The new PCS has decided to honor one of my questions with lies, evasions and outright deception:
http://raycomfortfood.blogspot.com/2009/12/mistakes-in-bible.html
Thanks Ray
The more you try and talk about science, the more people will realize what a moronic idea creationism is. You're doing more for atheism than I ever could.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Far too long
So I realized I haven't posted anything here in about a year. This always was a (VERY) back burner project, but I'm going to make a concerted effort to post something new here at least twice a month from now on. Graduate school has eaten my life, but that's no reason not to take apart religious nonsense online when I can. For now, I highly recommend that everyone visit the Ray Comfort Creation/Evolution 'debate' at http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/index.html where Ray's dishonest and duplicitous arguments are (once again) destroyed.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Evolution and God of the Gaps
I've been arguing with some rather moronic Young Earth Creationists lately (like there is any other kind). They ask a question about evolution that they think will stump me, I do about two minutes of research on Google or Jstore and come back with an answer, and then they either redefine the question or just start in on new 'holes' in evolution. It's classic 'God of the Gaps' nonsense, so I finally decided to try and explain to them why their argument fails so fucking hard. The (somewhat modified) post is below:
------------------------------------
And again, you are using the foolish 'god of the gaps' argument. Just because we don't understand something doesn't mean the default answer is OMG GOD DID IT!!
If we used that logic, science would never progress and you would still think disease was caused by demons. Do you believe that all disease is caused by demons?
YEC's continually provide supposed 'holes' in the theory of evolution that even a few minutes of research will show you have been answered dozens, hundreds or even thousands of times. The only thing you are proving is that you are willfully and intentionally ignorant about the actual science of evolution. At the same time creationists manage to claim that the bible is, in fact, a scientifically accurate book (even the MOST accurate book!!).
Well, as long as we are on the subject of 'Scientific' knowledge in the bible, there are a few matter I am curious about.
Is the earth round or flat?
Isaiah 11:12
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH.
Daniel 4:11
11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the ENDS OF ALL THE EARTH
I'm curious. Where, exactly, can you see the ENDS of ALL the earth if it is round?
And on a similar note, does the sun go around the earth, or does the earth revolve around the sun?
1 Chronicles 16:30: He has fixed the earth firm, immovable.
Psalm 104:5: Thou didst fix the earth on its foundation so that it never can be shaken.
Lets move on to Biology.
Do serpents eat dust, or other animals?
Genesis 3:14: And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life
Are bats birds, or mammals?
See Leviticus 11:13-19 and Deuteronomy 14:11-18
How about medicine?
When you are sick, do you go to a doctor, or the church?
James 5:14-15: Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.
Or astronomy?
Is space a vacuum, or is it filled with water being held out by 'the firmament'?
Genesis 1:6-7: "And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good."
And for that matter, we can now see light traveling from distant stars that MUST have been in transit for billions of years. Can you explain why God went to the trouble of creating the universe with the appearance of great antiquity if it is in fact less than 10,000 years old?
These aren't rhetorical questions.
I'm genuinely interested if we have anyone here who claims all of the following:
The earth is flat
The earth is fixed and immovable with a set foundation
Serpents eat dust
Bats are birds
Disease should only be treated with prayer
Outer space is filled with water held out by the firmament
God made the light from distant stars to appear as if it was billions of years old
evolution is false
If you only believe one or two of these, please justify your answer, either scientifically or biblically.
Thanks.
------------------------------------
And again, you are using the foolish 'god of the gaps' argument. Just because we don't understand something doesn't mean the default answer is OMG GOD DID IT!!
If we used that logic, science would never progress and you would still think disease was caused by demons. Do you believe that all disease is caused by demons?
YEC's continually provide supposed 'holes' in the theory of evolution that even a few minutes of research will show you have been answered dozens, hundreds or even thousands of times. The only thing you are proving is that you are willfully and intentionally ignorant about the actual science of evolution. At the same time creationists manage to claim that the bible is, in fact, a scientifically accurate book (even the MOST accurate book!!).
Well, as long as we are on the subject of 'Scientific' knowledge in the bible, there are a few matter I am curious about.
Is the earth round or flat?
Isaiah 11:12
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH.
Daniel 4:11
11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the ENDS OF ALL THE EARTH
I'm curious. Where, exactly, can you see the ENDS of ALL the earth if it is round?
And on a similar note, does the sun go around the earth, or does the earth revolve around the sun?
1 Chronicles 16:30: He has fixed the earth firm, immovable.
Psalm 104:5: Thou didst fix the earth on its foundation so that it never can be shaken.
Lets move on to Biology.
Do serpents eat dust, or other animals?
Genesis 3:14: And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life
Are bats birds, or mammals?
See Leviticus 11:13-19 and Deuteronomy 14:11-18
How about medicine?
When you are sick, do you go to a doctor, or the church?
James 5:14-15: Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.
Or astronomy?
Is space a vacuum, or is it filled with water being held out by 'the firmament'?
Genesis 1:6-7: "And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good."
And for that matter, we can now see light traveling from distant stars that MUST have been in transit for billions of years. Can you explain why God went to the trouble of creating the universe with the appearance of great antiquity if it is in fact less than 10,000 years old?
These aren't rhetorical questions.
I'm genuinely interested if we have anyone here who claims all of the following:
The earth is flat
The earth is fixed and immovable with a set foundation
Serpents eat dust
Bats are birds
Disease should only be treated with prayer
Outer space is filled with water held out by the firmament
God made the light from distant stars to appear as if it was billions of years old
evolution is false
If you only believe one or two of these, please justify your answer, either scientifically or biblically.
Thanks.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Just to be clear....
I just want to start this blog off by offering a little bit of history about my journey to where I am now. Although it has been aptly expressed that we are all born atheists, it is just as true that few of us make it long in that blessed state.
I was raised in a household that was deeply entrenched in the world of Reform Judaism. My parents were both involved in the synagogue my entire life. As I grew up I often questioned the things that were being taught to me in synagogue, but in general I accepted the existence of God as axiomatic, despite my disbelief in such things as burning bushes that could speak or the ability to fit every species on earth on one boat.
After graduating from high school I decided to move to Israel to more deeply explore Judaism. I started off on a Kibbutz, but eventually ended up in a Yeshiva in the Old City. I had come to the tentative concussion that my dissatisfaction with Judaism stemmed from coming from a background that didn't take Judaism and the Torah as seriously as the Torah itself commanded it to. I spent several months completely absorbed in the world of the Torah. My entire life consisted of prayer and study. Ironically, it was this study that led to my ultimate rejection of Judaism. There are things in the Torah that science has shown us to be untrue, and I refuse to ignore reason for religious dogma.
Religion is a vestigial belief system, as outdated and useless as the appendix. What we have today are the surviving legends of people who were trying to find answers in a world filled with mystery. While I understand the driving human desire to find truth in the world, latching on to the mythology of people who would have been astonished by the technological prowess of a wheelbarrow (let alone a partical accelerator or a scanning electron microscope) is not a path to truth, it is a blindfold.
This blog will be used primarily as a public sounding board for my evolving beliefs on the nature of reality, the human condition, and what we can do to ensure the world we leave behind is better than the one we were born in to. My deepest hope is that I will live to see a world where all irrational belief systems (from numerology to Christianity and everything in between) are ostracized and marginalized, and where science and reason reign supreme.
Thanks,
That Guy
I was raised in a household that was deeply entrenched in the world of Reform Judaism. My parents were both involved in the synagogue my entire life. As I grew up I often questioned the things that were being taught to me in synagogue, but in general I accepted the existence of God as axiomatic, despite my disbelief in such things as burning bushes that could speak or the ability to fit every species on earth on one boat.
After graduating from high school I decided to move to Israel to more deeply explore Judaism. I started off on a Kibbutz, but eventually ended up in a Yeshiva in the Old City. I had come to the tentative concussion that my dissatisfaction with Judaism stemmed from coming from a background that didn't take Judaism and the Torah as seriously as the Torah itself commanded it to. I spent several months completely absorbed in the world of the Torah. My entire life consisted of prayer and study. Ironically, it was this study that led to my ultimate rejection of Judaism. There are things in the Torah that science has shown us to be untrue, and I refuse to ignore reason for religious dogma.
Religion is a vestigial belief system, as outdated and useless as the appendix. What we have today are the surviving legends of people who were trying to find answers in a world filled with mystery. While I understand the driving human desire to find truth in the world, latching on to the mythology of people who would have been astonished by the technological prowess of a wheelbarrow (let alone a partical accelerator or a scanning electron microscope) is not a path to truth, it is a blindfold.
This blog will be used primarily as a public sounding board for my evolving beliefs on the nature of reality, the human condition, and what we can do to ensure the world we leave behind is better than the one we were born in to. My deepest hope is that I will live to see a world where all irrational belief systems (from numerology to Christianity and everything in between) are ostracized and marginalized, and where science and reason reign supreme.
Thanks,
That Guy
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