The young journalists at The Southerner, the student newspaper at Grady High School in Atlanta, Georgia, recently broke the news that creationism and other Christian religious views are incorporated into the Biology curriculum used by the City of Atlanta Public Schools.
A PowerPoint shown to a freshman biology class featured a cartoon depicting dueling castles, one labeled "Creation (Christ)" and the other labeled "Evolution (Satan)." Balloons attached to the evolution castle were labeled euthanasia, homosexuality, pornography, divorce, racism and abortion
The PowerPoint, which has more than 50 slides largely consisting of material about evolution, was downloaded from SharePoint, an APS file-sharing database for teachers. It was uploaded by Mary E. King, a project manager at APS who has also uploaded more than 2,000 other documents. Phone calls and emails to King have not been returned. Tommy Molden, science coordinator for APS, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Students were offended by the cartoon:
"[I] have gay parents, and [the cartoon] said that evolution caused homosexuality and it implied that to be negative, so I was pretty offended by it," [freshman Seraphina Cooley] said.
Cooley said that another student emailed the administration complaining about the PowerPoint.
Freshman Griffin Ricker, who is also in Jones' class, said [Biology class teacher Anquinette Jones] got angry with the class when she found out students had notified the administration.
"She had a 10-minute rant," Ricker said. "She yelled and said, 'This is on the APS website, and it was certified.'"
In case of soylentnewsing, the student reporting is also posted on a local Atlanta newspaper blog.
(Score: 2) by BradTheGeek on Friday July 04 2014, @02:25AM
And we don't give a flying hockey stick about hypocrisy, or your feelings. Give us our guns and shut up about your fag home stuff. We will shove our beliefs down your throat whether you or Christ like it or not. Remember, it was CERTIFIED.
(Score: 2) by BradTheGeek on Friday July 04 2014, @02:29AM
Oh, and for the mods with an ax to grind, that is tongue in cheek (sarcasm for the dense).
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bziman on Friday July 04 2014, @03:01AM
Um, please don't associate right-wing nutbags who believe in imaginary deities with people who keep and bear arms. Some of us keep and bear arms to protect ourselves from the nutbags and for other reasonable reality-based reasons.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Tork on Friday July 04 2014, @03:13AM
Some of us also believe in deities but don't believe homosexuality is wrong or that the Earth is only a few thousand years old. For everybody's sake it's best to keep the scope appropriately narrow.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2, Insightful) by RobotLove on Friday July 04 2014, @02:59PM
This is my favorite Christian misdirection. Allow me to translate:
"I too am crazy, but not in this one particular way. Therefore I'm a normal person."
Cognitive dissonance much?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday July 04 2014, @07:32PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by RobotLove on Monday July 07 2014, @06:06PM
I don't like the word "believe". I think the evidence suggests aliens are probable.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday July 07 2014, @06:18PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1) by RobotLove on Monday July 07 2014, @06:30PM
I have not seen any footprints. :) I should have used the word "probability" instead of evidence. The evidence for how many stars are in our universe, and how many of those stars have planets, and how many might be suitable for life leads me to think the probability for life existing somewhere else is greater than 0.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday July 05 2014, @06:16AM
This is rather hostile of you, and if you don't mind, I'm going to call you out on it. Friendly as I can be.
After some rereading I can only take your argument to be the following:
1) Christians are crazy.
2) Non-Christians are also crazy.
3) Non-Christians and Christians are not normal people.
4) Non-Christians don't understand they are not as bad as Christians.
This is offensive to whole groups of people simultaneously. I'm not even mad. I'm impressed.
What your argument represents is not a strong condemnation of that which does not squarely fit into empiricism as much as it's thought censorship. You view even the admittance of such thoughts to be a sign of intellectual inferiority and subject to scorn.
This is not fair for several reasons. I can perform my own thought experiments and come to my own conclusions without you. As long as I can distinguish between faith and evidence based conclusions, and maintain a healthy and reasonable balance between them, it's unfair to excise me from the domain of rational and reasonable people. By reasonable, I mean that declining to eat meat (or being forced to) may be faith based and reasonable despite a lack of evidence and reasoning. So what? Unreasonable would be supporting anti-abortion for instance.
One can have faith, but I agree that empiricism must very strongly play a leadership role in our collective decision making process. It is to me a self-evident statement. You can stop worrying about me. Faith plays a very strong role in my life, but I promise you, when it comes time to decide how to deal with others fairly I do employ empiricism. A large number of people do all the time but go unnoticed.
Stop caring what other people think and if it's pure science. Until they actually vote in a decision solely based on faith, I think you owe the dude an apology.
You don't owe me one. I could be an asshole :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by RobotLove on Monday July 07 2014, @06:24PM
Thanks for your reply.
I almost certainly could have been more polite, and for not doing so I apologize.
However, the issue at hand is deadly serious. In the modern era, faith (pretending to know something you can't possibly know) is an extinction-level threat (Disagree? Imagine what would happen if Al Quaeda, a faith-based organization, got their hands on 20 easy-to-use nuclear weapons). And saying someone else's faith makes them crazy but my faith is fine is dangerous. Faith is the problem.
Hopefully that's clearer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @03:33AM
> Um, please don't associate right-wing nutbags who believe in imaginary deities with people who keep and bear arms.
And then there are people like these: "We called it Shooters and started throwing guns and Jesus all over the place." [oregonlive.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by M. Baranczak on Friday July 04 2014, @03:47AM
When evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve. Thank God I'm an atheist.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Horse With Stripes on Friday July 04 2014, @02:28AM
I'm tired of replaying this shit every month or tthree. If those who need to believe that Man is better than all other creatures due to some divine right then let them do what they want. Let them corrupt the minds of their children to believe that this 6,000 year old ball at the center of all that is fucking holy is soooo special. When their kids grow up they'll either be stupid and uneducated or they'll find like-minded employers who will hire them because they think Darwin put the evil in evolution.
These people even have a flag of "Humanism" on the "Evolution (Satan)" castle. If critical thinking and evidence are the enemy of Christianity, well, I think that pretty much defines the group that makes that claim.
Let them ruin their children's lives and futures. Let them teach whatever the hell they want as long as other parents can put their kids in other schools if they don't want this bible biology taught to their spawn. We cannot eliminate stupidity, ignorance, intolerance and denial no matter how hard we try. Not in real life and not on the internet. As much as I hate to say it, they have every right to their beliefs even if it holds back their children and segments of society. Humanity has never moved forward as a whole so why should it start now.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tathra on Friday July 04 2014, @02:52AM
except this is in a public school, not a private. the only way the parents could "choose" to put their kids into a different school is if they're rich enough either to put them in private school or to be able to uproot their entire lives in order to move somewhere else.
this kind of nonsense is exactly why we need something stronger than just "suggestions" (guidelines) about what can and cant be taught in schools.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday July 04 2014, @04:57AM
this kind of nonsense is why America needs to balkanize* and let the resulting entities keep the parts they doesn't like about everybody else at arms length. We can either wait another 1000 years for them to "get it," or we can split off with them and be cooperative yet proud of our differences in peace. The Westward states will get a lot of tourism dollars from Southerners staying in our brothels just like Bahrain gets tourism dollars from the Saudi Patriarchs because that is where Saudi royalty goes for their closeted gay buttsex.
* That would be the sensible thing to do, but it won't happen without a lot of blood and destruction because Muh E Pluribus Unum.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tathra on Friday July 04 2014, @04:19PM
i do like that even better. it fits closer to what our country was supposed to be anyway, a union of different states (countries) loosely united under a single flag, but each basically their own separate entity.
unfortunately, even under that ideal, we still couldnt allow obviously inhumane or unconstitutional things happen within the union, so stuff like the state endorsing a single religion or persecution of people just because they're different still wouldnt be tolerated. any states wishing to pull that shit would have to sucede, and then they'd probably just be taken over by force. :\
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday July 07 2014, @06:05PM
we still couldnt allow obviously inhumane or unconstitutional things happen within the union
But we already do all kinds of inhumane and unconstitutional things, and the federalists love it. The Drug War is a prime example of this; how many people have had their lives ruined by it? Illegal (anti-4A) searches, supporting the prison-industrial complex, making countless people unemployable with criminal records for nonviolent crimes, etc. It took a couple of renegade western states (CO, WA) to legalize MJ and show the positive effects. If we had listened to the federalists (who liberals tend to side with), that would never have happened.
I fail to see how endorsing a single religion is worse than the damage caused by the War on Drugs.
and then they'd probably just be taken over by force. :\
So we can continue to oppress them with Drug War policies?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Friday July 04 2014, @03:24AM
I disagree with you. by letting parents enhance the stupidity of their kids - their kids could, in the future, MAKE LAWS that we all have to live under.
we're seeing it right now. most of the lawmakers are religious nutbags and morans. and we have shitty laws and a near theocracy because of those fuckwads.
you want the world to make MORE fuckwads? I DON'T!
its not just them that they ruin; its us.
so, for our sake, we need to force parents to NOT brainwash their kids with skydaddy fables. we all suffer from the group stupidity.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Friday July 04 2014, @04:54AM
One can just have a look at the Middle East what happens. One the same turbulence and barbarism at home? let people brainwash their kids.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @02:02PM
Absolutely not!.
They may be their offspring, but they are NOT their property to manipulate and brainwash any way they want. Kids are part of society and have their own rights, among them to get an education.
IMHO all this happens because people are too keen to merge cultural education with religious education. The place for the former is the school, the place for the latter is the church.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06 2014, @05:26PM
Teaching children this crap is child abuse and should be treated as such. We don't let parents physically abuse children, why should we let parents stunt their children's intellectual development by brainwashing their children into believing this crap?
(Score: 1) by Crosscompiler on Friday July 04 2014, @02:37AM
Any torah/bible/koran fan can tell/show you that the Racism balloon should be tethered to the castle on the right.
Also, the right castle needs a Guns balloon to go along with the bullets being fired aimed at people minding their own business.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by kaszz on Friday July 04 2014, @04:49AM
Some other ballons the religious castle forgott:
* Persecution
* Conformism
* Forced religious practice
* War - when anyone dears to believe different from oneself
* Straightjacketed upbringing
* Barbarian punishments
* Blind spots in reasoning
I'm sure others can fill in.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Silentknyght on Friday July 04 2014, @03:26AM
Did anyone even read TFA, or even further, the original powerpoint? The presentation in question has one questionable cartoon on slide #6 in a 50+ slide presentation on evolution. Heck, slide 7 (i.e., IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING the slide with the questionable cartoon) clearly states both:
Given the likelihood of a potential audience of vehement anti-evolutionists among the student body, this slide seems intentionally placed to defuse said audience and move on to discuss the theory of evolution. Without the transcript of the spoken portion of slide #6, it's hard to make any statements; it totally depends on the speaker. If Neil Degrasse Tyson presented this slide, everyone would assume he's jabbing at this (likely) world view of creationists, not the other way around... but yes, if presented by a creationist, this simple comic would stand as an unspoken affirmation of those beliefs.
TLDR: a questionable comic, but the brewhaha is overblown, IMO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @11:45AM
I believe the word you were looking for was appease.
(Score: 3, Informative) by McGruber on Friday July 04 2014, @12:57PM
I read the full article before submitting it. You seem to have missed the 11th and 12 paragraphs:
And the 21st thru 25th paragraphs:
(Score: 2) by Silentknyght on Friday July 04 2014, @04:17PM
I did read that. Is the issue with the teacher or the cartoon?
The article(s) present the cartoon as the issue, but I don't see the cartoon as the issue; it depends on how it's presented in the context of the rest of the powerpoint presentation, which can be construed (on its face) as largely pro-evolution. That is to say, the presentation does appear to present the scientific evidence of evolution without any other obvious commentary.
I fully agree that the teacher's evident bias is disagreeable. It's likely the root cause of the issue.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by caseih on Friday July 04 2014, @03:36AM
I believe in God and believe that he created the universe. I also accept the principles of evolution, natural selection, geology, physics, and science in general. I see no conflict. The Bible has nothing to say on how the universe, let alone the Earth, was created. It only speaks to the spiritual issues of our sojourn here in it. In other words, the big bang, evolution, etc, explain the how of creation, and religion should strive to explain the why of creation.
As I see it, the most fundamental gift to man is the right to choose what we want to think and believe. Some call this our agency. Therefore for anything that occurs in relation to the universe, and the existence of life, there must be a rational, scientific, understandable explanation of how things are and have come to be that does not involve God at all, lest our agency be taken from us. Those who believe choose to see his hand in things. There's never going to be a signature on a glacier somewhere with his initials. Those who believe in God can see the amazing things in this universe as gifts from God. The wonders of biology, cosmology, etc.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @04:36AM
> The Bible has nothing to say on how the universe, let alone the Earth, was created.
Other than it was created in 6 days. Exodous 20:11 [biblehub.com]
Then there is that whole bit about making Eve out of Adam's rib. Genesis 2:22 [biblehub.com] That's really hard to harmonize with evolution. Cloning and genetic manipulation, yes. But I don't see many Christians claiming we were made in a lab.
I'm an atheist, but I know enough to say you can't win a fight with biblical literalists by denying what is literally in the bible.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @07:30AM
It doesn't say whose timescale, though.
As humans didn't exist at the time, they were unlikely to have come up with the human concept of "days", and so we can safely assume that we are talking about the timescale of God. And who knows how many billion human years a God day is.
As for the thing with the rib, suppose that's one of the parts that's not supposed to be taken literally... I mean, imagine if anyone was to take the whole of the Bible literally - they would quickly come to the conclusion that God is worse than Pol Pot and Osama Bin Laden, and that anyone who worships him should be sent to Guantanamo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday July 04 2014, @07:54AM
"they would quickly come to the conclusion that God is worse than Pol Pot and Osama Bin Laden, and that anyone who worships him should be sent to Guantanamo."
Came to that conclusion at age 12 When I got kicked out of VBS for my continual questioning of dogma that didn't make sense to me.
The final straw was asking how the animals from the Americas managed to get to the middle east and informing the teacher that I couldn't "take it on faith" when it was obvious that the story was just stupid and that statement was just an excuse for not having a reasonable answer.
I was never forced to go to church again.....(:
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday July 04 2014, @08:00AM
Of course I was referencing the Noah story if it wasn't clear.
On a side note to this story, I went to church ONCE with my wife as an adult. The pastor told his congregation that their was a computer program that had analyzed the Bible and proven it was all written by one author. I stood up and chastised him for lying and walked out.
To my rather pleased surprise, about 10 others left with me.
My wife left that church shortly after, and has never asked me to go with her to the one she now attends....I wonder why?
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 1) by gargoyle on Friday July 04 2014, @08:37AM
Because you humiliated her in front of her friends and peers, forcing her to change church and keep you at arms length to avoid a repeat?
Don't get me wrong, the pastor was spouting rubbish and shouldn't be allowed to get away with it but your attitude to the effects on you wife certainly lives up to your username.
(Score: 2) by hoochiecoochieman on Friday July 04 2014, @10:21AM
Nobody should be ashamed for publicly exposing a liar.
(Score: 1) by gargoyle on Friday July 04 2014, @10:28AM
And I clearly never said they should be.
(Score: 2) by unitron on Saturday July 05 2014, @05:21PM
If that preacher actually believed what he was saying to be true, then he wasn't, technically, lying.
And I'm sure that he wouldn't have had a problem finding an article somewhere that said a computer program proved the single authorship, which he was foolish enough to believe.
There are articles all over the place saying almost anything and everything.
This was even true before the internet came along.
There may not actually be any intentional lying going on at all, just a program that doesn't really do what its author thinks it does but instead gives the results which were desired all along.
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @09:21AM
A day is not a human construct... it is the time it takes the earth to spin once on its axis. Months, hours, minutes, seconds.... those are human concepts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @02:08PM
No no no. You don't understand.
A day is a day, because the bible says so in some part, except when it isn't a day but an indeterminate lapse of time, when required by some other part.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @04:03PM
> As for the thing with the rib, suppose that's one of the parts that's not supposed to be taken literally...
You seem to be having trouble with the concept of biblical literalists.
(Score: 2) by unitron on Saturday July 05 2014, @05:24PM
"
> As for the thing with the rib, suppose that's one of the parts that's not supposed to be taken literally...
You seem to be having trouble with the concept of biblical literalists. "
So you're saying biblical literalists are literally to be taken literally?
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 06 2014, @07:46PM
How is that rib thing even metaphorically true?
(Score: 1) by freetown on Tuesday July 08 2014, @02:54PM
If God does indeed exist and created everything around us, surely he can perform surgery on Adam to take a rib and then build that rib into Eve using yes genetic manipulation or reprogramming and supplying the rib with whatever is necessary to grow into a woman. Adam's body was formed using material found in dust and then switched on. He is the one that put that process and system in place in the first place.
Psalms 139:16 poetically refers to DNA.
The splitting of the Red Sea is a scientific possibility. You just need a powerful enough magnetic field. These can be taken literally.
But not the notion that the earth was created in six days. Genesis 1:1 says the earth was already created before the six 'days'. Genesis 2:4 lumps them all together into one 'day' including the eons of time that the earth was formless before it solidified.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday July 04 2014, @04:57AM
And you let your children believe whatever they want. And present for them the full spectrum of views?
(Score: 2) by caseih on Saturday July 05 2014, @02:39AM
Regardless of religion or lack of religion in which one was raised, a person who hasn't had his own experiences with faith will surely leave it. I have no problem with people walking away from things which are untrue. So if a person stands up and says the Bible was written all by one person while all the analysis in the world by Bible scholars and others indicate it's most certainly not the case (as was mentioned by another poster), and if one's affiliation with a group has to stand on this untrue assertion, then yeah, people will walk.
As for believing whatever they want, I can certainly explain to someone what I believe and why, and provide advice and instructions on how they might figure it out for themselves. And even provide a framework of living that could foster such a thing. But I cannot force another to believe something I hold special. There's a saying I've heard: teach true and correct principles (the hows and the whys) and others will govern themselves. That first part is the hard bit.
As for letting your children believe whatever they want, yes I must ultimately do that. Children do want to learn and believe things as they grow, and if I feel my beliefs are good and honest, then I should share them with my children, particularly the why. If I don't, others surely will, whether their intentions are to honestly help a child or deliberately hurt them. So no I don't plan to leave my children without any guidance, but I cannot force them either. I can only share my experiences, and answer their questions as honestly as I can. And live honestly and show that my beliefs and lifestyle contribute positively to my and my family's lives.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 05 2014, @07:53AM
I think one as a parent has to explicitly show there's several point of views and the reasoning behind them. So perhaps even more important is to learn to reason, critical and complex thinking. Otherwise most children will just adopt their parents belief without thinking in many cases. Which may set them up for some hard lessons later in life.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday July 04 2014, @09:15AM
> There's never going to be a signature on a glacier somewhere with his initials.
> (...) Those who believe in God can see the amazing things in this universe as gifts from God.
That's your completely personal and arbitrary threshold for attributing something to a divinity. But wait, I have no problems with that, yours is an axiomatic but consistent system. I have problems with atheists which have a personal and arbitrary threshold defining the "extraordinary evidence" they need to finally start believing, and they speak like it were absolute. One problem is that nothing as seen from the inside of an universe can be attributed to a divinity until the rules of that universe are fully known, else it can be ascribed to sufficiently advanced knowledge of the world or of the observer. The other problem that closes the circle is that from the inside of an universe you cannot say that you have discovered all the rules. In fact you can't say you correctly formalized even one of them.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @02:10PM
So, in other words, "a God of the gaps"?
(Score: 1) by freetown on Friday July 04 2014, @03:08PM
Actually, the Bible has plenty to say but about the Earth's preparation for life. It firstly states that the earth was formless initially (Gen 1:2). Then it states that things started settling down and diffused light could be seen on the surface of Earth, whatever that surface may have been at that stage (Gen 1:3). Next was the formation of an atmosphere which it appears to say was sandwiched between an ocean above the atmosphere and the earth. (Gen 1:6) Then it was time for some land to appear (Gen 1:9) which provided the stage for land plants (Gen 1:11), which appears to have started with plants that can handle diffused light in the beginning before progressing to seed-bearing plants and trees. With the plants helping to clear the atmosphere, the 'sources' of light such as the sun, the moon and stars start to become distinct (Gen 1:14). Next up, fish and flying creatures (Gen 1:20) and then land based creatures (Gen 1:24). Feel free to find other ways to describe what man has learnt about the earth's history to a people that were slaves to the then world power and were generally limited to what they know about animal husbandry and mud-straw bricks besides some low tech specialist knowledge that some among them might have had.
The Bible does not in any way lend credence to creationism, the idea that the earth was created in six literal 24-hour periods, for it puts all the six periods together in Gen 2:4. Even today in English, the word day can have multiple meanings beyond that of a 24-hour period.
You are right that the most fundamental gift to man is the freedom of choice. Humans are not robots. However, just us our choices in everyday life have consequences, so too do our choices to believe truth or the lie have ramifications (Deuteronomy 30:19). The Bible is scientifically accurate and therefore certain theories entertained by those who do not want to believe in the existence of God despite evidence to the contrary cannot be accepted as truth or fact. Evolution and natural selection are contrary to the Bible. God put in place room for variety so you can be plenty of different types of dogs but dogs will always produce dogs. No future generation of dog is going to become some new and totally different type of animal. Evolution puts forth the idea the man can improve or become better which is contrary to what the Bible says about man being initially perfect and then becoming degenerate later. Natural selection or survival of the fittest puts forth the idea that we must compete with one another whereas the Bible says that we are actually all one human family and should learn to love one another and share things with one another regardless of racial background. (Mark 12:31, Acts 10:34,35, Galatians 6:10)
But yes, please do choose what you want to believe. It appears that scientists have to reduce everything to theories but that fact is that the universe is governed by physical laws (Job 38:33) which is why we can entertain and pull off the idea of sending men to the moon and bringing them back. So do choose whether you want to discount a book that clearly stated that the earth is suspended upon nothing (Job 26:7), accurately describes the earth as being round (Isaiah 40:22 - only an oblong shape will look like a circle from all angles; this is not promoting the idea of a flat disk as asserted on wikipedia) and describes the water cycle in poetic terms (ecclesiates 1:7) among other things.
Those who do not believe in creation/God but believe in evolution entertain ideas such as humans having useless parts in the body e.g. the tonsils, the appendix only to later learn that these are rather vital. Nevermind that they believe that somehow a cell complete with DNA programming and functions similarly to that of a complex city can just come about without any hand behind its formation. Funny how they don't think that ruins found in jungles or other places just came about but had to have had human hands behind their original formation. (Hebrews 3:4)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @04:07PM
Like what ?
So why did God design us so poorly?
Why no mention of all the fossils, clearly there were massive amounts of other things created first, whats up with that? What about bacteria, no mention of them, but they are vital for our survival, did God really think we would never find them?
So why so many holy wars, what about the genocides in the bible?
What about Neanderthals and other almost humans, did God really create them just for us to slaughter and compete against. Sounds like natural selection, survival of the fittest to most people. Or basically genocide again if your God created them just for us to kill. Was he training us for something?
Here is where I think I've just been massively trolled, How retarded do you have to be to think the Bible is scientifically accurate?
(Score: 1) by freetown on Saturday July 05 2014, @12:26PM
How about "in Abraham Lincoln's day" where day would cover his entire lifetime. Or if you want to be picky then we can go back to the original language's era where that riddle where the question is: "What walks on four legs in the morning, on two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening?" appears to come from. Again not a 24-hour period and besides the Bible's own internal use of the word translated day quite clearly indicates that the six periods were all lumped together into one 'day' at Genesis 2:4 so you cannot say that the Bible at all teaches that the earth was created in six literal days. Besides, Genesis 1:1 indicates that the earth was already created before the events where the earth was prepared to support life.
Funny that. Lots of people think otherwise. We have a thumb for one that makes us very versatile. We can even outrun a horse in a long distance race due to the way our body is designed. We have the finesse necessary to carry out our creativity in many ways.
Like that starter of this thread said, the Bible's primary raison d'etre is for our spirituality. These things that you just mentioned are for us to discover, to make use of that big lump of mush in our craniums. If you accept it, the Bible's commands on washing oneself after touching a dead body demonstrate knowledge of bacteria. It was only within the last century that doctors started washing their hands after being in the morgue and prior to seeing patients.
Most of the nations that were to be wiped out in the Bible under God's direction were either 1) peoples that chose to make themselves enemies of God or 2) peoples that engage in debased practices such as burning infants alive and religious sex orgies that would endanger the morals of God's then chosen stewards of divine knowledge. It must be noted that allowances were made for those who gave up their enmity or debased practices with peoples from condemned nations even serving in Israel's army. God's people back then had land to protect so they would have soldiers but when God's rejection of the nation of Israel, the Christian congregation in the first century received different direction. They were no longer to take up the sword since they no longer have any particular piece of land to protect and first century Christians did not take part in politics or military service. God, as the Giver of Life and Owner of the earth, has the right to rescind the gift of life and determine who gets to live on his property notwithstanding his ability to restore life as he sees fit. As for Neanderthals, there is no evidence that they are not human. As for slaughtering and killing each other, that particular sort of thing was started by Satan as the Bible states that Cain's murderous attitude originates with the Devil. The world today is ruled by Satan (1 John 5:19) and the root cause for all its problems can be laid at his feet. (Revelatin 12:9) Jesus was sent for the purpose of ridding the earth of Satan's system and his supporters whether knowing or unknowing. (1 John 3:8) In the future, there will be only one government and none of today's problems. (Daniel 2:44, Revelation 21:4)
You, Anonymous Coward, have not provided a single example of scientific inaccuracy but I have supplied multiple examples of the Bible's scientific accuracy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 05 2014, @03:10PM
Ok I'll give you 1/2 a point for that.But why not be consistent.So day can mean time, was the earth created in 6 times? 6 eras? If it's important enough for god to want it written down he should have been a little clearer.
Lots of people think lots of stupid things, doesn't make them true. i.e. bible thumpers.
Human eyes are prety shitty compared to others and could be trivially upgraded if god so desired. Why the easy risk of choking, should have separate tubes for food and air. Why can't we regenerate, or see UV or infra-red, why get cancer, he could have designed a better immune system.Why have a curved spine introducing problems, and only useful for 4 legged animals.Why did the larynx nerve get lost on the way down?
Seems pretty idiotic for a God to populate his creation with so many enemies, unless he was training them up to be genocidal maniacs like himself.
So Maybe it was Satan that created everything after all, he made all the enemies to god, created more people than god did apparently. God had a bit of a strong showing for a while as his genocidal henchmen killed off all of Satans creations, but Satan made a comeback and now rules the world again.
Tell me again did god create all the 'spare' people for his 'chosen' people to mass slaughter, or did he just create his 'chosen' people to genocide Satans people. Seems pretty bad for God either way...
It's too obviously a fairy-tale to tell little kids I didn't think it necessary to give examples but here goes anyway. The stars aren't painted on, there is no cover over the earth and the stars are quite large, not small sources of light. God also claimed to have named all the stars and told their names, unfortunately people don't live long enough to listen to such a lengthy list.Did God not realise he would be boring his creations to death in such an attempt?
You most certainly have not supplied any examples of the bible's scientific accuracy.The closest you did was a bunch of random quotes from genesis, themselves scientifically wrong, the stars being younger than the earth (being created afterwards on 'day' 4) is complete nonsense.
(Score: 1) by freetown on Sunday July 06 2014, @11:38PM
I am not going to bother with the rest of your assertions since you obviously just want to make them out of spite for the idea of a loving Creator despite the fact that humans are in fact created with the ability to enjoy life even in our current imperfect state. Some of your assertions have already been clearly dealt with when the Bible quite clearly states that humans were meant to live forever in perfect health and that the first human couple messed that up for us but God has put in place his provision of a solution to rectify that for deserving members of humankind
The opening verse states that God created the heavens and the earth. The physical universe including all those stars were already in place but would not be distinctly visible by the fourth period when the earth's atmosphere would have sufficiently cleared. The Bible links the existence of the universe with a source of vast energy (Isaiah 40:26), the very verse that speaks of God naming all the stars but you had to try to find some unreasonable viewpoint to spout. That God can name each and every star is an assurance of not only his vast memory but also its performance. Why would this be important? It is assurance that he can make a record of everyone that has ever lived and keep a copy of each individual's memory, characteristics and personality without which the Bible's hope of a resurrection would be impossible.
One of the flood legends from around the world speaks of a sky that you could 'touch' which probably refers to the previous 'cover' the earth had but came down in the flood. God has the right to mass slaughter but it is not what he wants (Ezekiel 18:32). However, he will do it if forced. For the record, God has revealed through the Bible that he will do so again and even better for you, he is going to start with religion. Revelation 17-18 shows that God will make the political elements of Satan's world to destroy the false religious elements of Satan's world and the United Nations will spearheading that. Why? For all the unauthorized bloodshed that false religion has done. That includes so-called Christian religions. Look forward to the take over of church property and other assets. The next stage of mass slaughter will not involve any humans like the flood in Noah's day and will be done to protect the last remaining religion, true religion, God's people, who will go on to enjoy the prospect of everlasting life and to welcome back the billions that have died prior to Armageddon with the same prospect.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 07 2014, @12:49AM
Sorry, not even one word of all that nonsense was in any way scientific.
It's clear by now that your god didn't see fit to give you the required intelligence to even understand what science is, let alone how it works.
(Score: 1) by freetown on Monday July 07 2014, @03:48PM
You hear that doctors? It's unscientific to contemplate everlasting life. Stop trying to make Job 33:25 come true, it will show that evolution and natural selection are nonsense. We don't need organic solutions, we need man-made solutions, cyborg parts, keep working on those. How else can we prove evolution and natural selection to be the right thing? We need to see in infrared directly, never mind we were given the intelligence to discover that and make tools to see in infrared, and we need to be able to disintegrate the competition with the blast of a laser. We will have evolved!
Someone tell Antarctica to quit squirming just because a bit of ice fell off. We cannot have the fluidity mentioned in Psalm 104:8 where mountains got taller and valleys got lower - after the Flood (Psalm 104:6) covered the then rather flattish landscape. No we can't have this proven true. No, there was never a time when there was so much water on the earth that everything was blanketed and some big box built according to a length beam seaworthy ratio of 6:1 floating around. Funny how powered ocean going vessels have a ratio of 7:1 though. Why was the dimensions given for that big box so close. Coincidence?
Speaking of coincidence: Isaiah 13:20 says that Babylon will never be inhabited. While the Bible speaks of two destructions of Jerusalem, it only singles out Babylon for an additional no more inhabitant. Jerusalem has people living there today but ancient Babylon continues to be just ruins. Quick, better revive the place instead of keeping it a tourist spot and prove the Bible wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 08 2014, @01:48AM
Again.
Sorry, not even one word of all that nonsense was in any way scientific.
It's clear by now that your god didn't see fit to give you the required intelligence to even understand what science is, let alone how it works.
It's idiotic to take a story, then try to match it to what might be possible one day with science, and then claim that story was a scientific prediction.It just doesn't work that way.
(Score: 1) by freetown on Tuesday July 08 2014, @02:25PM
Scientific prediction? Sorry but no, I was not implying that the thing about Babylon was at all a scientific prediction. Science does not have a monopoly on truth. Especially the sciences that cannot conduct experiments or tests and those branches are rather susceptible to biases when interpreting whatever data they have.
All you have done is label everything in the Bible nonsense and I am sure that is a very scientific method. You have likewise done your best to insult my intelligence or lack of but then having high intelligence does not mean a thing. What matters is what is done with it. As you appear to deny your Creator's existence and if He does exist, His intelligence or if not deny then challenge it, well, you know what, you are on. (1 Corinthians 1:19-21)
So what have a good portion of humans been busy doing, or supporting, with their intelligence and their brand of scientific knowledge? Weapons. You can blame false religion all you want for bloodshed and yes God does lay the lion's share there too but you have a share in responsibility if you learn how to use weapons for killing other humans. As for God, he is going to get rid of weapons and wars once and for all. (Psalms 46:8-10, Daniel 2:44) For that to happen, you need people to support that, people who will no longer learn war. (Isaiah 2:2-4) You can find such people today who refuse to serve in the army even under pain of death. Not only that, they are gathered together and have surpassed the divisions brought about by politics and false religion.
Mankind is so intelligent and can come up with all sorts of technology and perform incredible feats with this technology but mankind's management skills are sorely wanting. Some people have called for the wiping out of mankind to solve the problem of pollution. Don't worry, God has that a solution long ready to go but even better; not all of mankind needs wiping out. Just those greedy ones that are responsible and their supporters. (Revelation 11:18)
While we are on management, what is mankind's scorecard in the self-rule department? All manner of political and economic systems and yet nothing satisfactory and in fact sometimes even part of the problem. Whether republics, some form of democracy, monarchies, communism, you name it, nothing addresses and solves man's social problems.
Well, the time will come soon for God to say, "Get off my lawn" to those who don't want to follow house rules. God is up for a challenge any time (Job 40:9-14) but he is pretty sure that he is not going to lose and suggests some other course of action. (Psalm 2)
I'm going to be offline for two weeks or so. Enjoy your reprieve from foolishness that nonetheless will lead to everlasting life and all the learning and projects possible with eternal youth and perfect health.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 09 2014, @03:02PM
Little pig little pig let me in. Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin. So the wolf huffed and he puffed and blew the house down.
So we must all stop making houses out of wood, or else they will be destroyed. It said so in my book.
A tornado destroyed a house once so it must be true.
Stories don't have a monopoly on truth either, they are just stories, just like your bible. In fact lots of them aren't true at all, also like your bible.
I label everything in the bible a story, you believing it to be true with no evidence other than 'god said so' is the nonsense part. The fact it contradicts itself and doesn't fit known facts makes it false. Having intelligence and an education is very relevant here, education level correlates with lack of belief in gods. It most definitely matters what one does with ones intelligence. In general scientific people learn and think and question and develop new ideas and things. Religious people don't need to question and learn and develop, god already gave them all the answers they need to know. It's not surprising that science is responsible for all the advances we have made, and that the religious are dragged along kicking and screaming, or often oblivious to where all the nice things came from. You could use your intelligence to question your beliefs. Or close your mind and fall back to faith, just like the faith I may have that a wolf will come and blow down my house if I make it from wood(despite all evidence to the contrary).
So he can and he will... But just not yet, lets kill some more people first. Does he have a quota, is he having too much fun with all the killing, or is he just a dick?
Are you sure you haven't been raptured :)
Don't worry, there are plenty more foolish people.
With infinite time and learning, someone in heaven should work out how to come back here to Earth and show us how wrong we are. Maybe you can be the first. But you'd better learn time travel too because I wont be around forever.
(Score: 2) by unitron on Saturday July 05 2014, @05:27PM
" Even today in English, the word day can have multiple meanings beyond that of a 24-hour period.
Like what ?"
Back in my day we'd have known the answer to that without having to ask.
Now get off my lawn.
: - )
something something Slashcott something something Beta something something
(Score: 2) by EvilJim on Friday July 04 2014, @05:56AM
So sharepoint is only for teachers? I'd better inform my IT department now... oh wait, I am the IT department, sorry everyone you're not allowed to use sharepoint anymore, it's confluence all the way now.
or have they called their database 'Sharepoint' in which case Micro$oft will likely sue their arses as soon as they see this?
(Score: 2) by mendax on Friday July 04 2014, @06:48AM
... of the level of intellect in the former Confederacy. It is once again more evidence that I am right to feel contempt for that part of the U.S. It seems to be more of a foreign country than Canada far too often.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Friday July 04 2014, @07:54AM
Is this supposed to be ironic? Some sort of joke? Your response to a blanket condemnation of others with an "us vs them" mentality is to condemn an entire group of humans for the opinions of a portion of its population, perpetuating your own "us vs them" bullshit in the process. Good job there.
You should look inward before saying things like you did here, because fighting ignorance with more ignorance doesn't make you sound smart.
This might be news to you, but you can find this same sort of crap outside of the South, too. It's amazing how similar rural New York or Pennsylvania can be to, say, Kentucky or Georgia; the accents change, but the xenophobia, distrust, and general close-mindedness can be the same. Some areas turn into echo chambers that create the tripe that shows up in articles like this, but there are more factors involved than "it's the south, lol".
I've moved a lot and lived in a lot of places along the east coast -- from the south to the northeast, though I've spent more time in the northeast -- and you can find the good and the bad in any of them. Region doesn't matter nearly as much as other factors, such as how rural a place is, or how prevalent differing cultures or lifestyles are.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Friday July 04 2014, @07:27AM
Evolution can equal Satan if you consider my cat.
Somehow, evolution started a process whereby African wild cats and perhaps the desert sand cat chose to domesticate themselves and start owning humans. Several thousand years later evolution produced my evil black cat. She's is the embodiment of Satan and I have the scratches to prove it. Pet her with care.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Friday July 04 2014, @08:10AM
All cats are evil incarnate. That's why we love 'em!
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by monster on Friday July 04 2014, @02:13PM
Have you tried to confront her? (with protective gear, of course) ;D
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @11:06AM
If Evolution = Satan, then humans come from Satan. That would explain a lot. ;-)
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Friday July 04 2014, @12:01PM
By the time your kids graduate from public school they won't be able to read and write anyway, so this is not really a big deal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 04 2014, @04:56PM
so what about inbreeding? good or evil .. because we have like white, black, red and yellow (and others i forgot) people?