Creationalism: The World's stupidest idea?
Several people have been asking why I've not posted anything for some time. Well, the reason is that I've not been sufficiently angry about anything for ages; but now I am. In fact I'm really fucking livid. And the cause of my vexation? Intelligent design.
Intelligent deisgn (definition) - Barmy circular belief system (I can't bring myself to use the term 'theory' to describe it; a theory has to have at least a small chance of being true) which states that the Universe is too complicated to have evolved naturally, and hence some higher power must have been responsible.
Even the most stupid/sleepy amongst you must have noticed that this definition begs the following question: who, then, created the higher power? By the above argument, the higher power must have been created by a correspondingly higher power. And, to take intelligent design to its 'logical' conclusion, we therefore have an infinite hierarchy of higher powers. Assuming these higher powers to all be 'God' (which is a given in monotheism), God therefore exists at the bottom (I know a true infinite list has no "bottom") of the list, and is hence very far from being the greatest being in the Universe. We ultimately then arrive at the conclusion that advocates of Intelligent Design believe God is powerless and so are destined for internal damnation (ha! In your face, loonies!!).
As an aside, creationalism holds that God created Earth in 6 days. Why would it take an all-powerful being 6 whole days to create Earth? If it did, it would've taken him fucking ages to create the Universe. And, as an all powerful being who created the entire Universe, why would He be governed by 'days', which is an arbitrary unit of time specific to Earth (erk! I'm a pedantic geek! Oh well, at least I'm right ;-))?
This is all very amusing stuff at first glance, but is in fact extremely dangerous. The driving force behind the spread of garbage, er, creationalism, in American schools is the absolute belief that the Bible must be followed literally; take for example, this quote from an American schoolgirl from the BBC's Newsnight program:
"Well, if it's not in the Bible then it's not true, because they say you should believe every word the Bible says. So, it wasn't in the Bible, so I don't believe it." (brainwashing in evidence!!!).
If you accept this 'everything is true' unquestioning view, then there are some unfortunate consequences. These are some of the things that could be taught in schools if this attitude is allowed to spread:
"If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her." : Deuteronomy 22:28-29
- Hence it is ok to rape a) older women, b) engaged women, c) married women.
- If the rapist is the father (not uncommon as I understand), he loses nothing.
- All raped women must spend the rest of their lives with the rapist.
"Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death.": Deuteronomy 17:12
- Disagree with anyone claiming to be dishing out God's justice and you die.
"If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed": Leviticus 20:13
- The famous one, kill all homosexuals (but only men, note!).
"But if this charge is true (that she wasn't a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death": Deuteronomy 22:20-21
-Women not a virgin at their wedding are to be murdered.
Ok, that's enough examples for now. I know some of these examples are slightly outdated but make no mistake, though, everyone who claims to follow the Bible literally must believe everything I've just quoted. They must or they're hippocrites! And if we allow them to teach one assertion from the Bible as truth, then they could teach any. It must be stopped now! Do we want the world's only superpower (I hate that phrase!) to become a society competing with Iran for the award of "World's Least Tolerant" (if they're not already there)?
Creationalists claim their argument is valid because "there is a lack of evidence or natural explanation for the genetic code, and [...] that fossil records are inconsistent with evolutionary theory". This strikes me as a bit rich as there's no evidence for their argument at all, and I'm far from certain either of those claims are true. In fact, their belief comes from a book of unknown origin, with no corroborating evidence. One advocate of creationalism said in the same Newsnight program I referred to previously:
"Darwin's theory says that things are related from natural selection and gene mutation, from common ancestors and we have scientific evidence that challenges that. "
Let me pose one simple question: what is this evidence? Have you ever seen any, any at all? Neither have I. And do you know why you haven't seen it? Because it doesn't fucking exist. The woman quoted above was not just twisting facts to support her cause, she was lying (incidentally a sin; good one, love).
So, to conclude: creationalists (specifically those who force it on the rest of us, or try to) are a bunch of cunts.
Intelligent deisgn (definition) - Barmy circular belief system (I can't bring myself to use the term 'theory' to describe it; a theory has to have at least a small chance of being true) which states that the Universe is too complicated to have evolved naturally, and hence some higher power must have been responsible.
Even the most stupid/sleepy amongst you must have noticed that this definition begs the following question: who, then, created the higher power? By the above argument, the higher power must have been created by a correspondingly higher power. And, to take intelligent design to its 'logical' conclusion, we therefore have an infinite hierarchy of higher powers. Assuming these higher powers to all be 'God' (which is a given in monotheism), God therefore exists at the bottom (I know a true infinite list has no "bottom") of the list, and is hence very far from being the greatest being in the Universe. We ultimately then arrive at the conclusion that advocates of Intelligent Design believe God is powerless and so are destined for internal damnation (ha! In your face, loonies!!).
As an aside, creationalism holds that God created Earth in 6 days. Why would it take an all-powerful being 6 whole days to create Earth? If it did, it would've taken him fucking ages to create the Universe. And, as an all powerful being who created the entire Universe, why would He be governed by 'days', which is an arbitrary unit of time specific to Earth (erk! I'm a pedantic geek! Oh well, at least I'm right ;-))?
This is all very amusing stuff at first glance, but is in fact extremely dangerous. The driving force behind the spread of garbage, er, creationalism, in American schools is the absolute belief that the Bible must be followed literally; take for example, this quote from an American schoolgirl from the BBC's Newsnight program:
"Well, if it's not in the Bible then it's not true, because they say you should believe every word the Bible says. So, it wasn't in the Bible, so I don't believe it." (brainwashing in evidence!!!).
If you accept this 'everything is true' unquestioning view, then there are some unfortunate consequences. These are some of the things that could be taught in schools if this attitude is allowed to spread:
"If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her." : Deuteronomy 22:28-29
- Hence it is ok to rape a) older women, b) engaged women, c) married women.
- If the rapist is the father (not uncommon as I understand), he loses nothing.
- All raped women must spend the rest of their lives with the rapist.
"Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death.": Deuteronomy 17:12
- Disagree with anyone claiming to be dishing out God's justice and you die.
"If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed": Leviticus 20:13
- The famous one, kill all homosexuals (but only men, note!).
"But if this charge is true (that she wasn't a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to death": Deuteronomy 22:20-21
-Women not a virgin at their wedding are to be murdered.
Ok, that's enough examples for now. I know some of these examples are slightly outdated but make no mistake, though, everyone who claims to follow the Bible literally must believe everything I've just quoted. They must or they're hippocrites! And if we allow them to teach one assertion from the Bible as truth, then they could teach any. It must be stopped now! Do we want the world's only superpower (I hate that phrase!) to become a society competing with Iran for the award of "World's Least Tolerant" (if they're not already there)?
Creationalists claim their argument is valid because "there is a lack of evidence or natural explanation for the genetic code, and [...] that fossil records are inconsistent with evolutionary theory". This strikes me as a bit rich as there's no evidence for their argument at all, and I'm far from certain either of those claims are true. In fact, their belief comes from a book of unknown origin, with no corroborating evidence. One advocate of creationalism said in the same Newsnight program I referred to previously:
"Darwin's theory says that things are related from natural selection and gene mutation, from common ancestors and we have scientific evidence that challenges that. "
Let me pose one simple question: what is this evidence? Have you ever seen any, any at all? Neither have I. And do you know why you haven't seen it? Because it doesn't fucking exist. The woman quoted above was not just twisting facts to support her cause, she was lying (incidentally a sin; good one, love).
So, to conclude: creationalists (specifically those who force it on the rest of us, or try to) are a bunch of cunts.
posted by Dave's annoyed | 3:04 PM
5 Comments:
The first problem i have with this blog is regarding your attack on the christian faith. Your attack is based on statements made in the old testament, which have been superseded by the new covenent. It is easy to draw negative conclusions from the bible when you are talking to people haven't read it. "A new commandment I give unto you, ... bla bla bla... - read that
Also, the idea of intellent design. Why do you consider it supid to beleive in the existence of God? Yes, the features of this argument are not empirical and it is a "leap of faith". but what's wrong with that? Can you proove the counter argument? To beleive in only empirically verifiable truths, is not to beleive in very much at all.
Firstly, just because people realised their version of the Bible was rather vicious and evil and thus wrote what can really only be described as a cop-out re-phrasing, does not convince me in the slightest that my attack on the Christian faith was unfounded. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another". Did the Lord forget to mention that one the first time round? Or did someone forget to write it in the original version?
Second, your final statement is correct; by only subscribing to empirically verifiable truths, I don't have to believe in anything. The point of proof is that you don't need faith or belief; personally I find it impossible to accept an idea without evidence, which is what is required by a "leap of faith".
Finally, there is nothing wrong with a leap of faith ideology, as long as you're satisfied with it. My point was only that it's not for me, for the reasons in my post.
mmm... yes, very interesting points.
ermm... i like apples?
Glad we agree on something, I like apples too.
you have deep-seated psychological issues dave - see someone. Apples are shit - didn't anyone tell you that. Jeeeeez!
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