salon | Ask certain vocal members of the Christian right about science, and
it won’t take you long to discover that their conception of the
discipline is somewhat different from how it’s normally understood.
Their version of it isn’t like the kind practiced at universities and in
hospitals; it’s a special, watered-down version of science, one that
adapts to fit into their biblical view of the world.
In this
Christian-right version, scientific evidence is checked against the
Bible and if the evidence contradicts – or at least if they believe the
evidence contradicts– a single verse in a single chapter, they simply
reject the evidence and the science, no questions asked. (Exhibit A:
Intelligent Design.) This method of conducting science has led the
Christian right to make some incredible — as in, not credible
– scientific claims in the past, almost too many to document. But here
are five of the most ridiculous examples of biblically informed science.
1. Aliens would go straight to hell, if they existed
You probably saw this insane story for the first time earlier this week. According to Ken Ham, the creationist most famous for losing a debate against
Bill Nye the Science Guy about evolution, the space program is a
useless waste of money, informed as it is by nefarious secularists who
want to use science to undermine religion.
Ham doubts that aliens
exist, because they are not mentioned in the Bible, but goes on to say
that even if they did exist, they would totally not be
worth discovering, because they would not be direct descendants of Adam,
and thus would go straight to hell. Ham believes that only hard-left
secularists care about finding life on other planets, and that their
motivation is to create an illusion that evolution is real and disprove
the Biblical accounts of creation. As he puts it:
Secularists are desperate to find life in outer space, as they believe that would provide evidence that life can evolve in different locations and given the supposed right conditions! The search for extraterrestrial life is really driven by man’s rebellion against God in a desperate attempt to supposedly prove evolution!
Of course, among the
things scientists concern themselves with, Ham’s beliefs about the
exploration of space probably fall pretty low on the list. But if Ham
had his way, and NASA were defunded out of existence, this is just a few of the types of inventions we might be missing out on.
7 comments:
Again proving my point about that "Pattern" that I mentioned the other day.
There is CHRISTIANITY - Period.
There are CHRISTIAN SECTS that appropriate "Christianity" for their material, cultural, economic and nationalistic purposes (ie Catholic Church)
There are IDEOLOGICAL ENFORCEMENTS of "Christianity" within these SECTS - INCLUDING those who are FUNCTIONAL "Secular Progressives" that USE the scaffolding of "Religious Religious" so as not to offend the NORMALCY of their Congregation - but they achieve SOCIETAL/ECONOMIC/RELATIONSHIP ENDS that are TOTALLY INDISTINGUISHABLE to their SECULAR PROGRESSIVE FRIENDS. They fight their RIGHT-WING CHRISTIAN ENEMIES more than they do those who ATTACK their faith.
The "Black Republican" is said to take comfort in the presence of WHITE RACIST critical comments about Black people because "THEY KNOW THAT THESE RACISTS ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT THEIR TYPE OF BLACK PEOPLE".
The less observed thread is the BLACK CHRISTIAN PROGRESSIVE who listens to Progressive bigots like Bill Maher damn ALL RELIGION but these BLACK CHRISTIANS understand that Maher and other progressive friends are not talking about THEM - they are talking about the POLITICALLY IDEOLOGICAL RIGHT-WING Christians.
QUESTION CNu - "Shouldn't REAL CHRISTIANITY (or Islam) be the focus on compelling your BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE FAITH who CLAIM YOUR RELIGION to live up to these creed as you REGULATE THE MESSAGES AND RITUALS of the RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS that they receive their 'Normalization' from - so that the INDIVIDUAL can have his RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS GOD as free from FAKE, MAN-MADE 'Political Crusades as possible?"
IF GOD told us to "Be Fruitful And Live UP TO HIS Reference' - then it stands to reason that the NETWORK OF CHRISTIANS should be judged NOT BY their "CARE AND FEEDING OF THE LEAST OF THESE" to the point of dependency but their COMPETENCY at producing THE UN-LEAST OF THESE PEOPLE - who THEMSELVES can go out and DEVELOP COMPETENCIES IN OTHER PEOPLE instead of remaining so CONSUMERIZED that they tune out the needs of others.
Bro. Feed, I will assert with scientific confidence that you've never met a single authentic Christian in your entire life, and quite frankly, you have no earthly idea where to even begin trying to find one.
Say what you will about Catholicism, at the very least it preserves some of the outward forms of Christian ritual. As far as organic competencies go, name another symbolic Christian sect that even remotely approaches the institutional competencies demonstrated for 2000 years now by the Catholic church ________________________?
Alas, my friend - while "Christianity" is but one of the many religions in this nation and not all people who recognize the "Christian Ethic" PRACTICE "Christianity" per the evidence that it ever LIMITS their self-consumptive behavior.
Thus my eyes have happened upon FAR FEWER PEOPLE who say: "I HAVE BEEN TO THE PROMISED LAND AND SAW 'SOCIAL JUSTICE' AND YOU ARE BEING TRICKED AS TO THE PATH THAT IS NECESSARY TO TAKE YOU THERE. TURN AWAY!! TURN AWAY BEFORE THEY TAKE MORE OF YOUR VALUABLES!!!! " than the small number of "True Christians" that I have met.
The White Progressive Cheshire Fox Ally - as housed in "Salon", "Slate", "People For The American Way", "Center For American Progress" - understand that they can make use of the tools of GROUP SLANDER based upon the WORDS, ACTIONS, MEASUREMENTS of a FEW of their RIGHT-WING ENEMIES that they would NEVER dare to PUBLICLY utilize against their BLACK AMERICANIZED joint venture partners in the "Post-Racial Progressive Fundamentalist Alliance"
** A few acts of "Black Criminality and Heightened Murder Rates" would NEVER be used to make a "source indictment" against the Black community, its cultural permissiveness because it risks the supposition of more questions about the ALLIANCE
** Various "Man On The Street" interviews in "Urban America" will be dismissed BECAUSE not only did they fail to seek out racial diversity - if they did the WHITE PEOPLE who happened to give more intelligent answers in the right-wing suburbs benefited from the American system of INEQUALITY in the distribution of resources.
**
My daughter called me this morning. She's been teaching chemistry this summer, and has had her first direct encounter with the jiggaboo jamboree, you know, the layer of insecure incompetents comprising the racial services machine. She was astonished and dismayed that it exists at the level of the institution she's been working at. As I listened to her vent, I could only think "mission accomplished" because she's had the epiphany decades earlier than I did.
I asked her, "what you gonna do about it?"
"Start organizing my 30 Rotten Dissidents today! Got to be independent and autonomous - by any means necessary!..., start and operate my own practice and labs, pick and choose my own colleagues, call all of my own shots."
priceless...,
I like what Neil Tyson had to say about creationism.
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/tyson-discusses-cosmos-and-creationists-272463427554
Vic78:
Do YOU distinguish "Creationists" (which is a reference to "Christian - 7 literal days") versus INTELLIGENT DESIGN theorists?
How do you and Dr Tyson make note of today's INCREMENTAL advances in technology, medicine, communications, genetics, material science, artificial intelligence, virtual environments and energy production - YET promote a RELIGION that assumes some non-sentient EVOLUTION when the laws of physics speak mostly of ENTROPY?
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