GeoTheo

No, actually I haven't.
But I'm from the Northeast. I hear people down south are a lot more rigid. But really being a Christian has to do with ones belief about Christ not dinosaurs.

GeoTheo

Basically Starboy
You implied that some psychopathic hold, like with a cult leader, is the only reason people in creation. And you are simply out in left field on that.

Coragyps

Very possibly not "against their will," but the dipshit sorry excuse for a human being of a Baptist pastor that was formerly at Hermleigh, Texas damn sure did a number on my 17-year-old son. He's only recently recovered from his young-earth, destroy-all-your-music, the world-ends-in-2001 cult indoctrination, and that only because it didn't end when the silly jerk said it would.
Yeah, the pastor had no real "authority," but he misused his position just as surely as some pederast priest - I'm just glad he has been booted out of active preacherhood by his own lies.
/rant

Starboy

Hi GeoTheo,

Thank you for snapping back to reality. Please look at the posts on "<a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=57&t=000347" target="_blank">Truth Trap</a>", specifically to the post regarding cognitive dissonance.

Starboy

Tabula_rasa

Happens all the time on the talk.origins Usenet newsgroup. Actually, I've seen the same behavior on yahoo boards, too. So there are two data points, taken from a fairly global (not local/regional) perspective, where one can see the behavior to which Mr. Darwin refers.

Tabula_rasa

Starboy

But because this sort of thing is protected under the guise of religious freedom, he is free to find more victims. We need some new law that makes that kind of thing criminal just like other kinds of fraud. Oops, I forgot, that would require that we first get the Christians out of the government.

Never mind. I guess all you can do is lock up your kids.

Starboy

[ July 12, 2002: Message edited by: Starboy ]</p>

GeoTheo

Starrboy:
You appear to be a bit of an unstable reactionary. You want a federal law against what? Falsley predicting the end of the world? You think the government is over run with fundamentalist Christians?I hope you are just joking.
Your truth trap thread, however was interesting.
I think Oolon is stuck in it.
Here is a quote from him:
"Evolution meaning 'shared common ancestry of all living things' is a FACT.

Evolutionary theory is (as with any scientific theory) the bundled set of hypotheses -- some very well confirmed, some quite well confirmed, and some more speculative -- which together EXPLAIN the fact of evolution.

Oolon"
He is a TRUE believer. He knows for a FACT that abiogenesis only occured once. Was he there? Was he able to watch all living things evolve from a common ancestor? He doesn't have the best explanation based on the evidence. He KNOWS Man!

Mageth

Better to know a fact than believe a fiction.

scombrid

Sort of on topic:
Theists can believe in a form of evolution. It requires a little cognitive dissonance and mental shoehorning of observation but it works. I was raised Southern Baptist, YEC. In high school I was introduced to the sciences of Ecology and Evolution and rejected YEC. Ecology doesn't work well without evolution as an explanatory mechanism. I became a theistic evolutionist for the remainder of my belief in the Christian God. It was the only way that I could reconcile scientific evidence for and old earth and evolution with religion. It was also the accepted view at the Catholic school that I attended. Evolution was just our observation of God's hand at work. I was bullshitting myself but I wast raised in the faith and wanted to maintain it. &lt;aside&gt;Science didn't cause me to drop the faith though, actually reading the bible did. Apply the same skepticism to xtianity as you would to all other supernatural claims and suddenly it's bunk. Actually evolution and Baptist bigotry did make me reject that brand of faith for a religion of my own design but not faith all together.&lt; end aside&gt;


He knows for a FACT that God created the Universe in 6literal days. Was he there? Was he able to watch God mold Adam and then tear out that rib to make Eve? Was he able to watch God seperate light and dark? That Dr. Dinoish "WERE YOU THERE!!!" nonsense cuts both ways.

At least the observable world supports old earth and evolution. When I was a believer I never found and intellectual shoehorn large enough to cram the observable and observed into alignment with Genesis creation. I guess I should've borrowed yours.

Starboy

Greetings GeoTheo,

Could it be that the government is not overrun with Christians? Well, let me see, all sessions start with prayer, they have God printed on all the money, oh yes, and they want the change they made in 1954 to the pledge of allegiance to include �under God� to stay in, just to mention a few. But those are niggling things and certainly should give no indication that something is amiss. Yes, GeoTheo, you are right, the government is not overrun with Christians.

In thinking about my call for new law, perhaps I am wrong; maybe it might be possible to get current fraud and racketeering laws extended to include unscrupulous religious practice.

Thank you for your comment on my "Truth Trap" thread, you are too kind. As for Oolon, I agree with you, anyone who tries to hand off science as �Truth� as compared to religious �Truth� (claimed to be the highest quality truth available by it�s adherents), well I am afraid they have got it wrong. You are also probably right about evolution. There is evidence that all living things evolved from several ancestors. But as everyone knows, first origin is one of the weakest points of Darwin�s theory. However as I have said in other posts, I expect that a better theory will replace it someday. And of course, a sophisticated and urbane fellow such as you would never fall into the trap of binary thinking. That if evolution were wrong then some opposing theory would automatically have to be right.

It was really a blast chatting with you. Ta Ta.

Starboy

[ July 12, 2002: Message edited by: Starboy ]

[ July 12, 2002: Message edited by: Starboy ]</p>