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arGee - that is the type of thinking that compels me to resist anything but
pure science and scientific methodology as being taught in science classrooms.
To adhere to any belief far past the point of reason and to a point of accepting the implausible in lieu of other, better and sometimes irrefutable explanations; is nothing more than full blown denial. Demonstrating nothing more than the human penchant of allowing the desire to reach a specific conclusion, to overwhelm all other cognative and reasoning abilities. Sadly if the following question is asked of the general public: "How long has mankind been on this earth?" . . . the sheer volume of people attempting to insist that it is 6,000 years underlines the effectiveness of religious beliefs in proliferating ignorance. Not only do people insist on adhering to something which is impossible, and that in this case has irrefutable evidence to the contrary, many go on the offensive. I wish I had a nickel for every time I have heard someone of fervent religious beliefs tell me that carbon dating is completely unreliable. This despite not having the foggiest notion of what is involved or how it works. All they are interested in accomplishing is finding a means, no matter how desperate, to reconcile Genessis with reality.
posted by
gomedome
on April 7, 2007 at 8:20 PM
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Several years ago I had an interesting discussion. Gome...
With a person who was deeply entrenched in the ID philosophy. He and I were discussing various aspects of his ID belief, when I pointed out that we have unearthed old bones of "human" origin and even older bones of "sub-human" origin that have been accurately radio-carbon dated into the hundreds of thousands and older years into the past. His response was a classic, and absolutely irrefutable: He simply explained to me that when God created the universe some 6,000 or so years ago, he placed those bones in their respective locations with their respective radio-carbon dates already built in.
I thought about his answer, and had to agree - it cinched the argument; if you bought into the underlying concept, and if God had done that, ergo sum. To explain to him that he had created a circular argument would have been useless. He absolutely glowed with satisfaction at the completeness and thoroughness of his argument. And, as I already noted, if you bought into the "God concept" in any way similar to his own, then the argument was flawless. Of course God could do that, and probably did.
posted by
arGee
on April 7, 2007 at 2:30 PM
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Thanks to you, I bumped my head
when I stood up to take a bow, and now the word "stupid" is stamped in reverse on my forehead. Or maybe it only looks like reverse in my mirror. So now I can walk along with someone wearing the shirt "I'm with Stupid" and remove all doubt.
I missed that broadcast, but I tend to avoid the intelligent design debate anyway. If the design had been all that intelligent, we'd have clean air, invulnerable immune systems, kind hearts and the ability to mind our own business.
posted by
Pat_B
on April 6, 2007 at 7:56 AM
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gomedome, this one is an exquisite piece. Loved it thoroughly,
and especially, the
'religious retards' is unforgettable. Yes, I have also encountered so many. They wouldn't tell the age of the earth. Really so, because they find it difficult to go beyond 10000 backwards. Great
posted by
Bhaskar.ing
on April 6, 2007 at 1:11 AM
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