The Creation Myths of Cooperstown

Stephen Gould wrote The Creation Myths of Cooperstown for the Natural History Magazine. As a Harvard Graduate working in paleontology and evolutionary biology, Gould has had plenty of experience dealing with creation myths. Gould begins his essay by explaining an incident in which a man named George Hull created a huge man out of gypsum, buried it underground, pretended to discover it, and told everyone he had found some sort of biblical being. He then explains that a disappointingly large portion of the public fell for this. Gould then compares this to the creation myths of baseball. He explains that it is ridiculous to say that baseball was invented at one point in time. Baseball simply evolves.

          Upon reading this essay, the author’s frustration is evident.. He is frustrated with the baseball creation myth but also probably with a much larger creation myth in the book of genesis. Gould debunks the creation myths of baseball, and also the one of the Cardiff Giant, to reveal how uncritical the public is, and maybe the reader too. Gould is not a baseball historian; he is an evolutionary biologist. This essay is a mere example in Gould’s much bigger argument against the creation story of the bible. He reveals this near the end of the article by diving into Darwinian evolution.

          The way in which Gould makes these arguments is interesting. First, there is the indirect allusion to the “Bible vs Science Debate,” which he references when he draws “contrast between creation and evolution stories of baseball.” However, baseball is not the true focus of the essay, and neither is the Cardiff Giant. This makes the majority of the essay seem like mere anecdotes, or at least extended metaphors. The true creation myth of Genesis is comparable to the creation myth of baseball, and Gould uses the myths of baseball and the Cardiff Giants, which we know to be false, to show that anyone choosing the bible over modern science could be falling for a massive trick. It would be impossible to argue against that.

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The evolution of baseball.