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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 03/10/2010 : 07:46:44
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Every year Falwell's Folly sends a class to the museum to see and scoff at the Evolution displays. Kind'a sad, as these kids have the same ambitions as any others, yet they are hobbled by the debilitating affliction of Young Earth Creationism.
They plan to become doctors, researchers and professors, but these students from Liberty University, an evangelical school, also believe God created the Earth in a week, some 6,000 years ago.
Each year, a group of biology students at the Christian university based in Lynchburg, Virginia, travels to the Natural History Museum in Washington to learn about a theory they dismiss as incorrect -- Darwin's theory of evolution.
The young "creationists" examined a model of the Morganucodon rat, believed to be the first and common ancestor of mammals that appeared some 210 million years ago.
Lauren Dunn, 19, a second-year biology student, was unimpressed.
"210 million years, that's arbitrary. They put that time to make up for what they don't know," she said.
Nathan Hubbard, a 20-year-old from Michigan and a first-year biology major who plans to become a doctor, regarded the model with suspicion.
"There is no scientific, biological genetic way that this, this rat, could become you," he said, seemingly scandalized by the proposition.
Liberty University is the most prominent evangelical university in the United States, with some 12,000 students who adhere to strict rules and regulations regarding moral conduct.
Its biology curriculum includes a course on "Young Earth Creationism", which juxtaposes Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species" with the Book of Genesis.
"In order to be the best creationist, you have to be the best evolutionist you can be," said Marcus Ross, who teaches paleontology and says of Adam and Eve: "I feel they were real people, they were the first people."
David DeWitt, a Liberty University biology professor, opens his classes with a prayer, asking God to help him teach his students.
"I pray that you help me to teach effectively and help the students to learn and defend their faith," he says.
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Typical, I suppose. He's more interestedin "defending the faith" than actually teaching science.
The article ends thus:
Though Ross acknowledges that the United States is among the most welcoming environments in the world for creationists, he said it can be difficult to convince people to take him and his beliefs seriously.
"The attitude is when you are a creationist you are ignorant of the facts," he said.
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And so you are.....
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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astropin
SFN Regular
USA
970 Posts |
 Posted - 03/11/2010 : 10:32:56 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
And so you are.....
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Indeed. |
I would rather face a cold reality than delude myself with comforting fantasies.
You are free to believe what you want to believe and I am free to ridicule you for it.
Atheism:
The result of an unbiased and rational search for the truth.
Infinitus est numerus stultorum |
| Edited by - astropin on 03/11/2010 10:33:17 |
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krobbyzw
New Member
3 Posts |
Posted - 03/24/2010 : 05:46:27 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
"The attitude is when you are a creationist you are ignorant of the facts," he said.
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And so you are
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Hi Filthy, I wanted to check with you whether you have had the chance to watch Kent Hovind's videos on creation?
In them, he describes how people point to fossils as being evidence of millions of years [for the evolutionists] and a global flood [fo the creationists].
I wanted to ask your opinion on this question: If there was a global flood in history, what evidence would you expect to find of it?
Enjoy your day!
[Edited to fix quote. //Dr. Mabuse] |
| Edited by - Dr. Mabuse on 03/27/2010 06:31:52 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/24/2010 : 06:12:21 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by krobbyzw
Originally posted by filthy
"The attitude is when you are a creationist you are ignorant of the facts," he said.
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And so you are
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Hi Filthy, I wanted to check with you whether you have had the chance to watch Kent Hovind's videos on creation?
In them, he describes how people point to fossils as being evidence of millions of years [for the evolutionists] and a global flood [fo the creationists].
I wanted to ask your opinion on this question: If there was a global flood in history, what evidence would you expect to find of it?
Enjoy your day!
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Hi krobbyzw, and welcome to the fray!
I've been at Hovind's throat for decades. Indeed, I wish they'd let him out of jail so's I can go after him again. These days, all I have is dreary, old Ken Ham. 
Anyhow, I have an article in the Skeptic's Summery that pretty well covers the Flood. What it 'stills off to is that there would be a thick, geological strata that could be explainable by nothing else. In it would be the remains of forests and animals, including humans, that would be jumbled together in an indecipherable mass. Everything would be represented in there in no discernable order, unlike today's strata and fossil record, which is as well ordered as any book.
The flood strata does not exist except in the imaginations of the believers.
Thanks for the question! 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 03/24/2010 : 07:06:45 [Permalink]
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| "I pray that you help me to teach effectively and help the students to learn and defend their faith," he says. |
If his students graduate believing the world was created about 6000 years ago his imaginary God is deaf and impotent. This reminds me, with any doctor I see, I'll first state that I believe the world 6000 y/o and ask them if they agree. If they don't laugh in my face but agree, I'll get a new doctor. The last thing I needs is a gullible or ignorant person playing doctor treating me. SS |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
| Edited by - sailingsoul on 03/24/2010 07:20:17 |
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astropin
SFN Regular
USA
970 Posts |
Posted - 03/24/2010 : 10:52:14 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by sailingsoul
| "I pray that you help me to teach effectively and help the students to learn and defend their faith," he says. |
If his students graduate believing the world was created about 6000 years ago his imaginary God is deaf and impotent. This reminds me, with any doctor I see, I'll first state that I believe the world 6000 y/o and ask them if they agree. If they don't laugh in my face but agree, I'll get a new doctor. The last thing I needs is a gullible or ignorant person playing doctor treating me. SS
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That would not mean your Dr is gullible or ignorant....merely a suckup.
I am occasionally put into a social situation where I pretend to pray. If I did not I would lose some important clients. Hypocritical? Yes.....but on that scale I can live with it.....I've got a family to take care of.
Now if you asked them if they believed the world was 6000 years old and they said yes.....well that would be a good time to leave. |
I would rather face a cold reality than delude myself with comforting fantasies.
You are free to believe what you want to believe and I am free to ridicule you for it.
Atheism:
The result of an unbiased and rational search for the truth.
Infinitus est numerus stultorum |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/24/2010 : 15:31:45 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by sailingsoul
| "I pray that you help me to teach effectively and help the students to learn and defend their faith," he says. |
If his students graduate believing the world was created about 6000 years ago his imaginary God is deaf and impotent. This reminds me, with any doctor I see, I'll first state that I believe the world 6000 y/o and ask them if they agree. If they don't laugh in my face but agree, I'll get a new doctor. The last thing I needs is a gullible or ignorant person playing doctor treating me. SS
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Careful. That may work sometimes, but you may be eliminating good doctors who are willing to silently tolerate religious gullibility in their patients so that those patients don't turn to possibly quackery-prone doctors who don't believe in modern biology and scientific medicine.
In other words, you may be rejecting physicians who think your health, not your beliefs, are their business. And that's a reasonable attitude for a doctor.
If in doubt, it seems to me that a direct question as to whether the doctor believes evolution is or isn't central to biology and thus medicine would be more to the point. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Liberty University(?) visits the Smithsonian
