Skip to main content

Teach Creationism?

By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~

The following is my letter-to-the-editor which was published Oct. 13, 2010 in a local weekly newspaper here in Maine. I offer it here as it may provide some of you with useful ammunition in the evolution debate, and to show how I use letters by others as a jumping off point for my main message. My message, which always gets into every one of my letters, no matter what the surface topic, is simply that the bible is primitive bullshit. Libby Mitchell (Dem.) and Paul LePage (Rep.) are candidates for Governor.

Intelligent designImage via Wikipedia
“Teach Creationism?”

This is written in response to Connie Cooper’s letter of last week titled, “How Does Mitchell know what Maine is all about?”

In her letter, Ms. Cooper takes Libby Mitchell to task for her TV ad in which, “she states Paul LePage supports teaching creationism in public schools and that is not what Maine is all about.”

I think Libby Mitchell made that ad because it demonstrates that LePage is out of touch with modern science and voters need to know that. He apparently has no appreciation of it, and so he appears to prefer his bible stories as explanations of how the world works. I agree with her implication that a Governor lacking an appreciation of modern science could do great harm.

Ms. Cooper and LePage have fallen for the “teach the controversy” argument of the creationists. In fact, there is no controversy concerning the truth of evolution among the real experts in this field, the biologists. None! All current research in the field concerns the fleshing out of the details. “On the Origin of Species” was published over 150 years ago, and biological research has since amassed a literal mountain of published, peer reviewed works which support the theory, over and over and over again. The creationists speak of “Darwinism” as if no one but Darwin had noticed the fossil record or the DNA code in the last 100 years.

The creationists (and “intelligent design” people) complain about missing “transitional” fossils and supposed “irreducible complexity.” In fact, since 99% or so of all species that have ever existed are now extinct, EVERY fossil (except of current species) represents a transition from an older species to a newer one. And every argument for “irreducible complexity“ has been refuted. One needs only do a web search and be willing to read non-Christian sites to find those explanations.

The creationists have claimed that scientists are colluding in a vast conspiracy to exclude their views (remember the movie “Expelled,” with Ben Stein?). How could this possibly work? If any scientist could disprove evolution, fame and fortune would be his in an instant. The Nobel Prize (worth a million-plus) would be a cinch, and he would be considered as great a scientist as Einstein and Newton. Now how do you hold together a conspiracy against that type of pressure, and do it for 150 years?

The sad truth is that the authors of the bible were primitive people who knew no science to speak of. If they didn’t have an explanation for something, they just made a guess. This explains why the bible speaks of four legged fowl, a flat earth, the demon theory of disease, and that incredible story about cows in a pasture with striped posts giving birth to striped offspring (Genesis 30:37-39)?

I think Libby Mitchell is right. A man who takes his science from 2,000-year-old texts with dozens of proven errors would be a poor choice for Governor of Maine.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Are You an Atheist Success Story?

By Avangelism Project ~ F acts don’t spread. Stories do. It’s how (good) marketing works, it’s how elections (unfortunately) are won and lost, and it’s how (all) religion spreads. Proselytization isn’t accomplished with better arguments. It’s accomplished with better stories and it’s time we atheists catch up. It’s not like atheists don’t love a good story. Head over to the atheist reddit and take a look if you don’t believe me. We’re all over stories painting religion in a bad light. Nothing wrong with that, but we ignore the value of a story or a testimonial when we’re dealing with Christians. We can’t be so proud to argue the semantics of whether atheism is a belief or deconversion is actually proselytization. When we become more interested in defining our terms than in affecting people, we’ve relegated ourselves to irrelevance preferring to be smug in our minority, but semantically correct, nonbelief. Results Determine Reality The thing is when we opt to bury our

Christian TV presenter reads out Star Wars plot as story of salvation

An email prankster tricked the host of a Christian TV show into reading out the plots of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Star Wars in the belief they were stories of personal salvation. The unsuspecting host read out most of the opening rap to The Fresh Prince, a 1990s US sitcom starring Will Smith , apparently unaware that it was not a genuine testimony of faith. The prankster had slightly adapted the lyrics but the references to a misspent youth playing basketball in West Philadelphia would have been instantly familiar to most viewers. The lines read out by the DJ included: "One day a couple of guys who were up to no good starting making trouble in my living area. I ended up getting into a fight, which terrified my mother." The presenter on Genesis TV , a British Christian channel, eventually realised that he was being pranked and cut the story short – only to move on to another spoof email based on the plot of the Star Wars films. It began: &quo

So Just How Dumb Were Jesus’ Disciples? The Resurrection, Part VII.

By Robert Conner ~ T he first mention of Jesus’ resurrection comes from a letter written by Paul of Tarsus. Paul appears to have had no interest whatsoever in the “historical” Jesus: “even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, we know him so no longer.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:16 ) Paul’s surviving letters never once mention any of Jesus’ many exorcisms and healings, the raising of Lazarus, or Jesus’ virgin birth, and barely allude to Jesus’ teaching. For Paul, Jesus only gets interesting after he’s dead, but even here Paul’s attention to detail is sketchy at best. For instance, Paul says Jesus “was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” ( 1 Corinthians 15:4 ), but there are no scriptures that foretell the Jewish Messiah would at long last appear only to die at the hands of Gentiles, much less that the Messiah would then be raised from the dead after three days. After his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus—an event Paul never mentions in his lette

Morality is not a Good Argument for Christianity

By austinrohm ~ I wrote this article as I was deconverting in my own head: I never talked with anyone about it, but it was a letter I wrote as if I was writing to all the Christians in my life who constantly brought up how morality was the best argument for Christianity. No Christian has read this so far, but it is written from the point of view of a frustrated closeted atheist whose only outlet was organizing his thoughts on the keyboard. A common phrase used with non-Christians is: “Well without God, there isn’t a foundation of morality. If God is not real, then you could go around killing and raping.” There are a few things which must be addressed. 1. Show me objective morality. Define it and show me an example. Different Christians have different moral standards depending on how they interpret the Bible. Often times, they will just find what they believe, then go back into scripture and find a way to validate it. Conversely, many feel a particular action is not

ACTS OF GOD

By David Andrew Dugle ~   S ettle down now children, here's the story from the Book of David called The Parable of the Bent Cross. In the land Southeast of Eden –  Eden, Minnesota that is – between two rivers called the Big Miami and the Little Miami, in the name of Saint Gertrude there was once built a church. Here next to it was also built a fine parochial school. The congregation thrived and after a multitude of years, a new, bigger church was erected, well made with clean straight lines and a high steeple topped with a tall, thin cross of gold. The faithful felt proud, but now very low was their money. Their Sunday offerings and school fees did not suffice. Anon, they decided to raise money in an unclean way. One fine summer day the faithful erected tents in the chariot lot between the two buildings. In the tents they set up all manner of games – ring toss, bingo, little mechanical racing horses and roulette wheels – then all who lived in the land between the two rivers we

On Living Virtuously

By Webmdave ~  A s a Christian, living virtuously meant living in a manner that pleased God. Pleasing god (or living virtuously) was explained as: Praying for forgiveness for sins  Accepting Christ as Savior  Frequently reading the Bible  Memorizing Bible verses Being baptized (subject to church rules)  Attending church services  Partaking of the Lord’s Supper  Tithing  Resisting temptations to lie, steal, smoke, drink, party, have lustful thoughts, have sex (outside of marriage) masturbate, etc.  Boldly sharing the Gospel of Salvation with unbelievers The list of virtuous values and expectations grew over time. Once the initial foundational values were safely under the belt, “more virtues'' were introduced. Newer introductions included (among others) harsh condemnation of “worldly” music, homosexuality and abortion Eventually the list of values grew ponderous, and these ideals were not just personal for us Christians. These virtues were used to condemn and disrespect fro