RE: What are your answers?
September 24, 2011 at 8:58 am
(This post was last modified: September 24, 2011 at 9:40 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Is it important for you to be able to believe that I have some sort of "ban on the supernatural"? I have a ban on claiming knowledge without evidence. If you can't distinguish fantasy from reality, and it's your faith that's causing this, your faith is bullshit. If there is a god, these things we know, these observations from science are "how he did it". To claim otherwise is to invoke conspiracy, or "demonic mischief". Now, I didn't suggest that your god interacted with the material world (exactly the opposite actually), you did. If you're going to claim that these things happened you should be able to provide some evidence. We have satellite images of tiny trails used as part of the silk road by no more than a few dozen camel trains over hundreds of years. Exodus should be a little easier to find. Similarly, the evidence for a global deluge would be irrefutable and, by definition, found the world over. If genesis was an accurate description of material creation and the origins of life, it would would be easy for us to see this with the observation instruments available to us, from the hubble to genetic sequencing apparatus. Archaeology should be in agreement with the bibles timeline and we should have artifacts that collaborate the text. There should be evidence for this stuff Salty. More than that, if this were the literal truth and ultimate word of god, line for line, there shouldn't be a shred of evidence to the contrary. It's not that I have a ban, it's that while there should be evidence of this (if the myth is true) there is not. All of the evidence we do have points to this myth as exactly that, a myth. If I'm incorrect, if there is evidence, I'd love to see it. So maybe stop projecting some sort of divine struggle into the recesses of my mind and take my request at face value.
It's interesting to note, that if these fossils, and evolution in general were all a demonic forgery, apparently Satan is capable creator god. There's a wonderful book on the evolution of the idea of the devil btw (I'll try and find a link). He very much represents the natural world, and the god's and superstitions of what we're predominantly earth based pagan faiths. Not that much of the devils "persona" is scriptural. That's what makes him an interesting figure in mythology.
As far as conspiracy goes, that won't get very far. There are people whose entire careers have been built by expertly criticizing others theories. Passing through these people has become a right of passage in the scientific establishment. You're not going to get a group of people who will collude with each other when their careers and reputations are attached to the publications they put out (and constantly, mercilessly argued against). There would always be some lone somebody who blew the whole thing for his own sake. Science has built in self correction methods. When science is wrong (and it often has been) it's scientists who later explain why. In the end, no matter how well constructed an argument is, it's the evidence that decides what we go with as our best explanation. Science isn't a personality cult, and there isn't enough money at stake to really seed the sort of ground required for such an over-arching and successful conspiracy.
I am actually a little disappointed. I was rooting for you. Disbelief in evolution, and belief in a literal and historically accurate translation of the bible are not prerequisites to christianity.
It's interesting to note, that if these fossils, and evolution in general were all a demonic forgery, apparently Satan is capable creator god. There's a wonderful book on the evolution of the idea of the devil btw (I'll try and find a link). He very much represents the natural world, and the god's and superstitions of what we're predominantly earth based pagan faiths. Not that much of the devils "persona" is scriptural. That's what makes him an interesting figure in mythology.
As far as conspiracy goes, that won't get very far. There are people whose entire careers have been built by expertly criticizing others theories. Passing through these people has become a right of passage in the scientific establishment. You're not going to get a group of people who will collude with each other when their careers and reputations are attached to the publications they put out (and constantly, mercilessly argued against). There would always be some lone somebody who blew the whole thing for his own sake. Science has built in self correction methods. When science is wrong (and it often has been) it's scientists who later explain why. In the end, no matter how well constructed an argument is, it's the evidence that decides what we go with as our best explanation. Science isn't a personality cult, and there isn't enough money at stake to really seed the sort of ground required for such an over-arching and successful conspiracy.
I am actually a little disappointed. I was rooting for you. Disbelief in evolution, and belief in a literal and historically accurate translation of the bible are not prerequisites to christianity.
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