Thursday, October 29, 2009
How To Set Up My Support
The body paragraphs need to resemble a sort of "skeleton" for an argument or idea, with the introduction and conclusion representing the backbone for this support. The debate I am writing about is related to the question "What are the sociological factors that leads to an individual or family to become a creationist. I think the appropriate way to set up this essay is to first give background information on the two groups of thought involved in the idea of the spark of life. These are the camp of evolutionist and the camp of creationists. After i set up a little background information about the foundation of these two opposing forces I want to highlight some examples of past arguments and panel discussions that have occurred regarding this topic. During these paragraphs I want to highlight the demographics that typically cling to these ideals, and the factors that allow a family to get intertwined in creationist thought. The whole while, i believe my examples and ideas will help to clarify how ludicrous creationist thought is and how sad it is how these individuals will live their lives denying human discovery and thought.
Possible Introduction
Ever since the dawn of time, when the first intelligent life walked the earth, humanity has struggled with how life, earth, and even the universe came to be. Early civilizations came to the conclusion that an omnipresent, supernatural being must have created all that exists in reality, even claiming the sun and water as dogmatic figures capable of such wondrous creation. As humanity became more and more sophisticated and pondered deeper into the reasoning for existence, religions came about to rally entire civilizations together and create a unified group of believers. Christianity grew after the fall of the city of Rome after its inhabitants faced terrible famine, brutal bloodshed, and debilitating diseases of bubonic proportions. Religion gives individuals the hope that existence on earth is to be followed by a euphoric afterlife if a life free of sin has been undertaken. Ever since the Renaissance when logic and reason fueled philosophical and scientific debates on the topic of religion, the brightest human minds have undertaken the arduous task of finding the 'center of creation'. In the past couple of centuries, the surge in technology and the advancements made in the scientific fields led to the idea of evolution as a progressive answer to the ultimate question. Sir Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species used meticulously drawn diagrams and pictures and fossil evidence to conclude that all organisms derived from a single organism, with the species most fit to survive a particular climate ultimately reproducing and remaining on earth. This process of mutations, also known as natural selection has been almost unanimously accepted by the scientific field to the dismay of many religious groups around the country. One particular religious group known as the creationists have completely denied that biological processes on the micro and macro levels spawned the evolution of animals. Creationists are strict believers in the bible, and believe that the only facts that exist concerning the start of life are present in the words of God as scribed in the Bible.
An Introduction to a Controversy
Ever since the dawn of time, when the first intelligent life walked the earth, humanity has struggled with how life, earth, and even the universe came to be. Early civilizations came to the conclusion that an omnipresent, supernatural being must have created all that exists in reality, even claiming the sun and water as dogmatic figures capable of such wondrous creation. As humanity became more and more sophisticated and pondered deeper into the reasoning for existence, religions came about to rally entire civilizations together and create a unified group of believers. Christianity grew after the fall of the city of Rome after its inhabitants faced terrible famine, brutal bloodshed, and debilitating diseases of bubonic proportions. Religion gives individuals the hope that existence on earth is to be followed by a euphoric afterlife if a life free of sin has been undertaken. Ever since the Renaissance when logic and reason fueled philosophical and scientific debates on the topic of religion, the brightest human minds have undertaken the arduous task of finding the 'center of creation'. In the past couple of centuries, the surge in technology and the advancements made in the scientific fields led to the idea of evolution as a progressive answer to the ultimate question. Sir Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species used meticulously drawn diagrams and pictures and fossil evidence to conclude that all organisms derived from a single organism, with the species most fit to survive a particular climate ultimately reproducing and remaining on earth. This process of mutations, also known as natural selection has been almost unanimously accepted by the scientific field to the dismay of many religious groups around the country. One particular religious group known as the creationists have completely denied that biological processes on the micro and macro levels spawned the evolution of animals. Creationists are strict believers in the bible, and believe that the only facts that exist concerning the start of life are present in the words of God as scribed in the Bible.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Famous Quotes: Evolution and Creationism
The following quotations are excerpts debating the pro's and con's of evolution and creationism. Since i agree with all of the evolution quotes, I will only make small comments under each creationism quote.
Evolution
1.Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. [Anonymous]
2.The fundamentalists deny that evolution has taken place; they deny that the earth and the universe as a whole are more than a few thousand years old, and so on. There is ample scientific evidence that the fundamentalists are wrong in these matters, and that their notions of cosmogony have about as much basis in fact as the Tooth Fairy has. [Isaac Asimov, quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]
3.The proper place for the study of religious beliefs is in a church or temple, at home, or in a course on comparative religions, but not in a biology class. There is no place in our world for an ideology that seeks to close minds, force obedience, and return the world to a paradise that never was. Students should learn that the universe can be confronted and understood, that ideas and authority should be questioned, that an open mind is a good thing. Education does not exist to confirm people's superstitions, and children do not learn to think when they are fed only dogma." [Tim Berra, Evolution and the Myth of Creationism]
4.Fundamentalists long for the return of a more moral America, an America that may never have been. All around them they see what they perceive as declining morality and spirituality. They reason that if humans share ancestry with the other animals, we have no reason to behave as anything other than animals. This view neglects the fact that humans are the only known animals with the ability to contemplate the consequences of their own actions. It also fails to recognize that there is a great deal of good in the world, the nightly news notwithstanding. Crime existed long before the theory of evolution, even before the writing of the Bible, and biologists do not like crime any more than the creationists do. Evolutionary theory is not a license to run amok, and neither is a belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible a guarantor of moral behavior. [Tim Berra, Evolution and the Myth of Creationism]
5.No myth of miraculous creation is so marvelous as the face of man's evolution. [Robert Briffault (1876-1948) Rational Education,1930]
6.U.S. Adults (Gallup): humans didn't evolve, 46 percent; evolution guided by God, 40; evolution occurred by itself, 10 percent. [Quoted by Adam L. Carley, Free Inquiry, Fall 1994]
7.Religious fundamentalists alone are a huge popular grouping in the United States, which resembles pre-industrial societies in that regard. This is a culture in which three-fourths of the population believe in religious miracles, half believe in the devil, 83 percent believe that the Bible is the 'actual' or the inspired word of God, 39 percent believe in the Biblical prediction of Armageddon and 'accept it with a certain fatalism,' a mere 9 percent accept Darwinian evolution while 44 percent believe that 'God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years,' and so on. The 'God and Country rally' that opened the national Republican convention is one remarkable illustration, which aroused no little amazement in conservative circles in Europe. [Noam Chomsky, "'Mandate for Change,' or Business as Usual," Z Magazine, February 1993, pp. 32-33]
8.If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools and next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers... Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth centry when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. [Clarence Darrow, at the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925]
9.I suspect the reason is that most people [...] have a residue of feeling that Darwinian evolution isn't quite big enough to explain everything about life. All I can say as a biologist is that the feeling disappears progressively the more you read about and study what is known about life and evolution.
I want to add one thing more. The more you understand the significance of evolution, the more you are pushed away from the agnostic position and towards atheism. Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things." [Richard Dawkins, from the New Humanist, the Journal of the Rationalist Press Association, Vol 107 No 2]
10.The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity. [Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987), p. 317]
11.Telegraph: For God to create the universe he would have to be hyper- intelligent. But intelligence only evolves over time. Is that about the strength of it?
Dawkins: It's worse than that, the argument for God starts by assuming what it is attempting to explain -- intelligence, complexity, it comes to the same thing -- and so it explains nothing. God is a non-explanation. Whereas evolution by natural selection /is/ an explanation. It really does start simply and become complex.[Sunday Telegraph (UK) interview with Richard Dawkins, Sept. 26, 1999]
12.Evolution should be one of the first things you learn at school... and what do they [children] get instead? Sacred hearts and incense. Shallow, empty religion. [Sunday Telegraph (UK) interview with Richard Dawkins, Sept. 26, 1999]
Creationism
1.In a GQ profile of Pat Buchanan, journalist John Judis asks the presidential candidate his views about teaching creationism in school. 'Look, my view is, I believe God created heaven and earth,' said Buchanan. 'I think this: What ought to be taught as fact is what is known as fact. I don't believe it is demonstrably true that we have descended from apes. I don't believe it. I do not believe all that. [Leah Garchik, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 November 1995]
'theory' as a scientific term is fact mister Buchanan, you snake. Oh and nice evidence...looks like a blatant opinion to me.
2.All the ills from which America suffers can be traced to the teaching of evolution. [William Jennings Bryan]
All countries go through "ills". Look at the time period in which the bible you so religiously follow was scribed. This was a period when humans were treated like animals, and death dominated the war-torn landscapes.
3.Take a hard look at the Grand Canyon. Try to explain that through evolution. [Freddie Cash, net.fundie.idiot]
WOW. Glaciers. ice Age. years of water erosion.
4.i don't think evolution should be taught as a fact but as a theory that some people believe in. i don't really know about this though, i haven't thought about it really but there's no way it should be taught as the truth. [Mark Goodwin, on talk.origins, 10/17/1994]
Good evidence. As most religious people can vow for, evidence is not necessary to differentiate fact from fable.
5.[as for evolution]....cutting out the sections [on the subject] is preferrable if the portions are not thick enough to cause damage to the spine of the book as it is opened and closed in normal use. When the sections needing correction are too thick, paste the pages together being careful not to smear portions of the book not intended for correction. [R.E. Martin, American creationist, in Reviewing and Correcting Encyclopaedias (1983: 205-7), instructing followers to censor books that don't follow creation dogma]
This pretty much sums up creationists. They want to guard human beings from understanding the world. they want the world to return to a more moral time period. morality was prescribed by humans, not god. What is deemed as moral? ANSWER: what humans have written as normal!
6.CEE is opposed to censoring such things as the true Christian history of our nation and the scientific evidence that renders macro-evolution impossible. Both of these have been extensively censored. We do support rejection or removal of obscene, morbid and unhealthy materials. [David Muralt, Texas Director of Citizens for Excellence in Education, from Feb. 7, 1994 Austin American-Statesman]
macro-evolution in itself is a culmination of underlying micro-evolution. Your idea about god creating the earth from nothing is the opitimy of macro-evolution. Censorship...a common theme in creationist thought. I would rather live in a world of full exposure to human tendencies than be sequestered in an existence with a predetermined belief in an unproven dogma.
7.Your sweet little book is a bizarre collection of out-of-context quotations, misquotations, misleading quotations, non sequiturs, errors of fact and just about every other dirty intellectual trick known to man. [Tim O'Neill, on the JW's anti-evolution book]
In this he is talking about scientific writing. Well Tim O'Neill you dumbass, read the bible or any religous text. It appears as if they were written by chimps. Also read any quotes from creationists. Not too eloquent or well-written in my opinion.
8.Evolution is a bankrupt speculative philosophy, not a scientific fact. Only a spiritually bankrupt society could ever believe it. ... Only atheists could accept this Satanic theory. [Rev. Jimmy Swaggart]
Satanic? Really? So the need to understand things and try and make sense of things is satanic? religion itself stems from the desire to explain the earth, you hypocrite. The world would be way better off if it were spiritually bankrupt.
9.Section 49-6-1012. No teacher or administrator in a local education agency shall teach the theory of evolution except as a scientific theory. Any teacher or administrator teaching such theory as fact commits insubordination, as defined in Section 49-5-5 01(s)(6), and shall be dismissed or suspended as provided in Section 49-5-511. [Tennessee Bill HB2972 (House), SB 3229 (Senate), introducted by Tennesse Rep. Zene Whitson, considered by the House Education Committee, and the K-12 Subcommittee of the Senate Education Committee, on February 21, 1996]
Tennessee, statistically the third lowest literacy rate, and the fifth highest number of high school dropouts amongst 15-18 year olds. ENOUGH SAID.
10.A second possible thing that creationists might look for is some kind of instrument that will detect darkness. It is my conclusion, based on [scripture] that darkness is a positive thing. [Richard Niessen, Professor, Christian Heritage College]
What? I do not even understand how this supports creationism. Isn't darkness the ominous sign of the devil.
Evolution
1.Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither. [Anonymous]
2.The fundamentalists deny that evolution has taken place; they deny that the earth and the universe as a whole are more than a few thousand years old, and so on. There is ample scientific evidence that the fundamentalists are wrong in these matters, and that their notions of cosmogony have about as much basis in fact as the Tooth Fairy has. [Isaac Asimov, quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]
3.The proper place for the study of religious beliefs is in a church or temple, at home, or in a course on comparative religions, but not in a biology class. There is no place in our world for an ideology that seeks to close minds, force obedience, and return the world to a paradise that never was. Students should learn that the universe can be confronted and understood, that ideas and authority should be questioned, that an open mind is a good thing. Education does not exist to confirm people's superstitions, and children do not learn to think when they are fed only dogma." [Tim Berra, Evolution and the Myth of Creationism]
4.Fundamentalists long for the return of a more moral America, an America that may never have been. All around them they see what they perceive as declining morality and spirituality. They reason that if humans share ancestry with the other animals, we have no reason to behave as anything other than animals. This view neglects the fact that humans are the only known animals with the ability to contemplate the consequences of their own actions. It also fails to recognize that there is a great deal of good in the world, the nightly news notwithstanding. Crime existed long before the theory of evolution, even before the writing of the Bible, and biologists do not like crime any more than the creationists do. Evolutionary theory is not a license to run amok, and neither is a belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible a guarantor of moral behavior. [Tim Berra, Evolution and the Myth of Creationism]
5.No myth of miraculous creation is so marvelous as the face of man's evolution. [Robert Briffault (1876-1948) Rational Education,1930]
6.U.S. Adults (Gallup): humans didn't evolve, 46 percent; evolution guided by God, 40; evolution occurred by itself, 10 percent. [Quoted by Adam L. Carley, Free Inquiry, Fall 1994]
7.Religious fundamentalists alone are a huge popular grouping in the United States, which resembles pre-industrial societies in that regard. This is a culture in which three-fourths of the population believe in religious miracles, half believe in the devil, 83 percent believe that the Bible is the 'actual' or the inspired word of God, 39 percent believe in the Biblical prediction of Armageddon and 'accept it with a certain fatalism,' a mere 9 percent accept Darwinian evolution while 44 percent believe that 'God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years,' and so on. The 'God and Country rally' that opened the national Republican convention is one remarkable illustration, which aroused no little amazement in conservative circles in Europe. [Noam Chomsky, "'Mandate for Change,' or Business as Usual," Z Magazine, February 1993, pp. 32-33]
8.If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools and next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers... Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth centry when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. [Clarence Darrow, at the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925]
9.I suspect the reason is that most people [...] have a residue of feeling that Darwinian evolution isn't quite big enough to explain everything about life. All I can say as a biologist is that the feeling disappears progressively the more you read about and study what is known about life and evolution.
I want to add one thing more. The more you understand the significance of evolution, the more you are pushed away from the agnostic position and towards atheism. Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things." [Richard Dawkins, from the New Humanist, the Journal of the Rationalist Press Association, Vol 107 No 2]
10.The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity. [Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987), p. 317]
11.Telegraph: For God to create the universe he would have to be hyper- intelligent. But intelligence only evolves over time. Is that about the strength of it?
Dawkins: It's worse than that, the argument for God starts by assuming what it is attempting to explain -- intelligence, complexity, it comes to the same thing -- and so it explains nothing. God is a non-explanation. Whereas evolution by natural selection /is/ an explanation. It really does start simply and become complex.[Sunday Telegraph (UK) interview with Richard Dawkins, Sept. 26, 1999]
12.Evolution should be one of the first things you learn at school... and what do they [children] get instead? Sacred hearts and incense. Shallow, empty religion. [Sunday Telegraph (UK) interview with Richard Dawkins, Sept. 26, 1999]
Creationism
1.In a GQ profile of Pat Buchanan, journalist John Judis asks the presidential candidate his views about teaching creationism in school. 'Look, my view is, I believe God created heaven and earth,' said Buchanan. 'I think this: What ought to be taught as fact is what is known as fact. I don't believe it is demonstrably true that we have descended from apes. I don't believe it. I do not believe all that. [Leah Garchik, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 November 1995]
'theory' as a scientific term is fact mister Buchanan, you snake. Oh and nice evidence...looks like a blatant opinion to me.
2.All the ills from which America suffers can be traced to the teaching of evolution. [William Jennings Bryan]
All countries go through "ills". Look at the time period in which the bible you so religiously follow was scribed. This was a period when humans were treated like animals, and death dominated the war-torn landscapes.
3.Take a hard look at the Grand Canyon. Try to explain that through evolution. [Freddie Cash, net.fundie.idiot]
WOW. Glaciers. ice Age. years of water erosion.
4.i don't think evolution should be taught as a fact but as a theory that some people believe in. i don't really know about this though, i haven't thought about it really but there's no way it should be taught as the truth. [Mark Goodwin, on talk.origins, 10/17/1994]
Good evidence. As most religious people can vow for, evidence is not necessary to differentiate fact from fable.
5.[as for evolution]....cutting out the sections [on the subject] is preferrable if the portions are not thick enough to cause damage to the spine of the book as it is opened and closed in normal use. When the sections needing correction are too thick, paste the pages together being careful not to smear portions of the book not intended for correction. [R.E. Martin, American creationist, in Reviewing and Correcting Encyclopaedias (1983: 205-7), instructing followers to censor books that don't follow creation dogma]
This pretty much sums up creationists. They want to guard human beings from understanding the world. they want the world to return to a more moral time period. morality was prescribed by humans, not god. What is deemed as moral? ANSWER: what humans have written as normal!
6.CEE is opposed to censoring such things as the true Christian history of our nation and the scientific evidence that renders macro-evolution impossible. Both of these have been extensively censored. We do support rejection or removal of obscene, morbid and unhealthy materials. [David Muralt, Texas Director of Citizens for Excellence in Education, from Feb. 7, 1994 Austin American-Statesman]
macro-evolution in itself is a culmination of underlying micro-evolution. Your idea about god creating the earth from nothing is the opitimy of macro-evolution. Censorship...a common theme in creationist thought. I would rather live in a world of full exposure to human tendencies than be sequestered in an existence with a predetermined belief in an unproven dogma.
7.Your sweet little book is a bizarre collection of out-of-context quotations, misquotations, misleading quotations, non sequiturs, errors of fact and just about every other dirty intellectual trick known to man. [Tim O'Neill, on the JW's anti-evolution book]
In this he is talking about scientific writing. Well Tim O'Neill you dumbass, read the bible or any religous text. It appears as if they were written by chimps. Also read any quotes from creationists. Not too eloquent or well-written in my opinion.
8.Evolution is a bankrupt speculative philosophy, not a scientific fact. Only a spiritually bankrupt society could ever believe it. ... Only atheists could accept this Satanic theory. [Rev. Jimmy Swaggart]
Satanic? Really? So the need to understand things and try and make sense of things is satanic? religion itself stems from the desire to explain the earth, you hypocrite. The world would be way better off if it were spiritually bankrupt.
9.Section 49-6-1012. No teacher or administrator in a local education agency shall teach the theory of evolution except as a scientific theory. Any teacher or administrator teaching such theory as fact commits insubordination, as defined in Section 49-5-5 01(s)(6), and shall be dismissed or suspended as provided in Section 49-5-511. [Tennessee Bill HB2972 (House), SB 3229 (Senate), introducted by Tennesse Rep. Zene Whitson, considered by the House Education Committee, and the K-12 Subcommittee of the Senate Education Committee, on February 21, 1996]
Tennessee, statistically the third lowest literacy rate, and the fifth highest number of high school dropouts amongst 15-18 year olds. ENOUGH SAID.
10.A second possible thing that creationists might look for is some kind of instrument that will detect darkness. It is my conclusion, based on [scripture] that darkness is a positive thing. [Richard Niessen, Professor, Christian Heritage College]
What? I do not even understand how this supports creationism. Isn't darkness the ominous sign of the devil.
Origin of Stupidity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmHN3JtyUXg
Anyone who may be reading my blog, please take the time to watch the video contained in the above link. I found it while I was browsing youtube one day, and it completely summed of my belief in evolution and my contempt and pity towards creationists.
if you are feeling like a vegetable, or just do not have the attention span to watch a six minute video I will offer a brief summary. The head of the creationist church and his goonie Kirk Cameron use the analogy of a banana being perfectly fit for consumption by human beings as a sipringboard for the introduction for a new 150th edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This special edition contains all of Darwin's original work, with 50 additional pages at the beginning written by Ray Comfort, the symbol of creationism. The new edition contains facts about Darwin, including his disdain for women, his racist tendencies, and evololutions tie to Adolf Hitler. The whole video is paused throughout by the creator of the video in order to comment on the ignorance being displayed on the screen. All of these new editions can be completely disproven or called hypocrisy with one glance at the claims. Hitler was a christian, the Bible allows for the brutal treatment of women and the dominance of males, and Jesus himself was killed over religious ideals in a society that did not accept other races by any means.
The video I have attached at the bottom even disproves Ray comfort's theory that the banana could have only been created by God. Bananas have been around for 12,000 years, and appear in almost all parts of the world in different sizes, shapes and colors. The bright yellow banana we eat today is a mutant strain of a platain only recently discovered in Jamaica in 1836. I could go on forever on how stupid creationist look in these two videos, but any human being with any type of brain power can watch these videos and marvel at the stupidity that IS creationism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfucpGCm5hY&feature=related
Anyone who may be reading my blog, please take the time to watch the video contained in the above link. I found it while I was browsing youtube one day, and it completely summed of my belief in evolution and my contempt and pity towards creationists.
if you are feeling like a vegetable, or just do not have the attention span to watch a six minute video I will offer a brief summary. The head of the creationist church and his goonie Kirk Cameron use the analogy of a banana being perfectly fit for consumption by human beings as a sipringboard for the introduction for a new 150th edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. This special edition contains all of Darwin's original work, with 50 additional pages at the beginning written by Ray Comfort, the symbol of creationism. The new edition contains facts about Darwin, including his disdain for women, his racist tendencies, and evololutions tie to Adolf Hitler. The whole video is paused throughout by the creator of the video in order to comment on the ignorance being displayed on the screen. All of these new editions can be completely disproven or called hypocrisy with one glance at the claims. Hitler was a christian, the Bible allows for the brutal treatment of women and the dominance of males, and Jesus himself was killed over religious ideals in a society that did not accept other races by any means.
The video I have attached at the bottom even disproves Ray comfort's theory that the banana could have only been created by God. Bananas have been around for 12,000 years, and appear in almost all parts of the world in different sizes, shapes and colors. The bright yellow banana we eat today is a mutant strain of a platain only recently discovered in Jamaica in 1836. I could go on forever on how stupid creationist look in these two videos, but any human being with any type of brain power can watch these videos and marvel at the stupidity that IS creationism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfucpGCm5hY&feature=related
Creation vs. Evolution Debate
"Evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered" (Gould).
the above quote was taken from paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, a believer in evolution and also an atheist. the quote arised during a 1994 debate between the head of the creationist church and several Harvard Scientists, hell bent on getting evolution to be taught at school. the creationist argument is that evolution is just a theory, and this does not distinguish it as fact. instead they believe that a series of third hand accounts compiled in the bible are the only facts pertaining to the creation of the earth, life, and the universe. creationism is a form of evangelical thought that has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. After increased funding from celebrities such as John Travolta and Kirk Cameron of Growing Pains fame, creationist have taken the teaching of evolution in high school to the courtroom. The 1990's involved many open conventions dedicated to panel discussions between evolutionists and creationists, with one common element involved. The pro-evolution debaters are all qualified scientists from ivy league school such as Harvard and Yale, while the anti-evolution creationists debaters tend to be represented by ministers and.....well Kirk Cameron.
Although the preceding fact i just mentioned is enough for me to discount all creationist thought, I still get a kick out of the creationist argument against evolution. Kirk Cameron (yes the same actor who played the develish ladies man on a recent ABC sitcom) uses analogies such as the "croco-duck" to claim evolution as a fable. he argued that the evolutionist idea that animals can evolve from other animals is false. he claimed that God made every organism innately unique, each being 100% perfect in the eyes of god. As I watched this loony display of false facts and truly twisted logic, i could see the Harvard scientists gritting their teeth as he rambled on. As soon as the Harvard graduates took the microphone their frustrating broke through in a complete falsification of Kirk's claims. They displayed a picture of the human eye to disprove the idea that every organism is perfect in its God-induced creation. the human eye is susceptible to many deformities such as complete blindness, color blindness, and the inability to differentiate differing figures. Kirk Cameron proceeded to agree with this claim...completely ruining his whole five minute argument. Perfection? There is no such thing as perfection, as a world of perfection would not involve mass genocides, racism, societal heirarchy, or the brutal mistreatment of other animals by human beings. If I could send one group of people to a "loony bin" as a whole, there is no question i would first send murderers, followed closely by kirk Cameron and his horde of insane followers. An actor being in the position to defend an entire train of thought? Come on people, that is the definition of insanity.
the above quote was taken from paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, a believer in evolution and also an atheist. the quote arised during a 1994 debate between the head of the creationist church and several Harvard Scientists, hell bent on getting evolution to be taught at school. the creationist argument is that evolution is just a theory, and this does not distinguish it as fact. instead they believe that a series of third hand accounts compiled in the bible are the only facts pertaining to the creation of the earth, life, and the universe. creationism is a form of evangelical thought that has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. After increased funding from celebrities such as John Travolta and Kirk Cameron of Growing Pains fame, creationist have taken the teaching of evolution in high school to the courtroom. The 1990's involved many open conventions dedicated to panel discussions between evolutionists and creationists, with one common element involved. The pro-evolution debaters are all qualified scientists from ivy league school such as Harvard and Yale, while the anti-evolution creationists debaters tend to be represented by ministers and.....well Kirk Cameron.
Although the preceding fact i just mentioned is enough for me to discount all creationist thought, I still get a kick out of the creationist argument against evolution. Kirk Cameron (yes the same actor who played the develish ladies man on a recent ABC sitcom) uses analogies such as the "croco-duck" to claim evolution as a fable. he argued that the evolutionist idea that animals can evolve from other animals is false. he claimed that God made every organism innately unique, each being 100% perfect in the eyes of god. As I watched this loony display of false facts and truly twisted logic, i could see the Harvard scientists gritting their teeth as he rambled on. As soon as the Harvard graduates took the microphone their frustrating broke through in a complete falsification of Kirk's claims. They displayed a picture of the human eye to disprove the idea that every organism is perfect in its God-induced creation. the human eye is susceptible to many deformities such as complete blindness, color blindness, and the inability to differentiate differing figures. Kirk Cameron proceeded to agree with this claim...completely ruining his whole five minute argument. Perfection? There is no such thing as perfection, as a world of perfection would not involve mass genocides, racism, societal heirarchy, or the brutal mistreatment of other animals by human beings. If I could send one group of people to a "loony bin" as a whole, there is no question i would first send murderers, followed closely by kirk Cameron and his horde of insane followers. An actor being in the position to defend an entire train of thought? Come on people, that is the definition of insanity.
Charles Darwin: A True Scientific Hero
Micheal Jordan, Lebron James, Barack Obama; all of these men are idolized as heroes by legions of fans for their impact on society. A hero is someone whose gift and unfathomable impact on their respective professions has caused people to not only envy that person, but strive to live a life that mirrors their ideals and interests. Although I am a huge sports fan and treat tremendous athletes as enviable, but my ultimate heroes are my parents. The two people that introduced me into reality, and cultivated my brain with the idea that there is no one path in life. they instilled in my head that I should do what i like, and experiment with all that life offers me. They have led me in the path of the exploration of the world, and have carved me into an individual who has an extreme thirst for knowledge.
Throughout the years I have come to discover my true beliefs about the world through the path that my parents paved, and have since discovered that science and human progress are the reason for existence. I have many hero's within the scientific universe, but Charles Darwin is the man that changed the landscape of scientific thought through his theory of evolution. The picture i have posted above helps explain evolution, and the process of natural selection. The circle diagram represents how the start of life came about through a formation of molecules that, when blasted with a chemical reaction, led to the spark of life billions of years ago. over the last 4.7 billion years, this single organism has slowly evolved through a trial and error process into various mutations that fit a particular niche in the ecosystem that allows for survival. the mutations led to the spawning of dinosaurs, mammals, sea dwelling creatures, and even insects. The mutations that allow for reproducing and ultimately the survival of a particular species have braved the span of time, while less effective mutations have since died out due to the inability to adapt to the harsh environments of the world.
In 1859 Charles Robert Darwin published his innovative book On the Origin of Species to lukewarm responses from the scientific field during that time. his naturalist ideology led him to ponder the christian upbringing he experienced in Shrewsbury, England, culminating in a trip to Chile in the 1850's. After doing research on the wildlife found in Chile, he took a trip to the recently discovered Golopagos Islands in search of a 'centre of creation'. Darwin found a group of mockingbirds and finches in the Golopagos that closely resembled birds he discovered in Chile. He also found large tortoises with slightly different shells that the locals used to identify their origin. Upon documenting these variances through extremely meticulous drawings and a collection of live and dead specimens, Darwin came to an ultimate theory. Darwin stated, "I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection."
Natural Selection fuels the idea of evolution, and explains the formation of man in its current state as a long process of trial and error that led to intelligent thought. When he released his findings to the world, many called it blasphemy, and claimed it completely denies religion as a whole. fast forward to the present time, and Darwins original ideas can be found in almost every science textbook that is taught in school. for a free-thinking man to put out a book so controversial and so different from the thinking during that time period is the sign of a true hero. Questioning what is commonly accepted is hard to do, and I admire Darwin for the impact he has made on millions of people.
Natural vs. Supernatural History?
I recently stumbled upon a very interesting article that stems from a NorthWest United States group of Creationist advocates. They have a very well developed and visually appealing website (nwcreation.net)that chronicles their problems with evolution (secular humanists in particular) and their view on the supernatural intervention necessary to explain the universe. through this website i have discovered that there are two main branches of creationism. The Young Earth creationists take the words scribed in the bible by second and third hand individuals as a literal interpretation of the origin of life. Thus, they argue that the earth started around six thousand years ago. The Old Earth Creationists also believe that supernatural intervention of god led to intelligent design, but argue that the earth is millions of years old, and that the bible simply involves millions of years of valid information compiled over this time period.
One of the key arguments against the origins of the universe undertaken by Young Earth Creationists is that the big bang is a fabrication made from secularists, and the earth just came from nothing at the will of god. they also deny all fossil evidence from past living organisms as naturally occuring. Rather, these fossils are a supernatural display of God, and they represent the animals that perished in the great flood that Noah navigated. the sediment from this worldwide flood led to the invalidation of most fossils, even the ones that are the ancestors of humans. For creationists, atheists and other naturalists that believe that god had no hand in the history of the earth cannot fathom a world where supernatural intervention has dictated the flow of time. This website is very well made, and will most certainly attract anyone wanting an illogical answer to the question, "if you have been created, wouldn't you want to know why?"
One of the key arguments against the origins of the universe undertaken by Young Earth Creationists is that the big bang is a fabrication made from secularists, and the earth just came from nothing at the will of god. they also deny all fossil evidence from past living organisms as naturally occuring. Rather, these fossils are a supernatural display of God, and they represent the animals that perished in the great flood that Noah navigated. the sediment from this worldwide flood led to the invalidation of most fossils, even the ones that are the ancestors of humans. For creationists, atheists and other naturalists that believe that god had no hand in the history of the earth cannot fathom a world where supernatural intervention has dictated the flow of time. This website is very well made, and will most certainly attract anyone wanting an illogical answer to the question, "if you have been created, wouldn't you want to know why?"
Creationism: Disregarding Human Progress
Creationism is a growing view on the world around us that has captivated millions of Americans looking for a reason for the complexity of earth. Creationists main ideals are that humanity, life, the earth, and even the universe were created by a deity. They take the Genesis section of the Bible literally, believing that everything that is a part of our reality was created by God within the last six to ten thousand years. They completely disregard any type of biological processes that scientists have mastered in the past couple of decades, calling such ideas as evolution and species relation as a complete fabrication against the word of God.
When I look at ideas like this; ideas that completely deny human progress and circumvent history as a warped creation from a celestial being, I get a terrible pain in the depths of my stomach. After doing hours of arduous research, it has become very apparent to me that creationism is inversely correlated with education. According to a 2001 study performed by Dr. George Murphy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church In America Alliance for Faith, Science, and Technology, "Of those with postgraduate degrees, 75% accept evolution." Murphy also stated that, "By one count there are some 700 scientists with respectable academic credentials (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) who give credence to creation-science, the general theory that complex life forms did not evolve but appeared 'abruptly'." This is a perfect statistic for my argument. Considering that being a scientist requires an extremely high level of intelligence,I am glad to see that the educated are in line with my disagreement in creationism.
Quite possibly the most ludicrous belief of creationists is that dinosaurs did exist, but became extinct within the last four thousand years. they believe that fossils do exist, but to use a form of radioactive dating (also known as carbon dating)takes an objective approach to history, and discounts what the Genesis tells us about the history of the earth. Without any scientific evidence, they believe that humans interacted with dinosaurs, and in some cases rode their backs like a little horsee. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. I do not know about the average reader,but such a ridiculous notion is about as ignorant as it gets in the eyes of a believer in logic and reason. Creationists tell us that we ACTUALLY rode on the backs of dinosaurs. That is about as likely as two bolts of lightning hitting the same person in a two day time span. Creationism is wrong, and quite frankly a disgusting way to raise your kids. Out of the 8 million american children under the age of 18 that are home-schooled, 2/3 of these kids grew up in a creationist home. No wonder that americans know little about these kids who are destined to live a life of strict religious adherence. What an utter shame.
Murphy, George L., 2002, "Intelligent Design as a Theological Problem," in Covalence: the Bulletin of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Alliance for Faith, Science, and Technology
When I look at ideas like this; ideas that completely deny human progress and circumvent history as a warped creation from a celestial being, I get a terrible pain in the depths of my stomach. After doing hours of arduous research, it has become very apparent to me that creationism is inversely correlated with education. According to a 2001 study performed by Dr. George Murphy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church In America Alliance for Faith, Science, and Technology, "Of those with postgraduate degrees, 75% accept evolution." Murphy also stated that, "By one count there are some 700 scientists with respectable academic credentials (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) who give credence to creation-science, the general theory that complex life forms did not evolve but appeared 'abruptly'." This is a perfect statistic for my argument. Considering that being a scientist requires an extremely high level of intelligence,I am glad to see that the educated are in line with my disagreement in creationism.
Quite possibly the most ludicrous belief of creationists is that dinosaurs did exist, but became extinct within the last four thousand years. they believe that fossils do exist, but to use a form of radioactive dating (also known as carbon dating)takes an objective approach to history, and discounts what the Genesis tells us about the history of the earth. Without any scientific evidence, they believe that humans interacted with dinosaurs, and in some cases rode their backs like a little horsee. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. I do not know about the average reader,but such a ridiculous notion is about as ignorant as it gets in the eyes of a believer in logic and reason. Creationists tell us that we ACTUALLY rode on the backs of dinosaurs. That is about as likely as two bolts of lightning hitting the same person in a two day time span. Creationism is wrong, and quite frankly a disgusting way to raise your kids. Out of the 8 million american children under the age of 18 that are home-schooled, 2/3 of these kids grew up in a creationist home. No wonder that americans know little about these kids who are destined to live a life of strict religious adherence. What an utter shame.
Murphy, George L., 2002, "Intelligent Design as a Theological Problem," in Covalence: the Bulletin of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Alliance for Faith, Science, and Technology
To Believe or not to Believe, That is the Question
"The philosophy of Atheism represents a concept of life without any metaphysical Beyond or Divine Regulator. It is the concept of an actual, real world with its liberating, expanding and beautifying possibilities, as against an unreal world, which, with its spirits, oracles, and mean contentment has kept humanity in helpless degradation" (Emma Goldman). Religion has captivated human beings ever since we first pondered why we are so beautifully located on planet earth, and has helped countless generations of people try to understand the world around us. Starting with the first human beings with brains as capable as ours about 52,000 years ago, cave paintings, scriptures, essays, and theoretical thought has fueled the innate need for humans to understand reality. The Mayans treated the sun as a demi-god, because at that point in time the one source of light in our world that was omnipresent (the sun) was seen as the inspiration for life itself. Throughout the misery of the Dark Ages of Europe, when people were rattled by constant bloodshed and bubonic diseases, religion offered the hope that the afterlife would provide euphoria after our lives ended. As the years have passed, our scientific progression and use of logic and reason has allowed for people to not lean on the false hope that religion creates. The idea of not believing in God was once unfathomable, but scores of scientists and philosophical thinkers now consider themselves to have "disbelief in god", better known as being atheist. Atheism is a sort of "anti-religion", or the belief that once a life on earth ends, it is forever lost and that energy will never return or linger in any shape or form. In present time, religion still dominates a majority of our population, but the openness of atheists to announce their disbelief has caused many intellectuals to come to question the NEED for a god.
I consider myself to have absolutely no belief in the bible or of a Godlike higher being. i have spent countless hours in church over the course of life, and ever since I gained the ability to think for myself i have questioned the religious tendencies that my parents burdened on me as a child. through 1,000's hours of discovery I have willingly undergone, I cannot see religion as a reasonable value to live ones life by. The smartest individuals in the history of time, including Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, have denounced religion in favor of taking a scientific approach to the universe. Charles Darwin and his theories of evolution have only added to the argument that there was never a "creation" of all things on earth, rather every life form that exists is a product of natural selection and the ability to fit a niche within our world. Every single organism on earth is the product of the original spark of life billions of years ago, not by a higher being but by a combination of elements that supports the development of life.
Religion is often considered the most controversial topic on earth, as billions of people live their lives by how their religion prescribes we should. i for one live my life knowing that this is the only life i will ever have, and thus I live life to the fullest. religion has led to wars ever since the use of weapons has existed, and is the number one reason that people have clashed throughout our history. when I take a look at the bible, I see fables that support condemning people if they live a life of "sin", when "sin" is often used as a means to get the maximum satisfaction out of life. The bible involves many stories of famine, persecution, death, and misery, and i for one do not agree with such a grim perspective of life.
Although I am adamant in my "disbelief", the ultimate answer has not yet been found as to if there is a God somewhere out in the cosmos. All I know is that a lack of evidence for such a God, and the constantly increasing use of science to come to grips with our universe has fueled my beliefs. I in no way look down upon those who are believers, yet i feel like it is a human right to express ones true feelings on complex subjects. If people can live their lives as steadfast believers and live a wonderful life, then I completely agree with the path they choose. However, it pains me to think how many people have relied on religion because of the fact that it is accepted and easy to comprehend, instead of actually looking deep within the soul and using ones brain to better understand the world around us.
I consider myself to have absolutely no belief in the bible or of a Godlike higher being. i have spent countless hours in church over the course of life, and ever since I gained the ability to think for myself i have questioned the religious tendencies that my parents burdened on me as a child. through 1,000's hours of discovery I have willingly undergone, I cannot see religion as a reasonable value to live ones life by. The smartest individuals in the history of time, including Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, have denounced religion in favor of taking a scientific approach to the universe. Charles Darwin and his theories of evolution have only added to the argument that there was never a "creation" of all things on earth, rather every life form that exists is a product of natural selection and the ability to fit a niche within our world. Every single organism on earth is the product of the original spark of life billions of years ago, not by a higher being but by a combination of elements that supports the development of life.
Religion is often considered the most controversial topic on earth, as billions of people live their lives by how their religion prescribes we should. i for one live my life knowing that this is the only life i will ever have, and thus I live life to the fullest. religion has led to wars ever since the use of weapons has existed, and is the number one reason that people have clashed throughout our history. when I take a look at the bible, I see fables that support condemning people if they live a life of "sin", when "sin" is often used as a means to get the maximum satisfaction out of life. The bible involves many stories of famine, persecution, death, and misery, and i for one do not agree with such a grim perspective of life.
Although I am adamant in my "disbelief", the ultimate answer has not yet been found as to if there is a God somewhere out in the cosmos. All I know is that a lack of evidence for such a God, and the constantly increasing use of science to come to grips with our universe has fueled my beliefs. I in no way look down upon those who are believers, yet i feel like it is a human right to express ones true feelings on complex subjects. If people can live their lives as steadfast believers and live a wonderful life, then I completely agree with the path they choose. However, it pains me to think how many people have relied on religion because of the fact that it is accepted and easy to comprehend, instead of actually looking deep within the soul and using ones brain to better understand the world around us.
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