Creationist loon Ray Comfort is shipping out his own special edition of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. If you don’t already know about it, you can read a debate Comfort had with National Center for Science Education’s Genie Scott recently online sparked by this book.
Wouldn’t you know it, but the book has Florida ties. It’s being published by a company in Alachua. (News story published last month.) It warms my heart, though, to know that not everyone buys this trash being pushed by Comfort and his buddy Kirk Cameron.
Todd LeVasseur, a third-year doctoral student in the University of Florida Department of Religion, said that trying to refute 150 years’ worth of research is energy that could be directed towards solving issues such as poverty and global warming.
“It’s like arguing the earth is still flat,†he said.
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[Betty Smocovitis, a UF professor of history and zoology] encourages students to read the last paragraph of Darwin’s book.
“Darwin never said God does not exist,†she said.
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She said Cameron isn’t a credible source on evolution, but he is free to share his opinion.
“It’s a free country,†she said. “He can do what he wants, and I am free to say he is out of his mind.â€
The marxist agenda covers a wide range of topics. ‘man made’ global warming, evolution, etc – all designed to control the masses in blithering ignorance. So that a hand full of elitists can control every aspect of life to make the masses their slaves and be worshipped for their ‘superior’ knowledge – which is really knowledge built on the flimsy foundation of a person’s moral or rather immoral disposition.
I can play this game too. The Christian fundamentalist agenda covers a wide range of topics, anti-abortion/removal of women’s rights, creationism, persecution of homosexuals, etc – all designed to remove any sort of individuality or creativity that would challenge the validity of the fundamentalist Christian world view blah blah blah.
If you studied the history of the Christian religion, you’d realize that the dystopian scenario you mentioned has already been played out numerous times, with religious elites controlling the masses through fear, violence, financial burden, suppression of new ideas and information, and wars. The only times this cycle stopped was when their suppression mechanisms failed, or an outside military force conquered them. Marxist theory primarily espouses the need to tear down this sort of predatory capitalism through social class struggle, etc, etc, leading me to believe that you don’t really know what Marxism and socialism really stand for beyond McCarthyist paranoia and catchphrases from conservative pundits.
So lets break it down into something that will be more easily understood by your simple mind: The scenario you describe can only be maintained through intentional sabotage of the education system, discouraging the formation of new ideas, and questioning established knowledge. Why then, is it that the science that FCS is trying to promote actively ENCOURAGES critical thinking, asking questions, and expanding one’s personal knowledge of the physical world whereas the religious extremists are burning books and screaming at people in shrill voices to cover their eyes and ears in the face of anything that reveals the bible for what it really is: a book of fables and historical literature as told by the people who lived at that time it was written?
Karl – Let me help you out a little. Christ is against abortion, (respect for women is paramount only in the Christian faith), Christ was the Creator, the act of sodomy is an abomination in the sight of God. Its interesting you deny creation but talk about creativity.
Its true man made religion does control the masses – Islam, Bhudism, Catholicism, Marxism, Taoism, evolutionism etc. Another name for it is iniquity or man doing what is right in his own sight.
Materialism is a form of worship also like idol worship.
Now as far as not allowing critical thought, you should listen to yourself. You summarily dismiss ID because you are closed minded. You talk of book burning but you would be gleeful if the Bible were burned. Who is covering their ears ? Stephen was stoned to death by those who hated God. They covered their ears to the truth when he spoke then they stoned him to death.
Stephen looked at them in sympathy and asked God to forgive them because they knew not what they were doing. Attitude is the key. One whom truly has Christ in their heart will wish no ill will upon anyone else. Would an evolutionist have the same love ?
Pro-tip: If you’ve actually read the bible, abortion is not mentioned, life begins AFTER birth with the first breath drawn by the infant, and in cases of accidental or intentional termination of a fetus, fines up to 20 gold pieces were were allowed as compensation depending on the parties involved. The points you made reveals the fundamental flaw of your movement: You pick and choose whatever “rules” laid out by the bible to follow, and make the claim that ALL of the bible is the absolute truth.
We dismiss ID as a science because it is not science. It already had its chance to prove itself and failed. The methodology used to formulate this hypothesis can be summarized as nothing more than wishful thinking in light of all the empirical evidence which point to evolution. ID is fine as a religious philosophy of sorts, but I don’t recall religion nor philosophy being taught in a biology class when I was in school. Would I be close-minded if I dismissed 95 cents as being 5 cents short of a dollar after counting and re-counting it over and over to reach such a conclusion? Stubborn ignorance falls on you in this case.
For the nth time, evolution doesn’t discount God as the creator of all there is, nor disputes His existence. It does however, dispute the whole literal garden of Eden picture, along with all the coconut-eating dinosaur nonsense added in later by fundy morons such as yourself. The crux of this conflict is your assertion that the mechanics described in Genesis are all literal, while saner denominations of Christianity have already reconciled with the possibility that Genesis, along with many other biblical passages, are to be taken metaphorically. Where do you get off deciding that the passage where the earth is described as a flat, immovable four-cornered plane is obviously a metaphor while dirt transmuting into fully formed and functional living organisms through some unknown divine energy is entirely possible?
One who truly professes to trust and keep Christ in his heart would not violate his teachings by resorting to deception and lies when faced with revelations that shakes an aspect of his faith. And these are what ID and the rest of its creationism-derived “theories” are: deceptions and lies. If you weren’t such a faithless coward, you wouldn’t see evolution as a leading away from Christ, but as a humbling reminder that we have yet to comprehend the magnitude and complexity of His plan. Have you even heard of theistic evolution?
Also, in all likelihood that the bible you are quoting from is the King James edition, perhaps you should read up on what a flaming (and dominantly aggressive) homosexual this King James feller was before gettin all self righteous with the abominations of sodomy and such…
As you should know that in law there is case law and statutory law. Some are specific and the other law of equity. There is also explicit and implicit deduction. Explicit is plain – while implicit is found in the context of a statement. The Bible clearly implies that abortion is wrong by implicit deduction. Read Exodus 21:22-23. Also sodomy is condemned all through the scripture from the account of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis all the way through the Bible with many references all the way through to the Book of Revelations – no matter what version you use. It is an abomination before the Lord. However if one is controlled by the bondage of sodomy there is good news on how to extricate yourself form that bondage and find freedom form that ever consuming sin by calling on the name of the Lord.
You speak of limiting God to evolution (theistic evolution). You limit His power in you own mind. Who is a coward ? God is powerful enough to speak the world into existence – but you have to limit him in your limited knowledge. A man’s world view dictates his ‘scientific’ observation. God indeed formed man from the dust of the ground – but he didn’t have to wait for millions of years for his breathe to form life into the dust making a man. The error is in man’s heart which skews his thinking. Its the motives of a man’s heart that dictates his observations. The proud in heart refuses to admit their error and thus is deluded by their own sense of importance by thinking they are more clever than their maker. Thus the foolishness of God is wiser than the ‘ most intelligent’ man. Knowledge puffs up and makes one arrogant, however those who humble themselves before their maker will receive grace and understanding to whom He is. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. He is far greater than you or I and no one can match wits with him as Job found out. He even spoke to Job and asked him where was he when He formed the earth and all that is within it (Job 38). Job finally humbled himself in sack clothe and ashes and recognized that God is indeed the Creator and far superior than His creation including the limited human intellect.
If theistic evolution limits God’s power in the way you described, creationism is also guilty of this by limiting God’s power to the events and mechanisms documented by religious texts which have deviated so much from the original source material through centuries of translations and revisions (with some being purely political in purpose, like your King James edition), that in the present form they are in now, they can hardly lay claim to the supposed infallibility of the original Hebrew and Greek texts. Creationism assumes man, with his limited human intellect, has the audacity to claim that he knows how God’s power works right there in black and white, whereas theistic evolution affirms a faith in God but recognizes that we have yet to understand the workings of his plan. It does not “limit” His power so to speak, but merely acknowledges that we do not yet understand how it works.
In light of this, how do you reconcile with the fact that the Earth is not a flat square plane? Or how the earth does in fact move (by orbit, planetary spin, and tectonic activity) and is NOT the center of solar system nor the known universe? Or that space isn’t filled with liquid water? Am I limiting God’s power whenever I dispute these claims as well?
You leave out at least one thing. God reveals himself to those who acknowledge who he is. He gives them clear understanding of what his purposes are. However he withholds understanding from those who do not acknowledge Him. Everyone is without excuse. A man’s conscience (which is part of a man’s ability to know God’s moral law) can be deadened. When man calls out in desperation to his maker he acknowledges both mans need for something outside himself and conquers pride which leads to total surrender to the Creator. This is God’s perfect way of determining our allegiance. Either to the dark forces that now works in the children of disobedience or the Spirit of God which speaks to mens hearts. It is spiritual. Those who are void of God’s spirit will not understand – they are always learning but never coming to the knowldge of the truth. God does not force us to love him. Those who refuse to recieve His love, He will not force them. He gives all a choice. All his life sustaining force will be withdrawn from those who want nothing to do with Him.
So the ‘battle’ is over who has the greater power. This will be seen in the days, months and years to come. Each side will be entrenched in their philsophical beliefs to see who has access to the greater power. This I look forward to !!!
You see, it’s so predictable. You confront a fundy with his own hypocrisy and he resorts to quoting scripture and eternal damnation. Typical mental conditioning for members of cults. Arguably, literal creationism itself is an affront to all the arguments you use to justify your “case” against evolution:
16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.
Ecclesiastes 8:10-17
Creationists claim to know God’s ways, think they got it all figured out right there on paper. And before you even think about accusing evolution supporters of the same thing, biologists have always maintained that if contradictory evidence was ever discovered, evolution will be re-evaluated, even dismissed entirely, IF physical evidence is found supporting such actions. Such is the nature of science. We don’t claim to know everything, but we will always strive to know more. This is no glorious battle to be fought. Only a bunch of stubborn cowards running around cuz their sky is falling.
Your a hopeless case until you cry out for true wisdom.
So are you when you finally realize that fleeting moment of smugness you are feeling right now is the only reward that God will bestow onto you for your lifetime of loud and obnoxious “piety.”
The only one who truly knows God, his abilities, all that He stands for, and His intentions is God Himself. Anyone else who claims to know all this is a filthy liar.
I rest my case.
Oh… I hope that means that “Johnny” will quit posting here.
The point is that you, Johnny, are attempting to claim that you know your god. You go divining for information that simply doesn’t exist in your mythology to discover the age of the earth (which is not mentioned anywhere in your mythology). You then use this as a basis of your attack on evolutionary biology. It’s illogical and irrational.
More like “case dismissed”
zygosporangia
Boy are you ignorant. The Bible does lay out a time line for the age of the earth. And describe the method of creation, the purpose for the creation and our own place in it. I suggest you read the Book.
Your comments solidify scriptures assertions that those who reject the clear implications of God’s presence will acquire a reprobate mind. You’re there.
Amen Chris.
It seems interesting that the Atheist movement and LGBT movement are steeped in hate. Attacking Christians on the street, attacking faith in the courtroom etc. All Christ calls us to do is love, yet I am the hateful one by showing love to my brothers, simply by explaining the good news.
“And before you even think about accusing evolution supporters of the same thing, biologists have always maintained that if contradictory evidence was ever discovered, evolution will be re-evaluated, even dismissed entirely, IF physical evidence is found supporting such actions.”
Yet when a question is asked by me I am attacked instead of having their points explained to me. Maybe this is why I started to believe in the Biblical description of creation. . .
Okay then “Greg”. what question might you be asking?
Oh, and “Greg”, that’s some real nice doublespeak you got going there. Where is your “love” when you hatemongers impose your sanctimonious values over the kind of relationship that two consenting adults can have with one another? Is it love when police in Ft. Worth Texas raid a gay bar under the guise of a liquor license check and end up arresting most of the patrons for “public intoxication” inside said drinking establishment while giving another severe head and brain injuries while in custody? What about when one of you Christian wackos decides to gun down an abortion clinic doctor in a church? In the name of overwhelming love for Jesus or raw hatred?
Creationism is hateful because the justification that Christian extremists use to advocate it is identical to the same line of reasoning that was used by some American Christians to justify the continued practice of slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War, and later on in the fight to keep racist laws in place and opposing civil rights for blacks and other non-white peoples. Their justification can be summarized as “cause it says so in the bible.” And the real kicker is, the largest and most politically active Christian pro-creationism denomination in America is the same aforementioned denomination which fought so hard against abolitionism and civil rights. The hatred is always there, but just gets redirected every few decades. Know your history before you feign bewilderment.
I dare you to find one that does not involve creative interpretation of begets. Come on… prove that I’m ignorant.
Yeah… I figured that you didn’t have anything to offer about the age of the earth fro your mystical book.