User:Brett Gasper

About Me

Herodotus, was called by Cicero, "the father of history" and by Voltaire Herodotus was called "the father of lies".

With discoveries during the turn of the last century, by archeologists like Howard Carter, Heinrich Schliemann and Leonard Woolley, Herodotus has been exonerated and Voltaire has been deemed, by some, to be arrogant.

Herodotus, a contemporary of Socrates deviated from Homeric Tradition and made history a process of investigation: specifically,


 * 1) Gather Artifacts and Eyewitness Testimony,
 * 2) Test for Period and Bias (respectively),
 * 3) Construct a vivid narrative in light of your findings.

Today, Herodotus' Method and it's elements are the framework that the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics is hung upon.

In constructing those narratives, I try to use the trending philosophy of the day (eg. Natural Laws from Plato to Locke, Calvin's Divine Providence, Carlysle's Great Man Theory, Spencer's Social Darwinism, Christaller's Central Place Theory to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs).

Not only does this firmly ground historical research in verifiable artifacts - but it also allows the reader to look at the artifacts and make their own conclusions... Which I find to be intellectual rewards for my snooping.

I cannot write an entire narrative for an event and still keep the reader interested (that is what footnotes are for) - but I do consider it a very serious mission to capture the context accurately and report it in an honest way with no preconceived convictions. I am conscientious enough to know that some child will read an article and I have to know that child is receiving the unadulterated truth... a labor of love.

Jesus of Nazareth brought good news and had a simple message. There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love Yahveh who made you; Second, love your neighbor as yourself,  and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. Hang all of the Laws and all of the Prophets on these two Commandments.

This does not mean that you have to believe the old straw man fallacy that Christians think that the world is flat. Christianity has never been the enemy of truth I postulated to my granddaughter, who was playing on a trampoline, that the cords in the fabric could be like number lines: the distance between she and I could be considered space and the and the incremental cords running perpendicular could represent time. I rolled a ball down the incline toward her feet and it accelerated, eccentrically orbiting her feet and returned to my hand. This is how the planets move and the relationship between objects in the dark strand matrix of the Universe. A six year old got what the most brilliant minds, Archimedes, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Hubble, Wilson and Higgs took thousands of years to put together, in an intuitive way, beyond the standard model.

When Genesis 1:3-5 explains, on the first day, that "Yahveh said, Let there be light: and there was light; and Yahveh saw the light, that it was good: and Yahveh divided the light from the darkness;" the Bible is describing the Big Bang and the Second Law of Thermodynamics or Entropy.

My educational and career background is biology, chemistry and forestry.

Useful Templates

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Considerations
Please remember the Five Pillars of Wikipedia: that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, written from a neutral point of view, it is free content that anyone can use, edit, and distribute, we should all treat each other with respect and civility, and that these are only guidelines.

History and Journalism adhere to certain guidelines of rhetoric, logic and ethics and I will lay out '''my Code of Ethics: '''

Seek the Truth and Report it:

•Use Herodotus' Method

•Refrain from revisionism

•Refrain from Critical Theory

•Take responsibility and use your real name

•Don't take things personally

•Be constructive in giving critiques

•Avoid being fallacious

•Provide proper and honest context

•Thoroughly research subjects outside of your area of expertise

•Use proper definitions of words from authoritative sources

•Above all, cite the sources

Leave a Note for Me
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