(August 31, 2013 at 7:07 pm)themonkeyman Wrote: E.g the Fig tree as blossomed (Israel) and Jesus said the end would come within a generation so I'm rather shittin it here. Help!!!!!
He said that 2,000 years ago. The only reason anyone thinks it has anything to do with the present-day nation of Israel is because otherwise they'd have to accept that the end didn't come when he said it would. So they figure out a way to imply that it meant a different day and age. Not surprisingly, most end-of-world predictions are expected within the lifetime of those making it. It's a nice ego boost to think that out of all of the miserable schleps that have come and gone, you get the chance to see Jesus riding in on his fancy chariot with a sword sticking out of his mouth. Or whatever the fuck it is that they expect.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
