Ebert: Win Ben Stein’s Mind

Charles Johnsonfollow me on twitter
Entertainment • Thu Dec 4, 2008 at 6:54 pm PST • Views: 523

Roger Ebert’s comprehensive skewering of Ben Stein’s anti-evolution film Expelled (a right-wing Michael Moore-ish piece of deceptive propaganda) is a must-read: Win Ben Stein’s mind.

Toward the end of the film, we find that Stein actually did want to title it “From Darwin to Hitler.” He finds a Creationist who informs him, “Darwinism inspired and advanced Nazism.” He refers to advocates of eugenics as liberal. I would not call Hitler liberal. Arbitrary forced sterilization in our country has been promoted mostly by racists, who curiously found many times more blacks than whites suitable for such treatment.

Ben Stein is only getting warmed up. He takes a field trip to visit one “result” of Darwinism: Nazi concentration camps. “As a Jew,” he says, “I wanted to see for myself.” We see footage of gaunt, skeletal prisoners. Pathetic children. A mound of naked Jewish corpses. “It’s difficult to describe how it felt to walk through such a haunting place,” he says. Oh, go ahead, Ben Stein. Describe. It filled you with hatred for Charles Darwin and his followers, who represent the overwhelming majority of educated people in every nation on earth. It is not difficult for me to describe how you made me feel by exploiting the deaths of millions of Jews in support of your argument for a peripheral Christian belief. It fills me with contempt.

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1352 comments

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1 diminuendo  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:56:18pm

rediculous.

2 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:56:29pm

Win Ben Stein's Money was the greatest game show on television.

3 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:56:34pm

Eh, I'd rather have his money.

/

4 diminuendo  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:56:48pm

edit,
ridiculous.

5 6pat6  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:57:00pm

Damn. Ebert actually HAS a brain.

6 6pat6  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:57:50pm

I'd rather have Ben Stein's money.

7 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:58:00pm

"it filled you with hatred"..."it fills me with contempt"? really? this guy sounds like a radical hate-monger

8 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:58:19pm

re: #6 6pat6

I'd rather have Ben Stein's money.

GTMA!

9 VegasRick  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:59:07pm

I wish I had $1 for every ID/Darwin post.
/just sayin'

10 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 6:59:41pm

re: #7 stretch

"it filled you with hatred"..."it fills me with contempt"? really? this guy sounds like a radical hate-monger

Ah, I thought you had left us after you threw a temper tantrum on the last evolution thread. But alas, you are still here, still being our "pinata, spitting out stupid every time we hit you," as Neil Stevens says.

11 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:00:00pm
Darwinism inspired and advanced Nazism

Yes, and the earth is only 6,000 years old

/

12 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:00:01pm

re: #9 VegasRick
Wouldn't be as much as you think.

13 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:00:07pm

re: #9 VegasRick

I wish I had $1 for every ID/Darwin post.
/just sayin'

Yeah. You'd get about $18 every 60 days.

Don't spend it all in one place.

14 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:00:25pm

re: #10 gclaghorn

Ah, I thought you had left us after you threw a temper tantrum on the last evolution thread. But alas, you are still here, still being our "pinata, spitting out stupid every time we hit you," as Neil Stevens says.

Pinatas have candy in them, right? Heh.

15 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:00:58pm

re: #7 stretch

"it filled you with hatred"..."it fills me with contempt"? really? this guy sounds like a radical hate-monger

Adding to your karma count I see.

16 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:01:29pm

re: #14 Wyatt Earp

Pinatas have candy in them, right? Heh.

Fine. You may have a piece of candy now.

17 tntb  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:01:37pm
He refers to advocates of eugenics as liberal.

That's because they were. Eugenics was a "progressive" ideal. The modern outgrowth of it is Planned Parenthood, founded by progressive Margaret Sanger. 1/3 of black babies who are conceived are aborted.

18 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:01:48pm

But, where would I put it if I won it? Next to the X's left testicle over my mantle?

19 NYCHardhat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:01:56pm

This seems to be a polarizing subject.

20 A Kiwi Infidel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:01:59pm
21 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:02:03pm

re: #16 gclaghorn

Fine. You may have a piece of candy now.

Whoo hoo! Sorry. Candy on the brain.

22 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:02:28pm

re: #13 Charles

Yeah. You'd get about $18 every 60 days.

Don't spend it all in one place.

2 + per week..jaysus! heh

23 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:02:47pm

re: #17 tntb

That's because they were. Eugenics was a "progressive" ideal. The modern outgrowth of it is Planned Parenthood, founded by progressive Margaret Sanger. 1/3 of black babies who are conceived are aborted.

Is that statistic true today? Do you have a link?

24 A Kiwi Infidel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:02:52pm

re: #15 jorline

Adding to your Earl Hickey bad karma count I see.


Slight edit requirement

25 VegasRick  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:02:55pm

re: #13 Charles

Yeah. You'd get about $18 every 60 days.

Don't spend it all in one place.

I did say post and not thread. And I was alluding (as a joke) to the # of posts these kind of threads usually generate. And I was just kidding.

26 A Kiwi Infidel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:03:29pm

Hi, Mandy, howzit going?

27 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:03:48pm

re: #24 A Kiwi Infidel

Slight edit requirement

ding

28 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:03:57pm

re: #17 tntb

That's because they were. Eugenics was a "progressive" ideal. The modern outgrowth of it is Planned Parenthood, founded by progressive Margaret Sanger. 1/3 of black babies who are conceived are aborted.

Mind you, I know about Sanger and her eugenicism. I'm just wondering if the statistic about African-American terminations is correct today, as in, within the past five years.

29 Sabba Hillel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:04:14pm

The arguments on both sides seem to be ridiculous. Those who attempt to use evolution to "prove" the religion of atheism are just as bad as those who attempt to "disprove" the theory of evolution because of their belief in G-d.

Just because G-d may have decided to use evolution as part of the laws of this universe does not mean that He does not exist. In fact, given the definition of G-d as all-powerful and all-knowing, we cannot prove that the Universe was or was not created 5 minutes, 5 years, 5,769 years or 5,769,000 years ago.

As a result, the entire argument seems to be silly and not really appropriate. One should not use evolution or any other aspect of science to attempt to set up a system of laws and morality.

30 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:04:25pm

re: #18 MandyManners

But, where would I put it if I won it? Next to the X's left testicle over my mantle?

one wonders what made ya decide on the left one..or just the left one, perhaps

31 theheat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:04:27pm

re: #5 6pat6

He also has excellent taste in furniture, and has a lot of gorgeous Art Deco pieces. And it sounds like after all his medical problems, he has a pretty nice wife, too.

I like him twice as much, now, for shaking out the nuances of Stein's idiotic film and hanging them out for all to see, like so much laundry. He could have simply said the film sucked in 300 words or less, but he put his teeth into it.

32 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:05:18pm

re: #7 stretch
I really don't think Ebert is a "radical hate monger? Do you? Really?

33 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:05:27pm

Hola, Mandy!

34 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:05:59pm

re: #32 pingjockey

I really don't think Ebert is a "radical hate monger? Do you? Really?

I sometimes think so when he trashes a movie I like, but about this? Not at all. :)

35 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:06:00pm

re: #17 tntb

That's because they were. Eugenics was a "progressive" ideal. The modern outgrowth of it is Planned Parenthood, founded by progressive Margaret Sanger. 1/3 of black babies who are conceived are aborted.

And who was the biggest supporter of eugenics (a president) and is progressive the same then as it is now?

36 Bloodnok  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:06:16pm

Wow. Read the whole thing. I was expecting "just" a film review. Ebert does a great job with this.

37 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:06:31pm
38 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:07:12pm
39 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:07:22pm

re: #17 tntb

That's because they were. Eugenics was a "progressive" ideal. The modern outgrowth of it is Planned Parenthood, founded by progressive Margaret Sanger. 1/3 of black babies who are conceived are aborted.

Eugenics is the antithesis of evolutionary theory. Whereas evolutionary theorists would prefer to leave environmental selection alone to do its work unhindered, eugenicists can't seem to resist imposing their own pet 'intelligent' design. Darwin's books were banned in the Third Reich.

Eugenics, or the application of animal husbandry - selective breeding and herd-culling - to humans, is an idea as old as Plato.

40 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:08:02pm

re: #32 pingjockey

I really don't think Ebert is a "radical hate monger? Do you? Really?

I think Stretch just crawls out from under the troll bridge every Evolution thread and goes back when the thread is over and everyone has moved on.

41 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:08:50pm

Oh, and abortion was illegal under the Third Reich, too. Instead, they had lebensborns, where women chosen for Aryan Characteristics were forcibly bred to selected SS officers, in order to increase the ranks of the Volk.

42 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:08:51pm

re: #10 gclaghorn

nope, sorry to disappoint - still here. Are there any evolutionists out there who are honest enough to face their history in eugenics (slaughtering African pygmies and whatnot)? It could be quite therapeutic. Deep down inside, don't you think that you ARE more evolved that some other races?

43 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:09:08pm

re: #34 Wyatt Earp
I pay no attention to film reviews. I do pay more attention now as to who is in the movie. I will not see a flic with Sean Penn, Mr. Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda(not to relevant), and a few others.

44 experiencedtraveller  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:09:11pm

Did the humans kill the dinosaurs or did the humans like the dinosaurs?

45 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:09:42pm

re: #42 stretch

nope, sorry to disappoint - still here. Are there any evolutionists out there who are honest enough to face their history in eugenics (slaughtering African pygmies and whatnot)? It could be quite therapeutic. Deep down inside, don't you think that you ARE more evolved that some other races?

I, for one, do not slaughter African pygmies, and never have, thank you.

46 Piecemaker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:09:46pm
He refers to advocates of eugenics as liberal. I would not call Hitler liberal.

That's a shame.

Especially since Hitler's beliefs were more in line with liberals, than with conservatism: [Link: www.danielpipes.org...]
[Link: constitutionalistnc.tripod.com...]

47 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:09:51pm

re: #30 joecitizen

one wonders what made ya decide on the left one..or just the left one, perhaps

Arbitrary decisions are sometimes made.

48 A Kiwi Infidel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:09:57pm

re: #41 Salamantis

Oh, and abortion was illegal under the Third Reich, too. Instead, they had lebensborns, where women chosen for Aryan Characteristics were forcibly bred to RAPED BY selected SS officers, in order to increase the ranks of the Volk.

another slight edit requirement

49 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:10:21pm

re: #39 Salamantis

Eugenics is the antithesis of evolutionary theory. Whereas evolutionary theorists would prefer to leave environmental selection alone to do its work unhindered, eugenicists can't seem to resist imposing their own pet 'intelligent' design. Darwin's books were banned in the Third Reich.

Eugenics, or the application of animal husbandry - selective breeding and herd-culling - to humans, is an idea as old as Plato.

Correct... but TNTB, who doesn't understand the subject, is using the simple-minded argument and trying to connect eugenics and all this to "liberals" and scary evolutionist.

50 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:10:41pm

Good one, Ebert. The last three paragraphs of the review are very strong.

"This film is cheerfully ignorant, manipulative, slanted, cherry-picks quotations, draws unwarranted conclusions, makes outrageous juxtapositions (Soviet marching troops representing opponents of ID), pussy-foots around religion (not a single identified believer among the ID people), segues between quotes that are not about the same thing, tells bald-faced lies, and makes a completely baseless association between freedom of speech and freedom to teach religion in a university class that is not about religion."

...and the closing:
"It is not difficult for me to describe how you made me feel by exploiting the deaths of millions of Jews in support of your argument for a peripheral Christian belief. It fills me with contempt."

51 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:10:59pm

re: #42 stretch

I don't usually get involved in the ID/evolution threads, but who is this idiot?

52 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:11:24pm

re: #40 gclaghorn
...don't mind being the only one, and not like 'everyone'. thanks for the encouragement

53 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:11:47pm

re: #51 Noam Sayin'

I don't usually get involved in the ID/evolution threads, but who is this idiot?

See my #40.

54 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:11:54pm

re: #41 Salamantis

Oh, and abortion was illegal under the Third Reich, too. Instead, they had lebensborns, where women chosen for Aryan Characteristics were forcibly bred to selected SS officers, in order to increase the ranks of the Volk.

/too lazy to link

55 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:11:55pm

re: #29 Sabba Hillel

The arguments on both sides seem to be ridiculous. Those who attempt to use evolution to "prove" the religion of atheism are just as bad as those who attempt to "disprove" the theory of evolution because of their belief in G-d.

Just because G-d may have decided to use evolution as part of the laws of this universe does not mean that He does not exist. In fact, given the definition of G-d as all-powerful and all-knowing, we cannot prove that the Universe was or was not created 5 minutes, 5 years, 5,769 years or 5,769,000 years ago.

As a result, the entire argument seems to be silly and not really appropriate. One should not use evolution or any other aspect of science to attempt to set up a system of laws and morality.

Yeah...an omnipotent God who would inscribe lies in the Book of Nature just so he can deceive human beings...sounds like a deity I could really reverence...

/

56 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:12:14pm

re: #42 stretch
Hello, would you please share, with those who partake, whatever killer weed you are smoking.

57 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:12:30pm

re: #44 experiencedtraveller

Did the humans kill the dinosaurs or did the humans like the dinosaurs?

Well, according to The Flintstones, they lived in equal harmony . . .

58 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:12:32pm
It fills me with contempt.


Indeed.

59 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:12:50pm

re: #56 pingjockey

Hello, would you please share, with those who partake, whatever killer weed you are smoking.

truly it is loco weed..

60 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:12:56pm

re: #52 stretch

...don't mind being the only one, and not like 'everyone'. thanks for the encouragement

Oh, bravo, you brave, brave soul.

/

61 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:12:59pm

I liked it when Ben Stein wrote for Penthouse. He was smart informative and witty. And of course being surrounded by other boobs, he didnt look quite the pussy that he is.

62 VegasRick  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:13:02pm

re: #25 VegasRick

I did say post and not thread. And I was alluding (as a joke) to the # of posts these kind of threads usually generate. And I was just kidding.

I guess I am not going to get any response after gettin down dinged for my comment. See you all later. No harm, no foul, hopefully

63 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:13:27pm

re: #42 stretch

nope, sorry to disappoint - still here. Are there any evolutionists out there who are honest enough to face their history in eugenics (slaughtering African pygmies and whatnot)? It could be quite therapeutic. Deep down inside, don't you think that you ARE more evolved that some other races?

See posts #39 and 41, and remember that it was by means of evolutionary genetics that it was proven that we're all members of the same race - the human race.

64 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:13:28pm

Heh. Open reg followed by ID thread!

S. Beaumont channels Jebediah Nightlinger:

I regret trifling with married women. I'm thoroughly ashamed at cheating at cards. I deplore my occasional departures from the truth. Forgive me for taking your name in vain, my Saturday drunkenness, my Sunday sloth. Above all, forgive me for the men hatchlings I've killed in anger...

[eyes shifting to Asa Watts fresh-yet-gamey-hatchling hindquarters]

... and those I am about to.

/gotta go fix some popcorn.

65 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:13:28pm

re: #56 pingjockey

Hello, would you please share, with those who partake, whatever killer weed you are smoking.

I was about to call for the stick, but if he's got herb...

66 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:13:51pm

re: #52 stretch

...don't mind being the only one, and not like 'everyone'. thanks for the encouragement

You don't mind being the only idiot? Go for it if that's what yanks your crank.

Please provide a link to your pygmy remark.

And please provide links to any of your statements. I have noticed in previous threads where you were making a fool of yourself, you lack the ability to cut and paste a link.

67 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:14:02pm

Egad --- Stein makes such a huge leap from Darwin's evolution to Nazi selective breeding - it scales the missing link by chasms

68 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:14:19pm

re: #56 pingjockey

Hello, would you please share, with those who partake, whatever killer weed you are smoking.

Ancient killer hemp .. from an old tomb .. it has that extra dead guy buzz to it.

69 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:14:45pm

re: #13 Charles

Yeah. You'd get about $18 every 60 days.

Don't spend it all in one place.

I'd prefer $1 for every deleted post and ban hammer deployment generated by these posts. I always enjoy the discussions and meltdowns that occur. I for one hope they keep coming. Keep the discussion and focus going and keep up the great work Charles.

70 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:15:05pm

re: #66 Walter L. Newton

You don't mind being the only idiot? Go for it if that's what yanks your crank.

Please provide a link to your pygmy remark.

And please provide links to any of your statements. I have noticed in previous threads where you were making a fool of yourself, you lack the ability to cut and paste a link.

To link requires a functioning brain and an IQ higher than that of a box of Froot Loops, both of which {stretch} clearly lacks.

71 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:15:06pm

What a time to drop in for an evening chat...
An ID thread.

*rolls up sleeves, picks up clue bat*

I'm only going to say this once.

IT'S Turtles all the way down!

72 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:15:18pm

re: #67 Right mind left

Egad --- Stein makes such a huge leap from Darwin's evolution to Nazi selective breeding - it scales the missing link by chasms

He puts the "eaps" and "ounds" in "leaps" and "bounds".

73 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:15:22pm

re: #69 CynicalConservative

I'd prefer $1 for every deleted post and ban hammer deployment generated by these posts. I always enjoy the discussions and meltdowns that occur. I for one hope they keep coming. Keep the discussion and focus going and keep up the great work Charles.

I enjoy the extra pairs of sock puppets i get to wear.

74 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:15:25pm
"Fahrenheit 9/11" is a compelling, persuasive film, at odds with the White House effort to present Bush as a strong leader. He comes across as a shallow, inarticulate man, simplistic in speech and inauthentic in manner. If the film is not quite as electrifying as Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," that may be because Moore has toned down his usual exuberance and was sobered by attacks on the factual accuracy of elements of "Columbine"; playing with larger stakes, he is more cautious here, and we get an op-ed piece, not a stand-up routine. But he remains one of the most valuable figures on the political landscape, a populist rabble-rouser, humorous and effective; the outrage and incredulity in his film are an exhilarating response to Bush's determined repetition of the same stubborn sound bites.

--Roger Ebert, arbiter of all that is right and proper in film documentaries.

IOW... watch out for fleas

75 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:15:46pm

re: #51 Noam Sayin'

wow! - hitting some nerves on this thread. I guess eugenics does come close to home for some of you guys. Check your meds next time before you post.

76 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:15:54pm

Hitler was the missing link between an obscure population of sub-humans and the SS: sub-sub human. Darwinism in reverse.

77 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:16:01pm

re: #71 JCM

What a time to drop in for an evening chat...
An ID thread.

*rolls up sleeves, picks up clue bat*

I'm only going to say this once.

IT'S Turtles all the way down!

I thought it was CLITONITES ALL THE WAY DOWN.

78 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:16:08pm

re: #65 Noam Sayin'
It has got to be some really good shit! That's some whacked smack he/she/it is posting! Last thing I heard we were all one race.

79 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:16:12pm

re: #42 stretch

nope, sorry to disappoint - still here. Are there any evolutionists out there who are honest enough to face their history in eugenics (slaughtering African pygmies and whatnot)? It could be quite therapeutic. Deep down inside, don't you think that you ARE more evolved that some other races?

GAZE

80 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:16:22pm

re: #73 Buster Bunny

I enjoy the extra pairs of sock puppets i get to wear.

I'll file that under "Things that make you go hmmm?"

81 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:16:27pm

re: #75 stretch

wow! - hitting some nerves on this thread. I guess eugenics does come close to home for some of you guys. Check your meds next time before you post.

I'll check my meds when you put down the weed.

82 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:16:36pm

re: #75 stretch

I put the meds away, thinking you'd share your weed.

Stingy bastard.

83 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:16:51pm

re: #76 DistantThunder

Hitler was the missing link between an obscure population of sub-humans and the SS: sub-sub human. Darwinism in reverse.

*scratching head*

Are you saying Schickelgruber was more evolved than his minions?

84 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:03pm

re: #42 stretch

Are there any evolutionists out there who are honest enough to face their history in eugenics

Some Christians have been and still are supporters of eugenics...
Catholicism and Eugenics in the Weimar Republic and in the Third Reich

"Christian" Eugenics

You can google it and learn more if you're interessted.

85 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:11pm

re: #81 gclaghorn

I'll check my meds when you put down the weed.

Give the guy a break. It's medicinal for his glaucoma. He can't see common sense.

86 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:11pm

re: #77 MandyManners

I thought it was CLITONITES ALL THE WAY DOWN.

Clintonites are like cockroaches - they will always be with us.

87 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:12pm

re: #77 MandyManners

I thought it was CLITONITES ALL THE WAY DOWN.


the endless evolving clit? I like it...

88 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:20pm

re: #71 JCM

What a time to drop in for an evening chat...
An ID thread.*rolls up sleeves, picks up clue bat*I'm only going to say this once. IT'S Turtles all the way down!

You keep touting that old theory, over and over, yet you never post any info supporting your contention.

89 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:24pm

re: #54 Killian Bundy

%P%Here ya go:

[Link: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...]

90 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:28pm

re: #49 Walter L. Newton

"Liberal" and "Conservative" appear to be the only political terms people want to use in describing historical events and trends. Today's liberals love to call every negative, tyrannical movement in the world "conservative" no matter what the ideology. It would be nice, in a way, to lay every negative trend at the doorstep of Democrats; but maybe a bit tendentious.

91 reine.de.tout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:41pm

re: #41 Salamantis

Oh, and abortion was illegal under the Third Reich, too. Instead, they had lebensborns, where women chosen for Aryan Characteristics were forcibly bred to selected SS officers, in order to increase the ranks of the Volk.

Are you trying to say that a person who is anti-abortion must "instead" be a supporter of forced breeding?

92 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:43pm

re: #83 MandyManners

*scratching head*

Are you saying Schickelgruber was more evolved than his minions?

They were his spawn after all.

93 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:17:50pm

re: #77 MandyManners

I thought it was CLITONITES ALL THE WAY DOWN.

That's in DC, different universe. Where not really sure what happened there, but it went horrible wrong.

94 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:18:09pm

re: #71 JCM
IS NOT! There's an aardvark in there. Did you see the Goddamn bullshit in Olympia in the Capitol Rotunda? It made O'Reilly last night.

95 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:18:14pm

re: #63 Salamantis

See posts #39 and 41, and remember that it was by means of evolutionary genetics that it was proven that we're all members of the same race - the human race.

Bravo, Salamantis! Well spoken and concise: Perfect for a troll smackdown!

96 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:18:18pm

re: #75 stretch

wow! - hitting some nerves on this thread. I guess eugenics does come close to home for some of you guys. Check your meds next time before you post.

FUCK YOU!

You leave Noam alone.

97 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:18:21pm

re: #72 MandyManners

He puts the "eaps" and "ounds" in "leaps" and "bounds".

(not to incite things any, but...)
HA - a lot like our stretttchh upthread, too?!?///

98 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:18:41pm

eugenics is the ultimate tool for genocidal pre-emption. The possiblity that 'we are better than you therefore you SHOULDNT EXIST' has been successfully used at least six times SINCE the holocaust.

Darfur .. Kashmir .. Pakistan (Pure State) Bangladesh Algeria .. not to mention Sudan.

Every reason to be scared of the principle.

99 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:18:51pm

re: #96 MandyManners

That's my girl...

*peck*

100 6pat6  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:18:59pm

re: #57 Wyatt Earp

Well, according to The Flintstones, they lived in equal harmony . . .

Damn, so Uncle Fred WAS yanking my chain when he said he had a pet Brontosaurus!

/damn, do I really need to?

101 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:18:59pm

re: #86 DistantThunder

Clintonites are like cockroaches - they will always be with us.

Even after global, thermonuclear war.

102 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:19:01pm

re: #96 MandyManners

FUCK YOU!

You leave Noam alone.

F**K {STRETCH} AND THE HORSE HE RODE IN ON!

103 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:19:09pm

Margaret Sanger attended and spoke at a KKK rally in NJ.

104 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:19:12pm

re: #87 joecitizen

Dagnabit.

105 The Hoopster  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:19:59pm

re: #96 MandyManners

FUCK YOU!

You leave Noam alone.

Yea..Noam is cool

106 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:20:03pm

re: #92 DistantThunder

They were his spawn after all.

*scratching head*

Gonna' hafta' think on that for a bit.

107 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:20:08pm

re: #90 Joan

"Liberal" and "Conservative" appear to be the only political terms people want to use in describing historical events and trends. Today's liberals love to call every negative, tyrannical movement in the world "conservative" no matter what the ideology. It would be nice, in a way, to lay every negative trend at the doorstep of Democrats; but maybe a bit tendentious.

I think you are trying to make my point. Progressive meant a real different thing when Roosevelt started the Progressive Party (Bull Moose). Posters like "stretch" miss these fact, over and over. And Roosevelt was a big supporter of eugenics.

108 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:20:08pm

re: #88 Walter L. Newton

You keep touting that old theory, over and over, yet you never post any info supporting your contention.

I have PROOF!.

A suppressed NASA Hubble image, I got from a friend who knows a guy that knew someone who was married to someone who's was a 3rd cousin to a janitor at NASA.

109 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:20:09pm

re: #75 stretch

wow! - hitting some nerves on this thread. I guess eugenics does come close to home for some of you guys. Check your meds next time before you post.

Smack! Then back to GAZE.

110 6pat6  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:20:11pm

re: #74 Zimriel

Ebert definitely had his head firmly in Michael Moore's gigantic ass when he reviewed F9/11.

111 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:20:14pm

re: #46 Piecemaker

That's a shame.

Especially since Hitler's beliefs were more in line with liberals, than with conservatism: [Link: www.danielpipes.org...]
[Link: constitutionalistnc.tripod.com...]

I don't know many classic liberals who would burn copies of Origin of Species...Stalinistic leftists, maybe, since it contradicted Malenkoism...

112 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:20:51pm

I liked Ben Stein too. This asshattery from him bites.

113 J'accuzzi  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:20:52pm

Ying and Yang. Nutsies and Nazis.

114 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:20:53pm

re: #93 JCM

That's in DC, different universe. Where not really sure what happened there, but it went horrible wrong.

It's the swamp gasses.

115 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:21:01pm

re: #77 MandyManners

I thought it was CLITONITES ALL THE WAY DOWN.

Couldn't just make it into a boob thread and leave it at that, eh?

116 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:21:02pm

The trolls are crawling out of the wordwork, everyone...set your phasers on GAZE...

117 gman  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:21:10pm

The cartoon at the bottom sums up the "teach both theories" argument so well.

118 mich-again  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:21:37pm

re: #98 Buster Bunny

and Rwanda. and the Baltics,

119 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:21:47pm

re: #103 DistantThunder

Margaret Sanger attended and spoke at a KKK rally in NJ.

LINK

Given Margaret Sanger's preoccupation with race (see previous article), it should come as no surprise to anyone that Sanger would accept an invitation to give a speech to an organization that also has a preoccupation with race - the Ku Klux Klan. Not only did Sanger accept the invitation, but the excerpt below from her own 1938 autobiography indicates the she got along quite well with members of a New Jersey branch of the Ku Klux Klan, eventually getting a "dozen invitations to speak to similar groups."

Perhaps this is because the KKK's ideas and Margaret Sanger's ideas concerning race are so similar. No doubt the KKK must have been happy with Sanger's "Negro Project" which was designed to cut down on the number of black babies being born. In a December 10, 1939 letter, Margaret Sanger wrote to Dr. Clarence Gamble about her "Negro Project," saying, "We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten that idea out if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." (See Blessed Are The Barren The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood by Robert Marshall and Charles Donovan, Ignatius Press, 1991, pages 17-18.)

Here is Sanger's account of her trip to talk to the Ku Klux Klan from pages 366-367 of Margaret Sanger An Autobiography (1971 reprint by Dover Publications, Inc. of the 1938 original published by W.W. Norton & Company).

120 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:21:47pm

re: #97 Right mind left

(not to incite things any, but...)
HA - a lot like our stretttchh upthread, too?!?///

See my No. 96, please.

121 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:22:12pm

re: #99 Noam Sayin'

That's my girl...

*peck*

*giggle*

*smooch*

122 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:22:32pm

re: #103 DistantThunder

Margaret Sanger attended and spoke at a KKK rally in NJ.

Linky?

123 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:22:35pm

re: #108 JCM

I have PROOF!.

A suppressed NASA Hubble image, I got from a friend who knows a guy that knew someone who was married to someone who's was a 3rd cousin to a janitor at NASA.

Just checking. Ok, well, that explains a lot of things. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Now I know where the Island in LOST went to.

124 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:23:07pm

re: #99 Noam Sayin'

That's my girl...

*peck*

re: #121 MandyManners

*giggle*

*smooch*

OH! For Pete's sake!
Get a room!
/ ;-P

126 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:23:19pm

re: #105 HoosierHoops

Yea..Noam is cool

Oh, you know it.

127 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:23:27pm

re: #119 DistantThunder

So what? Margaret Sanger has been dead for 42 years, and her ideas had nothing to do with Darwin's theory of evolution. The issue is a creationist red herring.

128 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:23:29pm

re: #122 MandyManners

Linky?

See my 119

129 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:23:43pm

re: #75 stretch

wow! - hitting some nerves on this thread. I guess eugenics does come close to home for some of you guys. Check your meds next time before you post.

No, people just hate to see empirical science illegitimately accused of political insanity.

130 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:23:50pm

re: #115 Clemente

Couldn't just make it into a boob thread and leave it at that, eh?

Dagnabit II.

131 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:23:55pm

re: #118 mich-again

and Rwanda. and the Baltics,

No .. i deliberately left out the Baltics. Thats been a Saudi inspired war of hate waged against the Russians. You go look up the leaders of the operations in the Baltics. You'll find that they are all ex-Saudi princes. Its a proxy war not a eugenics war.

132 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:24:08pm

re: #123 Walter L. Newton

Just checking. Ok, well, that explains a lot of things. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Now I know where the Island in LOST went to.

Can't help you on that one. I'm still struggle with the 3 hour cruise...

133 6pat6  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:24:25pm

re: #115 Clemente

Couldn't just make it into a boob thread and leave it at that, eh?

Ahhh, boobs...mmm!

134 A Kiwi Infidel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:24:33pm

re: #121 MandyManners

*giggle*

*smooch*

I'm leaving...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

135 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:24:41pm

re: #124 JCM

*blush*

136 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:24:49pm

re: #121 MandyManners

*pinch*

137 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:24:50pm

re: #130 MandyManners

Dagnabit II.

Did somebody say "boobs?"

138 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:24:54pm

re: #134 A Kiwi Infidel

I'm leaving...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

TTFN, Kiwi! See you later.

139 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:25:00pm

re: #120 MandyManners

See my No. 96, please.

I did - that was GREAT!

There should be a mandatory corner we can send him to (he/she/it)

140 mich-again  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:25:18pm

re: #111 Salamantis

I don't know many classic liberals who would burn copies of Origin of Species...

But we shouldn't confuse classic liberalism with the modern version of the L-word.

141 6pat6  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:25:26pm

re: #132 JCM

Can't help you on that one. I'm still struggle with the 3 hour cruise...

Yeah, what's with that? Plus, they took everything they owned on that damn boat! Except batteries!

142 theheat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:25:39pm

re: #44 experiencedtraveller

Surely, you've seen the the first Dino Rodeo at the Creation Museum, haven't you? Heck, they rode 'em!

They also used dino doo in their gardens, the ones where the little girls are playing.

143 HelloDare  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:25:41pm

Ebert was ebullient over Moore's Fahrenheit 911. Stein is a putz. Stein and Moore both made stuff up. I can't stand either of them. I can't stand Ebert either. He's as left as you can get.

144 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:25:45pm

re: #89 Salamantis

%P%Here ya go:

[Link: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...]

There ya go, was that so hard? Always link assertions.

/even if the point is obvious, your memory isn't common knowledge and a lot of LGF readers shouldn't have to take your word for history, besides it keeps you busy for a while

145 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:25:46pm

re: #85 Wyatt Earp
that's a good one - there are only a few lingering effects, honest!

146 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:25:50pm
147 6pat6  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:26:11pm

re: #143 HelloDare

I can't stand any of the three, either.

148 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:26:14pm

re: #145 stretch

Suck-up.

149 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:26:38pm

re: #140 mich-again

But we shouldn't confuse classic liberalism with the modern version of the L-word.

Lesbian?

150 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:26:56pm

re: #91 reine.de.tout

Are you trying to say that a person who is anti-abortion must "instead" be a supporter of forced breeding?

No, I'm saying that the opposite of anti-abortion is forced abortion, as in China, not reproductive choice, as in the US. No one is legally forcing women to end pregnancies against their wills here.

151 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:27:03pm

re: #127 Charles

So what? Margaret Sanger has been dead for 42 years, and her ideas had nothing to do with Darwin's theory of evolution. The issue is a creationist red herring.

There were all kinds of people supporting some form of eugenics, and even certain laws existed right through the 20th century. Eugenics was not a conservative versus liberal issue.

Read this article and see how many people supported it in some form. Also noticed how little eugenics has to do with evolution.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

152 solomonpanting  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:27:10pm
Intelligent Design "scientists" in "Expelled" are offended by being called ignorant. When Stein points out that "Catholics and mainstream Protestant groups" have no problem with the theory of Evolution, he is informed by an ID advocate, "liberal Christians side with anybody against Creationists." Now we have the smoking gun. It is the word liberal. What is the word liberal doing here? The Theory of Evolution is neither liberal nor conservative. It is simply provable or not.

Unlike beliefs.

153 Mr Spiffy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:27:10pm

re: #30 joecitizen

It hangs lower (at least mine does)

154 swamprat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:27:17pm

re: #42 stretch

nope, sorry to disappoint - still here. Are there any evolutionists out there who are honest enough to face their history in eugenics (slaughtering African pygmies and whatnot)? It could be quite therapeutic. Deep down inside, don't you think that you ARE more evolved that some other races?

How many Pygmies?
How did they manage to debone all those poor souls?
Who paid the shipping costs for all those skeletons?
Where are they now? There should be stacks of them, somewhere.

The story is bogus. A fake.

155 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:27:18pm

re: #149 Buster Bunny

Lesbian?

Lactose?

157 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:28:12pm

re: #145 stretch

that's a good one - there are only a few lingering effects, honest!

I am still waiting for your "killing pygmies" link?

158 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:28:24pm

re: #127 Charles

So what? Margaret Sanger has been dead for 42 years, and her ideas had nothing to do with Darwin's theory of evolution. The issue is a creationist red herring.

I didn't know it was a creationist talking point - I only posted it because her name came up and I thought it was a little known fact. I posted the same article on a feminist news site and the women were apoplectic having worshipped Sanger for her birth control revolution - but unaware of her eugenics bent.

159 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:28:36pm

Ebert doesn't sound especially friendly to Michael Moore in this review: "Smug and disengenuous..."

"...Spurlock has been called the poor man's Michael Moore, an assessment that's neither fair nor accurate. His filmmaking may be comparably poor, and he does present himself as the first-person star of his essay-showcase movies, but Spurlock's gags don't depend on stupid, insufferably self-serving set-ups designed to place himself in a superior position to whoever's on camera. For that reason, and because his agit-prop presentation is strictly anecdotal, Spurlock's approach feels less smug and disingenuous than Moore's."


[Link: rogerebert.suntimes.com...]

160 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:28:42pm

Speaking as someone who believes the Bible to be the word of God, and who does not also believe that dinosaurs were dragons, (?), I just have one comment to make:

It's a really bad idea to take a Bible verse and try to build a scientific idea out of it. They hung a guy back in 1600 for postulating that there were more planets than this one, because they were basing their science on the Bible. Bad idea, because it's bad logic.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

That doesn't make the Bible untrue, or full of bad ideas. It just means it was never meant to be a science textbook. If God meant for us to be ignorant schlumps, he never would have sent us Isaac Newton or Benjamin Franklin.

161 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:28:43pm

re: #128 DistantThunder

See my 119

Thanks!

My home-town STILL has a statue of Forrest. Unfuckingbelievable.

162 mich-again  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:28:57pm

re: #149 Buster Bunny

Nope.

163 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:29:13pm

re: #148 gclaghorn

Suck-up.

Will you marry me? :)

164 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:29:20pm

re: #134 A Kiwi Infidel

I'm leaving...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Have a good day!

165 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:29:52pm

re: #163 Wyatt Earp

Will you marry me? :)

No, no, no, you're doing it all wrong -- now, get down on one knee...

166 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:29:56pm

re: #136 Noam Sayin'

*WHACK*

167 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:30:05pm

re: #29 Sabba Hillel

The arguments on both sides seem to be ridiculous. Those who attempt to use evolution to "prove" the religion of atheism are just as bad as those who attempt to "disprove" the theory of evolution because of their belief in G-d.

Just because G-d may have decided to use evolution as part of the laws of this universe does not mean that He does not exist. In fact, given the definition of G-d as all-powerful and all-knowing, we cannot prove that the Universe was or was not created 5 minutes, 5 years, 5,769 years or 5,769,000 years ago.

As a result, the entire argument seems to be silly and not really appropriate. One should not use evolution or any other aspect of science to attempt to set up a system of laws and morality.

Hey, tell it to Aristotle, upon whose works some of our laws are based.
Or Plato
Or Marcus Aurelius etc. etc. etc.

168 razorbacker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:30:20pm

re: #156 MandyManners

That's a long read but, does it take into account the higher numbers of African-American single women over the past 20 years? I mean, 1969-2000 is the time-frame.

Who knows? I got MEGO long before the end.

But the abortion rate is declining. Or was when the paper was published.

169 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:30:35pm

re: #139 Right mind left

I did - that was GREAT!

There should be a mandatory corner we can send him to (he/she/it)

Up to Charles.

170 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:30:41pm

re: #165 gclaghorn

No, no, no, you're doing it all wrong -- now, get down on one knee...

I said, "marry," not . . . Oh, never mind.

171 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:31:07pm

re: #160 EmmmieG

Speaking as someone who believes the Bible to be the word of God, and who does not also believe that dinosaurs were dragons, (?), I just have one comment to make:

It's a really bad idea to take a Bible verse and try to build a scientific idea out of it. They hung a guy back in 1600 for postulating that there were more planets than this one, because they were basing their science on the Bible. Bad idea, because it's bad logic.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

That doesn't make the Bible untrue, or full of bad ideas. It just means it was never meant to be a science textbook. If God meant for us to be ignorant schlumps, he never would have sent us Isaac Newton or Benjamin Franklin.

Actually .. i'm a believer in the idea that God works in 'Whammys' i.e. big steering events that modulate the existing show in progress. Think Nazis .. think Amalek, think Volcanos that change history. It seems to be that he lets things boulder along and then when he needs to step in its quick and sharp.

172 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:31:22pm

re: #169 MandyManners

Up to Charles.

Why do we need to make a corner for people like {stretch}? We already have insane asylums...

/

173 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:31:43pm

re: #171 Buster Bunny

Actually .. i'm a believer in the idea that God works in 'Whammys' i.e. big steering events that modulate the existing show in progress. Think Nazis .. think Amalek, think Volcanos that change history. It seems to be that he lets things boulder along and then when he needs to step in its quick and sharp.

Think Vogons!

174 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:32:05pm

Stretch's karma total doesn't even equal annefrance's (sp) one comment down ding total of over 300. Remember that?

175 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:32:05pm

re: #144 Killian Bundy

There ya go, was that so hard? Always link assertions.

/even if the point is obvious, your memory isn't common knowledge and a lot of LGF readers shouldn't have to take your word for history, besides it keeps you busy for a while

Don't worry...I eventually get around to replying to all the posts I wanna reply to anyway...

176 HelloDare  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:32:48pm

Here is the last paragraph of Ebert review of "Fahrenheit 9/11"

"Fahrenheit 9/11" is a compelling, persuasive film, at odds with the White House effort to present Bush as a strong leader. He comes across as a shallow, inarticulate man, simplistic in speech and inauthentic in manner. If the film is not quite as electrifying as Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," that may be because Moore has toned down his usual exuberance and was sobered by attacks on the factual accuracy of elements of "Columbine"; playing with larger stakes, he is more cautious here, and we get an op-ed piece, not a stand-up routine. But he remains one of the most valuable figures on the political landscape, a populist rabble-rouser, humorous and effective; the outrage and incredulity in his film are an exhilarating response to Bush's determined repetition of the same stubborn sound bites.

177 Steve Rogers  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:32:59pm

When an articulate, well-respected, media-savvy conservative, libertarian, conservative-libertarian, etc. makes a real and entertaining documentary about the benefits of limited government, more freedom, more personal responsibility, etc. and leaves out all the pseudo-scientific nonsense that tries to pass bronze-age myths off as legitimate scientific theories, then – and only then – will a documentary help Republicans start to win more elections. Stein did far more harm to Republicans by preaching to "Creationists" than he or "Creationists" realize. Only "Creationists" went to see that movie. Rational moderate voters who saw any advertisements or news stories about it kept that in the back of their minds at the voting booth. We all know the result.

And should such a documentary ever really be made, once those future Republicans get in office, they need to publicly ignore every "Creationist" and "Intelligent Design" advocate that tries to get them to pass legislation in order to force their religion disguised as science down the throats of other people's children in government schools.

178 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:33:00pm

re: #42 stretch

nope, sorry to disappoint - still here. Are there any evolutionists out there who are honest enough to face their history in eugenics (slaughtering African pygmies and whatnot)? It could be quite therapeutic. Deep down inside, don't you think that you ARE more evolved that some other races?

No because most evolutionists do not base their identity or their self upon their race. Most racists tend to do so however.

179 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:33:08pm

re: #133 6pat6

Ahhh, boobs...mmm!

Speaking of boobs: "I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go." --at The Dear Leader at a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon

180 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:33:19pm

re: #174 jorline

Stretch's karma total doesn't even equal annefrance's (sp) one comment down ding total of over 300. Remember that?

I think he wants to be the Barry Bonds of bad karma. Actually, that's kind of redundant.

181 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:33:35pm

re: #174 jorline

Stretch's karma total doesn't even equal annefrance's (sp) one comment down ding total of over 300. Remember that?

He really does refuse to provide links to his grade-school level pronouncements, doesn't he?

Can you say Edgar?

182 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:33:35pm

re: #166 MandyManners

*WHACK*

183 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:34:33pm

re: #181 Walter L. Newton

He really does refuse to provide links to his grade-school level pronouncements, doesn't he?

Can you say Edgar?

Still got cans of Edgar-Off?

184 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:34:53pm

re: #173 Walter L. Newton

Think Vogons!

WTF does the Restaurant at The End of The Universe have to do with serious theology? I mean .. take a look at a timeline of ANYTHING .. it seems to peter along for an extended period and then there is a Whammy which throws the whole event / society into chaos or deletion. Is it a G-d inspired hand? who knows? but it seems to be consistant throughout history. Sure there could be sociological influences, but .. a LOT of them seem inspired.

185 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:35:01pm

re: #151 Walter L. Newton

There were all kinds of people supporting some form of eugenics, and even certain laws existed right through the 20th century. Eugenics was not a conservative versus liberal issue.

Read this article and see how many people supported it in some form. Also noticed how little eugenics has to do with evolution.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

Anybody want to write a book about scientism and the political abuse of science? Or, steer me to a good title, so I can stop obsessing.

186 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:35:55pm

re: #166 MandyManners

*WHACK*

That's gonna leave a mark...

187 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:36:10pm

Shake... shake... shake... press... press... pppsssttt... pppsssttt... pppsssttt...

Stretch-off (as seens on TV) formely Edgar-off.

(I'm waiting for a troll to sign up on LFG with a name like "piss")

188 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:36:18pm

re: #171 Buster Bunny

I do have a big of trouble not believing in God when there is chocolate in the world.

189 Abdullah al-Libi  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:36:39pm

So this creep doesn't like this silly movie. BFD. Ebert is still an arrogant POS.

190 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:37:16pm

re: #188 EmmmieG

I do have a big of trouble not believing in God when there is chocolate in the world.

Beer...
Beer is proof God wants us to be happy!

191 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:37:18pm

re: #185 Joan

Anybody want to write a book about scientism and the political abuse of science?


The political abuse of science is as old as history itself. "Scientism" is a fictional belief system invented by creationists. It doesn't exist.

192 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:37:21pm

"It is not difficult for me to describe how you made me feel by exploiting the deaths of millions of Jews in support of your argument for a peripheral Christian belief. It fills me with contempt."

It is not a peripheral Christian belief to believe God made man, earth, stars and sun. It is the truth. I feel sorry for all the people who have heard the truth and turn their back on God and His Word. Evolution is the secular liberal excuse to take God out of everything.

193 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:37:21pm

re: #177 Steve Rogers

When an articulate, well-respected, media-savvy conservative, libertarian, conservative-libertarian, etc. makes a real and entertaining documentary about the benefits of limited government, more freedom, more personal responsibility, etc. and leaves out all the pseudo-scientific nonsense that tries to pass bronze-age myths off as legitimate scientific theories, then – and only then – will a documentary help Republicans start to win more elections. Stein did far more harm to Republicans by preaching to "Creationists" than he or "Creationists" realize. Only "Creationists" went to see that movie. Rational moderate voters who saw any advertisements or news stories about it kept that in the back of their minds at the voting booth. We all know the result.

And should such a documentary ever really be made, once those future Republicans get in office, they need to publicly ignore every "Creationist" and "Intelligent Design" advocate that tries to get them to pass legislation in order to force their religion disguised as science down the throats of other people's children in government schools.

Check out Indoctrinate U.

[Link: indoctrinate-u.com...]

194 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:37:25pm

re: #187 Walter L. Newton

Shake... shake... shake... press... press... pppsssttt... pppsssttt... pppsssttt...

Stretch-off (as seens on TV) formely Edgar-off.

(I'm waiting for a troll to sign up on LFG with a name like "piss")

Alas that I have but one up-ding to give...

195 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:37:33pm

Oh dear. Typo. Bit of trouble. Not big of trouble. Too much chocolate in the system.

196 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:37:37pm

re: #184 Buster Bunny

WTF does the Restaurant at The End of The Universe have to do with serious theology? I mean .. take a look at a timeline of ANYTHING .. it seems to peter along for an extended period and then there is a Whammy which throws the whole event / society into chaos or deletion. Is it a G-d inspired hand? who knows? but it seems to be consistant throughout history. Sure there could be sociological influences, but .. a LOT of them seem inspired.

Ah, look cuddles, I was making a little joke. And unless you are being just as snarky, then I would recommend that you up your meds a bit.

197 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:37:41pm
198 lostlakehiker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:37:45pm

re: #17 tntb

That's because they were. Eugenics was a "progressive" ideal. The modern outgrowth of it is Planned Parenthood, founded by progressive Margaret Sanger. 1/3 of black babies who are conceived are aborted.

Where are there any advocates of eugenics? None, openly. But eugenics of a sort is implicit in our laws against incest. When a very closely related couple (parent/child, brother/sister, or, not quite as extreme, cousin/cousine), have a child, chances are much higher than normal that that child will be burdened with some major genetic defect that will ruin or stunt its life. This is why we have laws against incest. It's also why most people have no interest in such an arrangement. It's a built in feature of human nature that most of us find it repellent.

Those who didn't, tended to breed themselves out of the gene pool.

A mindset favorable to eugenics was implicit in the furious disgust of the left with Sarah Palin. What had she done? Carried a Down syndrome baby to term.

Eugenics was perverted, and inverted, by Hitler. His hatred of Jews was hardly founded in their inability to get through school and learn a trade. Hitler and the Nazis were just out to kill off everybody different from them, and it was convenient to that project to paste the label of "inferior" on all those who were different.

Apart from those who had hopelessly bad luck in the lottery of life and got stuck with bona-fide drastic genetic defects that make them mentally incapable of any sort of independent living, we don't deny anyone the right to have children.

Today's society either just shudders with horror at the whole enterprise of "eugenics" as a proxy for getting rid of so-called inferior peoples, or it takes a more analytical view and arrives at the same conclusion. Every extant race and people is a race of survivors. We are the ones who didn't get voted off the island. We all have some sort of genetic superiority. One in one realm, another in another, perhaps; there is no denying that some people resist sunburn better than others, while others acclimate to high altitude better than still others. But here we are, and nature is still whittling away at all of us. Some live, others die, and it's not always just blind chance. The faster draw wins, the meek (prudent) guy avoids the gunfight altogether, and either way, the wild west becomes the home of the survivor and the burial ground of the loser.

It's not the job of government to embark upon a program of mass murder and call it eugenics. Nature will take care of that.

199 mich-again  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:38:01pm

re: #177 Steve Rogers

When an articulate, well-respected, media-savvy conservative, libertarian, conservative-libertarian, etc. makes a real and entertaining documentary about the benefits of limited government, more freedom, more personal responsibility, etc. and leaves out all the pseudo-scientific nonsense that tries to pass bronze-age myths off as legitimate scientific theories, then – and only then – will a documentary help Republicans start to win more elections.

All you need to do is sit there and read quotes from Thomas Jefferson.

200 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:38:42pm

re: #196 Walter L. Newton

Ah, look cuddles, I was making a little joke. And unless you are being just as snarky, then I would recommend that you up your meds a bit.

42

Nuff said.

Now go off and look for the question.

201 Piecemaker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:38:43pm

I've never ventured into the comments on an ID thread before.

Interesting stuff.

So, I'm mildly curious to see if there are any "creationists" who are willing to entertain the concept of Darwin's theories as how God built the world?

Personally, and FTR, I am a Christian, I have always giggled at the rigid creationists, but not as much as those who insist that only Darwin's concepts are right.

202 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:39:21pm

re: #159 jaunte

Ebert doesn't sound especially friendly to Michael Moore in this review: "Smug and disengenuous..."

[Link: rogerebert.suntimes.com...]

jaunte: thank you for that link. Roger Ebert's views re: Moore seem to have evolved (I guess he didn't like Sicko). But - what are Ebert's current views re: Fahrenheit 9/11? As far as I can tell, Ebert still believes that F9/11 was what Bush's first administration, 2001-2004, deserves. I don't see where Ebert retracted that opinion.

I've never seen Expelled. I don't want to see it. I'm not a creationist (and have a paper trail on this site to prove it). But given Ebert's treatment of F9/11, I have to suspect Ebert's treatment of any other movie which touch up against his prejudices.

203 HelloDare  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:39:30pm

re: #185 Joan

Anybody want to write a book about scientism and the political abuse of science? Or, steer me to a good title, so I can stop obsessing.


Any book attacking The Church of Climate Change could be considered a book about pseudo-scientism.

204 pat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:39:35pm

Eugenics was, of course, initially a 'leftist', socialist invention. adopted by racists of all colors, ethnicity, and political persuasion. The great genocides of the 20th Century have been promulgated by atheists in the Western World , China, and Cambodia. But the Japanese were no slouches here as were not the Muslims from the beginning. Ebert's generalization about eugenics is simply wrong. As wrong as Stein's conclusion.

205 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:39:40pm
206 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:40:10pm

re: #196 Walter L. Newton
"Logic, the man's talking logic!"
"We're talking about universal Armeggedon. You green blooded, inhuman..."

207 reine.de.tout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:40:22pm

re: #150 Salamantis

Thanks for the clarification; I thought the juxtaposition in your original post seemed odd.

208 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:40:27pm

re: #176 HelloDare

Ebert displays SCS* every few years.

/*Stopped-Clock Syndrome

209 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:40:35pm

re: #192 bitterclinger_in_PA

"It is not difficult for me to describe how you made me feel by exploiting the deaths of millions of Jews in support of your argument for a peripheral Christian belief. It fills me with contempt."

It is not a peripheral Christian belief to believe God made man, earth, stars and sun. It is the truth. I feel sorry for all the people who have heard the truth and turn their back on God and His Word. Evolution is the secular liberal excuse to take God out of everything.

And a hoary old Disco Dewde Wedge strategy talking point once again re-emerges: try to divert the discussion from empirical science vs. religious dogma to atheists vs. God.

210 gman  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:40:40pm

re: #176 HelloDare

Here is the last paragraph of Ebert review of "Fahrenheit 9/11"

"Fahrenheit 9/11" is a compelling, persuasive film, at odds with the White House effort to present Bush as a strong leader. He comes across as a shallow, inarticulate man, simplistic in speech and inauthentic in manner. If the film is not quite as electrifying as Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," that may be because Moore has toned down his usual exuberance and was sobered by attacks on the factual accuracy of elements of "Columbine"; playing with larger stakes, he is more cautious here, and we get an op-ed piece, not a stand-up routine. But he remains one of the most valuable figures on the political landscape, a populist rabble-rouser, humorous and effective; the outrage and incredulity in his film are an exhilarating response to Bush's determined repetition of the same stubborn sound bites.

Bringing up an old movie review to reveal that Ebert is "Left" doesn't make anything that he said in the "Expelled" review untrue. You're going to have to attack his "Expelled" review with specific examples.

211 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:40:55pm

So, Ben Stein, when you were researching this movie, how much of Ernst Haeckel's, William Sumner's and/or Vladmir Ulyanov's work did you read?

Surely, anyone who wants to be taken seriously on the matter of Darwin's discoveries applied to philosophy would have done at least that much.

212 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:41:07pm

re: #197 Iron Fist

One hundred percent of aborted women do not, themselves, go on to have an abortion. Taranto at WSJ calls it the "Roe Effect". It would predict that Conservatives are more likely to bear a child (as opposed to abort it), and thus that Conservatism would be somewhat self-reinforcing as those children, when raised by conservatives, themselves turned out to bear their children in turn.

It's a plausible, if somewhat over simplistic, line of reasoning.

Additionally conservatives are more likely to have children, and have more of them.

213 hurricane567  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:41:14pm

I find myself agreeing with Ben on many points...this, however, is not one of them. So sad.

214 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:41:22pm

No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.
- Jacob Bronowski

From Wikipedia -Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin. He is best remembered as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man.

Anyone hear of this guy or the series?

215 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:41:31pm

re: #201 Piecemaker

I've never ventured into the comments on an ID thread before.

Interesting stuff.

So, I'm mildly curious to see if there are any "creationists" who are willing to entertain the concept of Darwin's theories as how God built the world?

Personally, and FTR, I am a Christian, I have always giggled at the rigid creationists, but not as much as those who insist that only Darwin's concepts are right.

Darwin's theories on how God built the world are probably close to yours. He was a Christian you know.

216 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:41:44pm

re: #206 pingjockey

"Logic, the man's talking logic!"
"We're talking about universal Armeggedon. You green blooded, inhuman..."

Thanks, Bones. Get back to sick bay.

217 mich-again  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:41:56pm

re: #197 Iron Fist

That assumes the parents pass on their value system to their children. Which is kind of iffy.

218 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:42:03pm

but Annefrace was a good soul
/

219 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:42:06pm

re: #166 MandyManners

*WHACK*

(182) scary, looks like noam likes it! Do we have to have an evolution discussion about THIS?
/

220 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:42:35pm

re: #204 pat

Eugenics was, of course, initially a 'leftist', socialist invention. adopted by racists of all colors, ethnicity, and political persuasion. The great genocides of the 20th Century have been promulgated by atheists in the Western World , China, and Cambodia. But the Japanese were no slouches here as were not the Muslims from the beginning. Ebert's generalization about eugenics is simply wrong. As wrong as Stein's conclusion.

Ah, left, right, progressive, conservative, all rally had different meaning a hundred years ago...

"The modern field and term were first formulated by Sir Francis Galton in 1883,[3] drawing on the recent work of his cousin Charles Darwin. From its inception eugenics was supported by prominent people, including H. G. Wells, Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Emile Zola, George Bernard Shaw, John Maynard Keynes, William Keith Kellogg, Margaret Sanger, Winston Churchill, and Sidney Webb.[4][5][6] G. K. Chesterton was an early critic of the philosophy of eugenics, expressing this opinion in his book, Eugenics and Other Evils. Eugenics became an academic discipline at many colleges and universities, and received funding from many sources"

221 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:42:43pm

re: #213 hurricane567

I find myself agreeing with Ben on many points...this, however, is not one of them. So sad.

Its a common way of brainwashing a person .. you tell them three truths and sell them one lie. After the last three being truths .. the fourth MUST be true.

I thank my advanced course in business sales for teaching me that one :)

222 razorbacker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:43:10pm

re: #217 mich-again

That assumes the parents pass on their value system to their children. Which is kind of iffy.

Yeah, but if you have no children you're certain not to pass on the value system.

223 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:43:14pm

re: #207 reine.de.tout

Thanks for the clarification; I thought the juxtaposition in your original post seemed odd.

Juxtaposition - "I went to the employment office, and they gave me juxtaposition I was looking for!"

224 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:43:30pm

re: #209 Salamantis

And a hoary old Disco Dewde Wedge strategy talking point once again re-emerges: try to divert the discussion from empirical science vs. religious dogma to atheists vs. God.

Kind of hits home there salamander

225 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:43:39pm

Okay, I think we can all agree that Ben Stein has way too much money and has gone off the deep end.

Economically too, although he means well.

That said, compare the box office for Expelleed $7,598,071 with Bill Maher's atheist film, Religulous $12,889,735 .

/they're both bombs that no one saw, but one's twice the bomb, what does that tell you?

226 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:43:43pm

re: #154 swamprat

How many Pygmies?
How did they manage to debone all those poor souls?
Who paid the shipping costs for all those skeletons?
Where are they now? There should be stacks of them, somewhere.

The story is bogus. A fake.

Here you go:

One of the most fascinating historical accounts about the fallout of biological evolution theory on human relations is the story of Ota Benga, a pygmy who was put on display in an American zoo as an example of an evolutionarily inferior race. The incident clearly reveals the racism of evolutionary theory and the extent that the theory gripped the hearts and minds of scientists and journalists in the late 1800s. As humans move away from this time in history, we can more objectively look back at the horrors that evolutionary theory has brought to society of which this story is a poignant example.

and your link:

[Link: www.rae.org...]

227 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:44:22pm

re: #201 Piecemaker

I've never ventured into the comments on an ID thread before.

Interesting stuff.

So, I'm mildly curious to see if there are any "creationists" who are willing to entertain the concept of Darwin's theories as how God built the world?

Personally, and FTR, I am a Christian, I have always giggled at the rigid creationists, but not as much as those who insist that only Darwin's concepts are right.

No, the Roman Catholic monk Gregor Mendel's concepts were right, too.

228 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:44:46pm

One of these days I'll head off to work and my job just wont be there anymore. It will have either evolved to a higher level or been rendered extinct. At which point I will take my retirement funds and migrate south to do some mating over the border.

229 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:44:48pm
230 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:44:58pm

re: #202 Zimriel

Based on the review that HelloDare linked, Ebert has his share of BDS.
Still, I agree with him that Moore is a populist rabble-rouser. I think he gives him too much of a pass for lying by calling it "exuberance."

In any case, he is deadly accurate in his criticism of Expelled.

231 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:45:06pm

re: #226 stretch

Link don't work Einstein.

232 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:45:06pm

re: #223 Wyatt Earp

Juxtaposition - "I went to the employment office, and they gave me juxtaposition I was looking for!"

And our word of the day is...

233 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:45:35pm

re: #217 mich-again

So what are you doing to teach your children your values?

My daughter had to memorize the Declaration of Independence.

I challenged a bunch of boys in our homeschool group to read the correspondence of Jefferson and Adams before they are 16.

Conservative values don't happen on their own.

234 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:45:46pm

re: #214 DistantThunder

No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.
- Jacob Bronowski

Anyone hear of this guy or the series?

I own the book, read it cover to cover and back in my teens, but haven't read from it in many years. Maybe time to dust it off.

235 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:46:11pm

re: #232 gclaghorn

And our word of the day is...

Dumb joke my Uncle Ray always gets me laughing with.

236 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:46:16pm

re: #175 Salamantis

Don't worry...I eventually get around to replying to all the posts I wanna reply to anyway...

/yeah, that's a bit creepy, after everyone's gone, hours or days later

237 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:46:45pm

re: #210 gman

Bringing up an old movie review to reveal that Ebert is "Left" doesn't make anything that he said in the "Expelled" review untrue. You're going to have to attack his "Expelled" review with specific examples.

Yeah...ad hominem is a 2500 year old greek logical fallacy, and nothing deduced in the interim has rendered it any more legitimate.

238 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:47:00pm

re: #214 DistantThunder

No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.
- Jacob Bronowski

From Wikipedia -Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin. He is best remembered as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man.

Anyone hear of this guy or the series?

Yes, and I've read some of his books

239 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:47:02pm

re: #235 Wyatt Earp

Dumb joke my Uncle Ray always gets me laughing with.

I challenge all wizards to use the word "indubitably" in context before the end of the thread.

240 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:47:14pm

And by the way folks, I just looked over the site that Stretch tried to link to...

[Link: www.rae.org...]

FULL of the typical pseudo-science and phony research.

241 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:47:17pm

re: #239 gclaghorn

I challenge all wizards to use the word "indubitably" in context before the end of the thread.

Wizards? Whatever. I meant lizards.

242 Dar ul Harb  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:47:34pm

re: #161 MandyManners

Thanks!

My home-town STILL has a statue of Forrest. Unfuckingbelievable.

If you mean Memphis, the statue is likely still there because that's where Forrest and his wife are buried.

243 The Hoopster  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:48:11pm

re: #181 Walter L. Newton

He really does refuse to provide links to his grade-school level pronouncements, doesn't he?

Can you say Edgar?

GMTA Walter

244 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:48:22pm

re: #211 gmsc

So, Ben Stein, when you were researching this movie, how much of Ernst Haeckel's, William Sumner's and/or Vladmir Ulyanov's work did you read?

Surely, anyone who wants to be taken seriously on the matter of Darwin's discoveries applied to philosophy would have done at least that much.

Haeckel lived more than a hundred years ago, and it was evolutionary scientists - embryologists - who exposed his duplicity.

245 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:48:23pm

re: #231 Walter L. Newton

Link don't work Einstein.


trying again...

[Link: www.rae.org...]

the hote from the site said "website addresses are automatically converted to hyperlinks." dunno

246 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:48:31pm
247 razorbacker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:48:35pm

re: #229 Iron Fist

Yeah. Over time the Left may wind up culling themselves out of the herd. "Teach your children well" ceases to matter when you don't have them. Of course, the Left have made great headway in monopolizing primary education, so they get to teach your children what they want them to believe, at least if you use the Socialized school system.

That's the SPAMMer theory of values transmission. You don't transmit your values to every student, but since they all have to listen you're bound to get some of them. Then they tell a friend, and they tell a friend, and before you know it, something really stupid happens.

248 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:48:53pm

re: #226 stretch

Here you go:

One of the most fascinating historical accounts about the fallout of biological evolution theory on human relations is the story of Ota Benga, a pygmy who was put on display in an American zoo as an example of an evolutionarily inferior race. The incident clearly reveals the racism of evolutionary theory and the extent that the theory gripped the hearts and minds of scientists and journalists in the late 1800s. As humans move away from this time in history, we can more objectively look back at the horrors that evolutionary theory has brought to society of which this story is a poignant example.

and your link:

[Link: www.rae.org...]

It didn't take long to look over that link of yours, Einstein. It's broken. Try again.

249 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:48:58pm

re: #241 gclaghorn

Wizards? Whatever. I meant lizards.

I can only do it by quoting, "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here."

250 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:49:03pm

re: #229 Iron Fist

Yeah. Over time the Left may wind up culling themselves out of the herd. "Teach your children well" ceases to matter when you don't have them. Of course, the Left have made great headway in monopolizing primary education, so they get to teach your children what they want them to believe, at least if you use the Socialized school system.

Aye, there in lies rub.

Recapturing eduction is critical. And pushing creationism as science doesn't help in the least bit.

251 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:49:19pm

Indubitably, the dinosaurs would have stuck around if they had known we were going to invent chocolate chip cookies.

252 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:49:22pm

I can say that after 25 years of marriage I have brought Mr DT from a near-neanderthal being to a more highly evolved and enlightened life form - who still occasionally devolves into rudimentary survival behaviors.

253 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:49:23pm
254 HelloDare  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:49:47pm

re: #210 gman

Bringing up an old movie review to reveal that Ebert is "Left" doesn't make anything that he said in the "Expelled" review untrue. You're going to have to attack his "Expelled" review with specific examples.

I am not defending "Expelled". I think the movie is crap. I was going after Ebert. I wish he had used the same critical eye when reviewing Moore's film. See my comment #143.

255 hazzyday  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:50:02pm

re: #178 Thanos

Stretch sounds trollish to me. Like he is projecting his inner racist that consumes his identity and wants to project that out onto a group of people. S**t colored glasses.

256 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:50:06pm

re: #226 stretch

It does no such thing. It exhibits the racism of the time, the same racism that existed before Darwin's book was written, or have you forgotten slavery?

257 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:50:36pm

re: #226 stretch

and your link:

[Link: www.rae.org...]

Oh, most impressive!

AHH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH (breathe) HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH ... hah ... heh...
.
.
.
.
AHH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH...

258 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:50:38pm

re: #226 stretch

Okay that was history, now do some research on "Downs Syndrome". The whole concept that the person it is named after is racist in belief and philosophy. What our ancestors used in history can be shameful. but if we use it the same way today it's shameful to us. A large majority of evolutionists do not use the theory to promote a racial agenda. IN fact most have used it to show how alike the race of man is.

259 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:50:55pm

re: #246 Iron Fist

Yeah, I find it hard to believe Moore has been successful.
Idiocracy marches on.

260 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:51:00pm

re: #251 EmmmieG

Indubitably, the dinosaurs would have stuck around if they had known we were going to invent chocolate chip cookies.

Do you think you could seriously compete with dinosaurs for the ones with the most choc-chips on top? I think you'd be wiped out simply because the dinosaurs would all end up on choc-insulin highs and just munch the nearest mammal !

Choc chip cookies needed humans to survive.

261 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:51:13pm

re: #249 Wyatt Earp

I can only do it by quoting, "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here."

It is indubitably true that the song "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here" is an appropriate response to my slip.

There. I've used the word tonight. Beat that, lizards.

262 Pietr  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:51:29pm

Seems to me that a lot of the comments RE eugenics are confusing it with genocide, which is what Hitler and many others since, have practiced. They are't mutually exclusive, nor co-joined. I don't think Liberal/Conservative have changed definitions; I'm convinced that DemocRAT and Republican have. How much of that is MSM propaganda becoming accepted truth...only God could calculate. Just a newbie, saying "Hi. Yall".

263 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:51:30pm

i... can't...get...this...to...work

[Link: www.rae.org...]

264 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:51:47pm

The most disturbing hypocrisy I find in Ebert's love-note to Moore: "a populist rabble-rouser" is "one of the most valuable figures on the political landscape".

265 swamprat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:51:52pm

re: #226 stretch

Here you go:

One of the most fascinating historical accounts about the fallout of biological evolution theory on human relations is the story of Ota Benga, a pygmy who was put on display in an American zoo as an example of an evolutionarily inferior race. The incident clearly reveals the racism of evolutionary theory and the extent that the theory gripped the hearts and minds of scientists and journalists in the late 1800s. As humans move away from this time in history, we can more objectively look back at the horrors that evolutionary theory has brought to society of which this story is a poignant example.

and your link:

[Link: www.rae.org...]

Is not what you said it was;

One of the more interesting incidences in the history of evolution and racism is the story of the man who was put on display in a zoo (Brix, 1992). Brought from the Belgian Congo in 1904 by noted African explorer Samuel Verner, he was soon "presented by Verner to the Bronx Zoo director, William Hornaday" (Sifakis, 1984, p. 253). The man, a pygmy named Ota Benga (or "Bi" which means "friend" in Benga's language), was born in 1881 in Africa. When put in the zoo, he was about 23 years old, four feet-eleven inches tall, and weighed a mere 103 pounds. Often referred to as a boy, he was actually a twice married father-his first wife murdered by the white colonists, and his second spouse died from a poisonous snake bite (Bridges, 1974).

266 mich-again  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:52:00pm

re: #233 EmmmieG

Oh my 3 are fine young Americans. Rock, paper, and scissors.

267 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:52:20pm

re: #240 Walter L. Newton

And by the way folks, I just looked over the site that Stretch tried to link to...

[Link: www.rae.org...]

FULL of the typical pseudo-science and phony research.

They also link to conservapedia, which tells you all you need know about their credibility.

268 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:52:24pm

G'night, Lizards.

269 hazzyday  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:52:50pm

re: #192 bitterclinger_in_PA

You're missing the point of everything. You repeat an illiterate argument that has been made over and over here. You refuse to acknowledge that God created the universe and that evolution exists. Sin less, have more faith.

270 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:52:55pm

re: #257 Clemente

Oh, most impressive!

AHH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH (breathe) HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH ... hah ... heh...
.
.
.
.
AHH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH...

The link says "rae.org". Maybe it's a Raelian homepage, and has gone home?

271 Spiny Norman  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:53:10pm

re: #253 buzzsawmonkey

They should plant a number of saplings around it.

Then, you couldn't see the Forrest for the trees.

Is that another pun thread coming?

272 Last Mohican  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:53:20pm

Charles, thank you very much for posting this.

Until recently, I had been tentatively planning to watch Expelled at some point. Ben Stein is a smart guy, I figured. I'll see what he has to say.

The more I've gleaned about the movie, the less I've felt like seeing it. And now, as of tonight, I've officially demoted Mr. Stein from Witty Intellectual down to Offensive Piece of Shit. He can go straight to hell, without passing go, and without collecting my admission fee.

273 Steve Rogers  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:53:22pm
All you need to do is sit there and read quotes from Thomas Jefferson.


If only we could clone good ole' Tom. He'd talk some sense into today's politicians and voters!

Of course, the same people who deny evolution are also the same ones who oppose cloning. I'll bet Jefferson would be all for cloning! He was probably are last scientifically-literate President. Sad that there haven't been more since him.

274 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:53:25pm

re: #258 BlueCanuck

Okay that was history, now do some research on "Downs Syndrome". The whole concept that the person it is named after is racist in belief and philosophy. What our ancestors used in history can be shameful. but if we use it the same way today it's shameful to us. A large majority of evolutionists do not use the theory to promote a racial agenda. IN fact most have used it to show how alike the race of man is.

Just read an article today that they are having success with eliminating some of the conditions associated with Down Syndrome in rats. Imagine curing Down's Syndrome - wow.

275 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:53:30pm

re: #263 stretch

i... can't...get...this...to...work

[Link: www.rae.org...]

You don't say! How did you deduce that, Holmes?

276 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:53:36pm

re: #271 Spiny Norman

I'm on pines and needles.

277 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:53:40pm

re: #236 Killian Bundy

/yeah, that's a bit creepy, after everyone's gone, hours or days later

As quick as I can manage...poeple post a LOT here, quickly.

278 razorbacker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:53:44pm

re: #240 Walter L. Newton

And by the way folks, I just looked over the site that Stretch tried to link to...

[Link: www.rae.org...]

FULL of the typical pseudo-science and phony research.

Geez Walter, it's Revolution Against Evolution. Revolution is always risky business.

279 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:54:16pm

re: #240 Walter L. Newton

And by the way folks, I just looked over the site that Stretch tried to link to...

[Link: www.rae.org...]

FULL of the typical pseudo-science and phony research.


what part was fake -that Ota Benga was not a real 'person', or that he never was in a zoo? please explain...

280 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:54:21pm
281 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:54:29pm
282 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:54:39pm

re: #231 Walter L. Newton

Ota Benga
It is truly a morally reprehensible story but it's irrelevant to the evidence supporting evolution.

283 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:54:42pm

re: #245 stretch

trying again...

[Link: www.rae.org...]

the hote from the site said "website addresses are automatically converted to hyperlinks." dunno

Don't matter anyway stretch... the link is to an ill supported thus busted site that doesn't help support your POV, even if it did, your POV is off base.

re: #263 stretch

i... can't...get...this...to...work

[Link: www.rae.org...]

.GIVE UP

284 Look At My New Grandbaby!  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:55:32pm

re: #222 razorbacker

Yeah, but if you have no children you're certain not to pass on the value system.

That's why leftists have taken over the education system--in order to indoctrinate other people's children.

285 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:55:46pm
286 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:55:54pm

re: #237 Salamantis

Yeah...ad hominem is a 2500 year old greek logical fallacy, and nothing deduced in the interim has rendered it any more legitimate.

I'm not engaging in ad hominem, at least not as a technique to support Expelled. HelloDare's comment #254 puts it pretty well.

I'm not pro-creationist; I'm anti-lying-down-with-dogs.

287 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:56:07pm

re: #282 Killgore Trout
My thought exactly. What does some poor guy locked up in a zoo have to do with creationism and Darwin?

288 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:56:26pm

Oh, Good Lord. "Baba" Walters has just named Barack Obama "The. Most. Fascinating. Person. Of. The Year."

289 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:56:33pm

re: #240 Walter L. Newton

And by the way folks, I just looked over the site that Stretch tried to link to...

[Link: www.rae.org...]

FULL of the typical pseudo-science and phony research.

Here's a site for him. It shows that Darwin was much less racist than most of his scientific contemporaries, particularly Christian biologists such as Louis Agassiz, who penned this tender note to his mother:

"It was in Philadelphia that I first found myself in prolonged contact with Negroes; all the domestics in my hotel were men of color. I can scarcely express to you the painful impression that I received, especially since the feeling that they inspired in me is contrary to all our ideas about the confraternity of the human type (genre) and the unique origin of our species. But truth before all. Nevertheless, I experienced pity at the sight of this degraded and degenerate race, and their lot inspired compassion in me in thinking that they were really men. Nonetheless, it is impossible for me to repress the feeling that they are not of the same blood as us. In seeing their black faces with their thick lips and grimacing teeth, the wool on their head, their bent knees, their elongated hands, I could not take my eyes off their face in order to tell them to stay far away. And when they advanced that hideous hand towards my plate in order to serve me, I wished I were able to depart in order to eat a piece of bread elsewhere, rather than dine with such service. What unhappiness for the white race --to have tied their existence so closely with that of Negroes in certain countries! God preserve us from such a contact." -- Louis Agassiz in a letter to his mother (1846), quoted in Gould, Stephen The Mismeasure of Man (1981) p. 44-45

[Link: home.att.net...]

290 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:57:00pm

Eugenics and racism are not part of evolutionary theory.

291 gclaghorn  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:57:10pm

re: #289 Salamantis

Here's a site for him. It shows that Darwin was much less racist than most of his scientific contemporaries, particularly Christian biologists such as Louis Agassiz, who penned this tender note to his mother:

"It was in Philadelphia that I first found myself in prolonged contact with Negroes; all the domestics in my hotel were men of color. I can scarcely express to you the painful impression that I received, especially since the feeling that they inspired in me is contrary to all our ideas about the confraternity of the human type (genre) and the unique origin of our species. But truth before all. Nevertheless, I experienced pity at the sight of this degraded and degenerate race, and their lot inspired compassion in me in thinking that they were really men. Nonetheless, it is impossible for me to repress the feeling that they are not of the same blood as us. In seeing their black faces with their thick lips and grimacing teeth, the wool on their head, their bent knees, their elongated hands, I could not take my eyes off their face in order to tell them to stay far away. And when they advanced that hideous hand towards my plate in order to serve me, I wished I were able to depart in order to eat a piece of bread elsewhere, rather than dine with such service. What unhappiness for the white race --to have tied their existence so closely with that of Negroes in certain countries! God preserve us from such a contact." -- Louis Agassiz in a letter to his mother (1846), quoted in Gould, Stephen The Mismeasure of Man (1981) p. 44-45

[Link: home.att.net...]

Updinged, and not just because you got your link to work the first time.

292 Spiny Norman  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:57:25pm

re: #287 pingjockey

My thought exactly. What does some poor guy locked up in a zoo have to do with creationism and Darwin?

The same (derailed) train of thought that links Darwin and the Holocaust.

293 J.S.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:57:27pm

Where Ben Stein goes off the rails is with Stein's placing blame on Darwin. Darwin and evolutionary theory are not the "problem" (which Stein alleges). The problem is with identifiable pseudo-scientists who took aspects of Darwin's theory (many of whom were motivated by politics) and perverted the theory beyond all recognition. The result was "Social Darwinism" (with its concomitant support for eugenics.) In North America (Canada and the United States) the shrillest advocates were (back in the nineteen twenties) "progressives". (However, the eugenics movement in Continental Europe was not being promulgated by "progressives", but by the ultra nationalistic right-wing...)

294 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:57:42pm

re: #288 gclaghorn

Oh, Good Lord. "Baba" Walters has just named Barack Obama "The. Most. Fascinating. Person. Of. The Year."

Sa-prise. Sa-prise. Sa-prise. - Gomer Pyle

295 David IV of Georgia  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:57:56pm

OT from the previous thread:

My friend whose car was hit by the 18 wheeler says he is OK, but has a twinge in his lower back.

The truck changed lanes into his car catching it right about the driver's door and ended up pushing the car in front of the truck awhile until it could get stopped. The car was drivable...insurance people will decide if it's totaled, but my guess is that the frame is bent.

He's lucky—I've seen other truck/auto wrecks that were infinitely worse.

296 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:57:58pm

re: #29 Sabba Hillel

I have to agree, Arguing Creationism/ID or Evolution is like spinning your wheels in the muck.

However, Stein made some very relevant points about social darwinism aka, eugenics. The belief that humans can force mankind to evolve into a greater being by eradicating those deemed less worthy genetically.

Only now those deemed "unevolved" are those who have a belief in God. After all, How can anyone that believes in "imaginary friends" be of sound mind ? This is at the heart of modern liberalism and they chant slogans at protests revealing this. Planned parenthood is the spearhead of this new liberal eugenics.

After they rid the world of any belief in God, They can mold "Morality" however they wish.

297 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:58:05pm

re: #290 jaunte

Eugenics and racism are not part of evolutionary theory.

Word up.

298 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:58:21pm

re: #284 Alouette

Yup, and that's why my children are not in the educational system.

299 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:58:36pm

re: #245 stretch

trying again...

[Link: www.rae.org...]

the hote from the site said "website addresses are automatically converted to hyperlinks." dunno

Ok folks. Now I know where Stretch is coming from. Here we have an example of "showmanship" that was not uncommon in it's time and era. P.T. Barnum showed and displayed human oddities for many years, well accepted by the public, with all kinds of pseudo-scientific explanations behind the exhibits displayed.

And this incident with the pygmy Ota Benga is a prime example of this sort of showmanship.

I'm not condoning this in any sort of way, but this IS NOT SCIENCE, THIS IS ENTERTAINMENT.

Take it from someone (me) who knows the only man left in the United States who is still displaying human oddities as entertainment.

Take it from someone (me) when I tell you, as distasteful as this WAS, it was not unusual, but it was not science.

When Stretch tries to use this as some example of science and evolution, he is confusing "bad taste" with "bad science."

This would be like watching the movie "King Kong" and using that as proof that giant apes roam the earth.

See...

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

300 Zuckie  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:58:51pm

re: #17 tntb

That's because they were. Eugenics was a "progressive" ideal. The modern outgrowth of it is Planned Parenthood, founded by progressive Margaret Sanger. 1/3 of black babies who are conceived are aborted.

tntb -

Which is why we IMPORT others to fill in the gaps, eh?

Z

301 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:58:55pm

re: #282 Killgore Trout

Ota Benga
It is truly a morally reprehensible story but it's irrelevant to the evidence supporting evolution.

Not an isolated story in early exploration.

Give Me My Father's Body: the Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo.

302 Wyatt Earp  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:59:26pm

re: #268 gclaghorn

G'night, Lizards.

Night, G!

303 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:59:30pm
304 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:59:39pm

re: #289 Salamantis

Here's a site for him. It shows that Darwin was much less racist than most of his scientific contemporaries, particularly Christian biologists such as Louis Agassiz, who penned this tender note to his mother:

"It was in Philadelphia that I first found myself in prolonged contact with Negroes; all the domestics in my hotel were men of color. I can scarcely express to you the painful impression that I received, especially since the feeling that they inspired in me is contrary to all our ideas about the confraternity of the human type (genre) and the unique origin of our species. But truth before all. Nevertheless, I experienced pity at the sight of this degraded and degenerate race, and their lot inspired compassion in me in thinking that they were really men. Nonetheless, it is impossible for me to repress the feeling that they are not of the same blood as us. In seeing their black faces with their thick lips and grimacing teeth, the wool on their head, their bent knees, their elongated hands, I could not take my eyes off their face in order to tell them to stay far away. And when they advanced that hideous hand towards my plate in order to serve me, I wished I were able to depart in order to eat a piece of bread elsewhere, rather than dine with such service. What unhappiness for the white race --to have tied their existence so closely with that of Negroes in certain countries! God preserve us from such a contact." -- Louis Agassiz in a letter to his mother (1846), quoted in Gould, Stephen The Mismeasure of Man (1981) p. 44-45

[Link: home.att.net...]

Tender as in soft in the brain.

305 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:59:42pm

re: #292 Spiny Norman
D'oh. One of these things is not like the other. You wait, the 2nd Law of Thermodynics is going to make an appearance here sooner or later.

306 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 7:59:55pm

re: #296 CrackrJak

After they rid the world of any belief in God, They can mold "Morality" however they wish.


I know it may be unimaginable to you but those who don't believe in your god are not immoral.

307 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:01:08pm

re: #289 Salamantis

Good find. I can't believe I thought you were a troll. How wrong I was; You have shown yourself to be a hammer to trolls tonight.

308 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:01:31pm

re: #277 Salamantis

As quick as I can manage...poeple post a LOT here, quickly.

Once the thread is dead, it's dead. It becomes the realm of the undead serial dinger squadrons. Do you really think the people who you reply to 12-24 hours later bother to go back to read your reply?

/move along, there'll be more ID threads

309 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:01:42pm

re: #290 jaunte

Eugenics and racism are not part of evolutionary theory.

Indeed, Evolutionary biology refutes the essence of eugenics.
On top of that Eugenics was around well before Darwin wrote his book.

310 Dar ul Harb  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:01:44pm

re: #253 buzzsawmonkey

They should plant a number of saplings around it.

Then, you couldn't see the Forrest for the trees.

Well, it is in a park.
But you can still see the Forrest...

311 guitardalek  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:01:45pm

re: #17 tntb

That's because they were. Eugenics was a "progressive" ideal. The modern outgrowth of it is Planned Parenthood, founded by progressive Margaret Sanger. 1/3 of black babies who are conceived are aborted.

Yeah, that was my thought. While I don't agree with Stein, Ebert could stand to re-examine history himself. He doesn't seem to be aware of the common ancestors shared by progressive liberalism and Nazi fascism...

312 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:01:59pm

re: #295 David IV of Georgia

OT from the previous thread:

My friend whose car was hit by the 18 wheeler says he is OK, but has a twinge in his lower back.

The truck changed lanes into his car catching it right about the driver's door and ended up pushing the car in front of the truck awhile until it could get stopped. The car was drivable...insurance people will decide if it's totaled, but my guess is that the frame is bent.

He's lucky—I've seen other truck/auto wrecks that were infinitely worse.

I had a bad migraine this evening and had to drive to pick up my son and almost had a car accident because my vision was impaired in my left eye just from the pain. I was coming out of a driveway right next to a traffic circle and the car would have hit me broadside if my son had not yelled Stop. And of course, it was a dark and stormy night.

313 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:02:10pm

re: #226 stretch

Brilliant! Back up your creationist talking point with ... a non-working link to a creationist website.

314 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:02:21pm

Some people really need to keep their spirituality to themselves.

315 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:02:25pm

re: #279 stretch

what part was fake -that Ota Benga was not a real 'person', or that he never was in a zoo? please explain...

The genocide part, maroon.

316 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:02:25pm

re: #299 Walter L. Newton

Ok folks. Now I know where Stretch is coming from. Here we have an example of "showmanship" that was not uncommon in it's time and era. P.T. Barnum showed and displayed human oddities for many years, well accepted by the public, with all kinds of pseudo-scientific explanations behind the exhibits displayed.

And this incident with the pygmy Ota Benga is a prime example of this sort of showmanship.

I'm not condoning this in any sort of way, but this IS NOT SCIENCE, THIS IS ENTERTAINMENT.

Take it from someone (me) who knows the only man left in the United States who is still displaying human oddities as entertainment.

Take it from someone (me) when I tell you, as distasteful as this WAS, it was not unusual, but it was not science.

When Stretch tries to use this as some example of science and evolution, he is confusing "bad taste" with "bad science."

This would be like watching the movie "King Kong" and using that as proof that giant apes roam the earth.

See...

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]


showmanship? it was a ZOO, a ZOO! not a circus. give me a break

317 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:02:49pm

re: #293 J.S.

Thank you--untangling that tangled line is difficult and important.

318 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:03:09pm

re: #310 Dar ul Harb

Well, it is in a park.
But you can still see the Forrest...

Does it have a box of chocolates?

319 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:03:33pm

re: #290 jaunte

Eugenics and racism are not part of evolutionary theory.

Correct.

Dishonest people with an agenda misused parts of Darwin's theory to build Eugenics. There would have used anything to justify their goals, Darwin's work was handy at the time.

Baseball has nothing to do with the murder who used a baseball bat to murder someone. Eugenics similarly takes takes a piece of Darwin's work, and uses it in wholly inappropriate ways.

320 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:03:50pm

re: #316 stretch

showmanship? it was a ZOO, a ZOO! not a circus. give me a break

How is that statement going to help you Stretch? Yep, it's a stretch...

321 Hobbes  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:03:59pm

re: #250 JCM

Aye, there in lies rub.

Recapturing eduction is critical. And pushing creationism as science doesn't help in the least bit.

Help me understand how teaching the religion of man-made global warming is any more dangerous?

322 Alberta Oil Peon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:04:32pm

re: #214 DistantThunder

No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.
- Jacob Bronowski

From Wikipedia -Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin. He is best remembered as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man.

Anyone hear of this guy or the series?

I remember seeing most of the episodes of The Ascent of Man on KSPS, the Seattle PBS outlet, back in the day. (It was available on cable where I lived.) It was a very worthy series. Might appear a little dated if we were to view it now.

323 LilyGecko  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:04:35pm

Actually, for me it was not that the teacher said it, but it was that the teacher was correct about everything else. (2+2=4, 'i' before 'e', except after 'c', so forth.)

Although, we never discussed religion or evolutionism. At least, I can't remember anything along that line.
re: #285 Iron Fist

324 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:04:43pm

re: #299 Walter L. Newton

Ok folks. Now I know where Stretch is coming from. Here we have an example of "showmanship" that was not uncommon in it's time and era. P.T. Barnum showed and displayed human oddities for many years, well accepted by the public, with all kinds of pseudo-scientific explanations behind the exhibits displayed.

And this incident with the pygmy Ota Benga is a prime example of this sort of showmanship.

I'm not condoning this in any sort of way, but this IS NOT SCIENCE, THIS IS ENTERTAINMENT.

Take it from someone (me) who knows the only man left in the United States who is still displaying human oddities as entertainment.

Take it from someone (me) when I tell you, as distasteful as this WAS, it was not unusual, but it was not science.

When Stretch tries to use this as some example of science and evolution, he is confusing "bad taste" with "bad science."

This would be like watching the movie "King Kong" and using that as proof that giant apes roam the earth.

See...

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

Perhaps, from this thread, we could show him a valid example of the great egress?
;)

325 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:04:56pm

re: #316 stretch

Back then? Same difference. Most zoos were static circuses. They were full of poor science, and even worse philosophy's. Only now are they used to preserve and show animals in almost similar habitats that they lived in.

326 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:04:59pm

re: #313 Charles

Brilliant! Back up your creationist talking point with ... a non-working link to a creationist website.

i select, copy, paste. what's up with that?
[Link: www.rae.org...]

327 Zuckie  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:05:12pm

re: #319 JCM

JCM -

Like "Joe Batters?"

Z

328 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:05:30pm

re: #313 Charles

Brilliant! Back up your creationist talking point with ... a non-working link to a creationist website.

But .. everyone knows that links that dont work are part of creationist theory !

329 swamprat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:05:30pm

re: #226 stretch

Beastly yes, but a far cry from stacks of skeletons. It is good to know that without evolution the Brits would have been devoid of bigotry. (sarc) LGF has atheists and Christians and Jews and Buddhists and Pagans (and others). I am a Christian. When I argue my beliefs, I try to use reliable sources. Sites devoted to proving just one point often are not reliable. Sometimes they are not honest(and that certainly applies to atheist sites). It also applies to lefty, racist, religious, right wing, investment, sports, auto, and mortgage sites.

330 Hobbes  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:05:58pm

re: #321 Hobbes

Help me understand how teaching the religion of man-made global warming is any more dangerous?

Correction: any less dangerous

331 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:06:02pm

re: #324 gmsc

Perhaps, from this thread, we could show him a valid example of the great egress?
;)

LOL, I love the egress. Sometimes I look for it out of desperation.

332 ebed_melech  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:06:04pm

Dawkins on Hitler and eugenics from a source you'll love.
'I wonder whether, some 60 years after Hitler’s death, we might at least venture to ask what the moral difference is between breeding for musical ability and forcing a child to take music lessons. Or why it is acceptable to train fast runners and high jumpers but not to breed them. I can think of some answers, and they are good ones, which would probably end up persuading me.'

[Link: creationontheweb.com...]


Cogent responses welcome.

333 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:06:08pm

re: #316 stretch


Those sort of stories are sadly all to common. See 301. It was an era when neither women nor blacks were allowed to vote. Lynchings were common and racism was rampant. It still has nothing to do with the factual evidence behind evolution.

334 LilyGecko  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:06:13pm

Bye. Gonna go look at some political cartoons.

335 quercus albus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:06:17pm

re: #23 MandyManners

There goes Mandy! Fact checking asse(t)s and taking names!

How's it going Mandy?

336 arrow75  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:06:47pm

re: #23 MandyManners

[Link: article.nationalreview.com...]

337 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:07:34pm

re: #326 stretch

i select, copy, paste. what's up with that?
[Link: www.rae.org...]

I think the key phrase here is 'creationist', not the non working part as much. That the website is really not helping you prove your point in a respected, well founded way.

338 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:07:35pm

re: #316 stretch

showmanship? it was a ZOO, a ZOO! not a circus. give me a break

"American businessman Samuel Phillips Verner was sent to Africa in 1904 under contract from the St. Louis World's Fair to bring back pygmies for exhibition. Verner met Ota Benga in the Belgian Congo that year and negotiated with a tribal slave trader for the pygmies, returning to the United States with Ota Benga and eight others."

I say it again, SHOWMANSHIP and PSUEDO-SCIENCE. Stretch, this doesn't prove anything of your point. In that case, I have seen the WOOD OF THE REAL CROSS on display, IN A FUCKING CHURCH.

Science advances, social mores advance, and we learn from our past mistakes. You, my dear person, are stuck in some Victorian rubber-room, and you are being brainwashed by people who lack any critical thinking skills.

Too bad for you.

339 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:07:49pm

re: #321 Hobbes

Help me understand how teaching the religion of man-made global warming is any more dangerous?

AGW is from the left. Creationism comes from the "Christian Right." I am both right wing and Christian.

Both are dangerous, and both need to be fought. Creationism is "friendly fire" which is not only dangerous, it is used broadly to discredit all those on the right who are Christian.

Not only do both need to be fought, but our credibility needs to be retain by distancing ourselves with clarity from teaching creationism as science.

340 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:08:40pm

re: #306 Killgore Trout

I know it may be unimaginable to you but those who don't believe in your god are not immoral.

That is subject to what you base your morality on. Those who believe in God, Including myself, Base their morality on laws given directly from God (Like the 10 commandments).

If your morality isn't based on that, Then you can justify nearly anything "Moral" based on any philosophy or science you want. Then the law can be attacked and changed based on that new morality.

341 quercus albus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:08:49pm

Whoops. That what happens when you read the thread from the beginning. Chime in about 300 posts after the fact...

Going to read now.

342 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:09:17pm

re: #326 stretch

i select, copy, paste. what's up with that?
[Link: www.rae.org...]

Ota Benga?

/how two centuries ago, am I missing something here?

343 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:09:19pm

re: #269 hazzyday

You're missing the point of everything. You repeat an illiterate argument that has been made over and over here. You refuse to acknowledge that God created the universe and that evolution exists. Sin less, have more faith.

Hazy, there is no proof of evolution which is a hoax. You mix God with your evolution. You have no faith in God which is obvious. You sin when you perpetuate this work of the deceiver.

344 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:09:21pm

re: #324 gmsc

Perhaps, from this thread, we could show him a valid example of the great egress?
;)

Yes, stretch, what do you know about the evolutionary wonders of the egress?

345 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:09:58pm
346 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:10:00pm

re: #333 Killgore Trout

Those sort of stories are sadly all to common. See 301. It was an era when neither women nor blacks were allowed to vote. Lynchings were common and racism was rampant. It still has nothing to do with the factual evidence behind evolution.

Sadly that was not that long ago.

What will society look like in another 100 years? 200 years? We've come a long way but jeez looeez, evolution is painful.

347 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:10:11pm

I think I got it, now.

Charles? Is "stretch" the ID/evolution version of "Aisha?"

Is he going to say something about homobuttsexuals, now?

348 mich-again  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:10:38pm

The AKC promotes dog eugenics. Ask any respectable breeder if it will cost extra for a puppy that can carry on the bloodline. I believe they refer to that lucky dog as the pick of the litter.

349 ebed_melech  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:10:43pm

An interesting selection of older German and other texts taken from the same author.

[Link: creationontheweb.com...]

350 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:10:49pm

Actually, the circuses with the freaks show ( anyone seen the movie Freaks?) send the message that G-d has created a very wide variety of humanity. I think the people who look like werewolves are most fascinating.

I was watching a new TLC series on a dwarf family - and they are such average people in so many ways - yet "normal" people would assume that it is a horrible way to live - and most wouldn't want to bring child into the world who would have to "endure" that condition. The dwarf mother and dwarf father specifically requested a dwarf baby to adopt, and are raising him along with another brother.

I find great inspiration from the unusual people who have embraced their bodies, know how to be happy, and make positive contributions to the world.

351 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:10:51pm

re: #296 CrackrJak

I have to agree, Arguing Creationism/ID or Evolution is like spinning your wheels in the muck.

However, Stein made some very relevant points about social darwinism aka, eugenics. The belief that humans can force mankind to evolve into a greater being by eradicating those deemed less worthy genetically.

Only now those deemed "unevolved" are those who have a belief in God. After all, How can anyone that believes in "imaginary friends" be of sound mind ? This is at the heart of modern liberalism and they chant slogans at protests revealing this. Planned parenthood is the spearhead of this new liberal eugenics.

After they rid the world of any belief in God, They can mold "Morality" however they wish.

Social Darwinism and Eugenics are opposites. Read Liberal Fascism for the full scoop.

Also: prove to us that Planned Parenthood is targeting religious believers for extermination.

352 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:10:57pm

re: #182 Noam Sayin'

Had to do some mom-stuff.

353 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:11:01pm

We've got some real hellfire preachers here tonight. You evil Darwinists are doomed to burn! Doomed! Burn, I say!

354 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:11:10pm

re: #343 bitterclinger_in_PA

Oh boy, not that tired old chestnut again. No proof of evolution? I guess all those dinosaur fossils, and the Burgess Shale are fakes too?

/bet you call the Burgess Shale the "Bogus Shale"

355 sleepyone  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:11:37pm

Ugh, Roger Ebert. Honestly, who cares what this man thinks about anything.

356 JumpLandPackRepeat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:11:54pm

I'm trying to figure out what movie I saw where a little girl says "I'm afraid it's turtles all the way down." She was either telling a story herself or was quoting someone else. Not for any particular reason, but it's just one of those things that is driving me craaazy tonight. I can't remember anything about the movie, but I do know it's a younger girl and I keep thinking she has an accent but I'm not positive on that. I've googled it, looked at Wiki, and several movie quote websites and NOTHING. Arrrggghhh!

357 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:12:16pm

re: #296 CrackrJak

I have to agree, Arguing Creationism/ID or Evolution is like spinning your wheels in the muck.

However, Stein made some very relevant points about social darwinism aka, eugenics. The belief that humans can force mankind to evolve into a greater being by eradicating those deemed less worthy genetically.

Only now those deemed "unevolved" are those who have a belief in God. After all, How can anyone that believes in "imaginary friends" be of sound mind ? This is at the heart of modern liberalism and they chant slogans at protests revealing this. Planned parenthood is the spearhead of this new liberal eugenics.

After they rid the world of any belief in God, They can mold "Morality" however they wish.

The roots of eugenics are to be found in Plato. And Plato was no atheist; in fact, he believed in a whole pantheon of Gods and Goddesses.

Farmers were selectively breeding and culling herds millennia before Darwin was born. Eugenics is applying animal husbandry to humans. evolutionary theorists would choose to allow environmental selection to proceed unhindered; it's their antithesis, the eugenicists, who insit upon applying their favored 'intelligent' designs.

358 Look At My New Grandbaby!  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:12:27pm

re: #353 Charles

We've got some real hellfire preachers here tonight. You evil Darwinists are doomed to burn! Doomed! Burn, I say!

Bitter Clinger in the Palestinian Authority is trying for Annefrance's karma, just not all in one post.

359 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:13:25pm

re: #339 JCM

AGW is from the left. Creationism comes from the "Christian Right." I am both right wing and Christian.

Both are dangerous, and both need to be fought. Creationism is "friendly fire" which is not only dangerous, it is used broadly to discredit all those on the right who are Christian.

Not only do both need to be fought, but our credibility needs to be retain by distancing ourselves with clarity from teaching creationism as science.

I think they are willing to frag the officers.

360 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:13:26pm

re: #353 Charles

"Debils Out!" TV preacher on late night tv in San Diego years ago. Would bop folks on the head and they'd throw away their crutches and be healed.

361 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:13:36pm

re: #348 mich-again

The AKC promotes dog eugenics. Ask any respectable breeder if it will cost extra for a puppy that can carry on the bloodline. I believe they refer to that lucky dog as the pick of the litter.

Same with purebred show cats of which I have experience.

/pretty sure the don't kill the rest of the litter though

362 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:13:40pm

re: #353 Charles

We've got some real hellfire preachers here tonight. You evil Darwinists are doomed to burn! Doomed! Burn, I say!

Got it covered.

363 Sunlight  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:13:50pm

Just got back from a Mumbai memorial at our local Chabad. They showed a great video of the work that was done at the Mumbai Chabad. I'll try to find out if it is on the web somewhere. And the revenge Chabad is calling for is to go out and do more and more good deeds. (Living well is the best revenge - someone told me that many years ago.)

364 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:14:03pm

re: #344 Walter L. Newton

Yes, stretch, what do you know about the evolutionary wonders of the egress?

Right this way
--->

365 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:14:22pm

re: #353 Charles

We've got some real hellfire preachers here tonight. You evil Darwinists are doomed to burn! Doomed! Burn, I say!

Charles .. you know if you start a topic with Evo-something vs Creationist something .. you are going to have 300 expletive driven madmen debating the issue within 5 minutes and it will take 4 days for the hubbub to quiet down. After which you will have to re-allocated .47% of disk usage, boot 7% more trolls and gage whether the additional throughput is worth it.

But hey .. its all about the debate !

366 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:14:24pm

re: #353 Charles

We've got some real hellfire preachers here tonight. You evil Darwinists are doomed to burn! Doomed! Burn, I say!

You need to get a black Quaker hat for your avatar lizard-king Charles...

367 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:14:30pm

re: #353 Charles

Jesus loves you Charles, and he died proving it

368 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:14:32pm

re: #351 Zimriel

Social Darwinism and Eugenics are opposites. Read Liberal Fascism for the full scoop.

Also: prove to us that Planned Parenthood is targeting religious believers for extermination.

They seem to be targeting their own political peers - odd - but utilitarian.

369 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:14:39pm

*SNIFF*

370 razorbacker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:14:54pm

re: #282 Killgore Trout

Ota Benga
It is truly a morally reprehensible story but it's irrelevant to the evidence supporting evolution.

The 'pygmy' was taller than my neighbor?

I'm going to keep that little factoid to myself, when next I see her.

371 JumpLandPackRepeat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:15:03pm

Nevermind...found it!

372 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:15:07pm

re: #349 ebed_melech

An interesting selection of older German and other texts taken from the same author.

[Link: creationontheweb.com...]

Creation Ministries International. A highly credible source.

/sarcasm overdose

373 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:15:09pm

re: #332 ebed_melech

Don't believe anything you read on creationist websites. Despite their godly claims to moral superiority they are consistent liars. Notice hos they don't link to the source of the quote? It is out of context...

How Predictable: Richard Dawkins Supports Eugenics

374 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:15:11pm
375 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:15:14pm

re: #308 Killian Bundy

Once the thread is dead, it's dead. It becomes the realm of the undead serial dinger squadrons. Do you really think the people who you reply to 12-24 hours later bother to go back to read your reply?

/move along, there'll be more ID threads

Yep. Usually I'm quick enough so they haven't even left it yet.

376 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:15:23pm

re: #357 Salamantis

The roots of eugenics are to be found in Plato. And Plato was no atheist; in fact, he believed in a whole pantheon of Gods and Goddesses.

Farmers were selectively breeding and culling herds millennia before Darwin was born. Eugenics is applying animal husbandry to humans. evolutionary theorists would choose to allow environmental selection to proceed unhindered; it's their antithesis, the eugenicists, who insit upon applying their favored 'intelligent' designs.

Yeah, Goldberg points this out. All the great progressives were preaching against "social darwinism" and touting eugenics as the antithesis of this. Progressives weren't "for" evolution; they assumed it, and were "for" countering natural evolution with a breeding programme. Idiocracy is a good example of a eugenicist movie (look what happens when we let these morons keep breeding!).

377 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:15:31pm

re: #340 CrackrJak

Your reply is perfect exhibit as to why I as an atheist so regularly defend religion.

Morals existed before Christianity, (See Aristotle's "Nichomachean Ethics"). For many people however without a belief in God there are no morals. That makes me shudder to think what hell the world would be if all Christians of your stripe suddenly stopped believing in God. People of your stripe would think there were no longer any rules, that all was permitted, and what untold evil would be unleashed?

So I defend religion against the rabid secularists. People like you are just one reason, so please do keep believing, you obviously have to or become a beast.

378 sattv4u2  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:15:37pm

re: #367 stretch

Jesus loves you Charles, and he died proving it

If you break out in KumbA Ya, i'm heaving!

379 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:15:54pm

re: #367 stretch

Jesus loves you Charles, and he died proving it

I'd love to ding you up but, it comes across as hostile.

380 Right mind left  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:16:29pm

Have fun barbecuing troll - I'm off to bed...

381 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:16:37pm

re: #340 CrackrJak

Like I said it is unimaginable to you that I am a moral human being. I can't help you.

382 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:16:51pm

re: #316 stretch

showmanship? it was a ZOO, a ZOO! not a circus. give me a break

Zoos don't get paid to show?

383 ebed_melech  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:17:09pm

re: #357 Salamantis
Which is Richard Dawkins a eugenicist or a theoretician if they are mutually exclusive?

(Personally I think he's both a eugenicist and an eloquent atheist propagandist, given his almost complete lack of recent peer reviewed publications.)

384 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:17:13pm

re: #380 Right mind left

Have fun barbecuing troll - I'm off to bed...

According to my Monster Manual, acid damage works too.

385 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:17:25pm

re: #363 Sunlight
Peace.

386 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:17:26pm

re: #373 Killgore Trout

Don't believe anything you read on creationist websites. Despite their godly claims to moral superiority they are consistent liars. Notice hos they don't link to the source of the quote? It is out of context...

How Predictable: Richard Dawkins Supports Eugenics

Note that ebed_melech is a contributor to creationist web sites. He's not just parroting the talking points, he writes them.

387 J.S.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:17:34pm

re: #226 stretch

Here's a problem for you to consider...Back since the time of the earliest explorers (that's Europeans sailing to North America), the explorers were in the habit of capturing natives and taking them back to Europe (to parade them before the King/Queen, and exhibit them as "savages.") Cartier (the French explorer did this), so did many other explorers...(later, btw, sea captains would kidnap and take back Native Americans, try to convert them to Christianity, then return them/drop them back off to their place of origin)...All of this was done long, long before Darwin. Racism didn't spring forth from Evolutionary Theory...

388 sattv4u2  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:01pm

re: #340 CrackrJak

That is subject to what you base your morality on. Those who believe in God, Including myself, Base their morality on laws given directly from God (Like the 10 commandments).

If your morality isn't based on that, Then you can justify nearly anything "Moral" based on any philosophy or science you want. Then the law can be attacked and changed based on that new morality.

You don't think people new it was like, kinda BAD to kill someone before it was written on a rock !?!?!

389 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:14pm
Arbitrary forced sterilization in our country has been promoted mostly by racists, who curiously found many times more blacks than whites suitable for such treatment.

Um...Oliver Wendell Holmes? He was a "liberal", more-or-less. Or, at least more of a liberal hero than anything else. And the case where he wrote, "Three generations of idiots is enough" (off the top of my head) involved whites. Poor whites, I grant, but whites.

"Mostly by racists" is a perfectly wonderful obfuscation of who, precisely, advocated sterilization.

However good the article may be, that definitely caught my eye; it's a dangerous - perfectly deadly - skate past the actuality of the subject.

390 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:16pm

re: #364 JCM

Right this way
--->

I can see why Stretch didn't want to supply a link to the pygmy story until we pressed him for it.

It actually shows that somewhere in the back of his mind, he knows there is something wrong with the information that is being fed to him by the church, people and organizations that are connected to that website.

But he doesn't not have the personal critical thinking skills to form his own opinion, so when pressed, he can only resort to linking to faulty pseudo-science and outright lies.

To bad for him.

391 caspera  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:20pm

I'll give a modest defense of Stein here, not because I agree with him but because Ebert's line of argumentation is bothering me.

He refers to advocates of eugenics as liberal.

Margaret Sanger was a progressive and a founder of Planned Parenthood, an organization which is to this day considered an icon of liberalism. She founded the organazation to promote eugenics.

I would not call Hitler liberal.

Gah. This has to do with the semantic jiu-jitsu performed by the Left. They've muddied up the meanings of words so that it's impossible to have a conversation about this stuff. If "liberal" means "leftist" and "socialist", then technically Hitler was from the philosophical tradition of those who are today known by the appellation "liberal". Hitler's party was a National Socialist party for heaven's sake. (Of course, if "liberal" means "nice" as in the vernacular, then Hitler was not a "liberal". Ebert is exploiting the double meaning of the word, a bit of intellectual legerdemain that ensures that nothing bad can ever be blamed on the left.)

Arbitrary forced sterilization in our country has been promoted mostly by racists, who curiously found many times more blacks than whites suitable for such treatment.

Yeah, racists like progressive icon Margaret Sanger.

... exploiting the deaths of millions of Jews in support of your argument for a peripheral Christian belief

Odd, Ebert, a "Catholic" getting all offended on behalf of Jewry and accusing Ben Stein, a Jew himself, of Christian bigotry.

Of course Naziism was an outgrowth of Darwinian thought. "Survival of the fittest" leads pretty easily to the idea of improving the stock of a species by killing off the "unfit." We today, as we should be, are uncomfortable with this line of thinking, but that's not to say that people didn't think this way. You don't fight dishonesty by being dishonest. Stein is saying "Darwinism spawned a school of thought which in part led to Naziism" which is correct, but then he goes off the rails by suggesting that those who believe that Darwinism accurately describes the state of nature are therefore Nazis. Ebert pulls a fast one by insisting indignantly that progressives never made an approbative connection between Darwinism and eugenics.

It's probably best to say Darwinism is how nature operates, but it doesn't suggest a social morality and leave it at that.

392 Look At My New Grandbaby!  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:23pm

re: #363 Sunlight

Just got back from a Mumbai memorial at our local Chabad. They showed a great video of the work that was done at the Mumbai Chabad. I'll try to find out if it is on the web somewhere. And the revenge Chabad is calling for is to go out and do more and more good deeds. (Living well is the best revenge - someone told me that many years ago.)

"Love Means Love"

393 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:27pm

re: #340 CrackrJak

Whose law do you follow?
For your edification:
To “evolve” literally means “to unroll a scroll”, that is, to read a book. The imagery of nature as a book has its roots in Christianity and has been held dear by many scientists. Galileo saw nature as a book whose author is God in the same way that Scripture has God as its author. It is a book whose history, whose evolution, whose “writing” and meaning, we “read” according to the different approaches of the sciences, while all the time presupposing the foundational presence of the author who has wished to reveal himself therein.

394 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:38pm

re: #367 stretch

Here's a tune.

395 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:44pm

Time for my standard list of favorite ID/Creationist argument links:

reDiscovery Institute (Parody site)

Using creationist/ID arguments against them:
Why We Believe in a Designer!
Organisms that Look Designed
Oolon Colluphid's Guide to Creation

Talk.Origins archive

People involved in spreading Darwin's discoveries as a philosophy, whom Ben Stein mysteriously neglects to mention:
Ernst Haeckel
William Sumner
Vladmir Ulyanov

Is There An Artifical God? (essay by Douglas Adams)

The Day The Universe Changed - "Fit To Rule" (Episode 8):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

396 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:55pm

re: #383 ebed_melech

Personally I think he's both a eugenicist


Uhhh, no. Please don't believe what liars tell you. It isn't true and makes you appear uninformed.

397 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:18:57pm

re: #367 stretch

Jesus loves you Charles, and he died proving it

LINK PLEASE?

398 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:19:11pm

re: #379 MandyManners

I'd love to ding you up but, it comes across as hostile.

It is hostile, very hostile, masquerading as concern. It's very common for creationists to exhibit this reaction, when their beliefs are challenged.

399 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:19:26pm

re: #353 Charles

We've got some real hellfire preachers here tonight. You evil Darwinists are doomed to burn! Doomed! Burn, I say!

I'll burn next to you, though, according to the best discussions I've read of what hell really means, I won't know a thing about it.

400 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:19:40pm

re: #343 bitterclinger_in_PA

Hazy, there is no proof of evolution which is a hoax. You mix God with your evolution. You have no faith in God which is obvious. You sin when you perpetuate this work of the deceiver.

Oh no, not this troll again!

GAZE

401 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:19:52pm

re: #386 Charles

Ah, I didn't know that. I thought he was an honest debater there for a second. Thanks for the heads up.

402 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:20:20pm

re: #351 Zimriel

"Also: prove to us that Planned Parenthood is targeting religious believers for extermination."

When chants of "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries" and "Keep your God off my bod" are screamed at anti-abortion rallies, I think that's proof enough.

But if you need more proof then just look at the extreme efforts being taken to promote "Sexual Education" including birth control to children as young as 6-7 years old. Obama voted for a bill to do just that in the Illinois legislature.

If liberals had their way they force this "education" onto parochial school and home school students as well.

403 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:20:27pm

re: #381 Killgore Trout

Like I said it is unimaginable to you that I am a moral human being. I can't help you.

Oh, dear.

Killgore, even when I disagree with you, I know you're a moral being.

404 ebed_melech  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:20:40pm

re: #373 Killgore Trout

Your link and the positive posts on Dawkins site about eugenics below prove the point.
Please demonstrate how Jerry Bergman misquotes Dawkins.

405 legalpad  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:20:48pm

re: #293 J.S.

Exactly. Just like Christianity has been misconstrued to justify persecution of Jews also.

406 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:20:50pm

re: #395 gmsc

Time for my standard list of favorite ID/Creationist argument links:

reDiscovery Institute (Parody site)

Using creationist/ID arguments against them:
Why We Believe in a Designer!
Organisms that Look Designed
Oolon Colluphid's Guide to Creation

Talk.Origins archive

People involved in spreading Darwin's discoveries as a philosophy, whom Ben Stein mysteriously neglects to mention:
Ernst Haeckel
William Sumner
Vladmir Ulyanov

Is There An Artifical God? (essay by Douglas Adams)

The Day The Universe Changed - "Fit To Rule" (Episode 8):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

/see, now that's a well linked comment

407 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:21:10pm

Hey y'all - are we still On Topic or have we strayed a bit?!

408 The Hoopster  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:21:26pm

re: #379 MandyManners

I'd love to ding you up but, it comes across as hostile.

I know..I thought about a thousand responses in 30 seconds..
I downdinged..which happens about once a month..Think I'll lay back on stretch boy..
Good evening Mandy

409 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:21:31pm

re: #391 caspera
Darwin = Hitler, again. Sheesh.

410 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:21:47pm

re: #330 Hobbes

Correction: any less dangerous

It isn't an either/or, it's a both/and. The answer to the teaching of bad science is not to add nonscience to the curriculum. You do not treat public high school science class students poisoned with the strychnine doctrine of humans-are-responsible-for-most-of-global-warming by dosing them with creationist religious dogma arsenic.

411 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:21:48pm

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me...
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.

When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me...
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

412 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:21:53pm
413 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:22:25pm

re: #354 BlueCanuck

Oh boy, not that tired old chestnut again. No proof of evolution? I guess all those dinosaur fossils, and the Burgess Shale are fakes too?

/bet you call the Burgess Shale the "Bogus Shale"

Fossils are from the Great flood which explains the fossils of dinosaurs. Sorry carbon dating is only good up to 4000 years. try again. In the Bible they have creatures in it that describe what these animal look like. You might want to pick up a Bible sometime and read it.

Also explain why there is no fossils of the so called random mutation of reptiles to birds over millions of years. Evolution is made up by the liberals and all you who hate God. You bought it hook line and sinker.Repentance is a good thing.

414 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:22:27pm

re: #388 sattv4u2

You don't think people new it was like, kinda BAD to kill someone before it was written on a rock !?!?!

To be absolutely fair, it's been handled different ways in different societies.

Look up "weregild", and be happy with alternate spellings. But killing isn't generally regarded lightly, no.

415 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:23:08pm

re: #332 ebed_melech

Dawkins on Hitler and eugenics from a source you'll love.
'I wonder whether, some 60 years after Hitler’s death, we might at least venture to ask what the moral difference is between breeding for musical ability and forcing a child to take music lessons. Or why it is acceptable to train fast runners and high jumpers but not to breed them. I can think of some answers, and they are good ones, which would probably end up persuading me.'

[Link: creationontheweb.com...]


Cogent responses welcome.

What? You couldn't find anything on answersingenesis?

416 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:23:15pm

re: #395 gmsc
The Day the Universe changed was a great series.

417 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:23:21pm

re: #377 Thanos

Morals existed before Christianity, (See Aristotle's "Nichomachean Ethics"). For many people however without a belief in God there are no morals. That makes me shudder to think what hell the world would be if all Christians of your stripe suddenly stopped believing in God. People of your stripe would think there were no longer any rules, that all was permitted, and what untold evil would be unleashed?

Interesting.

That explains a lot about rabid Islamicists. They are always on the edge, not in control at all. Allah tells them what to do in every aspect of their lives. Nothing is their fault - it is all Allah's will. They are not held accountable in this world - only in the next. But what if there is no next?

When there is no immediate accountability that's when things go to hell in a hand basket.

418 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:23:24pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Fossils are from the Great flood which explains the fossils of dinosaurs. Sorry carbon dating is only good up to 4000 years. try again. In the Bible they have creatures in it that describe what these animal look like. You might want to pick up a Bible sometime and read it.

Also explain why there is no fossils of the so called random mutation of reptiles to birds over millions of years. Evolution is made up by the liberals and all you who hate God. You bought it hook line and sinker.Repentance is a good thing.

Put the beer-goggles away.

419 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:23:29pm

re: #397 Walter L. Newton

LINK PLEASE?

Jesus Loves You Still

/all characters are fictitious and are not meant to represent actual people on LGF

420 ebed_melech  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:23:45pm

re: #396 Killgore Trout


In his own words though the link is old, 'Eugenics May Not Be Bad' [Link: www.sundayherald.com...]

421 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:23:55pm

re: #411 MandyManners

You just reminded me that that song was in my dream last night. Being played on some sort of weird synthesizer.

422 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:23:59pm

re: #398 Charles

It is hostile, very hostile, masquerading as concern. It's very common for creationists to exhibit this reaction, when their beliefs are challenged.

Gotcha'.

423 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:24:00pm

re: #407 realwest

Hey y'all - are we still On Topic or have we strayed a bit?!

I don't know. I pinched Mandy on the bum and she smacked me for it.

I was out for a little while.

Felt good, though.

424 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:24:38pm

re: #400 Dark_Falcon

Oh no, not this troll again!

GAZE

Repent and you will be saved.

425 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:24:41pm

re: #412 Iron Fist
Always my friend, always!

426 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:25:06pm

re: #367 stretch

Jesus loves you Charles, and he died proving it


now them is some fightin' words..can you say songanddanceman?

427 DistantThunder  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:25:15pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Fossils are from the Great flood which explains the fossils of dinosaurs. Sorry carbon dating is only good up to 4000 years. try again. In the Bible they have creatures in it that describe what these animal look like. You might want to pick up a Bible sometime and read it.

Also explain why there is no fossils of the so called random mutation of reptiles to birds over millions of years. Evolution is made up by the liberals and all you who hate God. You bought it hook line and sinker.Repentance is a good thing.


Gulp...my migraine is back with a vengeance. I'll see all the survivors in the morning...

428 Steve Rogers  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:25:34pm

re: #353 Charles

We've got some real hellfire preachers here tonight. You evil Darwinists are doomed to burn! Doomed! Burn, I say!

Yep, and they really need to read some Thomas Jefferson sometime:

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."
--Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1787. ME 6:258 Papers 12:15

429 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:25:46pm

re: #407 realwest

Hey y'all - are we still On Topic or have we strayed a bit?!

We're where we usually end up on thread like these: Dealing with trolls.

430 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:25:57pm

re: #407 realwest

Hey y'all - are we still On Topic or have we strayed a bit?!

Not yet. It appears to be a death-grapple in here tonight.

How's Dublin(CA)Dude? Please? I care.

431 ebed_melech  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:26:02pm

re: #415 Salamantis

There's plenty there too, and on a number of other sites, but I know Jerry Bergman better.

432 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:26:16pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA
Watch your mouth! Don't be telling folks here who Believe that we hate God. That is hateful. People who believe different from you don't hate God.

433 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:26:24pm

re: #424 bitterclinger_in_PA

Repent and you will be saved.

You first!

434 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:26:25pm

re: #391 caspera

I'll give a modest defense of Stein here, not because I agree with him but because Ebert's line of argumentation is bothering me.
... exploiting the deaths of millions of Jews in support of your argument for a peripheral Christian belief

Odd, Ebert, a "Catholic" getting all offended on behalf of Jewry and accusing Ben Stein, a Jew himself, of Christian bigotry.

Of course Naziism was an outgrowth of Darwinian thought. "Survival of the fittest" leads pretty easily to the idea of improving the stock of a species by killing off the "unfit." We today, as we should be, are uncomfortable with this line of thinking, but that's not to say that people didn't think this way. You don't fight dishonesty by being dishonest. Stein is saying "Darwinism spawned a school of thought which in part led to Naziism" which is correct, but then he goes off the rails by suggesting that those who believe that Darwinism accurately describes the state of nature are therefore Nazis. Ebert pulls a fast one by insisting indignantly that progressives never made an approbative connection between Darwinism and eugenics.

It's probably best to say Darwinism is how nature operates, but it doesn't suggest a social morality and leave it at that.

I dinged you up for most of your post, and for that closing statement - but you will need to rethink "Naziism was an outgrowth of Darwinian thought". It wasn't, and that much is offensive as well as wrong. Naziism was an outgrowth of Bismarckian thought; reapplied from the German nation (all the peoples within its 1871 borders, which included Jews, Sorbians, and Poles) to the German race (which had no borders, and did not include Jews, Sorbians, and Poles). And his definition of the German race was loaded up with much magic and bullshit. Nazi race theory is to genetics what alchemy is to chemistry.

435 nbenhaim  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:26:49pm

Ok, I didn't love Expelled but I didn't despise it either. I read a comment by someone (but forgot to hit the reply link on it) who is now convinced, after reading Ebert's review, that he should not watch the film.

However, I might add, since Charles compared Expelled to Michael Moore's film, that Ebert gave Al Gore's propaganda film "An Inconvenient Truth" 4 stars. Just consider that when reading Ebert's movie reviews, that's all I'm sayin

Ebert's review of Gore film

436 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:26:52pm

re: #391 caspera

Hitler was an occultist, a believer in the supernatural, not so much "Science". Wehrmacht belt buckles said "Gott Mit Uns" . The Belgians who ran the Congo plantations so well were all Christians. The South Africans who created apartheid were all Christians, in Germany most of the people who voted for Hitler were Christians. At any given time true scientists are a very small minority of the population. Your blood libels against scientists are no better than the blood libels used to tar races that people don't like.

437 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:26:52pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Fossils are from the Great flood which explains the fossils of dinosaurs. Sorry carbon dating is only good up to 4000 years. try again. In the Bible they have creatures in it that describe what these animal look like. You might want to pick up a Bible sometime and read it.

Also explain why there is no fossils of the so called random mutation of reptiles to birds over millions of years. Evolution is made up by the liberals and all you who hate God. You bought it hook line and sinker.Repentance is a good thing.

Links please (oh why do I even do this).

438 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:26:57pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

The argument is a no-brainer. You are asking for evidence of things that take place a long time ago with reference for each specific event. One of the amazing things out of a Chinese fake pieced together from other fossils is that it actually filled in a gap in that wonderous timeline from reptile to bird. There IS evidence of these things and we ARE finding them and piecing them together. Its like the old argument about the missing link blah blah .. We found most of the pieces that fit nicely into place and there aint none anymore.

Try working on reality and expansion of real ideas than false trumpeting of past ideas that have been proven wrong.

439 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:27:19pm

re: #429 Dark_Falcon

We're where we usually end up on thread like these: Dealing with trolls.

Yeah the Truth!

440 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:27:24pm

re: #424 bitterclinger_in_PA

Repent and you will be saved.

I do repent my sins, and I work to atone for them. But I don't consider believing in evolution to be among them.

441 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:27:49pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Carbon dating is only good to 4,000 years? Man are you behind the times. I have read the Bible, I was raised a Christian, went to church and Bible studies. I don't recall any dinosaurs described in the Bible at all. Unless you are talking about Behemoth in Job. And that could be anything. As for me being a liberal for believing in evolution? Man do you have your world view twisted a bit.

442 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:28:08pm

Bible ain't a science book. Science books ain't religious. End of story.

443 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:28:08pm

re: #433 hermit

You first!

I already have. I trying to help you out. Jesus loves you.

444 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:28:22pm

re: #340 CrackrJak

That is subject to what you base your morality on. Those who believe in God, Including myself, Base their morality on laws given directly from God (Like the 10 commandments).

If your morality isn't based on that, Then you can justify nearly anything "Moral" based on any philosophy or science you want. Then the law can be attacked and changed based on that new morality.

Actually, there are solid nonChristian bases of morality. I could mention other religions such as Buddhism, but instead I will introduce you to a scientific study on morality and human nature:

[Link: pinker.wjh.harvard.edu...]

And the aothor, Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, is no moonbat; he condemned the canadian censorship commissions as monstrous.

445 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:28:28pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T

446 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:28:43pm

re: #434 Zimriel

Nazi race theory is to genetics what alchemy is to chemistry.

Careful. I understand your point, but quite frankly a lot of chemistry grew out of alchemy and attempts at other hocus-pocus.

447 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:28:52pm

re: #443 bitterclinger_in_PA

I already have. I trying to help you out. Jesus loves you.

Ugh, just... ugh...

448 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:28:57pm

re: #377 Thanos


..so please do keep believing, you obviously have to or become a beast.

That was very unnecessary and stupid.

449 The Hoopster  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:29:01pm

re: #411 MandyManners

Mandy..Check this out..In high school these guys and girls played guitar and one group sang Amazing Grace at the same time as the other side sang House of the rising sun.. The words harmonize perfectly and to have heard it was haunting.. Never heard it since played.
Play the song sometime and sing the other song opposite with it..
Cool but kind of creepy..
{ Walter is popping in a CD right now}

450 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:29:02pm

re: #416 pingjockey

The Day the Universe changed was a great series.

I enjoyed both Connections and The Day The Universe Changed!

Did you realize that almost all of James Burke's documentaries are archived on YouTube?

451 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:29:28pm

re: #403 Dianna

Ditto. But I think this commonly displayed attitude illustrates that it's the creationists who see others as subhuman not those who believe in the imperical evidence of science.

452 Hobbes  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:29:29pm

OT: Guess who "Baa Baa Waa Waa" named as the Year's Most Fascinating Person? I'll only give you one guess!

453 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:29:36pm

re: #423 Noam Sayin'
Being out for a while felt good?!? What, were you tired Noam?
/

454 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:29:59pm

re: #452 Hobbes

OT: Guess who "Baa Baa Waa Waa" named as the Year's Most Fascinating Person? I'll only give you one guess!

Bambi

455 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:30:13pm

re: #452 Hobbes

OT: Guess who "Baa Baa Waa Waa" named as the Year's Most Fascinating Person? I'll only give you one guess!

Tom Cruise?

456 wolfie  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:30:14pm

re: #185 Joan

Anybody want to write a book about scientism and the political abuse of science? Or, steer me to a good title, so I can stop obsessing.

A really good one to start with, is F. Hayek's Counter-Revolution of Science. (The same Hayek you may know as the Nobel-winning economist.)

457 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:30:28pm

re: #452 Hobbes

OT: Guess who "Baa Baa Waa Waa" named as the Year's Most Fascinating Person? I'll only give you one guess!

I think gclaghorn has a good guess:

re: #288 gclaghorn

Oh, Good Lord. "Baba" Walters has just named Barack Obama "The. Most. Fascinating. Person. Of. The Year."

458 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:30:37pm

bitterclinger, I have carbon dated your bullshit and it dates back to November 3, 2008

So you are a new earth bullshitter

459 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:30:44pm

re: #452 Hobbes

OT: Guess who "Baa Baa Waa Waa" named as the Year's Most Fascinating Person? I'll only give you one guess!

Britney Spears - I knew it... with Paris Hilton coming in a close second?

Oh .. you mean that O guy .. nah .. never heard of him.

460 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:30:48pm

re: #410 Salamantis

It isn't an either/or, it's a both/and. The answer to the teaching of bad science is not to add nonscience to the curriculum. You do not treat public high school science class students poisoned with the strychnine doctrine of humans-are-responsible-for-most-of-global-warming by dosing them with creationist religious dogma arsenic.

Okay, I understand the threat of the Texas school board, the Louisiana law, and the legal vigilance that goes with both.

/name a school district, where's it happening?

461 Hobbes  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:30:49pm

re: #454 CynicalConservative

Bambi

Yep! You win!

462 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:30:57pm

re: #296 CrackrJak

...The belief that humans can force mankind to evolve into a greater being by eradicating those deemed less worthy genetically.

That's NOT what evolution theory scientifically defines, as you know perfectly well. Natural selection means exactly what it says.

B.S. deliberately confuses respectably empirical science with its abominable political exploitation, with a visible intent to corrupt faith and science through their mutually degrading mixture in publicly funded classrooms. He is a disgrace to scientific reason, to Western religious tradition, and especially to the fundamental American principle that good government prefers no particular religion.

463 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:30:58pm

re: #458 Shug

bitterclinger, I have carbon dated your bullshit and it dates back to November 3, 2008

So you are a new earth bullshitter

LOL!

464 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:03pm

re: #343 bitterclinger_in_PA

Hazy, there is no proof of evolution which is a hoax. You mix God with your evolution. You have no faith in God which is obvious. You sin when you perpetuate this work of the deceiver.

You mean empirical evidence like artifactual retroviral DNA in particular, and DNA in general, or the fossil record, or Lenski's e coli, or...

Oh Jeez...there's so much scientific evidence for evolution that I couldn't fit it into an entire thread, much less a single post.

465 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:05pm

re: #450 gmsc
Connections! Thanks, couldn't think of the name. On you tube you say? Thanks again.

466 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:07pm

re: #445 Shug

B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T


How intollerant. repent my friend.

467 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:10pm

re: #453 realwest

Being out for a while felt good?!? What, were you tired Noam?
/

Not exactly.

468 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:12pm

re: #430 Dianna
Please e-mail me Dianna. Can't really discuss his situation out here.

469 MandyManners  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:34pm

Good night!

470 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:36pm

re: #455 Noam Sayin'

Tom Cruise?

No, Bawack Obahma.

471 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:41pm

re: #461 Hobbes

Yep! You win!

WOO HOO! (Saw it on Rush's site earlier)

472 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:49pm

re: #466 bitterclinger_in_PA

How intollerant. repent my friend.

And by what authority do you call people to repentance?

473 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:31:59pm

re: #467 Noam Sayin'
Ah, gotcha!

474 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:32:11pm
475 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:32:13pm

re: #461 Hobbes

Yep! You win!

Nah, gclaghorn beat him by more than 30 minutes!
;)

476 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:32:15pm

re: #443 bitterclinger_in_PA

I already have. I trying to help you out. Jesus loves you.

REPENT AND THY KARMA WILL BE SAVED !

477 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:32:29pm

re: #461 Hobbes

Yep! You win!

Serious?

That woman has lost her mind.

478 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:32:33pm

re: #466 bitterclinger_in_PA

How intollerant. repent my friend.

Blah Blah Blah, yada yada yada

479 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:32:36pm

re: #407 realwest

Hey y'all - are we still On Topic or have we strayed a bit?!

Hey! RW! How are you tonight?

Me just zipped up a big project and sending it off to the engineers for approval before building it.

WOOT!

480 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:32:39pm

I think I understand now why I despise hardcore bible thumpers as much as I despise hardcore leftists.

/stuck on stupid, and repetitive.

481 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:01pm

re: #472 bosforus
Never mind his power to call people to repent, how does one do that - repent, I mean?

482 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:06pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Fossils are from the Great flood which explains the fossils of dinosaurs. Sorry carbon dating is only good up to 4000 years. try again. In the Bible they have creatures in it that describe what these animal look like. You might want to pick up a Bible sometime and read it.

Also explain why there is no fossils of the so called random mutation of reptiles to birds over millions of years. Evolution is made up by the liberals and all you who hate God. You bought it hook line and sinker.Repentance is a good thing.

My time machine shows images far older than 4000 years. How do you explain this?

483 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:06pm

re: #464 Salamantis
You're talking facts and science again. You may as well be speaking Klingon!

484 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:10pm

re: #436 Thanos

Hitler was an occultist, a believer in the supernatural, not so much "Science". Wehrmacht belt buckles said "Gott Mit Uns" . The Belgians who ran the Congo plantations so well were all Christians. The South Africans who created apartheid were all Christians, in Germany most of the people who voted for Hitler were Christians. At any given time true scientists are a very small minority of the population. Your blood libels against scientists are no better than the blood libels used to tar races that people don't like.

Ah, Thanos? Don't hit me, but I swear to you that Hitler was not - NOT - an occultist. There's a perfectly wonderful book on my shelf, The Occult Roots of Nazism, that shows that he wasn't. He never subscribed, personally, to the mystic nonsense. Hitler had no beef - at least during his lifetime - with those who did believe in the Aryan Legend, or the "sacred spear" nonsense, or anything else, and was quite happy to make use of it, but I find no evidence that Hitler himself believed in any of that.

Not that he didn't subscribe to a remarkable number of other pseudo-sciences, including holistic medicine and some rather odd ideas about vegetarianism, but he was not - NOT - an occultist.

485 wee fury  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:10pm

re: #466 bitterclinger_in_PA

How intollerant. repent my friend.

You are sounding rather . . . preachy.

486 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:12pm

re: #477 Noam Sayin'

Serious?

That woman has lost her mind.

ya, that's one of those throw up in your mouth a bit moments...

487 Hobbes  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:42pm

re: #457 gmsc

Ah, sorry must have missed that post. Knew way before the show it would probably be him, but I thought Michelle would probably be number 2.

488 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:43pm

re: #443 bitterclinger_in_PA

I already have. I trying to help you out. Jesus loves you.

You pompous, useless idiot! I have dedicated my entire LIFE to Jesus as my Lord and my Beloved. How dare you presume to remind of the love in whose arms I dwell!
You have taken on some ridiculous icon of presumptive christian-like perfume in Creationism that will better NO MAN's relationship with G_d.
If you think coming in here and spouting a lot of "Jesus Loves You" pap will make you salient, you are sadly mistaken.
You want the TRUTH? You can't handle the TRUTH!

489 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:43pm

re: #463 Dark_Falcon

LOL!


So many unbelievers, I hope you know what happens when you deny the Word of God. I am just saying. I am trying to inform you.

490 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:43pm

I repented and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

491 The Hoopster  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:57pm

re: #469 MandyManners

Good night!

Good Night Mandy..May you and your child receive great blessings in this Christmas Season.

492 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:59pm
493 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:33:59pm

re: #474 Iron Fist

Just wait. Next year Time will call him the Man of the 21st Century.

Speaking as Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2006, I'd like to say this won't happen, but I wouldn't be surprised.

494 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:34:11pm

re: #481 realwest

Never mind his power to call people to repent, how does one do that - repent, I mean?

Repent = feeling bad, having a change of heart, and forsaking. According to my understanding.

495 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:34:17pm

re: #349 ebed_melech

An interesting selection of older German and other texts taken from the same author.

[Link: creationontheweb.com...]

That's like going to Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church site and seeking out articles on homosexuality.

496 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:34:24pm

re: #489 bitterclinger_in_PA

So many unbelievers, I hope you know what happens when you deny the Word of God. I am just saying. I am trying to inform you.

Ohhh, scary

497 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:34:32pm

re: #480 BlueCanuck

I think I understand now why I despise hardcore bible thumpers as much as I despise hardcore leftists.

/stuck on stupid, and repetitive.

I have less tolerance for my fellow Christians who are bible thumpers and are pushing this stuff.

THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER!

498 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:34:32pm

re: #486 CynicalConservative

Or take her preciously by the hand, and lead her to a padded ambulance...

499 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:34:56pm

re: #490 Shug

I repented and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

I worked four years under Obama and all i got was this lousy T shirt.

500 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:35:29pm

re: #482 Racer X

My time machine shows images far older than 4000 years. How do you explain this?

ANd you are a 9/11 truther too.

501 The Hoopster  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:35:33pm

re: #490 Shug

I repented and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

Now that was funny...LOL

502 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:35:41pm

re: #489 bitterclinger_in_PA

So many unbelievers better informed people, I hope you know what happens when you deny the Word of God. I am just saying. I am trying to inform annoy you.

Fixed.

503 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:35:43pm

re: #420 ebed_melech

In his own words though the link is old, 'Eugenics May Not Be Bad' [Link: www.sundayherald.com...]

That is not the title of the article. You can read it here from google cache
It was a letter to the editor about designer babies and genetic engineering and not eugenics or racism.

504 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:35:46pm

re: #490 Shug

I repented and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

Which one?

505 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:35:49pm

re: #449 HoosierHoops

Mandy..Check this out..In high school these guys and girls played guitar and one group sang Amazing Grace at the same time as the other side sang House of the rising sun.. The words harmonize perfectly and to have heard it was haunting.. Never heard it since played.
Play the song sometime and sing the other song opposite with it..
Cool but kind of creepy..
{ Walter is popping in a CD right now}

You are aware that "Amazing Grace" can be sung to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun", right?

506 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:36:30pm

re: #496 CynicalConservative

Ohhh, scary

You ought to be worried.

507 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:36:30pm

re: #498 Noam Sayin'

Or take her preciously by the hand, and lead her to a padded ambulance...

re: #500 bitterclinger_in_PA

ANd you are a 9/11 truther too.

Well there's a random left field connection. Huh?

508 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:36:37pm

re: #489 bitterclinger_in_PA

So many unbelievers, I hope you know what happens when you deny the Word of God. I am just saying. I am trying to inform you.

Unbelievers? More like people you THINK are unbelievers, because they don't believe the same as you. Now go forth before you are taunted severely as the troll you are deserves.

509 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:36:46pm

re: #480 BlueCanuck

I think I understand now why I despise hardcore bible thumpers as much as I despise hardcore leftists. /stuck on stupid, and repetitive.

bitterclinger_in_PA is not a hardcore bible thumper. First off, he claims that certain people here should read the bible, but at the same time he makes statements but doesn't even reference scripture.

At least Stretch tries to make a point and hold some sort of dialog, where as bitterclinger_in_PA is not capable of even forming a paragraph worth of rebuttals.

510 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:36:46pm

re: #479 JCM Hey JCM - I'm doing ok, I guess - glad to hear about your situation though!
Now if only those pesky engineers take some time in responding!
LOL!

511 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:36:54pm

re: #388 sattv4u2
You don't think people new it was like, kinda BAD to kill someone before it was written on a rock !?!?!


Okay, putting on historian hat here. Define "people." Thralls (mentioned above somewhere) were not legally people. Many societies took this approach: Different rules for different people, and slaves weren't people at all. (Actually, come to think of it, there's a lot of people who still think that they should be above the laws that the little people are subject to. But that's another discussion.) Study history. You will see this over, and over, and over...it's depressing.

The point of the 10 commandments was that all homo sapiens were PEOPLE. There is no separate set of rules. No qualifications for us/them, black/white, believer/infidel, male/female. We're all people, equal.

512 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:36:54pm

re: #489 bitterclinger_in_PA

So many unbelievers, I hope you know what happens when you deny the Word of God. I am just saying. I am trying to inform you.

Ooh, ooh, I know this one. Burn in hell?

513 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:36:58pm

re: #482 Racer X

My time machine shows images far older than 4000 years. How do you explain this?

Now you've really gone and done it.

Bringing globular clusters into the argument!

514 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:15pm

re: #492 Iron Fist

When, pray tell, did Baba Wawa have a mind to lose?

Before her gig on SNL?

/That would have been funnier if I could find a link to a Gilda Radner bit.

515 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:20pm

re: #502 Dark_Falcon

Fixed.

ok that is good.

516 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:21pm

Does a retro-virus end up wearing bell pants and Disco sunglasses?

517 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:28pm

re: #489 bitterclinger_in_PA

So many unbelievers, I hope you know what happens when you deny the Word of God. I am just saying. I am trying to inform you.

Science is a beautiful tool that God has given us to help us understand the world he's put us in. Wouldn't it be a shame to reject His gift?

518 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:31pm

"Unbeliever" is so harsh. I much prefer "infidel".

/thanks

519 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:36pm

re: #490 Shug

I repented and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

LOL!

You are going to burn for that one!

520 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:39pm

re: #505 Dianna

You are aware that "Amazing Grace" can be sung to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun", right?

And to the tune "The Happy Wanderer".

/sounds more joyful too.

521 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:46pm

re: #367 stretch

Jesus loves you Charles, and he died proving it

Why do so many fundies say that sorta thing in such a threatening or condescending manner?

522 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:47pm

re: 498 Noam.../// My 507

Sorry about that Noam, wasn't paying attention to the multiple quotes. 100% for bitter boy

523 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:37:49pm

re: #510 realwest

Hey JCM - I'm doing ok, I guess - glad to hear about your situation though!
Now if only those pesky engineers take some time in responding!
LOL!

No kidding another project on hold waiting feedback and approval.

524 6pat6  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:38:01pm

re: #452 Hobbes

You mean, Ed Sullivan is the year's Most Fascinating Dude?

525 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:38:05pm

re: #506 bitterclinger_in_PA

You ought to be worried.

Not even in the slightest.

526 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:38:09pm

re: #466 bitterclinger_in_PA

How intollerant. repent my friend.

Any time you tell anyone to repent (except jokingly) you are making a lot of us very angry.

527 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:38:11pm

re: #512 Charles

Ooh, ooh, I know this one. Burn in hell?

Which AC/DC album is that one?

528 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:38:18pm

re: #448 CrackrJak

That was very unnecessary and stupid.

No, it was very necessary. Did I not just restate what you said? Do you think none but Christians have morals, that there were no democratic republics before Christ? Did you think murder was not punished before the bible?

529 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:38:23pm

re: #506 bitterclinger_in_PA

You ought to be worried.

Why, quote me some scripture, chapter and verse. Show me.

530 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:38:58pm

re: #519 Racer X

LOL!

You are going to burn for that one!


It's a flame retardant t shirt.

so I'm OK

531 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:39:00pm

re: #518 OldLineTexan

"Unbeliever" is so harsh. I much prefer "infidel".

/thanks

Jihad! Jihad!


///

532 The Hoopster  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:39:06pm

re: #505 Dianna

You are aware that "Amazing Grace" can be sung to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun", right?

Yes Dianna.. I have never heard them both sung at the same time..
It works for harmony..but it's well..
Try it.. Good evening Dianna Hope you are well

533 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:39:09pm

re: #512 Charles

Thrown from the top of the turtle stack?

534 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:39:24pm

re: #503 Killgore Trout


This site, mentioned in that Sunday Herald article, looks like an interesting resource:
[Link: www.edge.org...]

Here's an example:

"These findings may capture people's imagination—so often, people think there is not much they can do, what I call genetic nihilism. But even if your mother and your father and your sister and brother and aunts and uncles all died from heart disease, it doesn't mean that you need to. It just means that you are more likely to be genetically predisposed. If you are willing to make big enough changes, there is no reason you need ever develop heart disease, except in relatively rare cases."


[Link: www.edge.org...]

535 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:39:41pm

re: #527 Buster Bunny

Which AC/DC album is that one?

I don't think I have that one, gotta get out and buy it.

536 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:39:42pm

re: #500 bitterclinger_in_PA

ANd you are a 9/11 truther too.

Dammit!

I've been outed. How did you know?

Oh you are good.

What color are my socks?

537 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:39:43pm

re: #527 Buster Bunny

Which AC/DC album is that one?


I think REM did that on one of their weird goofing around albums. Dead letter office?

538 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:39:48pm

And instead of "fundie", I would prefer those of you who fancy yourselves to be on some other side of this issue and need a derogatory label use "kuffar".

/thanks again

539 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:39:52pm

re: #500 bitterclinger_in_PA
If you had the sense God gave you you wouldn't say things like that. Either you are a kkkos kid agitator or an ass. Jury is still out in my opinion. Calling some one a 9/11 troofer is just about as low as you can go in my book.

540 Fried Spam  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:40:13pm

re: #345 Iron Fist

The earliest I can recall evolution specifically being taught would be 7th grade. I had a Science teacher who believed that it was her "divine" mission to teach 12 year olds that God didn't exist. I wouldn't say that it came up that bluntly in every class, but it was the general theme for the better part of a year.


re: #339 JCM

... I am both right wing and Christian.
...

... but our credibility needs to be retain by distancing ourselves with clarity from teaching creationism as science.


I would bet that my comment gets lost in the noise of this thread, but these two comments, together, speak to me. I also am a Christian, tending toward the right wing, but am concerned that the evangelistic atheist has unfettered license to preach their dogma in public schools.

How do we counter that? I don't want creationism taught as science. I also don't want atheism taught as science.

541 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:40:14pm

re: #387 J.S.

Here's a problem for you to consider...Back since the time of the earliest explorers (that's Europeans sailing to North America), the explorers were in the habit of capturing natives and taking them back to Europe (to parade them before the King/Queen, and exhibit them as "savages.") Cartier (the French explorer did this), so did many other explorers...(later, btw, sea captains would kidnap and take back Native Americans, try to convert them to Christianity, then return them/drop them back off to their place of origin)...All of this was done long, long before Darwin. Racism didn't spring forth from Evolutionary Theory...

not really following you here...kidnapping is a capital crime, and I did not make any claim that evolutionary theory created the concept of hating your fellow man for being "inferior" - that kind of thinking has been around for a long long time. I do completely discount the concept of 'race' though, which I do think evolutionary theory was/is responsible for. Yes I know, many 'church types' followed and supported the concepts of racism and eugenics - that really points out to me the danger of bending one's convictions in order to appear relevant, 'open minded', and 'scientific'

542 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:40:17pm

re: #367 stretch

Jesus loves you Charles, and he died proving it

Jesus, he knows me, and he knows I'm right.

543 quercus albus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:40:26pm

I work with zebrafish. Just these little fish. We have thousands of them.

But when I watch an embryo start out as 1 cell - just one cell with a yolk, and then it divides into 2 cells, and then into 4 and 8, 16, 36, cleaving so neatly, so beautifully, I am amazed.

After 24 hours, those embryos are beautiful, elegant, wrapped around their yolk sack, twitching every once in a while, just because they now can. I am floored.

When I learn about the myc gene that keeps the cells pluripotent during the first several cell cycles and how antagonizers come in to knock it down so that the germ layers can develop and lay the foundation for the blood, muscles, skin, brain, etc, I am humbled.

Everything about life is a wonderful mystery. The more it is studied, the more answers are discovered, and these answers lead to many, many more questions.

In my opinion, the anti-biology crowds have it exactly backwards. The study of science brings me closer to God.

544 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:40:40pm

re: #512 Charles

Ooh, ooh, I know this one. Burn in hell?


In Revelations you do.

545 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:40:46pm

re: #532 HoosierHoops

Yes Dianna.. I have never heard them both sung at the same time..
It works for harmony..but it's well..
Try it.. Good evening Dianna Hope you are well

'Sta bien!

I'm about to duck out and send an email to realwest. Forgive me for all the folks I'm missing!

546 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:40:56pm

re: #499 Buster Bunny
You're lucky, after four years of Obama all I'm gonna have is an IOU - payable to the US Treasury.

547 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:40:59pm

re: #534 jaunte

Cool link, it's a fascinating topic.

548 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:41:12pm

re: #515 bitterclinger_in_PA

ok that is good.

bitterclinger, this one's for you:

Thick As A Brick

549 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:41:54pm

re: #522 CynicalConservative

No harm, no foul.

I was merely confused for a bit. Woulda been quite puzzling if stretch would SHARE HIS F'ING WEED!

Well, there's always bourbon.

550 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:42:02pm

re: #543 quercus albus

I work with zebrafish. Just these little fish. We have thousands of them.

But when I watch an embryo start out as 1 cell - just one cell with a yolk, and then it divides into 2 cells, and then into 4 and 8, 16, 36, cleaving so neatly, so beautifully, I am amazed.

After 24 hours, those embryos are beautiful, elegant, wrapped around their yolk sack, twitching every once in a while, just because they now can. I am floored.

When I learn about the myc gene that keeps the cells pluripotent during the first several cell cycles and how antagonizers come in to knock it down so that the germ layers can develop and lay the foundation for the blood, muscles, skin, brain, etc, I am humbled.

Everything about life is a wonderful mystery. The more it is studied, the more answers are discovered, and these answers lead to many, many more questions.

In my opinion, the anti-biology crowds have it exactly backwards. The study of science brings me closer to God.

ZEBRA FISH. Damn man, you are going to burn in hell for sure!
/

551 lostlakehiker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:42:29pm

re: #214 DistantThunder

No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.
- Jacob Bronowski

From Wikipedia -Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a British mathematician and biologist of Polish-Jewish origin. He is best remembered as the presenter and writer of the 1973 BBC television documentary series, The Ascent of Man.

Anyone hear of this guy or the series?

It was a superb series. Immortal line, connecting quantum physics to morality:

You have to touch. "

You cannot sit aloof just doing science (moral meaning); you cannot observe anything without affecting it (quantum physics precept.)

552 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:42:58pm

re: #549 Noam Sayin'

No harm, no foul.

I was merely confused for a bit. Woulda been quite puzzling if stretch would SHARE HIS F'ING WEED!

Well, there's always bourbon.

Dude, I gotta lay off the pipe...

///

553 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:42:58pm

re: #544 bitterclinger_in_PA

In Revelations you do.

Your comment about burning in hell. Please give me chapter and verse?

554 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:43:27pm

re: #544 bitterclinger_in_PA

In Revelations you do.

Well, doesn't that make you a tool of Satan, then, since you're posting on the website I built?

Come on in, bitterclinger! The lake of sulfur is just the right temperature!

555 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:43:31pm
556 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:43:32pm

re: #553 Walter L. Newton

Your comment about burning in hell. Please give me chapter and verse?

Chapter and verse?
I thought that was an Iron Maiden Song

557 quercus albus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:43:53pm

re: #550 Walter L. Newton

Sigh.

Y'all carry on.

558 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:44:16pm

re: #512 Charles

Ooh, ooh, I know this one. Burn in hell?

Wish it into the cornfield.

/or everyone keep taking the cheap updings, too easy

559 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:44:18pm

re: #462 Clemente

That's NOT what evolution theory scientifically defines, as you know perfectly well. Natural selection means exactly what it says.

I did not say it was "evolutionary theory". I said it was part of social darwinism and eugenics. Though, Social darwinism and eugenics are offshoots of evolutionary thought. Most would say it's a corruption of that thought, I call it an unintended consequence. But it wouldn't be the first or last time science was used/abused to promote a false belief. One of the newest examples of this is "Global Warming"

560 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:44:30pm

re: #383 ebed_melech

Which is Richard Dawkins a eugenicist or a theoretician if they are mutually exclusive?

(Personally I think he's both a eugenicist and an eloquent atheist propagandist, given his almost complete lack of recent peer reviewed publications.)

Actually, he's one of the most celebrated professors at Oxford University. And his focus on genes rather than organisms, and his expansion of genetic theory to memes (he couined the word and founded the discipline of memetics), have been seminal contributions to science.

He is also the author of many fine books. He, Daniel Dennett, and Steven Pinker are the heirs to the mantle of the public scientist/intellectual that was once held by Carl Sagan and Stephen Jay Gould.

561 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:44:58pm

re: #520 BlueCanuck

I will not comment on that one. I just won't.

Disclaimer: I sang both in church choir.

562 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:45:04pm

re: #529 Walter L. Newton

Why, quote me some scripture, chapter and verse. Show me.

John 14:6 NIV
Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through Me"

Sorry I lead Bible study in my church. This scripture says it all. Help yourself out and check into the Word.

563 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:45:24pm

re: #555 Iron Fist

After almost dying three years ago, I've become relaxed about it.

564 Pvt Bin Jammin  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:45:36pm

re: #482 Racer X

Thanks for posting that pic. I had it up the other night and lost it after a reboot. It's now my desktop background.

565 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:45:46pm

re: #556 Shug

Chapter and verse?
I thought that was an Iron Maiden Song

Stop that, you are going to confuse bitterclinger_in_PA. I want an answer to my question.

Considering what we hear coming out of bitterclinger_in_PA, maybe there was some truth in what Murtha said.

566 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:45:54pm

re: #540 Fried Spam

How do we counter that? I don't want creationism taught as science. I also don't want atheism taught as science.

The freedom to believe comes through the family. Atheistic science, math reading and government are fine by me, because I believe in my home. Atheism cannot be taught! It is the necessary center point for correct education.

Consider this:

All the observations concerning the development of life lead to a similar conclusion. The evolution of living beings, of which science seeks to determine the stages and to discern the mechanism, presents an internal finality which arouses admiration. This finality which directs beings in a direction for which they are not responsible or in charge, obliges one to suppose a Mind which is its inventor, its creator.
567 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:45:55pm

I'm so far behind, I can't catch up. Forgive me if you answered some idiocy I typed.

568 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:46:00pm

re: #562 bitterclinger_in_PA

John 14:6 NIV
Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through Me"

Sorry I lead Bible study in my church. This scripture says it all. Help yourself out and check into the Word.

Every comment you post with Satan's comment posting form leads you closer to the lake of fire.

I'm just sayin'.

569 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:46:03pm

BBIAW.

570 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:46:10pm

re: #540 Fried Spam

How do we counter that? I don't want creationism taught as science. I also don't want atheism taught as science.

That's other big problem with this teaching ID push. Imagine ID, get's accepted, then every Tom, Dick and Harry religion, belief, dogma, or dog will get to have equal time. Very bad move. Those pushing ID will get worse things than we have now.

What we need is the teaching of CRITICAL THINKING. That would solve a lot of problems, stupid Obama voters, global warming accepted as science, whether or not the Biblical account of creation is science.

It's not that kids are being taught things they should know or not know.

They are not being taught how to THINK CRITICALLY!

571 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:46:16pm

re: #544 bitterclinger_in_PA

In Revelations you do.

Actually, it's singular. No such book as "Revelations".

572 lostlakehiker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:46:44pm

re: #451 Killgore Trout

Ditto. But I think this commonly displayed attitude illustrates that it's the creationists who see others as subhuman not those who believe in the imperical evidence of science.

While I disagree with the creationists because they're wrong, they don't see me as subhuman. (Nor vice versa). They think I'm wrong. Their reasons for thinking so are wrong, but heck, a lot of people are wrong about a lot of things. I just might be wrong about who will win the super bowl, for instance. [Cowboys!]

573 swamprat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:46:49pm

re: #543 quercus albus

Got any poetry?
Besides post 543, I mean.

574 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:47:14pm

re: #558 Killian Bundy

Wish it into the cornfield.

/or everyone keep taking the cheap updings, too easy

Did you ever see the 2003 sequel with Bill Mumy and Cloris Leachman?

575 Stonemason  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:47:18pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Are you trying to be banned?

576 pingjockey  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:47:34pm

Night folks. I am self deleting the rest of this. No, never mind...God, the Old One, Supreme Being, Something, gave us brains to reason, think, create, destroy, inquire. Use your frakkin' head for something besides a hatrack and quit spouting dogmatic bullshit. The Bible is not science, science is not the Bible. Good night.

577 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:47:35pm

re: #554 Charles


Well, doesn't that make you a tool of Satan, then, since you're posting on the website I built?

Now, Charles, that's a dilemma worthy of the Jesuits!

And here I thought you were trained only by Marianists or Salesians!

578 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:47:40pm

I like natural selection. In a nightclub it means you pick the girls with the silica free racks, butts with lots of round and the hair that doesnt stand on end by itself. If its a girl it means you leave with the bouncer after getting yourself so gone you cant spell UP.

579 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:47:43pm

re: #564 Pvt Bin Jammin

Thanks for posting that pic. I had it up the other night and lost it after a reboot. It's now my desktop background.

You're welcome!

That one is really nice - I snagged it to my screen saver folder.

580 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:47:47pm

Notice how all of the creationists try to change the topic to AGW once they start losing ground?
I pointed that out the other night, it's the new "larger tent" discovery institute, they've incorporated anti AGW into their mission because just going anti-evolution is losing them ground.

581 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:47:55pm

re: #290 jaunte

Eugenics and racism are not part of evolutionary theory.

High five that, yo.

582 pjaicomo  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:47:59pm

If only Jimmy Kimmel had a running commentary on this movie . . .

583 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:48:03pm

re: #562 bitterclinger_in_PA

John 14:6 NIV
Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through Me"

Sorry I lead Bible study in my church. This scripture says it all. Help yourself out and check into the Word.

That verse says absolutely nothing about evolution or the creation. I fail to see the relevance.

584 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:48:04pm

re: #557 quercus albus

Sigh.

Y'all carry on.

I finished my comment to you with a slash (/), which is known as a sarcasm tag here on LGF. We use it to end a sarcastic statement which is meant to be humorous. It's not a put down. It's to indicate we are having a little fun at each others expense.

Lighten up.

585 razorbacker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:48:15pm

Well boys and girls, this party is devolving into simple name-calling and hurt fweelings.

I've been married long enough to be pretty sure that I'm not going to hear any new examples of either.

You hear it all over the south side of Roana-Robaan, "An guuta nacht, y'all."

586 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:48:36pm

re: #575 Stonemason

Are you trying to be banned?

Not speaking for Charles, I don't see anything bannable {yet}, just annoyingly preachy and self-righteous.

587 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:48:41pm

re: #577 Dianna

Now, Charles, that's a dilemma worthy of the Jesuits!

And here I thought you were trained only by Marianists or Salesians!


Jesuits rock!

588 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:48:42pm

Ah, some fervent witnessing going on here with a whole bucket of canards to boot.

589 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:49:03pm

re: #562 bitterclinger_in_PA

Never mind, forget I said anything. Your narrow interpretation of the world infuriates.

590 quercus albus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:49:11pm

re: #573 swamprat

Sorry. I don't do poetry. Too heady for my small brain. I was just trying to express the beauty that I see around me in these little creatures I watch under the microscope.

591 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:49:18pm

re: #562 bitterclinger_in_PA

I have very bad news for you.

I attended a great deal of Bible study. There is great wisdom in the Bible. But it doesn't answer everything.

Sorry.

592 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:49:23pm

re: #544 bitterclinger_in_PA

In Revelations you do.

IIRC correctly, and I just ran a quick word search on my Bible software. Hell isn't in Revelation. The Lake of Fire is, but not hell. Oh, and point of detail, its Revelation not Revelations.

593 mich-again  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:49:28pm

re: #585 razorbacker

I'm just sitting here watching and listening to some on-topic audioslave on youtube.

594 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:49:40pm

re: #581 Sharmuta

It's the new dual eXpelled ID head-fake.

595 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:49:50pm

re: #562 bitterclinger_in_PA

The Bible can be a path to a moral code. The pursuit of science is not a religion, though some try. It's a pursuit of knowledge and our understanding of the great universe we find ourselves in. The two can be compatible, but not in defining the other but in some ways complimenting. One guiding a path, the other illuminating the path and surroundings.

The worst thing that ever happened was when philosophy and science were separated. But that is just my opinion. Take what you want, or leave it behind. The choice is yours.

596 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:50:00pm

We can't blame Darwin for Hitler. How about blaming the pagans?

According to Wikipedia, we can't do that either... it looks like a number of occult racialists were ALSO persecuted by the Nazis. Lower-level Nazis (not the big H) did dabble in the occult; Heinrich Himmler is the usual suspect here.

Modern neo-Nazis seem to be more occultist than Hitler himself. I tried googling "Spear of Longinus" and got a lot of pages about some ridiculous metal band.

597 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:50:08pm

re: #591 Dianna

If we ever had all the answers life would be meaningless.

598 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:50:34pm

re: #597 bosforus

If we ever had all the answers life would be meaningless.

And boring as hell...

599 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:50:41pm

re: #597 bosforus

If we ever had all the answers life would be meaningless.

And insanely boring!

600 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:50:45pm

re: #590 quercus albus

Sorry. I don't do poetry. Too heady for my small brain. I was just trying to express the beauty that I see around me in these little creatures I watch under the microscope.

Did you see my answer to you in re: #584 Walter L. Newton

601 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:50:46pm

Bitterclinger_in_PA did you know that your name is an anagram of

Brain Cretin Piglet

602 HelloDare  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:50:47pm

Enough of this nonsense. One could also make the case that Christianity inspired and advanced Nazism. I do not believe this. I am only using it as an example.

After all, Kinder, Küche, Kirche “children, kitchen, church” was used as a slogan to promote a woman's place in Nazi culture.

The slogan God With Us was on Nazi belt buckles.

And there are many photos of Nazi attending Christian ceremonies.
Scroll down and you'll even see one of Hitler as Best Man at Goring's Catholic wedding. (And yes I know he later persecuted Catholics.)

Christianity did not inspired and advanced Nazism. Neither did Darwin.

603 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:50:56pm

re: #598 JCM

And boring as hell...

Grrr, beat me to it!

604 Alberta Oil Peon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:02pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Fossils are from the Great flood which explains the fossils of dinosaurs. Sorry carbon dating is only good up to 4000 years. try again. In the Bible they have creatures in it that describe what these animal look like. You might want to pick up a Bible sometime and read it.

Also explain why there is no fossils of the so called random mutation of reptiles to birds over millions of years. Evolution is made up by the liberals and all you who hate God. You bought it hook line and sinker.Repentance is a good thing.

If they had a Nobel Prize for ignorance, you'd be a finalist. All your talking points have long since been convincingly refuted here.

605 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:14pm

re: #391 caspera

Of course Naziism was an outgrowth of Darwinian thought. "Survival of the fittest" leads pretty easily to the idea of improving the stock of a species by killing off the "unfit." We today, as we should be, are uncomfortable with this line of thinking, but that's not to say that people didn't think this way. You don't fight dishonesty by being dishonest. Stein is saying "Darwinism spawned a school of thought which in part led to Naziism" which is correct, but then he goes off the rails by suggesting that those who believe that Darwinism accurately describes the state of nature are therefore Nazis. Ebert pulls a fast one by insisting indignantly that progressives never made an approbative connection between Darwinism and eugenics.

It's probably best to say Darwinism is how nature operates, but it doesn't suggest a social morality and leave it at that.

Darwin never said survival of the fittest, Wallace did. And to execute people is to deny them the ability to demonstrate their fitness by endeavoring to survive and reproduce, so it's anti-evolutionary, short-circuiting environmental selection and relacing it with the eugenicists' pet 'intelligent' designs, on the basis of which they choose who to let breed and who to cull - an animal husbandry practive in widespread use by farmers millennia before Darwin was born. The first advocate of eugenics was Plato in his Republic.

606 LEGION  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:15pm

re: #419 Killian Bundy

Couldn't hear the joke the girl said- she fell off her swing because she had no ropes? Very thick Australian accent there. Anyway- more important topic- when is India going to hit back at Pakistan? They are offering no apology and are daring India to do something- the world community is shrinking away as usual. Muslim terrorists are offering to move their guys away from fighting us to the Indian border. Putin is going for Czar for life, giving Chavez tours aboard his naval ships. Israel is talking about whacking Iran. All because of the perceived weakness of BO. Ain't you libs out there REAL proud of electing him? What's with the holiday's being named after him already? There is no change- this is Carter's second term mixed with Clinton's third. Disaster folks.

607 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:16pm

re: #580 Thanos

Its more than that. AGW was hosed from the word go and as such they think it is a weak point in science's armor (as though science is a monolith). What's more, I hear that they're beginning to target neuroscience. Trying to push the line that the brain and the mind (read soul) are not the same.

608 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:18pm

re: #569 realwest

BBIAW.

Might be gone before you're back. Have a good night, and we'll see you this weekend.

609 quercus albus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:24pm

re: #584 Walter L. Newton

Sorry, Walter. I failed to register the /. Please forgive my huffy breath. I will go off to bed, now. Good night, all.

610 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:30pm

re: #598 JCM

re: #599 CynicalConservative

You two sharing computers or something?

611 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:43pm

re: #568 Charles

Every comment you post with Satan's comment posting form leads you closer to the lake of fire.

I'm just sayin'.

I see you turned your back on Christ Our Savior.

612 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:44pm

I need to go smoke and pour another glass of wine...if I'm going to Hell/Lake of Fire for not agreeing with the Creationists, then I'd like to make sure I've earned it!

613 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:50pm

re: #610 bosforus

re: #599 CynicalConservative

You two sharing computers or something?

Ummm, GMTA?

614 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:51:59pm

re: #598 JCM

And boring as hell the lake of fire...

Gotta keep on topic...

/

615 Desert Dog  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:52:08pm

Here's my favorite Old Testament quote:

Proverbs 25:24
It is better to live in a corner of the roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

I roll it out often, especially when Mrs. Desert Dog gets uppity!

I usually have to go sleep on the roof afterwards though...so, I have to use it wisely.

616 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:52:15pm

re: #611 bitterclinger_in_PA

I see you turned your back on Christ Our Savior.

No! Just you! Big difference!

617 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:52:17pm

re: #599 CynicalConservative

And insanely boring!

GET OUT OF MY MIND!

618 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:52:18pm

re: #611 bitterclinger_in_PA

Check your pronouns.

619 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:52:19pm

re: #612 hermit

I need to go smoke and pour another glass of wine...if I'm going to Hell/Lake of Fire for not agreeing with the Creationists, then I'd like to make sure I've earned it!

I'll Join ya, see ya out back.

620 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:52:41pm

re: #592 JCM

IIRC correctly, and I just ran a quick word search on my Bible software. Hell isn't in Revelation. The Lake of Fire is, but not hell. Oh, and point of detail, its Revelation not Revelations.

When you get down to hell .. i'll be there to give you a guided tour, you know .. lakes of fire .. nasty females in leather .. the works.

I figure with what i've done to date .. i'm due.

621 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:52:49pm

re: #617 JCM

GET OUT OF MY MIND!

But I am the Kwizatz Haderach!

//

622 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:52:49pm
623 The Hoopster  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:52:53pm

re: #575 Stonemason

Are you trying to be banned?

Oh I remember that theory! some teacher in high school..Can't remember who said that Because of the great flood all carbon dating would be wrong for the fossels.
So that fable has been around..

624 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:00pm

re: #601 Shug

Bitterclinger_in_PA did you know that your name is an anagram of

Brain Cretin Piglet


GREAT name fer a punk band..

625 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:00pm

re: #587 joecitizen

Jesuits rock!

They do!

Still, the Church doesn't particularly like granting them parishes. This speaks volumes to the situation in San Francisco.

626 VioletTiger  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:17pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Fossils are from the Great flood which explains the fossils of dinosaurs. Sorry carbon dating is only good up to 4000 years. try again. In the Bible they have creatures in it that describe what these animal look like. You might want to pick up a Bible sometime and read it.

Also explain why there is no fossils of the so called random mutation of reptiles to birds over millions of years. Evolution is made up by the liberals and all you who hate God. You bought it hook line and sinker.Repentance is a good thing.

So, is there something in the bible about Noah hating on the dinosaurs? Don't remember reading that. Were they too big, maybe sink the ark, eat the rest of the critters? It would be cool to have plesiosaurs around--what happened to them? They didn't drown, they swam. What about the ammonites and trilobites? They were already wet too.

There have been some very excellent finds of featured dinosaurs in China recently. There was an article in national geographic, but I forget the month. Here is a link to a site with good info.

[Link: www.amonline.net.au...]

627 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:19pm

re: #594 jaunte

Speaking of head-fakes...

Day-umm!

628 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:20pm

I believe the creator made all of this a long time ago; things have been evolving ever since.

And will continue to do so.

629 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:22pm

re: #619 CynicalConservative

I'll Join ya, see ya out back.

Hey, bring your own smokes, man - I'm on a poverty-type budget, y'know!

630 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:29pm

re: #613 CynicalConservative

Ummm, GMTA?

I know what GMTA stands for but whenever I see it I always think "Get Me The Axe". Weird.

631 NY Nana  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:38pm

re: #363 Sunlight

Our local Chabad is having it with the closest Young Israel, on Sunday. The Chabad does not yet have a Schul. The Chabad Rabbi knew Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg HY"D.

My husband is going.

632 [deleted]  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:46pm
633 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:49pm

re: #629 hermit

Hey, bring your own smokes, man - I'm on a poverty-type budget, y'know!

Not mooching, just company

634 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:53:56pm

re: #568 Charles

Every comment you post with Satan's comment posting form leads you closer to the lake of fire.

I'm just sayin'.

It's Brother Jed and Sister Cindy from my college days.

/I don't think it cares what forum it gets to spread the "Word" on, the more heathen the better, it's out to convert

635 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:54:27pm

re: #601 Shug

Bitterclinger_in_PA did you know that your name is an anagram of

Brain Cretin Piglet

Oh, fun!

Do me! Do me! Do me!

636 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:54:34pm

re: #620 Buster Bunny

When you get down to hell .. i'll be there to give you a guided tour, you know .. lakes of fire .. nasty females in leather .. the works.

I figure with what i've done to date .. i'm due.

There are only two things to worry about:
Either you are well or you are sick.
If you are well, then there is nothing to worry about.
If you are sick, there are two things to worry about:
Either you will get well or you will die.
If you get well, then there is nothing to worry about.
If you die, there are only two things to worry about:
Either you will go to Heaven or Hell.
If you go to Heaven, there is nothing to worry about.
But if you go to Hell, you will be so damn busy
Shaking hands with friends, you won´t have time to worry.

637 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:54:36pm

re: #611 bitterclinger_in_PA

I see you turned your back on Christ Our Savior.

Don't worry about me, it's too late to save me. I'm already doomed to burn in hell. Don't be a hero! Save yourself! Every comment you post, Satan bites off another chunk of your immortal soul.

638 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:55:06pm

re: #596 Zimriel

Modern neo-Nazis seem to be more occultist than Hitler himself.

Modern nazis are overwhelmingly "Christian". (yes, I put Christian in quotes to preempt the usual seething). Stormfront and the American Nazi Party, etc are all based on a concept called "Christian Identity."

639 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:55:15pm

re: #596 Zimriel

I'll hook you up with some good references, if you email me on the weekend.

Please say "zimriel from LGF" in the subject line, will you? Otherwise you land in spam.

640 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:55:29pm

re: #592 JCM

IIRC correctly, and I just ran a quick word search on my Bible software. Hell isn't in Revelation. The Lake of Fire is, but not hell. Oh, and point of detail, its Revelation not Revelations.

Ask Charles about that. I did not say that he did. Though I would say the lake of fire is hell.

641 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:55:30pm

re: #633 CynicalConservative

Not mooching, just company

I'll bring a spare glass...

642 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:55:30pm

re: #635 Noam Sayin'

Oh, fun!

Do me! Do me! Do me!

your anagram is sayin Noam

643 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:55:31pm

re: #621 CynicalConservative

But I am the Kwizatz Haderach!

//

Fear is the mind killer...

644 Hobbes  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:55:36pm

re: #580 Thanos

Notice how all of the creationists try to change the topic to AGW once they start losing ground?
I pointed that out the other night, it's the new "larger tent" discovery institute, they've incorporated anti AGW into their mission because just going anti-evolution is losing them ground.

You don't have to be a creationist to be offended by AGW. More importantly,
AGW pollutes the curriculum in many public schools now. Creationism may be at the brink of the slippery slope. AGW is gaining speed as it slides along and no one seems to give a damn.

645 Fried Spam  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:55:40pm

re: #570 JCM

That's other big problem with this teaching ID push. Imagine ID, get's accepted, then every Tom, Dick and Harry religion, belief, dogma, or dog will get to have equal time. Very bad move. Those pushing ID will get worse things than we have now.

What we need is the teaching of CRITICAL THINKING. That would solve a lot of problems, stupid Obama voters, global warming accepted as science, whether or not the Biblical account of creation is science.

It's not that kids are being taught things they should know or not know.

They are not being taught how to THINK CRITICALLY!


YES! I agree. This, though, means critical thinking can be applied to everything: religion, global warming, creationism, and yes, even evolution.

It distresses me that critical thinking about some things is ok, even encouraged, but critical thinking on some things is heresy. Sometimes, its even scientific heresy.

disclaimer: the above should not be taken as an endorsement of teaching ID/creationism in public schools; it isn't.

646 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:56:01pm

re: #611 bitterclinger_in_PA

I see you turned your back on Christ Our Savior.


christ YOUR savior..speak for your self..and quit being a dick

647 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:56:04pm

re: #637 Charles

61 bites already! Be careful.

648 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:56:07pm

re: #611 bitterclinger_in_PA

I see you turned your back on Christ Our Savior.

Sir, you mentioned hell and Revelation. Could you please point me to chapter and verse and discuss with me the meaning of the original Greek word for "hell."

And, since the early Christians were Jews, could you also include a little info on their concept of Sheol, which I believe works intot he Christian concept of hell.

If you are a bible leader and teacher, you should be able to answer these questions with ease.

649 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:56:21pm

re: #638 Killgore Trout

Modern nazis are overwhelmingly "Christian". (yes, I put Christian in quotes to preempt the usual seething). Stormfront and the American Nazi Party, etc are all based on a concept called "Christian Identity."

Look, buddy, I'll seethe if I feel like it, OK?

650 Stonemason  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:56:58pm

re: #586 CynicalConservative

It was mainly a rhetorical question, but since you brought it up, calling those who believe in evolution God haters is not an argument, it is a personal attack based on exactly zero fact. Too much of that type of posting leads to banning, or so this mainly lurker has noticed.

Mr. Johnson has overseen an incredible community and IMHO wields the stick well. That poster has nothing to add to the place, and adds it in a childish way.

651 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:56:59pm

re: #615 Desert Dog

So I guess that verse is an example of the original dog house?

652 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:57:06pm

re: #402 CrackrJak

"Also: prove to us that Planned Parenthood is targeting religious believers for extermination."

When chants of "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries" and "Keep your God off my bod" are screamed at anti-abortion rallies, I think that's proof enough.

But if you need more proof then just look at the extreme efforts being taken to promote "Sexual Education" including birth control to children as young as 6-7 years old. Obama voted for a bill to do just that in the Illinois legislature.

If liberals had their way they force this "education" onto parochial school and home school students as well.

Actually, the pro-choice protesters are trying to keep those believers from deciding for them what happens to their own (the pro-choicers')bodies. As far as the pro-choice protesters are concerned, the anti-abortionists are free to make their own decisions, just not free to make them for unwilling others.

It's no accident that anti-abortion rallies are held at abortion clinics on the days the doctor comes; they're trying to impede womens' choices.

653 Zimriel  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:57:23pm

re: #620 Buster Bunny

When you get down to hell .. i'll be there to give you a guided tour, you know .. lakes of fire .. nasty females in leather .. the works.

I figure with what i've done to date .. i'm due.

Hot springs and females in leather sounds more like my idea of heaven.

654 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:57:48pm

re: #611 bitterclinger_in_PA

I see you turned your back on Christ Our Savior.

You are not the judge of that. I invite you to consider, in the bowels of Christ, that you might be mistaken.

655 Desert Dog  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:58:12pm

Another nugget from Proverbs:

Proverbs 21:17
He who loves pleasure will become a poor man; He who loves wine and oil will not become rich.

I am guessing quite a few of us in this forum are poor

656 lostlakehiker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:58:34pm

re: #540 Fried Spam

I would bet that my comment gets lost in the noise of this thread, but these two comments, together, speak to me. I also am a Christian, tending toward the right wing, but am concerned that the evangelistic atheist has unfettered license to preach their dogma in public schools.

How do we counter that? I don't want creationism taught as science. I also don't want atheism taught as science.


Me either. Atheism isn't any sort of science. How can science disprove God? Even if there is no God, there is no way in hell that science can prove it. To claim otherwise is unscientific claptrap at best, and dangerous to the soul, at worst.

657 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:58:37pm

Hello Night Lizards! It was and is cold and icy in Near Iowa.

Today, I continued my avoidance of the MSM in all forms, but I heard someone say something about Franken.

How are you-all and what are we talking about?

658 Desert Dog  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:58:50pm

re: #651 BlueCanuck

My wife is 5'0" and weighs all of 100 lbs, but she is the BOSS in the house for certain.

659 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:58:57pm

re: #653 Zimriel

Hot springs and females in leather sounds more like my idea of heaven.

Remember, that's 72 females in leather.

660 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:58:57pm

re: #637 Charles

Don't worry about me, it's too late to save me. I'm already doomed to burn in hell. Don't be a hero! Save yourself! Every comment you post, Satan bites off another chunk of your immortal soul.

Charles, I think this one's suffering from "none so pure as the purified."

661 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:01pm

re: #637 Charles

Don't worry about me, it's too late to save me. I'm already doomed to burn in hell. Don't be a hero! Save yourself! Every comment you post, Satan bites off another chunk of your immortal soul.

Do you have a nice handbasket to travel in like I do?

662 swamprat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:03pm

re: #606 LEGION

India knows that the instigators of the outrage are trying to start a war so that Pakistan will be forced to pull its soldiers out of the badlands where Al-Quaida is hiding in orderto defend itself from a transparent false flag operation. Nobody was fooled.

663 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:09pm

re: #637 Charles

Don't worry about me, it's too late to save me. I'm already doomed to burn in hell. Don't be a hero! Save yourself! Every comment you post, Satan bites off another chunk of your immortal soul.

ROFLMAO!

You're killing me!

er,

664 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:10pm

re: #625 Dianna

They do!

Still, the Church doesn't particularly like granting them parishes. This speaks volumes to the situation in San Francisco.

the Church would be in a helluva lot better shape if ruled by them..parishes hell, give 'em the Vatican!

665 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:34pm

re: #606 LEGION

Anyway- more important topic- when is India going to hit back at Pakistan? They are offering no apology and are daring India to do something- the world community is shrinking away as usual. Muslim terrorists are offering to move their guys away from fighting us to the Indian border. Putin is going for Czar for life, giving Chavez tours aboard his naval ships. Israel is talking about whacking Iran. All because of the perceived weakness of BO. Ain't you libs out there REAL proud of electing him? What's with the holiday's being named after him already? There is no change- this is Carter's second term mixed with Clinton's third. Disaster folks.

/India's not going to retaliate, but Obama's going to go to a Muslim capital within his first 100 days and make a "Muslim speech" (whatever that means, extensively discussed on the previous thread)

666 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:37pm

re: #641 hermit

I'll bring a spare glass...

Ok, all I've got is 2buckChuck chardonnay tonight...

667 bitterclinger_in_PA  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:37pm

re: #646 joecitizen

christ YOUR savior..speak for your self..and quit being a dick

He is yours if you want.

668 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:40pm

Westboro in da house !

669 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:41pm

re: #642 Shug

your anagram is sayin Noam

Well, that's kind of a let-down...

670 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:42pm

OT - First snow fall landed today in Salt Lake. Nothing stuck to the ground but it was still nice.
:)

671 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:49pm

re: #607 Dan G.

Its more than that. AGW was hosed from the word go and as such they think it is a weak point in science's armor (as though science is a monolith). What's more, I hear that they're beginning to target neuroscience. Trying to push the line that the brain and the mind (read soul) are not the same.

The problem with the line of attack is that they will go overboard into hysteria, lies, and hyperbole. Many will follow them, and we will lose that argument in the end.
It's the politics of the AGW movement that suck - the new Technocratic socialists who would saddle the world with immeasurable pain based on thinly understood science. By politicizing global warming theory the left has done a great diservice to science, and basically extended it into the realm of pseudo science.
The argument should never be "man made global warming doesn't exist" since it's easily provable that it does, but rather "is our contribution enough to wreck world economies over or cause third world nations to starve?" By adopting the denialist line as DI inevitably will, they undercut any credibility of the right in opposing AGW.

672 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:53pm

re: #659 Walter L. Newton

Or raisins... have they sorted that out yet?

673 JCM  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 8:59:56pm

As usual it's been fun!

But I've got to check out.

Got my shit sent off, and 19 hour days suck.

674 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:00:01pm

re: #404 ebed_melech

Your link and the positive posts on Dawkins site about eugenics below prove the point.
Please demonstrate how Jerry Bergman misquotes Dawkins.

It's called quote-mining. You take a shard out of context so that it seems to mean a different, and even opposite, thing from which the author intended it to mean, and from what it actually means in context. It's a typical tactic of creationists.

675 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:00:10pm

re: #528 Thanos

No, it was very necessary. Did I not just restate what you said? Do you think none but Christians have morals, that there were no democratic republics before Christ? Did you think murder was not punished before the bible?

Now you're getting absurd, Of course other religions and philosophies have their own "morals". But, America was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic and many who wish to remove that ethic use other "moralities" as justification to do so.

Calling me a "Beast" if I didn't have my belief was stupid. It was an insult.

676 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:00:29pm

re: #643 JCM

Fear is the mind killer...

I will face my fear and let it pass through me...

677 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:00:48pm

re: #667 bitterclinger_in_PA

He is yours if you want.

(I'm still trying to get an honest answer to my question from bitterclinger_in_PA)

Sir, you mentioned hell and Revelation. Could you please point me to chapter and verse and discuss with me the meaning of the original Greek word for "hell."

And, since the early Christians were Jews, could you also include a little info on their concept of Sheol, which I believe works intot he Christian concept of hell.

If you are a bible leader and teacher, you should be able to answer these questions with ease.

678 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:01:01pm

re: #655 Desert Dog

Another nugget from Proverbs:

Proverbs 21:17
He who loves pleasure will become a poor man; He who loves wine and oil will not become rich.

I am guessing quite a few of us in this forum are poor

I love my wine and I love my oil. I am not a spendthrift and i'm not a penny miser. But i'm not poor and I like it that way. I have enough to get what I want with a little bit extra. I have an adorable wife who puts up with me and a pair of kids i'm tutoring myself to make sure they get the necessary education.

The rest is superfluous.

679 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:01:20pm

Fuck. Anyone know how to get rid of this magnifying glass that has appeared on my desktop? I bumped something on my keyboard accidentally.

680 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:01:28pm

re: #650 Stonemason

It was mainly a rhetorical question, but since you brought it up, calling those who believe in evolution God haters is not an argument, it is a personal attack based on exactly zero fact. Too much of that type of posting leads to banning, or so this mainly lurker has noticed.

Mr. Johnson has overseen an incredible community and IMHO wields the stick well. That poster has nothing to add to the place, and adds it in a childish way.

Agree 100%

681 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:01:40pm

re: #602 HelloDare

Mien Kampf has 55 references to god, 47 mentions of Christ/Christianity. References to Darwin? 0.

682 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:01:49pm

re: #669 Noam Sayin'

Well, that's kind of a let-down...

Nosy Mania
A Man Noisy
Man Ya Is On !

683 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:01:53pm

re: #653 Zimriel

Hot springs and females in leather sounds more like my idea of heaven.

Why is it, that when I turn that to "males in leather" it just doesn't have the same...frisson?

684 Desert Dog  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:02:14pm

re: #679 Boogberg

Is it your mouse? Mine does that, it's irritating

685 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:02:16pm

re: #570 JCM

How about plain old fashioned Logic?

686 Frank White  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:02:58pm

It is great to finally register and be able to talk. Is there anyway to change your username? I want to be known as Cletus Van Damme. Other then that I have nothing to contribute.

687 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:03:01pm

G'nite, my friends! Play safe. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.
(it's just a movie quote, relax!)

688 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:03:07pm

Come out, ye silent downdingers. Bring out your opinions, or they will still lie dead.

689 HelloDare  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:03:44pm

Cubism let to Nazism.
It's just that simple.
Degenerate Art

690 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:04:11pm

re: #664 joecitizen

the Church would be in a helluva lot better shape if ruled by them..parishes hell, give 'em the Vatican!

Sweet, it would so, so, so, depend upon the Jesuit.

Do you mean the lot issued birkenstocks with their collars, or the perfectly wonderful fathers I've dealt with in difficult parishes?

691 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:04:16pm

re: #682 Shug

Nosy Mania
A Man Noisy
Man Ya Is On !

Dangit. I was hoping for "A Noisy Man" or "Ya Man is On."

Another let-down.

692 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:04:37pm

re: #683 Dianna

Why is it, that when I turn that to "males in leather" it just doesn't have the same...frisson?

For me, it's the sad realization that while the 72 females in leather are a fantasy, 72 males in leather can be had almost immediately if one is in San Francisco.

/gimme the night's bright colors

693 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:04:43pm

re: #686 Frank White

It is great to finally register and be able to talk. Is there anyway to change your username? I want to be known as Cletus Van Damme. Other then that I have nothing to contribute.

Welcome! Don't know about the name change, but I'm sure you'll find a topic that resonates and you'll be able to jump into the shallow end head first. :-)

694 IslandLibertarian  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:04:49pm

re: #679 Boogberg

Fuck. Anyone know how to get rid of this magnifying glass that has appeared on my desktop? I bumped something on my keyboard accidentally.

You got buttons on the side of your mouse?
Besides left and right click...

695 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:04:52pm

re: #679 Boogberg

Fuck. Anyone know how to get rid of this magnifying glass that has appeared on my desktop? I bumped something on my keyboard accidentally.

Go to your desktop, right click, if you see Nview Properties, click on that, go to the "zoom" tab and change from magnifier to regular cursor.

696 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:05:09pm

re: #667 bitterclinger_in_PA

He is yours if you want.

Don't say I didn't warn you. Feel it getting a little hot over there in PA?

697 HelloDare  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:05:32pm

re: #681 Killgore Trout

Got a link for that -- or do I have to read Mien Kampf?

698 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:05:45pm

re: #667 bitterclinger_in_PA

He is yours if you want.

not by your witness,fool...you do your faith no service

699 teleskiguy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:05:57pm

Charles,
Now I know I'm just a hatchiling and all, but I posted this link on a thread about Romania banning evolution in schools last night, and I don't get a hat tip? Just sayin'...
You're doing the right thing by bringing ID and Creationism front and center 'cause old school theoconservatives need a swift kick in the ass about believing in such malarkey. I know plenty of folks that believe in God AND Evolution.
Keep up the good work, I dig LGF.

700 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:06:24pm

re: #667 bitterclinger_in_PA

He is yours if you want.

We get that.

/many have accepted and you're annoying the [expletive deleted] out of the rest, your work is done here

701 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:06:26pm

re: #667 bitterclinger_in_PA

He is yours if you want.

May I remind you that Karridine isn't allowed to proselytize for B'hai?

I don't want to be preached at. Please knock it off. I've heard all your "proofs" before; if I want to hear them again, I'll ask my brother.

Please knock it off.

702 J.S.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:06:27pm

re: #541 stretch

The concept of "race" pre-dates Darwin. And it's wasn't just about "kidnapping" -- it was what we would today label as "racist" behavior -- the early explorers clearly believed that the "savages" were primitive and inferior...most of their "exhibits", btw, never survived...there was a book written about Cartier's "savages" and it attempted to trace what happened to them. There's an informative Wiki article you can read (this is about how "scientific racism" developed) here...(note that "Arthur Gobineau's An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853–1855) proposed that there were three races, and that race mixing led to the collapse of civilization. Polygenist theory alleged that there were different origins of mankind, thus making it possible to conceive of different, biological, human races, or to classify other humans as akin to animals without rights." Gobineau's essay predates Darwin's Origin of Species.

703 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:06:50pm

re: #570 JCM Well I'd agree with you completely if you changed "critically" to analytically.
That one can be a Christian, believe in Jesus Christ as our Saviour and yet still believe in Evolution and that religion should not be taught in public schools (at least through grade 12 - not talking here about college courses in Philiosopy or Comparative Religion where taxpayer money supports, either in whole or in significant measure said college) whether as science or anything else is where I stand.
I think religion is best taught by those institutions that are supposed to do so (Churches, parochial or religious schools) or by the parents of the child. Period.
But I also have to say that while bitterclinger_in_PA has in fact invited most of the attacks on him for what he has said out here, I frankly regret some of the malice with which some of those attacks seem to have been made. Seems to me that there was a time out here when a moby or troll like him would be kicked around a little and then just finished off or GAZED.

704 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:07:06pm

re: #692 OldLineTexan

For me, it's the sad realization that while the 72 females in leather are a fantasy, 72 males in leather can be had almost immediately if one is in San Francisco.

/gimme the night's bright colors

Not for me. *sigh*.

And my Male would sooo not appreciate it!

705 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:07:08pm

re: #658 Desert Dog

Good things come in small packages.

/but so does dynamite. ;)

706 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:07:09pm

re: #674 Salamantis

It's called quote-mining. You take a shard out of context so that it seems to mean a different, and even opposite, thing from which the author intended it to mean, and from what it actually means in context. It's a typical tactic of creationists.


and lousy journalists..

707 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:07:14pm

re: #683 Dianna

hmmm, males in leather. That would depend if they were Real Harley-Davidson type males or Zombie picture-type Harley wanna-be-heshe-males.

/it's Fun With Hypens Night.

708 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:07:38pm

re: #667 bitterclinger_in_PA

Do you really think Jesus would want you to bring people to Him through trickery, deceit and fear?!

You think you do His work, but He may tell you you know Him not. It's in the Bible.

709 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:08:10pm

re: #697 HelloDare

Got a link for that -- or do I have to read Mien Kampf?

Well if you decide to, look for Mein Kampf.

/It's a disorganized, rambling mess, not an (implied) endorsement of Christianity.

710 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:08:17pm

re: #671 Thanos

I agree, somewhat. We might hash it out later, but the basics of where I differ is that I know that there are some heat retention effects of concrete etc.. leading to longer cross-over times, but that nothing like that has been demonstrated to be global (at least nothing I've read yet). At any rate, they perceive science as a monolithic institution and that AGW (the in the perverted sense, not the one you typically use) is seen as a breech in the monolith's armor.

Additionally, I'm reading an interesting set of articles on the general theory of "wedge strategies" and how Phillip Johnson picked up on it from the lefties at Berkley. I'll provide links when I've read/digested them.

711 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:08:18pm

re: #708 Sharmuta

Did you get my email in reference to the Caganer's?

712 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:08:29pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Fossils are from the Great flood which explains the fossils of dinosaurs. Sorry carbon dating is only good up to 4000 years. try again. In the Bible they have creatures in it that describe what these animal look like. You might want to pick up a Bible sometime and read it.

The Bible is not a science text. No one can credibly claim that the universe, the earth, and tens of millions of species both existent and extinct were independently and as is created by some deity in the span of six days a few thousand years ago.

There are dozens of different radiometric dating methods, each measuring the half lives of a different isotope of a different element. Their rates of decay are fixed by basic physical laws. They have been meticulously cross-verified for accuracy.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

Also explain why there is no fossils of the so called random mutation of reptiles to birds over millions of years. Evolution is made up by the liberals and all you who hate God. You bought it hook line and sinker.Repentance is a good thing.

They're called Archaeopteryx. Evolution has been painstakingly supported by reams of empirical evidence over a century and a half. It is empirical science, and as such, does not speak to the existence or nonexistence of supernatural beings. You give willful arrogant ignorance an even worse name than it already has.

713 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:08:44pm

A great Bible verse.

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
~Ecclesiastes 9:11

I know I said I was leaving but...I'm not.

714 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:08:53pm

re: #679 Boogberg
Pick the damn magnifying mirror off your keyboard and move it to another part of your desk.

715 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:08:56pm

re: #699 teleskiguy

Newbie- first, it's poor form to ask for hat tips. Second- I saw that link from someone else, not you. Better luck next time, and welcome to LGF.

716 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:09:15pm

re: #675 CrackrJak

Now you're getting absurd, Of course other religions and philosophies have their own "morals". But, America was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic and many who wish to remove that ethic use other "moralities" as justification to do so.

Calling me a "Beast" if I didn't have my belief was stupid. It was an insult.

It's a logical assumption based on what you said, sorry if you don't see it that way, you don't have to agree.

Founded on Judeo/Christian? What ancient language is the word "Republic" from? What ancient language is the word "Democracy" from? What ancient language are most of our legal terms in? What preceded Christian philosophy? (hint: it starts with an "S".)

717 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:09:18pm

re: #711 Walter L. Newton

I haven't check my email. Hang on a moment.

718 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:09:25pm

re: #697 HelloDare

Ah sorry : Mein Kampf

You'll have to count the mentions yourself.

719 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:09:46pm

re: #652 Salamantis


It's no accident that anti-abortion rallies are held at abortion clinics on the days the doctor comes; they're trying to impede womens' choices.

No, They are trying to save a life and save a second from being victimized. There are many possible complications a woman can have after an abortion, Including a higher rate of cancer, Severe depression, Infertility, and possibly even death.

Planned parenthood won't discuss those "complications" with a woman either, As it might be seen as impeding a woman's "right to choose".

720 IslandLibertarian  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:09:49pm

ok, dig this...22 years clean and sober TODAY...there was a higher power involved... but I can't tell you who it was , what her name is, where they live, or how it does what HE does...but it sure was something...

Jai Guru Dev...ohmmm...

721 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:10:10pm

re: #690 Dianna

Sweet, it would so, so, so, depend upon the Jesuit.

Do you mean the lot issued birkenstocks with their collars, or the perfectly wonderful fathers I've dealt with in difficult parishes?


the true priests..make of that what you will..heh

722 Timbre  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:10:28pm

re: #716 Thanos

Sanskrit?

723 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:10:39pm

re: #712 Salamantis

I wonder how he feels about URANIUM-THORIUM DATING.

Uranium-thorium dating has an upper age limit of somewhat over 500,000 years
724 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:10:45pm

re: #720 IslandLibertarian

Congratulations.

725 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:11:10pm

re: #704 Dianna

Not for me. *sigh*.

And my Male would sooo not appreciate it!

I once dated a girl that was into gay guys.

/didn't last long
//but she was hot

726 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:11:43pm

re: #711 Walter L. Newton

Did you get my email in reference to the Caganer's?

HA! Good fun!

727 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:11:54pm

re: #424 bitterclinger_in_PA

Repent and you will be saved.

Educate yourself and you will be informed.

728 Desert Dog  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:06pm

re: #726 OldLineTexan

HA! Good fun!

The blue poop was a nice touch too

729 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:07pm

re: #635 Noam Sayin'

Oh, fun!

Do me! Do me! Do me!

Yon's Mania?

730 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:11pm

ok, dig this...22 years clean and sober TODAY

Congratulations!

Mazel tov!

Sweet!

Here's to the next twenty-two!

re: #720 IslandLibertarian

731 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:23pm

re: #711 Walter L. Newton

LOL!

732 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:24pm

re: #684 Desert Dog

Hell if I know. It's like a little 3x5 window surrounding my cursor where everything is MAGNIFIED. I need it to go away.

733 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:31pm

Happy Over L.A.

Really cool pic!

734 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:35pm

re: #710 Dan G.

Sounds good, I'll be on the lookout for it Dan.

735 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:43pm

Hmmm, I even got comment 666 tonight guess that handbasket's moving faster down the river...

736 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:47pm

re: #723 bosforus

I wonder how he feels about URANIUM-THORIUM DATING.

Depends on their parent's attitudes, I guess.

737 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:12:55pm

bitterclinger_in_PA

Are you working on gathering those bible references I asked for?

738 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:13:08pm

A "must read"? Hardly.

Despite my personal beliefs on the underlying issues, the logic of his arguments are flawed, and its not much more than an emotional hit piece.

For Example:

He refers to advocates of eugenics as liberal. I would not call Hitler liberal1. Arbitrary forced sterilization in our country has been promoted mostly by racists, who curiously found many times more blacks than whites suitable for such treatment.2

-1. Hitler could very well be described as "liberal" in the Socialist sense. You know, "Nazi", National Socialist...

-2. Either (A) this is an unrelated to anything statement, or (B) it refers to the prior sentence having to do with Hitler. In that case, it refers to racists, who despite Ebert's underlying presumption CAN be racists too.

I could go on...

739 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:13:08pm

re: #720 IslandLibertarian
WOW! 22 years clean and sober - CONGRATULATIONS.
I'm still on year 6.
But I'm not going back and frankly I was the one who got clean and sober and stayed that way; I don't believe a higher power had much to do with it at all.

But again, Congratulations!

740 Buster Bunny  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:13:13pm

re: #723 bosforus

I wonder how he feels about URANIUM-THORIUM DATING.

Oh cmon .. i've dated women that look older than that !

741 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:13:34pm

re: #735 CynicalConservative


Handbasket? Nobody uses handbaskets anymore. Ziplines are all the rage now.

742 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:13:35pm

re: #736 OldLineTexan

re: #740 Buster Bunny

Clowns, the whole lot of ya!

743 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:13:38pm

re: #737 Walter L. Newton

bitterclinger_in_PA

Are you working on gathering those bible references I asked for?

Overwhelmed or scared.

744 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:13:52pm

re: #731 Sharmuta

LOL!

Please, make it your avatar, make it your avatar. Did you see the Obama one? They have hundreds of different kinds.

745 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:14:00pm

re: #431 ebed_melech

There's plenty there too, and on a number of other sites, but I know Jerry Bergman better.

Yeah, I'm sure you've got all the creationist garbage dumps bookmarked, but you have your favorite flavor of trash.

746 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:14:09pm

re: #732 Boogberg
Ah, well how about if you re-boot - maybe that'd get rid of it?

747 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:14:36pm

re: #741 EmmmieG

Handbasket? Nobody uses handbaskets anymore. Ziplines are all the rage now.

Need more speed... Maglev Rail?

748 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:15:26pm

re: #723 bosforus

I wonder how he feels about URANIUM-THORIUM DATING.

re: #736 OldLineTexan

Depends on their parent's attitudes, I guess.

"I am Thor!"

"Oh, I'm Tho Thorry."

749 ASU86PE  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:15:30pm

FTA "You discover that 99.975 of them agree on the answer

From 200 AD to 1400 AD all the "scientists" preached Ptolemy "paths of planetary movements." Certain earlier Greek astronomers preached circular planetary movement around earth and Pythagoras of Samos and his students couldn't solve the square root of two problem in his triangle postulate and thus rejected it as a possiblity; they could only form their solutions from whole numbers to whole numbers.

Besmurch Ben Stein all you want, but I'm still in his corner more than Darwin's.

750 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:15:56pm

re: #732 Boogberg

Hell if I know. It's like a little 3x5 window surrounding my cursor where everything is MAGNIFIED. I need it to go away.

Start/Programs/System Tools/Accessibility/Magnifier

/pretty hard to believe you tripped that by accident

751 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:16:05pm

re: #744 Walter L. Newton

Please, make it your avatar, make it your avatar. Did you see the Obama one? They have hundreds of different kinds.

I insist that I get the Smurfette caganer hat tip.

/

752 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:16:16pm

re: #748 gmsc

"I am Thor!"

"Oh, I'm Tho Thorry."

Uh-oh, my stomach's turning. I think I feel a pun thread coming on.

753 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:16:33pm

re: #435 nbenhaim

Ok, I didn't love Expelled but I didn't despise it either. I read a comment by someone (but forgot to hit the reply link on it) who is now convinced, after reading Ebert's review, that he should not watch the film.

However, I might add, since Charles compared Expelled to Michael Moore's film, that Ebert gave Al Gore's propaganda film "An Inconvenient Truth" 4 stars. Just consider that when reading Ebert's movie reviews, that's all I'm sayin

Ebert's review of Gore film

Ad hominem. The ideas themselves must be considered, independent of their source, or whatever else that source has written about other things.

754 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:16:52pm

re: #743 CynicalConservative

Overwhelmed or scared.

He won't come back with what I was asking for. One reason, he doesn't know the bible, but just follows weekly outlines to teach his classes. Or, he knows scripture, and he knows that not all doctrine can be supported by scripture.

One way or another, he knows that what I am asking for is going to put him into a corner, a corner that he walked himself into and now he doesn't want to admit it.

Dishonest he is.

755 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:16:54pm

re: #750 Killian Bundy

Start/Programs/System Tools/Accessibility/Magnifier

/pretty hard to believe you tripped that by accident

Maybe hit a hot key. Sticky key. Whatever they're called.

756 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:17:20pm

re: #689 HelloDare

There is some real evidence in artwork and architecture trends. (I'm an art major--although I never worked in the field). All the retro -type fashions lately are hideous and reminicient of the "promise" of Kennedy/LBJ times.

I've also noticed that fashion trends are rapidly changing. We've gone from the 60's to the 70's and now the 80's looks in less than 5 years time. It usually takes longer for such changes. I think consumers aren't happy with the choices and the manufacturers are throwing anything out there to see what will sell. Kinda like the movie industry. The old fashioned Marvel Comic/White-hatted cowboy vs Black-hatted cowboy are the only themes that sells, but Hollywood continues to lose their hass on the the more "sophisticated" fare they think we need.

Same with fashion, the classics always sell. Young people have go for the trendy stuff --only they aren't spending so much now and a couple of the tween girl stores have recently closed their doors.

Anyway, back to the original theme. "Progressive" artwork is the wierd stuff that doesn't look like anything and we are seeing more of that. I haven't noticed a lot of changes in architecture (but I am in the midwest) and furniture styles seem to still draw on classic lines.

Strangely enough, while doing research on illuminated manuscripst (my current fave) I ran accross examples of Muslim work from centuries ago that looked like it could have come from the 1920's. Kinda creepy actually. I think I still have that book --I'll have to see if I can locate it and link a reference.

It was really, really creepy.

757 lostlakehiker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:17:25pm

re: #606 LEGION

Couldn't hear the joke the girl said- she fell off her swing because she had no ropes? Very thick Australian accent there. Anyway- more important topic- when is India going to hit back at Pakistan? They are offering no apology and are daring India to do something- the world community is shrinking away as usual. Muslim terrorists are offering to move their guys away from fighting us to the Indian border. Putin is going for Czar for life, giving Chavez tours aboard his naval ships. Israel is talking about whacking Iran. All because of the perceived weakness of BO. Ain't you libs out there REAL proud of electing him? What's with the holiday's being named after him already? There is no change- this is Carter's second term mixed with Clinton's third. Disaster folks.

India should not start a war with Pakistan over this. The consequences could be ruinous. In the original attack, 200 some lives were lost. In a nuclear war, 200 million could die.

758 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:17:42pm

re: #743 CynicalConservative

Overwhelmed or scared.

I hope bitterclinger is thinking about what I just said. I'd like to know where in the Bible Jesus told people to lie in His name's sake. bitterclinger ought to be scared.

759 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:17:58pm

re: #754 Walter L. Newton

He won't come back with what I was asking for. One reason, he doesn't know the bible, but just follows weekly outlines to teach his classes. Or, he knows scripture, and he knows that not all doctrine can be supported by scripture.

One way or another, he knows that what I am asking for is going to put him into a corner, a corner that he walked himself into and now he doesn't want to admit it.

Dishonest he is.

Yep, and well said.

760 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:18:00pm

re: #733 Racer X
Really cool, indeed - thanks for that!

761 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:18:21pm

re: #611 bitterclinger_in_PA

I see you turned your back on Christ Our Savior.

Seen any good Benny Hinn concerts lately?

Let the bodies hit the floor

762 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:18:37pm

re: #752 bosforus

I thought you left. Is it really snowing in Salt Lake? Have you seen the lights on the square yet?

763 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:19:17pm

re: #722 Timbre

Sanskrit?

Here's a link to one of the prime Stoic philosophers, which was also the philosophy of most Greek slaves. They were among the first Christians. If you read through this and replace "nature" and "gods" with "God" where those words appear in most places his maxims are something you would not be surprised to hear from any pulpit in the country.

764 Stonemason  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:19:23pm

re: #720 IslandLibertarian

Almost 18 here...congrats!

765 Shug  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:19:26pm

re: #761 jorline

Seen any good Benny Hinn concerts lately?

Let the bodies hit the floor

The comb-over is indeed holy

766 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:19:35pm

re: #749 ASU86PE

FTA "You discover that 99.975 of them agree on the answer

From 200 AD to 1400 AD all the "scientists" preached Ptolemy "paths of planetary movements." Certain earlier Greek astronomers preached circular planetary movement around earth and Pythagoras of Samos and his students couldn't solve the square root of two problem in his triangle postulate and thus rejected it as a possiblity; they could only form their solutions from whole numbers to whole numbers.

Besmurch Ben Stein all you want, but I'm still in his corner more than Darwin's.

And even the outright lies that he presents are ok with you, as long as Stein's lies besmurch Darwin?

767 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:19:45pm

re: #748 gmsc

That punchline's supposed to be:

"You're thor... I'm tho thore I can hardly pith!"

768 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:20:05pm

re: #745 Salamantis

Yeah, I'm sure you've got all the creationist garbage dumps bookmarked, but you have your favorite flavor of trash.

More than that. He isn't just a consumer. ebed_melech has revealed on other threads that he contributes articles to these websites.

769 hillbilly geek  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:20:37pm

re: #611 bitterclinger_in_PA

Please. Just. Stop. You aren't helping anyone here. On either side.

770 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:20:51pm

re: #741 EmmmieG

Handbasket? Nobody uses handbaskets anymore. Ziplines are all the rage now.

"I'm on the Zippp Line to Hell...
I'm on the Ziiip line to hell..."

771 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:20:56pm

re: #738 WrathofG-d PIMF

A "must read"? Hardly.

Despite my personal beliefs on the underlying issues, the logic of his arguments are flawed, and its not much more than an emotional hit piece.

For Example:

-1. Hitler could very well be described as "liberal" in the Socialist sense. You know, "Nazi", National Socialist...

-2. Either (A) this is an unrelated to anything statement, or (B) it refers to the prior sentence having to do with Hitler. In that case, it refers to racists, who despite Ebert's underlying presumption CAN be Liberals.

He falls into the trap of all things evil cannot be Liberal.

I could go on...

772 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:21:03pm

OK this is cool too
Explanation: In this panorama of Earth and sky recorded on Thursday, November 13, the Full Moon rises along the eastern horizon at the far left. Of course, the Full Moon rises at sunset and that Thursday's setting Sun was also captured at the far right. In between, 17 digital images are stitched together to follow the horizon to the south in a lovely twilight portrait of the city of Lisbon, Portugal.

773 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:21:21pm

re: #443 bitterclinger_in_PA

I already have. I trying to help you out. Jesus loves you.

The Taliban simply wanna help the unbelievers to find God, too...and they're not shy about it. In fact, they're downright coercively violent and belligerent.

And the longer you go on, the more like that you're sounding.

774 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:21:25pm

re: #716 Thanos

It's a logical assumption based on what you said, sorry if you don't see it that way, you don't have to agree.

No it's not, It was a blatant insult.

Founded on Judeo/Christian? What ancient language is the word "Republic" from? What ancient language is the word "Democracy" from? What ancient language are most of our legal terms in? What preceded Christian philosophy? (hint: it starts with an "S".)

I do believe the 10 commandments predates the ancient Greek. And the code of Hamurabi predates the 10 commandments. But you should also be aware that Hebrew belief was mainly kept as an oral tradition even before that. It spread and was modified upon even before ink and papyrus were invented.

775 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:21:31pm

re: #754 Walter L. Newton

And if there are more atheists in the world, it's people like bitter who can be thanked. I'd rather spend eternity with honest atheists than with useless hypocrites.

776 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:21:36pm

re: #707 ggt

hmmm, males in leather. That would depend if they were Real Harley-Davidson type males or Zombie picture-type Harley wanna-be-heshe-males.

/it's Fun With Hypens Night.

Have you seen some of the Harley types?

Not only is spandex a privilege, so should be certain styles of leather.

Trust me, on this!

777 teleskiguy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:21:46pm

re: #715 Sharmuta

Newbie- first, it's poor form to ask for hat tips. Second- I saw that link from someone else, not you. Better luck next time, and welcome to LGF.


Never again! I must be more humble, for I am but a meek little lizard at this time. Boy, is my face red...

"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in thier shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have thier shoes." -Jack Handey

778 hillbilly geek  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:22:05pm

re: #748 gmsc

"I am Thor!"

"Oh, I'm Tho Thorry."

"You're Thor?"

"Well... it hurts!"

779 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:22:09pm

re: #732 Boogberg

Hell if I know. It's like a little 3x5 window surrounding my cursor where everything is MAGNIFIED. I need it to go away.

If it's the Microsoft magnifier, click the little red X at the upper right of the control or display window.

780 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:22:10pm

re: #763 Thanos

I did a lot of reading on stoicism recently. It's a wonderful philosophy but a bit religious for my taste. Oddly enough I find Zen much more secular.

781 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:22:53pm

re: #765 Shug

The comb-over is indeed holy

LMAO...actually, I'm a little jealous Shug.
//

782 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:23:12pm

Maybe we can add to these threads a notice that "believing in Creation doesn't make you the Taliban/Al-Qaeda?".

783 Pvt Bin Jammin  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:23:13pm

re: #733 Racer X
I think I can see my house. ;)
We've had some beautiful night skies of late.

784 Timbre  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:23:36pm

re: #763 Thanos

You got me! I was thinking Greek, but your "starts with an 'S'" fooled me--I was thinking of an ancient language that began with an "S."

785 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:23:52pm

re: #780 Killgore Trout

I did a lot of reading on stoicism recently. It's a wonderful philosophy but a bit religious for my taste. Oddly enough I find Zen much more secular.

Plus your motorcycle will run better.

786 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:23:58pm

I gather that trying to write a paragraph in my story and then coming back to LGF isn't working. Sorry.

I will lurk, for the rest of the evening. I apologize.

787 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:24:18pm

re: #774 CrackrJak


But you should also be aware that Hebrew belief was mainly kept as an oral tradition even before that. It spread and was modified upon even before ink and papyrus were invented.


However you have no historical proof of that now, do you?

788 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:24:46pm

re: #777 teleskiguy

Shucks- there are long timers who ask for hat tips, so don't worry about it too much. It's tough staying ahead of some of the folks here. Just the other day I emailed an article to a Lizard I have much respect for, and he told me he'd seen it days before. It's tough- but keep trying!

789 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:24:48pm

OT:

what was that commercial with the dog, and guy in chair with the stereo that pushed them back with wind for?

what stereo company?

790 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:25:06pm

re: #787 Killgore Trout

Just hearsay, oddly enough.

791 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:25:06pm

re: #772 Racer X

OK this is cool too
Explanation: In this panorama of Earth and sky recorded on Thursday, November 13, the Full Moon rises along the eastern horizon at the far left. Of course, the Full Moon rises at sunset and that Thursday's setting Sun was also captured at the far right. In between, 17 digital images are stitched together to follow the horizon to the south in a lovely twilight portrait of the city of Lisbon, Portugal.

Here's one I like, it's not as pretty however. If you click on the thumbnail you get the large version.

792 Nylecoj  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:25:31pm

re: #263 stretch

i... can't...get...this...to...work

[Link: www.rae.org...]

mature. the first time you posted you left a letter off.

793 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:25:46pm

re: #460 Killian Bundy

Okay, I understand the threat of the Texas school board, the Louisiana law, and the legal vigilance that goes with both.

/name a school district, where's it happening?

It's not happening due to a lack of trying. And they'll keep trying, and learning from their failures, and tweaking their strategies of attack. Which means we have to remain vigilant, and continue to guard and protect the teaching of genuine science in public high school science classes.

794 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:26:00pm

re: #780 Killgore Trout

I did a lot of reading on stoicism recently. It's a wonderful philosophy but a bit religious for my taste. Oddly enough I find Zen much more secular.

Just remember: when you kiss your beloved son, you should think of it as if you were kissing a pot in the kitchen. It should have the same emotional impact.

If only Marcus Aurelius had managed to really believe that.

795 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:26:06pm

I am of course late coming into this,

But I seem to remember that the "early" Christians were the offspring of the Jews that believed that Christ was the risen Savior. Was this a split from the orthodoxy of that period? You bet! Did it create a fork in the road that many millennium ago? Most assuredly! Judaism breaks from Christian beliefs because of that very point. The belief in God as the Redeemer still binds the two faiths though, to this day!

Darwin...well...he drew pretty pictures of never before seen animals, so is he really the end all, be all, on evolution? Not, a, chance!

Hell, he named is ship of discovery after a dog no less.

JUST SAYIN!

796 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:26:33pm

re: #787 Killgore Trout

However you have no historical proof of that now, do you?

No, I don't have a 13,000 year old Hebrew to prove it. Neither do you have anything to disprove it.

797 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:26:46pm

re: #758 Sharmuta

I hope bitterclinger is thinking about what I just said. I'd like to know where in the Bible Jesus told people to lie in His name's sake. bitterclinger ought to be scared.

One can hope. I don't share the set of beliefs that he (she, it) is prosletyzing (sp?) but nonetheless, the method of communication and threats of damnation and outright disrespect of others views and religious positions is highly distasteful.

798 Hungry Jack  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:26:55pm

I fail to see why this is a 'must read' skewering.

799 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:27:00pm

re: #789 WrathofG-d

It wasn't for a stereo, it was for Memorex.

800 Throbert McGee  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:27:25pm

re: #568 Charles

Every comment you post with Satan's comment posting form leads you closer to the lake of fire.

I'm just sayin'.

Charles, how can you look at yourself in the mirror, knowing that your attractive user interface may have tempted the faithful towards perdition?

801 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:27:46pm

re: #774 CrackrJak

No it's not, It was a blatant insult.

Founded on Judeo/Christian? What ancient language is the word "Republic" from? What ancient language is the word "Democracy" from? What ancient language are most of our legal terms in? What preceded Christian philosophy? (hint: it starts with an "S".)

I do believe the 10 commandments predates the ancient Greek. And the code of Hamurabi predates the 10 commandments. But you should also be aware that Hebrew belief was mainly kept as an oral tradition even before that. It spread and was modified upon even before ink and papyrus were invented.

Hebrews were keeping written records way before papyrus and ink were invented. Do you know what an ostracon is?

802 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:27:49pm

Hell Foundre: #789 WrathofG-d

OT:

what was that commercial with the dog, and guy in chair with the stereo that pushed them back with wind for?

what stereo company?

BASF Audio tape

803 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:27:53pm

re: #800 Throbert McGee

Charles, how can you look at yourself in the mirror, knowing that your attractive user interface may have tempted the faithful towards perdition?

LOL!

804 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:28:02pm

re: #799 Sharmuta


OT;

Fantastic, but why can't I find it online then? Trying to win a bet.

805 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:28:19pm

What happened to bitterclinger?

Must have been the Rapture.

806 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:28:50pm
807 Desert Dog  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:28:50pm

re: #789 WrathofG-d

Maxell

808 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:28:53pm

re: #795 nightwatch

Man, but you're stupid.

Darwin drew - on the Beagle expedition - thrushes. Existing thrushes.

In Origin, he reproduced other peoples' drawings of grasses. That's about it.

809 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:28:54pm

re: #791 Thanos

Here's one I like, it's not as pretty however. If you click on the thumbnail you get the large version.

Nice!

Thanks!

810 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:29:18pm

re: #456 wolfie

A really good one to start with, is F. Hayek's Counter-Revolution of Science. (The same Hayek you may know as the Nobel-winning economist.)


Thanks, wolfie; great place to start. (is this thread dead? I see people still walking around...).

My newly researched book list, shared here for others who have interest in the subject:

Between Politics and Science Assuring the Integrity and Productivity of Reseach David H. Guston Rutgers University, New Jersey
Science, Truth, and Democracy by Philip Kitcher Oxford University Press
Science, Money, and Politics:Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion by Daniel S. Greenberg University of Chicago Press
Junk Science: How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us by Dan Agin
Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology and Politics in Science by John Grant

811 Dark_Falcon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:29:24pm

Looks like the coast is clear. bitterclinger looks to have gone away.

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish!

812 Alberta Oil Peon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:29:26pm

re: #709 OldLineTexan

Well if you decide to, look for Mein Kampf.

/It's a disorganized, rambling mess, not an (implied) endorsement of Christianity.

You said a mouthful, there! I tried to read it once, out of historical curiosity; there was a copy in my high school library, or maybe it was the public library, not certain at this late date. Nevertheless, I got about 20 pages into it, and gave it up as wasted effort. I'm quite sure most Nazis never read it through either; just kept a copy on prominent display for the sake of conformity.

813 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:29:40pm

re: #789 WrathofG-d

Maxell?

814 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:29:52pm

re: #789 WrathofG-d

boze

815 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:16pm

re: #806 jaunte

[Link: www.hometheaterspot.com...]

WINNER! You the...whatever you are (man/woman)

816 BlueCanuck  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:17pm

re: #799 Sharmuta

It wasn't for a stereo, it was for Memorex.

Nope, it was Maxell.

817 Stonemason  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:31pm

re: #789 WrathofG-d

OT:

what was that commercial with the dog, and guy in chair with the stereo that pushed them back with wind for?

what stereo company?

I think that was for Maxell tapes...

818 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:31pm

re: #801 Walter L. Newton

Hebrews were keeping written records way before papyrus and ink were invented. Do you know what an ostracon is?

Some sort of fossil that proves ostriches were once dragons?

/

819 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:32pm

re: #802 Racer X

Hell Found

Oops!

820 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:33pm

re: #805 jorline

What happened to bitterclinger?

Must have been the Rapture.

Rapture!

821 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:46pm

re: #805 jorline

What happened to bitterclinger?

Must have been the Rapture.

I think he felt the sulfurous breath of The Horned One on the back of his neck.

822 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:49pm

re: #814 Joan

boze

or Booze?

823 Desert Dog  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:51pm

Maxell

I used to have that poster in college...right next to the Giant Led Zeppelin poster

824 hillbilly geek  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:30:58pm

Ooooh, shiny!

825 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:31:18pm

re: #795 nightwatch

Yes, but have you read your A E Van Vogt, from whence came the movie Alien?

826 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:31:23pm

re: #821 Charles

a bit off the normal "this is only about teaching it in schools" argument...no?

827 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:31:25pm

re: #815 WrathofG-d

What bet do you win?

828 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:31:34pm

re: #821 Charles

I think he felt the sulfurous breath of The Horned One on the back of his neck.

Maybe that explains the hot flashes I've been getting...

829 Stonemason  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:31:42pm

re: #789 WrathofG-d

OT:

what was that commercial with the dog, and guy in chair with the stereo that pushed them back with wind for?

what stereo company?

this one?

830 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:31:55pm

re: #702 J.S.

The concept of "race" pre-dates Darwin. And it's wasn't just about "kidnapping" -- it was what we would today label as "racist" behavior -- the early explorers clearly believed that the "savages" were primitive and inferior...most of their "exhibits", btw, never survived...there was a book written about Cartier's "savages" and it attempted to trace what happened to them. There's an informative Wiki article you can read (this is about how "scientific racism" developed) here...(note that "Arthur Gobineau's An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853–1855) proposed that there were three races, and that race mixing led to the collapse of civilization. Polygenist theory alleged that there were different origins of mankind, thus making it possible to conceive of different, biological, human races, or to classify other humans as akin to animals without rights." Gobineau's essay predates Darwin's Origin of Species.

took me a long time to find this post (and to read the wiki site). Going back to my first link to Ota Benga - I think that what happened to him and his family was fully in line with evolutionary thinking of the day, with full complicity by 'the churched' in many instances. It is clear to me that evolutionary thinking brought a form of reason and justification to the worst of human events - slavery, Nazism included. At one time the 'bushmen' and pygmies were considered to be non-persons, also slaves, then Jews. Now even the unborn are 'non-persons'. We can claim that science rose above all of that, and that it certainly was not the fault of well-meaning scientists that people took it all wrong - but that kind of justification to avoid an honest look at the history of evolutionary though just seems a little too ambivalent and self-serving.

831 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:32:02pm
832 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:32:03pm

re: #821 Charles

I think he felt the sulfurous breath of The Horned One on the back of his neck.

Have I mentioned recently that I really, really like your sense of humor?

Incorporating both Wicca and popular beliefs about Satan is really nice.

833 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:32:10pm

re: #489 bitterclinger_in_PA

So many unbelievers, I hope you know what happens when you deny the Word of God. I am just saying. I am trying to inform you.

You know what happens when you don't pay respect to Vito. You get a cement overcoat, and go sleep with the fishes. Just sayin'...

834 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:32:16pm

re: #793 Salamantis

It's not happening due to a lack of trying. And they'll keep trying, and learning from their failures, and tweaking their strategies of attack. Which means we have to remain vigilant, and continue to guard and protect the teaching of genuine science in public high school science classes.

Exactly, we've had this discussion before.

/go back and read your original "sky is falling" comment that I commented upon

835 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:32:18pm

re: #756 ggt

Ok, well, I found the book and the picture, but can't find it on the web.

/I did try.

836 Pietr  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:32:37pm
669 Noam Sayin'
12/04/08 8:59:41 pm reply quote 0

re: #642 Shug

your anagram is sayin Noam

Well, that's kind of a let-down...

How about "no man I say', or "I say no man"? Probably a few more, too... :.)

837 pat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:32:38pm

Well, I laugh at global warmists, so I guess ridicule of Young Earthers is comparable. But they seem more eccentric than dangerous to me. A

838 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:32:57pm

re: #779 Clemente

If it's the Microsoft magnifier, click the little red X at the upper right of the control or display window.

I'm sure it has something to do with that but I have no x's to click.

I need to know how to de-magnify.

839 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:32:59pm

re: #786 Dianna

Lurking is so...KOs-Like, better to just pick some oranges off the tree and hide by the front gate in ambush...;}. Oh and an egg or two for back-up if the initial volley fails,,,wink..wink..nod..nod

840 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:33:01pm

re: #816 BlueCanuck

Nope, it was Maxell.

Thanks, Blue.

841 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:33:15pm

re: #829 Stonemason

this one?

YES! That is it.

THANK YOU ALL so much!~

842 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:33:15pm

re: #805 jorline

What happened to bitterclinger?

Must have been the Rapture.

Or maybe it was THIS! LOL Bible Revelation 19
LOL

843 Desert Dog  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:33:21pm

re: #831 Racer X

OK this one just looks spooky as all hell.
Click to enlarge.

I've seen that before...after shot number 6 of Jagermeister (when I should have stopped at 5)

844 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:33:37pm
845 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:33:44pm

re: #830 stretch

You are aware that Darwin himself - and his immediate family, including the Wedgewoods (wife's family)- were opposed to slavery?

846 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:34:11pm

re: #796 CrackrJak

No, I don't have a 13,000 year old Hebrew to prove it. Neither do you have anything to disprove it.

I believe it was Hitchens who said, "that which is claimed without proof can be dismissed without evidence."

847 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:34:18pm
848 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:34:27pm

re: #808 Dianna


Hard core fan of the dog-boat show show.
You go girl...

849 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:34:27pm

re: #830 stretch

This perversion of 'evolutionary thought' has nothing to do with evolutionary biology. You might as well blame popular ideas of "good breeding" and the divine right of kings.

850 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:34:38pm

re: #801 Walter L. Newton

Hebrews were keeping written records way before papyrus and ink were invented. Do you know what an ostracon is?

Pottery shards that have been written on, Origin of the word Ostracism.
The Hebrew oral tradition predates those as well.

851 Alberta Oil Peon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:34:38pm

re: #732 Boogberg

Hell if I know. It's like a little 3x5 window surrounding my cursor where everything is MAGNIFIED. I need it to go away.

If it's a Windows machine, go to Control Panel, and double-click on "Accessibility Options". You may find it there.

852 Bob Dillon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:34:58pm

re: #821 Charles

I think he felt the sulfurous breath of The Horned One on the back of his neck.

Oh you devil you.

/

853 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:35:12pm

re: #500 bitterclinger_in_PA

ANd you are a 9/11 truther too.

He's simply pointing out that the light in the picture began long before you say the universe did. So who's drinking the Kool-Aid now, hunh?

854 CynicalConservative  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:35:42pm

re: #821 Charles

I think he felt the sulfurous breath of The Horned One on the back of his neck.

What? Is Stinky hovering over shoulders again? :-)

855 pat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:35:48pm

in fact Darwin was a religious man until his wife died. As i remember it.

856 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:35:55pm

re: #821 Charles

I think he felt the sulfurous breath of The Horned One on the back of his neck.

Agree or he feels a kinship with Hugo Chavez.

857 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:36:10pm

Looks like a heart

Great Orion Nebulae!

858 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:36:14pm

re: #830 stretch

You are ignorant! Fascism/nazism has nothing to do with evolution. In fact, nazis banned Darwin.

859 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:36:28pm

re: #838 Boogberg

I'm sure it has something to do with that but I have no x's to click.

I need to know how to de-magnify.

/encore comment

860 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:36:37pm

re: #776 Dianna

I agree, but there is something about a real man.

lol

861 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:36:37pm

OK, this time, damnit, I actually mean it!

I'm gonna write!

I mean it! Really! This time!

862 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:36:43pm

re: #833 Salamantis


Mafia lingo-gingo covering a threat of murder?

SARC/OFF Is that a lazer dot on your forehead?

863 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:36:47pm

re: #830 stretch

took me a long time to find this post (and to read the wiki site). Going back to my first link to Ota Benga - I think that what happened to him and his family was fully in line with evolutionary thinking of the day, with full complicity by 'the churched' in many instances. It is clear to me that evolutionary thinking brought a form of reason and justification to the worst of human events - slavery, Nazism included. At one time the 'bushmen' and pygmies were considered to be non-persons, also slaves, then Jews. Now even the unborn are 'non-persons'. We can claim that science rose above all of that, and that it certainly was not the fault of well-meaning scientists that people took it all wrong - but that kind of justification to avoid an honest look at the history of evolutionary though just seems a little too ambivalent and self-serving.

Using you logic, I guess we could look at the history of BAD MOVIES and come to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with current movies.

And honest look at the history of evolutionary thought does not diminish the advancements that have been made in confirming the validity of the theory.

And it took you an hour to come up with that one paragraph post above which doesn't prove shit?

864 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:36:56pm

re: #856 jorline

Agree or he feels a kinship with Hugo Chavez.

He's Cindy Sheehan?

865 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:37:43pm

re: #860 ggt

You expect me to remember what I said almost a hundred comments ago?!

You think better of me than I deserve.

866 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:38:38pm

re: #842 hermit

Or maybe it was THIS! LOL Bible Revelation 19
LOL

Are you sure this wasn't written by my son's 8th grade English class?

867 Throbert McGee  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:38:42pm

re: #794 Dianna

Just remember: when you kiss your beloved son, you should think of it as if you were kissing a pot in the kitchen. It should have the same emotional impact.

Good heavens, was that a recommendation of Greek Stoicism? Rather chilly.

I prefer the modern, streamlined, colloquial definition of stoicism, which basically boils down to "Butch up, Mary" (or, "Embrace the suck").

868 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:38:43pm

re: #789 WrathofG-d

I think it was Maxell, the tape company, not the stereo company.

/what's a stereo?

869 nnw59  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:38:53pm

I loved the film and it is wrong to dismiss any questioning of the underpininnings of Darwinian evolution as only coming from Discovery Institute members. All I can say is thank Random Selection for Ben Stein. As for Roger Ebert, I assume you mean this Roger Ebert: [Link: rogerebert.suntimes.com...] A man with that credibility is hard to find. "Unlike Stone's "JFK" and "Nixon," this film (W) contains no revisionist history." and then "One might feel sorry for George W. at the end of this film, were it not for his legacy of a fraudulent war and a collapsed economy. The film portrays him as incompetent to be president, and shaped by the puppet masters Cheney and Rove to their own ends. If there is a saving grace, it may be that Bush will never fully realize how badly he did. How can he blame himself? He was only following God's will"

I really want to know his opinion on Ben Stein.

870 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:39:11pm

re: #868 ggt

showed my age did i?

871 pat  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:39:45pm

Recent discoveries in Egypt take writing back another 800 years or so. And away from Mesopotamia, to Egyptian. ( I wonder if Arabs realize they are not really Egyptians as the historians define them?)

872 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:39:54pm

re: #694 IslandLibertarian

You got buttons on the side of your mouse?
Besides left and right click...

Yes! I'm such a dumbass! How embarrassing.

Thanks Bro. :D

873 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:39:59pm

re: #868 ggt

Imagine two Victrolas, one for each ear...

874 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:40:10pm

re: #795 nightwatch

Wasn't the ship named before he sailed?

875 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:40:14pm

re: #869 nnw59

Tees it up.

/second shift, swing away

876 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:40:22pm

re: #866 jorline

Are you sure this wasn't written by my son's 8th grade English class?

Um,...not sure, where does he go?
/Hahahahaha...teacher

877 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:40:28pm
878 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:40:52pm

re: #867 Throbert McGee

I prefer the modern, streamlined, colloquial definition of stoicism, which basically boils down to "Butch up, Mary" (or, "Embrace the suck").

Stoic philosophy really doesn't have much to do with "stoicism" as we know it today. Just like platonic relationships don't have anything to do with Plato.

879 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:40:56pm

50 Million light years away lies the spiral galaxyNGC7331

Crap. Did I say 50 million light years? I meant 3999 light years.

880 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:40:57pm

This "Darwin inspired Hitler" hooey is one of the most common creationist Hitler Myths.

Hitler showed no knowledge of Darwinian evolution or natural selection. Nowhere in Mein Kampf does he mention Darwin, natural-selection or even the word "evolution" (in the context of natural selection).

As for Aryan superiority and his Jewish hatred, Hitler clearly describes in Mein Kampf how he slowly began to change his mind about the Jews from the influence of the anti-Semitic movement of the Christian Social Party. His views with regard to anti-Semitism he said, "succumbed to the passage of time, and this was my greatest transformation of all." (read volume 1, chapter 2). Nowhere does he explain his anti-Jewish beliefs in Darwinian terms.

In his private notes, where he describes the Bible as a "Monumental History of Mankind," Hitler outlines his views of the Aryan and the Jew, all in the context of Bible reasoning, never in the context of Darwinian natural selection.

Moreover, Hitler viewed progeny, not in regards to evolution but in terms of blood lines (a Biblical view). He peppered his writings and speeches with "blood" words. Examples in Mein Kampf include:

"One blood demands one Reich."

"Bavarian by blood, technically Austrian, lived my parents..."

...the German in Austria had really been of the best blood..."

"...the weakness of leadership will not cause a hibernation of the state, but an awakening of all the individual instincts which are present in the blood..."

Clearly, Hitler had no scientific sophistication or an understanding of Darwin's theory of evolution and his "blood-line" explanation of human "progress" reveals a Biblical view, not a Darwinian view. He did, however, at times express ideas, not from Darwin, but rather from Herbert Spencer's concept of Social Darwinism, which has little to do with natural selection and served as an adjunct to his already established religious views. Spencer's Social Darwinism tried to connect Darwin's biological theory with the field of social relations. The result of Social Darwinism resulted in many eugenics programs that began in America and adopted by the Nazis. [Note that Darwin never expressed the idea that natural selection could extend from biological systems to social systems.]

Hitler best sums up his belief of Aryan superiority and his stand against the Jews with his declaration in Mein Kampf:

"I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.."

881 hermit  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:41:28pm

re: #866 jorline

BTW: I'm pretty sure that's the bible we'll get in hell...

882 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:41:41pm

re: #850 CrackrJak

Pottery shards that have been written on, Origin of the word Ostracism.
The Hebrew oral tradition predates those as well.

All oral tradition predates those as well. What's your point. The Hebrews were not the only ones to have oral traditions. There is no doubt in the historical records that the codes came BEFORE the Hebrew 10 commandments (well, really 632 commandments). If you don't agree with that, then we have nothing to talk about. This is so far from a disputed fact it's not funny.

883 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:41:43pm

re: #822 CynicalConservative

or Booze?

sure!

884 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:41:51pm

re: #869 nnw59

The way to "question the underpinnings" of Darwinian evolution is to become a biologist. There aren't many of them in the Intelligent Design movement, so there are plenty of job openings.

885 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:42:27pm

re: #877 Noam Sayin'

Heh-heh heh.

Found stretch's weed...

I figured that maybe he was smoking that 2,700-year-old stuff!

/Did this guy die during the Bong Dynasty?

886 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:43:06pm

re: #810 Joan

PLEASE remember to add any books you'd like to recommend to the Book Category of the Spin-off links and use an Amazon link for the book. It is handy for future reference and any purchased made from Amazon thru the link count toward the tip jar for Charles.

BOOK CATEGORY PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT OFF.

887 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:43:12pm

re: #867 Throbert McGee

Good heavens, was that a recommendation of Greek Stoicism? Rather chilly.

I prefer the modern, streamlined, colloquial definition of stoicism, which basically boils down to "Butch up, Mary" (or, "Embrace the suck").

That was Marcus Aurelius. It's why stoicism fails.

888 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:43:13pm

re: #864 OldLineTexan

He's Cindy Sheehan?

By cracky, I think you've nailed it OLT. Isn't she related to that red shirted devil also?

889 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:43:20pm

re: #877 Noam Sayin'

Heh-heh heh.

Found stretch's weed...

LOL!

890 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:43:22pm

re: #869 nnw59

Would not like to be on the receiving end of that TOW missile!


(Don't cut the wire! "Just walk it in!")...:D

891 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:43:41pm

re: #819 Racer X
Another WOW! Just a fabulous photo! Thanks again!

892 ArchangelMichael  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:43:50pm

re: #413 bitterclinger_in_PA

Fossils are from the Great flood which explains the fossils of dinosaurs. Sorry carbon dating is only good up to 4000 years. try again. In the Bible they have creatures in it that describe what these animal look like. You might want to pick up a Bible sometime and read it.

Also explain why there is no fossils of the so called random mutation of reptiles to birds over millions of years. Evolution is made up by the liberals and all you who hate God. You bought it hook line and sinker.Repentance is a good thing.

Carbon dating works up to about 60000 years old. It's not, and never has been used to date dinosaur fossils. Dinosaur fossils are dated using a combination of stratigraphy (how deep/how many layers of strata underground it is) and radiometric dating of radioisotopes of elements (with much longer half-lives than carbon 14) found in the rocks surrounding the fossil. You might want to crack a f-en book sometime and read it too.

893 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:44:18pm

re: #541 stretch

not really following you here...kidnapping is a capital crime, and I did not make any claim that evolutionary theory created the concept of hating your fellow man for being "inferior" - that kind of thinking has been around for a long long time. I do completely discount the concept of 'race' though, which I do think evolutionary theory was/is responsible for. Yes I know, many 'church types' followed and supported the concepts of racism and eugenics - that really points out to me the danger of bending one's convictions in order to appear relevant, 'open minded', and 'scientific'

The concept of different races was around long, long before Darwin was born. But it was evolutionary genetics that finally demonstrated that we're all members of a single race - the human one.

894 J.S.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:44:35pm

re: #808 Dianna

that poster (nightwatch) also stupidly claims "he named is ship of discovery after a dog no less." How laughable. The HMS Beagle was a sloop in the Royal Navy (and Darwin certainly didn't name it).

895 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:44:35pm

re: #861 Dianna
Uh, before y'all do, could you check your e-mail?! LOL!

896 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:45:07pm

Hell is in Michigan and depending on the state of Gorbull Warming, it freezes over each year.

897 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:46:07pm
898 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:46:53pm

re: #826 WrathofG-d
A BIT off - waaay more than that!
I seriously think moby or troll.
No one is that stupid.

899 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:47:00pm

re: #894 J.S.

that poster (nightwatch) also stupidly claims "he named is ship of discovery after a dog no less." How laughable. The HMS Beagle was a sloop in the Royal Navy (and Darwin certainly didn't name it).

Nightwatch is half correct, the ship was named after the breed of dog.

"HMS Beagle was a Cherokee class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, named after the beagle, a breed of dog. "

But big whoop.

900 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:47:03pm

re: #885 gmsc

Nice one.

901 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:47:31pm

re: #874 ggt


Still, just a dog and vividly rendered in hand inked pony show...
even with all the victor wreaths heaped upon his most lauded brow,
the historians of the day did some fine work did they not?

902 cantrecant  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:47:36pm

A "survival of the fittest" world view is obviously compatible with eugenics and Nazism. It's an uphill battle to divorce evolution from a "might makes right" philosophy which is why fair minded but fully committed evolutionists are so sensitive to this criticism.

903 IslandLibertarian  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:47:54pm

re: #739 realwest

I was once told, "If you don't understand the concept of a higher power, go out and kick a policeman."

/find whatever works for you.

904 OldLineTexan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:48:52pm

re: #903 IslandLibertarian

I was once told, "If you don't understand the concept of a higher power, go out and kick a policeman."

/find whatever works for you.

Congrats to all of you. Slice a bit of that off and send it my way; I know someone who needs it badly.

905 Dave Brown  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:48:55pm

Sigh...

(I wish I could get through one day without playing the contrarian. Oh well, here goes...)

First, some bone fides: I work as a scientist, and have several MS in Biological sciences.

Second: I totally believe that Evolution is the most likely cause and mechanism for both the initial existence and subsequent development of all living things. Whether one choses to believe in a deity or not is irrelevant; evolution is a real and obvious phenomenon, and Creationism is a shallow excuse to bolster a religious doctrine. Oh, yeah, and Darwin was a brilliant scientist, and (from what I know of his life) a decent man, and probably a devout one to boot.

OK? Did I cover all the bases? So thats where I'm coming from.

HOWEVER, the roots of the "anti-evolution movement" must be seen within the context of HOW evolution was portrayed by its earliest and staunchest promotors. It is also important to understand the beliefs that were joined at the hip with evolution for many decades. It was not truely "evolution" that was rejected, but the entire package of philosophy that was typically sold with it.

Granted, that may no longer be the case, but I can respect those individuals that are suspicious of evolution primarily because of the bad company it once kept (even though that company might not have been welcomed by Darwin or his theory, or necessarily has anything to due with the pure theory itself).

Of course, many (or even most) modern "Anti-Evolutionists" may be flat-earth dunderheads or they may simply be using "Creationism" to serve as a Trojan House for their dogma. I don't know where Ben Stein falls in this spectrum, but here's an interesting defense of William Jennings Bryan by Alan Dershowitz:

[Link: www.yrnetwork.com...]

"As usual, the real story, as told in the trial transcript and in contemporaneous accounts, was more complex and far more interesting. The actual William Jennings Bryan was no simple-minded literalist. And he certainly was no bigot. He was a great populist, who cared deeply about equality and about the downtrodden.

Indeed, one of his reasons for becoming so deeply involved in the campaign against evolution was that Darwin's theories were being used - misused, it turns out - by racists, militarists and nationalists to push some pretty horrible programs. The eugenics movement, which advocated sterilization of "unfit" and "inferior" stock, was at its zenith, and it took its impetus from Darwin's theory of natural selection. German militarism, which had just led to the disastrous World War, drew inspiration from Darwin's survival of the fittest. The anti-immigration movement, which had succeeded in closing American ports of entry to "inferior racial stock," was grounded in a mistaken belief that certain ethnic groups had evolved more fully than others. The "Jim Crow" laws, which maintained racial segregation, were rationalized on grounds of the racial inferiority of blacks.

Indeed, the very book - Hunter's Civic Biology - from which John T. Scopes taught Darwin's theory of evolution to high school students in Dayton, Tennessee, contained dangerous misapplications of that theory. It explicitly accepted the naturalistic fallacy and repeatedly drew moral instruction from nature. Indeed, its very title, Civic Biology, made it clear that biology had direct political implications for civic society. In discussing the "five races" of man, the text assured the all-white, legally separated high school students taught by Scopes that "the highest type of all, the Caucasians, are represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America." The book, the avowed goal of which was the improvement of the future human race, then proposed certain eugenic remedies. After a discussion of the inheritability of crime and immorality, the author proposed an analogy: "Just as certain animals or plants become parasitic on other plants or animals, these families have become parasitic on society..."

906 jaunte  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:49:07pm

re: #899 Walter L. Newton

Since beagles are hunting dogs, it seems apt.

907 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:49:10pm

re: #559 CrackrJak

I did not say it was "evolutionary theory". I said it was part of social darwinism and eugenics. Though, Social darwinism and eugenics are offshoots of evolutionary thought. Most would say it's a corruption of that thought, I call it an unintended consequence. But it wouldn't be the first or last time science was used/abused to promote a false belief. One of the newest examples of this is "Global Warming"

It's not environmental selection when it's people doing the selecting. Nature never built concentration camps or ovens or gas chambers.

908 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:49:30pm

re: #865 Dianna

what were we talking about?

;)

909 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:49:45pm

re: #902 cantrecant

A "survival of the fittest" world view is obviously compatible with eugenics and Nazism. It's an uphill battle to divorce evolution from a "might makes right" philosophy which is why fair minded but fully committed evolutionists are so sensitive to this criticism.

Do these asshole (like Cantrecant) ever read these threads, or do they just jump in to the water without knowing how deep the shit is?
re: #880 Charles

This "Darwin inspired Hitler" hooey is one of the most common creationist Hitler Myths.

Do you read other posts?

910 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:49:58pm

re: #831 Racer X WHOA! Spooky doesn't begin to describe it!

911 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:50:33pm

re: #902 cantrecant

A "survival of the fittest" world view is obviously compatible with eugenics and Nazism. It's an uphill battle to divorce evolution from a "might makes right" philosophy which is why fair minded but fully committed evolutionists are so sensitive to this criticism.

Yet another person who links Darwin to Hitler, yet can't detail the influences of Haeckel, Sumner or Ulyanov.


/"evolutionists" - I love cute made-up words like this! They're splentacular!

912 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:50:41pm

re: #870 WrathofG-d

showed my age did i?

LOL

913 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:50:50pm

re: #902 cantrecant

A "survival of the fittest" world view is obviously compatible with eugenics and Nazism. It's an uphill battle to divorce evolution from a "might makes right" philosophy which is why fair minded but fully committed evolutionists are so sensitive to this criticism.

I love how you folks just ignore the link and documentation I posted that shows Hitler never even referred to Darwin or natural selection, but was mainly inspired by the antisemitic views of the Christian Social Party.

This may be why committed creationists are so sensitive to this subject.

914 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:51:08pm

re: #912 ggt

heh! I used the word "album" yesterday when referring to music. SO...

915 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:51:16pm

re: #876 hermit

Um,...not sure, where does he go?
/Hahahahaha...teacher

My wife proof read a Science report of his a couple of days ago...I thought she was going to have a stroke. She called his English teacher the next day and asked him why my son had such a problem with proper tense, grammar and punctuation. His response was that it was a boy thing...then the shit really hit the fan!

916 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:51:16pm

re: #825 Thanos

No,

Enlighten me then.

917 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:51:30pm

re: #894 J.S.

Yeah, I caught that. I certainly didn't make it clear!

Thanks!

918 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:51:35pm

re: #846 Killgore Trout

I believe it was Hitchens who said, "that which is claimed without proof can be dismissed without evidence."

"Hitchens is an anti-theist, and he describes himself as a believer in the Enlightenment values of secularism, humanism and reason." - Wikipedia

I guess under that reasoning one can deny Native Americans, Aborigines , and the Homeric poems because their stories weren't written down at the same time they were told.

It wasn't written down, Therefore it didn't exist ?

Secular humanists aren't reasonable in any sense of the word.

919 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:51:42pm

re: #845 Dianna

I wasn't aware of that - but what does that mean to the responsibility of scientists to forcefully and unrelentingly address the apparent abuses of their work? Claims by evolutionists that their field has no connection to, or even a modicum of responsibility for, eugenics, Nazism, abortion, etc.. are disingenuous at best. You know of hoaxes that have popped up with evolutionary theory - full spreads in National Geographic, front page articles in major newspapers, extensive coverage in high school textbooks. How were those hoaxes retracted? Weren't many in the scientific community all too willing... all too accepting?

920 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:51:56pm

re: #902 cantrecant

Typically its the surroundings/environment that does the selection, not other lifeforms tearing one another apart... "Might makes right" has no contextual place in evolution, nice try.

921 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:52:19pm

re: #881 hermit

BTW: I'm pretty sure that's the bible we'll get in hell...

lol...I'm there now, but behind in my reading assignments.

922 lostlakehiker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:52:24pm

re: #749 ASU86PE

FTA "You discover that 99.975 of them agree on the answer

From 200 AD to 1400 AD all the "scientists" preached Ptolemy "paths of planetary movements." Certain earlier Greek astronomers preached circular planetary movement around earth and Pythagoras of Samos and his students couldn't solve the square root of two problem in his triangle postulate and thus rejected it as a possiblity; they could only form their solutions from whole numbers to whole numbers.

Besmurch Ben Stein all you want, but I'm still in his corner more than Darwin's.


The Ptolemy paths were a half-decent model. They gave you a pretty good idea of where a given planet would be in the sky on a given date. It's easy to sneer at incomplete science. Newton was wrong too, but we don't sneer because he was so much better than what came before.

Pythagoras wasn't much of a mathematician. He was rather the mystic. The real Greek thinkers had it figured out that the earth was round, and very accurately, how far around it was. They knew more about geometry than is generally realized, and they used it to good effect to stoncecut segments of columns from diverse places so that when shipped to Athens, they'd all fit.

It's hard for mortals to get it completely correct. Give them some credit. The early scientists weren't entirely wrong. What they had was enough to be both useful and in a way beautiful.

923 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:52:59pm

re: #915 jorline

Good on her (your wife that is)!

924 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:53:54pm

re: #898 realwest

RW! How you doin' tonite. Get your nap today? I got mine.

925 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:54:01pm

Are stretch and cantrecant the same jackass?

926 ASU86PE  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:54:53pm

re: #766 Walter L. Newton
Darwin had his lies and Ben has his, I guess. Ben hasn't tried to get a new concept believed as Darwin has. Darwin's final thoughts, as I've read, were hardened against Christianity. He was taken over with grief from the death of his young daughter. I think his grief led him to a place of hate that also led German Socialists to hate Jewish people. I just choose not to go there or incite others to hate like that.

I still contend Christians in science measure their advancements and benevolence, rendered outside the Christian community, with self-sacrifice and not self-promotion.

927 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:55:02pm

re: #901 nightwatch

WTF?

928 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:55:04pm

re: #902 cantrecant

A "survival of the fittest" world view is obviously compatible with eugenics and Nazism. It's an uphill battle to divorce evolution from a "might makes right" philosophy which is why fair minded but fully committed evolutionists are so sensitive to this criticism.


Both Might makes Right, and Genocide existed before Darwin. Indeed, might was proof of your right amongst most Christian Knights, and Christian Duelists of later centuries.

Survival of the fittest is a clear "quotemining" of Darwin, and not what he meant. The fittest for the environment is not always the mightiest, I don't see any T-Rexes running about, have you lately?

929 joecitizen  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:55:06pm

re: #913 Charles

I love how you folks just ignore the link and documentation I posted that shows Hitler never even referred to Darwin or natural selection, but was mainly inspired by the antisemitic views of the Christian Social Party.

This may be why committed creationists are so sensitive to this subject.

indeedy do..and these threads have become almost sport in their watchable quality..kudos

goodnight sweet Lizards..and may all yer dreams be scaley...

930 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:56:01pm

re: #926 ASU86PE

Darwin = Hitler!

931 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:56:31pm

re: #913 Charles

I love how you folks just ignore the link and documentation I posted that shows Hitler never even referred to Darwin or natural selection, but was mainly inspired by the antisemitic views of the Christian Social Party.

This may be why committed creationists are so sensitive to this subject.

I heard Hitler himself was a Christian. Is that true?

932 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:57:02pm

re: #919 stretch

I wasn't aware of that - but what does that mean to the responsibility of scientists to forcefully and unrelentingly address the apparent abuses of their work? Claims by evolutionists that their field has no connection to, or even a modicum of responsibility for, eugenics, Nazism, abortion, etc.. are disingenuous at best. You know of hoaxes that have popped up with evolutionary theory - full spreads in National Geographic, front page articles in major newspapers, extensive coverage in high school textbooks. How were those hoaxes retracted? Weren't many in the scientific community all too willing... all too accepting?

What the fuck does it have to do with the validity of the evolutionary theory as presented now.

As in any scientific endeavor, there is everything from stupid mistakes to contrived fraud.

No one in this thread has implied that mistakes haven't been made. That's the beauty of science. It builds on it's mistakes, correcting them and clarifying the truth.

933 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:57:23pm

Oops... there's definitely a "/" missing at the end of my last post.

934 No. Just, no.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:57:32pm

Signing off for the night. I need to come up with a pattern for a wind gauge for my homeschool science class.

Or, we could go the route some religious folks take, and I could tell the kids to sit inside and see what the Bible says about what the wind is doing.

(Slapping myself for blasphemy.)

935 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:57:44pm

re: #868 ggt
"what's a stereo?" - cute, really effin' cute!
but funny! LOL!
I have - or had until my last divorce the top of the line (for then) stereo rig - now no LP's, no 45's, no cassette tapes and damned few places to go if you want to find CD's.
What's an MP3?!

936 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:57:52pm

re: #905 Dave Brown

quite interesting!

937 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:58:18pm

re: #926 ASU86PE

Darwin had his lies and Ben has his, I guess. Ben hasn't tried to get a new concept believed as Darwin has. Darwin's final thoughts, as I've read, were hardened against Christianity. He was taken over with grief from the death of his young daughter. I think his grief led him to a place of hate that also led German Socialists to hate Jewish people. I just choose not to go there or incite others to hate like that.

I still contend Christians in science measure their advancements and benevolence, rendered outside the Christian community, with self-sacrifice and not self-promotion.

WTF?

938 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:58:19pm

re: #916 nightwatch

The spaceship in the book is the "Space Beagle" and in the first episode a creature sneaks aboard disguised as a harmless animal and starts nefariously killing the crew. It has acid blood that eat through steel etc.

939 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:58:24pm

Nite all.

940 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:58:28pm

re: #923 Dan G.

Good on her (your wife that is)!

My wife is one of those people who corrects Impure English will watching TV and Katy-Bar-The-Door if my mother-in-law is in the same room.

941 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:58:53pm

re: #935 realwest

"what's a stereo?" - cute, really effin' cute!
but funny! LOL!
I have - or had until my last divorce the top of the line (for then) stereo rig - now no LP's, no 45's, no cassette tapes and damned few places to go if you want to find CD's.
What's an MP3?!

I'm still rockin the 8 track

942 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:58:59pm

re: #926 ASU86PE

Darwin had his lies and Ben has his, I guess. Ben hasn't tried to get a new concept believed as Darwin has. Darwin's final thoughts, as I've read, were hardened against Christianity. He was taken over with grief from the death of his young daughter. I think his grief led him to a place of hate that also led German Socialists to hate Jewish people. I just choose not to go there or incite others to hate like that.

I still contend Christians in science measure their advancements and benevolence, rendered outside the Christian community, with self-sacrifice and not self-promotion.

Since you couldn't be bothered to read it the first time, here it is again:

As for Aryan superiority and his Jewish hatred, Hitler clearly describes in Mein Kampf how he slowly began to change his mind about the Jews from the influence of the anti-Semitic movement of the Christian Social Party. His views with regard to anti-Semitism he said, "succumbed to the passage of time, and this was my greatest transformation of all." (read volume 1, chapter 2). Nowhere does he explain his anti-Jewish beliefs in Darwinian terms.

In his private notes, where he describes the Bible as a "Monumental History of Mankind," Hitler outlines his views of the Aryan and the Jew, all in the context of Bible reasoning, never in the context of Darwinian natural selection.

Moreover, Hitler viewed progeny, not in regards to evolution but in terms of blood lines (a Biblical view). He peppered his writings and speeches with "blood" words.

Take those words to heart, because the truth of the matter is that the antisemitism and Jew-hatred of Nazi Germany had its roots in age-old Christian antisemitism, not the theory of evolution.

943 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:59:12pm

re: #191 Killgore Trout

The political abuse of science is as old as history itself. "Scientism" is a fictional belief system invented by creationists. It doesn't exist.


Okay. I believe you. However, I really don't want to go look up Discovery Institute stuff, I did find it referred to a physics guy, Rutherford.

944 Pietr  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 9:59:57pm

Off topic-what do I click on the post to quote/reference it in a post? I tried copy and paste-because there is no explanayion for the buttons at the top! I have good guesses as to what some mean, but am ? on the others. A noobie asking for directions; your patient, concise responses invited. Thanks...

945 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:00:21pm

Good night!

946 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:00:24pm

re: #933 Dan G.

Oops... there's definitely a "/" missing at the end of my last post.

Nice save...I was waiting for the bitch slapping to begin.

947 Synesius  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:00:51pm

So ...on one hand we have an omnipotent Designer whose crowning creation is a murderous species of monkey too smart for its own good, and on the other hand we have clouds of hydrogen that spontaneously compose symphonies. Not sure I'm impressed by either explanation.

948 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:00:51pm

re: #942 Charles

I also believe the occultist views of superior and inferior races played a part in it.

949 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:00:58pm

re: #838 Boogberg

I'm sure it has something to do with that but I have no x's to click.

I need to know how to de-magnify.

Hmm... How about Window-U; that is, hit "u" while holding down the "window" key (on the left between Ctrl and Alt) then click "Stop". Again, this is for the Microsoft Magnifier, an Accessibility Option.

If you have a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer, this (from techrepublic) may help:

If you are using an Intellimouse with the two extra buttons near your thumb (assuming right handed use) then click the button closest to the front of the mouse to enable/disable the "magnify" function. Killing a process named point32 will also get rid of it.
950 Bob Dillon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:01:03pm

re: #945 Dianna

Good night!

Good night Dianna.

951 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:01:46pm

re: #611 bitterclinger_in_PA

I see you turned your back on Christ Our Savior.

You are doing the Devil's work. Your obnoxious and offensive manner is turning people off from Christianity and costing your Lord precious souls. They read what you have to say here and the way that you say it, and think, "If that's what Christianity does to you, I think I'll pass." Unfortunately, far too many Christians leave such impressions on people. They do their chosen faith a grave disservice by doing so.

952 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:01:50pm

re: #945 Dianna

Good night!

weet dreams

953 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:01:51pm

re: #926 ASU86PE

Darwin had his lies and Ben has his, I guess. Ben hasn't tried to get a new concept believed as Darwin has. Darwin's final thoughts, as I've read, were hardened against Christianity. He was taken over with grief from the death of his young daughter. I think his grief led him to a place of hate that also led German Socialists to hate Jewish people. I just choose not to go there or incite others to hate like that.

I still contend Christians in science measure their advancements and benevolence, rendered outside the Christian community, with self-sacrifice and not self-promotion.

Hey, look, get over it. Darwin was not THE END ALL OF THE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY.

Science advances, every day, every hour. You and Stretch and Canrecant can sit here all night and complain about mistakes that were made in the past, but that doesn't change the advances that have been made since then.

Science is constantly renewed by it's mistakes, versus the hoary old dusty rhetoric that SOME creationist spew out over and over, giving no thought to critical thinking or even HONESTY.

954 Pvt Bin Jammin  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:01:52pm

re: #935 realwest

What? No '78s? I have a few. LOL Also have an eight-track console out in the garage.

955 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:02:06pm

Click the "Reply button to get this:

re: #944 Pietr

Click the "quote" button to get this:
re: #944 Pietr

Off topic-what do I click on the post to quote/reference it in a post? I tried copy and paste-because there is no explanayion for the buttons at the top! I have good guesses as to what some mean, but am ? on the others. A noobie asking for directions; your patient, concise responses invited. Thanks...

Then type your comments below.

956 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:02:13pm

re: #935 realwest

mp3? I haven't a clue. All I know is that it works with my iPod.

957 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:02:15pm

re: #935 realwest

'sokay, dude. I just months ago graduated to 5.1 surround sound. Had a 20-year old Vector Research, whatever that is, amplifier. It's only the third amplifier I've owned in my life.

958 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:02:20pm

re: #905 Dave Brown

Hmm, nicely posted.

How does this tie an anchor around the neck of creation theory, or is the theory still in play? NOT a trap to spring, just a very simple question, but if you decline to respond, I except that. I'm still trying to work through the mud on this one myself.

959 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:02:25pm

So I lied, not leaving yet.

I have a question for those of you who equate Darwin with Hitler (though various forms of mental gymnastics)... What say you of the antisemitism (and undoubted violence in the past) that the "Passion of the Christ" performance always whips up?

960 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:02:53pm

re: #905 Dave Brown

All that just to say "Science leads to killing people" another way?

Everything under the sun is used by haters and bigots to justify their cause, science where they can break it to make it fit as well, so what's your point?

961 ASU86PE  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:02:54pm

re: #930 Dan G.


AAANT! Wrong! Next.

962 J.S.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:03:18pm

re: #830 stretch

There's an interesting text (could perhaps pick up a copy at your local library), titled "Evolution" by Carl Zimmer...with an introduction by Stephen Jay Gould. In this text, Zimmer discusses how certain individuals perverted Darwin's evolutionary theory. For example, there was Ernst Haeckel (see pages 316, 342). Haeckel (Zimmer notes) founded "a new, biologically based religion that he called Monism." Haeckel divided human beings into 12 "species" with the German species at the pinnacle, and that Germans needed to "realize their evolutionary destiny." Haeckel mixed up Darwin's evolutionary theory with Lamarckian theories. So, too, did Herbert Spencer. Spencer was another one who promoted "a jumble of Darwinian natural selection and Lamarckian evolution," along with "laissez-faire capitalism." These were all vast distortions of Darwin's theory, along with many others. (Zimmer also notes that Darwin was aware -- Zimmer writes: "In private he [Darwin] complained about the way social Darwinism twisted his own work." But Darwin mentioned his frustration in private letters, not in public.) Anyway, I believe it's very, very unfair to blame the distortions and outright fictitious pseudoscientific claims, etc., on Darwin.

963 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:03:57pm

re: #938 Thanos

I prefer the Easter Beagle.

964 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:04:40pm

re: #961 ASU86PE

Respond to snide shot (accidentally sans-sarc'd), but ignore the more meaty posts of others... hmmm.

965 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:05:44pm

re: #944 Pietr

why don't you try clicking one or both of the buttons and see what happens. The "reply" and "quote" blue links seem rather self-explanatory, but that's just me.

966 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:03pm

re: #907 Salamantis

It's not environmental selection when it's people doing the selecting. Nature never built concentration camps or ovens or gas chambers.

hypocrite - who's doing the selecting for all the unborn dismembered alive at your favorite Planned Parenthood? Had some of the women you 'escorted' had their babies screened for Down's syndrome?

967 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:07pm

I'm sorry, why did Hitler come up in this thread?

/did he believe in young earth creationism?

968 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:12pm

re: #907 Salamantis

It's not environmental selection when it's people doing the selecting. Nature never built concentration camps or ovens or gas chambers.

I never said that, Geesh. Did I not say that it was either a corruption or unintended consequence of evolutionary theory ? The Nazis' tried to breed Aryans as a pure race and, This is the critical part, Tried to eliminate those of lesser genetic material (In their view). In other words they tried to force human evolution, Through unnatural selection.

The problem with the whole thing is war goes against everything in natural selection. War kills the strongest and leaves the weakest alive. Hitler knew this and tried to kill what he believed was the weakest, and aggressively tried to breed the strongest.

969 Alberta Oil Peon  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:31pm

re: #902 cantrecant

A "survival of the fittest" world view is obviously compatible with eugenics and Nazism. It's an uphill battle to divorce evolution from a "might makes right" philosophy which is why fair minded but fully committed evolutionists are so sensitive to this criticism.

It's logically difficult to reconcile "survival of the fittest" with the Nazis' genocide of the Jews, is it not?

If the self-described "superior Aryans" were really "fittest" in the context of natural selection, they would have out-competed Jews without having had to resort to mass murder.

If the Nazis had any Darwinian thoughts whatsoever, it was probably more along the lines of, "Uh-oh!. Looks like those pesky Jews are out-competing us on the intellectual front. If we want to be number 1, we'll have to get them out of the picture." Of course, to preserve their own sense of racial self-importance, they turned it around so as to describe the Jews as inferior.

I guess I'm describing an inferiority complex, eh?

970 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:31pm

re: #927 ggt

Devil's advocate sarc/off

AND, I've got a ton of remedial reading to do! Not treading on this thread too well. Mostly throwing oranges.

971 cantrecant  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:33pm

re: #913 Charles

I love how you folks just ignore the link and documentation I posted that shows Hitler never even referred to Darwin or natural selection, but was mainly inspired by the antisemitic views of the Christian Social Party.

This may be why committed creationists are so sensitive to this subject.

I merely state the obvious, that eugenics and Nazism are not incompatible with natural selection. Antisemitism is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus and therefore by definition not Christian.

972 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:35pm

re: #964 Dan G.

Respond to snide shot (accidentally sans-sarc'd), but ignore the more meaty posts of others... hmmm.

Of course they do, because they do not have an ounce of critical thinking skills. I really wonder how some of them make it through a day without getting themselves injured or killed?

973 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:36pm

re: #947 Synesius

And, the goal is to impress you?

974 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:36pm

re: #942 Charles

Take those words to heart, because the truth of the matter is that the antisemitism and Jew-hatred of Nazi Germany had its roots in age-old Christian antisemitism, not the theory of evolution.

Oh shit! :D

You done it now, Charles.

975 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:06:47pm

Nice!
Click to enlarge.

976 lostlakehiker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:07:07pm

re: #837 pat

Well, I laugh at global warmists, so I guess ridicule of Young Earthers is comparable. But they seem more eccentric than dangerous to me. A

Global warmists are one thing. The we're-all-gonna-die stripe. But there are also those who accept the reality of the CO2 measurements, the retreating glaciers, and the advancing onset of spring and delayed onset of winter. It's just fact. The earth is getting warmer, and we're the likely cause of some of that. Now, whether we should try to slow it down by using less carbon based fuel, or whether we'd be better advised to spend our limited resources on coping with it? That's partly an economic, partly scientific, partly political problem. I have a guess: go to wind, nuclear, and solar energy. It kills two birds with one stone: less GW, less tribute to oil ticks.

But that's just an opinion.

977 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:07:16pm

re: #967 Killian Bundy

it probably stemmed from Ben Stein's supposed assertion that Naziism was based on Darwinism, which is used for illogical derision by Ebert in the "must read" point of this thread.

978 ASU86PE  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:07:27pm

re: #942 Charles


AAANT! So we agree again; German Socialists hated the Jewish people not Darwin.

979 J.S.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:07:42pm

re: #899 Walter L. Newton

The whole point of the poster's claim was that it was stupid of Darwin to name a ship after a dog -- but what I was noting is that Darwin didn't name the ship. (It was also a happy coincidence that Darwin came aboard the ship in the first place.)

980 Pietr  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:07:46pm

re: #955 Racer X

re: #955 Racer X

Click the "Reply button to get this:

Click the "quote" button to get this:
re: #944 Pietr


Then type your comments below.

OUCH, and sorry. I totally missed those little blue 'links' ; I was looking at the +/-/Love/Hate(?) icons and all. I made easy hard, I guess...;>(

981 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:07:47pm

re: #967 Killian Bundy


Thread killer alert, thread killer alert...

982 Charles Johnson  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:07:59pm

re: #968 CrackrJak

I never said that, Geesh. Did I not say that it was either a corruption or unintended consequence of evolutionary theory ? The Nazis' tried to breed Aryans as a pure race and, This is the critical part, Tried to eliminate those of lesser genetic material (In their view). In other words they tried to force human evolution, Through unnatural selection.

The problem with the whole thing is war goes against everything in natural selection. War kills the strongest and leaves the weakest alive. Hitler knew this and tried to kill what he believed was the weakest, and aggressively tried to breed the strongest.

This is complete, unmitigated crap. The genocidal pogroms of the Nazis had absolutely NOTHING to do with evolutionary theory.

983 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:08:11pm

re: #971 cantrecant

I merely state the obvious, that eugenics and Nazism are not incompatible with natural selection.

Eugenics is the antithesis of natural selection.

984 jorline  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:08:55pm

re: #975 Racer X

Nice!
Click to enlarge.

Oh crap, Racer. I thought you were posting porn...lol

985 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:08:57pm

re: #926 ASU86PE

re: #919 stretch

re: #918 CrackrJak

re: #902 cantrecant

re: #901 nightwatch

re: #869 nnw59

So... do you guys wear the same cologne, too?

986 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:08:59pm

re: #966 stretch

The individual women. Sorry, no conspiracy theories in that one.

987 ASU86PE  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:09:11pm

re: #953 Walter L. Newton


Honestly?

988 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:09:12pm

re: #971 cantrecant

I merely state the obvious, that eugenics and Nazism are not incompatible with natural selection. Antisemitism is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus and therefore by definition not Christian.

Well guess what shit face, it may not be Christian, but the Christians were the BIGGEST practitioners of it in the history of the world. So what the fuck does your point prove, except that you are dishonest.

989 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:10:28pm

re: #977 WrathofG-d

it probably stemmed from Ben Stein's supposed assertion that Naziism was based on Darwinism, which is used for illogical derision by Ebert in the "must read" point of this thread.

Okay, yeah, I forgot, my bad.

/Ben Stein OT, carry on

990 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:10:33pm

re: #924 ggt Yes, I did get my nap today - all I gotta do is take my stupid meds when I'm supposed to! LOL!
How are ya tonight?

991 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:11:54pm

re: #975 Racer X

How coool is that!

Thanks for posting!

992 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:11:54pm

re: #508 BlueCanuck

Unbelievers? More like people you THINK are unbelievers, because they don't believe the same as you. Now go forth before you are taunted severely as the troll you are deserves.

"...or we will taunt you a second time!"

993 WrathofG-d  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:12:07pm
994 Dave Brown  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:12:14pm

#942 Charles

I'd agree that Hitler himself was probably motivated more by the practical value of anti-semitism (as a means to a political ends) than by any scientific motives.

However, the general acceptance of practices like eugenics and racial cleansing by the technocrats and militarists who implemented the Nazi policies, was absolutely made possible by the mis-application of Darwin's theories by academics during the preceding decades.

The theory of evolution is brilliant and extremely important. Creationism is a sham. (See my comments above, in #905)

But unfortunately the history of the theory's mis-application during the early part of the 20th century (by many of its strongest advocates at the time) is often shameful.

None of that negates the validity of the theory. But it may explain why some folks may still regard it with suspicion...

995 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:12:24pm

re: #675 CrackrJak

Now you're getting absurd, Of course other religions and philosophies have their own "morals". But, America was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic and many who wish to remove that ethic use other "moralities" as justification to do so.

Calling me a "Beast" if I didn't have my belief was stupid. It was an insult.

Umm, this country was founded on Greco-Roman principles as much as it was Judeo-Christian principles. And they were pagans.

996 itellu3times  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:12:49pm

re: #801 Walter L. Newton

Hebrews were keeping written records way before papyrus and ink were invented.

Not really. I'm not sure I'm following this thread. Not sure what the historical priority buys, anyway. Say the ten commandments date to roughly the historical time when the Israelites left Egypt, assuming they really did, that's, what, approx 1300 bce? So maybe as an oral tradition, it predates the Hellenic influence. Though Charlton Heston did carry tablets with writing on them, didn't he?

Depends when you think papyrus and ink were invented, I guess. Hieroglypics and such are now dated back like 4000bc, right?

997 Pietr  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:13:02pm

re: #669 Noam Sayin'

Well, that's kind of a let-down...



How about "no man I say', or "I say no man"? Probably a few more, too... :.)

I Posted this earlier, but it was gibberish, due to my lack of knowledge about the controls.

998 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:13:11pm

re: #918 CrackrJak

Secular humanists aren't reasonable in any sense of the word.


Heh.
/Yer stupid.

999 Randall Gross  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:13:20pm

ack, it's midnight here. Have to get some sleeps, just when this is getting fun.

See you on the morrow all, I'll leave you with a Christmas song.

1000 bosforus  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:13:27pm

re: #762 EmmmieG

I thought you left. Is it really snowing in Salt Lake? Have you seen the lights on the square yet?

You only wish I left }). "Snowing"? No. Little baby snow fell today. Nothing stuck to the ground though. Haven't made it to the Temple lights this year yet. I'm sure I'll make it over there before too long, they're gorgeous.

1001 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:13:28pm

re: #990 realwest

hangin' in there. Warm in my house. Kitty next to me is sleeping, for a change, and not bugging me.

1002 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:13:33pm

re: #949 Clemente

Yeah it turned out to be my careless stupidity. I'm not used to buttons on the side of my mouse. I feel like such a shit. Thanks anyways for all the help folks. I'm very sorry.

1003 lostlakehiker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:13:55pm

re: #926 ASU86PE

Darwin had his lies and Ben has his, I guess. Ben hasn't tried to get a new concept believed as Darwin has. Darwin's final thoughts, as I've read, were hardened against Christianity. He was taken over with grief from the death of his young daughter. I think his grief led him to a place of hate that also led German Socialists to hate Jewish people. I just choose not to go there or incite others to hate like that.

I still contend Christians in science measure their advancements and benevolence, rendered outside the Christian community, with self-sacrifice and not self-promotion.

Darwin had no outright lies. Like any scientist, he didn't fully understand what he was figuring out.

There are many Christians in science. They're good people, with rare exceptions. They're not liars and frauds. This leaves out the Michael Behe's. Almost all these genuine Christian genuine scientist types understand that evolution gives a good explanation for the current diversity of species. As science, it's good science. Those who don't understand, well, they know not what they do. We love them anyway, if they disbelieve in good faith.

1004 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:14:15pm

re: #919 stretch

Contrary to your expectation, a great many scientists have objected to their work being taken out of context.

The problem remains, and always will, of those whose agendas override their pursuit of the truth, even among non-scientists.

Curiously, we remain able to distinguish between, say, Gibbon's rather dismal view of women and his magisterial ability to discuss the decline of Rome, and the foibles of various scientists.

I refer you to the sad and unfortunate history of Nancy Rays.

1005 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:14:51pm

re: #954 Pvt Bin Jammin
Hey PBJ! An 8 track? What's that?
I must be too young to remember it!
/ducks and runs really fast for an old mature guy!

1006 stretch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:14:57pm

re: #962 J.S.

I'll get the book - but I did see Haekle's drawings in my own high-school biology textbook. I must have missed the big 60 minutes special on the debunk.

1007 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:14:57pm

re: #931 Boogberg

I heard Hitler himself was a Christian. Is that true?

False.

1008 cantrecant  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:15:06pm

re: #988 Walter L. Newton

Well guess what shit face, it may not be Christian, but the Christians were the BIGGEST practitioners of it in the history of the world. So what the fuck does your point prove, except that you are dishonest.

It proves that liars can pretend to be something they are not oh intelligent one.

1009 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:15:23pm

And now, I really mean it.

Bed!

Goodnight!

1010 Racer X  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:15:24pm

To those of you who believe everything was created a mere 4000 years ago: I hope you enjoyed the images of galaxies that are hundreds of thousands, and some even millions, of light years away.

To me, these images demonstrate there is a creator, and the universe is very, very old.

Good night.


OK, one last image.

God has a heart.

1011 itellu3times  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:15:25pm

re: #902 cantrecant

A "survival of the fittest" world view is obviously compatible with eugenics and Nazism. It's an uphill battle to divorce evolution from a "might makes right" philosophy which is why fair minded but fully committed evolutionists are so sensitive to this criticism.

That's backwards, if evolution justifies anything political, it's right makes might, it's survival of the best, not whoever survives, must have been best. Evolution doesn't mean the best of the herd doesn't get eaten, it means the best that didn't get eaten, sets the mode.

It is really easy to get backwards.

In fact, there's no real agreement on which way *is* backwards.

1012 Steffan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:15:42pm

Ben Stein is a brilliant man but politically moronic at times.

Roger Ebert is politically moronic but can be brilliant.

Can we call them both idiots savant and be done with it?

1013 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:16:21pm

re: #985 Noam Sayin'

Don't be a Noam Dick,

Post to me in the 1st person and not lumped into your lazy group.

Or maybe it's past your bed-time and your just trying to save what feeble strength you have left before you have to don your DEPENDS prior to slipping between the plastic sheets?

1014 Dan G.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:17:25pm

re: #985 Noam Sayin'

My guess.

1015 Dianna  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:17:34pm

re: #1013 nightwatch

That was rude. I dinged you because I thought it out of line.

1016 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:17:38pm

re: #996 itellu3times

Not really. I'm not sure I'm following this thread. Not sure what the historical priority buys, anyway. Say the ten commandments date to roughly the historical time when the Israelites left Egypt, assuming they really did, that's, what, approx 1300 bce? So maybe as an oral tradition, it predates the Hellenic influence. Though Charlton Heston did carry tablets with writing on them, didn't he?

Depends when you think papyrus and ink were invented, I guess. Hieroglypics and such are now dated back like 4000bc, right?

I have to modify what I was saying. I meant that the Hebrews had written records even before they used papyrus and ink in later times. Your point about the tablets is one example. The tablets were probably ostracon, as that was a common medium for short notes and instructions.

My main point I was trying to make (in a number of posts and follow ups) was that oral tradition was not novel with the Hebrews and history has proven that certain traditions, stories and codes of behavior pre-dates the Hebrews, whether orally or written.

Some poster above was trying to imply that the Hebrews had some sort of monopoly on commandments, codes and creation stories.

1017 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:18:16pm

re: #993 WrathofG-d

Nazis, Occult, and Race Superiority Theory

Not Christianity.

/they just hated Jews, end of story

1018 J.S.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:18:17pm

re: #1006 stretch

Yes, and I recall that phrase (stated repeatedly by my high school biology teacher) "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" (another one of those Haeckel claims...)

1019 lostlakehiker  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:18:40pm

re: #984 jorline

Oh crap, Racer. I thought you were posting porn...lol

Strictly speaking, every last thing that happens, good or evil, is also something that happens to man-the-animal, and is part of evolution and natural selection.

If it had worked, (and it didn't; it blew up in their faces big time), the Nazi project to kill everybody else and people the earth with Germans would have been a success story for Aryan genes. Evolution doesn't care about right or wrong. Anything that works, works.

But the thing is, resort to brute force is mostly a losing evolutionary strategy. There's an answer to it. Mobilize a coalition of those slated for the receiving end of the brute force, and answer force with force.

Here, theological reason merges with biological reason: this answer is also the answer known to church thinkers as the Just War.

1020 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:19:09pm

re: #995 Salamantis
Hi Sal - leaving CrackrJak out of this, please, I don't understand what you mean by:
"Umm, this country was founded on Greco-Roman principles as much as it was Judeo-Christian principles. And they were pagans."

1021 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:19:13pm

re: #931 Boogberg

I heard Hitler himself was a Christian. Is that true?

Lots of people call themselves Christian, for diverse reasons, and lots are called Christian by others. The truth of such assertions still waits, but in many cases the relevant qualities are pretty obvious, especially in their absence.

1022 Steffan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:20:13pm

re: #931 Boogberg

I heard Hitler himself was a Christian. Is that true?

False. Hitler was a pagan, as was Himmler. They believed in the Nordic pantheon that predated Christianity... a version that possibly never existed except in their twisted minds.

Himmler, in particular, believed in the Nordic ideal. Kinda ironic, since neither Hitler or Himmler actually embodied the Nordic ideal...

1023 Killgore Trout  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:20:55pm

Since this has devolved into a Nazi thread I'll repost this...
Schweine
/Спокойной ночн

1024 nightwatch  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:21:21pm

Holy cow,


I am dinged,

My life is forfeit...alas.

Vio Con Dios

Lizards

1025 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:21:42pm

re: #719 CrackrJak

No, They are trying to save a life and save a second from being victimized. There are many possible complications a woman can have after an abortion, Including a higher rate of cancer, Severe depression, Infertility, and possibly even death.

Planned parenthood won't discuss those "complications" with a woman either, As it might be seen as impeding a woman's "right to choose".

Women must be permitted to make such personal choices for themselves. They are nobody else's business.

btw; the rate of mortality from childbirth far exceeds the mortality rate from early abortion. So don't try to use safety as some sort of totalitarian fig leaf.

1026 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:22:06pm

I heard Hitler had only one big ball . . .

1027 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:22:09pm

re: #1009 Dianna
Goodnight Dianna! See you in a few minutes! LOL!
But if I don't, sleep well!

1028 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:22:18pm

re: #988 Walter L. Newton

Well guess what shit face, it may not be Christian, but the Christians were the BIGGEST practitioners of it in the history of the world. So what the fuck does your point prove, except that you are dishonest.

Wrong!
Nazis put severe restrictions on Christian churches during the war. Many Christians smuggled out and hid Jews during WWII. Christians, To this day, Are horrified at the atrocities committed by the Nazis. You're barking up the wrong tree trying to tie Christians to Nazis.

1029 Pietr  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:23:12pm

re: #1005 realwest

Someone earlier referred to 78 RPM's, saying he was showing his age. I remember 1 sided Phonograph records-MONOSTEREO. And the phonogragph needles fit a straw perfectly, like beans and a bean shooter...guess my age, just don't go to high. LOL

1030 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:23:35pm

re: #905 Dave Brown

Good post, and thank you very much.

1031 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:24:04pm

re: #997 Pietr

You'll get used to the controls soon enough, newbie. Welcome aboard. Giving you an up-ding just to start your karma path on the upswing.

1032 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:25:45pm

I could/can't figure out why Hitler was so hung-up on the word "aryan". I always thought it meant a lot more than "white heterosexual people from Germany".

1033 Pvt Bin Jammin  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:25:51pm

re: #1005 realwest

Hey PBJ! An 8 track? What's that?
I must be too young to remember it!
/ducks and runs really fast for an old mature guy!

LOL I'm cranking up the old Victrola here.

Good to see ya.

1034 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:26:58pm

re: #749 ASU86PE

FTA "You discover that 99.975 of them agree on the answer

From 200 AD to 1400 AD all the "scientists" preached Ptolemy "paths of planetary movements." Certain earlier Greek astronomers preached circular planetary movement around earth and Pythagoras of Samos and his students couldn't solve the square root of two problem in his triangle postulate and thus rejected it as a possiblity; they could only form their solutions from whole numbers to whole numbers.

Besmurch Ben Stein all you want, but I'm still in his corner more than Darwin's.

Wow, big newsflash! Scientists from thousands of years ago didn't understand as much as do scientists today!

Who'da ever thunk it?

1035 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:27:04pm

re: #1008 cantrecant

It proves that liars can pretend to be something they are not oh intelligent one.

I don't really care. Your comment and follow ups is typical. You can always fall back on the "well, that wasn't really Christian."

Guess what, Anti-Semitism was as common as snot among the Christians of Europe (the world) for almost 2 thousand years.

If we use your logic, then the actual number of TRUE CHRISTIANS would probably be a statistical non-entity.

That argument doesn't work with me. Even if you use your own book, the Bible, you can't get away with what you are saying. No one know the heart of man except God. So, you can't say anyone is or isn't a Christian.

And who gives a fuck. If a person who calls himself a Christian decides to put me in an oven and gas me, I'm not going to sit there and go "well, that's not a real Christian."

Yours is a cowards way of looking at the actuality of history and what Christians has wrought over the centuries.

1036 Joan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:27:17pm

re: #886 ggt

I will certainly attend to that tomorrow--I didn't know about the Amazon. benefit, or the book spinoff--thanks!

1037 Lynn B.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:27:28pm

Ok, I give up, never going to catch up with this thread and I have to get some sleep.

Just want to say that Ebert did a magnificent job here, regardless of his myopia when it comes to other (leftist) propaganda films. I really could have done without the Tony Auth cartoon, though. I mean, yes, it's right on target. But ... Tony Auth? Kind of ironic considering he "borrowed" from Nazi antisemitic imagery in crafting this infamous cartoon.

1038 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:27:40pm

re: #1033 Pvt Bin Jammin
Victrola? What's that?!

1039 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:27:49pm

re: #1005 realwest

Hey PBJ! An 8 track? What's that?
I must be too young to remember it!
/ducks and runs really fast for an old mature guy!

re: #1033 Pvt Bin Jammin

LOL I'm cranking up the old Victrola here.

Good to see ya.

This is my favorite link to make just about anyone out of college feel old.
Heh, heh.

1040 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:28:09pm

can we go back to NOT talking about abortion on LGF --I'm not really sure when that changed.

It's just going to derail the thread (and really p!ss me off to boot.)

1041 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:28:41pm

re: #1013 nightwatch

Don't be a Noam Dick,

Post to me in the 1st person and not lumped into your lazy group.

Or maybe it's past your bed-time and your just trying to save what feeble strength you have left before you have to don your DEPENDS prior to slipping between the plastic sheets?

Careful, dude. I have bodyguards.

Besides. I sleep in the nude. Everyone here knows that.

Some have first-hand knowledge.

Aren't you late for a circle-jerk, or something?

1042 Steffan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:31:05pm

re: #1025 Salamantis

Check what Jonah Goldberg had to say about them in Liberal Fascism.

Margaret Sanger was a firm believer in eugenics, and proudly gave a speech to the Ku Klux Klan in 1925.

Some of the contributors to the magazine she founded could have been Himmler and Goebbels -- in fact, some of the contributors to her magazine worked for Himmler and Goebbels.

Most of Planned Parenthood's clinics are in inner cities. Do we need to discuss the demographics of inner cities?

I have serious questions about Planned Parenthood. They have yet to address some of those questions.

1043 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:31:07pm

re: #1025 Salamantis

Wrong!

Researchers examined death records linked to Medi-Cal payments for births and abortions for approximately 173,000 low income Californian women. They discovered that women who had abortions were almost twice as likely to die in the following two years.

In a 13 year Finland study, Non-pregnant women had 57.0 deaths per 100,000, compared to 28.2 for women who carried to term, 51.9 for women who miscarried, and 83.1 for women who had abortions.

1044 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:31:30pm

re: #1028 CrackrJak

Wrong!
Nazis put severe restrictions on Christian churches during the war. Many Christians smuggled out and hid Jews during WWII. Christians, To this day, Are horrified at the atrocities committed by the Nazis. You're barking up the wrong tree trying to tie Christians to Nazis.

You might wanna read this:

[Link: chi.gospelcom.net...]

This is one of the most respected Christian websites in the world. They do not deny impeccably documented history. Instead, they accept the truth of the sordid record of Christian collusion with the Third Reich, apologize for it, beg forgiveness, and strive for atonement - like good honest Christians should.

1045 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:31:45pm

re: #1028 CrackrJak

(I'll post the same answer to you)

I don't really care. Your comment and follow ups is typical. You can always fall back on the "well, that wasn't really Christian."

Guess what, Anti-Semitism was as common as snot among the Christians of Europe (the world) for almost 2 thousand years.

If we use your logic, then the actual number of TRUE CHRISTIANS would probably be a statistical non-entity.

That argument doesn't work with me. Even if you use your own book, the Bible, you can't get away with what you are saying. No one know the heart of man except God. So, you can't say anyone is or isn't a Christian.

And who gives a fuck. If a person who calls himself a Christian decides to put me in an oven and gas me, I'm not going to sit there and go "well, that's not a real Christian."

Yours is a cowards way of looking at the actuality of history and what Christians has wrought over the centuries.

1046 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:32:02pm

re: #1035 Walter L. Newton
Hi Walter. Just figured you might like to know:

Registered since: Aug 10, 2004 at 8:24 pm
(Logged in)

No. of comments posted: 307
No. of links posted: 0


Some of these sleepers are really, really good at hiding out!
Relax and let him/her go - tain't worth feeding.

1047 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:33:15pm

re: #1021 Clemente

Lots of people call themselves Christian, for diverse reasons, and lots are called Christian by others. The truth of such assertions still waits, but in many cases the relevant qualities are pretty obvious, especially in their absence.

If you call yourself a Christian, then you are a Christian. It's one of those naughty truths that go along with worshiping.

1048 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:33:20pm

re: #1046 realwest

Heh. You said, "taint."

1049 Pvt Bin Jammin  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:33:31pm

re: #1038 realwest

You must be too "evolved" to know. ;)

1050 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:33:47pm

re: #1039 gmsc
Oh no you don't - ya got me with that one earlier today or late last night! LOL!

1051 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:34:07pm

re: #1043 CrackrJak

couldn't possibly be some other reason for their death than the abortion? Perhaps lifestyle? the reason they might have had an unplanned pregnancy in the first place?

1052 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:34:31pm

re: #1021 Clemente

Lots of people call themselves Christian, for diverse reasons, and lots are called Christian by others. The truth of such assertions still waits, but in many cases the relevant qualities are pretty obvious, especially in their absence.

(I'll post the same answer to you)

I don't really care. Your comment and follow ups is typical. You can always fall back on the "well, that wasn't really Christian."

Guess what, Anti-Semitism was as common as snot among the Christians of Europe (the world) for almost 2 thousand years.

If we use your logic, then the actual number of TRUE CHRISTIANS would probably be a statistical non-entity.

That argument doesn't work with me. Even if you use your own book, the Bible, you can't get away with what you are saying. No one know the heart of man except God. So, you can't say anyone is or isn't a Christian.

And who gives a fuck. If a person who calls himself a Christian decides to put me in an oven and gas me, I'm not going to sit there and go "well, that's not a real Christian."

Yours is a cowards way of looking at the actuality of history and what Christians has wrought over the centuries.

1053 Steffan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:34:43pm

re: #1032 ggt

I could/can't figure out why Hitler was so hung-up on the word "aryan". I always thought it meant a lot more than "white heterosexual people from Germany".

It's a Nordic thing, actually. Aryans are Caucasians from Northern Europe. The average blond Swede or Norwegian meets the Aryan standard.

Supposedly it's a racial purity thing. Considering that Hitler himself didn't meet that standard, I'm not sure why he was so focused on it.

1054 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:34:50pm

re: #1050 realwest

Oh no you don't - ya got me with that one earlier today or late last night! LOL!

I said it was my favorite!
;)

1055 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:34:51pm

re: #1023 Killgore Trout

Since this has devolved into a Nazi thread I'll repost this...
Schweine
/Спокой& #x043D;ой ночн

/[expletive deleted] that!

1056 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:36:24pm

re: #1053 Steffan

really?

1057 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:36:31pm

re: #774 CrackrJak

No it's not, It was a blatant insult.

Founded on Judeo/Christian? What ancient language is the word "Republic" from? What ancient language is the word "Democracy" from? What ancient language are most of our legal terms in? What preceded Christian philosophy? (hint: it starts with an "S".)

I do believe the 10 commandments predates the ancient Greek. And the code of Hamurabi predates the 10 commandments. But you should also be aware that Hebrew belief was mainly kept as an oral tradition even before that. It spread and was modified upon even before ink and papyrus were invented.

The Epic of Gilgamesh predates the Noah Flood myth.

1058 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:37:03pm

re: #1008 cantrecant
re: #1021 Clemente
re: #1028 CrackrJak

Ok, did I cover all the "well, they aren't Christians" jerks.

1059 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:37:05pm

re: #1057 Salamantis

ah, Ankidoo!

1060 ggt  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:37:41pm

Charles opened another thread. My clue to go to bed.

weet dreams all!

1061 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:38:08pm

re: #1047 Boogberg
Uh, I've been through this MANY times before out here and hope you'll forgive for being abrupt but you are NOT what you call yourself, you are what your actions and life lead other people to believe you are.
For example, that idiot Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church are not Christians as I judge their actions, and I frankly don't give a shit if they "worship" or not.

1062 Steffan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:38:30pm

re: #1041 Noam Sayin'

Careful, dude. I have bodyguards.

Besides. I sleep in the nude. Everyone here knows that.

Some have first-hand knowledge.

Aren't you late for a circle-jerk, or something?

Noam, this is more information than we really needed.

Just sayin'.

/

1063 cantrecant  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:38:34pm

re: #1035 Walter L. Newton


Guess what, Anti-Semitism was as common as snot among the Christians of Europe (the world) for almost 2 thousand years.

Many Christians yesterday and today are little advanced from pagans not unlike yourself in many respects. You are to be commended for joining the modern mainstream pagans that don't affect to be Christian.

1064 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:38:49pm

re: #1057 Salamantis

The Epic of Gilgamesh predates the Noah Flood myth.

Don't tell him that. He'll have to spend hours trying to rewire his brain around that fact so he can figure out a way to dismiss it.

He's going to blow up.

1065 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:38:59pm

re: #782 WrathofG-d

Maybe we can add to these threads a notice that "believing in Creation doesn't make you the Taliban/Al-Qaeda?".

No, but coercively forcing it on unwilling others can lend a family resemblance.

1066 BryanS  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:39:06pm

I was wondering if the posting's category--Entertainment--referred to Ben Stein's profession or the sheer fun of watching 1000 heated comments buzz by on another LGF evolution posting :)

Ahh...Nazi refereces. Godwin's Law lives on.

1067 gmsc  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:39:34pm

re: #1053 Steffan

It's a Nordic thing, actually. Aryans are Caucasians from Northern Europe. The average blond Swede or Norwegian meets the Aryan standard.

Supposedly it's a racial purity thing. Considering that Hitler himself didn't meet that standard, I'm not sure why he was so focused on it.

Apparently, the Aryan ideal was very popular in the 1930's. Heck, in 1935, the country of Persia changed its name to reflect a belief in the Aryan ideal. They used the Persian word for Aryan - Iran.

1068 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:40:02pm

re: #1047 Boogberg

If you call yourself a Christian, then you are a Christian. It's one of those naughty truths that go along with worshiping.

/joining a long established Church reqires a lot more work

1069 mean Gene  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:40:20pm

Isn't all of this just one excellent way to divide and conquer?
Think about it.
You all might want to prevent worldwide caliphate, but your princiles prevent you from working on it together.
So...eventually you are all rounded up and either you convert to Islam, become a slave in dhimmitude to Islam or they kill you.
Whose side are the ones who insist they will only fight along side those purer than Christ?
Mo's side, that which side!
You're all being played.

1070 J.S.  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:41:48pm

re: #1053 Steffan

There's a wiki article about this...(the racial "theorists" in the past used the term "Aryan" to distinguish between the "Aryans" vs the "Semites". The term "Iran" means "land of the Aryans" btw.)

1071 Steffan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:42:49pm

re: #1056 ggt

really?

That was my understanding of Nazi propaganda from 1923-on.

Especially some of the posters after 1938.

1072 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:43:37pm

re: #1041 Noam Sayin'
Now Noam - you ain't gonna scare him away with Mandy as your bodyguard - unless you mean to distract him with her beauty while you shoot him!
Put me and Sage in as your bodyguards. Won't change him cause he's obviously a dangeous dude who thinks he can insult folks out here at will.
Whereas some of us know dangerous in a far more, ah, personal way!
Always got your 6 Noam, always.

1073 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:45:51pm

re: #1061 realwest

You don't get to dictate what true Christianity is, realwest. Who the fuck do you think you are?

1074 Pvt Bin Jammin  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:46:00pm

re: #1060 ggt

'nite. Have a great day tomorrow.

1075 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:46:04pm

re: #1048 Noam Sayin'
No, Noam, I said "Tain't"!
;')

1076 Noam Sayin'  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:46:19pm

re: #1072 realwest

Mandy handles my light work. If I'm in big trouble, I call the Marines and Army.

1077 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:48:02pm

re: #1058 Walter L. Newton
Well I don't know Walter - read my #1061 and you tell me.

1078 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:48:22pm

re: #795 nightwatch

I am of course late coming into this,

But I seem to remember that the "early" Christians were the offspring of the Jews that believed that Christ was the risen Savior. Was this a split from the orthodoxy of that period? You bet! Did it create a fork in the road that many millennium ago? Most assuredly! Judaism breaks from Christian beliefs because of that very point. The belief in God as the Redeemer still binds the two faiths though, to this day!

Darwin...well...he drew pretty pictures of never before seen animals, so is he really the end all, be all, on evolution? Not, a, chance!

Hell, he named is ship of discovery after a dog no less.

JUST SAYIN!

No, he just began it. After him came Mendel, and Avery, and Watson & Crick, and Hamilton, and Trivers, and Mayr, and Gould, and Lewontin, and so many others...

1079 ASU86PE  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:48:45pm

re: #1003 lostlakehiker

Sacracism, right?

And I thought this thread was a criticism of Ben vs. Rodger not Jesus & Christianity.

But Jesus states in Mark 13:19, "For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be." And I do not argue with against this statement as Darwin did. And Ben merely restates this in his movie but in a different way than I would. But this still puts me closer to Ben than Rodger.

1080 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:50:58pm

re: #1044 Salamantis

re: #1045 Walter L. Newton

What I'm saying is the VAST VAST majority of Christians in the rest of the world did not support Hitler or antisemitism. Maybe some German Christians did support Hitler, That doesn't condemn all of Christianity.

Nowhere in the New Testament is antisemitism condoned. Those German Christians that did support Hitler do need to atone for their sins. But saying I'm somehow at fault for their actions is nonsensical.

America went to war to fight against the Axis powers and their evilness. Many thousands of Christians died in that war to end that Nazi evil.

So quit trying to condemn every Christian based on what some have done, And look at the good and great things Christians have done as a whole.

Oh I forgot, You can't do that. Because in your mind all Christians are evil.

1081 Steffan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:51:22pm

re: #1073 Boogberg

You don't get to dictate what true Christianity is, realwest. Who the fuck do you think you are?

You do not want to go there. Don't even begin to go there.

1082 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:52:30pm

re: #1073 Boogberg
Who do you think gets to dictate what "true Chirstianity is"?!

1083 RememberSekhmet?  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:52:33pm

The problem is the fetishization of science by people who proclaim to be "beyond" religion, yet have mentally never left their religious needs behind, merely building a religion out of the trappings of rationality, while losing the entire point of rationality. Eugenics is fetishized evolution. This, Ben Stein gets exactly right, for the wrong reasons.

I studied Psych at the University of Texas at Austin, so I naturally learned everything you never want to know about behavior genetics---which is often falsely accused of being eugenics. Behavior genetics is merely the application of the study of evolved behavior as applied to humans. We apply the study of evolved behavior to every other species, after all. Eugenics was a perversion born of the half-informed ideas of people who get their knowledge of "hot trends" from some magazine. They had decided to abandon stodgy old tradition, and stodgy old religion--but still in need for something to believe in, they grabbed at the desire to be up on the latest intellectual fads, whether well or poorly-understood.

New converts to a religion are quite often, I am sorry to say, quite insufferable in general. How many religious terrorists were converts, or those who believe themselves to have come back to religion after "backsliding?" The 19 9-11 hijackers were middle class boys, who partied and drank, and shagged infidel women until they "came back" to Islam?

Worse yet is a religion in deep denial about its religious nature. So a convert to a religion in denial about being a religion? You have a creature who is neither fish nor fowl. They have abandoned God, but still on a level live in the Universe built by a God they don't believe in anymore. The nasty secret of the Universe is that it takes as much spiritual discipline not to believe in God as it does to walk daily with God. I am sure any atheist would object to my characterizing their thought process as spiritual discipline, but no atheists were polled before my writing this post. But I am sure any atheist or agnostic who has truly thought it out will agree that you have to know what you do believe as much as you know what you don't believe, and from that order your life and decision-making. That to me is spiritual discipline.

Those who seek the edginess of unbelief without the willingness to undergo the spiritual discipline of assessing their lives in light of their beliefs, yet call themselves defenders of logic and reason? Rationality, reason, and sanity have become mere fetishes, words babbled over and over as some apotropaic charm against the emptiness. Science becomes a magic charm, rather than a pursuit of truth. And an earthly savior becomes an excellent substitute for a God they are too cool to believe in anymore. And from these people, the Nazis recruited.

Evolution itself is knowledge. Fetishism of evolution, rather than its dispassionate study, was a part of the Nazi program. Where Stein fails is in distinguishing the knowledge from its perversion.

1084 ASU86PE  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:53:12pm

re: #1034 Salamantis


Yeah, Right. They belittled non-followers of their time and even, as in the Pythagreans case, killed the non-follower. They were Socrates' Princes of Knowledge.

1085 RememberSekhmet?  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:53:18pm

Dammit, it never fails. I write something, and BAM! New thread!

1086 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:54:14pm

re: #805 jorline

What happened to bitterclinger?

Must have been the Rapture.

Can I have his car?

1087 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:55:31pm

re: #1077 realwest

Well I don't know Walter - read my #1061 and you tell me.

Real

I was referring to posters here who always fall back on the "well, they weren't really Christians."

My topic was Christian anti-semites. Those three posters implied that the "christians" who have displayed anti-semitism over the last 2000 years were not really Christians.

My answer was basically, yes they were. That's what they called themselves and that's how they represented themselves.

And it's the same thing with Phelps. Sorry, but it's real simple. Otherwise, we can't hold anyone responsible to their ideology, because we can always find someone else that would say that it's not really "pure" not "true" not according to the "book."

Then in that case, why do we have over 108 sects of Christianity? Because there are many different flavors, and each one thinks they are the correct one.

And that includes Phelps.

1088 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:56:31pm

I must say that, as far as attitudes go, Jesus was pretty cool. And if you're familiar with the Sermon on the Mount, well then.

1089 ASU86PE  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:56:35pm

Thanks for the duels, see the rest tomorrow. Have a good night all.

1090 Steffan  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:57:03pm

re: #1082 realwest

Eye of the beholder. One believes as one believes, and no one can define another's beliefs.

Robert A. Heinlein said it best: "One man's religion is another man's belly laugh."

1091 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:57:05pm

re: #1085 RememberSekhmet? Hey, don't worry about it - it's just chance!
For a looong time I thought Charles was watching a long-ish thread so that when I posted a comment, then he'd put up a new thread. But it doesn't really work that way.
I don't think.

1092 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 10:57:46pm

re: #1086 Salamantis
Too late Sal - jorline already got his car, but you can have his clothes!

1093 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:01:04pm

re: #830 stretch

took me a long time to find this post (and to read the wiki site). Going back to my first link to Ota Benga - I think that what happened to him and his family was fully in line with evolutionary thinking of the day, with full complicity by 'the churched' in many instances. It is clear to me that evolutionary thinking brought a form of reason and justification to the worst of human events - slavery, Nazism included. At one time the 'bushmen' and pygmies were considered to be non-persons, also slaves, then Jews. Now even the unborn are 'non-persons'. We can claim that science rose above all of that, and that it certainly was not the fault of well-meaning scientists that people took it all wrong - but that kind of justification to avoid an honest look at the history of evolutionary though just seems a little too ambivalent and self-serving.

Human and civil rights have advanced since Darwin's day more than they had through the whole previous course of human history. And now, because of genetics, a field that began from the search for the material substrate of evolution, we know that all races are one human race.

1094 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:01:51pm

re: #1052 & #1058 Walter L. Newton

No one know the heart of man except God. So, you can't say anyone is or isn't a Christian.

...

If a person who calls himself a Christian decides to put me in an oven and gas me, I'm not going to sit there and go "well, that's not a real Christian."

Uh, go easy with the shotgun there. That's pretty much exactly what I just said. Check the thread.

1095 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:03:41pm

re: #1081 Steffan

You do not want to go there. Don't even begin to go there.

Why? realwest isn't so much as a molecule more righteous than me.

1096 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:04:16pm

re: #1094 Clemente

Uh, go easy with the shotgun there. That's pretty much exactly what I just said. Check the thread.

Sorry, I was getting hit from a lot of sides on that issue and you must of got some of my flack.

I be careful sarge.

1097 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:04:39pm

re: #1087 Walter L. Newton

There may be some Christians following the wrong doctrine and persecuting Jews (i.e. KKK, Neo-Nazis, Aryan Brotherhood). Using those idiots to try and condemn all of Christian belief is as bad as condemning all Muslims for 9/11.

1098 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:04:59pm

re: #834 Killian Bundy

Exactly, we've had this discussion before.

/go back and read your original "sky is falling" comment that I commented upon

Waiting until Creationism worms its way into public high school science classes before we do anything about it is like waiting until the terror flyers hit the Twin Towers before we fortify cockpit doors. It is important to work to make sure that these Trojan Horse bills don't get passed into law in the first place.

1099 Rancher  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:05:39pm

re: #968 CrackrJak
The problem is this Darwin didn't invent Eugenics. The term tho coined by his cousin refered to a practice which had existed since the greeks. Previously it was call culling the herd or selective breeding but it didn't get its start from Darwin.

1100 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:06:15pm

re: #1087 Walter L. Newton
Well you know Walter, at some point in time - preferably before someone points a gun at your head, each individual has to make a judgement: is that person whom he presents himself to be. And NO I'm not God, but I feel secure enough to say that certain behavior is NOT Christian behavior. None of this negates what you've said about Christians in a general sense with regard to Jews or to Nazi's. But their actions make them - or I guess I should say makes me say they were not Christians; I do NOT judge people's religious faith by what those people profess it to be, nor how or how often they worship, but by how they conduct themselves.
And the Pope during WWII was not, IMNSHO, a Christian for his aid to the Nazi's while they were murdering Jews, Gypsies and Roman Catholics. And neither is Phelps.

1101 Rancher  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:06:17pm

Rustler BTW i missed another Open : (

1102 Walter L. Newton  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:06:50pm

re: #1097 CrackrJak

There may be some Christians following the wrong doctrine and persecuting Jews (i.e. KKK, Neo-Nazis, Aryan Brotherhood). Using those idiots to try and condemn all of Christian belief is as bad as condemning all Muslims for 9/11.

Your hyperbole is not working. Please quote me anywhere that I said ALL CHRISTIANS.

I didn't, never did, never would. You can't fight fair, so you turn to lying.

1103 Pietr  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:08:44pm

re: #1076 Noam Sayin'

Mandy handles my light work. If I'm in big trouble, I call the Marines and Army.

Hey, Noam-we AF types aren't to be discounted for guard duty, heh heh. I spent as much time with the Army as I did the Air Force-and 31 yrs as a Texan hasn't softened me up, LOL Put me on the roster as well. :>)

1104 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:09:17pm

re: #1090 Steffan
And I say one's beliefs are best judged by one's actions. Anyone can proclaim themselves anything they want to; it's how the actually live their lives that matters, not what titles they bestow upon themselves, nor what belief system they say they follow, but how they live their lives defines who they are.

1105 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:10:20pm

re: #869 nnw59

I loved the film and it is wrong to dismiss any questioning of the underpininnings of Darwinian evolution as only coming from Discovery Institute members. All I can say is thank Random Selection for Ben Stein. As for Roger Ebert, I assume you mean this Roger Ebert: [Link: rogerebert.suntimes.com...] A man with that credibility is hard to find. "Unlike Stone's "JFK" and "Nixon," this film (W) contains no revisionist history." and then "One might feel sorry for George W. at the end of this film, were it not for his legacy of a fraudulent war and a collapsed economy. The film portrays him as incompetent to be president, and shaped by the puppet masters Cheney and Rove to their own ends. If there is a saving grace, it may be that Bush will never fully realize how badly he did. How can he blame himself? He was only following God's will"

I really want to know his opinion on Ben Stein.

Once again, it is an illegitimate ad hominem to attempt to attack the ideas by criticizing their author. The ideas stand or fall independent of their source.

1106 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:11:53pm

re: #1099 Rancher

I didn't blame Darwin, The blame goes to those after him. Those that use his name and theory as a pseudo-religious belief.

1107 Killian Bundy  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:12:31pm

re: #1098 Salamantis

Waiting until Creationism worms its way into public high school science classes before we do anything about it is like waiting until the terror flyers hit the Twin Towers before we fortify cockpit doors. It is important to work to make sure that these Trojan Horse bills don't get passed into law in the first place.

/I'm sorry, I must have missed what you, personally, are doing about it

1108 Clemente  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:15:14pm

re: #1096 Walter L. Newton

All good, cap'n. We're seeing the the same on this, I'm pretty sure. ID threads do get a bit, interesting, don't they? I'm off to scout the next ridge.

1109 realwest  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:15:36pm

Well all y'all I gotta go get some sleep now. It's been an interesting night out here on LGF and I wish you all a GREAT EVENING/EARLY MORNING and hope that I have the chance to see you all down the road.

1110 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:16:47pm

re: #902 cantrecant

A "survival of the fittest" world view is obviously compatible with eugenics and Nazism. It's an uphill battle to divorce evolution from a "might makes right" philosophy which is why fair minded but fully committed evolutionists are so sensitive to this criticism.

No, because the fittest would survive without any intervention. Choosing entire populations to kill murders the more and the less fit indiscriminately, according to someone's pet 'intelligent' design criteria. It is a gross interference in environmental selection, and short-circuits evolution.

1111 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:20:04pm

re: #918 CrackrJak

"Hitchens is an anti-theist, and he describes himself as a believer in the Enlightenment values of secularism, humanism and reason." - Wikipedia

I guess under that reasoning one can deny Native Americans, Aborigines , and the Homeric poems because their stories weren't written down at the same time they were told.

It wasn't written down, Therefore it didn't exist ?

Secular humanists aren't reasonable in any sense of the word.

Geez! So many illegitimate ad hominems in evidence tonight!

1112 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:22:50pm

re: #1102 Walter L. Newton

Your hyperbole is not working. Please quote me anywhere that I said ALL CHRISTIANS.

I didn't, never did, never would. You can't fight fair, so you turn to lying.

You didn't have to use the word "all". You lumped us all together with these.

Yours is a cowards way of looking at the actuality of history and what Christians has wrought over the centuries.

And

Ok, did I cover all the "well, they aren't Christians" jerks.

And

Otherwise, we can't hold anyone responsible to their ideology

So that any Christian that disagrees with your view is a Irresponsible Coward and a Jerk.

1113 Pietr  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:23:57pm

re: #1087 Walter L. Newton

Real

I was referring to posters here who always fall back on the "well, they weren't really Christians."

My topic was Christian anti-semites. Those three posters implied that the "christians" who have displayed anti-semitism over the last 2000 years were not really Christians.

My answer was basically, yes they were. That's what they called themselves and that's how they represented themselves.

And it's the same thing with Phelps. Sorry, but it's real simple. Otherwise, we can't hold anyone responsible to their ideology, because we can always find someone else that would say that it's not really "pure" not "true" not according to the "book."

Then in that case, why do we have over 108 sects of Christianity? Because there are many different flavors, and each one thinks they are the correct one.

And that includes Phelps.


Walter is absolutely correct on the 'Aiding/Abetting", plus anti-Semitism of most Christian faiths. I was raised Catholic, but looked into many religions, history, and the 'Holocaust' especially. All Christian faiths preached in a way that faulted the Jewish people for "ALLOWING" the Crucifixion. Most turned a 'Blind Eye" to Hitlers Jewish solution-and the Holocaust became history! Most have corrected their teachings/dogma since, but some are still very anti-Semitic. For those Christian religions, "The Jews killed Christ" is still their Dogma. Unless you've actually looked at these factors for years, you would probably have to search hard for it on the web. The internet/Google/other search modes will point you to what the MOST searched items for your query are; and those tracks are covered by the peeps who try to point you elsewhere. just like the MSM, disinformation is the rule today. :>(

1114 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:24:17pm

re: #919 stretch

I wasn't aware of that - but what does that mean to the responsibility of scientists to forcefully and unrelentingly address the apparent abuses of their work? Claims by evolutionists that their field has no connection to, or even a modicum of responsibility for, eugenics, Nazism, abortion, etc.. are disingenuous at best. You know of hoaxes that have popped up with evolutionary theory - full spreads in National Geographic, front page articles in major newspapers, extensive coverage in high school textbooks. How were those hoaxes retracted? Weren't many in the scientific community all too willing... all too accepting?

Evolutionary theorists have no control of how insane or venal politicians misappropriate and abuse their work, or try to lend credibility to the un-credible by fastening on to the name, much as eurofascists are currently trying to co-opt the credibility of the antijihadist movement.

And the hoaxes of which you speak were revealed as such by scientists. How many creationists have revealed their hoaxes, such as manufactured simultaneous dino and human footprints?

1115 Boogberg  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:27:44pm

re: #1082 realwest

Who do you think gets to dictate what "true Chirstianity is"?!

I'm sure there's guidelines, but isn't it a little ballsy to claim a monopoly on Godliness? That's what various religions do. The arrogance!

1116 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:29:23pm

re: #926 ASU86PE

Darwin had his lies and Ben has his, I guess. Ben hasn't tried to get a new concept believed as Darwin has. Darwin's final thoughts, as I've read, were hardened against Christianity. He was taken over with grief from the death of his young daughter. I think his grief led him to a place of hate that also led German Socialists to hate Jewish people. I just choose not to go there or incite others to hate like that.

Darwin wasn't after belief; he was after knowledge; that's why he meticulously collected and organized empirical evidence for 20 years before publication. To equate Darwin's grief over his daughter's death with nazi antisemitism is a massive overstretch that snaps the rubber bands of all rational logical analogy.

I still contend Christians in science measure their advancements and benevolence, rendered outside the Christian community, with self-sacrifice and not self-promotion.

When you make an important scientific contribution, it becomes known, regardless of your belief system.

1117 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:31:26pm

re: #931 Boogberg

I heard Hitler himself was a Christian. Is that true?

Hitler told his chief of staff that he would always remain a committed Catholic. The first treaty the Reich signed upon coming to power was with the Holy See.

1118 CrackrJak  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:37:18pm

re: #1113 Pietr

No, You're both wrong. A Christian that hates Jews is hating themselves and Christ as well. That is definitely not mainstream Christianity. Any Christian that is antisemitic is deluded, Any preacher preaching that hate is in danger of hellfire and the Bible clearly says so.

Under your logic, Why not blame all Marines for the death of JFK ?
Why not blame all Whites for slavery ? Why not blame all Japanese for Pearl Harbor ?

1119 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:38:18pm

re: #966 stretch

hypocrite - who's doing the selecting for all the unborn dismembered alive at your favorite Planned Parenthood? Had some of the women you 'escorted' had their babies screened for Down's syndrome?

Umm..that would be the individual pregnant women, making their own free choices, and not some compulsory state program.

1120 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:42:25pm

re: #968 CrackrJak

I never said that, Geesh. Did I not say that it was either a corruption or unintended consequence of evolutionary theory ? The Nazis' tried to breed Aryans as a pure race and, This is the critical part, Tried to eliminate those of lesser genetic material (In their view). In other words they tried to force human evolution, Through unnatural selection.

The problem with the whole thing is war goes against everything in natural selection. War kills the strongest and leaves the weakest alive. Hitler knew this and tried to kill what he believed was the weakest, and aggressively tried to breed the strongest.

DNA (genetic material) wasn't even discovered until long after the Third Reich was dead and gone. Hitler was trying to practice animal husbandry with humans, and evolutionary theory was the last thing on his mind, because it involves environmental, not human, selection. There is not a single mention of Darwin in Mein Kampf, and he ordered Darwin's books burned.

1121 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:44:37pm

re: #1118 CrackrJak

I think you're missing the point. Most Christian denominations today do not hold to the "The Jews Killed Jesus" bigotry. It's wrong, and I think the majority of Christians agree on that. However- it's historically accurate to say that in the past, this was not the case.

1122 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:45:39pm

re: #971 cantrecant

I merely state the obvious, that eugenics and Nazism are not incompatible with natural selection. Antisemitism is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus and therefore by definition not Christian.

Eugenics is the antithesis of natural selection, since it is human and UNnatural selection. And the German father of Protestantism wrote a book titled "On the Jews and Their Lies."

The No True Scotsman fallacy doesn't fly.

1123 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:48:05pm

re: #978 ASU86PE

AAANT! So we agree again; German Socialists hated the Jewish people not Darwin.

Actually, Hitler hated both Jews AND evolutionary theory. That's why he had Darwins books burned.

1124 Hard Right  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:49:17pm

Folks, down ding me all you want, but ebert is a leftist douchebag.
He tried to help keep a terrorist in America. This in addition to his other publicly stated leftwing views tells me he is a moonbat. Just because he agrees with you doesn't make him smart. As someone else said about a stopped clock...

[Link: www.debbieschlussel.com...]

1125 Salamantis  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:58:06pm

re: #1020 realwest

Hi Sal - leaving CrackrJak out of this, please, I don't understand what you mean by:
"Umm, this country was founded on Greco-Roman principles as much as it was Judeo-Christian principles. And they were pagans."

I mean that the concepts and ideals of Greek and Roman philosophy informed the Founders and Framers. They looked to Athens and Rome as much as they did to Jerusalem.

1126 Sharmuta  Thu, Dec 4, 2008 11:59:39pm

re: #1118 CrackrJak

I'm going to come back to this because this is important.

Ever have an 8 year old tell you he hates Jews because they killed his Savior? Because I have, and I can tell you I was never more shocked in my life. Do not delude yourself into thinking this anti-Semitic bigotry is gone and from where it emanates.

1127 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:02:13am

re: #1022 Steffan

False. Hitler was a pagan, as was Himmler. They believed in the Nordic pantheon that predated Christianity... a version that possibly never existed except in their twisted minds.

Himmler, in particular, believed in the Nordic ideal. Kinda ironic, since neither Hitler or Himmler actually embodied the Nordic ideal...

Even as late as 1941 Hitler told Gerhard Engel, one of his generals: “I am now, as before, a Catholic and will always remain so.”

1128 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:11:44am

re: #1127 Salamantis

My understanding is hitler's religious beliefs are still a topic of debate even among scholars.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

He was first a fascist, and fascists are well known to say anything to any audience to garner the support they need, because that is what fascists do.

1129 Pietr  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:12:24am

re: #1126 Sharmuta

I'm going to come back to this because this is important.

Ever have an 8 year old tell you he hates Jews because they killed his Savior? Because I have, and I can tell you I was never more shocked in my life. Do not delude yourself into thinking this anti-Semitic bigotry is gone and from where it emanates.

You tell him, but don't expect him to listen. Faith causes deaness and blindness to the faithfull, especially to messages they DON'T wish to hear...sad, but true.

1130 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:12:36am

re: #1042 Steffan

Check what Jonah Goldberg had to say about them in Liberal Fascism.

I own the book.

Margaret Sanger was a firm believer in eugenics, and proudly gave a speech to the Ku Klux Klan in 1925.

And now it's 2008. Back then, a lot of people, from all political and social persuasions, were sympathetic to the Klan. No longer, thank goodness.

Some of the contributors to the magazine she founded could have been Himmler and Goebbels -- in fact, some of the contributors to her magazine worked for Himmler and Goebbels.

So next you're going to tell me how eeevil the US still is because we once had legal slavery and forbade women to vote?

Most of Planned Parenthood's clinics are in inner cities. Do we need to discuss the demographics of inner cities?

You place businesses where populations are. Not many people would be around to head to a clinic placed in the rural southwest. It's not a matter of the racial makeup of the patrons. And nobody's forcing any woman in the doors, or picking out particular races of women to coerce into abortions.

I have serious questions about Planned Parenthood. They have yet to address some of those questions.

I hope I've helped.

1131 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:14:44am

re: #1128 Sharmuta

My understanding is hitler's religious beliefs are still a topic of debate even among scholars.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

He was first a fascist, and fascists are well known to say anything to any audience to garner the support they need, because that is what fascists do.

He would have had no reason to lobby for the support of Gerhard Engel; he OWNED the dude. Gerhard later reported the statement, that was made to him in a private conversation, so swaying masses wasn't involved.

1132 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:22:26am

re: #1131 Salamantis

My friend- I don't know enough about hitler to comment about his religious beliefs. I just thought I'd point out it's a hotly debated topic.

1133 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:23:08am

re: #1043 CrackrJak

Wrong!

Researchers examined death records linked to Medi-Cal payments for births and abortions for approximately 173,000 low income Californian women. They discovered that women who had abortions were almost twice as likely to die in the following two years.

In a 13 year Finland study, Non-pregnant women had 57.0 deaths per 100,000, compared to 28.2 for women who carried to term, 51.9 for women who miscarried, and 83.1 for women who had abortions.

Mortality from abortion and childbirth. Are the populations comparable?
S. A. LeBolt, D. A. Grimes and W. Cates Jr
[Link: jama.ama-assn.org...]

Critics have challenged previous comparisons of mortality from legal abortion and childbirth for contrasting population groups with different clinical characteristics. They allege that most women dying from abortion were young, white, and healthy, while those dying from childbirth had serious underlying conditions. To address this question, we calculated standardized abortion and childbirth mortality rates between 1972 and 1978. We also adjusted independently for preexisting medical conditions. These adjustments for demographic and health differences between the two populations actually widened the difference in the mortality risk between abortion and childbirth. Thus, between 1972 and 1978, women were about seven times more likely to die from childbirth than from legal abortion, with the gap increasing in the more recent years.

1134 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:32:08am

re: #1063 cantrecant

Many Christians yesterday and today are little advanced from pagans not unlike yourself in many respects. You are to be commended for joining the modern mainstream pagans that don't affect to be Christian.

Umm...if Germans showed a hint of paganism during the Middle Ages, when Martin Luther was writing his antisemitic diatribe %P%(On the Jews and Their Lies, 1543), the Holy Roman Empire first tortured them, then burned, hung, or drowned them. In fact, the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of the Witches), a manual of slander and torture, was written by Kramer and Sprenger, two Catholic friars, around the same time (1484).

1135 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:38:38am

re: #1080 CrackrJak

re: #1045 Walter L. Newton

What I'm saying is the VAST VAST majority of Christians in the rest of the world did not support Hitler or antisemitism. Maybe some German Christians did support Hitler, That doesn't condemn all of Christianity.

Nowhere in the New Testament is antisemitism condoned. Those German Christians that did support Hitler do need to atone for their sins. But saying I'm somehow at fault for their actions is nonsensical.

America went to war to fight against the Axis powers and their evilness. Many thousands of Christians died in that war to end that Nazi evil.

So quit trying to condemn every Christian based on what some have done, And look at the good and great things Christians have done as a whole.

Oh I forgot, You can't do that. Because in your mind all Christians are evil.

I'm not condeming all Christians for what Third Reich German Christians did. But I'm not gonna whitewash it either. History is history and facts are facts. They should be remembered. So that they are not repeated the next time a charismatic and apparently pious politician who strokes the Faithful rolls down the pike.

1136 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:44:32am

re: #1083 RememberSekhmet?

How can you credibly maintain that the Reich fetishized evolution when they burned Darwin's books and Darwin was never mentioned in Mein Kampf?

1137 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:47:34am

re: #1084 ASU86PE

Yeah, Right. They belittled non-followers of their time and even, as in the Pythagreans case, killed the non-follower. They were Socrates' Princes of Knowledge.

Ooh, big mistake invoking Socrates, especially considering that he was forced to drink hemlock for teaching the youth of Athens to question the Gods.

1138 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:51:28am

re: #1107 Killian Bundy

/I'm sorry, I must have missed what you, personally, are doing about it

Making sure that it doesn't happen in Florida. Or at least doing my best.

1139 fat.elvis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:17:12am

Hey Charles,
Eat This!


}:-)
1140 hazzyday  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:23:06am

re: #1128 Sharmuta

My understanding is hitler's religious beliefs are still a topic of debate even among scholars.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

He was first a fascist, and fascists are well known to say anything to any audience to garner the support they need, because that is what fascists do.

If I remember correctly high level Nazi's went to the Himalayas to search for their Aryan ancestors. The trapping of modern Christianity and ancient paganism were wound into a state blood religion based on martyrs. The Nazi state lifted all cultural inclinations and perverted them into a state run society. To identify Germany in WWII as a Christian or Pagan effort religiously is probably in error. They were probably closer to twisted versions of secular humanism.

1141 FamHistoryGuy  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:27:37am

re: #1043 CrackrJak

Low income. Dangerous neighborhoods, low quality medical care and poor nutrition. Could these be factors in higher death rates?

1142 FamHistoryGuy  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:38:19am

re: #1080 CrackrJak

There are more different flavors of christians than Baskins & Robbins.

1143 gdonovan  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:15:06am

re: #74 Zimriel

-- Roger Ebert, arbiter of all that is right and proper in film documentaries.

IOW... watch out for fleas

Using Roger Ebert to help buttress a position? I'd pass on that one based on past performance.

1144 roberth  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:33:59am

Ebert is off base on the politics of Hitler. Read 'Liberal Fascism' and you will see the basis for calling Hitler liberal. His policies would make Obama and the left proud minus the genocide of course. Mussolini, too, was a liberal. Fascism is much more comfortable on the group think side of the spectrum than the individual rights and responsibilities side.

1145 CLLRusso  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 4:10:23am

re: #1135 Salamantis

Perhaps you should look into the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a prominent German Christian theologian executed by the Nazi's during WWII. He was quoted by Moshe Ya'alon in "Israel and the Palestinians: A New Strategy" in his first paragraph, Ya'alon quoted Bonhoeffer, "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction."

Obviously you don't bother learning much of anything about Christianity, it's much easier to point to abuse of it's tenants by evil people to discredit the teachings of Jesus Christ.

How sad.

1146 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 4:14:19am

re: #1144 roberth

First of all- this is not about Ebert's politics.

Second- while I enjoyed Liberal Fascism, I too would not call hitler "liberal", though I would certainly call him a fascist. The problem lies in the terminology- many leftists themselves are not "liberal" if the root of the word means anything. To me it does- I'm a classic liberal. I believe in personal liberty and individual rights. These were certainly things hitler didn't subscribe to, so why would I call him a liberal?

Third- this is about Ben Stein pushing ID and cheapening the Holocaust. It's quite possible people from various political backgrounds find it offensive, because apparently they do.

1147 MPH  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 4:36:52am

Such a shame that a leftist like Roger Ebert is allowed to win by default.

Welcome to the future of the Republican party, so long as people like Ben Stein are among its loudest voices.

1148 knojag  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:05:01am

Oh, go ahead, Ben Stein. Describe. It filled you with hatred for Charles Darwin and his followers, who represent the overwhelming majority of educated people in every nation on earth.

An interesting poll regarding who believes what on the subject.

[Link: www.gallup.com...]

1149 Fat Jolly Penguin  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:20:48am

re: #1148 knojag

Those questions distinguished between creationism and ID. Curious.

1150 Zimriel  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:23:21am

re: #1080 CrackrJak

re: #1045 Walter L. Newton

What I'm saying is the VAST VAST majority of Christians in the rest of the world did not support Hitler or antisemitism. Maybe some German Christians did support Hitler, That doesn't condemn all of Christianity.

Nowhere in the New Testament is antisemitism condoned.

AntiSemitism, no. But antiJudaism, decidedly yes. I wrote an article about the Johannine community's attitude once upon a time - John and the Jews. (I know, the font sucks. It was cool when I started doing webpages back in 1995.)

In short: there is another Gospel, currently existent only in fragments, which is the source for John's conflict stories between Christ and "the Jews". In this prior Gospel, "Egerton Papyrus 2", these stories were between Christ and various angry Pharisees (like in Mark). Helmut Koester proved the direction of dependence in "Ancient Christian Gospels" back in 1992.

That implies that the New Testament, as we have it today, was consciously edited away from internal Jewish disputes into a blanket condemnation of "Jews". (This is NOT a controversial opinion among biblical scholars. It's also not controversial among the Christians still in the East, a mystical bunch who cite John a lot.)

I agree you can't get to Hitler from the Gospel of John. He was still writing for ethnic Semites: mostly Syrians, but also Samaritans and even Jewish apostates. But you can get to Torquemada.

What can Christians do about it? As I'd mentioned before about exorcism, it's the only New Testament we've got, and we're stuck with it. A non-fundamentalist reading of these books would seem to be key to reconciling Christianity (in its first century form) with human decency.

1151 Victory Gin For All  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:24:40am

I have contempt for Ebert after he shredded "Team America: World Police."

Warning: Rated NR

Ebert looked better fat.

1152 HBob  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:27:15am

People trying to taint Darwinism with Nazis.

Kind of like people trying to taint Intelligent Design with Islamic terrorists.

1153 Zimriel  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:32:59am

re: #1152 HBob

People trying to taint Darwinism with Nazis.

Kind of like people trying to taint Intelligent Design with Islamic terrorists.

This site taints ID with Islamic obscurantists, and documents the process comprehensively. Islamic obscurantists then spawn the terrorists.

Take your tu quoque and sh0ve it.

1154 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:35:46am

re: #1152 HBob

People trying to taint Darwinism with Nazis.

Kind of like people trying to taint Intelligent Design with Islamic terrorists.

Except nazism had nothing to do with evolution, while islamists are indeed backing ID.

1155 serr8d  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:37:12am

My argument to science is simple: create new life where none existed before. Do it from whatever primordial slime you want to use; use high pressure, lightning strikes, anything you like. Just make a spark of, you know, life.

It doesn't have to be grandiose; a yeast cell or equivalent.

I know, I know; you're working on silicon-based nanobots that will make us wet sacks of protoplasm look like old-school rag dolls. But before you go on to that, just humor me. Make a spark of life.

You know what? They've tried. They've failed. Now, they don't even have a plausible model of what might have happened that started the first building block that eventually evolved to what you see in the mirror. So what they've done now is they've quit trying, and they tell us to do it yourselves, to prove that there was a something that got us started.

Science is supposed to be curiosity. The most basic question everyone has is 'how did it all get started?' Now, science is ignoring that question, and blaming those who have a theory that's as valid as any they've advanced, because they.can.do.it.

Evolution? I'll buy into that. Just show me how the first step was taken, the beginning of life itself.

1156 serr8d  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:39:55am

Heh.

My pshop for Bill Maher's Religulous.

1158 tai-pan  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:56:45am

As much as I like Ebert's style I refuse to give him the time of day since he praised Farhenheit 911

1159 vancomycin  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:14:24am

Good to see all the anti-religion bigots out in force on this blog. Used to not be this way here. It's kind of a shame really.

1160 serr8d  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:21:15am

Great link, Sharmuta.

Russell argues that the very first life-like molecules on Earth would have been based on inorganic compounds. Instead of a fatty acid membrane, Russell argues that iron sulfide could have provided the necessary container for early cells.

WE ARE IRON MAN~!

1161 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:28:34am

re: #1160 serr8d

I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

1162 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:44:43am

re: #1159 vancomycin

I know- it's really shocking to see the treatment that evolution accepting Christians, Jews, Pagans, Mormons and others are receiving at the hands of anti-evolutionists.

I mean, condemning us to Hell- that's pretty harsh.

1163 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:48:32am

Wow. Cries of 'repent, wicked ones!' and everything. Looks like I missed out on the hellfire thread. Damn.

1164 frank14  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:54:43am

Isn't Ebert the sicko that gave us "Beyond The Valley of the Dolls", arguably the worst movie ever made? I remember him on Siskel and Ebert in Chicago before it was discovered they had sold out to Disney. I realized then he was a complete waste of a human being. He has a lot to teach me- namely do the opposite. You evolutionists should pick better spokesman than that corporate sellout.

1165 boogberg  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:56:52am

re: #684 Desert Dog

Is it your mouse? Mine does that, it's irritating

Yes it turns out it was. Hey man, thanks.

1166 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 7:01:09am

re: #1164 frank14

Yeah, let's shoot the messenger. Never mind the message.

1167 MPH  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 7:08:01am

re: #1151 Victory Gin For All

I have contempt for Ebert after he shredded "Team America: World Police."

Warning: Rated NR

Ebert looked better fat.

He's a blustering fool -- but attacking a willful and easy straw man like Ben Stein gives Ebert undue credibility.

1168 nikis-knight  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 7:11:22am

Not a defense of Stein, but this piece is laughable.

He refers to advocates of eugenics as liberal. I would not call Hitler liberal. Arbitrary forced sterilization in our country has been promoted mostly by racists, who curiously found many times more blacks than whites suitable for such treatment.

On this point, at least, Ebert is the one who is clueless. He assumes Liberals cannot be racist. I know this is what they say, but their actions often disprove that fallacy.
He is also historically ignorant that the people promoting Eugenics DID in fact call themselves progressives, as do most people whom we refer to now as liberals. Who, ironically, are retaking the label progressive, ala Hillary Clinton.
These Eugenecists not only were progressive, but, like Margaret Sanger, are today still celebrated by their decendants.
Many of those progressives also celebrated the nascent fascist movement at the time, praising Musilleni for example, and wished to try similar experiments (in governance) in America. The phrase Liberal Facism was not invented by Jonah Goldberg, but by a progressive who wished to adopt such a label. (HG Wells, perhaps?).

I would not call Hitler liberal, either, if one wishes to retain traditional uses of the meaning, but then by that standard I would not call most democrats liberal even though they do. I would call him socialist, as he did, which has held many racists under its sway. Because it is made for them, or rather made for scapegoating. Socialism and other leftist ideologies which share a common ancestor, are entirely about pitting the in group (Class, race, or nation) against an out-group.


Basically Ebert's flaw here, which makes his comments little worthy of examination, is to believe that liberalism (which is also known as progressivism, and is easily defined by simply reversing everything classical liberalism stood for) could never do wrong, because its motives are so good.
Hmm, sounds familiar. The same old useful idiot refrain.

1169 IngisKahn  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 7:48:01am

re: #635 Noam Sayin'

Oh, fun!

Do me! Do me! Do me!

Here's a few:
No As In May, On Many As I, Is Ya On Man, Nay I Am Son, I Am Any Son, A Son In May, On A Yam Sin, Is On A Many, A Man In Soy, Man I A Nosy, I Am A Sonny, I Annoy Mas, Yam Is Anon, Is Any Moan, On Any Aims, Say No Main, Aim Any Son, I Soy Manna, An Inn's Mayo, A Noisy Man, Aims Annoy, Ya Mansion

1170 ladycatnip  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 8:11:48am

1168 nikis-knight

I tried to give you an upding, but for some reason it's not letting me.

Back in the day I researched and wrote about Margaret Sanger for a college class - I was appalled, horrified and disgusted by her fundamental philosophy in starting the American Birth Control League which later became Planned Parenthood - the sacred cow of the left. This woman was driven by eugenics; her personal vision was to 'cleanse us from the browns and blacks and those with mental retardation' (loosely quoted and by far more gracious than her words). She was an open fan of Hitler and made no bones about her ambition for a better race of people via abortion. But of course her views have been whitewashed over the years, making Planned Parenthood and abortion as birth control palatable and acceptable under the guise of women's reproductive rights.

All this to say, you're right on the money when it comes to liberalism and racism. Their racist views are cloaked in doing what's good for us. "Yes, this medicine will kill you, but it tastes great and goes down easy."

1171 ladycatnip  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 8:15:35am

1170 ladycatnip

correction:

She was an open fan of Hitler and made no bones about her ambition for a better race of people via abortion.

Should read: ...her ambition for a better race of people via birth control.

1172 azul93gt  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 8:18:04am

Funny when Mikey Moore's piece of trash came out Ebert loved it, and Hitler & Co. were avowed leftists. I can't accept the idea spread by leftists that leftists and liberals are by definition not racist.

1173 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 8:19:59am

Margaret Sanger lived in an age when her views were sadly not very unusual. And she's been dead now for 42 years.

Her ideology of eugenics had nothing to do with Darwin's theory of evolution.

1174 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 8:37:46am

I used to visit this site alot more often until it feel into the abyss of the evolution "debate." I like lively discussion but the display of uninformed thoughts by the evolutionists is shocking for what I would now consider a marginally conservative site.

1175 Yashmak  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 8:43:47am

re: #1174 poof

I used to visit this site alot more often until it feel into the abyss of the evolution "debate." I like lively discussion but the display of uninformed thoughts by the evolutionists is shocking for what I would now consider a marginally conservative site.

Based on your comment, you haven't read any of the comment threads on the topic, as your opinion is (to use your own word) the one that is 'uninformed'. As Ebert so aptly put it, when you've got 99.975% of the scientists behind one side of the argument, it's hard to make any sort of credible claim that's the side that's 'uninformed'.

1176 Lawrence Schmerel  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 8:44:01am

I thought there were many connections between the ideology of eugenics and Darwin's theory of evolution.

1177 ender_104  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 8:53:02am

Proponents of eugenics cited Darwin and his theory of evolution as evidence that eugenics was suitable and should be embraced.

And just because 99.975% (which is arbitrary) of scientists agree with one theory in no way makes it correct. Remember, at its height, eugenics was widely embraced by almost the entire scientific community. Well, if everyone believes it's right to kill Grandma because she's getting old, then it must be right, yes?

1178 ladycatnip  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 8:56:14am

1173 Charles

Her ideology of eugenics had nothing to do with Darwin's theory of evolution.

My comment wasn't regarding Darwin or evolution, but was agreeing with #1168-nikis-knight's claim that liberal thought and ideology can be racist.

On this point, at least, Ebert is the one who is clueless. He assumes Liberals cannot be racist. I know this is what they say, but their actions often disprove that fallacy... that liberalism (which is also known as progressivism, and is easily defined by simply reversing everything classical liberalism stood for) could never do wrong, because its motives are so good.
Hmm, sounds familiar. The same old useful idiot refrain.

1179 ladycatnip  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:01:42am

#1173 Charles

Margaret Sanger lived in an age when her views were sadly not very unusual. And she's been dead now for 42 years.

Her views were not widely held, but were extremely controversial even at that time. It was how she kept repackaging her philosophy and kept hammering at it until it became more acceptable. The founder of any organization, be it political, charitable or religious is important.

1180 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:11:45am

re: #1174 poof

Registered since: Mar 22, 2005 at 7:26 am
No. of comments posted: 98
No. of links posted: 0

LOL - another 'stalwart contributer' spits the dummy out.

1181 vancomycin  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:13:05am

#1162 Sharmuta

So, what's it like to be a bigot? Feel good? Hope so.

Anyhow, *I* haven't condemned you or anyone to hell. I happen to believe in evolution, but think the tone here is full of ugliness, and oddly, it's mostly from you and people like you (hence the bigot comment).

But hey, whatever lets you sleep at night.

1182 jaunte  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:13:31am

Help! I've fallen into a debateabyss!

1183 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:16:17am

My point is made by Charles' comment. Proponents of eugenics, an extremely popular field of "science", stated Darwin's evolution theory as a basis of their eugenics beliefs. To make a claim otherwise shows how misinformed "you" are.

And please don't use "arbitrary figures like 99.975% to "strengthen" your argument. That's just silly.

1184 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:19:45am

Hey Jimmah,

So let get this straight: you must feel smarter than me because you most likely post more than me. Nice ad hominen attack. No real rebuttal so let's find a way to make fun of me. Pathetic.

1185 jaunte  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:21:20am

re: #1183 poof

Proponents of eugenics, an extremely popular field of "science", stated Darwin's evolution theory as a basis of their eugenics beliefs.

This doesn't mean that evolutionary biology "caused" eugenics.

1186 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:24:23am

re: #1177 ender_104

Proponents of eugenics cited Darwin and his theory of evolution as evidence that eugenics was suitable and should be embraced.

But with no valid arguments. Evolutionary theory does not lead one to eugenics or to any other social, political or moral ideology or program.

Well, if everyone believes it's right to kill Grandma because she's getting old, then it must be right, yes?

That's euthanasia, not eugenics.

1187 nikis-knight  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:31:09am

Defending Margaret Sanger, Charles? That's just sad. She was by no means merely the reflection of her day. She was a fraud, for starters, knowing little to nothing about the Birth Control she claimed to advise women on. Her racism and support of Eugenics is obvious, but she was also a communist rabble-rouser and a miserable, neglectful parent. Read the book intelectual morons.
If she was just the reflection of her day, her Eugenics would have caught on beyond the progressive fringe. But many so-called liberals today still celebrate her dangerous leftest kookery, giving awards in her honor even still.

1188 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:34:48am

Jimmah

You're right it was euthanasia AND eugenics. Don't they just go so well together! They are just so progressive and retro at the same time!

jaunte

Spare me the causation nonsense. That's a pointless red herring.

1189 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:34:50am

re: #1187 nikis-knight

Defending Margaret Sanger, Charles? That's just sad. She was by no means merely the reflection of her day. She was a fraud, for starters, knowing little to nothing about the Birth Control she claimed to advise women on. Her racism and support of Eugenics is obvious, but she was also a communist rabble-rouser and a miserable, neglectful parent. Read the book intelectual morons.
If she was just the reflection of her day, her Eugenics would have caught on beyond the progressive fringe. But many so-called liberals today still celebrate her dangerous leftest kookery, giving awards in her honor even still.

What the hell did I write that defends Margaret Sanger?

Good grief.

1190 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:38:01am

re: #1184 poof

Hey Jimmah,

So let get this straight: you must feel smarter than me because you most likely post more than me. Nice ad hominen attack. No real rebuttal so let's find a way to make fun of me. Pathetic.



The point that you failed to get is: you weren't noticed when you were here, you won't be missed when you leave. Whiny attention seeking antics and drama posts from people who barely ever post are tiresome.

1191 jaunte  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:38:13am

re: #1188 poof

The 'causation nonsense' is your nonsensical attempt to smear legitimate evolutionary biology by attaching it to eugenics.

1192 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:39:27am

And yes for the record I do believe that some form of evolution takes place in a species. However I do believe in God and that nothing happens in this universe without His express written consent and at least 2 witness signatures and a signature from a heavenly notary public.

Darwin's theory was a shot in the dark at best.

1193 vancomycin  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:41:07am

re: #1190 Jimmah

The point that you failed to get is: you weren't noticed when you were here, you won't be missed when you leave. Whiny attention seeking antics and drama posts from people who barely ever post are tiresome.

Are you *sure* that posting on a blog is what should be determining worth? Because I think there's a lot of folks who would disagree with you.

1194 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:47:12am

re: #1188 poof

Spare me the causation nonsense. That's a pointless red herring.

That response says nothing about anything. Try again.

1195 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:51:33am

re: #1193 vancomycin

Are you *sure* that posting on a blog is what should be determining worth? Because I think there's a lot of folks who would disagree with you.

I'm sure that your worth as a poster on a blog depends on your posts on that blog- what else is there to go by? As for personal worth beyond that context I have not made any comment.

1196 Lynn B.  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:53:36am

re: #1183 poof

My point is made by Charles' comment. Proponents of eugenics, an extremely popular field of "science", stated Darwin's evolution theory as a basis of their eugenics beliefs. To make a claim otherwise shows how misinformed "you" are.

Proponents of slavery have claimed to find justification for their beliefs in Christianity.

Proponents of racism have claimed to find justification for their beliefs in Christianity.

Proponents of mass murder have claimed to find justification for their beliefs in Christianity.

Try reading through the thread before you post nonsense. The distortions of Darwinian theory used to arrive at eugenics are no less convoluted than the distortions of Christianity used to justify enslavement, discrimination and pogroms.

1197 interloper  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:55:56am

Evolutions Triumphs:
Peking Man
Australopithecines
Piltdown Man
Lucy
All proved to be made up of bits and pieces of different animals.

DARWIN? puleese that stuff is 150-odd years old. What other theory has lasted that long, without agenda driven public school - college profs. ?
Soon we'll be debating vorticies and the orbit of the Sun.
lol

1198 nikis-knight  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:57:20am

re: #1189 Charles

What the hell did I write that defends Margaret Sanger?

Good grief.

Margaret Sanger lived in an age when her views were sadly not very unusual. And she's been dead now for 42 years.

Her ideology of eugenics had nothing to do with Darwin's theory of evolution.

Sorry, that first sentence there implies that she wasn't to blame for her views. The second implies that she either doesn't have influence or that we shouldn't speak ill of the (dastardly) dead.
That is a defense. You can take it back if you wish, no shame in making an unclear post.

1199 Lawrence Schmerel  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:59:21am

Here is one example of a connection between the ideology of eugenics and Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Sir Francis Galton systematized ideas and practices [about eugenics] according to new knowledge about the evolution of man and animals provided by the theory of his cousin Charles Darwin during the 1860s and 1870s. After reading Darwin's Origin of Species, Galton built upon Darwin's ideas whereby the mechanisms of natural selection were potentially thwarted by human civilization. He reasoned that, since many human societies sought to protect the underprivileged and weak, those societies were at odds with the natural selection responsible for extinction of the weakest; and only by changing these social policies could society be saved from a "reversion towards mediocrity," a phrase he first coined in statistics and which later changed to the now common "regression towards the mean."

From Wikipedia

There are numerous other connections between the ideology of eugenics and Darwin's theory of evolution. Why does stating this fact meet with such disapproval? re: #1176 Lawrence Schmerel

1200 interloper  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:59:28am

Christianity was responsible for ENDING Slavery.

Christianity does NOT promote slavery.

The type of slavery in the Bible is an indentured sevitude that the person sold themselves into in order to get out of debt.

Slavers and Whore mongers go to Hell according to the Bible.

You can't just lump fanatic supremicists with Christians - nice try

/

1201 interloper  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:00:24am

#1196 Lyn B. See # 1200

1202 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:02:28am

re: #1198 nikis-knight

Sorry, that first sentence there implies that she wasn't to blame for her views. The second implies that she either doesn't have influence or that we shouldn't speak ill of the (dastardly) dead.
That is a defense. You can take it back if you wish, no shame in making an unclear post.

I won't be taking anything back, and your characterization of my comments is silly.

1203 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:03:21am

re: #1197 interloper

Evolutions Triumphs:
Peking Man
Australopithecines
Piltdown Man
Lucy
All proved to be made up of bits and pieces of different animals.

DARWIN? puleese that stuff is 150-odd years old. What other theory has lasted that long, without agenda driven public school - college profs. ?
Soon we'll be debating vorticies and the orbit of the Sun.
lol

Good grief.

1204 nikis-knight  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:04:56am

re: #1202 Charles

I won't be taking anything back, and your characterization of my comments is silly.

I'm happy to be corrected if you demonstrate such; what is the correct interpretation of your comment? I think mine is clearly the most straight forward one at the moment.

1205 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:09:43am

re: #1200 interloper

The point was to make you see how easy and how invalid it is to smear an idea in its essentials with what some people have extrapolated from it.

1206 nikis-knight  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:11:01am

re: #1199 Lawrence Schmerel

Obviously, and I don't know why Salamantis, for example, always uses tortured logic to deny it.

Just like flight is not a violation of thermodynamics and Bernoulli's equation but an application of that principle, and the atomic bomb is built upon atomic theory, Eugenics is applied evolution.
That's not to say that evolution is bad or untrue, but that the idea that species change is requried for the goal of changing a species. The fea that the best reproducers will determine the fate of a species is exactly what motivated the Eugenicists, and is exactly what we are told on these threads modern evolutionary theory implies (ie, no goal.)
Eugenics is an immoral application of evolutionary theory--just as genetically engineered food is a moral application of it.

1207 Lawrence Schmerel  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:16:11am

re: #1206 nikis-knight

"Eugenics is an immoral application of evolutionary theory."

I agree. Yet my simple statement that there are "many connections between the ideology of eugenics and Darwin's theory of evolution" received instant disapproval.

1208 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:17:41am

Let me wrap up some thoughts.

I guess the value of my thoughts is marginalized because I don't post alot on this site. So I guess I need to post tons of shit first so Jimmah can actually discuss the topic at hand. And here's link to wikipedia. Hopefully that will suffice for volume of links all wrapped up into one: [Link: www.wikipedia.org...]

A simple fact is proponents of eugenics, euthanasia, and probably people who like small furry animals based their "scientific" beliefs on D's theory of evolution. Of course their is causation! And losers who use Christianity to justify their bizarre beliefs is far beyond compare to eugenists who use evolution to justify their beliefs. Putting Christianity and evolution on the same level is ridiculous.

At first blush Charles' post did appear to defend M Sanger but a reread cleared that up. I never took Mr. Johnson as a Sanger defender...just very off base on the whole evolution issue.

I love you all, even if you devotee of Darwinism.

1209 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:18:33am

re: #1199 Lawrence Schmerel

Here is one example of a connection between the ideology of eugenics and Darwin’s theory of evolution.

From Wikipedia

There are numerous other connections between the ideology of eugenics and Darwin's theory of evolution. Why does stating this fact meet with such disapproval?

No one is denying that eugenics drew on evolutionary theory, just as racists, slavers, homophobes etc have cited Christianity for justification of their views. The argument is against the bullshit insinuation that they were right to argue this and that evolutionary theory compels one towards eugenics.

1210 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:22:12am

correction: "even if you are a devotee of Darwinism."

1211 interloper  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:26:26am

#1205
Thanks for the edumacation Jimmah - I can see how a stupid, racist Christian would need such.
I bow before your wisdom and shall find no need of my Exogese on the 66 books of the Bible, which EVERY turn of the archeologist's spade is proving factual.
But I will not listen to a bunch of atheists run down my beliefs.

1212 nikis-knight  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:27:58am

re: #1209 Jimmah

No one is denying that eugenics drew on evolutionary theory, just as racists, slavers, homophobes etc have cited Christianity for justification of their views. The argument is against the bullshit insinuation that they were right to argue this and that evolutionary theory compels one towards eugenics.

There is a difference. The thing is, Eugenics is not wrong on evolutionary grounds. I'm sorry, but that part is not bullshit.
Eugenics is wrong on moral grounds, alone.
Slavery was argued against from a biblical basis. The arguement agaist was much stronger than the paltry justifications for, based on the text.

Those who are based suited for producing and caring for viable off-spring will pass on their traits. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing, but it could be good or bad for society based on what traits those people have. The Eugenecists are right to worry if, for example, "stupid" people breed faster than "smart" people, if there were to be some objective criteria for that and we feel that more smart people is better.
Except morally they are wrong to coerce people's reproduction or, at the extreme, Hitlerian, end, to do kill the unworthy.

Again, that doesn't mean the evolution is wrong or that we should not understand it, or that bad people described it. But it isn't an idea without some danger inherent in it, at least for people unconstrained by stong moral values.

1213 interloper  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:33:09am

#1183 Lyn B
[Link: incontext2.blogspot.com...]

Proponents of slavery have claimed to find justification for their beliefs in Christianity.

Proponents of racism have claimed to find justification for their beliefs in Christianity.

Proponents of mass murder have claimed to find justification for their beliefs in Christianity.

Try reading through the thread before you post nonsense. The distortions of Darwinian theory used to arrive at eugenics are no less convoluted than the distortions of Christianity used to justify enslavement, discrimination and pogroms.


The Abolitionist movement started just after the signing of the Dec. of Ind. They couldn't break up a country just getting started. The Missouri Compromise was a result of Early 19th century Christianity taking some lead in the freeing of the slaves. The Puritans of the 17th century were a product of the "Great Awakening" spawned by Martin Luther and Jon Calvin in the 16th yes 16th Century. They hotly protested slavery.

1214 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:33:16am

re: #1208 poof

And losers who use Christianity to justify their bizarre beliefs is far beyond compare to eugenists who use evolution to justify their beliefs. Putting Christianity and evolution on the same level is ridiculous.

But you can't say why - you merely assert, again. And those bizarre beliefs you talk about used to be believed by the majority of christians in the western world, who were sure that slavery was indeed sanctioned by the bible. So how you get the idea that the comparison is ridiculous is anyone's guess.

1215 nikis-knight  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:38:23am

re: #1214 Jimmah

But you can't say why - you merely assert, again. And those bizarre beliefs you talk about used to be believed by the majority of christians in the western world, who were sure that slavery was indeed sanctioned by the bible. So how you get the idea that the comparison is ridiculous is anyone's guess.


I did.

1216 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:49:58am

re: #1212 nikis-knight

There is a difference. The thing is, Eugenics is not wrong on evolutionary grounds. I'm sorry, but that part is not bullshit.

It isn't wrong on quantum physics grounds either. It isn't the job of physical theories to weigh in on moral arguments one way or another, remember. That isn't their fault and should not be used as an excuse for failing to defend them against bogus charges of being responsible for evils done in their name.

Eugenics is wrong on moral grounds, alone.
Slavery was argued against from a biblical basis. The arguement agaist was much stronger than the paltry justifications for, based on the text.

Nope. Your view - happily, what is today the mainstream view - on this did not always hold sway, as we know. The point is - if you don't like your way of thinking smeared by being unfairly characterised by those who have used it to evil ends then don't do the same with others.

1217 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:51:06am

re: #1214 Jimmah

So in your mind Christianity and evolution are on the same footing? They are of equal value? To misuse evolution is the same thing as misusing Christianity?

Hey didn't you like my link to wikipedia? Are my comments of more value to you? Do you like me?

1218 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:51:19am

re: #1215 nikis-knight

I did.

I was replying to poof in that post. Please take care to check whom comments are addressed to.

1219 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:57:00am

re: #1217 poof

You still can't say why, can you? Surely you can do something apart from expressing your outrage?


Hey didn't you like my link to wikipedia? Are my comments of more value to you? Do you like me?

Freak.

1220 interloper  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 10:59:35am

#1212

Your view - happily, what is today the mainstream view - on this did not always hold sway, as we know. The point is - if you don't like your way of thinking smeared by being unfairly characterised by those who have used it to evil ends then don't do the same with others.

YES But Slavery IS OVER!

The Theory - Theory -of evolution is what is causing the moral relativism TODAY.

I think other than sex slaves in Bangkok we can all rest assured that slavery is over. Most Christians of the north thought Slavery was repugnant. Ther are many Sermons by Wesley 1714-1760's condeming Slavery.

Christians were the same people who NOW pray for our country. They NOW give to all sorts of charities.

Eugenics and Darwinism and Evolution have caused many of the social ills pervading our society. Because? every one is an animal. we can do what ever we want. Everyones an animal we can kill who ever we want. We are just flesh and tissue oops I don't wanna be pregnant - kill it!

Do you realize that when you talk about Christianity and slavery your not really bein honest with the debate - Whats effectin and affecting us now in a harmful way and what is at the root of it?

1221 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:05:07am

re: #1219 Jimmah

I've been called worse by exwife.

And you haven't answered mine. Hell I don't even know what you want me to answer.

1222 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:10:16am

re: #1220 interloper

This and this.

1223 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:12:56am

re: #1221 poof

I've been called worse by exwife.

And you haven't answered mine. Hell I don't even know what you want me to answer.

I haven't answered the question that you asked in order to avoid answering my question - nice try!

1224 nikis-knight  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:13:04am

re: #1218 Jimmah

I was replying to poof in that post. Please take care to check whom comments are addressed to.

I had just answered the very question as to why the two are qualitatively different that you had been talking about. I hadn't meant to be snarky, just point you to the post you might have missed. I was well aware that there were more posts in this 12,000 post thread than mine, I assure you.

It isn't wrong on quantum physics grounds either. It isn't the job of physical theories to weigh in on moral arguments one way or another, remember. That isn't their fault and should not be used as an excuse for failing to defend them against bogus charges of being responsible for evils done in their name.

Evil can't be the fault of evolution, because fault is restricted to humans. I was pointing out, though, that those who did those evils weren't wrong in the implications of the theory of evolution. That had it right, as far as that goes, but they were lacking morally.
Christians who did evil had their faith wrong on its own terms.

That is how the two are different.


Nope. Your view - happily, what is today the mainstream view - on this did not always hold sway, as we know.

It's not about my view. One can objectively look at the texts. That aside, it was the mainstream view of Christianity that slavery was wrong, and its primary justifications always lie elsewhere (mostly in the "if we free them they'll rise up and kill us" area). That some people tried to reconcile conflicting views by warping scripture rather than by changing behavior is painfully tragic, but such is human nature.

1225 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:17:37am

It's quite funny that interloper is claiming persecution here. He wants to be able to smear 'evolutionists' with all the evils in the world, when it's pointed out that this is unfair and that the same kind of unfairness could easily be done against christianity, his response is to claim that we are attacking christianity. He then goes on to smear evolutionists once again with all the evils in the world.

1226 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:22:43am

re: #1223 Jimmah

No really I don't know and now I don't care. Arguing with an evolutionist is pointless...ad hominen attacks, red herrings, straw men arguments...it is like talking to a pro choice Catholic who goes on about Catholic Social Justice as a means of defending abortion for the greater good. You just can't see the inherent illogic in your argument.

Now if this isn't a spinoff topic...

1227 interloper  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:26:24am

I am not smearing evolutionists - And I am sorry for claiming persecution here.
But I WILL Defend my faith.
Yes Evolutionism is responsible for many evils.
My Point is that you hanging on to that ooold slavery argument with a bit of a vengence
Try it on my side for a while and see if you don't feel persecuted. I am like the guy buried up to my neck with a bunch of people kicking me - then - when I actually bite you in the foot you cry no fair?

What your crying foul? - I manage to get a point in and you cry unfair?

There is nothing funny about persecution

1228 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:32:48am

re: #1224 nikis-knight

Evil can't be the fault of evolution, because fault is restricted to humans. I was pointing out, though, that those who did those evils weren't wrong in the implications of the theory of evolution. That had it right, as far as that goes, but they were lacking morally.
Christians who did evil had their faith wrong on its own terms.

That is how the two are different.

As long as you agree that the blame for eugenics is not to be laid at the door of evolution, that is the main thing.

It's not about my view. One can objectively look at the texts. That aside, it was the mainstream view of Christianity that slavery was wrong, and its primary justifications always lie elsewhere (mostly in the "if we free them they'll rise up and kill us" area). That some people tried to reconcile conflicting views by warping scripture rather than by changing behavior is painfully tragic, but such is human nature.

I disagree with you on the objective interpretation of scripture, and I'm not at all convinced that mainstream christians who were part of slave owning societies felt that they were in contravention of their religion - but am willing to leave it aside in this debate as it can only serve those who want to derail the discussion into an argument about the merits of christianity, and that is not what this is about.

1229 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:43:10am

re: #1226 poof

No really I don't know and now I don't care. Arguing with an evolutionist is pointless...ad hominen attacks, red herrings, straw men arguments...it is like talking to a pro choice Catholic who goes on about Catholic Social Justice as a means of defending abortion for the greater good. You just can't see the inherent illogic in your argument.

Now if this isn't a spinoff topic...

Wow. So much projection in one post. All you were asked to do was explain your assertion:

And losers who use Christianity to justify their bizarre beliefs is far beyond compare to eugenists who use evolution to justify their beliefs. Putting Christianity and evolution on the same level is ridiculous.

And you have completely failed to even attempt to do so.

1230 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:43:13am

re: #1145 CLLRusso

Perhaps you should look into the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a prominent German Christian theologian executed by the Nazi's during WWII. He was quoted by Moshe Ya'alon in "Israel and the Palestinians: A New Strategy" in his first paragraph, Ya'alon quoted Bonhoeffer, "If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction."

Obviously you don't bother learning much of anything about Christianity, it's much easier to point to abuse of it's tenants by evil people to discredit the teachings of Jesus Christ.

How sad.

[Link: chi.gospelcom.net...]

Hitler enjoyed widespread support from the Protestant churches. Rev. Martin Niemoller, one of the eventual "resistors," voted Nazi in 1933 and urged his congregation to do so as well. And why not? Hitler's close confidant Joseph Goebbels told his friends that he read the New Testament every night, and Hitler's mentor, Dietrich Eckardt, said: "In Christ, the embodiment of all manliness, we find all that we need."

Even the famous martyr Dietrich Bonheoffer offered wary approval of Hitler's Jewish policies in the early days. In a 1933 church newsletter, Bonheoffer wrote: "Without a doubt the Jewish question is one of the historical problems with which the state must deal, and without a doubt the state is justified in blazing new trails here."

Consider these other troubling examples of Protestant support for the Hitler regime: nearly 85% of Protestant pastors took the oath of personal loyalty to Adolf Hitler (some under duress, but most willingly). The Lippe Regional Church Administration required all employees to greet one another with the Hitler salute at work. Pastors in the Rhineland recruited their young people into the Hitler Youth. "Sieg Heil" was used in church benedictions. In fact, enthusiasm for the Hitler regime was so great among the churches that the Nazi state had to enforce its own version of separation of Church and State. Hitler forbade the wearing of Nazi uniforms at church except at funerals and ordered churches to stop flying the Nazi flag, to remove the flag from their altars, and to stop stamping their correspondence with the swastika!

1231 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:45:59am

re: #1228 Jimmah


So where would you like to place the blame for the advent of eugenics? If not in the expressed words of those who advocated eugenics and cited evolution as their starting point then where?

1232 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:50:47am

re: #1227 interloper

How in hell are you not smearing 'evolutionists' as you put it? Oh yes I see what you are saying - it's because they really are responsible for all the evils of the world.

Try it on my side for a while and see if you don't feel persecuted. I am like the guy buried up to my neck with a bunch of people kicking me - then - when I actually bite you in the foot you cry no fair?

You have completely and utterly failed to follow the argument here. 'Evolutionists' have been getting this since the start of this argument - that's what initiated it. That's the only reason that misdemeanors on the part of christians were brought up here in the first place- to let those who were using the example of people who had misused evolution as a way of discrediting evolutionary theory itself know how easy and invalid such an approach is.

1233 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 11:57:02am

re: #1231 poof

So where would you like to place the blame for the advent of eugenics? If not in the expressed words of those who advocated eugenics and cited evolution as their starting point then where?

The fault lies with those who advanced those ideas, not with evolutionary theory itself. Reflect on the fact that eugenics is today an extremely unpopular idea among biologists.

1234 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:00:20pm

re: #1155 serr8d

My argument to science is simple: create new life where none existed before. Do it from whatever primordial slime you want to use; use high pressure, lightning strikes, anything you like. Just make a spark of, you know, life.

It doesn't have to be grandiose; a yeast cell or equivalent.

I know, I know; you're working on silicon-based nanobots that will make us wet sacks of protoplasm look like old-school rag dolls. But before you go on to that, just humor me. Make a spark of life.

You know what? They've tried. They've failed. Now, they don't even have a plausible model of what might have happened that started the first building block that eventually evolved to what you see in the mirror. So what they've done now is they've quit trying, and they tell us to do it yourselves, to prove that there was a something that got us started.

Science is supposed to be curiosity. The most basic question everyone has is 'how did it all get started?' Now, science is ignoring that question, and blaming those who have a theory that's as valid as any they've advanced, because they.can.do.it.

Evolution? I'll buy into that. Just show me how the first step was taken, the beginning of life itself.

First off, what you're talking about is not evolution, but Origins Of Life theory. Charles posted an article on it a few weeks back. Evolution doesn't have to do with the beginning of life; it has to do with what happens when already-present populations of organisms with high but not perfect copying fidelity are confronted by a surrounding environment rife with dangers, challenges, constraints, and opportunities. What happens? Random genetic mutation acted upon by nonrandom environmental selection. In a word: evolution.

People have recreated simulations of the compounds and conditions present at that time, and gotten complex lipids, amino acids, and proteins. Life hasn't arisen out of them yet. But then history had a lot more shots; countless locations on earth, over billions of years, and it only had to work once.

However, your request is still bogus, with a gaping apparent (although not real) loophole that you'll gleefully drive through. The moment someone succeeds at this task, folks like you will sneer, "See? It took intelligent design to do that," even when the whole of the design was to recreate the conditions and compounds present in an UNdesigned past scenario. And when this last part is pointed out to you, you'll studiously dismiss or ignore it.

1235 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:02:47pm

The ideas behind eugenics predate Darwin's theory of evolution. A big influence on the development of eugenics: the writings of 18th century clergyman Thomas Malthus.

Darwin himself did not support "Social Darwinism" or eugenics. Those are the facts. The attempts by creationists to tie them together are nothing more than classic guilt by association.

1236 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:12:21pm

re: #1174 poof

I used to visit this site alot more often until it feel into the abyss of the evolution "debate." I like lively discussion but the display of uninformed thoughts by the evolutionists is shocking for what I would now consider a marginally conservative site.

It's kinda funny; creationists accuse those who accept evolutionary theory of being ignorant of scriptures, while they in turn claim that creationists are scientifically illiterate. And the funny thing is that a lot of the folks who accept evolutionary theory are quite conversant in scriptures, and are themselves Jewish or Christian, while practically none of the creationists seem to know jack squat about empirical science. All they seem to know is some sort of weird-ass parodic distortion they lap up from creationist propaganda sites.

1237 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:25:09pm

re: #1177 ender_104

Proponents of eugenics cited Darwin and his theory of evolution as evidence that eugenics was suitable and should be embraced.

And evolutionary theorists had no control over that, even though eugenics, which is culling the human herd according to someone's pet 'intelligent' design, is the very antithesis of what evolution is, which is environmental selection proceeding unhindered.

And just because 99.975% (which is arbitrary) of scientists agree with one theory in no way makes it correct. Remember, at its height, eugenics was widely embraced by almost the entire scientific community. Well, if everyone believes it's right to kill Grandma because she's getting old, then it must be right, yes?

Actually, eugenics was embraced by politicians and by sociocultural figures such as novelists and playwrights, and not so much by evolutionary theorists, since, as I explained before, eugenics is the antithesis of evolution. Evolutionary theorists were never agitating for the world to drop their elderly off on drifting ice floes.

And the odds of being right on scientific matters are with the 99.75% of scientists, by a 99.75 to 0.25 margin.

1238 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:34:55pm

re: #1181 vancomycin

#1162 Sharmuta

So, what's it like to be a bigot? Feel good? Hope so.

Anyhow, *I* haven't condemned you or anyone to hell. I happen to believe in evolution, but think the tone here is full of ugliness, and oddly, it's mostly from you and people like you (hence the bigot comment).

But hey, whatever lets you sleep at night.

If you wanna see real religious intolerance and bigotry, go to your upper right hand page corner, and click on the little rectangle to the right of the hourglass, just under the red X. Then click on "find on this page" and type in bitterclinger_in_PA. You will find more than enough religious intolerance and bigotry in his posts to last you a while. Including several condemnations to Hell, directed at Charles.

1239 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:38:28pm

re: #1220 interloper

I think other than sex slaves in Bangkok we can all rest assured that slavery is over.

You are ill informed. There are more slaves today then ever before. You don't have to go to Bangkok to get a slave- why, you can get them in this hemisphere! And not just sex slaves- slave, period. Don't kid yourself.

1240 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:47:58pm

re: #1197 interloper

Evolutions Triumphs:
Peking Man
Australopithecines
Piltdown Man
Lucy
All proved to be made up of bits and pieces of different animals.

DARWIN? puleese that stuff is 150-odd years old. What other theory has lasted that long, without agenda driven public school - college profs.?
Soon we'll be debating vorticies and the orbit of the Sun.
lol

All of those but Piltdown Man are authentic and genuine. And Lucy herself was an Australopithecus Afarensus. The fact that you redundantly mentioned both australopithecines in general and the most famous example of one indicates a deep and abiding ignorance of the subject of human origins on your part.

Other scientific theories that have lasted as long as or longer than evolutionary theory include Copernicus' and Galileo's spherical earth heliocentrism and Newtonian physics (although subsumed within Einsteinian relativity as a special case). You think they're only still around due to professorial agendas, too?

I'm holding out the hope, for your sake, that you're not really this clueless, and that you just forgot your sarc tag.

1241 Lynn B.  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:50:03pm

re: #1213 interloper

Thanks for the link.

What's your point?

If you're trying to argue that I'm wrong because there are Christians who oppose slavery (which, of course, is the vast majority view today), you're not helping yourself. Because the vast majority of those who accept neo-Darwinian evolution are far from supporters of eugenics. To the contrary.

You can't have it both ways.

1242 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 12:56:32pm

Here's one book on modern slavery I read partially thanks to Powerline:

A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery

Sadly- searching "modern slavery" at Amazon gets you quite a number of books. There are countless entries for it in whatever search engine one uses as well.

Don't be ignorant on this subject- slavery is alive, well and sadly thriving.

1243 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:00:35pm

re: #1200 interloper

Christianity was responsible for ENDING Slavery.

Christianity does NOT promote slavery.

The type of slavery in the Bible is an indentured sevitude that the person sold themselves into in order to get out of debt.

Slavers and Whore mongers go to Hell according to the Bible.

You can't just lump fanatic supremicists with Christians - nice try

/

Actually, slaves were bought and sold by other people, not by themselves. And if you were female, there was no set expiration date:

When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

And that 6 years and you're free thing? There was a way around that: hold the family hostage:

If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he will go free in the seventh year. But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him. If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master. But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I would rather not go free.' If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will belong to his master forever. (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)

Of course this only applied to Hebrew slaves; slaves of other tribes could be owned forever:

However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)


And what about abuse? Well as long as they survive a beating for a few days, no harm, no foul:

When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

And for those who say that was an Old testament thang, the new Testament approved of slavery, too:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)

Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. You should work all the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts. Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. (1 Timothy 6:1-2 NLT)

1244 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:12:11pm

re: #1206 nikis-knight

Obviously, and I don't know why Salamantis, for example, always uses tortured logic to deny it.

Just like flight is not a violation of thermodynamics and Bernoulli's equation but an application of that principle, and the atomic bomb is built upon atomic theory, Eugenics is applied evolution.
That's not to say that evolution is bad or untrue, but that the idea that species change is requried for the goal of changing a species. The fea that the best reproducers will determine the fate of a species is exactly what motivated the Eugenicists, and is exactly what we are told on these threads modern evolutionary theory implies (ie, no goal.)
Eugenics is an immoral application of evolutionary theory--just as genetically engineered food is a moral application of it.

Genetic engineering, whether internal to the genome, by gene-splicing, or external to the genome, by breeding and culling, are the actions of humans superimposing their own wills and desires upon the natural progression of the environmental selection of genetic traits. As such, it is an abrogation of evolution. It is humans willfully intervening in a natural process, and attempting to intentionally shape and mold its results according to their own 'intelligent' designs.

Eugenics is simply animal husbandry applied to humans. And animal husbandry has been around for millennia before Charles Darwin was a twinkle in his father's eye. Did Plato read Charles Darwin before he advocated eugenics in The Republic?

1245 Lynn B.  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:15:30pm

re: #1242 Sharmuta

Here's one book on modern slavery I read partially thanks to Powerline:

A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery

Sadly- searching "modern slavery" at Amazon gets you quite a number of books. There are countless entries for it in whatever search engine one uses as well.

Don't be ignorant on this subject- slavery is alive, well and sadly thriving.

It's stunning that anyone with access to the internet can think that "slavery is over." If only. It's alive and well in Sudan. And Christians are among the primary victims. The silence in much of the Christian world continues to be deafening.

1246 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:21:51pm

re: #1208 poof

Let me wrap up some thoughts.

I guess the value of my thoughts is marginalized because I don't post alot on this site. So I guess I need to post tons of shit first so Jimmah can actually discuss the topic at hand. And here's link to wikipedia. Hopefully that will suffice for volume of links all wrapped up into one: [Link: www.wikipedia.org...]

A simple fact is proponents of eugenics, euthanasia, and probably people who like small furry animals based their "scientific" beliefs on D's theory of evolution. Of course their is causation! And losers who use Christianity to justify their bizarre beliefs is far beyond compare to eugenists who use evolution to justify their beliefs. Putting Christianity and evolution on the same level is ridiculous.

I agree with you that it requires a massive amount of utter temerity and gall to equate that for which there is reams of empirical evidence with that for which there is not a single iota or whit of it. Which is why I would never dream of placing empirical science on an equal footing with religious dogma. In fact, they cannot even be compared, since they inhabit different realms - the realm of knowledge, and the realm of belief.

At first blush Charles' post did appear to defend M Sanger but a reread cleared that up. I never took Mr. Johnson as a Sanger defender...just very off base on the whole evolution issue.

I love you all, even if you devotee of Darwinism.

"Devotee" has illegitimate religious faith connotations. Acceptance of the soundness and validity of evolutionary theory is not a matter of embracing some unsupported belief. Let's just say we're convinced by all that empirical evidence.

1247 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:23:58pm

re: #1245 Lynn B.

In the opening of the book I linked, the author travels to Haiti and embarks on a journey to purchase a slave to demonstrate how easy it is to acquire one. Sad and highly disturbing this takes place so close to our own country. Sad and stunningly ignorant that anyone would try to argue it's an issue that's dead in the water. The slave traders would certainly love to have us all think so.

1248 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:26:49pm

re: #1211 interloper

#1205
Thanks for the edumacation Jimmah - I can see how a stupid, racist Christian would need such.
I bow before your wisdom and shall find no need of my Exogese on the 66 books of the Bible, which EVERY turn of the archeologist's spade is proving factual.
But I will not listen to a bunch of atheists run down my beliefs.

You mean all those spades that have uncovered all of those fossils of dinos, ancient mammals, and ancient humans, as well as humans' hominid progenitors, that couldnt have existed at all, much less when radiometric dating says they did, according to Genesis literalism?

1249 gdonovan  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:28:00pm

re: #1158 tai-pan

As much as I like Ebert's style I refuse to give him the time of day since he praised Farhenheit 911

LOL! I got downdinged for pointing that out.

1250 Lynn B.  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:31:16pm

re: #1247 Sharmuta

In the opening of the book I linked, the author travels to Haiti and embarks on a journey to purchase a slave to demonstrate how easy it is to acquire one. Sad and highly disturbing this takes place so close to our own country. Sad and stunningly ignorant that anyone would try to argue it's an issue that's dead in the water. The slave traders would certainly love to have us all think so.

Indeed.

1251 fangbeer  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:34:46pm
And animal husbandry has been around for millennia before Charles Darwin was a twinkle in his father's eye. Did Plato read Charles Darwin before he advocated eugenics in The Republic?

Did Plato have to read Charles Darwin in order for eugenics to be based in evolutionary theory? Did evolution not exist before Darwin wrote about it?

1252 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:36:06pm

re: #1212 nikis-knight

There is a difference. The thing is, Eugenics is not wrong on evolutionary grounds. I'm sorry, but that part is not bullshit.
Eugenics is wrong on moral grounds, alone.
Slavery was argued against from a biblical basis. The arguement agaist was much stronger than the paltry justifications for, based on the text.

Those who are based suited for producing and caring for viable off-spring will pass on their traits. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing, but it could be good or bad for society based on what traits those people have. The Eugenecists are right to worry if, for example, "stupid" people breed faster than "smart" people, if there were to be some objective criteria for that and we feel that more smart people is better.
Except morally they are wrong to coerce people's reproduction or, at the extreme, Hitlerian, end, to do kill the unworthy.

Again, that doesn't mean the evolution is wrong or that we should not understand it, or that bad people described it. But it isn't an idea without some danger inherent in it, at least for people unconstrained by stong moral values.

Evolutionary theory is empirical science, not ethics or politics. You might as well criticize physics for the nuclear arms race. All either of them has done is to provide theoretical knowledge of a field. Then technology developed means of practically applying those theories in order to create new tools, such as nuclear reactors or gene splicers.

1253 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:38:31pm

re: #1251 fangbeer

Did Plato have to read Charles Darwin in order for eugenics to be based in evolutionary theory? Did evolution not exist before Darwin wrote about it?

Evolution existed before Charles Darwin, but human knowledge of it didn't, so Plato could not have based his advocacy of eugenics on evolutionary theory. Doh!

1254 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:43:50pm

re: #1213 interloper

#1183 Lyn B
[Link: incontext2.blogspot.com...]

The Abolitionist movement started just after the signing of the Dec. of Ind. They couldn't break up a country just getting started. The Missouri Compromise was a result of Early 19th century Christianity taking some lead in the freeing of the slaves. The Puritans of the 17th century were a product of the "Great Awakening" spawned by Martin Luther and Jon Calvin in the 16th yes 16th Century. They hotly protested slavery.

And at the same time, Southern Baptists and Southern Methodists split from their parent congregations in the 1840s because they believed that the Biblical story of Ham witnessing his father Noah's drunken nakedness and being burned by God for this transgression with a mark that ensured that he and all his descendents would be slaves, Biblically justified slavery. They believed that the blackness of Negroes was that God-burned mark. And the KKK, which consider themselves to be Christian, still believe it today.

1255 Fangbeer  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:45:12pm
but human knowledge of it didn't

Oh, so then people were not able to observe evolution prior to Charles' paper, right?

Duh.

1256 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:49:33pm

re: #1217 poof

So in your mind Christianity and evolution are on the same footing? They are of equal value? To misuse evolution is the same thing as misusing Christianity?

Hey didn't you like my link to wikipedia? Are my comments of more value to you? Do you like me?

To misuse anything is a bad thing to do. That fact does not in and of itself equate all misused things.

Religion and science are not equatable; they don't even occupy the same domains. Nor can their respective values to humanity be compared, any more than one can compare cyclotrons with leprechauns.

1257 mangakhan  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:52:10pm

errr . . . Why are we picking this fight?

The Fiscal Conservative vs. the Religious Conservative did not work in '08. Why do we need to fight Science Vs. Religion and divide the party more, regardless of how rediculous the science really is.

1258 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:54:51pm

re: #1255 Fangbeer

Oh, so then people were not able to observe evolution prior to Charles' paper, right?

Duh.

No, they weren't. They were able to domesticate and selectively breed plants and animals, but they didn't see evolution happening in the natural world, and they didn't call or conceive of what they were doing as evolution, which is environmental, not human, selection. It takes evolution a looong time to happen for things that are bigger than bacteria, and people just don't live that long.

1259 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 1:56:12pm

re: #1257 mangakhan

errr . . . Why are we picking this fight?

The Fiscal Conservative vs. the Religious Conservative did not work in '08. Why do we need to fight Science Vs. Religion and divide the party more, regardless of how rediculous the science really is.

Show me where the science is ridiculous. If you're gonna swing a contemptuous epithet like that around, be prepared to back it up.

1260 Lynn B.  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:02:46pm

re: #1254 Salamantis

And at the same time, Southern Baptists and Southern Methodists split from their parent congregations in the 1840s because they believed that the Biblical story of Ham witnessing his father Noah's drunken nakedness and being burned by God for this transgression with a mark that ensured that he and all his descendents would be slaves, Biblically justified slavery. They believed that the blackness of Negroes was that God-burned mark. And the KKK, which consider themselves to be Christian, still believe it today.

Further to this point, I think ... (haven't read it, looks interesting)

1261 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:06:03pm

re: #1220 interloper

#1212

YES But Slavery IS OVER!

Not for everyone.

The Theory - Theory -of evolution is what is causing the moral relativism TODAY.

Empirical science doesn't make ethical or moral pronounements; it deals in facts and evidence.

I think other than sex slaves in Bangkok we can all rest assured that slavery is over. Most Christians of the north thought Slavery was repugnant. Ther are many Sermons by Wesley 1714-1760's condeming Slavery.

Christians were the same people who NOW pray for our country. They NOW give to all sorts of charities.

Eugenics and Darwinism and Evolution have caused many of the social ills pervading our society. Because? every one is an animal. we can do what ever we want. Everyones an animal we can kill who ever we want. We are just flesh and tissue oops I don't wanna be pregnant - kill it!

We ARE hominid mammals. But that empirical fact has no ethical ramifications one way or another.

As far as reproductive choice goes, perhaps you prefer the chattel slavery broodmare culture of the Islamists...

Ethics does not depend upon religion for its existence. Religions have either appropriated their morals from the cultures in which they arose, or borrowed them from earlier religions who appropriated them from past surrounding cultures.

Do you realize that when you talk about Christianity and slavery your not really bein honest with the debate - Whats effectin and affecting us now in a harmful way and what is at the root of it?

Christians who supported slavery and Christians who opposed slavery have both striven to Biblically justify their positions.

1262 Joan  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:09:15pm

re: #1242 Sharmuta

[Link: www.freetheslaves.net...]
help 'em out, a four star Charity Navigator rating, U.S. "sister" organization to U.K. Antislavery International

1263 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:10:16pm

re: #1262 Joan

Thanks- I'll check it out.

1264 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:10:43pm

re: #1226 poof

No really I don't know and now I don't care. Arguing with an evolutionist is pointless...ad hominen attacks, red herrings, straw men arguments...it is like talking to a pro choice Catholic who goes on about Catholic Social Justice as a means of defending abortion for the greater good. You just can't see the inherent illogic in your argument.

Now if this isn't a spinoff topic...

Project much?

1265 sharp_discernment  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:19:49pm

Speaking of Michael Moore... here is some of Ebert's glowing review of his Michael Moore's movie Fahrenheit 9/11 in June 21, 2004. The review is so long and adoring that I cannot post all of it (won't fit), but here are a few snippets...

Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" is less an expose of George W. Bush than a dramatization of what Moore sees as a failed and dangerous presidency. The charges in the film will not come as news to those who pay attention to politics, but Moore illustrates them with dramatic images and a relentless commentary track that essentially concludes Bush is incompetent, dishonest, failing in the war on terrorism, and has bad taste in friends.

Moore also shows American military personnel who are apparently enjoying the war; he has footage of soldiers who use torture techniques not in a prison but in the field, where they hood an Iraqi prisoner, call him "Ali Baba" and pose for videos while touching his genitals.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" is a compelling, persuasive film, at odds with the White House effort to present Bush as a strong leader. He comes across as a shallow, inarticulate man, simplistic in speech and inauthentic in manner. If the film is not quite as electrifying as Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," that may be because Moore has toned down his usual exuberance and was sobered by attacks on the factual accuracy of elements of "Columbine"; playing with larger stakes, he is more cautious here, and we get an op-ed piece, not a stand-up routine. But he remains one of the most valuable figures on the political landscape, a populist rabble-rouser, humorous and effective; the outrage and incredulity in his film are an exhilarating response to Bush's determined repetition of the same stubborn sound bites.

Is THIS the man whose opinion Little Green Footballs now seeks and approves of, someone who praises Michael Moore's work? Sounds like Ebert enjoyed the skewering of President Bush too. Is this what Little Green Football's has become?

1266 sharp_discernment  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:22:01pm

Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" is less an expose of George W. Bush than a dramatization of what Moore sees as a failed and dangerous presidency. The charges in the film will not come as news to those who pay attention to politics, but Moore illustrates them with dramatic images and a relentless commentary track that essentially concludes Bush is incompetent, dishonest, failing in the war on terrorism, and has bad taste in friends.

Moore also shows American military personnel who are apparently enjoying the war; he has footage of soldiers who use torture techniques not in a prison but in the field, where they hood an Iraqi prisoner, call him "Ali Baba" and pose for videos while touching his genitals.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" is a compelling, persuasive film, at odds with the White House effort to present Bush as a strong leader. He comes across as a shallow, inarticulate man, simplistic in speech and inauthentic in manner. If the film is not quite as electrifying as Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," that may be because Moore has toned down his usual exuberance and was sobered by attacks on the factual accuracy of elements of "Columbine"; playing with larger stakes, he is more cautious here, and we get an op-ed piece, not a stand-up routine. But he remains one of the most valuable figures on the political landscape, a populist rabble-rouser, humorous and effective; the outrage and incredulity in his film are an exhilarating response to Bush's determined repetition of the same stubborn sound bites.

That was ALL supposed to be in quotes from Ebert...

1267 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:23:58pm

re: #1227 interloper

I am not smearing evolutionists - And I am sorry for claiming persecution here.
But I WILL Defend my faith.
Yes Evolutionism is responsible for many evils.
My Point is that you hanging on to that ooold slavery argument with a bit of a vengence
Try it on my side for a while and see if you don't feel persecuted. I am like the guy buried up to my neck with a bunch of people kicking me - then - when I actually bite you in the foot you cry no fair?

What your crying foul? - I manage to get a point in and you cry unfair?

There is nothing funny about persecution

What is so pitiful and pathetic about you is that you actually seem to believe that defending your religious faith requires you to attack empirical science, and that knowledge is a threat to your beliefs.

This could only be true if you are a Genesis Literalist. And if you are, that's just too bad for you, because genesis literalism is empirically falsifiable and demonstrably false. Science should not stray from the realm of knowledge and impinge upon the realm of supernatural beliefs, but likewise, religion should not stray from the realm of belief and transgress the realm of the empirically ascertainable. When it endeavors to do so, it can expect the well-deserved discreditings and debunkings that will inevitably ensue.

Evolutionary theory, like physics, has furnished us with tools. It is up to us how we do and do not use them. Guns don't kill people, people do. And if they want to kill people, they will use knives or swords or spears or arrows or rocks or clubs instead. If Charles Darwin and others had never figured out evolution, eugenicists would have seized on and twisted something else to promote their genocidal agenda.

1268 mangakhan  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:24:24pm

re: #1259 Salamantis

Show me where the science is ridiculous. If you're gonna swing a contemptuous epithet like that around, be prepared to back it up.

My question is why have the argument. Why pick the fight? Why make it an issue? And why make it an issue here?

Don't get me wrong, the science is fun. I mean I saw an Okapi yesterday and all, but what kind of science tells you to have faith and just believe.

1269 Lynn B.  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:27:04pm

re: #1266 sharp_discernment

We have established (ad nauseum) that Roger Ebert is somewhat of an apologist for left-wing moonbatry in his reviews of other "documentary" films.

Now. Where's your critique of the substance of the review Charles linked?

/anxiously waiting ...

1270 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:27:05pm

re: #1231 poof

So where would you like to place the blame for the advent of eugenics? If not in the expressed words of those who advocated eugenics and cited evolution as their starting point then where?

The first advocate of eugenics was Plato, in his work The Republic, more than two millennia before Charles Darwin was born.

1271 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:29:04pm

re: #1268 mangakhan

My question is why have the argument. Why pick the fight? Why make it an issue? And why make it an issue here?

Don't get me wrong, the science is fun. I mean I saw an Okapi yesterday and all, but what kind of science tells you to have faith and just believe.

That's religion's job, not science's. Science is all about investigating and experimenting until you gain evidence by means of which you can know things.

1272 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:31:01pm

re: #1264 Salamantis

Once again for your benefit I am Catholic and a believer in evolution...in some fashion but not in Darwin's theory.

I've noticed that evolutionist defend their beliefs in the same manner as greenist do (my new word unless proven otherwise!). "I have facts, see! Look at these charts and graphs! Nevermind the assumptions, gaps in logic and corelated data and the presence of opposing data! You denier!"

As for slavery as we digress: Salamantis you should perhaps get a better understanding of slavery in Israel. You will find it is not the same type of slavery as was found in the American south and other brutal forms found in the world. No this is not a defense of slavery at all so don't bother me with accusations of such.

1273 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:31:25pm

re: #1268 mangakhan

My question is why have the argument. Why pick the fight? Why make it an issue? And why make it an issue here?

Don't get me wrong, the science is fun. I mean I saw an Okapi yesterday and all, but what kind of science tells you to have faith and just believe.

It's an issues because creationists are actively pushing ID into science classrooms in this country. It's not much different than other groups actively trying to push their religious beliefs unto others, except this one seems to hit a little closer to home for some people.

Well- as I reject the imposition of religious beliefs from the islamists, so too will I reject the imposition of any other religious belief upon me and mine for the same principled reasons- that being that I'm an American and have free exercise.

1274 Lynn B.  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:38:15pm

re: #1268 mangakhan

My question is why have the argument. Why pick the fight? Why make it an issue? And why make it an issue here?

Top 10 reasons? Here are 5:

Because the supporters of evolution aren't the ones picking the fight, they're the ones defending against it;

Because the future of this country depends, in part, upon educated, intelligent people who can stand on the cutting edge of science and maintain our advantage in dozens of field that depend upon it;

Because the attempts to introduce Creationism and its various sockpuppets into the public school system undermine not only the academic and intellectual potential of our students but the Constitution of the United States as well;

Because the introduction of one religious doctrine into our public schools would open the door for the introduction of any and all religious (and anti-religious) doctrines into our public schools, again to the detriment and confusion of our children;

Because it's Charles' blog and he believes, for the foregoing reasons and others, that it's important.

Don't get me wrong, the science is fun. I mean I saw an Okapi yesterday and all, but what kind of science tells you to have faith and just believe.

No kind of science tells you that. What are you talking about?

1275 mangakhan  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:48:15pm

re: #1273 Sharmuta

It's an issues because creationists are actively pushing ID into science classrooms in this country. It's not much different than other groups actively trying to push their religious beliefs unto others, except this one seems to hit a little closer to home for some people.

Well- as I reject the imposition of religious beliefs from the islamists, so too will I reject the imposition of any other religious belief upon me and mine for the same principled reasons- that being that I'm an American and have free exercise.

I can respect that, but, like many things run by liberals, the public school system does not allow one to have a differing opinion. They only teach the theory of evolution as if it were a scientific law. I know it is scary for some of you out there, but there are those who have a different belief.

Also reminds me of an episode of Friends . . .

PHOEBE: Uh-oh. It's Scary Scientist Man.

ROSS: Ok, Phoebe, this is it. In this briefcase I carry actual scientific facts. A briefcase of facts, if you will. Some of these fossils are over 200 million years old.

PHOEBE: Ok, look, before you even start, I'm not denying evolution, ok, I'm just saying that it's one of the possibilities.

ROSS: It's the only possibility, Phoebe.

PHOEBE: Ok, Ross, could you just open your mind like this much, ok? Wasn't there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess of crap came out. Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can't admit that there's a teeny tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?

ROSS: There might be, a teeny, tiny, possibility.

PHOEBE: I can't believe you caved.

ROSS: What?

PHOEBE: You just abandoned your whole belief system. I mean, before, I didn't agree with you, but at least I respected you. How, how, how are you going to go into work tomorrow? How, how are you going to face the other science guys? How, how are you going to face yourself? Oh! That was fun. So who's hungry?

1276 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:48:48pm

re: #1272 poof

Once again for your benefit I am Catholic and a believer in evolution...in some fashion but not in Darwin's theory.

That's surpassingly strange, since it was Darwin who discovered evolution. And the basic tenets of his theory - random mutation acted upon by environmental selection - have been augmented since, but never denied. And this is the evolution that the Roman Catholic Church accepts.

I've noticed that evolutionist defend their beliefs in the same manner as greenist do (my new word unless proven otherwise!). "I have facts, see! Look at these charts and graphs! Nevermind the assumptions, gaps in logic and corelated data and the presence of opposing data! You denier!"

Yeah, your mind is made up; don't confuse you with facts and logic. Why don't you lay out some of those assumptions, logical and data gaps, and opposed data to which you so vaguely and blithely claim to be privy? I cannot recall a single datum of empirical evidence that contradicts evolutionary theory. And as a past logic tutor at a university, I haven't noticed many lacunae in that department, either.

As for slavery as we digress: Salamantis you should perhaps get a better understanding of slavery in Israel. You will find it is not the same type of slavery as was found in the American south and other brutal forms found in the world. No this is not a defense of slavery at all so don't bother me with accusations of such.

Well, beating a slave to death was okay in the Old Testament, so long as the slave took a couple of days to die. Gentle, it was not.

1277 jaunte  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 2:57:12pm

re: #1275 mangakhan

"...the public school system does not allow one to have a differing opinion..."

This is not true.

1278 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:01:49pm

re: #1275 mangakhan

I can respect that, but, like many things run by liberals, the public school system does not allow one to have a differing opinion. They only teach the theory of evolution as if it were a scientific law. I know it is scary for some of you out there, but there are those who have a different belief.

People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. And the empirical facts completely and unequivocably support evolutionary theory. It is as solidly grounded as any theory in science, and theories in science are far more solid than the word 'theory' implies in common conversation:

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

"Some scientific explanations are so well established that no new evidence is likely to alter them. The explanation becomes a scientific theory. In everyday language a theory means a hunch or speculation. Not so in science. In science, the word theory refers to a comprehensive explanation of an important feature of nature supported by facts gathered over time. Theories also allow scientists to make predictions about as yet unobserved phenomena."

"A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. Such fact-supported theories are not "guesses" but reliable accounts of the real world. The theory of biological evolution is more than "just a theory." It is as factual an explanation of the universe as the atomic theory of matter or the germ theory of disease. Our understanding of gravity is still a work in progress. But the phenomenon of gravity, like evolution, is an accepted fact."

Oh, yeah. And science is not a popularity contest. Lots of people believe things that aren't true.

Also reminds me of an episode of Friends . . .

PHOEBE: Uh-oh. It's Scary Scientist Man.

ROSS: Ok, Phoebe, this is it. In this briefcase I carry actual scientific facts. A briefcase of facts, if you will. Some of these fossils are over 200 million years old.

PHOEBE: Ok, look, before you even start, I'm not denying evolution, ok, I'm just saying that it's one of the possibilities.

ROSS: It's the only possibility, Phoebe.

PHOEBE: Ok, Ross, could you just open your mind like this much, ok? Wasn't there a time when the brightest minds in the world believed that the world was flat? And, up until like what, 50 years ago, you all thought the atom was the smallest thing, until you split it open, and this like, whole mess of crap came out. Now, are you telling me that you are so unbelievably arrogant that you can't admit that there's a teeny tiny possibility that you could be wrong about this?

ROSS: There might be, a teeny, tiny, possibility.

PHOEBE: I can't believe you caved.

ROSS: What?

PHOEBE: You just abandoned your whole belief system. I mean, before, I didn't agree with you, but at least I respected you. How, how, how are you going to go into work tomorrow? How, how are you going to face the other science guys? How, how are you going to face yourself? Oh! That was fun. So who's hungry?

If minds are pried too wide open, all kinds of crap can fall in there. Like astrology, or alchemy, or phrenology, or phlogiston theory, or flat-earth ptolemaic geocentrism, or the doctrine of signatures. Or the belief that one can refute evolutionary theory by using a sitcom script.

1279 Idaho  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:09:15pm

roger Ebert's comments, and some of those here, about Darwin and eugenics have been a little off-base.

Let me say that I am not a creationist. I believe in evolution. I suppose I also believe in some sort of intelligent design, in that I believe that through the process of evolution we are seeing the design of a creator coming to be. But as a scientific theory? Please. A scientist cannot say, ever, that an event occurred because God willed it to be. Such a statement is an abandonment of science.

Anyway, back to Darwin. Ben Stein was not wrong in linking Darwin and eugenics. Darwin hardly invented the idea that mankind should ensure that only the "superior" (as defined by the proponent of the theory) should be allowed to breed. But he enthusiastically and explicitly adopted the idea in "The Descent of Man."

Likewise, it is not true that eugenics was a policy preferred only, or even primarily, by racists. There was widespread support from the 1880s until the 1930s in sterilizing and otherwise keeping from reproducing the mentally unfit, the criminal, and the stupid. George Hunter's textbook Civic Biology, the high school science textbook at issue in the Scopes trial, explicitly endorsed eugenics, describing it as the science of identifying specific persons whom the government should prevent from reproducing. Certainly some racists endorsed eugenics as well -- Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger supported abortion specifically because it would reduce the numbers of blacks and other undesirables -- but most eugenecists could not be called racist.

The idea of evolution does not necessary lead to the conclusion embraced by these people that the wise men of society must act to keep the circus geeks, criminals and feebs from breeding. But Darwin's particular theory of evolution -- survival of the fittest, though he did not coin that phrase -- leads fairly naturally to such a conclusion. Darwin took that road, and so did many others. One can argue what it means, but don't deny the facts.

1280 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:11:56pm

re: #1279 Idaho

Darwin hardly invented the idea that mankind should ensure that only the "superior" (as defined by the proponent of the theory) should be allowed to breed. But he enthusiastically and explicitly adopted the idea in "The Descent of Man."

This is completely false.

But Darwin's particular theory of evolution -- survival of the fittest, though he did not coin that phrase -- leads fairly naturally to such a conclusion. Darwin took that road...

This is also completely false.

1281 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:12:43pm

re: #1275 mangakhan

I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone on this blog who would argue that the public school system in this country is doing great. It's not.

However- the cries about leftist control of the schools is another in a long list of distractions concerning this issue. We are not discussing the whole of educational issues. We are discussing science education in particular, and the creationist agenda being pushed upon it.

1282 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:18:10pm

re: #1279 Idaho

This is the truth about what Darwin wrote in The Descent of Man:

In The Descent of Man Darwin noted that aiding the weak to survive and have families could lose the benefits of natural selection, but cautioned that withholding such aid would endanger the instinct of sympathy, "the noblest part of our nature", and factors such as education could be more important. When Galton suggested that publishing research could encourage intermarriage within a "caste" of "those who are naturally gifted", Darwin foresaw practical difficulties, and thought it "the sole feasible, yet I fear utopian, plan of procedure in improving the human race", preferring to simply publicise the importance of inheritance and leave decisions to individuals.

I know you said you're not a creationist, so I'm sure it's sheer coincidence that you're posting an untrue creationist talking point about The Descent of Man.

1283 mangakhan  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:22:24pm

re: #1274 Lynn B.

No kind of science tells you that. What are you talking about?

What does evolution tell us about how it all began ?

1284 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:23:43pm

re: #1283 mangakhan

What does evolution tell us about how it all began ?

You misunderstand evolution. It is a mechanism explaining the diversification of life, not the origins of it.

1285 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:25:53pm

re: #1265 sharp_discernment

Well said.

1286 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:34:05pm

re: #1279 Idaho

roger Ebert's comments, and some of those here, about Darwin and eugenics have been a little off-base.

Let me say that I am not a creationist. I believe in evolution. I suppose I also believe in some sort of intelligent design, in that I believe that through the process of evolution we are seeing the design of a creator coming to be. But as a scientific theory? Please. A scientist cannot say, ever, that an event occurred because God willed it to be. Such a statement is an abandonment of science.

Anyway, back to Darwin. Ben Stein was not wrong in linking Darwin and eugenics. Darwin hardly invented the idea that mankind should ensure that only the "superior" (as defined by the proponent of the theory) should be allowed to breed. But he enthusiastically and explicitly adopted the idea in "The Descent of Man."

Likewise, it is not true that eugenics was a policy preferred only, or even primarily, by racists. There was widespread support from the 1880s until the 1930s in sterilizing and otherwise keeping from reproducing the mentally unfit, the criminal, and the stupid. George Hunter's textbook Civic Biology, the high school science textbook at issue in the Scopes trial, explicitly endorsed eugenics, describing it as the science of identifying specific persons whom the government should prevent from reproducing. Certainly some racists endorsed eugenics as well -- Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger supported abortion specifically because it would reduce the numbers of blacks and other undesirables -- but most eugenecists could not be called racist.

The idea of evolution does not necessary lead to the conclusion embraced by these people that the wise men of society must act to keep the circus geeks, criminals and feebs from breeding. But Darwin's particular theory of evolution -- survival of the fittest, though he did not coin that phrase -- leads fairly naturally to such a conclusion. Darwin took that road, and so did many others. One can argue what it means, but don't deny the facts.

"Man, like every other animal, has no doubt advanced to his present high condition through a struggle for existence consequent on his rapid
multiplication; and if he is to advance still higher, it is to be feared that he must remain subject to a severe struggle. Otherwise he would sink into indolence, and the more gifted men would not be more successful in the battle of life than the less gifted. Hence our natural rate of increase, though leading to many and obvious evils, must not be greatly diminished by any means. There should be open competition for all men; and the most able should not be prevented by laws or customs from succeeding best and rearing the largest number of offspring."

Charles Darwin, The Ascent of Man

1287 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:34:43pm

re: #1276 Salamantis

Darwin didn't discover evolution; he posed a possible explanation to the various traits in and amongst species. I know what my Church teaches and what it finds acceptable. However it is not in the Catechism and therefore not official Church teaching so I am free to disagree. Which I do to a point as I have repeatedly stated.

Again show me one example of a transitional fossil. All that are claimed to be such are mere assumptions as far as I know.

Again I am not anti evolution. Darwin's theory is weak and unverifiable.

Should I assume by your comments that you are a greenist too? And perhaps a pro abortion Christian as well?

1288 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:36:49pm

re: #1287 poof

Transitional Fossils

Please update your talking points. Thanks.

1289 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:36:53pm

re: #1283 mangakhan

What does evolution tell us about how it all began ?

That is not evolution's focus of inquiry. Instead, such questions are investigated by those involved in Origins Of Life theory.

1290 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:46:19pm

re: #1287 poof

Darwin didn't discover evolution; he posed a possible explanation to the various traits in and amongst species. I know what my Church teaches and what it finds acceptable. However it is not in the Catechism and therefore not official Church teaching so I am free to disagree. Which I do to a point as I have repeatedly stated.

Actually, Charles Darwin DID discover the principles of random mutation and environmental selection, which are the engine of evolution. Before he discovered them, they were not known.

Again show me one example of a transitional fossil. All that are claimed to be such are mere assumptions as far as I know.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

[Link: www.talkorigins.org...]

[Link: wiki.cotch.net...]

Again I am not anti evolution. Darwin's theory is weak and unverifiable.

Evolution has been observed under controlled and repeatable conditions in Richard Lenski's laboratory. It is also the only statistically rational explanation for the existence of identical artifactual retroviral DNA sequences in different species.

Should I assume by your comments that you are a greenist too? And perhaps a pro abortion Christian as well?

Really grasping at irrelevant and nonrelational slander slime straws, aren't we? Deal with the fucking facts, nimrod.

1291 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:54:41pm

re: #1287 poof

Again show me one example of a transitional fossil. All that are claimed to be such are mere assumptions as far as I know.

Why not just admit there's nothing anyone could ever show you that would change your mind? It's blindingly obvious. But instead you keep demanding that people prove things to you, then dismiss or ignore it when they do.

Again I am not anti evolution.

Then you're doing an amazing impression.

1292 poof  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:57:16pm

re: #1288 Sharmuta

That's just dandy. Now prove that each fragment is a TRANSITIONAL component. Next show me a COMPLETE transitional creature. Better yet statistical speaking there should be countless examples of these in the fossil record but there are not.

In one of my science books I once read that dolphins descended from wolves that spent alot of time in the water. Now tell me what is more absurd believing this or believing in God? And where are the transitional fossils for this one?

1293 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 3:58:12pm

As if to prove my point.

1294 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 4:02:20pm

It's really a mystery why so many of the creationists who show up in these threads pretend not to be creationists. It speaks to the level of delusion and self-deception that's going on.

1295 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 4:03:35pm

re: #1292 poof

Sorry- I have better things to do with my time than play this game again. If you really want to know more about evolution, you could take the time to learn about it, but I suspect you're not interested in looking into the facts. Because if you looked at the facts, you might have an answer as to why your Church supports it.

1296 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 4:11:13pm

re: #1292 poof

That's just dandy. Now prove that each fragment is a TRANSITIONAL component. Next show me a COMPLETE transitional creature. Better yet statistical speaking there should be countless examples of these in the fossil record but there are not.

Actually, since evolution never ends, ALL fossils are transitional - and so are we.

In one of my science books I once read that dolphins descended from wolves that spent alot of time in the water. Now tell me what is more absurd believing this or believing in God? And where are the transitional fossils for this one?

Here they are for whales:

[Link: www.talkorigins.org...]

[Link: www.ask-aladdin.com...]

[Link: www.pandasthumb.org...]

And here's some more transitional fossils for ya:

[Link: findarticles.com...]

Now to answer you question: it is massively more absurd to believe in the face of contradictory empirical evidence than it is to accept the knowledge that such evidence offers us. But accepting evolutionary theory does not require one to renounce a belief in God, so you've simply repeated an oft-read-in-here false dichotomy.

1297 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 4:53:39pm

re: #1294 Charles

It's like they've been issued with a script. They believe in evolution but they're here to trash evolution, armed, funnily enough, with the exact same set of misconceptions and lies about science that the up-front creationists have. And the exact same degree of total ignorance of the evidence that supports evolution. And they think they're kidding us - it's too funny.

1298 Charles Johnson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:29:39pm

re: #1297 Jimmah

It's like they've been issued with a script. They believe in evolution but they're here to trash evolution, armed, funnily enough, with the exact same set of misconceptions and lies about science that the up-front creationists have. And the exact same degree of total ignorance of the evidence that supports evolution. And they think they're kidding us - it's too funny.

I think it shows that on some level, they're aware that their arguments are pathetic. They know that if they're honest about their creationism, they won't be able to make the pro-evolution people dance.

Their only purpose seems to be to get people wound up, searching for links to answer their talking points -- links that they will promptly dismiss or ignore, while they move on to the next talking point on the list. Dance, Darwinist, dance.

It's a creationist hamster wheel.

1299 Jimmah  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 5:46:32pm

re: #1298 Charles

Yep. That's exactly what they're doing. I wonder what they get out of it though? They wind a few people up, sure, but only at the price of signing their ignorance and the total vacuity of their position in blood, for all to see.

1300 theparson  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:03:05pm

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

1301 jaunte  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:03:43pm

re: #1298 Charles

Barbara Forrest:
"Targeting academia and public opinion is intended to advance the Wedge's goal of undermining evolutionary theory, thus creating an opening for CRSC's "new" paradigm of "theistic science." The fact that "theistic science" will never overthrow mainstream science is irrelevant to the strategy. At present, just getting the subject into the academic and cultural mainstream - even when it is attacked - is an advancement.

As they say at the DI, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

1302 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:25:44pm

Zend Avesta of Zarathustra, Fargard I

1. Ahura Mazda spake unto Spitama Zarathustra, saying:

2. I have made every land dear to its dwellers, even though it had no charms whatever in it: had I not made every land dear to its dwellers, even though it had no charms whatever in it, then the whole living world would have invaded the Airyana Vaêgô.

3. The first of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Airyana Vaêgô, by the good river Dâitya.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft the serpent in the river and winter, a work of the Daêvas.

4. There are ten winter months there, two summer months; and those are cold for the waters, cold for the earth, cold for the trees. Winter falls there, with the worst of its plagues.

5. The second of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the plains in Sughdha.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft the fly Skaitya, which brings death to the cattle.

6. The third of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy Môuru.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft sinful lusts.

7. The fourth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful Bâkhdhi with high-lifted banners.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft the Bravara.

8. The fifth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Nisâya, that lies between Môuru and Bâkhdhi.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft the sin of unbelief.

9. The sixth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Harôyu with its lake.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft the stained mosquito.

10. The seventh of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Vaêkereta, of the evil shadows.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft the Pairika Knãthaiti, who clave unto Keresâspa.

11. The eighth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Urva of the rich pastures.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft the sin of pride.

12. The ninth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Khnenta in Vehrkâna.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft a sin for which there is no atonement, the unnatural sin.

13. The tenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda created, was the beautiful Harahvaiti.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft a sin for which there is no atonement, the burying of the dead.

14. The eleventh of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the bright, glorious Haêtumant.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft the evil witchcraft of the Yâtus.

15. And this is how the Yâtu's nature shows itself: it shows itself by the look; and then, whenever the wizard goes and howls forth his spells, most deadly works of witchcraft go forth.

16. The twelfth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Ragha of the three races.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft the sin of utter unbelief.

17. The thirteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy Kakhra.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft a sin for which there is no atonement, the burning of corpses.

to be continued...

1303 Salamantis  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:27:26pm

18. The fourteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the four-cornered Varena, for which was born Thraêtaona, who smote Azis Dahâka.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft abnormal issues in women and the oppression of foreign rulers.

19. The fifteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Seven Rivers.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft abnormal issues in women and excessive heat.

20. The sixteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the land by the floods of the Rangha, where people live without a head.

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created by his witchcraft winter, a work of the Daêvas.

21. There are still other lands and countries, beautiful and deep, desirable and bright, and thriving.

1304 Sharmuta  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:46:52pm

re: #1298 Charles

Their only purpose seems to be to get people wound up, searching for links to answer their talking points -- links that they will promptly dismiss or ignore, while they move on to the next talking point on the list. Dance, Darwinist, dance.

Someone made an lol cat for that.

1305 USBeast  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 6:58:56pm

I once had some respect for Ben Stein and found him mildly entertaining. When I heard about his movie that changed.

He has added his name to the list of people for whom I will not disgrace my money by putting it in their pockets.

1306 USBeast  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 7:05:40pm

Lasties?

1307 humanitarian2112  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 7:27:27pm

Ebert is an Id10t. Always has been. The fact that he looks smarter than Ben speaks volumes.

1308 Noam Sayin'  Fri, Dec 5, 2008 9:55:41pm

re: #1169 IngisKahn

Great work, Ingis. I was checking back through this thread for something else, and came upon this post. Sadly, I have but one up-ding to give. I have, however, favorited it.

I think I like, "On a Yam Sin," transposed to, "Sin on a Yam" best.

Thanks.

1309 chakal  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 1:13:30am

The Wikipedia article on the movie Expelled has a lot of good information. It refers to Richard Weikart's book From Darwin to Hitler and notes the criticism of it by Larry Arnhart (Conservative Darwinian). A Discovery Institute article by Weikart opens with the following:

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who endured the horrors of Auschwitz, astutely commented on the way that modern European thought had helped prepare the way for Nazi atrocities (and his own misery). He stated, "If we present a man with a concept of man which is not true, we may well corrupt him. When we present man as an automaton of reflexes, as a mind-machine, as a bundle of instincts, as a pawn of drives and reactions, as a mere product of instinct, heredity and environment, we feed the nihilism to which modern man is, in any case, prone. I became acquainted," Frankl continued, "with the last stage of that corruption in my second concentration camp, Auschwitz. The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment--or, as the Nazi liked to say, of 'Blood and Soil.' I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some Ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers."

The quotes are from Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning. (See Wikipedia on Frankl). Weikart's article is entitled, "The Dehumanizing Impact of Modern Thought: Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche and their Followers."

What I take it Expelled is getting at is the same thing Frankl is talking about.

After the Holocaust and after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we need to think about the effects of scientists and philosophers on our culture, our morals, and our politics.

Since Roger Ebert's review entirely misses the point, I have to give it a thumbs down.

1310 Salamantis  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 1:49:56am

re: #1309 chakal

The Wikipedia article on the movie Expelled has a lot of good information. It refers to Richard Weikart's book From Darwin to Hitler and notes the criticism of it by Larry Arnhart (Conservative Darwinian). A Discovery Institute article by Weikart opens with the following:

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who endured the horrors of Auschwitz, astutely commented on the way that modern European thought had helped prepare the way for Nazi atrocities (and his own misery). He stated, "If we present a man with a concept of man which is not true, we may well corrupt him. When we present man as an automaton of reflexes, as a mind-machine, as a bundle of instincts, as a pawn of drives and reactions, as a mere product of instinct, heredity and environment, we feed the nihilism to which modern man is, in any case, prone. I became acquainted," Frankl continued, "with the last stage of that corruption in my second concentration camp, Auschwitz. The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment--or, as the Nazi liked to say, of 'Blood and Soil.' I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some Ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers."

The quotes are from Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning. (See Wikipedia on Frankl). Weikart's article is entitled, "The Dehumanizing Impact of Modern Thought: Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche and their Followers."

What I take it Expelled is getting at is the same thing Frankl is talking about.

After the Holocaust and after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we need to think about the effects of scientists and philosophers on our culture, our morals, and our politics.

Since Roger Ebert's review entirely misses the point, I have to give it a thumbs down.

So you wanna censor empirical science on moral grounds? And dictate from some holier-than-thou throne what truths can and cannot be investigated and ascertained? Science gives us ethically neutral tools that can be employed for good or for ill; morality only comes into it when human choices are made as to their use. In other words, guns don't kill people; people kill people. Or would you ban guns, too?

If you think that evolutionary theory had a damn thing to do with the Third Reich, it's YOU who are missing the point - besides not having read this thread. To reiterate:

Eugenics is diametrically opposed to evolutionary theory, for whereas evolutionary theory is predicated upon environmental selection proceeding unhindered, eugenics is predicated on someone imposing their pet 'inteliigent' design. But the idea of animal husbandry - the selective breeding and culling of domesticated herds - had been around for millennia. Eugenics is applying that concept to human beings, something first recommended by Plato, in The Republic, and carried out by Hitler in concentration camps (the culling part) and lebensborns (the breeding part). Hitler banned Darwin's books, and had them burned. And the words 'evolution' and 'Darwin' don't even appear in Mein Kampf.

Facts are stubborn things, and they will not yield to your anti-evolutionary theory prejudices.

1311 [deleted]  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 9:29:16am
1312 Charles Johnson  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 9:36:40am

Another creationist meltdown. You're banned. And you don't get to post your nasty final comment.

1313 chakal  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 11:15:39am

re: #1310 Salamantis

I am reasonably certain that you don't defend the experimentation of Joseph Mengele. (again, Wikipedia is helpful) In fact, I don't doubt that you would condemn it outright. This is not being sanctimonious or holier-than-thou. It is moral judgement, an inescapable fact of human existence from which science and technology are not exempt.

1314 Charles Johnson  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 12:21:09pm

re: #1313 chakal

I am reasonably certain that you don't defend the experimentation of Joseph Mengele. (again, Wikipedia is helpful) In fact, I don't doubt that you would condemn it outright. This is not being sanctimonious or holier-than-thou. It is moral judgement, an inescapable fact of human existence from which science and technology are not exempt.

What you're doing here is very close to Holocaust denial -- and it's certainly Holocaust minimization. Comparing Darwin's theory of evolution to Josef Mengele's depraved experiments on concentration camp prisoners is a really loathsome tactic.

1315 cantrecant  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 3:53:47pm

From the heated responses to my claim that Nazism and eugenics are not incompatible with a "survival of the fittest" world view (a phrase used by my public school biology teachers when teaching evolution way back when) I gather this was not as obvious as I thought. So,

Imagine a biological population that eliminates another one by up and killing the other population off. By definition the fittest survived. QED

Imagine a population that controls the breeding of another population to eliminate "inferior" specimens from the other population. By definition the fittest survive. QED

If you prefer "natural selection" to "survival of the fittest" then imagine a biological population that evolved by a process of natural selection into either of the above populations. QED

All of which is to say that I don't think evolution is something to make a center piece of one's world view as some seem to do.

1316 Salamantis  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 4:18:10pm

re: #1313 chakal

I am reasonably certain that you don't defend the experimentation of Joseph Mengele. (again, Wikipedia is helpful) In fact, I don't doubt that you would condemn it outright. This is not being sanctimonious or holier-than-thou. It is moral judgement, an inescapable fact of human existence from which science and technology are not exempt.

There's a vast difference between circumscribing what methods of scientific investigation are and are not ethical for researchers to to pursue and totally forbidding the scientific investigation of entire topics by any means whatsoever. A difference that you seem, perhaps willfully, to utterly fail to grasp.

1317 Salamantis  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 4:37:40pm

re: #1315 cantrecant

From the heated responses to my claim that Nazism and eugenics are not incompatible with a "survival of the fittest" world view (a phrase used by my public school biology teachers when teaching evolution way back when) I gather this was not as obvious as I thought. So,

Imagine a biological population that eliminates another one by up and killing the other population off. By definition the fittest survived. QED

Imagine a population that controls the breeding of another population to eliminate "inferior" specimens from the other population. By definition the fittest survive. QED

If you prefer "natural selection" to "survival of the fittest" then imagine a biological population that evolved by a process of natural selection into either of the above populations. QED

All of which is to say that I don't think evolution is something to make a center piece of one's world view as some seem to do.

You still willfully fail to comprehend that eugenic genocide is not natural environmental selection, but an execrable and heinous example of human social selection, which is an application of someone's pet 'intelligent' design to human beings, employing animal husbandry techniques endorsed by eugenicists since Plato, such as 'selective breeding' and 'culling the herd'. Such a program is diametrically opposed to evolutionary principles, as Darwin himself noted in Descent of Man.

In the absence of evolutionary theory, we wouldn't have been able to splice a daffodil gene into the rice genome, producing a grain that is Vitamin A rich, and can prevent rickets in millions of poor southeast asian children. We wouldn't be on the verge of developing designer viruses tailor made to infect people suffering from genetically linked maladies with health, and ensure that none of their descendents will be born with such maladies, by changing the flawed sequence bases for these maladies into healthy ones. And these are only two of many, many examples. All of these present and future benefits to humankind would have to be abandoned if we forsook the science behind them.

We all make your own choices, and live with the ramifications and consequences of those choices, but I prefer to base my understanding on empirical facts and scientific truths rather than upon empirically demonstrable lies, and live in the real, actual world, and not in some false dogmatic fantasy.

1318 cantrecant  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 5:56:04pm

re: #1317 Salamantis

I don't object to the concept of evolution. I do object to making it a religious ideology. As I demonstrated it's very easy to show that genocide fits with a religion of "survival of the fittest" which is what evolution means to many. People shouldn't make a religion out of it but they do. I think it just happens to be a dangerous thesis to permeate your life with.

1319 Salamantis  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 7:19:33pm

re: #1318 cantrecant

I don't object to the concept of evolution. I do object to making it a religious ideology. As I demonstrated it's very easy to show that genocide fits with a religion of "survival of the fittest" which is what evolution means to many. People shouldn't make a religion out of it but they do. I think it just happens to be a dangerous thesis to permeate your life with.

But evolutionary theory ISN'T a religious ideology; it's a branch of empirical science. Religious ideologies are based upon dogmas in the absence of empirical evidence; evolutionary theory is grounded in a century and a half of empirical evidence. And 'survival of the fittest' is only operating when fitness determination is permitted to proceed by confrontation with the natural environment, not when it is short-circuited by somebody choosing a class to kill based upon their pet 'intelligent' design.

It is never a mistake to embrace facts, logic and evidence.

Please show me this 'Church of Darwin' to which you allude that has so many members. Is this it?

[Link: www.arn.org...]

Somehow, I cannot give Philip Johnson, the head of the Disco Institute and the author of the Wedge Strategy

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

any objectivity or credibility here - especially when he has revealed his own sectarian goals:

"Design theory promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions."

So who is it exactly who's trying to turn science into religion?

1320 cantrecant  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 8:52:47pm

re: #1319 Salamantis


It is never a mistake to embrace facts, logic and evidence.

Don't you think that's a religion to many? Or does your definition require some aspect of the supernatural to qualify, in which case try zealous devotion to an ideology. Is it not logically self evident that the disabled are a burden to themselves and society and should therefore be eliminated? I would like evolution not to go to people's head. Just because it makes a lot of sense doesn't mean it's incompatible with genocide. Charles linked Christianity with genocide earlier on the thread but you'd have a hard time showing compatibility between the teachings of Jesus and genocide, though I wouldn't put it past some lunatic to try to. With evolution it's a cinch as I demonstrated.

1321 chakal  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 8:55:47pm

re: #1314 Charles

First, my thanks to Salamantis and Charles for responding to my posts.

Let's go back to to the quote from Victor Frankl:

"I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some Ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers."

Frankl's testimony here deserves to taken seriously. It makes one uncomfortable, but I believe that is his intent. It seems to me that Ben Stein is thinking along the same lines as Frankl. I'm with them on this one.

It's best not to be too quick to demonize those who sometimes make you uncomfortable. They can turn out to be the most useful friends and the most reliable allies.

1322 Charles Johnson  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 8:55:56pm

re: #1320 cantrecant

Charles linked Christianity with genocide earlier on the thread...

What utter crap. I did no such thing. I simply tried to point out a historical fact, that the Third Reich had lots of support from German Christians, and that Hitler himself said he was inspired by the Christian Social Party.

These are facts. If you don't like them, don't blame me for them.

1323 Charles Johnson  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 9:10:12pm

re: #1321 chakal

Right back into your loathsome Holocaust comparisons, I see. Very typical behavior for creationists -- just ignore the facts and keep pounding out the propaganda.

1324 Randall Gross  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 9:22:42pm

re: #1315 cantrecant

If it's a "heated response" to swat a fly, then please do feel free to consider this heated.

You fail to comprehend that "survival of the fittest" is a term adopted via quotemining by social darwinists, a pseudo-science, not a science. Evolutionary Biology uses the term to denote those members of a species most adapted to their environmental niche, not the strongest, fastest, or even the smartest.
So in an intellectual world such as the modern world is, Steven Hawkings is a perfect example of a member of the species adapted to his environment, though a social darwinist pseudo scientist would tell you he's not the fittest. Do you get it yet?

Now if you want to attack science with pseudo science, you have to get in line behind Charles Fort, Berlitz, and hosts of others and just wait your turn.

1325 Salamantis  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 10:44:39pm

re: #1320 cantrecant

Don't you think that's a religion to many? Or does your definition require some aspect of the supernatural to qualify, in which case try zealous devotion to an ideology. Is it not logically self evident that the disabled are a burden to themselves and society and should therefore be eliminated? I would like evolution not to go to people's head. Just because it makes a lot of sense doesn't mean it's incompatible with genocide. Charles linked Christianity with genocide earlier on the thread but you'd have a hard time showing compatibility between the teachings of Jesus and genocide, though I wouldn't put it past some lunatic to try to. With evolution it's a cinch as I demonstrated.

No, I don't think that the embrace of logic, facts and evidence constitutes a religion, because religious dogmas are dogmas precisely because they are believed in, and must be believed in, since they cannot be known. This is because there is no empirical evidence for their contentions. If such evidence ever appears, they move from the realm of dogmatic belief to the realm of empirical knowledge. Thus the presence of empirical evidence for an assertion is a determinant that the assertion is not religious, but scientific.

When you leave the realm of 'is' (descriptions) and enter the realm of 'ought', you have left science and entered ethics. Evolutionary theory, being scientific and not ethical, doesn't have a word to say about what should be done with anybody.

Why, for you, should a belief in some religion going into peoples' heads be a good thing, and yet an understanding of evolution is supposed to be a bad thing to enter peoples' brains?

You could just as well say that just because chemistry makes good sense doesn't mean that it is incompatible with genocide also, with the difference that knowledge of chemistry was essential to manufacturing Zyklon B, while knowledge of evolutionary theory had nothing to do with Third Reich genocide. Are you gonna demand that chemistry be banned now?

Charles did not link Christianity with genocide, but I showed that Third Reich Germany was an overwhelmingly Christian nation, and that the Christian roots of its antisemitism were very deep. While those roots weren't traceable to Jesus, they ARE traceable to both Catholicism and Protestantism.

And you did NOT demonstrate any link whatsoever between evolutionary theory and genocide, nor can you - because there's NO LINK THERE. It's just a scary boogey-man story that creationists tell their children at night.

1326 Salamantis  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 10:55:23pm

re: #1321 chakal

First, my thanks to Salamantis and Charles for responding to my posts.

Let's go back to to the quote from Victor Frankl:

"I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some Ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers."

Frankl's testimony here deserves to taken seriously. It makes one uncomfortable, but I believe that is his intent. It seems to me that Ben Stein is thinking along the same lines as Frankl. I'm with them on this one.

It's best not to be too quick to demonize those who sometimes make you uncomfortable. They can turn out to be the most useful friends and the most reliable allies.

Just because he's Victor Frankl and survived the Nazi concentration camps doesn't mean that he can't be wrong. And he is certainly wrong about scientists originating the Holocaust. That was done by an insane politician named Adolph Hitler. And he announced his plan to the world years earlier, in Mein Kampf, a book that never even mentioned either Darwin or evolution, but the very idea of exterminating an entire people seemed to be so crazy that no one believed him. So they took no actions to prevent him attempting it.

Being wrong about something while being highly respected isn't peculiar to Frankl. Solzhenitzyn was wrong about some things, too (he wanted a return to Czarist Russia). Even Gandhi suggested that Europe's Jews should go quietly to their deaths, to try to shame the Nazis into repentence. Didn't work too well.

1327 chakal  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 11:04:37pm

re: #1314 Charles

I can't let that go by. I neither deny nor minimize the holocaust. Nor do I compare Darwinian evolution to Mengele's abhorrent human experimentation. You have mischaracterized my response to a question posed to me by Salamantis, viz.:

"So you wanna censor empirical science on moral grounds? And dictate from some holier-than-thou throne what truths can and cannot be investigated and ascertained?"

To which I replied:

I am reasonably certain that you don't defend the experimentation of Joseph Mengele. (again, Wikipedia is helpful) In fact, I don't doubt that you would condemn it outright. This is not being sanctimonious or holier-than-thou. It is moral judgement, an inescapable fact of human existence from which science and technology are not exempt.

No fair reading of my post justifies your comments.

1328 tsionguy  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 11:40:59pm

As a scientist, physician, Jew, and son of Holocaust survivors, I see no difficulty in believing in creationism and in evolutionary theory simultaneously. Both science and religion are filled with examples of competing beliefs and theories. Are scientists divided over the wave-like vs. particle-like properties of light and matter. No. Both exist in harmony, and scientists have no problem with that. As for the Theory of Evolution, it is a theory, not fact. It is supported by archaeological evidence. But I have taken some archaeology courses, and archaeologists will be the first to tell you that it is an inexact science. Theories change, or evolve, and scientists have no problem with that (at least they shouldn't). As for religious beliefs, they exist in a different realm. Again, they are not fact-based, they are not testable hypotheses, they are not provable. No proof is needed. Religion is not a substitute for science. It is a social construct, designed to foster social cohesiveness and sustainability, and to provide emotional comfort for those in need of it. Religion serves a different function than science, and it need not be discarded. The world would be worse off without it.

1329 tsionguy  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 11:50:44pm

re: #1326 Salamantis

Pay attention to the wording of Frankl's quote: "nihilistic scientists and philosophers," with emphasis on nihilistic. Certainly Frankl doesn't believe that all scientists and philosophers are nihilistic. I have met many nihilists in college, who majored in a broad range of fields. They didn't make for very good friends, and I haven't kept in touch with any of them. Nihilism is the problem, not science.

1330 Salamantis  Sat, Dec 6, 2008 11:51:53pm

re: #1327 chakal

I can't let that go by. I neither deny nor minimize the holocaust. Nor do I compare Darwinian evolution to Mengele's abhorrent human experimentation. You have mischaracterized my response to a question posed to me by Salamantis, viz.:

"So you wanna censor empirical science on moral grounds? And dictate from some holier-than-thou throne what truths can and cannot be investigated and ascertained?"

To which I replied:

I am reasonably certain that you don't defend the experimentation of Joseph Mengele. (again, Wikipedia is helpful) In fact, I don't doubt that you would condemn it outright. This is not being sanctimonious or holier-than-thou. It is moral judgement, an inescapable fact of human existence from which science and technology are not exempt.

No fair reading of my post justifies your comments.

And I pointed out that such an unwarranted equivocation between the two rested upon an illegitimate conflation between the justifiable forbidding of immoral experimental practices and the unjustifiable banning of all empirical investigation into particular topics.

1331 Salamantis  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 12:02:52am

re: #1328 tsionguy

As a scientist, physician, Jew, and son of Holocaust survivors, I see no difficulty in believing in creationism and in evolutionary theory simultaneously. Both science and religion are filled with examples of competing beliefs and theories. Are scientists divided over the wave-like vs. particle-like properties of light and matter. No. Both exist in harmony, and scientists have no problem with that. As for the Theory of Evolution, it is a theory, not fact. It is supported by archaeological evidence. But I have taken some archaeology courses, and archaeologists will be the first to tell you that it is an inexact science. Theories change, or evolve, and scientists have no problem with that (at least they shouldn't). As for religious beliefs, they exist in a different realm. Again, they are not fact-based, they are not testable hypotheses, they are not provable. No proof is needed. Religion is not a substitute for science. It is a social construct, designed to foster social cohesiveness and sustainability, and to provide emotional comfort for those in need of it. Religion serves a different function than science, and it need not be discarded. The world would be worse off without it.

As a scientist, you would have to be aware that the scientific definition of theory is quite different from what the word means in common parlance.

[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

Finally, in pedagogical contexts or in official pronouncements by official organizations of scientists one gets a definition like the following.

According to the United States National Academy of Sciences,

Some scientific explanations are so well established that no new evidence is likely to alter them. The explanation becomes a scientific theory. In everyday language a theory means a hunch or speculation. Not so in science. In science, the word theory refers to a comprehensive explanation of an important feature of nature supported by facts gathered over time. Theories also allow scientists to make predictions about as yet unobserved phenomena

A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. Such fact-supported theories are not "guesses" but reliable accounts of the real world. The theory of biological evolution is more than "just a theory." It is as factual an explanation of the universe as the atomic theory of matter or the germ theory of disease. Our understanding of gravity is still a work in progress. But the phenomenon of gravity, like evolution, is an accepted fact.

Sal: Evolution via random genetic mutation and nonrandom environmental selection is a theory that is as well-grounded as any in science. It may be continuously elaborated and refined, but these central tenets aren't going anywhere.

And unlike in religious dogmas, belief in scientific theories isn't necessary; one can be led to know that certain assertions are prohibitively statistically likely to be true by engaging in an objective and dispassionate perusal of the empirical evidence - evidence that religious dogmas lack (or they would be theories, not dogmas).

1332 Salamantis  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 12:07:29am

re: #1329 tsionguy

Pay attention to the wording of Frankl's quote: "nihilistic scientists and philosophers," with emphasis on nihilistic. Certainly Frankl doesn't believe that all scientists and philosophers are nihilistic. I have met many nihilists in college, who majored in a broad range of fields. They didn't make for very good friends, and I haven't kept in touch with any of them. Nihilism is the problem, not science.

In this particular case, though, Frankl is wrong. The Holocaust was the brainchild of neither nihilistic scientists nor nihilistic philosophers, but of a single megalomanaical and genocidal politician - Adolph Hitler. And he wasn't nihilistic, because there were things that he indeed passionately believed in. They were, however, false and horrible things.

1333 chakal  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 2:15:31am

re: #1332 Salamantis

tsionguy has a good point. It not science that is objectionable, rather it is nihilism's appropriating the authority of science to undermine moral sensibility that must be combatted.

Salamantis: I agree just because Frankl survived Auschwitz doesn't mean he's infallible. But given his experiences and his erudition, he can't be summarily dismissed either. I believe he is in a position to teach us, and what he says is worth pondering.

I think he is saying we should not be simplistic in our thinking about the holocaust, that it was just the work of an evil madman who is now dead, end of story.
There is a book by Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, which argues that the holocaust was not perpetrated by Hitler, his henchmen and the SS alone but was carried out by hundreds of thousands of Germans from all walks of life.

It's makes sense to recognize a host of factors leading to the holocaust: Nazi ideology, middle European anti-semitism, the treaty of Versailles, the political weakness of the Weimar Republic, hyperinflation. But Frankl's point, which I believe is also in Ben Stein's mind is that the intellectuals, the nihilist scientists and philosophers should not be let off the hook. Their contribution to the holocaust was not, as Berlinsky says, sufficient but it was necessary. This denial of a transcendent nature of man facilitated stripping human dignity from Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the infirm, preparing the way for the holocaust.

Anyway, that I think is the valid argument underneath all the noise. One may not agree with it. But it would be perilous to ignore it or fail to understand it.

Finally, I guess it is necessary to point out nothing in this or any of my posts can fairly be construed as attacking or defending either Darwinian evolution or intelligent design or creationism. I do defend the argument I have outlined here, which I detect in the film Expelled, and which I have quoted from Victor Frankl. I hold no other brief.

1334 Salamantis  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 3:40:11am

re: #1333 chakal

tsionguy has a good point. It not science that is objectionable, rather it is nihilism's appropriating the authority of science to undermine moral sensibility that must be combatted.

But evolutionary theory has nothing to do with nihilism and everything to do woth empirical evidence. It's science, not ethics, and science is not immoral.

Salamantis: I agree just because Frankl survived Auschwitz doesn't mean he's infallible. But given his experiences and his erudition, he can't be summarily dismissed either. I believe he is in a position to teach us, and what he says is worth pondering.

I've pondered his contention, and rejected it, for good and sufficient historical reasons.

I think he is saying we should not be simplistic in our thinking about the holocaust, that it was just the work of an evil madman who is now dead, end of story.
There is a book by Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, which argues that the holocaust was not perpetrated by Hitler, his henchmen and the SS alone but was carried out by hundreds of thousands of Germans from all walks of life.

And mainly by believing Christians, who comprised the overwhelming majority of everyday Third Reich Germans.

It's makes sense to recognize a host of factors leading to the holocaust: Nazi ideology, middle European anti-semitism, the treaty of Versailles, the political weakness of the Weimar Republic, hyperinflation. But Frankl's point, which I believe is also in Ben Stein's mind is that the intellectuals, the nihilist scientists and philosophers should not be let off the hook. Their contribution to the holocaust was not, as Berlinsky says, sufficient but it was necessary. This denial of a transcendent nature of man facilitated stripping human dignity from Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the infirm, preparing the way for the holocaust.

The Nazis denied that nature selectively, by reducing their victims to subhumanity in their own eyes. Science and philosophy practically nothing to do with it; religion and politics had practically everything to do with it.

Anyway, that I think is the valid argument underneath all the noise. One may not agree with it. But it would be perilous to ignore it or fail to understand it.

I understand his argument; I just reject it. For good and sufficient historical reasons.

Finally, I guess it is necessary to point out nothing in this or any of my posts can fairly be construed as attacking or defending either Darwinian evolution or intelligent design or creationism. I do defend the argument I have outlined here, which I detect in the film Expelled, and which I have quoted from Victor Frankl. I hold no other brief.

If your purpose was not to illegitimately equate evolutionary theory with Joseph Mengele, why'd you bring him up in the first place? There can be no other reason for doing so besides a futile and cynical endeavor to perpetrate an illegitimate, unmerited, unwarranted and undeserved smear job on a branch of empirical science. Which is exactly what Ben Stein was attempting with his bogus Nazi comparison, and precisely what Roger Ebert quite rightly called him on.

1335 Buster Bunny  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 3:43:54am

I think the egg came first. Then the chicken.
Then a nice flambe creme caramel followed up by icecream.

Deelicious ! (Serves two)

1336 Charles Johnson  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 9:57:38am

re: #1333 chakal

Frankl's point, which I believe is also in Ben Stein's mind is that the intellectuals, the nihilist scientists and philosophers should not be let off the hook. Their contribution to the holocaust was not, as Berlinsky says, sufficient but it was necessary. This denial of a transcendent nature of man facilitated stripping human dignity from Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the infirm, preparing the way for the holocaust.

Anyway, that I think is the valid argument underneath all the noise. One may not agree with it. But it would be perilous to ignore it or fail to understand it.

Finally, I guess it is necessary to point out nothing in this or any of my posts can fairly be construed as attacking or defending either Darwinian evolution or intelligent design or creationism. I do defend the argument I have outlined here, which I detect in the film Expelled, and which I have quoted from Victor Frankl. I hold no other brief.

You say you're not a creationist or an IDer, and yet you're quoting from articles written by Discovery Institute senior fellows, and defending Ben Stein's movie -- which is nothing more than an extended exploration of Discovery Institute talking points.

I've seen the film, and in my opinion Ebert might have been a little too kind to it. It was a blatantly dishonest piece of propaganda, a cynical attempt to use the horrors of the Holocaust to smear evolutionary science--and science in general. It was abhorrent.

The fact is that Hitler was NOT inspired by Charles Darwin or his theories. This is a bogus argument, and the only people promoting it are creationists or their disguised doppelgangers.

1337 tsionguy  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 12:43:14pm

A good example of a nihilistic scientist is Fritz Haber, inventor of chemical warfare in WW I, and a colleague of Einstein at the Max Plancke Institute. Wikipedia describes him thus: "Haber defended gas warfare against accusations that it was inhumane, saying that death was death, by whatever means it was inflicted." Haber's research team later developed Zyklon-B. From a humanitarian perspective, Einstein and Haber were diametrical opposites. Both were scientists, both descended from Jewish parents (but neither practiced Judaism,) but Haber was a nihilist and Einstein was not. When Frankl condemns nihilistic scientists, he is referring to Haber, not Einstein.

1338 tsionguy  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 1:00:08pm

re: #1331 Salamantis

I am fully of the scientific process, and what constitutes scientific proof of theory. Never-the-less, theories are overturned using the same scientific process. When Einstein proposed the Theory of Relativity, he was met with scorn and ridicule. He was a "Theoretical Physicist" and could not offer any physical evidence for his theory. Over the ensuing years, the evidence did appear, and his theory was found to be useful. That does not mean that it hasn't been modified and refined. Perhaps one day, it will be radically overturned. This would not detract one iota from Einstein's contribution.
On another note, why do we remember and celebrate Einstein so long after his death? I would answer that compared to some of his colleagues, he was a complete human being. He was a warm-hearted mensch. He was also a passionate anti-war activist while living in Nazi Germany. When Frankl condemns nihilistic scientists, he is condemning those scientists who exhibited a cold-hearted indifference to human life, and who specifically made the Final Solution possible.

1339 tsionguy  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 1:14:46pm

Correction: "I am fully AWARE of the scientific process..."

1340 Chakal  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 2:58:13pm

re: #1336 Charles

The difference between you and me is that you think Ben Stein's motives are cynical. It's an easy word to throw around, but it just bounces off Ben Stein like a Wham-O Super Ball. Look at Ben Stein's whole career (Wikipedia again). Tell me he's a cynic.

The film Expelled is inflammatory and controversialist and contrarian. It's got lots of people really riled up. The whole bien pensant world is indignant that Ben Stein is "furthering an anti-evolution agenda." But for what? What does he have to gain for defending a "peripheral Christian belief?" It's nuts. His purpose is to smear evolution and science? Also nuts. Stein is after much bigger game, or I am much mistaken.

I think he gives Darwin, Wallace and the theory of evolution more credit than his critics. Darwin is essentially a god, like Galileo (and that other Galilean) or Newton or Einstein. Evolutionary theory is not going away, it is firmly and gloriously embedded in western intellectual tradition.

What Stein is concerned with, I think, is the preservation of western civilization itself. And that means seeing that neither science nor religion gets the upper hand. It's no secret that religion, morality and ethics are inextricably bound together in western thought.

As everyone knows the preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence declares "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator by with certain unalienable rights..." The logic Stein is attacking is this: No Creator, no unalienable rights, the government can do anything it wants to you, to Jews, to Gypsies to whomever it wants. So it's the Holocaust that Stein is really concerned about, not evolution or ID.

This is why I defend Ben Stein, and what I defend in Expelled. If that makes me a demon, well then: Bwahahaha!

And come on, whom would you rather have dinner with, Roger Ebert or Ben Stein?

1341 cantrecant  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 3:25:19pm

re: #1325 Salamantis
You state more clearly than me that antisemitism is traceable to catholicism and protestantism but not Jesus. If a Christian world view can pervert into something that ends up acquiescing to genocide how much more so can a "survival of the fittest" world view? The Darwin Awards would be an example of a fairly mainstream culture that subscribes to such a world view and enjoys stories of creative ways that inferior specimens of humanity remove themselves from the gene pool. This doesn't necessarily impugne evolution but it does impugne an education system that produces people whose thought processes are evidently influenced by evolution and who callously enjoy the tragedies of others. The IDers are correct that materialism, including evolution is the dominant world view being taught here. That's the world view of such places as the Soviet Union, and China. It does not produce good results. I don't know if ID is the best solution to the problem but I sure recognize that there is a problem.


How silly to quibble over whether Charles linked Christianity and Nazism. He took the trouble to point out to me the link between the two which is well known so I don't know exactly who should get credit for it.

1342 Charles Johnson  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 3:31:22pm

re: #1340 Chakal

The bottom line is that Ben Stein's film is absolutely full of distortions and outright falsehoods.

[Link: www.expelledexposed.com...]

Your characterization of the movie is ridiculous. I've seen it. I know very well what's in it, and it certainly does attack the theory of evolution--relentlessly and dishonestly.

As for this:

His purpose is to smear evolution and science? Also nuts.

Ben Stein is on record saying, "Science leads to killing people." He also is on record saying he wanted to title the movie "From Darwin to Hitler."

Yes, his purpose is to smear evolution and science.

1343 Salamantis  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 4:06:53pm

re: #1337 tsionguy

A good example of a nihilistic scientist is Fritz Haber, inventor of chemical warfare in WW I, and a colleague of Einstein at the Max Plancke Institute. Wikipedia describes him thus: "Haber defended gas warfare against accusations that it was inhumane, saying that death was death, by whatever means it was inflicted." Haber's research team later developed Zyklon-B. From a humanitarian perspective, Einstein and Haber were diametrical opposites. Both were scientists, both descended from Jewish parents (but neither practiced Judaism,) but Haber was a nihilist and Einstein was not. When Frankl condemns nihilistic scientists, he is referring to Haber, not Einstein.

Look; there are four subcategories: those who are both nihilists and scientists, those who are nihilists but not scientists, those who are scientists but not nihilists, and those who are neither nihilists nor scientists. You are concerned with the first two categories, but not the last two, which means that your concern is a moral and philosophical one, with nihilism, and not an empirical one, with science. I mean, it makes just as much sense to try to link science with solipsism, or cynicism - that is, none at all. Because the links aren't there. Membership in either of them does not either logically or historically imply or entail membership in the other.

That being the case, why even try to link science with nihilism in the first place? It seems to me to be a version of the creationist canard of illegitimately labeling all those who accept evolutionary theory as atheists, even though more than a billion Roman Catholics are BOTH evolutionary theory accepters AND theists (and in fact, Christians). This cynical attempt to slander science by imposing upon it a nonexistent link with some popularly despised philosophical stance or other has been a Discovery Institute strategy tactic ever since Philip Johnson's Wedge Document. And yes, there the link between the methods and tactics of the Discovery Institute and the despised philosophical stance of cynicism is eminently deserved.

1344 Salamantis  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 4:26:16pm

re: #1338 tsionguy

I am fully of the scientific process, and what constitutes scientific proof of theory. Never-the-less, theories are overturned using the same scientific process. When Einstein proposed the Theory of Relativity, he was met with scorn and ridicule. He was a "Theoretical Physicist" and could not offer any physical evidence for his theory. Over the ensuing years, the evidence did appear, and his theory was found to be useful. That does not mean that it hasn't been modified and refined. Perhaps one day, it will be radically overturned. This would not detract one iota from Einstein's contribution.
On another note, why do we remember and celebrate Einstein so long after his death? I would answer that compared to some of his colleagues, he was a complete human being. He was a warm-hearted mensch. He was also a passionate anti-war activist while living in Nazi Germany. When Frankl condemns nihilistic scientists, he is condemning those scientists who exhibited a cold-hearted indifference to human life, and who specifically made the Final Solution possible.

Some scientific theories come and go; others come and stay. I do not see Copernican heliocentrism as regards the solar system being overturned. Newtonian physics itself was not overturned; it was simply subsumed as a special case in the more general theory of Einsteinian relativity. And I fully suspect that Einsteinian relativity will also be preserved as a special case when a grand unified theory of everything unites it with quantum mechanics (which also isn't going anywhere any time soon). And likewise, although evolutionary theory will continue to be elaborated and refined, I don't see its central tenets - Darwinian random species mutation and nonrandom environmental selection, the Mendelian model for the inheritance of dominant and recessive traits, and Watson & Crick's isolation of DNA as the physical substrate in which traits are coded - as in any credible danger of being falsified.

I suspect, that as a member of the 'softer', more literary and artsy end of academia (psychology, sociology, anthropology), Frankl was engaging in a little bit of the constant internecine warfare that interminably occurs between them and members of the 'harder' more mathematical empirical sciences (physics, chemistry, biology). Certainly existentialists, of which he was one, have frequently harbored an anti-scientific streak (they denounce something they call 'scientism' - but to be fair, some phenomenologists, for instance Husserl, have also denounced 'psychologism', as well)

1345 Salamantis  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 4:34:34pm

re: #1340 Chakal

The difference between you and me is that you think Ben Stein's motives are cynical. It's an easy word to throw around, but it just bounces off Ben Stein like a Wham-O Super Ball. Look at Ben Stein's whole career (Wikipedia again). Tell me he's a cynic.

The film Expelled is inflammatory and controversialist and contrarian. It's got lots of people really riled up. The whole bien pensant world is indignant that Ben Stein is "furthering an anti-evolution agenda." But for what? What does he have to gain for defending a "peripheral Christian belief?" It's nuts. His purpose is to smear evolution and science? Also nuts. Stein is after much bigger game, or I am much mistaken.

I think he gives Darwin, Wallace and the theory of evolution more credit than his critics. Darwin is essentially a god, like Galileo (and that other Galilean) or Newton or Einstein. Evolutionary theory is not going away, it is firmly and gloriously embedded in western intellectual tradition.

What Stein is concerned with, I think, is the preservation of western civilization itself. And that means seeing that neither science nor religion gets the upper hand. It's no secret that religion, morality and ethics are inextricably bound together in western thought.

As everyone knows the preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence declares "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator by with certain unalienable rights..." The logic Stein is attacking is this: No Creator, no unalienable rights, the government can do anything it wants to you, to Jews, to Gypsies to whomever it wants. So it's the Holocaust that Stein is really concerned about, not evolution or ID.

This is why I defend Ben Stein, and what I defend in Expelled. If that makes me a demon, well then: Bwahahaha!

And come on, whom would you rather have dinner with, Roger Ebert or Ben Stein?

As long as religion confines itself to the realm of empirical-evidence-lacking, untestable and unfalsifiable dogmatic belief, and science confines itself to the realm of emprical-evidence-dependent, testable and falsifiable experimental knowledge, there is no conflict between the two. When either endeavors to poach in the other's realm, the sparks begin to fly. And most of those attempts are made by the religious, not the scientists.

As for 'inalienable' rights:

"Ah yes, [life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness]... Life? What 'right' to life has a man who is drowning in the Pacific? The ocean will not hearken to his cries. What 'right' to life has a man who must die to save his children? If he chooses to save his own life, does he do so as a matter of 'right'? If two men are starving and cannibalism is the only alternative to death, which man's right is 'unalienable'? And is it 'right'? As to liberty, the heroes who signed the great document pledged themselves to buy liberty with their lives. Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost. The third 'right'?—the 'pursuit of happiness'? It is indeed unalienable but it is not a right; it is simply a universal condition which tyrants cannot take away nor patriots restore. Cast me into a dungeon, burn me at the stake, crown me king of kings, I can 'pursue happiness' as long as my brain lives—but neither gods nor saints, wise men nor subtle drugs, can insure that I will catch it."

Robert A Heinlein, Starship Troopers, p. 119

1346 Salamantis  Sun, Dec 7, 2008 5:11:58pm

re: #1341 cantrecant

You state more clearly than me that antisemitism is traceable to catholicism and protestantism but not Jesus. If a Christian world view can pervert into something that ends up acquiescing to genocide how much more so can a "survival of the fittest" world view?

Well, historically speaking, masses of Christians did occasionally collude in genocide, and evolutionary theorists didn't. And Muslims are doing it now. I think this has to do with empirical vs. moral realms. The practice of science is not about deriving moral principles, but in discovering empirical facts in particular disciplines and developing theories that account for them and can situate them in relational frameworks and contexts vis a vis other theories and empirical disciplines. Science is not about any morality, or any religion, one way or another, and neither is it about politics. The only concern that science has about ethics is that its experiments be conducted in an ethical fashion; its objects of study are not ethically determined. It is religion and politics that lay claim to the moral realm, and when their morals go bad, as they occasionally do, they tend to do so in a spectacular fashion.

The Darwin Awards would be an example of a fairly mainstream culture that subscribes to such a world view and enjoys stories of creative ways that inferior specimens of humanity remove themselves from the gene pool. This doesn't necessarily impugne evolution but it does impugne an education system that produces people whose thought processes are evidently influenced by evolution and who callously enjoy the tragedies of others.

Schadenfreude, or the perverse derivation of emotional pleasure upon apprehending the misfortune of others, and welschmerz, the perverse misery some folks feel at the prospect of others' success, far pre-date the advent of evolutionary theory. Such lamentable emotions have always been with us.

The IDers are correct that materialism, including evolution is the dominant world view being taught here. That's the world view of such places as the Soviet Union, and China. It does not produce good results. I don't know if ID is the best solution to the problem but I sure recognize that there is a problem.

Actually, Marx published Das Kapital in 1848, eleven years before Darwin published origin of Species, so one cannot claim that Darwin influenced Marx. And there is no record of the scientist Darwin reading the work of a then-obscure political and economic theorist. And under Stalin, those who approved of Darwin's theories ran afoul of the Soviet Communist Party, which embraced Lamarckian Lysenkoism.

As of the present, evolutionary theory is widely accepted in the biosciences worldwide for good, solid and sufficient reasons; it is supported by all the empirical evidence, and contradicted by none of it.

ID is not a solution to anything. There is no empirical evidence for it, and even Disco Institute members such as George Gilder and Michael Medved admit that ID is content-free. It has no alternative explanations to offer. None whatsoever. It's entire raison d'etre is to attack evolutionary theory, preparatory to replacing empirical science with religious dogma. And that can't be good.

How silly to quibble over whether Charles linked Christianity and Nazism. He took the trouble to point out to me the link between the two which is well known so I don't know exactly who should get credit for it.

Here's a link where Christians themselves acknowledge and regret that sordid history:

[Link: chi.gospelcom.net...]

1347 [deleted]  Mon, Dec 8, 2008 5:51:14am
1348 interloper  Mon, Dec 8, 2008 12:47:48pm

Well i guess I now know what 9-11 Christian's are.

Probably all holding candles and crying - to who? Darwin?

And Lynn B. My God! Christians are the best friend Israel has in America?!?! Shocked at your dissing Christians for something so long ago?!?!

I guess I've been wrong to pray for such a stiff-necked and hard hearted people, America, I mean.

wow what a shame

\ Hedge being lifted

1349 interloper  Mon, Dec 8, 2008 1:26:02pm
1350 Charles Johnson  Mon, Dec 8, 2008 2:40:17pm

re: #1348 interloper

You are completely insane. Get help.

1351 justadot  Mon, Dec 8, 2008 5:03:12pm

re: #1349 interloper

I didn't see anything 'scientific' about that link. In its one attempt to address an actual experiement — Miller-Urey — it misstates both the reaction conditions and the goals and results of the experiment.

Miller did not

start with amino acids, break them down, and then recover them.

This is a lie. He started with water (an oxygen source), ammonia (a nitrogen source), methane (a carbon source), and hydrogen gas (you can figure it out). All the elements needed to make simple amino acids. See Miller, Stanley L. (May 1953). "Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions". Science 117: 528.

Other gases such as CO (which forms anyway under the rxn conditions) and H2S may be present. As Miller said,

As long as the conditions were reducing conditions-that is, as long as either H2, CH4, CO, or NH3 was present in excess, amino acids were synthesized.

See Miller, Stanley L.; Harold C. Urey (July 1959). "Organic Compound Synthesis on the Primitive Earth". Science 130: 245.

More important, the goal of the experiment was not to create life -- another lie. Instead, it was to create some of the building blocks of life, including (but not limited to) amino acids. You could find that in the original papers listed above. I suppose it's easier for the author to lie about this than deal with the results.

The whole page reeks of dishonesty and I won't allow the author any excuse of ignorance — it's a dissertation, for Pete's sake. And you're passing this nonsense off as something useful?

Your #1348 stinks as well, but I'll stop there.

1352 tsionguy  Mon, Dec 8, 2008 7:58:59pm

re: #1343 Salamantis

Look, you are going way off subject when you introduce "nihilistic non-scientists" and "non-nihilistic non-scientists." I was discussing Victor Frankl's analysis of the Holocaust. Yes, my argument was based on morality, not science. No, I was not linking nihilism with science. Re-read my post, then re-read it again. As for "nihilistic non-scientists," they obviously contributed the ideology and manpower that was the Third Reich. On the other hand, the "nihilistic scientists (and engineers)" provided the tools and weapons. For another example, read Edwin Black's "IBM and the Holocaust." IBM created a customized database solution for the Nazis, using punch card systems, that enabled them to track Jewish assets and businesses, Jewish ancestry and blood lines, train scheduling to the labor camps and death camps, labor quotas within the camps, etc. I hope you are not impressed. I think it's pretty sickening.


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 Frank says:

With the power of soul you can do anything you wanna do.