Remember Occam’s Razor? Hard to accept the side that needs to twist and ignore and lie about the physical evidence to create a complicated theory using only the words of pre-science creative writers.
In almost every way, the “Garden of the Gods at Colorado Springs” excursion at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) last year was a normal — even enjoyable — field trip. Standard geologic terminology was used in the accompanying field trip guide, and throughout the trip itself. The trip leaders discussed past events in terms of millions and billions of years. At each stop along the trip, the guides relied on orthodox geologic thinking, including a standard examination of sedimentary features and the nature of contacts between units.
But in reality, the trip was anything but a normal geology field trip. Instead, it was an example of a new strategy from creationists to interject their ideas into mainstream geology: They lead field trips and present posters and talks at scientific meetings. They also avoid overtly stating anything truly contrary to mainstream science.
But when the meeting is over, the creationist participants go home and proudly proclaim that mainstream science has accepted their ideas. It’s a crafty way of giving credence to creationism. But is there anything mainstream scientists, or the conveners of meetings and field trips, can or should do about it?
And this is what people from the USA mean when they talk about the separation of church and state. Isn’t that in your constitution or something.
In the UK, we have specific links between the church and the state. We have Religious Education as a subject that I think it is part of the national curriculum.
Any 16-18 year old here that insisted that Darwin was incorrect and the US “Christian” creationist claims were right would fail their biology exams.
Not a new idea. Dear Uncle Dave, You oppose the will of Allah.
You do need to add a safe room to you residence and I’d suggest you learn to use a handgun.
Making fun of Christians is normally fairly safe because Jesus wasn’t into killing people. The word of Allah can be a bit more harsh. The word of Allah and the Bible both support creationism.
#30 “Because God created all things to reveal His glory”
Wow, that God guy sounds like an ego-maniacal douchebag.
BTW, Tea – did you notice that out of the 51 comments so far, that 90% are by you?
32 Alfie. That answer made even less sense than you usually do. You blow that much smoke up you own ass, your brain must be like beef jerky by now.
#51 your interpretation of the Bible might support creationism. My interpretation does not.
Have a re-read of IIPeter 3:8. We can make no interpretation about the passage of time or the timings of events from Scripture.
If we happen to know from archaeological evidence when something happened that carries more weight than the interpretation of someone who understands neither, evolution, scientific study or your legal system.
This is the same as when some unwise individual announced recently that the rapture was about to happen. God does not do dates. That is a human thing.
Insisting that creationism be taught in school is like insisting that Dental school students be taught about the tooth fairy!
Learning *about* creationism is good. People should also learn about Marxism, existentialism and lots of other stuff.
Hey what U talking about!
I’m real and I can kick Jesus’s butt.
Oh BTW Taxed less than any generation since 1941 Already Dude is not getting any quarters out of me.
Hey Alfie—don’t builders have parents?
Thats why I like the intelligent design theories that posit “a committee” rather than an individual. All the F-ups we see make more sense that way.
So unwilling to simply admit “we don’t know.”
Liberals can be creationists too.
They will tell you that two reproductively isolated populations of an animal species, evolving independently for tens of thousands of years, subject to all the usual natural forces (founder effects, genetic drift, random mutations, and adaptation), somehow come out with
(a) different skin and hair,
(b) different bone structure,
(c) different blood antibodies,
(d) different disease susceptibilities,
(e) different athletic strengths and weaknesses (watch the Olympics), and yet
(f) IDENTICAL BRAINS!
If you even question this logic they will screech with religious fervor.
#19 Quite trippy, Alphie. God’s secret recipe Higgs Boson matrix talking snake super nova time warp! Fine.
I’m content believing that Mother nature doesn’t owe me or simple minds an explanation. She called me and said in an Italian accent ….”don’t worry, be happy, never mind the loons”
It’s so good to have imaginary friends like my unicorn Charley.
Maybe we could let my Charley and your Jesus have a play date.
Once you’ve decided that there must be a Creator, the only thing left is to decide who the Creator is, from among many fine candidates nominated by various cultures around the world. Isn’t it strange that no Creator has actually stepped forward to claim credit for his wonderful work. Not one! Many people throughout history have claimed to be his spokesman, with the corresponding authority and power that an official spokesman would have, but the Creator himself is remarkably shy.
It’s almost as if the Creator doesn’t really want to be worshiped after all, because logically, personal appearances would vastly increase the number of his followers and the sincerity of their resolve to do his will. It would also offer him the opportunity to clarify many of the misunderstandings surrounding his intentions, leading to more harmonious life on earth once everyone is on the same page, theologically speaking.
My theory for his extreme shyness is that the Creator wants to avoid product liability suits for the many obvious defects in his “intelligent design.”
Oh-no Charley just gored Jesus
The blood the death what a mess, I sure hope that resurrection thing still works I’d hate for Alphie to be all alone
#5 Agreed. The religo-loons simply cannot be content privately and quietly believing and worshiping their ‘thang’.
I just don’t see why they have to drag the rest of us into their Alice in Wonderland. Is there a prize for religious conversions? Hibachi? Flat screen TV? How are fraudulent believers handled. This is very confusing and fraught with loopholes.
Excellent dude. Alfie has proven the existence of hash brownies.
#71 Alphie, believer questions! Hope you can advise as resident sage.
Pls explain how fake believers and other loopholes are dealt with. I might be interested in applying as a believer. Am I allowed to join even though I have a few blemishes on my record?
Also, can one believe in more than one story? ie dual citizenship as it were?
#70 no, the Creator is not my slave, but he ABSOLUTELY MUST reveal himself to anyone from whom he requires worship under penalty of eternal torture. This is the most basic, immutable MORAL and ETHICAL principle I can imagine. Some principles require no proof because they are self-evident to anyone with a working conscience. Such is my assertion that a deity that will torture you for non-belief must give you a solid basis to believe he exists. How could I possibly take anyone else’s word that he exists? Should I take your word for it? You’re already a known liar, just from your participation in this blog.
Many equally credible tales of creation exist, but they certainly don’t all involve the same Creator, so it’s critical to know which Creator is real, if any. The one and only true Creator cannot ETHICALLY require people of today to simply take the word of people who died thousands of years ago to “verify” his existence through the dubious writings they left behind. I couldn’t possibly trust people I’ve never met to have behaved so differently from people of today that they wrote with absolute truthfulness, driven by no ulterior motives. Anyone so trusting is just a sheep begging to be shorn and slaughtered.
Regarding your particular Judeo-Christian superstitions, ancient writings on papyrus scrolls or carved on stone do not automatically imply unquestionable fact, and the contradictions and tales of sheer terror they often tell about your “loving” god provide strong evidence that those writings properly belong among the many similar myths of dragons, gorgons, and other monsters.
So we divide into two camps. Scientists or Devo. Where are those believing souls who have doubt?
You know: I love god, I really do, because he told me too but in real life people who do that are control freaks and generally not very good people. so, I accept on faith that god is too infinite for me to understand and must take his godness of faith. Thats just what the guy who raped me in 4th grade said. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t believe him too.
How do I believe in the one and not the other, and how are they any different?
Yes, I believe but I have my doubts.
Why shouldn’t creationists twist science to fit their views? Scientist’s have been doing for years.
# 31 Taxed Enough Already Dude said:
“Because God created all things to reveal His glory….”
Were there any who were unaware of His glory prior to that?
If a guy raped a child, you might call him a priest. Or a minister.
Alfie wins the bi-curious comment of the week.
#77 Taxed Enough, that’s an heartening interpretation, but certainly it’s one that is disputed by many of your fellow Christians, including some of those who indoctrinated me when I was just a wee lad. I was taught that damnation was irrevocable. But this situation is one of the reasons I was advocating that the real Creator make personal appearances, not just to prove his identity (apart from the many false Creators being worshiped), but also to resolve many of the disagreements that exist among sincere believers. I’m sure that Christianity isn’t the only religion that suffers from such disagreements. Whichever one is the TRUE religion probably has the same problem.
If the REAL Creator is the one that you claim (Yahweh), and he will show himself to us and endorse the correctness of your interpretations of his Holy Scriptures, I will owe you a HUGE apology!
Who cares! Several hundred years ago everyone believed in creationism, spontaneous generation and the Earth was flat. Some little Middle Eastern country’s leader insisted the world was flat as late as the 1960’s.
Today there are more fun myths, like the idea the country is going to come out of the recession or that social spending isn’t going to crash and burn in a few years.
Hmeyers, you’re right. Default ahead. What do you think? Two years, four years?
Tax income as a percent of GDP is so low in the US that the income just isn’t there to pay down. Sadly it’ll take a default and a shrinking of the economy to bring things back into line. Ugly, but simple math.
I often wonder who is more out of touch with reality: Marxists or Supply Side economists?
Creationists vs. Man-Made Global Warming Alarmists. They apply the same kind of logic and lack of empirical evidence.
But they’re interesting theories in the absence of the scientific method. 🙂
@foobar
No need to worry.
It will hit the point that the US can’t really borrow any longer.
At that point, the US government will start printing a ton of monopoly money and things will be “fine”.
It will devalue all the assets in the USA, people’s retirement savings and reduce the effective costs of all social programs and the lower the standard of living.
Inflation will be rampant it will be a new and previously untried system of economics. It will be a bit evil and favor the very wealthy, as you best capitalize on inflation by having foreign assets and being able to shift resources/jobs across borders for gain.
^^Add: It will essentially be a highly sophisticated robbery, but the average common man is really ignorant and doesn’t understand things like “intentional national hyper-inflation” and both parties will be doing it.
So the common man, not understanding economics will be fine with being robbed because he has difficulty understanding the concept and/or carrying on such a conversation.