S2Focus

(My apologies if this material has already been posted here)

Are the ICR leaders really a few french-fries short of a Happy Meal? The latest ICR howler (hot off the presses at <a href="http://www.icr.org/newsletters/drjohn/drjohnfeb02.html" target="_blank">http://www.icr.org/newsletters/drjohn/drjohnfeb02.html</a> ) should answer that question once and for all.

Here's a juicy excerpt

I suspect that if today's geneticists and molecular biologists can accomplish such technical wonders as gene splicing and cloning, that the much greater intelligence of Satan could potentially have done it too. The inner workings of the DNA molecule would not have been hidden from the prying eyes of Satan and his henchmen. If today animal genes can be inserted into human DNA, could not it have been accomplished by malevolent spiritual beings bent on destruction of the "image of God"?

Obviously we cannot speak with certainty, for the Bible gives little detail. At the very least, Satan's demons could have selected and indwelt certain men and women, and performed selective breeding experiments to produce over the generations a race of giants. (He could have done the same with animals too, and maybe that's where some of the unthinkable features we see in the fossil record come from. This could represent Satan's rage in trying to fully destroy any vestige of God's once "very good" creation.) Could he not have inserted genes and fabricated clones, mocking and ruining God's majestic handiwork? Perhaps this is why God had to send the Flood, eradicating a civilization beyond repair and starting anew with Noah, preserving the true seed of Adam


This definitely rates a solid 9 out of 10 on the Beverage-Through-The-Nose-O-Meter. Have fun cleaning out your keyboards, folks!

[ February 01, 2002: Message edited by: S2Focus ]</p>

Darwin's Finch

&lt;Shakes head in wonderment&gt; The poor bastards! So desperate and so clueless. They really are their own worst enemies. I've read some really stupid crap during my sojourn at II, but this.... I'm nearly speechless; believe me, that says a lot. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

KnightWhoSaysNi

Obviously we cannot speak with certainty, for the Bible gives little detail. At the very least, Satan's demons could have selected and indwelt certain men and women, and performed selective breeding experiments to produce over the generations a race of giants.

<img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

I think even the Weekly World News would be envious of this one. This would almost belong in the humour section.

It's kind of ironic -- in "defending the faith", such mind-numbing intellectual bankruptcy from the YEC's is probably responsible for creating more atheists. See below:

<a href="http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/whocares.htm" target="_blank">http://www.glenn.morton.btinternet.co.uk/whocares.htm</a>

[ February 01, 2002: Message edited by: Nightshade ]</p>

Kevin Dorner

I'd imagine that they are trying to feed the True Believers(TM) memes to keep them from swaying due to the persuasiveness of genetic evidence for evolution.

Now, when they see something that clearly goes against an intelligent designer, such as over seventy pseudogenes for olofactory receptors or the pseudogene for L-gulano-g-lactone oxidase in the human genome, which is why we can't make Vitamin C, or read Scigirl's post of how chimpanzees have one more chromosome pair than humans so it was predicted, and the prediction was verified, that chimpanzee telomeres would be found in the centre of one of the human chromosomes caused by two combining...

...they can just say that proved Satan is up to his old tricks again and add genetic evidence to the ignore list.

[ February 01, 2002: Message edited by: Kevin Dorner ]</p>

KnightWhoSaysNi

...they can just say that proved Satan is up to his old tricks again and add genetic evidence to the ignore list.

Ah, when all else fails... the 'Church Lady' Argument!

[Removed the link to the Church Lady "Could it be Satan?" wave file due to a complaint from the owner of the site hosting that wave file.]

[ February 01, 2002: Message edited by: Nightshade ]

[ February 09, 2002: Message edited by: Bill ]</p>

Island3

Well...wasn't that special...

[ February 09, 2002: Message edited by: Bill ]</p>

scombrid

That's how I ended up here. I'd basically drifted from religion without giving it any thought. I created my own comfy little deism that allow evolution and recognized God in beautiful and complex nature. Then I got proselytized and questioned the proselytizers "reasoning" and my own beliefs. I realized we were both deluded and here I am.

Educated man's inability to live in cognitive dissonance is probably the reason that I learned evolution in A.P. biology in Catholic school. I think they realized that they had better embrace science or lose members. They had creative ways of injecting the hand of God into the observable world in an ID sort of way. The problem was that I came from a YEC Baptist background that I rejected. However, I also realized that the Catholics were twisting scripture interpretations to fit observations, which happens to be just as invalid as twisting observations to fit scripture. It was just another form of conformation bias. YEC is a nuisance but it may actually be good for deconversion.

BTW. That ICR crap about Satan The Gell Jockey is something I can actually laugh about. That is damn funny.

Bill

A primary reason for these forums is to convince those in the "unbeliever" community that it really is all those other folks who are living in "cognitive dissonance." If we occasionally push one of "those other folks" over the line into clear recognition of the "cognitive dissonance" within which their worldview must reside, so much the better.

== Bill

[ February 09, 2002: Message edited by: Bill ]</p>

MrDarwin

Makes one wonder why Satan is allowed to have so much power, in fact why God created Satan in the first place, knowing in advance all the bad things the creature would do...

ps418

But what fun is a religion without a bad guy? It would be kind of like an epsiode of PoweR Puff Girls without the Mojo Jojo, or an Austin Powers movie without Dr. Evil.