Picked this one up from a Googlead at the bottom of the page.

History: Fiction or Science? by Anatoly T. Fomenko, ISBN: 2913621058

Going by the preview this is going to be 624 pages of unadulterated BS. No quotes or spoilers, just go, read and enjoy

Have fun but play nicely children!

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By asking questions we sometimes get the wrong answers, from wrong answers we learn to ask the right questions.

. For the avoidance of doubt, I'll repeat that

You have to believe a man "Armed with computers, astronomy and statistics" who claims that "there is not a single piece of firm written evidence or artifact that could be reliably and independently dated earlier than the XI century. "

I find this curious since I have degree in Byzantine History, with my honours courses on the 9th and 10th centuries.

I am tempted to buy it, just to see how bad it gets.

Here's the Amazon page. The reviews are a hoot.

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Now while I might be amused by Cthulhians, I don't necessarily distrust them to carry out the functions of government. -- JayUtah

What's it like being a skeptic in the Middle East? Check out my blog.

Bawheid, you have been deceived, and your life has just become meaningless.
Or that book is a piece of rubbish of course.

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Knowledge is a curse, but ignorance is worse

I'm off to the "meanings of dreams" thread now, and I'll add this lifelike dream I once had of seeing handwritten books, dated by the autor at 900AD and earlier

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Oh boy, what a hoot.

Am I the only one thinking this would be a great Monty Python movie?

I like the idea that there was no Bronza Age because they didn't know about Tin! =D>

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I have no degree, but my studies in the history of the Iberian peninsula goes back to the 8th century invasion (at least), and there's no convenient gap in the sources to "hide" parts of the history in...

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"We do not require reality to conform to the expectations of the ignorant"

I'm still wondering how the author figures that the Qur'an, which mentions Christianity numerous times, could have possibly been written centuries after Christ if Christ supposedly died in the 11th century?

I'm willing to bet Islamic scholars could provide historical works all the way back to the 7th century.

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Now while I might be amused by Cthulhians, I don't necessarily distrust them to carry out the functions of government. -- JayUtah

What's it like being a skeptic in the Middle East? Check out my blog.

Aren't there dated Chinese writings that are waaaaaay older even?

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Wouldn't the premise of his book infer that there is a continuing conspiracy of all scientists in all fields? From the archeologist using carbon dating on the relics of ancient civilizations, the marine biologist that finds the millennia old wreckage of a vessel, the historians of 100’s of cultures and histories(many of which developed independently of each other)?

I suppose those Renaissance conspirators traveled the globe, spending decades upon decades building fake artifacts, writing bogus religious texts, putting paintings on the odd cave wall, etc, etc, etc. And all without leaving records of their own work…

And all the people on Amazon that actually gave this a five star rating.

It boggles the mind.

** Edited to play the Devils Advocate, I will grant him one thing, that there are bits of history that we DO have to guess at from left over relics, oral histories that were not written down until many years later and the changes over time in a culture...but, I'd like to believe they are educated guesses by educated people.

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Photons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.

More likely that I have been deceived, I am fairly gullible. ops:

It does assume that all religions are in on the scam, or that all religions are part of the work of The Church.

The 9th and 10th centuries never happened. Existence commenced with the 11th century and ended with the 18th century. Everything before and afterwards is just adware in the matrix.

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Anything may be possible, but not everything actually is. Some things are true and some things are not. Wisdom is knowing the difference.

I downloaded the excerpt of the book available on the link in the OP. It is a very odd leap of logic:

a) Scaliger wrote a detailed Chronology in the 16th century.
b) Scaliger's work has errors.
c) therefore medieval history is utterly wrong.

How do we get that Jesus was born in the 11th century from here? Guess we'll have to get the book to find out. :roll:

At least it apparantly has some astronomy in it. Maybe someone can peruse the book at a bookstore and tell us if there is any BA in it.

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Now while I might be amused by Cthulhians, I don't necessarily distrust them to carry out the functions of government. -- JayUtah

What's it like being a skeptic in the Middle East? Check out my blog.

Well, "Anatoly Fomenko, leading mathematician of our time" turns out to be Russian. Somehow I'm not surprised.

And he also turns out to be an artist. Sort of.

http://www.spamula.net/blog/archives/000217.html
And he also apparently lectured once on computer graphics.

And...finally, here is the man himself. He's a math professor at the University of Moscow.

I would say it's a classic case of the Serious Geek getting hold of a fringe idea outside his specialty, to the point of obsession.

...Why is it $50-60 at Amazon.com, but only $19.95 from bookmasters?

Here are some hints as to exactly what sort of Bad Astronomy we're looking at here, in the table of contents

Ya know, if it was 20 bucks at amazon.com, I'd buy it, but I'm not gonna give a credit card number to bookmasters unknown. And if somebody wanted to buy it from Bookmasters and then mail it to me, I'd read it.

Already checked, and the Decatur Public Library doesn't have it.

What a surprise.

Well, I'm having fun with this.

Googling "dendera zodiac fomenko" brings up this page, with a substantial exploration of how mathematical calculations of the dates prove that these horoscopes are incorrect and that therefore all history is fiction.
I love it that their "proof" that Egyptian history is fiction is--astrology.

I'm in for £15, I've ordered a copy. If anyone wants it afterwards I'll throw in my copy of "1421, The Year China Discovered the World" for free.

How much? O...nevermind

About $28 in furrin money

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If anyone makes a donation to charity and PMs me their address I'll send them "1421" just to get it out my house.

Same offer will apply once I've read "History", though Jigsaw has first dibs.

Have you seen bookcrossings? ("Free your books" )

I have now, great idea. =D>

I'd be scared to release either of these books in case they ended up in the wrong hands.

Does anyone else here find it a little strange that there are so many 5 star reviews for this book?

Nope. Most people won't buy this book because they don't believe it from the start; result no reading hence no rating. People who will believe it, buy it, find it suberb because it is the next ultimate conspiracy theory they can get into, and hence rate it 5 stars. Things are put a bit black and white here, I know .

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

I also suspect that since the book attacks our understanding of history and challenges techniques like carbon-dating it would gain a modicum of support from YECs. One or two of the reviews were solely about how carbon-dating is wrong.

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Now while I might be amused by Cthulhians, I don't necessarily distrust them to carry out the functions of government. -- JayUtah

What's it like being a skeptic in the Middle East? Check out my blog.

I see that there are three copies of Bad Astronomy floating around. 8)

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Now while I might be amused by Cthulhians, I don't necessarily distrust them to carry out the functions of government. -- JayUtah

What's it like being a skeptic in the Middle East? Check out my blog.

The first one in the list was placed by my wife and I. We placed it before a show at the local planetarium and it was gone afterwards. We're a little disappointed that no one has bother to log its travels (if any). We first came across bookcrossings while we were geocaching. I'm considering doing an astronomy themed geocache and I'll probably put another copy of the BA's fine book into it.

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"A mystic is a person who is puzzled before the obvious but who understands the nonexistent." -- Elbert Hubbard

Hey, I'll take you up on this. Say, 20 bucks to the Salvation Army?

Hang onto both of 'em and send 'em together. (Yes, I do prefer my woo in large doses, thank you very much.) What are shipping costs like from Scotland to the U.S.? I'll make it 30 bucks to the General's gang if you'll pay for the shipping.

PM me when you're ready to get them out of your house and I'll PM you with my address, so you won't lose it in the meantime or something.