark join Oakley and discover the skull and jawbone come from entirely different species.
1953	November 21: The Natural History Museum announces Piltdown Man is a hoax.

So for more than 40 years, England was fooled, the whole world was fooled, the entire kingdom of atheists was fooled.

Thank God for the flourine test!

It's possible that on November 21, 1953, the shock has not settled yet among atheists. Most likely, the morning after November 21 did they feel the curse.

To God be the glory.

Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16080#sthash.nR1LkXZx.dpuf

Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16080#sthash.nR1LkXZx.dpuf

Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16080#sthash.nR1LkXZx.dpuf

Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16080#sthash.nR1LkXZx.dpuf

Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16080#sthash.nR1LkXZx.dpuf

Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side; "The curse is come upon me," cried The Lady of Shalott. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16080#sthash.nR1LkXZx.dpuf