People will always believe what they want to believe, even when they find evidence themselves that disproves what they believe. That’s the case for Edgar Nernberg, a creationist in Calgary who found a 60 million-year-old fish fossil that archaeologists have already called an important discovery.
Nernberg found the fossil while digging in the basement of a new development in Calgary, reports CBC News. He found the complete fossils of five fish, which is astonishing considering how old they are.
The irony of this discovery, as the Calgary Sun points out, is that Nernberg is on the board of directors of Big Valley’s Creationist Museum and has tried to get creationism a mention in the Alberta school curriculum. Creationists believe that the earth was only created by God some 6,000 years ago and that dinosaurs and humans lived together. Creationist museums also include “evidence” that Bible stories really did happen.
Even though he actually found the fossil, he refuses to back down from creationism.
“No, it hasn’t changed my mind. We all have the same evidence, and it’s just a matter of how you interpret it,” Nernberg told the Sun. “There’s not dates stamped on these things.”
The Big Valley’s Creationist Museum is meant to directly counter the work of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller. Nernberg’s discovery will help out researchers there.
In another twist, scientists are actually that Nernberg of all people made the discovery, because he instantly recognized that it was a fossil and could be important. Many others would have likely missed the fossils, which were the size of an iPhone.
So while Nernberg will have to give up the actual fossils to the Royal Tyrrell, he’s hoping to get a cast for his own museum.