Just look at that list above.If you're an American, are you proud to see your country at the bottom of this list of shame?
Why are a significant number of Americans so dumb and anti-science? Serious question.
The information is out there folks.
99%+ of biologists agree.
And evolution does not conflict in any way with a belief in god or with religion.
Yet nearly 50% of Americans are so dumb, I'm surprised they can function in their daily lives. These idiots are frankly making America one of the stupidest countries on earth.
It's embarrassing. And it must stop.
So, serious question, when it comes to science, why are Americans so dumb? And so unwilling to accept the truth?
Is it the Southern Baptist church?
Is it the media?
Is it Fox News?
Is it bad parenting?
Is it sugar cereals?
Is it a complete and total failing of an uncompetitive education system?
What is it that when it comes to settled science makes Americans, and a few of you, so completely and hilariously dumb?
Almost Half of Americans Believe Humans Did Not Evolve
Religion is major predictor of attitudes toward human origin
A recent Gallup Poll shows that almost half of Americans believe that human beings did not evolve, but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years or so.
Posts
108 comments:
It's a policy of high immigration from third world countries and the deliberate plan to dumb Americans down.
Folks, this is all by design by the Global Elite. The New World Order is going according to plan. The Global Elite (especially from Europe) would love to see the American middle-class destroyed, and they're succeeding.
Keith -
The dumb-ing down of America has been going on for SO long. As much as I don't want to believe in Zeitgeist (the movie - http://zeitgeistmovie.com/), I've become a true believer that there are forces out there that profit from keeping people dumb. The movie Idiocracy should be an omen (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/).
The numbers just show the percentage of people who are "believers" and the percentage of people who are "thinkers". It is time to teach people to think again. Belief eventually leads you to believe bullshit like armageddon, the devil, crystals, and astrology.
You might even believe that you will make money on your mcmansion.
Don Payne
Is is Fox News?
I don't remember them wading into that subject.
Truth is it's religion. Catholics leave it to individuals to decide whether Genesis is mytholigy or reality. Seems like a reasonable position for the church to take.
But the evangelicals are of a different view. If you choose to believe the bible then you have to believe every word of it. And we've got a lot of evangelicals here.
I don't think this necessarly makes them stupid harmful or dangerous. But yeah, this issue really really bothers the left. I don't understand that either.
Totally skewed and worthless data.
Those countries in the list don't have the same large percentage of immigrants from third world countries as the US.
Those millions of immigrants are usually poorly educated, mostly high school dropouts, and highly brainwashed by the catholic church.
Figure, if the count of illegals alone, right now, is above 20 million, compare this humongous number to the population of those tiny countries in the list. For instance, here are some populations:
Iceland = 300,000
Denmark = 5 million
Sweden = 9 million
France = 65 million
Now count all the millions of poorly educated immigrants who immigrated to the US in the past 30 years. Or let those countries that you call so "intelligent" absorb such a contingency of illiterates who were brainwashed by the church in their countries of origin. Most of them believe in Chupacabras for god's sake.
Roman Catholicism and Evolution have coexisted since 1943; at least they came around on that much. Unfortunately, much of the U.S. believes the world was completed at 9AM, Friday, 4004 BCE.
Lots of Wal-Mart shoppers and NASCAR fans out there...
Burp, fart, belch, puke.
Pass the fried dough and an extra gallon of cola for me finished with an garbage bag full of cheese doodles for dessert.
I'll also need the 2-ply Charmin so I don't put my finger through at the end of the sitting.
Now, for the drive out to the McMansion in my Hummer we'll need to stop and fill up with 60 gallons of gas for the hummer and 50 gallons for the speedboat...
America IS DEAD. Exterminate the dumb brutes immediately.
Start in Crawford, TX and move toward the coasts.
Arbeit Macht Frei...
Didn't we evolve from fish?I thought life originated from the water?Weren't the first humans from africa?
So does that mean global warming is for real or garbage science?I think the govt is going to tax the shit out of people due to fake science.Why isnt china or india cutting greenhouse gases?all of our work is useless unless the world is on board.After 100 years americans are all of a sudden concerned about global warming?So are we going to bomb countires for polluting next?
Wait a minute Keith!
Are you suggesting to me that dinosaurs didn't roam the earth 6,000 years ago and wear saddles?
Photo from the Creation Museum in Hebron, KY:
http://sporkinthedrawer.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/06/08/526893292_e95eb57c10.jpg
The elite foundations have been dumbing down America intentionally for decades. It's no accident. America used to be the shining beacon of education and invention. Just read the writings of the Founders to see how intelligent and highly educated they were.
Read more here:
The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America
BTW - Religion has nothing to do with anti-intellectualism.
The Founders were very religious and yet they were the most enlightened and intelligent individuals in US history.
Since then it's been a downhill slide...
Well now we know what a "god" is. And as for the sciences, why bother. There has been an agenda to keep the population dumbed down since Babylon.
There are no inventions, just technology that was allowed to be given to the public.
I believe humans were created by God. Why would you call that stupid?
I'd say that I don't know. For all I know, designers from another planet put us here. I think that science used to think we evolved over millions of years and, these days, science says we evolved over 50,000 years. Perhaps that's why I'm an atheist: what the hell do we really know?
If God is nothing more than a more advanced alien geneticist, then it is wholly possible that he only created man in the last few thousand years.
Heck, look at the shit we have managed to do in the last thousand years.
This complete rejection of the principal of evolution, Darwinism, whatever, comes from fundamental Christian dogma. A great number of early settlers in America were Presbyterian/Baptist/Methodist fundies who so ingrained the literal reading of the Bible into their children that their descendants were and to this day still are SCARED SH*TLESS to even consider that evolution might be fact. BLASPHEMY!!! FOR SHAME!! Hell awaits you!!! The fear is powerful and lasting.
Hmm,
Iceland being on top of the chart with a Christian cross as it national flag.
Do you all now understand why Europe will not survive much longer?
And how Information and knowledge is the dagger in Europe’s heart?
Hmm,
Iceland being on top of the chart with a Christian cross as it national flag.
Do you all now understand why Europe will not survive much longer?
And how Information and knowledge is the dagger in Europe’s heart?
Note: My comments have nothing to do with religion or faith; it is more factual and intuitive for i know that truth will always surface in the end.
"What is it that when it comes to settled science makes Americans, and a few of you, so completely and hilariously dumb?"
I think that there are many of us (scientists included) who just don't see it as settled.
I abhor organized religion, but feel very comfortable with God and Jesus Christ as my personal savior. Can't prove it, tried to throw it all away, but I kept coming back to Him.
The science that is all around me tells me that this earth is more than just an accident.
So you find this embarassing and shameful?
All that chart shows me is people who believe in evolution are too dumb to manage their economy.
Wake me up when someone has proof.
Till then it might be premature to call the other side stoopit.
Al-Queeferonio
I’m not sure that I understand your problem.
I also have a hard time understanding how intelligent people can believe in Christianity.
But were does this issue show up?
America is still thee most successful, advanced and enlightened people when compared to any other peoples.
Who wants to live in Iceland?
Or smelly Europe for that matter.
Fox news is not funded by the goberment like NPR and the BBC
It’s the free peoples choice!
Why are Americans so dumb? They cannot afford to go to college.
The government wants us to be stupid. We are easy to brainwash when we are stupid. Kill that, buy this, believe this..and so on...
one of the first things B
Husein does is to bolster abortion rights,
Great party ya got there Dems
*******************************
Don't blame me,
I voted for the other white meat.
***********************************
I'm not calling people who believe in god stupid.
I'm calling people who don't understand biology stupid.
Evolution and god and science co-exist. Science proves god quite frankly.
Grow up. The time is over for childish things.
Iceland = 300,000
With such low population, it seems that Iceland is one natural disaster away from extinction. Scary!
Keith -
If you think you're going to get the hillbillies on this board to believe in evolution, you're sadly mistaken.
I just want one of the 'evolution is a myth' crew out there to stop, think about it for a moment, go off and do some research, maybe visit a science museum, and have one of those 'oh, crap, I was wrong' moments.
My work here will then be complete.
I'd like to see that study - percent of Americans who realized the beliefs they had when they were 5 years old were wrong.
You know, like tooth fairies and stuff.
Monkeys.
Bunch of monkeys, floating on a rock through space, and 50% of 'em can't grasp that they're just monkeys.
Now, for the drive out to the McMansion in my Hummer we'll need to stop and fill up with 60 gallons of gas for the hummer and 50 gallons for the speedboat...
Oh yeah, your Eurotrash heroes are much better:
NYT -- ATHENS — “The Italians, the Spaniards, the Greeks, we all have been living in happy land, spending what we did not have,” said George Economou, a Greek shipping magnate, contemplating his country’s economic troubles and others’ from his spacious boardroom. “It was a fantasy world.”
For some of the countries on the periphery of the 16-member euro currency zone — Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain — this debt-fired dream of endless consumption has turned into the rudest of nightmares, raising the risk that a euro country may be forced to declare bankruptcy or abandon the currency.
Germany, France and the Scandinavian countries are mounting billion-dollar stimulus plans and erecting fences to protect their banks. But the peripheral economies are being left to twist in the market winds.
http://tinyurl.com/cbp8ck
It's so hip for bankrupt-Californian-ultraliberal parasites to badmouth Americans, while their oh-so-perfect Eurotrash heroes are getting slaughtered by worse sins.
It's HAAAAAARD to be smart! That takes work! Who wants to do that?
It's easy to just believe. No perplexing questions to vex you. "God said it; I believe it; that settles it." So simple.
Bonus points -- you get to feel superior to those smarty-pants who believe in sciency shit because you're all holy and good and everything, and they're going straight to hell. You can rub your hands with glee about that every day when you go to work at the petrol station, validating credit cards for those rich smart sciency people in their Mercedes.
Believing in something that has no proof or evidence is science?
We share 40% of our genetic structure with lettuce. For those asking for proof, isn't this enough? How could this possibly have come to be without an evolutionary agent?
(Or did 'god' give humans 40% of the same genes as lettuce as some holy joke?)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't your hero Messiah praying every 30 minutes during inauguration? Even to eat lunch!
DISCLAIMER: I WROTE RON PAUL IN, BUT I WON'T BUY EUROTRASH VIEWS AND ULTRALIBERAL PARASITE WHINING.
>The Founders were very religious and yet they were the most enlightened and intelligent individuals in US history. <
Actually, this is a complete canard. The Founding Fathers, by & large, were quite suspicious of religion, and tended towards "Unitarianism" rather than the current fad towards fundamentalism that has infected the government (see: the puke who was in charge of NASA who tried to ban references to The Big Bang, because it makes a mockery of the fundie belief system that the Universe was created in 6 days, only 6,000 years ago.)
I just want one of the 'evolution is a myth' crew out there to stop,
Keith, you're obsessed with these people that deny evolution. Who cares about these people? Most of them are a bunch of hicks, religious fundies or simply dumb as dirt. The problem is the lack of wanting to learn and the lack of a society that promotes learning and intellectual growth. That is the problem.
BTW - Climate Change AKA Global Warming is a myth buddy.
Your "so smart" Europeans and their plan to destroy American middle class:
NYT -- Sweden’s Fix for Banks: Nationalize Them
The Swedes have a simple message to the Americans: Bite the bullet and nationalize.
Former government officials in Sweden, many of whom come from the market-oriented end of the political spectrum, say the only way to solve the crisis in the United States is for the government to be prepared to temporarily take full ownership of the banks.
http://tinyurl.com/dbfkdg
Dear Swedes, we don't want to be socialist California, or Eurotrash who can't even have an Office Depot around the corner to buy cheap supplies for small businesses. But thanks for the hot girls. Not much for Saab, though.
I would like to try a voucher system for secular schools. US schools have no competition. Hence, there is no incentive to do anything but ask for more taxpayer money.
In California, for instance, education sucks up about half of the state budget. Administrators get overpaid, lots of holidays and sweet pensions. No admin should make more than $100,000. If they aren't going to compete, then there should be salary caps.
Southwestern states also get a flood of immigrants who don't appear to use birth control.
"Science proves god quite frankly."
How so?
What, are you going to censor me because I mentioned that your Messiah was praying a zillion times during inauguration day, live on TV, for all the world to see?
Evolution has no evidence?
Man, hopeless.
Totally, completely, hopeless.
How sad. A waste of a human life.
"Truth is it's religion. Catholics leave it to individuals to decide whether Genesis is mytholigy or reality. Seems like a reasonable position for the church to take."
Too bad the Catholics dropped the ball on so many other things. Like indulgences and protecting admitted boy humpers. IMO Catholicism is the false church predicted in Revelation.
Another sensationalist thread. If America was such a religious nutcase as you defend, they wouldn't have elected an abortion sympathizer with a Muslim name for president.
Top Ten Reasons Why God Exists
10. Year Round Golf and Pro Atheletes
9. It's always a great time to Pray
8. Connie Degroot's recent hair cut
7. Scottsdale is "Evolution Proof"
6. Climate Change is for renters
5. Jesus was a home owner
4. The Universe should increase in value at a normal, inflation adjusted rate of 5% in '09
3. Keith is a pagan
2. The AZ Cardinals are in the Super Bowl
1. I'M STILL A TOOL!!!
Hey Keith,
How do you get past the primordial ooze and "2nd law of thermodynamics" thingy?
It takes quite a bit of belief to swallow that stuff.
Oh, just get married.
After a couple days, everything you thought you knew will begin to unwind.
Funny how that works, when Indians pray to elephant man, you guys find that so hip, so wonderful, something to praise. You even travel all the way there to be under the fig tree in lotus position, praying to elephant man. The same applies to other oriental cultures and their bizarre deities.
However, when you owners of the truth hear about some other belief in the US, all hell breaks loose.
If Americans present some type of belief system, then these fake intellectuals get all upset and run to blow Ted Kennedy or throw Gen Y'ner hissy fits.
French philosopher Blaise Pascal said that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should "wager" as though God exists because they would have nothing to lose.
Now, do I believe in evolution? Yes I do, but there's an odd and very fast jump between ape and man, which is so far inexplicable. Alien experiment with genes, perhaps?
Oh, BTW, Global Warming is a Ponzi scheme to fleece taxpayers and keep scientists earning six figures (they also have McMansions to pay, you know).
Here's what I'm struggling with, and somebody help me out.
Said in simple terms: We're in the shape we're in because of Greed, and Pride (the bad, bad, bad kind), and... the full gamut of the really shitty human qualities (that have been around forever, methinks).
So, where, when, who, how did we morph from all those pretty cool creatures into such complete assholes?
Wait... was the sea turtle an asshole 52 trillion years ago, too??
Is it a survival thing, or ?
Only the assholes survive -- is that The Answer?
Today ... God = ignorance.
Jesus ... good man with a good idea ... he didn't want to be God but because you are ignorant he had to die to prove his point. Thanks man. Actualy I think it is in Matthew where Jesus says something about Hummera, NASCAR, and adjustable mortgagea to make your life better. As one wooly mamoth said to another 15,000 years ago .. "No evolution or global warming going on here its just those wolves keep chewing my ass" ...
God has now become a crutch like a child's blanket ... whether a higher spiritual being exists or not most people have reduced the concept of God to the moral equivalent of pissing themselves.
I'll take the Natural History museum over church anyday for enlightenment.
DP
Keith,
I'm with you on this one. (this post/subject)
But... seriously, ya gotta figure out a way to not do this stuff:
"Grow up. The time is over for childish things." ...
... without at least giving a nod to the original thought and from where/whom it spouted.
I think you know what I'm saying.
Spot on.
"God said it; I believe it; that settles it."
The fundamentalist mantra, usually said with crossed arms, a blank stare and a self-righteous smile of dismissal to the poor idiot who attempts to shed light into a closed mind. Give it up, Keith. For a fundie to accept evolution, he must then reject the whole ball of fundie wax that he cut his crooked teeth on. Ain't gonna happen, cuzzin!
Good Grief...with all that is going on in our country, couldn't you have picked a better subject than believers versus non-believers. You are usually smarter than this.
Like George Carlin said, it's a question of educating them so they're smart enough to take instructions but dumb enough to do whatever they are told. Religion is a great way to control people. It's obvious that most political leaders know it's foolish but they play along. Our culture is still barbaric in many ways.
Keith,
I used the word dumb when I meant ignorant. Ignorance is the #1 problem in the world.
Jesus and the disciples walked to Nazareth, but the trail was blocked by a giant Brontosaurus with a splinter in it's paw...
"What a big fuckin' lizard, Lord!"
Dinosaur fossils: "God put those here to test our faith."
I think God put you here to test my faith, dude.
"I believe humans were created by God. Why would you call that stupid?"
there's nothing stupid about that!
i.e. "the cause is always greater than or equal to the effect..." that's what Descartes said.
hence, when I say "I believe in God," I'm admitting that I'm the effect of a greater cause which has no better word than God.
moreover, the old testament, metaphorically, is our consciousness. I think that's how Jung saw it but I'm not very sure...
I believe that God created the world in 6 "periods", not necessarily 6 "days". Also, I don't think the creationary periods were the same length - they could have been millions of years long for all I know. That certainly allows for evolution of species, etc. I agree with some here that science and religion can coexist. I also think that science provides evidence of intelligent design.
I liked this blog when it kept on topic...Keith lets stick to the subject. Economics is a religion as well....you pray to your god as well. Lets talk about righting the wrongs and putting criminals behind bars, I like the riots stuff tooo...but this is just off topic.
What none of you have mentioned is how amazing that chart is.
Isn't it amazing to see the United States of America, the most powerful, the richest, the most advanced nation on earth, at the very bottom of the ignorance table?
It truly is amazing.
Let me put it this way. 50% of Americans are on the same level as this news item.
Ignorance is not bliss. It's embarrassing. It's gotta be called by its name, it's dangerous, it's harmful to society, and it has to stop.
LAGOS, Nigeria – One of Nigeria's biggest daily newspapers reported that police implicated a goat in an attempted automobile theft. In a front-page article on Friday, the Vanguard newspaper said that two men tried to steal a Mazda car two days earlier in Kwara State, with one suspect transforming himself into a goat as vigilantes cornered him.
The paper quoted police spokesman Tunde Mohammed as saying that while one suspect escaped, the other transformed into a goat as he was about to be apprehended.
The newspaper reported that police paraded the goat before journalists, and published a picture of the animal.
Police in the state couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Belief in black magic is widespread in Nigeria, particularly in far-flung rural areas.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090123/ap_on_fe_st/odd_goat_thief
Isn't it amazing to see the United States of America, the most powerful, the richest, the most advanced nation on earth, at the very bottom of the ignorance table?
Not quite, considering that North Korea could easily top the table.
It's the scarlet letter, the prevalent melting pot philosophy in America.
If you don't follow or conform, you're excluded.
I just want one of the 'evolution is a myth' crew...
Here I am Keith and first off I want to thank you for opening the door and discussion on such important topics...One nano-second after you take your last breath there will be NOTHING more important than who you believe created you or how you came into being.
Having said that...
In the beginning,GOD created the earth.
Take time and read the only true and flawless book on earth ...KJ Bible. God cannot lie and there is no darkness in Him.
I love and pray for you all to come to the truth before that moment I mentioned earlier happens and its too late.
Thanks Again for the platform...You are always good about posting all angles even if you don't agree.
In Christ
Well Iceland is so smart, but look how f_cked they are, must not matter what you think about this.
'We share 40% of our genetic structure with lettuce.'
I guess this is true. EEEZZZ funny.
Rush Limmbough is like the grand master of the KKK with a radio show.(My thought for the day).
Limbaugh.
Limblaaaaaaaaaaaaaach.
spit, spit, spit.
Can't prove it, tried to throw it all away, but I kept coming back to Him.
The science that is all around me tells me that this earth is more than just an accident.
------------
A few thousand years ago, we saw a god in every natural element. As we got to understand the world around us, the numbers of gods diminshed.
Maybe we are still clinging to a god because of our lack of understanding. Maybe our brain power simply is not strong enough to understand it all. Maybe there is no god. And this concept is frightening to most people.
All those who suffer (most of human beings) want to believe there will be some justice in the end. And if you are an atheist, you have to accept that if you don't have justice on earth you will never get it.
Atheism also forces you to accept your own unimportance in the grand scheme of things. This is very hard to do in a society where each individual is supposed to outshine the other.
The concept of god is there to make you feel special and safe, and people love to feel special and safe.
'We share 40% of our genetic structure with lettuce.'
I guess this is true. EEEZZZ funny.
--------------
Just like you don't need to create new letters in the alphabet when writing a new book, you don't need new genes for different species.
It's the combination of proteins that makes the difference.
I still don't get why some people think evolution and a creator can't co-exist.
They can. They surely do.
Who or what is telling you otherwise?
I'm dead serious about Limbaugh. He is so polarizing. He can fuel the flames for a race war, and will do everything in his power to do so. I know Obama is strong enough to not let it get to him. But it WILL get to his wife and kids, and his mother in law.
And he will gave to hold them back on the one hand for wanting to claw Limbaugh's throat out, while being civil about the whole thing to Limp-paw and his ilk.
You're up late Keith.
I still don't get why some people think evolution and a creator can't co-exist.
----
It's because many don't believe God put a cell on earth and that this cell evolved into different species. Many disciples of God believe that he litteraly plunked down 2 of each species on earth.
God created us. God loves us.
No offense Kieth but if you believe in god you cant make fun of people who believe in evolution.
Its just as dumb to believe in god. You think theres and invisible man who watches us and we get to go to heaven 4eva and eva when we die? wtf makes you think your cultures version of god is correct? wake up your self man! Only an athiest has eyes wide open.
Danm said..
"Atheism also forces you to accept your own unimportance in the grand scheme of things."
--------------------
Ummm...so does working for an American corporation...
I am content not to know the final, absolute answer. As an Orthodox Christian, I accept things which are myterious, but necessary, like a Virgin Birth, Christ, God and Man. The mind of man cannot with his limited senses understand all things. There is more to the universe than our senses pick up. Hubbel telescope still has yet to find an end to the universe, much less other unknown dimentions. God could have used evolution to raise man out of the dust of the earth to the height of heaven. Theisic evolution. Evolution and the Bible both say we are a product of this planet, out of the earth, from the earth. Humans believed that the earth was flat for centuries, but that does not mean they were ignorant in other ways. The Bible is written for the simple to be wise, and the wise to be confounded. Obama is America's false messiah. Furthermore, this man supports abortion which should send alarm bells off to anyone who has hears to hear. I would not follow this man to the promised land.
After all, disgraced ex-president George W. Bushco was qouted as saying that Fish and Humans ca co-exist...
Arrest Dumbo Bushco and Dr. Strangelove Cheneyburton today.
Charge with Murder. Hold without Bail.
Case closed.
Keith,
"Who or what is telling you otherwise?"
The real issue is Jesus Christ. Christ clearly believed in and taught the historical reality of Adam and Eve and the Genesis creation account. If Christ was really who he claimed to be (God incarnate) then we surely must consider what he had to say about the issue.
Please consider this exerpt from the article in the recent issue of "Modern Reformation" magazine entitled "God at University College Dublin" by John Warwick Montgomery (Ph.D., Chicago; D.Theol., Starbourg: LL.D., Cardiff):
I concluded with what I see as the most fundamental and most relevant reason for the God hypothesis: the impossibility otherwise of successfully accounting for Jesus Christ. I observed that Harvard astronomer Owen Gingerich (another scientist giving the lie to Carroll's claim that "cosmologist" is virtually synonymous with "atheist") noted in the conclusion to his book, God's Universe: "Jesus is the supreme example of personal communication from God. When the apostle Philip requested, 'Show us the Father,' Jesus responded, 'Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.'"
Jesus' words and acts were reported by reliable, primary-source eyewitnesses in the New Testament records-documents "far better attested than that of any other work of ancient literature," according to Sir Frederick Kenyon and other preeminent textual critics. In these solid historical sources, Jesus rises from the dead, attesting his claim to be God incarnate, come to earth to die for the sins of the world. Humean arguments against the miraculous fall by the wayside in the face of an open, Einsteinian universe, and have been exploded even by secular philosophers such as John Earman (Hume's Abject Failure: The Argument Against Miracles). Indeed, Archbishop Richard Whately-of Dublin fame-produced his wonderful satire, "Historic Doubts Concerning Napoleon Buonaparte," having the theme that if the Humean arguments against the reliability of the Gospel accounts of Jesus were applied to Napoleon, one would have to deny his existence.
One is reminded of John Stuart Mill's sage observation in his Three Essays on Religion:
It is of no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the Gospels, is not historical, and that we know not how much of what is admirable has been super-added by the tradition of his followers. Who among his disciples or among their proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings of Jesus or of imagining the life and character revealed in the Gospels? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee; as certainly not St Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasies were of a totally different sort; still less the early Christian writers, in whom nothing is more evident than that the good which was in them was all derived, as they always professed that it was derived, from the higher source.
I emphasized that proof depends largely on what is to be proved and that there are conditions connected with a given object of proof. If someone in the audience were to deny the fact of electricity, I could of course provide abstract and theoretical arguments in behalf of its reality; but it would be more effective if I stuck his or her finger into a light socket! By the same token, the biblical accounts of Jesus claim that these texts are the very word of God-constituting the "power/dynamic (Greek, dynamis) of God unto salvation." New Testament scholar J. B. Phillips said that translating those documents was like "wiring a house without turning the mains off." And J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, said of the Gospel story: "There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many skeptical men have accepted as true on its own merits."
Are you the audience willing to go to those documents? I asked. No more than a "suspension of disbelief" is required. If you do, you will not be able to account for Jesus apart from God-apart from his in fact being God. Some years ago André Frossard, a French journalist, published his autobiography with the title Dieu existe, je l'ai rencontré (God exists: I've met him). That can be your story as well.
Ponder two unsettling quotations. Pascal: "There is enough light for those who really want to see-and enough darkness for those with a contrary disposition." And (inevitably) John Henry Newman: "We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe."
SDG
God created monkeys. Who became humans.
Settled.
Mocking religious faith?
Nope.
Mocking ignorance of settled science.
Lots of people of faith in god understand basic biology. It's hard not to. It's all there for you, when you're ready to drop your silly childhood beliefs, that sadly are still getting in the way of knowledge for some folks.
You get one life. Try not to be an ignorant fool.
"...You think there's an invisible man who watches us and we get to go to heaven 4eva and eva when we die?..."
I think SOMEBODY is pretty fucking arrogant to believe that we are smart/insightful enough to understand...
That we somehow discerned exactly what God is.
A more cynical person might suspect some asshole in a robe knew a good control scam when he saw it.
Speaking of whom, how did we like yet another corn-holed choir boy coming forward?
Ted Haggard is completely heterosexual...NOT.
...some folks say he put the "men" in "ah-men"...
I still don't get why some people think evolution and a creator can't co-exist.
It's logically inconsistent to explain our existence away with the concept of a "Creator". Who created the Creator? You still need to explain where the Creator came from and if you can explain that who created the Creator's Creator etc etc ad infinitum.
Who created the Big Bang? Did it just happen? Did it just come out of nothing?
All of these questions boggle the mind and yet none of them can be explained. Religion and the concept of a "Creator" are not satisfactory explanations and do not hold up to any logical scrutiny.
Keith said: "I'm not calling people who believe in god stupid."
No. You are just calling people who don't believe in evolution stupid.
Sorry. Not believing in evolution does not mean people don't understand biology.
Till you can prove Bush is the missing link, try to keep an open mind.
It is amazing to me that the posts that talk about the collapse of the USA economy get 20 or 30 replies. Our future, our kids future and their kids future on the line here.
But, you throw religion in the title of the post and goddamn you get 75 replies overnight.
This has to be an indicator of something, just not sure what.
In biology, evolution is change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection. Genes that are passed on to an organism's offspring produce the inherited traits that are the basis of evolution. These traits vary within populations, with organisms showing heritable differences in their traits. When organisms reproduce, their offspring may have new or altered traits. These new traits arise in two main ways: either from mutations in genes, or from the transfer of genes between populations and between species. In species that reproduce sexually, new combinations of genes are also produced by genetic recombination, which can increase variation between organisms. Evolution occurs when these heritable differences become more common or rare in a population.
Two major mechanisms drive evolution. The first is natural selection, a process causing heritable traits that are helpful for survival and reproduction to become more common in a population, and harmful traits to become more rare. This occurs because individuals with advantageous traits are more likely to reproduce, so that more individuals in the next generation inherit these traits.[1][2] Over many generations, adaptations occur through a combination of successive, small, random changes in traits, and natural selection of those variants best-suited for their environment.[3] The second major mechanism is genetic drift, an independent process that produces random changes in the frequency of traits in a population. Genetic drift results from the role probability plays in whether a given trait will be passed on as individuals survive and reproduce. Though the changes produced in any one generation by drift and selection are small, differences accumulate with each subsequent generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the organisms. This process can culminate in the emergence of new species.[4] Indeed, the similarities between organisms suggest that all known species are descended from a common ancestor (or ancestral gene pool) through this process of gradual divergence.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution
Why do you think women go for rich, muscular and extroverted guys?
Why do you think men go for beautiful, in-shape, healthy women?
Anyone who believes in evolution is absolutely ignorant plain and simple... duped just like the stupid people who bought houses they couldn't afford. Duhhh I know I'll believe in evolution so I won't be accountable... soon enough you will find out how wrong you are. Let me see Iceland believes in evolution aren't they prosperous how dumb is that! People who don't believe in God are dumbed-down. If people practiced what they preached the world would be a lot better. The trouble with religion is that they have twisted God's Word for their own benefit. They don't follow what the Bible teaches. That does not make the Bible wrong it makes the idiots who manipulate it for their own ends wrong. The bible says man can't even direct his own step. That is a fact! Those who blindly believe in evolution are just like the people who believe that real estate only goes up... well... hmmm they thought they were so right now they are broke.
FYI - Armageddon is God's war against wicked mankind, not a financial meltdown or WW III. Man has been given a chance to prove that they can rule himself and has utterly failed. No Government has solved man's problems. Even if they have minor success ex. cure for a disease, turn around the financial problems... man still has problems of old age, death, sickness etc...! It is also professied that people will put their faith in science.
It's like man came to God and said see look I can make life.. and God said get your own dirt. Nothing we have or can have doesn't come of it's own it came from God.
Like a puzzle all the pieces are fitting into place...
Quit being ignorant and wake up... get out the bubble of stupidity.. that is evolution!
You rage against lies, corruption, greed, and selfishness. If we come from apes and animals this is to be expected. Why are you so down on humans for acting this way?? There is no right and wrong. There are no morals if we are animals and monkies.
The reason science achievement does not happen in this country like elsewhere is because this society glorifies laziness and self-importance, and the only scientific careers possible are in education or government funded projects (defense).
When everyone is just trying to steal from each other, no one is going to exert themselves to advance the common good.
Isn't it amazing to see the United States of America, the most powerful, the richest, the most advanced nation on earth, at the very bottom of the ignorance table?
It truly is amazing.
It seems that people in this blog should take a statistics class. I already said that the data on the chart is totally skewed, worthless. And I gave you specific reasons why.
If there is a GOD, he’s done a very poor job with this planet.
Everything struggles for survival from rocks to plants to living creatures.
GOD is either handicapped or evil.
And what is up with this prayer thing? Talk about low self-esteem
You either praise me on a regular basis (cause I’m very un-sure about myself)
Or I will torture you for eternity by burning you in a special super heated place called hell.
Keefer, Science and logic cannot possibly co-exist with illusionary bosses.
You know it but are just too much of a whimp to say it in public.
That said; of all the talk of a creator or not,
The Christian story of a Jewish boy being born without a natural father then being tortured and killed by the Romans, all this was not only allowed by his superficial super dad but was done intentionally to punish him cause the rest of the humans did not praise him enough.
Now, whoever believes this story is freed of the consequences of his/her choices. WOW! How convenient.
And those who don’t buy this story will suffer for eternity.
Were do we start?
You would think that those higher up on Keefers chart are smarter but it is the exact opposite.
Europe is just as evil and rotten today, as the day they murdered that poor Jew.
Nature (its ok to call it GOD) is the great equalizer works slowly and steadily sooner then later Europe will pay the price in biblical proportions.
.
IT'S STUPID TO THINK THAT GOD CAN ONLY BE AN INVISIBLE MAN. THINK OF PLANETS AS SMALL CELLS IN THE BODY OF GOD, GALAXIES AS ITS TISSUE, SUNS AS ITS NEURONS, AND THE UNIVERSE AS ITS BLOOD STREAM. THAT'S HOW SMALL AND INSIGNIFICANT HUMANS ARE. GLAD TO HELP, BUNCH OF INSIGNIFICANT KNOW-IT-ALLS.
.
JaneZ
Remove some of your anti US filters and you might just understand
Hey JaneZ ... it is easier to debate fatansy than THINK about solving real problems. Usually solving a problem requires failure many times until getting it.
THINKING takes real effort and real courage. BELIEF has no responsibility and takes no effort. No suprise which way Americans are going these days.
DMP
Who created the Creator?
He is Alpha & Omega...The Beginning & the End.
Try and wrap you brain around that...You never will.
His thoughts are higher than our thoughts...A cat has a brain but cannot understand everything you do and never will. Its the same thing between us and HIM only different.
Find the great I AM said...
‘His thoughts are higher than our thoughts...A cat has a brain but cannot understand everything you do and never will. Its the same thing between us and HIM only different.’
I too only feed my kitty only after she prays and kneels to me and even then she only gets dry food.
Only if she deprives herself of pleasures such as sex and play does she have a chance of getting yummy canned chicken liver.
If she forgoes sex and play for all her life, she’ll get not 1 not 2; but 3 cans of yummy beef liver in her after life.
NOTE: this only applies to kitties that don’t question after life or anything I tell you.
He is Alpha & Omega...The Beginning & the End.
Try and wrap you brain around that...You never will.
His thoughts are higher than our thoughts...A cat has a brain but cannot understand everything you do and never will. Its the same thing between us and HIM only different.
That's one hell of a presumption. Now if the "Creator" can simply BE then why do we need him at all? Or rather - if you're willing to accept that the Creator simply exists and did not need to be created why couldn't the universe simply exist? Why couldn't the universe simply be the alpha and the omega or the beginning and the end?
The point I'm trying to make is that logically there is no need for the role or idea of a Creator in our existence.
And it's definitely a preposterous idea to assign a personality or intelligence to this Creator.
johnM said...
JaneZ
Remove some of your anti US filters and you might just understand
So, is this patriotism filter of yours a peripheral of some sort? What exactly will I understand once I find these devices and remove them?
Click 3 times, there is no place like home, there is no place like home, yadda yadda?
@DMP
THINKING takes real effort and real courage. BELIEF has no responsibility and takes no effort. No suprise which way Americans are going these days.
Watch out, I think you have some of those anti-USA filters installed.... BWHAHAHAHA
Swear to God it is more like 1984 every day.
Boooooo! said...
I too only feed my kitty only after she prays and kneels to me and even then she only gets dry food.
Only if she deprives herself of pleasures such as sex and play does she have a chance of getting yummy canned chicken liver.
If she forgoes sex and play for all her life, she’ll get not 1 not 2; but 3 cans of yummy beef liver in her after life.
NOTE: this only applies to kitties that don’t question after life or anything I tell you.
Sheba Seafood Cocktail works great for kitty catechism or "kittykism".
That was just a perfect reply BWHAHAHAHAHA
Ben Stapley:
"I believe that God created the world in 6 "periods", not necessarily 6 "days". Also, I don't think the creationary periods were the same length - they could have been millions of years long for all I know. That certainly allows for evolution of species, etc."
Evolutionists have commented on that line of thinking. 6 "days" of long periods as described in the Bible would not have worked out.
Yes JaneZ ... my butt has been twitching for some reason ... oh my ... I feel the anti-USA filters kicking in ... burp/? fart///... no no no ...its happenning! ....No .. I can't loan you a million bucks with nothing down and no job ... yes I do think Rocky movies are stupid ... no I think that the founding fathers were children of the enlightenment and not christians ... hickup ... man ... those filters ... must resist ... ahhhhhhhhhh ... sorry ... DMP has slipped into that black hole of reason where only athiest pray (or is it prey), homosexuals are married, votes are counted, and science interrupts our regularly scheduled group dellusion
of where we come from and George Bush is not President forever ...
Anonymous said...
Yes JaneZ ... my butt has been twitching for some reason ... oh my ... I feel the anti-USA filters kicking in ... burp/? fart///... no no no ...its happenning!
I checked all my USB ports. I unplugged some stuff and I think I disabled em.
I can type god bless america now
What can be said about that?
Nothing really.
The rest of the world not only recognises evolution, but knows where the apes are.
Keith,
Our dumbed-down populace owes more to the idiot liberals who have dominated public education for decades than to evangelicals. I work at a college and see first hand how political correctness has injected stupid sociological dogma into nearly every area of study. Standards have dropped to accommodate minorities of lesser ability, and "feeling good about oneself" has become more important than academic achievement. I see sophomore papers written on the equivalent of 8th grade English in my day, and almost all mention some element of "diversity" or "multiculturalism" or white racism in them - it defies belief! Evangelicals are wrongheaded and misled, IMO, but you're barking up the wrong tree, in fact, the wrong forest.
Keith,
If evolution is possible, then why the hell are there so many (in your words) "f*cking monkeys" still running around?
I think we as a species are devolving, instead of evolving, thereby putting Darwin's theory at risk.
You have to admit the irony is delicious.
Idiocracy, here we come!!!
Evolution could be the plan of God for all we know .I don't know what influence the God force has on the human race ,but I'm sure that I cannot answer if it exists or not.
One has to wonder what Gods purpose
is ,if a purpose exists . I just don't like it when another dumb
ass human tell me how to believe or what the Bible means . All I know is that the circumstances on earth are not ideal and humans are extremely complex . I just try to live the best I can and try to be fair to my fellow man .Time teaches you what is evil and you also learn what brings joy or good in your life .
Won't you all be surprised! The 'enlightened" view you embrace simply demonstrates that your concept of what a god is, or isn't, becomes significantly more narrow than the "dumbed down" believer's view. Who's really closed minded then?
You are so deluded that you presume to define God according to the limits of your imagination or intellect. Sorry to burst your egotistical bubble, boys and girls, but you don't get to define who God is or how He operates. If you could, I wouldn't want such a god either.
However, a God who transcends my creaturely imagination, Who doesn't consider whether I agree with His methodology and sovereign operations or not, such a God is worthy of my awe, reverence and adoration.
Faith is not based on ignorance, but the recognition that something infinitely bigger than myself exists, and that such a thing gives evidence of itself all around me.
Rationalism which denies the possibility of a god, on the other hand, is a way to deal with fear, theoretically by attempting to explain those scary "what ifs" so that we aren't afraid anymore. It is no more enlightening than "blood letting" to cure disease which we don't understand. Ie., blind superstition all dressed up in "sophistication".
I know that you'd like to dismiss all believers as ignorant trailer trash, or brainwashed 3rd worlders. That allows you another rationale for worshipping your own "superior" intellect, but it just isn't so. throughout the last 2 millennia, many of the greatest thinkers have been, and are today, believers.
Their contributions have elevated the mass of society to new levels of progress and freedom.
Sure, there are ignorant, narrow minded "christians", just as there are ignorant, narrow minded nonbelievers. However, your unwillingness to acknowledge that believers have the capacity to think, that their only contributions to society are only negative and narrow and that faith connotes ignorance really proves and emphasizes your own captivity to those very same characteristics.
Today, even for a few minutes, try imagine something bigger than your egotistical, frightening, intellectual conclusions.
Won't you all be surprised! The 'enlightened" view you embrace simply demonstrates that your concept of what a god is, or isn't, becomes significantly more narrow than the "dumbed down" believer's view. Who's really closed minded then?
You are so deluded that you presume to define God according to the limits of your imagination or intellect. Sorry to burst your egotistical bubble, boys and girls, but you don't get to define who God is or how He operates. If you could, I wouldn't want such a god either.
However, a God who transcends my creaturely imagination, Who doesn't consider whether I agree with His methodology and sovereign operations or not, such a God is worthy of my awe, reverence and adoration.
Faith is not based on ignorance, but the recognition that something infinitely bigger than myself exists, and that such a thing gives evidence of itself all around me.
Rationalism which denies the possibility of a god, on the other hand, is a way to deal with fear, theoretically by attempting to explain those scary "what ifs" so that we aren't afraid anymore. It is no more enlightening than "blood letting" to cure disease which we don't understand. Ie., blind superstition all dressed up in "sophistication".
I know that you'd like to dismiss all believers as ignorant trailer trash, or brainwashed 3rd worlders. That allows you another rationale for worshipping your own "superior" intellect, but it just isn't so. Throughout the last 2 millennia, many of the greatest thinkers have been, and are today, believers. In point of fact, the claim that 99% of scientists either accept evolution, or are nonbelievers, is simply not true!
Their contributions have elevated the mass of society to new levels of progress and freedom.
Sure, there are ignorant, narrow minded "christians", just as there are ignorant, narrow minded nonbelievers. However, your unwillingness to acknowledge that believers have the capacity to think, that their only contributions to society are only negative and narrow and that faith connotes ignorance really proves and emphasizes your own captivity to those very same characteristics.
Today, even for a few minutes, try imagine something bigger than your egotistical, frightening, intellectual conclusions.
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