Bob Enyart Live Errata
"...it's what I know that isn't so."
On air Bob Enyart has long quoted the person, unknown to us, who first said: "It's not what I don't know that's so bad; it's what I know that isn't so." We have two primary ways of correcting errors that we make at BEL, and they're described below. But first, of the errors we have made over the years that we are aware of, here are the five biggest:
- Money: In the 1990s, I wrongly believed that justice required governments to return to the gold standard, whereby currency would once again be based upon reserves of precious metals. more...
- Death Penalty: In the 1990s, I made two reciprocal errors regarding the death penalty, both of which could have been avoided by more a careful reading of Scripture. First, while I stated that I personally preferred the death penalty for all convicted rapists, I wrongly indicated the Bible seemed to command execution for only some convicted rapists, depending upon the circumstances. I was wrong. Aside from an examination of all related scriptures (as we do in our various verse-by-verse Bible study albums) one way to see that God requires the death penalty for all convicted rapists is to realize that the crime of rape inherently includes the lesser crime of kidnapping, which itself is a capital crime. (Relatedly, many Christians historically defended America's slavery by misrepresenting Scripture, whereas the KGOV article Slavery and the Bible demonstrates conclusively that the teaching of the Bible condemns what became America's extensive history of horrific slavery.) Secondly, while I urged the return to the Bible's death penalty commands, I forgot to rightly divide the Mosaic Law. I should have excluded ordinances that were applicable only to God's national covenant with Israel. Christ replaced the Jewish priesthood, and many of the Jewish laws have also changed. "For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law" (Hebrews 7:12). This principle has been an important part of my teachings for 20 years, but I am ashamed that I overlooked it regarding the death penalty (2 Tim. 2:15). I forgot that only for Israel did God outlaw other religions, so for example, their government had authority to prosecute cursings and witchcraft. But since the law changed, God's national covenant with Israel is no longer enforceable. Today's governments should implement the criminal code that is embedded within the Mosaic Law, which God based upon four of the Ten Commandments, prohibiting murder, theft, sexual immorality, and perjury, including the death penalty where appropriate. (Further, another commandment, thou shall not covet, is often helpful in establishing motive during criminal proceedings.) more...
- Forgiveness of Debt: In the 1990s, I forgot to "rightly divide" the Mosaic Law (see above), and wrongly supported a return to the Bible's year of the Lord's Release, whereby all debts would be forgiven every seven years (Deut. 15). This economic sabbatical cycle symbolized the freedom that Christ would bring to His people. However, even in the Mosaic law, God permitted different financial dealings between Jews and Gentiles (Deut. 15:3), indicating that these were not fundamental matters of morality that must be observed by all nations, but they were symbolic aspects of His national prophetic covenant with Israel. more...
- Missing CMB Shadow of the Big Bang: Radio telescopes detect static everywhere in the night sky, which static is called the cosmic microwave background, alleged to have originated 380,000 years after the Big Bang when it is claimed that radiation finally could propagate through space. As with buildings that block sunlight (but don't produce total darkness), astrophysicists have long argued that in the foreground of nearby galaxy clusters they should detect a "shadow" (or diminshed signal) of the CMB. Newer research has called into question previous observations that implied a missing CMB shadow, with the earlier data now seen as equivocal. We previously used the missing shadow argument as a piece of evidence against the big bang. Google: big bang predictions, and you will find our article ranked #1 (beating NASA, space.com, Wikipedia, etc.) and there you will find rsr.org/bbp#shadow. So to clarify, the current evidence doesn't prove a shadow but is equivocal; nonetheless, therefore, we're marking this as a BEL error.
- Engineer's Canyon: Bob Enyart, host of Real Science Radio, retracts the claim he made in 2012 regarding the formation of Engineer's Canyon in the state of Washington.
RSR contacted a scientist who for many years has been teaching graduate courses on remote (satellite, etc.) sensing. We asked Dr. Ed Holroyd of Denver, Colorado's Metropolitan State University to review our claimed explanation for Engineer's Canyon. Dr. Holroyd's careful 10-page report, An analysis of the canyons in the Toutle River, states on page 6 regarding "The Engineers Canyon (EC) and 'Little Grand Canyon' (LGC)" that, "These already existed at the time of this image, and so the continued pumping through 1985 did not carve these canyons, but may have enlarged Engineers Canyon." Our original statement, now retracted, stated: "Many people asked to explain the photo on the right might claim that over millions of years that small stream eroded the canyon. In reality, Engineers' Canyon, on the north edge of the Toutle River valley just west of Spirit Lake, eroded it in the early 1980s over a period of two years."
Lesser Errors
- Wrongly Attributed Quote to Galileo: Galileo's beloved daughter Polissena, living a cloistered life as Sister Maria Celeste, wrote to her father about a rose symbolizing the "suffering of our Lord." Bob wrongly attributed this quote to the dad. But see his actual words by searching here for "Scriptures cannot err".
- Obama's Place of Birth: During disagreements, some have criticized Bob Enyart for always thinking that he is right. Bob's rebuttal was always: "Don't most people think they're right when arguing their position?" In a related developement, years ago, back in the 1990s on BEL, it turns out that Bob was wrong to say that he had been wrong about the meaning of "replenish". Then in the 2010s, once again, Bob was wrong to say that he had been wrong about Obama's place of birth.
- Oxygen and the Atmosphere: While the Manhattan Project eventually quelled its fears of the atmosphere potentially being set on fire, Bob was incorrect to suggest in his list of fine-tuning that increased oxygen content alone might enable a forest fire to ignite the atmosphere. (Now if methane were also increased... :)
BEL's Two Methods of Correcting Errors: It's not what I don't know that's so bad, it's what I know that isn't so. Since October 2004 we've had an "Errata" link on our homepage and on almost every page of our website (which totals 10,000 pages as of Jan. 1, 2017). We have two primary ways of correcting errors we make at Bob Enyart Live. Of course, people disagree about what is true and what is false, and therefore, about what constitutes an error. For a human being to identify every error he has ever made would require a kind of on-demand access to something akin to omniscience. At BEL, once we become aware of a significant error we've made, we attempt to reduce the spread of that error by correcting the record. While there is overlap, as a general rule, errors in the realm of ideas typically do greater harm than errors of fact. Selah. We correct discovered transient errors made in the course of a single program, typically ones of fact, in the summary for that particular show. (For example see this BEL science error.) When I become convinced of a substantive error repeated over a period of time, we will correct that error here on this BEL Errata page. If you would like to suggest for consideration something that should be corrected here, please contact us and let us know. Thanks! And... sorry about the errors... we'll attempt to do better, my staff and I, to avoid making them to begin with.
-Bob Enyart
1-800-8Enyart (836-9278)