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Science Wins Over Creationism In South Korea

ananyo writes "South Korea's government has urged textbook publishers to ignore calls to remove two examples of evolution from high-school textbooks. The move marks a change of heart for the government, which had earlier forwarded a petition from the 'Society for Textbook Revise' to publishers and told them to make their own minds up about the demands. The petition called for details about the evolution of the horse and of the avian ancestor Archaeopteryx to be removed from the books. In May, news emerged that publishers were planning to drop the offending sections, sparking outrage among some scientists. The resulting furor prompted the government to set up an 11-member panel, led by the Korean Academy of Science and Technology. On 5 September, the panel concluded that Archaeopteryx must be included in Korean science textbooks. And, while accepting that the textbooks' explanation of the evolution of the horse was too simplistic, the panel said the entry should be revised rather than removed or replaced with a different example, such as the evolution of whales."

302 comments

  1. don't you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My opinion is as good as your science! Silly asians...

    1. Re:don't you know? by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It is fun to watch evolution in action. I.D. and Creationism are dying out by generation, as few people with evolutionist parents accept anything but evolution, and many that have parents that are I.D. or Creationists still only accept evolution. Mostly because, to them, evolution is far more elegant and fits the observations, while Creationism doesn't and I.D. only deals with unobservable and untestable.

      This might be one of the greatest arguments for the process of evolution, but by the time it becomes convincing to the fundamentalist and die-hard I.D.ers, there may no longer be the need to make that argument as the next generation would be so overwhelmingly against such anti-science.

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    2. Re:don't you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Wow, I'd like the US to resemble your comments. But here, it seems that organized religion keeps trying to worm its way more and more into the government. You can't get elected to any national office unless you are religious (this is not a rule, but many surveys even reported here on slashdot show that a majority of people don't trust, and won't vote for, atheists). I'd love to see theism die out, but in the US it is hardly on its last legs. It seems poised to keep on destroying lives and practicing exclusionism in the name of rules supposedly handed down by an invisible friend.

    3. Re:don't you know? by khallow · · Score: 1

      You can't get elected to any national office unless you are religious

      There are plenty of counterexamples. Politicians in the US apparently do have to make a public show of being religiously observant. But they don't have to be religious. For example, of the last few presidents since Reagan (who I gather was fairly religious), only George W. Bush (the younger one) was notably religious. We'll probably even find out at some future time that Clinton or Obama were atheist, just not openly so.

    4. Re:don't you know? by Grizzley9 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can't get elected to any national office unless you are religious (this is not a rule, but many surveys even reported here on slashdot show that a majority of people don't trust, and won't vote for, atheists).

      You don't have to be religious, you just can't be overtly anti-religious and need to be respectful. That's where many get blowback from, including here.

    5. Re:don't you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It is not trying to worm itself into government. It is what the US was based off of. Go look at just about ever building built back when the country was founded and you will see written in the stones and the paintings on the walls that religion influenced Our government. The capitol in D.C. used to hold church services.

    6. Re:don't you know? by Nadaka · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not really, failure to bow before god will lose you an election in most of the country unless your opponent chooses to not publicly attack you on the topic for some reason.

    7. Re:don't you know? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It is fun to watch evolution in action. I.D. and Creationism are dying out by generation

      Not a chance. I don't know if you're an American or live in the States, but my wife and I were camping in Southern Indiana last weekend, and we saw several billboards and signs in front of churches that mentioned Darwin.

      Now that the religious Right thinks they have a lock on this country, their efforts to drag science behind their truck and then burn its corpse are only going to get more fervent.

      I keep wavering between dreading a civil war and hoping for one, because they're making anything like progress in this country a lot harder. Sometimes I wish Mexico started at the Mason-Dixon line and Missouri could just be turned into a reservation for what I refer to as the "American Civil Religion" (because it doesn't have anything to do with Christianity). It's not about Christ or any part of the New Testament, it's just about showin' them egghead scientists what-fer and tellin' fags to die and women to shut up and go get me a beer.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    8. Re:don't you know? by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      This might be one of the greatest arguments for the process of evolution, but by the time it becomes convincing to the fundamentalist and die-hard I.D.ers, there may no longer be the need to make that argument as the next generation would be so overwhelmingly against such anti-science.

      So IDers are anti-science because they accept scientific theories but do not accept the notion that God had no hand in creating life which science currently can not explain. One of the many large hurdles with life spontaneously generating lies with amino acids, in order to from protein they all need to be left handed and only 6% right handed can be present for a protein to form. The problem is that when amino acids are generated in nature you end up with equal number of left and right handed ones. There is no known natural way separate the left and right handed amino acids to get the concentration of left to 94%, currently the best natural separation method allows for a 68% left handed, these concentrations were found on a meteorite but no proteins were found. There is no anti-science in that statement just the citing of facts and where you draw the conclusion that God didn't play a role IDers draw a different one.

      --
      Knowledge = Power
      P= W/t
      t=Money
      Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
    9. Re:don't you know? by hazah · · Score: 1

      Your question is easy. Origin: Mutation. The ones not having it died. Mutation prevailed.

      Tell me, what good does all that reproductive rate do them if we're the ones that are sitting with our fingers on nothing more than a big red button?

    10. Re:don't you know? by babblefrog · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Another "god of the gaps" argument. We don't know how it happened, so god must have done it!

    11. Re:don't you know? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      Sometimes I wish Mexico started at the Mason-Dixon line and Missouri could just be turned into a reservation for what I refer to as the "American Civil Religion"

      This is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to the persecution of Jews in Germany and Russia (Soviet Union) and Falun Gong in China and .....

      My question is, why do Atheists care about proselytizing their Atheism to others? Why do they care what "religion" says at all? Why are atheists so quick to dehumanize others?

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    12. Re:don't you know? by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 1

      You don't watch enough Ancient Aliens. It goes, I'm not sure exactly how they did it, therefore...ALIENS!

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
    13. Re:don't you know? by khallow · · Score: 2

      One of the many large hurdles with life spontaneously generating lies with amino acids, in order to from protein they all need to be left handed and only 6% right handed can be present for a protein to form. The problem is that when amino acids are generated in nature you end up with equal number of left and right handed ones. There is no known natural way separate the left and right handed amino acids to get the concentration of left to 94%, currently the best natural separation method allows for a 68% left handed, these concentrations were found on a meteorite but no proteins were found.

      There's no reason to expect early organisms to have the same restrictions on chirality that modern ones do. Nor reason to expect modern organisms to have the same versatility that ancient ones might and probably did have.

    14. Re:don't you know? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Unification Church Founder Rev. Moon Dies at 92:

      By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press GAPYEONG, South Korea September 2, 2012 (AP)
      Officials say the religious leader who founded the Unification Church and built it into a multibillion-dollar business empire has died in South Korea at age 92.

      Coincidence? I do not think so.

    15. Re:don't you know? by pseudofrog · · Score: 2

      Evolution has nothing to do with the origin of life. It deals only with existing populations. Attacking evolution on these grounds is entirely unfair, and it misrepresents the logic and data that supports the theory. The vast majority of ID supporters seem more incensed by the notion that humans evolved just like any other animal, and I don't think it's fair for you to claim that they object to evolution simply because they're conflating it with a tangential field of study.

    16. Re:don't you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, if asked what your religious beliefs are, you may not answer "atheist". Voters won't elect anyone that admits they're an atheist. They don't trust them, because they assume they have no moral code.

      Which is funny, since they're the only honest ones in the room.

    17. Re:don't you know? by scot4875 · · Score: 1

      Except in the US, saying "I'm not religious" is considered disrespectful to religion. Saying "I don't want my government to pay for your religious beliefs" is an attack on and oppressive to religious people.

      --Jeremy

      --
      Jesus was a liberal
    18. Re:don't you know? by RedDeadThumb · · Score: 1

      Ok, give a counterexample then? All you are saying is that you believe some politicians are lying about being religious with no evidence given one way or the other. That isn't a counterexample. Instead you are actually making the case that they need to appear to be religious to get elected, enough so that some of them may be lying about it.

    19. Re:don't you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except in the US, saying "I'm not religious" is considered by small-minded bible thumpers disrespectful to religion. Saying "I don't want my government to pay for your religious beliefs" is believed, by those same small-minded morons, to be an attack on and oppressive to religious people.

      --Jeremy

      There. FTFY.

    20. Re:don't you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ironic that creationists are evolving

    21. Re:don't you know? by RedDeadThumb · · Score: 1

      You don't have to be religious, you just can't be overtly anti-religious and need to be respectful.

      So, you don't have to be religious, you just have to pretend to be. And since we cannot know what is truly in a politician's heart (as they are superb actors), from all outward appearances a politician must be religious. Or you haven't been watching the same presidential elections I have at the least.

    22. Re:don't you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "My question is, why do Atheists care about proselytizing their Atheism to others? "

      We think that you are crazy and belong in a madhouse, forcefully medicated.

    23. Re:don't you know? by Simply+Curious · · Score: 3, Informative

      I It is what the US was based off of.

      Wrong. http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html

    24. Re:don't you know? by scot4875 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      My question is, why do Atheists care about proselytizing their Atheism to others? Why do they care what "religion" says at all? Why are atheists so quick to dehumanize others?

      Look at the Republican party and their push to enact the Christian version of Sharia law in the US. As soon as that shit ends, we'll stop giving a shit about what nonsense you believe.

      --Jeremy

      --
      Jesus was a liberal
    25. Re:don't you know? by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 2

      This is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to the persecution of Jews in Germany and Russia (Soviet Union) and Falun Gong in China and .....

      Only if he really meant it, not as a joke. On the other hand, these guys don't seem to be joking, not unlike the old witch hunts.

      My question is, why do Atheists care about proselytizing their Atheism to others?

      I don't really care if people believe in unicorns. But then, there isn't an "Office of Unicorn-Based Programs" in the White House. Atheists tend to care in direct proportion to how much religion drives policy that they have to live with.

      --
      PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
    26. Re:don't you know? by Darby · · Score: 0

      This is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to the persecution of Jews in Germany

      No, Christianity is what led to the holocaust. It was an entirely Christian event done entirely by Christians in the name of Christianity following the script written by the father of protestantism and with the eager aid of the Catholic church.

      You're proving the OPs point. Why do Christians have to lie through their teeth to attempt to make points?

      Why do they care what "religion" says at all?

      Because it's saying, "Shove shit into children's brains since that's the only way to get people to keep believing our vile trash".

      Why are atheists so quick to dehumanize others?

      Again, that's always been the primary tool of your team, liar. Christianity spread through being the most brutal thugs on the block torturing to death any who didn't bow down to their evil fairy tale monster.
      Today in America Christians are the ones dehumanizing people for being born gay and pissing in the face of the basis of this nation by trying to shove their evil fairy tale trash into our government whose primary defining feature was the explicit rejection of any role for religion due to the fact that religion is always a force for evil control and dehumanization.

      Pull your head out and stop lying about basic historical facts. It makes you look like a douche and reflects negatively, if accurately, on your faith and those weak willed cowards who need retarded fairy tales to feel superior to decent people.

    27. Re:don't you know? by amirishere · · Score: 0
      No actually the eastern godful nations, with their higher reproductive rate, also create a large number of pretty clever people who figure out that the whole religious thing is bullshit and move to the west. To provide proof: I am the very last person from my MSc class still here, more than 80 percent of my BSc classmates have left the country and this trend is observable is all uni's in here.

      The good thing is that in effect intelligent people are being filtered into the west diversifying the genetic pool in a very positive way. The bad thing is that I predict that people in countries like Iran will eventually devolve back into monkey. This is pretty much noticeable in our beloved ...

      It really isn't safe for me while I am still here, I wouldn't want to trigger any word monitoring system. :)

      Finally I am pretty sure that as soon as our current bunch of nerd-lings die out we will be left with evolved nerds with boosted sexual drive to make up for their interest in their respective hobbies. And we will soon take over the world (cue evil laugh).

    28. Re:don't you know? by amirishere · · Score: 0

      Ironic that creationists are evolving

      They would have to, otherwise they'd die out.

    29. Re:don't you know? by SolitaryMan · · Score: 1

      Well, I've heard the theory that religion in the US became popular during Cold War, as a view opposing Atheistic Communism in Soviet Union.

      Now that strategic enemies (Iran, for example) are more religious, I think anti-atheism positions will get weaker over time.

      --
      May Peace Prevail On Earth
    30. Re:don't you know? by sourcerror · · Score: 1

      Also, if you have a lot of trials that 6% doesn't look that bad either.

    31. Re:don't you know? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      So, you dehumanize others because you feel superior? Godwin for the win?

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    32. Re:don't you know? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      To you, and all your buddies below, I didn't mention Christianity at all. If that is the best retort you have to a legitimate concern then we are screwed. I made no mention of "Christian" anything. I mentioned two religions that are suffering persecution by the "atheist state" that weren't even Christian. How your hatred of Christians has twisted your thoughts should start becoming clear right about now, because you're seeing things that aren't there.

      BTW, I am not a "Christian". And the people putting their own version of "sharia" law are the nutbag liberals who want to ban happy meal toys and make everyone drive Prius'

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    33. Re:don't you know? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      As I've mentioned above, I'm not a Christian. And your assumptions are the real lies, but they are lies you tell yourself to make yourself feel so smug. So you just make excuses for the abuses of humans because they are religious and your hatred of religion? Exactly my point.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    34. Re:don't you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone should attach a law that, prohibit presidential candidate to express any religious believe, on the back of Save the Children From Evil Child Pornography bill. After a few generations, peoples will get use to laic election and candidate will be free to speak their mind on that subject at least.

    35. Re:don't you know? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      This is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to the persecution of Jews in Germany and Russia (Soviet Union)

      Wait, the Jews didn't believe in science either? Did anyone tell Einstein?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    36. Re:don't you know? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      As I've mentioned above, I'm not a Christian.

      That's apparent.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    37. Re:don't you know? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I'm not strictly an athiest. I don't have enough evidence one way or another to make a determination on the existence of a god-like higher power, or maybe I just haven't seen the evidence.

      But I've seen data that supports the theory of evolution. Replicable data.

      I don't care if someone wants to believe in God, but they better not tell me I shouldn't believe my own eyes.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    38. Re:don't you know? by khallow · · Score: 1

      Ok, give a counterexample then?

      George H. W. Bush,
      Bill Clinton,
      Barack Obama.

      You should have noticed that I had already mentioned them as examples.

      All you are saying is that you believe some politicians are lying about being religious with no evidence given one way or the other.

      Well, there's also their actions. They show up in church occasionally, but there's not the fervent demonstration of religious faith that George W. Bush showed.

    39. Re:don't you know? by RedDeadThumb · · Score: 1

      You are giving counterexamples to "You can't get elected to national office unless you demonstrate as much religious faith as GWBush showed." That was not the original premise you are attempting to disagree with! I have heard Obama say things like "God bless America" and other such religious statements and I am not even listening to a 10th of the stuff he says. No one knows what is in a persons heart. If you need to pretend to be religious to get elected, that is the same as having to be religious to get elected.

    40. Re:don't you know? by khallow · · Score: 1

      You said "religious". G. W. Bush is the only religious president since Reagan. That's one out of four.

    41. Re:don't you know? by cgaertner · · Score: 1

      While not considering himself an atheist, Einstein's views on the Judeo-Christian religion are pretty explicit:

      The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. ... For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong ... have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything “chosen” about them.

    42. Re:don't you know? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition.

      You know, I used to think that way, but I'm becoming a little more forgiving.

      There is something endearing about a human being's deep-seated need for meaning which creates such extraordinary stories and beliefs.

      And I find if I see it as part of their humanity, I'm less dismissive of religious believers as people. It doesn't change my own beliefs, but it makes me a little bit less of an asshole about it.

      In regard to the human cost of religious beliefs via wars, etc, I'm pretty sure that if it wasn't for religion, people would just find another excuse to fight and kill.

      Yeah, living is a lot easier for me when I'm not a dick about other peoples' religious beliefs.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    43. Re:don't you know? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      NOTE: The above does not apply to Mormons.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    44. Re:don't you know? by hierofalcon · · Score: 1

      Many faith based programs are funded completely by individuals. They're covering all the overhead and operating expenses already internally and usually have large volunteer components at all levels including upper management. Some that I know of are 100% funded by the members and so 100% of donations received are used directly for what they are given for. They are being the best stewards of any funds or other items donated to them to have the greatest reach possible.

      If the government can use them to funnel aid to individuals without more government bloat and paperwork taking a big chunk of that largess before anyone who needs help ever benefits from it, I'm all for it.

      Certainly there are exceptions considering the thousands and thousands of programs out there and there are failures and there are cases where overhead is way too high. I suspect that if it were possible to score every single faith based program in the world including all major faiths as to how much of each dollar or dollar equivalent for goods like clothes or foodstuffs they received actually went to recipients and compared that to all private programs aiding individuals and compared that to all government programs aiding individuals, faith based programs would win hands down in doing the most good with what they get.

      That isn't to say they do the most, because governments are huge compared to the number of faith based programs. It is only to say they are far more efficient. The Red Cross or Red Crescent or Salvation Army frequently grabs the headlines in dealing with disasters, but along with each of them are a host of faith based generally large denominational programs that also roll out help to provide food, shelter, and other items to help those who are suffering. Would I rather get 95 to 100% equivalent of a donation of food along with a tract or a brief word of hope if disaster had struck or would I rather get 50 to 60% from a public source. If you really feel people would prefer to get less without an encouraging word, I suspect you have never been in their shoes.

    45. Re:don't you know? by cgaertner · · Score: 1

      There is something endearing about a human being's deep-seated need for meaning which creates such extraordinary stories and beliefs.

      Considering the amount of propaganda and descriptions of atrocities committed in the name of God, I find the Bible (as well as many other historical scripture) mostly disturbing and sometimes amusing (the penalty for having sex with livestock, ridiculous claims of old age probably due to mistranslation, ...).

      Also, taking into account the number of past and present religious belief systems as well as the amount of modern fiction, I don't consider these stories particularly extraordinary, but I agree that this deep-seated need for meaning you mention is fundamental to human nature:

      We are not Homo sapiens, Wise Man. We are the third chimpanzee. What distinguishes us from the ordinary chimpanzee Pan troglodytes and the bonobo chimpanzee Pan paniscus, is something far more subtle than our enormous brain, three times as large as theirs in proportion to body weight. It is what that brain makes possible. And the most significant contribution that our large brain made to our approach to the universe was to endow us with the power of story. We are Pan narrans, the storytelling ape.

      - Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, Science of Discworld II

      As an aside, I find it quite surprising that a lot of people self-identifying as Christian (as in: follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ) aren't as disturbed by the Bible as I am. Frankly, I don't cosider such people Christian at all, as they have made the Bible their golden calf instead of heeding the word of their living god.

    46. Re:don't you know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  2. Teach the controversy by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Fellowship of the Rings should be taught in science class along side the [derisive tone] "theory" of evolution. Precious.

    1. Re:Teach the controversy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't know one of the trolls in Lord of the Rings was named Sponge Bath.

    2. Re:Teach the controversy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't know one of the trolls in Lord of the Rings was named Sponge Bath.

      Nah, He was in The Hobbit

    3. Re:Teach the controversy by firex726 · · Score: 2

      Yea, there are as many origin stories as there are civilizations. People who advocate for such things though, only want to teach the common Christian mythos on Creationism though; as anything else is just crazy of course.

    4. Re:Teach the controversy by ohnocitizen · · Score: 1

      He'll be the Hobbit movie's Jar Jar. I foresee him finding Smaug's famous "desolation speech" nuanced and persuasive.

    5. Re:Teach the controversy by skine · · Score: 2

      Surely you mean the Silmarillion?

    6. Re:Teach the controversy by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Geez man at least the Bible is out of copyright. Could we use something like The Time Machine by H.G. Wells instead?

    7. Re:Teach the controversy by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Actually, no it isn't. God is listed as the author, use a variety of people through time to commit the words to paper, so you'll have to wait at least 75 years after the universe ends...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  3. Applies not only to religion by StripedCow · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your phone did not pop into existence by command of an almighty Creator. Instead, it evolved in over hundreds of years from insights and incremental improvements from many different people.

    Silly Americans to think different(ly) (tm)

    --
    If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
    1. Re:Applies not only to religion by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Funny

      Your phone did not pop into existence by command of an almighty Creator. Instead,

      Wrong...

      I even know people who claim to have seen Steve Jobs in person. That proves he's real.

      --
      No sig today...
    2. Re:Applies not only to religion by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 1

      I know people who have claimed to see Jesus in person!

      Therefore, I know he is real.

      Wait.. what?

    3. Re:Applies not only to religion by aix+tom · · Score: 1

      Perhaps there will be textbooks in 2100 that will even attribute the quote "Steve Jobs is dead" to Nietzsche then?

    4. Re:Applies not only to religion by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 3, Funny

      I know right. I see myself but I'm not sure I am real... Solipsism sucks.

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    5. Re:Applies not only to religion by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

      Perhaps there will be textbooks in 2100 that will even attribute the quote "Steve Jobs is dead" to Nietzsche then?

      No, they will describe him as an 88 year old warrior-philosopher.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    6. Re:Applies not only to religion by Petron · · Score: 2

      Your phone didn't make itself and crawl out of a pile of parts either... It was intelligently designed. Its evolution was planned.

      --
      if (it != oneThing) it = another;
    7. Re:Applies not only to religion by andy16666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You know what's funny, is that human design does bear a stronger resemblance to evolution than to the top to bottom all at once intelligent design proposed by ID. Especially when that design is the result of years of experimental products involving the market as a selection force. Ideas of course would be the genetic material.

      Like it or not, there is not a single high tech product on the market that could be designed from top to bottom by a single man in effective isolation. Most (and usually almost all) of the functionality and design in even the most (apparently) original products is simply inherited from earlier generations of products, even if it's combined in an somewhat novel way on occasion.

    8. Re:Applies not only to religion by alendit · · Score: 1

      An "Andromeda" reference! Glorious! A shame the show was canceled after a season and a half...

    9. Re:Applies not only to religion by lxs · · Score: 2

      It's a reference to this. Truth is stranger than fiction.

    10. Re:Applies not only to religion by RobertLTux · · Score: 1

      err there were 5 seasons of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda (but you can skip all but the last episode of the fifth)

      --
      Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
    11. Re:Applies not only to religion by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

      err there were 5 seasons of Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda (but you can skip all but the last episode of the fifth)

      I tried to watch it, but couldn't stick it out very long. One episode I literally couldn't understand what was supposed to be going on.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    12. Re:Applies not only to religion by SillyHamster · · Score: 1

      Yeah, intelligent incremental design is completely like mindless incremental improvement by random mutation.

      When a programmer sees that his code doesn't compile, he randomly changes something from the last working build and starts over. When he wants to add a new feature, he randomly toggles a bit and see if it breaks the code, and then randomly toggles another bit, repeating the process until he gets a working feature.

      A random ASCII character generator can spit out a Tolkien novel; but that doesn't make novel-writing akin to random mutation, even though you can find incremental drafts between the idea and the final product.

    13. Re:Applies not only to religion by RobertLTux · · Score: 1

      andromeda does tend to be a bit flighty so you need the context esp for the later episodes (and good luck understanding ANYTHING in either of the fourth or fifth season)

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    14. Re:Applies not only to religion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also thought that the series ended to that scene about the secret pathogen storage on the ISS..

    15. Re:Applies not only to religion by andy16666 · · Score: 1

      You appear to be a silly hamster. Oh, wait... ;)

      On a more serious note, the point might have been missed, both of my comment and of the theory of evolution. The key idea isn't how the genetic variation is introduced; the point is that there is a source of inheritance (concepts, available technologies, previously successful products), a source of variation (human creativity and innovation) and that there is a selection process at work (market forces, consumer and executive decisions). It doesn't so much matter how those things arise.

    16. Re:Applies not only to religion by DocSavage64109 · · Score: 1

      Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 credit

      FTFY.

    17. Re:Applies not only to religion by SillyHamster · · Score: 1

      ... It doesn't so much matter how those things arise.

      So you can replace programmers with random number generators and get the same output?

      Brilliant! It'll cut costs to practically nothing! Let's make millions undercutting everyone else!

      More seriously, treating intelligent additions to complex systems as if they were from random noise sources is to completely miss the point of how evolution is "supposed to work", or how it differs from intelligent design.

      If the definition of evolution honestly includes the products of intelligent design, then the word evolution is meaningless, and we need a new word to describe the different theories of how life came to be.

    18. Re:Applies not only to religion by kurzweilfreak · · Score: 1

      We call this genetic algorithms or more generally evolutionary computing, and it tends to produce very novel, working results used in wide-ranging applications and industries.

      --

      kurzweil_freak

      5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student

      Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.

  4. "Teach the controversy" my ass. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    They're not even just pushing religion into science class anymore. Now they're actually trying to censor information that contradict their dogma. Pathetic.

    1. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They're not even just pushing religion into science class anymore. Now they're actually trying to censor information that contradict their dogma. Pathetic.

      I think that has been the strategy all along: keep the kids ignorant so they won't abandon the religion.

      And since they haven't had much luck getting creationism taught in schools, home-schooling has evolved (no pun) as an alternative means for keeping them ignorant.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    2. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All usages of the word "evolution" in society are for things that are controlled by people - home-schooling has evolved because parents take their kids out of school and teach them at home, the iPhone has evolved because the engineers developing it have added/removed/modified features.

      but you never hear people say, that plant in my backyard has sure been evolving each season, each year it just keeps changing color and growing all of these new fruits.

    3. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the hell are you trying to say?

      Cause you ain't making sense, boy.

    4. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by firex726 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Many secular parents have an issue with that.

      Homeschooling textbooks cater to the religious crowd so much, that secular parents basically cannot even touch the science books as they will be filled with so much nonsense.

    5. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      Exactly right, the textbook claims that life can be created synthetically using Natural means is a joke, we are no where near achieving this or evening proving that it is possible.

      --
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      P= W/t
      t=Money
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    6. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by hazah · · Score: 1

      Your point?

    7. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by hazah · · Score: 1

      not using science but faith

      I think you drank too much coolaid. You've lost touch with reality.

    8. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by gardenermike · · Score: 5, Informative

      As a homeschooling parent, I can back this up. Luckily, the internet opens up a world of information beyond creepy textbooks that say that you will to go to a lake of fire if you think that the earth is more than 6000 years old (I am not making that up).

    9. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by scot4875 · · Score: 1

      The word "evolution" is horribly misused and equally misunderstood.

      For instance: I enjoy the X-Men universe. However, their description of "evolution" and what happens in the X-Men universe would actually contradict the theory of evolution. For someone to suddenly grow large insect wings would disprove evolution -- or at least throw a major wrench in our understanding of how it works.

      And, in response to your rhetorical question: the reason people never say that the plants in their back yard are evolving is because the plants in your back yard are not evolving. Not all change is evolution.

      --Jeremy

      --
      Jesus was a liberal
    10. Re:"Teach the controversy" my ass. by Golddess · · Score: 1

      They're not even just pushing religion into science class anymore. Now they're actually trying to censor information that contradict their dogma. Pathetic.

      Indeed. Which makes me wonder, why is whale evolution acceptable but not horse evolution?

      while accepting that the textbooks' explanation of the evolution of the horse was too simplistic, the panel said the entry should be revised rather than removed or replaced with a different example, such as the evolution of whales.

      --
      "I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
  5. This fundamentalist applauds loudly by mnooning · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Fundamentalists (Read: believes in the fundamentals of Christianity) such as myself applaud such rulings very loudly. Our scriptures - Genesis - clearly portray the sun, moon and stars being in our atmosphere. If you really want to take the creation accounts literally, you cannot say "Oh, we know not to that that literally". But that is exactly what many literalist Christians say. Why do you then insist that you have to chose between science and a seven day creation?

    1. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As an evolutionist, engineer, and religious person, I've always found it difficult to reconcile my beliefs. To the point where many would say I am foolish for keeping them. That being said, of the problems with interpreting Genesis, Stars being in the atmosphere has never been one of them. I don't know what you are reading that led you to that.

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    2. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by aglider · · Score: 1

      Because they're brain-damaged. Or lead by.

      --
      Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
    3. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by mnooning · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Genesis 7 God made the dome, and it separated the water below the dome from the water above the dome. And so it happened. Genesis 8 God called the dome “sky.” Evening came, and morning followed—the second day. .. skip some verses .. Genesis 14 Then God said: Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the seasons, the days and the years, Genesis 15 and serve as lights in the dome of the sky, to illuminate the earth. And so it happened: Genesis 16 God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night, and the stars.

      Remember, God is here calling the "dome" sky. (verse 8) See http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/1

    4. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by RussR42 · · Score: 2

      Probably something to do with this "firmament" thing. Genesis 1:14

    5. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Hillgiant · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Either you believe in the inerrancy of the bible, or not. I will grant that inerrancy does not necessarily mean that it is literal truth (i.e. a divinely inspired allegory is an allegory, not a historical account). However, this train of thought leads us down a number of difficult paths.

      How do we know when a passage is intended to be allegorical? The only external authority has only given this one testament (or two if you want to divide between the new and old (or three if consider the teachings of Mohammad) in any case, each considers their bible to the the first and last word).

      Why should such an ambiguous system be used?

      --
      -
    6. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by mnooning · · Score: 0

      There are also no "columns of the earth" that are holding up the earth. And, in spite of what Jesus said, there are no "four corners of the world" or "ends of the earth". The people of the day had no idea we live on a globe. I believe that if God can create all that is, he can create scriptures that speak to men of all ages. Once I got over the idea that the Bible had to be taken very literally, a whole new set of understandings came to be.

    7. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Funny

      There are also no "columns of the earth" that are holding up the earth.

      Right. Everyone knows it's held up by elephants.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    8. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Velex · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Fine. I'll bite, just because you were modded up.

      Sorry, you don't get to redefine the word fundamentalism. Genesis doesn't say crap about an atmosphere or about astronomical bodies. Additionally, the fundamentals that most of you believe in often seem to relate to persecution of others. Black people are black because your god marked them as slaves. Women should be property because of something some chick did in a garden once. Homosexuals are completely unnatural, despite evidence that homosexuality exists in the supposedly "untainted" animal kingdom, and they're incapable of experiencing the same kind of love as heterosexuals, because, well, because when you cheat on your wife or husband you need some reason to feel good about yourself and better than somebody else.

      Nice troll, though. I'm not holding my breath to meet one of these "fundamentalists" who will defer to observations about the real world instead of the fantasy world inside their head, though.

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    9. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by nedlohs · · Score: 2

      A literal reading of Genesis 1:14-17 explicitly states it:

      " And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

      And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." - KJV

      Note that the "firmament" has both fowls and stars in it.

      And earlier we had:

      "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. " Genesis 1:6-8 (KJV)

      so the firmament has water above it, and isn't "the entire universe except the surface of Earth".

      Of course a literal reading is a silly idea, but that's all that was claimed.

    10. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by FreonTrip · · Score: 3, Informative

      Turtles, heretic! It's turtles all the way down!

    11. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I have always reconciled the two by realizing that the Bible was written by humans to whom God revealed the truth to. God did not dictate the exact words of each of the Bibles books to its respective authors. So that is why I believe that God showed with visions, images...etc and the author simply wrote it down. What does that mean? Well, it means it is not black and white and simply literal, it is interpreted, for it was interpreted by its author(s).

      anyway, we need morality in our society, which means that we needs to honor and respect our ancestors at the least, and I think that teaching the opposite destroys our society like Soddom and Gomorrah

    12. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 4, Informative

      The people of the day had no idea we live on a globe.

      Unless your "day" means before 6th century before the alleged Jesus was born/killed, you're wrong.

      --
      Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    13. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by mnooning · · Score: 2, Interesting
      To me, the question "Why should such an ambiguous system be used?" is fundamental -pun inteneded.

      Take a literal look at the two passages below, as reported by two different writers, about what John the Baptist said.

      Matthew 3:11: whose sandals I am not fit to carry
      Luke 3:15: I am not worthy to tie his sandals.

      Obviously they cannot both be right. Is one of our saints lying? Are they remembering as best they can? Is this really ambiguous?

      The answer to me is that they original authors were getting across the overall message that John thought that Jesus was much greater than he. The words the authors used to get across that message are just not that relevant.

      Now apply that reasoning, in prayer, to Genesis. What is the message of the original author, as it would be understood by the originally intended recipients.

      Looking for the intended message is a good, not a bad. God never said he did not use imagery..

    14. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by firex726 · · Score: 2

      Same thought process here.

      If it's not meant to be taken literal then how do you know when it should or should not?

      Seems like all the stuff science/history has proven to be false or impossible is NOT meant as literal and all the stuff that has yet or has been proven accurate is supposed to be taken literal; in which case it's just a God of the Gaps argument.

    15. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 1

      As an evolutionist, engineer, and religious person, I've always found it easy to reconcile my beliefs. You just have to skip the Christianity/Islam/Hinduism bits, or any other theology that involves explicitly nutty beliefs. Granted, this is not always easy from an epistemology standpoint. There are borderline cases of useful modeling that may not be "true" in our understanding of the universe (e.g. Chi, prana, the holy spirit/ghost, the great spirit, etc.), but had enough descriptive and predictive power to add utility and enhance survival.

      --
      Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
    16. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by mnooning · · Score: 1
      ---Genesis doesn't say crap about an atmosphere or about astronomical bodies.
      Huh? Several people, including myself, have already pointed out the relevant scriptures.

      You need to know that each of your implications of what the Bible says is totally untrue. You are simply repeating lies. Your knowledge of scriptures seems extremely limited, but yet you make horrible pronouncements and attribute them to the scriptures. If there is something that you said that you think is accurate, please provide the publisher (NIV, NAS, KJV ...), and the chapter and verse, as was done by myself and by the others of this thread.

      As far as redefining fundamentalism, the Catholic church, for one, has been teaching the fundamentals of Christianity for nearly 2000 years. They are decidedly not literalists. If you cannot see the difference between fundamentalism and literalism there is not much I can say to you.

    17. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by hazah · · Score: 1

      The people of the day had no idea we live on a globe

      Only these ones didn't. The Greeks and the Egyptians (there are other civilizations in history aside from these) already had the notion that the earth was round. I don't recall who, but they even calculated its circumference to an impressive degree of accuracy.

    18. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 1

      But what gender?!

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
    19. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We should be careful to avoid confusing specific doctrines of inerrancy with biblical hermeneutics. What you're concern with is biblical hermeneutics (i.e., the method one takes to interpreting the Bible). There are several formal and defined approaches to interpreting the Bible. Some of these are more defined than others. The most common one in use by conservative Christian scholars is called the historical-grammatical method. It outlines some basic principles which should be adhered to when reading the biblical text. This is often what (educated) ministers mean when they refer to a "literal" or "plain" reading of the Bible. Of course, there are many other methods used by scholars from different backgrounds. Some of these include informal, poorly defined methods which are much more ambiguous and more like a crapshoot. These methods are what often result in the crazier brands of Christian theology (e.g., handling snakes, etc.).

    20. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by mnooning · · Score: 2

      Unless? Really? Your link leads to a 600BC Greek writing, showing that the Greeks of that day thought of it. The originally intended audience existed far, far before that. Even King David was roughly 1000BC! Besides, Genesis speaks of the columns of the earth, which clearly indicate that they thought the earth was held up by columns.

    21. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by mnooning · · Score: 1

      You are right. I will guess that we watched the same NOVA DVDs. I love being able to get them online!

    22. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      That would be Eratosthenes who lived ~200 BC in Ptolemaic Egypt.

    23. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The largest Christian community, the Catholic Church, solves your problem: the Church is the authority on the Holy Scriptures and more. What was lost during the Reformation was the authority of the Church. The Protestants don't understand the central meaning of the Church in the theology. The Church is identified with the Holy Spirit and is part of the Divinity.

      So to answer your question about the Bible. If you insist on reading it, just ask your priest for clarification. The simplest credo for a Catholic is: I believe whatever the Church teaches. And in fact, the typical good Catholic doesn't know really well or even care too much about what the Church teaches. It's enough to not challenge the Church's authority and participate in the rites, and you're all set.

    24. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      Note that the "firmament" has both fowls and stars in it.

      No, notice that the same word is used by the translators for the concept of "sky" and "open spaces". There is no claim that birds fly in outer space next to the stars. "Up there" is a reasonable concept, especially for people who don't know what is beyond the atmosphere. As I recall, early "scientists" thought lots of crazy things about the stars -- crystal spheres, anyone?

      so the firmament has water above it,

      That may have been what the Hebrews believed at the time. So? Why do you think these verses were written in Hebrew and not in some mystic scratchings on gold plates that dissappeared as soon as they were magically translated? Maybe so the people who were alive at the time could understand them? And maybe that means they would be written in a language they could understand, which might not have all the words we have today to describe our physical universe? Would anyone then have understood "magnetic resonance imaging"?

      And I guess I do need to point out that the sky probably did have clouds from time to time back then. Clouds are made up of what, again? Oh, right. Water.

    25. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by hazah · · Score: 1

      Thanks!

    26. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      It's not the translators using the same word. It's the original text http://concordances.org/hebrew/7549.htm and http://concordances.org/hebrew/8064.htm for firmament and heavens. And the word doesn't mean sky or open space in the first place it means

      It's written either by the people at the time writing down what they thought/believed or by God explaining things in terms they could comprehend. Either way taking it literally is stupid since it isn't literally true.

      And I certainly haven't seen clouds above the stars - the firmament is clearly specified as separating the water from above and below. And it also contains the stars so clouds can't be the water above

    27. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by noobermin · · Score: 1

      You do realize that some of Columbus' sailors thought that they would fall off the edge of the earth, right?

      Just because some thinking elites of their day understood it doesn't mean the common man of the day did. It's like Newton's gravity and non-abelian gauge theory to explain QCD. Many people have some concept of the former but much less of the latter. Both are modern science (then again, Newton's wrong, but in general, yeah).

    28. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am a strong Protestant Calvinist, so when I saw the quote from John Calvin on the firmament issue I just had to pull it out here.

      Wikipedia: "In 1554, John Calvin proposed that "firmament" be interpreted as clouds.[19] "He who would learn astronomy and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere," wrote Calvin.[19] Genesis had to conform to popular prejudice regarding cosmology, or it would not have been accepted. "As it became a theologian, [Moses] had to respect us rather than the stars," Calvin wrote. Calvin's "doctrine of accommodation" allowed Protestants to accept the findings of science without rejecting the authority of scripture."

      This is what I believe. Not the clouds thing, but I can say with certainty that Calvin would not believe that today either. I believe that everything in the Bible is true, but there is a good deal of interpretation involved in reading the Bible and the Bible is primarily a book about the purpose of life, God, and our relationship to this God, and not so much about science. The Bible is not a science book and to treat it like one is ill-advised at best.

      I can not blame Atheists for attacking those who try to treat the Bible as their only source of science, but I do blame them for using this relatively small group of Christians to attack the rest. I personally do not believe most if any of the "fundamentalist" views, and I am sick of being told what I believe by those outside of the faith.

      In the end though, I would much rather be wrong about the origin of the earth or our species than to be wrong about the existence of God and salvation through the forgiveness of sins.

    29. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by sonamchauhan · · Score: 1

      http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-c015.html

      Proverbs 8:27 also suggests a round earth by use of the word circle (e.g., New King James Bible and New American Standard Bible). If you are overlooking the ocean, the horizon appears as a circle. This circle on the horizon is described in Job 26:10. The circle on the face of the waters is one of the proofs that the Greeks used for a spherical earth. Yet here it is recorded in Job, ages before the Greeks discovered it. Job 26:10 indicates that where light terminates, darkness begins. This suggests day and night on a spherical globe. [JSM]

      The Hebrew record is the oldest, because Job is one of the oldest books in the Bible. Historians generally [wrongly] credit the Greeks with being the first to suggest a spherical earth. In the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras suggested a spherical earth. [JSM]

    30. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by sonamchauhan · · Score: 1

      > so the firmament has water above it, and isn't "the entire universe except the surface of Earth".

      Not a problem if Genesis is read literally - that water was the literal raw material of creation (of planet, galaxies even.)

      A scientist who made a prediction based on this assumption:
      http://www.icr.org/article/329/

      In 1984, when no space craft had yet reached Uranus and Neptune, I published a theory predicting the strength of the magnetic fields of those two planets in the Creation Research Society Quarterly, a peer-reviewed creationist scientific journal.2 I made the predictions on the basis of my hypotheses that (A) the raw material of creation was water (based on II Peter 3:5, "the earth was formed out of water and by water"), and (B) at the instant God created the water molecules, the spins of the hydrogen nuclei were all pointing in a particular direction.

    31. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by DocSavage64109 · · Score: 1

      Take a literal look at the two passages below, as reported by two different writers, about what John the Baptist said.

      Matthew 3:11: whose sandals I am not fit to carry
      Luke 3:15: I am not worthy to tie his sandals.

      Obviously they cannot both be right.

      Why can't both be right? Not only can both conditions apply to one person, but there are different conditions for different people.

    32. Re:This fundamentalist applauds loudly by mnooning · · Score: 1

      If taken strictly literally than one has to ask if John really said "tie" or "carry", and that one of the two authors is lying. The point is that they can both be right only if NOT taken literally. Hence your use of the word "conditions". The fundamental idea Matthew and Luke were trying to get across is that as important a personage that John was, John openly considered himself of much lesser worth than Jesus. However, that is not a literal reading. That is a reworded surmising.

  6. Lies, lies, lies and yes! Yet more lies! by Grindalf · · Score: 0

    This stuff's all gibberish, NONE of these kids understand either religion or science at all. False opposite stereotyping of reality based psychosis with a parental paranoid bent. I've never seen North Koreans type any item so dumb, but then again they're all witches. You can tell by their badge :0)

    --
    The purpose of existence is to make money.
  7. Re:Attention Obama-Drones! by miffo.swe · · Score: 1

    Someone has to pay for all the bailout money and we sure cant have the banks and their wealthy owners doing that can we?

    --
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  8. Thank Science for that! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Thank Science for that!

  9. woop woop woop by revelation60 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Woppa science style!

  10. Christianity by puddingebola · · Score: 3, Interesting

    According to the Wikipedia page, Christianity came to South Korea in the 17th century. When the more obnoxious form of modern fundamentalist Christianity arrived, with anti-science creationism, I'm not sure. Or maybe that statement is a bit ridiculous, since anti-science creationism is part of the original philosophy. Does anyone have any insight into the history of this form of evangelical Christianity? There is now a Korea Association for Creation Research, whose history I'd like to know more about. I imagine they have some tie to the Institute for Creation Research. Creationism, setting science education back by several centuries.

    1. Re:Christianity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to the Wikipedia page, Christianity came to South Korea in the 17th century. When the more obnoxious form of modern fundamentalist Christianity arrived, with anti-science creationism, I'm not sure.

      Probably somewhere between the time the number of christians started dropping and they started blaming science for it.

    2. Re:Christianity by JDG1980 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      According to the Wikipedia page, Christianity came to South Korea in the 17th century. When the more obnoxious form of modern fundamentalist Christianity arrived, with anti-science creationism, I'm not sure. Or maybe that statement is a bit ridiculous, since anti-science creationism is part of the original philosophy. Does anyone have any insight into the history of this form of evangelical Christianity?

      I don't know about the history of Christianity specifically in Korea, but I do know that even the term "fundamentalism" as applied to Christianity didn't exist until the early 20th century. (It's derived from The Fundamentals, a series of conservative Christian essays published between 1910 and 1915.) For most of Christian history, the Bible was interpreted metaphorically in areas where a literal interpretation would lead to absurd results. Even St. Augustine, a highly conservative Christian writing in the 4th-5th century, said that Christians should not hold up the faith to ridicule by insisting on a literal interpretation of the Bible: "Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn."

      Fundamentalism is not a pre-modern ideology, but a specific reaction to modernity. The same is true of Islamic Wahabbism, which is akin to Christian Fundamentalism in many ways. They think they are "that old time religion" but they are actually nothing of the sort. A medieval Christian or Muslim would have found these ideologies both repulsive and unrecognizable.

    3. Re:Christianity by mnooning · · Score: 0

      In the first place, Jesus never mentioned anything about any scientific topic. It was a Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître, that most pushed for the big ban theory, which was advanced science in that day. It was the atheists that were anti-science then, with their now-debunked "Static" theory. The anti-science business we are dealing with now is strictly a reaction to the theory of evolution. Those who want to take the Bible strictly literally need a 7 day creation. If the theory of evolution is correct - which I believe it is - then creation could not have been done in 7 days. At rock bottom, they know their experiences with God are real, so they just cannot understand why science says what it says. They think they have to chose between God and science.

    4. Re:Christianity by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

      They think they are "that old time religion" but they are actually nothing of the sort.

      Everyone wants to turn the clock back to those Good Old Days that never existed.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    5. Re:Christianity by puddingebola · · Score: 1

      Found several pages using the Augustine quote, none referencing it in his writings unfortunately. City of God I would imagine. "We will pray to Aphrodite She's beautiful but flighty In her silken see-thru nightie She's good enough for me. "

    6. Re:Christianity by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Informative

      It was a Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître, that most pushed for the big ban theory, which was advanced science in that day. It was the atheists that were anti-science then, with their now-debunked "Static" theory.

      Actually, until 80-90 years ago no one knew that there was anything in the universe beyond our galaxy. (Hubble was the first to show the distances to objects outside our galaxy, before he showed that they were receding; Einstein's "big mistake" was made before we understood the basic nature of the universe.) Lemaître was the first to grok the implications of of an expanding universe. Religionists like to claim that scientists booed him down as a creationist, but the only scientist I have found that did that was Hoyle, who I suspect was just slinging mud in hope of defending his pet continuous-creation theory. (Which, IIRC, he was still clinging to 20 years after the big bang was obvious to everyone else.)

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    7. Re:Christianity by andy16666 · · Score: 1

      The Catholics sided against the static or steady state universe because it supported an infinitely old universe which contradicted the existence of a moment of creation. This wasn't done for scientific reasons since at the time there was insufficient evidence to resolve the static vs. expanding/contracting universe problem. Some scientists (which you refer to as atheists) preferred one model over the other for various reasons. The big bang theory complicates things in many ways and scientists favored a simpler model pending any definitive evidence for the big bang or stead state theories. Some people also felt that the need for a moment of creation was an inelegant solution, but without the data this is hardly a scientific position.

      Regardless of how much we know, there will always be mysteries. Those who wish to do so will always be free to attribute those to God while otherwise accepting evidence when available. Whether or not this stance makes sense is an interesting philosophical question, but ultimately I think it's a very human position to take. People love to imagine that there are Gods or other powerful beings behind the great mysteries of the universe. As we pull back the curtain on each mystery and see that there are no Gods there, some will begin to doubt. But I think there will always be more hiding places for our imagination to fill than there will be answers to expose them. Religion will survive or die off quite independently of any science. Sure, it will often be forced to change. But in one form or another there will always be mysteries and overactive imaginations.

    8. Re:Christianity by Nadaka · · Score: 2

      To say that the "atheists" were "anti-science" in the day because they were skeptical of untested hypothesis with little evidence is ludicrous. That is part of science. The static universe hypothesis came out of Einsteins general relativity equations in the 1910's. It was then tested in the only way possible, by attempting to measure the expansion / contraction of the universe. The hypothesis was found to be flawed when it appeared that the universe was expanding. Then came the big bang theory to explain that expansion in the 1920's along with several other hypotheses. Continued measurements demonstrated that the Big Bang theory was the closest, yet it was still flawed because the distant universe is expanding faster than the closer universe. So the big bang theory has been altered with "dark matter" and we are currently in the process of trying to figure out how in the hell we are going to test that.

      Being wrong doesn't make you anti-science any more than being right makes you pro-science. It is the methods you use to arrive at your conclusions and your willingness to accept change in the face of contrary evidence that make on pro-science.

    9. Re:Christianity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Protestant Christianity arrived in Korea during the late 19th and early 20th century. There were two currents of events taking place during this time. In the United States, a revival of sorts was taking place among the more conservative Protestant Christians. This motivated many to take up missionary work overseas. In Korea, the Japanese were in the process of annexing and colonizing the Korean Peninsula.

      To avoid antagonizing the West, the Japanese allowed Western missionaries to continue their work which mostly consisted of building schools, hospitals, and so on. This allowed Protestant Christianity, of which many missionaries were from the conservative branches, to establish itself among a small portion of the population. As the Japanese colonial period wore on, the Japanese became more and more brutal in their occupation of the country. This sparked a number of independent movements and some of the most notable leaders of these movements were Korean Christians who had been converted to a more conservative form of Protestant Christianity.

      This historical connection continues to provide the main source of theological and religious perspectives within the Korean churches. In fact, today, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between a Korean Protestant (read: Evangelical) church and a run of the mill American Evangelical Church. They will hold mostly the same theological perspectives. (In fact, many Evangelical seminaries in the States have websites translated into Korean.) They will sing the same songs. About the only major difference aside from the language used in service is that Korean Christians tend to be more fervent in their devotion to the faith.

    10. Re:Christianity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would most likely be from Confessions. I cannot pin the quote exactly, but the end of Confessions is actually Augustine's allegorical interpretation of the book of Genesis.

    11. Re:Christianity by mnooning · · Score: 1
      In general, I agree with you. Being wrong doesn't make anyone anti-science. The problem is that the SS theory was found to be flawed once Hubble, Einstien, and Lemaitre settled on the BB, way back in the late 40s and early 50s. Hubble's evidence was incontestable even then. The Wikipedia article on Hoyle now states that Hoyle did not have problems with an expanding universe, only it's interpretation, but that is not true. It was Hoyle that invented the term Big Bang and on his radio show he used it in a very mocking way. He was using his credentials as an excellent scientist, and the presentation of his show as science, to put down what he saw as a religion backed theory.

      This is kind of nit-picking, so I will stop here.

    12. Re:Christianity by gtall · · Score: 1

      Yep, no one ever has uttered the phrase, "I wish I lived back when Dentistry was new and fresh." Those old dentist tools look like they were from the Inquisition.

    13. Re:Christianity by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      I don't know about the history of Christianity specifically in Korea, but I do know that even the term "fundamentalism" as applied to Christianity didn't exist until the early 20th century. (It's derived from The Fundamentals, a series of conservative Christian essays published between 1910 and 1915.) For most of Christian history, the Bible was interpreted metaphorically in areas where a literal interpretation would lead to absurd results. Even St. Augustine, a highly conservative Christian writing in the 4th-5th century, said that Christians should not hold up the faith to ridicule by insisting on a literal interpretation of the Bible: "Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn."

      Fundamentalism is not a pre-modern ideology, but a specific reaction to modernity. The same is true of Islamic Wahabbism, which is akin to Christian Fundamentalism in many ways. They think they are "that old time religion" but they are actually nothing of the sort. A medieval Christian or Muslim would have found these ideologies both repulsive and unrecognizable.

      Correct.

      And modern "creationism" (aka ID) was really created by a group in the US (the "Discovery Institute") whose primary belief is that the world's ills are caused because of the shift away from religion towards secularism. (Which may be true to some extent - e.g., human greed causes a bunch of the world's problems, but it goes beyond mere greed. Nevermind that religion is the cause of many wars in human history...).

      No, it's not just prayer in the classroom, but the non-teaching of religion in school and probably the conversion of followers of illegiimate (i.e., other) faiths to the One True Path(tm).

      Basically, what you mention - modernism is driving people away from religion, which is why the world is full of dictators and unethical people who rob/steal/do drugs/etc. Of course, a lot of people believe times were better in the past when kids were more respectful of authority, there was less crime, etc. etc. etc., so their beliefs end up resonating with a larger group.

      The irony is that tine DI's texts are full of evolution from creationism to ID (including transitional fossils).

    14. Re:Christianity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but the only scientist I have found that did that was Hoyle, who I suspect was just slinging mud in hope of defending his pet continuous-creation theory.

      I'm sure Chomsky does the same for his recursive universal grammar theory.

    15. Re:Christianity by Guppy · · Score: 2

      I'm turning up the following in search. Many variations in exact wording, due to it being a translation:

      "Often a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other parts of the world, about the motions and orbits of the stars and even their sizes and distances... and this knowledge he holds with certainty from reason and experience. It is thus offensive and disgraceful for an unbeliever to hear a Christian talk nonsense about such things, claiming that what he is saying is based in Scripture. We should do all that we can to avoid such an embarrassing situation, which people see as ignorance in the Christian and laugh to scorn." -St. Augustine, "De Genesi ad Litteram Libri Duodecim"

    16. Re:Christianity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you really that stupid? People moving away from religion causes dictators and unethical people? Dude, the dictators and unethical people love the religious nuts like you! You are the easiest to fool and control.

    17. Re:Christianity by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 1

      For most of Christian history, the Bible was interpreted metaphorically in areas where a literal interpretation would lead to absurd results. Even St. Augustine, a highly conservative Christian writing in the 4th-5th century, said that Christians should not hold up the faith to ridicule by insisting on a literal interpretation of the Bible: "Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn."

      This implies that literalism was already alive and well in those days, since Augustine took the time to criticize it.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    18. Re:Christianity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't want to impede science now. Just when we find the cure for cancer, we'll nuke the world back to pre-history.

    19. Re:Christianity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interesting points with a lot of truth. However, fundamentalist attitudes are not new. The Puritans and many Catholics sects throughout history have been fundamentalist in action if not in name.

    20. Re:Christianity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The first "big ban theory" was the rule requiring celibacy in priests.

    21. Re:Christianity by sonamchauhan · · Score: 1

      > Fundamentalism is not a pre-modern ideology, but a specific reaction to modernity.

      No, what you refer to as 'fundamentalism' isn't from 1915, but is as old as Christianity or Judaism.

      Take Newton for instance - he believed in literal creationism (i.e. 'a 6000 year old earth'), but also ushered in modern physics.

  11. We need balance. There should be counter examples. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    If science books are going to include examples of evolution, then, to provide balance, they must include examples of devolution. Creationists and fundamentalists should be cited as examples of the Theory of Devolution, which claims human beings are degenerating and they will eventually become chimpanzees or gorillas.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  12. Please, stop that insanity! by aglider · · Score: 0

    We can put evolution theory in science books because we have "scientific" (which rhymes with "science") evidence that the theory is reasonable and makes some sense with the observations anyone can do.
    We could put intelligent design and creationism in science books if we had some similar evidence. Which we have not.

    Do you want to promote you theory? Well, create a new course, call it "religion", convince your Govt. to add it to schools (some countries have that) and put there your 6-days creation process. None will be allowed to stand out against it, for sure.

    But don't even think to put non-scientific stuff in a science book. Please!

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
    1. Re:Please, stop that insanity! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you want to promote you theory? Well, create a new course, call it "religion", convince your Govt. to add it to schools (some countries have that) and put there your 6-days creation process

      Only if that course is a survey of all the major world religions, past and present, with no particular emphasis on Christianity. Christians already have their own class that they can take, it's called going to church on Sunday.

    2. Re:Please, stop that insanity! by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 1

      "scientific" (which rhymes with "science")

      o.O

      So the "fic" is silent?

      Holy cow, have I been saying it wrong all these years! Why did no one say anything!!

    3. Re:Please, stop that insanity! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      o.O

      So the "fic" is silent?

      Holy cow, have I been saying it wrong all these years! Why did no one say anything!!

      SELECT SOUNDEX('scientific') = S253
      SELECT SOUNDEX('science') = S252

      Close enough for me!

    4. Re:Please, stop that insanity! by aglider · · Score: 1

      Christians already have their own class that they can take, it's called going to church on Sunday.

      ... but you are not obliged to go to church by law.
      While you are obliged by law to go to school.
      Anyway, in certain countries like Italy, they have Catholic religion course in school. From 6 to 18. They can opt out, since few years now.

      --
      Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
    5. Re:Please, stop that insanity! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... but you are not obliged to go to church by law.
      While you are obliged by law to go to school.
      Anyway, in certain countries like Italy, they have Catholic religion course in school. From 6 to 18. They can opt out, since few years now.

      The issue, at least here in the US, is that you can't just offer a Catholic course in public schools, even on an opt-out basis, unless you're going to offer courses in other major religions too. I understand if Italy does it because the Vatican is right there, but doing something like that here makes you subject to legal challenges that you will absolutely lose.

      Right wing Christian nutballs haven't quite figured this out yet, which is why they're all for redirecting state educational funding to religious programs until they find out that other religions would be covered too.
      http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/louisiana-revelation-school-voucher-funding-it-s-not-just-for-christians

      If you want to waste your money sending your child to a school where they teach fairy tales as fact, then you can send them to a private religious school and of course take them to church on Sundays. This sort of stuff has no business being funded by taxpayer money though, unless it's a generic "religion" class being taught in the context of history and anthropology.

    6. Re:Please, stop that insanity! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... but you are not obliged to go to church by law.

      That's the entire point of the creationism controversy: we do not want to be forced to endure Christian religious indoctrination in public school where we are obliged to go by law. Keep religion out of our schools. Christians want to have it both ways: be able to go to church on Sunday, and also spew their superstition to a captive public school audience. Deny them this and they cry "Persecution! Atheist conspiracy! Godless science!"

  13. Why is this even a issue ? by jonfr · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Why on Earth is this even an issue ? It is clearly that creationism is nothing but religious fundamentalism Taliban style. I have grown tiered of people are undermining society, democracy , technical progress and science with there own stupidity and religious fundamentalism. This is an non-issue. The creationisms are wrong. Have always been wrong. All there arguments are lies and always will be that.

    This people are best put silent by telling to shut the fuck up! Preferably forever.

    I know that I am going to flamed for this by religious fundamentalists that lurk slashdot for this type of comments and articles. But I do not care. As I know that I am right and they are wrong.

    1. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by mat.power · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Or we could, you know, present both possibilities and let people decide from themselves instead of trying to force one theory or the other down someone's throat. I'd imagine, when presented with the facts, most people would look to science for the answer in this debate, but I don't see the need to force one argument or the other.

    2. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Robert+Zenz · · Score: 1

      Why on Earth is this even an issue ? ... As I know that I am right and they are wrong.

      You answered your own question, they use the same statement.

    3. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by khallow · · Score: 1

      I think ultimately, the reason is that a number of people want absolute certainty and security in their lives. Scientific knowledge doesn't offer either. It's very nature makes things uncertain and you most certainly can't know more than a little bit of all the scientific knowledge out there (as a human). Further, it is very disruptive. Many disruptions in our lives and in our history came from fairly simple discoveries or inventions derived from scientific discovery.

      So to have the illusion of absolute certainty and security in your belief system, you need to exclude to some degree scientific knowledge and ideas. It's not enough to ignore science in order to exclude it, it has to be wrong.

      I think fundamentally that's what creationism is about. It's not about the world being created in a short period of time by a God, it's about science being absolutely wrong in one of its greatest claims. Hence, one can discount in their minds everything that has similar scientific support ("because you're wrong about evolution, then you have to be wrong about anything else that I believe in"). That removes a great source of uncertainty and fear from their lives.

    4. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, one gets presented in a science class, and if people choose they can go to various churches to hear about creationism.

      My issue is with how you're presenting this like there's some kind of a debate or arguement between two possibilities and there just isn't. It's not a choice between teaching evolution or teaching 'creationism' (which flavour are we talking about anyway?). If it's a school it should be teaching the evidence, the methods on how we collected and analysed that evidence, and yes, the current conclusions based on that evidence.

      Why don't we teach hay-based networking to future system administrators? Because there's no evidence that hay works to transmit packets. The moment there is evidence that its a feasable technology we'll start teaching it. In the same way, the moment there is any objective, verifyable evidence to creationism then it's welcome to the discussion table.

    5. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably because even Darwin's book has only been published for the last 153 years and it's competing with cultural memes that go back much much further than that and are often considered core aspects of self-identity of those who hold them.

      It's also worth noting that telling someone to shut the fuck up rarely does anything but piss them off and entrench their beliefs.

      Go do some yoga or something, i'd be concerned about your blood pressure.

    6. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That removes a great source of uncertainty and fear from their lives.

      I think you may have just discovered why the meme of religion is so infectious. It's not because it's right or wrong, it's because it lets people feel like there is something that will never change. This idea is very comforting to people who live in a world that exists in a state of perpetual change.

    7. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The CIA runs the Taliban and Al Queda, look it up

    8. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by khallow · · Score: 1

      One merely needs to look at the propaganda of religion to see this. For example, the Christian song, "Rock of Ages" emphasizes the security and unchanging nature of God compared to human works. Similar claims of security or unwavering purpose appear in every other major religion.

    9. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

      Or we could, you know, present both possibilities and let people decide from themselves instead of trying to force one theory or the other down someone's throat. I'd imagine, when presented with the facts, most people would look to science for the answer in this debate, but I don't see the need to force one argument or the other.

      So, schools should teach children *everything* we know not to be true, and let them decide for themselves which to believe?

      Or only teach them the science plus one powerful group's religious beliefs?

      Or, heaven forbid (no pun), we could just teach them the science and leave *everyone's* mythology out of it.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    10. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by jonfr · · Score: 1

      You can also get to choose to have your brain removed. No there is no option here. You can always ask that tooth fairy and biology of trolls to be taught as science in school class.

      Creationism is not an argument. This is an ideology that has only one goal. Destroy science, democracy and progress. Since they find the dark ages to be dream place.

    11. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by jonfr · · Score: 1, Informative

      >You answered your own question, they use the same statement.

      No. They don't use the same statement. Creationism uses false arguments (known as lies) to back up there "claims" on the world. Not an mountain of data is going to convince them about them being wrong on this. Since truth is something they do not care about at all. If it did. Creationism would not exist at all.

    12. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by firex726 · · Score: 0

      But that's just it, one is a scientific theory, the other is religious dogma from a book full of inaccuracies and false information.

      Furthermore why not mix in the origin story from the Egyptians, or Greeks while we're at it? They have as much credibility as the Christian one.

    13. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by MozeeToby · · Score: 1

      Because this is about science classrooms? God forbid we "force" science down their throats in a science classroom. Religion has no place in science, and creationism is nothing more than religion wearing a fake mustache and shady hat. I don't expect sunday schools to teach evolution (I'd be thrilled if they did of course) they shouldn't expect my child to sit through a lecture about how "some people think god did it" in science class.

    14. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by fa2k · · Score: 1

      Why on Earth is this even an issue ?

      .. And why does Slashdot and especially commenters keep giving creationism PR? Even on a story about the extremely interesting anomaly in nuclear decay rate, one of the first threads was about "Oh no, the creationists". Is it really that big of an issue, or are geeks just picking on an easy enemy?

    15. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except you've got dogmatic people who would like to shut out any dissenting views, preferably forever. For and example, see jonfr's post. His post screams of religious zealotry every bit as much as any creationist's I've ever seen.

      You're right that we should be teaching evidence, but let's just say there's a hypothetical piece of information that does contradict the current theory of evolution. If you don't allow yourself to look at that new evidence and question current theories and adjust, you're just as bad as any creationist.

      The truth is, there are holes in the evolutionary theory. But they'll never be solved if its True Believers instead choose to focus on always attacking creationists instead of looking for ways to account for those holes.

    16. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Urza9814 · · Score: 1

      When you can show me some scientific evidence of creationism, then I'll agree that we can teach it in science classes and let people make up their mind.

      As far as I can tell, the evidence for creationism is 'some guy said so in this book' and 'you can't explain that!' (and therefore our idea, which cannot be explained either, must somehow be right)

    17. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by mat.power · · Score: 1

      I never said you should teach creationism in science class, but thanks for coming out.

    18. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by mat.power · · Score: 1

      What you and several other people here fail to grasp is that I never said to teach it in science class. There are other classes far more suitable. If we teach evolution in science, creationism/other origin stories in the suitable class and people can decide to believe in the science or believe in mythology, that's there choice and has no bearing on what you or I do.

    19. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by firex726 · · Score: 1

      Except you were in fact advocating that it be taught, even if not along side Evolution, to teach it as a comparable concept of how things came about.

      Evolution does not deal with the origin of life, and even less with the origin of the universe.

    20. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "This is an non-issue."

      Superstitionists MAKE it an issue. Superstitions, ALL of them and ALL Superstitionists themselves (because they enable the fanatics) are enemies of progress. There is no good Superstition or good Superstitionists.

      Those who disagree, prove your Sky Fairie is real, NOW, HERE, irrefutably or fuck off. I'll recant and kiss his/her/its Noodly Appendage. Until then, you are enemies of truth and of freedom, because your Superstition demands you master all men and enslave them to your theocracies.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    21. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by gtall · · Score: 1

      Really? How about we weigh Quantum Mechanics in the court of public opinion. Once we get the definitive answer, we can either explore the rest of it or forget it as a dead end. We could do the same for Relativity as well, people have right to choose. There are theories in medicine just dying for an up or down vote. Come to it, how about Intuitionistic Logic, should we keep it or shelve it? Let the people decide.

    22. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about ALL the 'theories'?
      Flying Spaghetti Monster?
      All native American creation 'theories'"
      Every crack-pot with a tin foil hat?
      Where does this end?

      Evolution is a Provable Scientific Theory. Creationism is a children's myth wrapped in wishful thinking and misguided religious militantism. Grow up or stop bothering the adults.

    23. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by gtall · · Score: 1

      I think, rather, Science gets in the way of fundamentalists creating the world of their dreams where they get to control everyone else. Come to it, Science gets in the way of any purported all-encompassing ideology.

    24. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by mat.power · · Score: 1

      All I advocate is that we teach evolution in a science context and creationism in a spiritual/religious context. I don't see why that's an issue for so many people. No one is forcing you to believe what creationism teaches, nor is anyone forcing you to take the courses that teach it. It should be available as an option for those that do want to learn about it. The science side trying to silence the religion side is just as bad as the religion side trying to silence the science side.

    25. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then you must be like 12 years old.

    26. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by hierofalcon · · Score: 1

      Having had such a huge increase in posts on the topic recently - as you've noted, I thought it a public service to throw out a thread at the top to catch the majority of the debate in one spot and make it easier for the rest of you to ignore. It was regarded by the audience as flame bait, but was actually intended as a public service that I thought might even get rated funny - guess my mood was off that day. It was also a throwing up of my hands at exactly what I was expecting from the article on variations on decay rates, which I did in fact read and observe that the variations were cyclical so of no consequence to anything in particular.

      If it actually came down to God versus geeks, I'd bet on God. But that's just me.

    27. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All I advocate is that we teach evolution in a science context and creationism in a spiritual/religious context. I don't see why that's an issue for so many people. No one is forcing you to believe what creationism teaches, nor is anyone forcing you to take the courses that teach it. It should be available as an option for those that do want to learn about it. The science side trying to silence the religion side is just as bad as the religion side trying to silence the science side.

      Unless you bring enough for everyone, just don't do it at all. Unless you're going to teach the creation "theories" of Buddhist and Hindu and Zaroastrian and that of all the other religions in public school, the Judeo-Christian "theory" needs to be left out. Anyway, that's what church and Sunday school are for, no? I suppose it could also be part of an Literature/mythology class, but that's not where you want to go is it?

    28. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think ultimately, the reason is that a number of people want absolute certainty and security in their lives. Scientific knowledge doesn't offer either. It's very nature makes things uncertain and you most certainly can't know more than a little bit of all the scientific knowledge out there (as a human). Further, it is very disruptive. Many disruptions in our lives and in our history came from fairly simple discoveries or inventions derived from scientific discovery. So to have the illusion of absolute certainty and security in your belief system, you need to exclude to some degree scientific knowledge and ideas. It's not enough to ignore science in order to exclude it, it has to be wrong. I think fundamentally that's what creationism is about. It's not about the world being created in a short period of time by a God, it's about science being absolutely wrong in one of its greatest claims. Hence, one can discount in their minds everything that has similar scientific support ("because you're wrong about evolution, then you have to be wrong about anything else that I believe in"). That removes a great source of uncertainty and fear from their lives.

      Fair enough. However, just because some people require a security blanket, it doesn't mean that we have to present demonstrably false ideas to impressionable minds in a setting dedicated to observable, testable facts.

    29. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by mat.power · · Score: 1

      Please feel free to point out where I said we should only teach creationism and no other origin stories? I'm all for teaching them all, in the right course/context. It's too bad the audience here on Slashdot would rather jump to their own conclusions based on poor assumptions, attacking those who they don't agree with, rather than engaging in a reasonable discussion.

    30. Re:Why is this even a issue ? by Robert+Zenz · · Score: 1

      No, I meant the "I know I'm right and you're wrong" not the amount of evidence for evolution (or against it).

  14. Science? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, let's definitely insist that the ONLY possible explanation that's "scientific" involves pre-existent matter, pre-existent energy and pre-existent natural and physical laws...not to mention the entire "evolutionary process" having NO means to add information. That's clearly more "scientific"...

    1. Re:Science? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

      Yes, let's definitely insist that the ONLY possible explanation that's "scientific" involves pre-existent matter, pre-existent energy and pre-existent natural and physical laws...not to mention the entire "evolutionary process" having NO means to add information. That's clearly more "scientific"...

      Basic creationist 'logic':

      Everything requires a cause.
      Therefore God must exist.
      (God doesn't require a cause.)

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    2. Re:Science? by dyingtolive · · Score: 1

      Basic evolutionist 'logic':

      Evolution is Science! Science is always true!
      Science is better than Religion because it can be questioned
      (Someone cites a centuries-old fairy tale written by humans as scientific "proof".)
      DON'T DO THAT!!! YOU'RE A BIGOT BACKWARDS HILLBILLY IGNORANT FOOL WHO BELIEVES IN MAGIC!

      I fixed your typo. For what it was worth, you were mostly correct.

      --
      Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
    3. Re:Science? by gtall · · Score: 2

      Bullshit, the most evolutionists claims is 'this' is what we have evidence for now. In the future, we may have to revisit some of the minor points, the major points would already have counter-examples were they wrong. Evolutionists also rather think of Science and Religion as being apples and oranges, comparing them makes little sense. Leave the hillbillies out of it, they probably don't have an opinion.

  15. Science is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Science is man's description of God's creation.

    1. Re:Science is by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Science is man's description of God's creation.

      God is men's description of their own ignorance.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    2. Re:Science is by firex726 · · Score: 1

      On the first day, Man created God.

    3. Re:Science is by hazah · · Score: 1

      Touche

  16. Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by ACK!! · · Score: 5, Funny

    The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.

    --
    ACK /ak/ interj. 2. [from the comic strip "Bloom County"] An exclamation of surprised disgust, esp. i
    1. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Phillip K. Dick said "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."

      He thought it was an imperfect answer to a philosophical question, but he said he couldn't define it further.

    2. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Science is true"? That's almost meaningless.
      How about this instead?

    3. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

      The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.

      oblig xkcd: http://xkcd.com/54/

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    4. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by lexa1979 · · Score: 1

      sources ?

    5. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.

      Although it sounds like a good soundbite, it is meaningless, as any religious person could say the same about God.

    6. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The good thing about God is he exists whether or not you believe in him.

      Here's wondering how many other societies thought the same about their own imaginary divinities, who you dismiss as superstitions.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    7. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sadly also appropriate: http://xkcd.com/154/

    8. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by SleazyRidr · · Score: 2

      I was actually thinking of this xkcd: http://xkcd.com/154/

    9. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How so? The age of the universe was 13.7 billion years in 2006, now its 14.6 billion years old.
      According to science, the universe has aged 900 million years in just six years.

      Details of your statement aside, you have inadvertently alighted on the fundamental difference between science and religion: when new evidence comes in, science is obligated to change their theories to account for it, whereas religion is obligated to deny the evidence in order to preserve their beliefs.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    10. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

      sources ?

      I think you just asked for a goatse link.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    11. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 3, Funny

      The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.

      Although it sounds like a good soundbite, it is meaningless, as any religious person could say the same about God.

      Quite so.

      As a more pragmatic approach you could make and compare two lists: one of all the technologies that are based on the findings of science, and another of all the technologies that are based on divine revelation.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    12. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You really want a list of all technologies that were created by a creator as opposed to creating themselves over billions of years? :-)

    13. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the one I figured we'd see first.

    14. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "science is obligated to change their theories to account for it"

      Funny how this doesn't apply to "Global Warming" and other politically charged wealth redistribution scams wrapped up in yellow science.

    15. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And science has not completely proved nor has it completely disproved the existence of a spiritual/supreme/creationism being. Therefore, the scientific truth is that a being, as such, could still potentially exist. We may not yet have the instrumentation, technology, or knowledge to know it exists. Therefore, creationism could still be a possible theory. And creationism does not exclude evolution. How can you say that they negate each other? Creationism could have still been led through the process of evolution (i.e. the things that exist were created and left to their own devices to see what would spring forth). And why does creationism always mean Christianity. Many other religions believe in a being or beings that created the things in the universe. Why couldn't they too have set evolution in motion? Of course, evolution could just have happened due to something coming from nothing and exploding into being as well, but to rule out other potential theories that cannot be disproved beyond all doubt is very unscientific...I think. True science would continue to explore those theories. Testing, probing, reexamining the evidence. Otherwise it would be just as hypocritical to dismiss it as those who dismiss creationism. Just because something is above our current level of understanding doesn't automatically make it untrue. This applies to a lot more than just creationism versus evolution.

    16. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by hazah · · Score: 1

      Science isn't telling you how old the universe is. Care to try again without a strawman?

    17. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      Let's see here. There are stories about God enabling people to fly, but somehow all such stories come from believers in God. I can go outside and point out airplanes in the sky to anybody.

    18. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm on the side of science here, but c'mon--asking for lists of technologies is pretty blatantly begging the question/stacking the deck.

    19. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by gtall · · Score: 1

      Science isn't always true. There have been some scientific theories which turned out to be false. That is increasingly uncommon as we have gotten better at determining what is pure speculation and what is a theory buttressed by evidence. Physic is has several theories which the physicists will admit have no evidence...yet. They simply say when they get it, they'll be able to rule out the ones that are clearly falsified leaving a smaller group of contenders...at least until some new theories are added for which science must still munch through.

    20. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Guppy · · Score: 2

      Funny how this doesn't apply to "Global Warming"

      Oh, it certainly does, the experiment is in progress right now as we speak. You can be sure the science textbooks our descendants write will be updated with what we learn in the process.

      What remains is whether these textbooks will reference our wisdom or our folly.

    21. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      Seriously, is that even a question? EVERYTHING was created by divine intervention.

      PS: For the humor impaired, that was a joke.

    22. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by robot_love · · Score: 1

      You've received some flack for this in your comments, but you're right. There are NO technologies that have been created based on the theory of God. That tells you something about the usefulness and explanatory power of religion: nil.

      --
      .there is enough of everything for everyone.
    23. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by mathfeel · · Score: 1

      How so? The age of the universe was 13.7 billion years in 2006, now its 14.6 billion years old. According to science, the universe has aged 900 million years in just six years.

      Details of your statement aside, you have inadvertently alighted on the fundamental difference between science and religion: when new evidence comes in, science is obligated to change their theories to account for it, whereas religion is obligated to deny the evidence in order to preserve their beliefs.

      Even more to the point, there are multiple methods of measuring the age of the universe. Some more precise than other; Some more accurate than other. They are not in huge contradiction with each other, certainly no where near the ridiculus claims religion is making. http://astro.berkeley.edu/~dperley/univage/univage.html

      People really needs to learn statistic and in addition to findings, reporter really need be able to report on the uncertainty of the findings.

      --
      The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the 'social sciences' is: some do, some don't
    24. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 1

      I'm on the side of science here, but c'mon--asking for lists of technologies is pretty blatantly begging the question/stacking the deck.

      I'm not keen on the notion that the purpose of science -- or religion -- is to produce technology. Yet my suggestion seems to have a bearing on which gives us a better understanding of reality.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    25. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by cavebison · · Score: 1

      To a degree. Remember, the Vatican itself had stated it has no problem whatsoever with evolution. I'm not religious, but am aware that "religion" is generalised a little too much. There are the open-minded religious and the idiotic religious - just as there are open-minded atheists and idiotic atheists.

      Unlike the needlessly-contentious Mr Dawkins, I see no issue with religion co-existing with science. They're two different things. Indeed I see religious belief as the natural heritage of being human, just as scientific enquiry is. We do tend to anthropomorphise a lot. It makes us happy. Big deal. The only problem is when people want to make religion rule over science, or vice versa. Both are relevant and significant to the human condition.

    26. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by kurzweilfreak · · Score: 1

      Unlike the needlessly-contentious Mr Dawkins, I see no issue with religion co-existing with science.

      When Muslim fundamentalists get ahold of and detonate a nuclear bomb, you may find you have a funny definition of "co-existing".

      --

      kurzweil_freak

      5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student

      Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.

    27. Re:Neil DeGrasse quote instantly came to mind. by cavebison · · Score: 1

      Typical straw man. You're talking about violent religious people, not religious people.

      Violent people will find an excuse to be violent, whether it's religion, jealousy, honour or simple disagreement.

      If you think eliminating religion will magically eliminate violent madmen with bombs, you're mistaken.

  17. Re:Attention Obama-Drones! by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 1

    Let's be sure to elect someone who will do nothing but kowtow to corporate leaders his entire time in office!

    It worked perfectly last time. And the time before that.

  18. Re:Attention Obama-Drones! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "kowtow to corporate leaders"

    You sound like a parrot. Did you read this on the back of a bag of Cheetos?

  19. "Society for Textbook Revise"? by seven+of+five · · Score: 2

    I think South Korea's education system may have more pressing problems...

    1. Re:"Society for Textbook Revise"? by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2

      I think South Korea's education system may have more pressing problems...

      Once they get rid of evolution, grammar's next on the hit list.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    2. Re:"Society for Textbook Revise"? by MiniMike · · Score: 3, Funny

      Quick- add a section on the evolution of grammar, and watch their heads explode!

    3. Re:"Society for Textbook Revise"? by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

      They are very good on literacy in Hangul (highest rate in the world) but apparently Engrish is still causing problems.

    4. Re:"Society for Textbook Revise"? by dyingtolive · · Score: 1

      At least they're honest about it.

      --
      Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
  20. IMBA! by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, if Korea turned against evolution, how would Zerg do their upgrades?

    1. Re:IMBA! by KatchooNJ · · Score: 1

      That one literally got me laughing out loud at work. lol I would toss you a point if I had one. :-D Thanks for the laugh.

      --
      "Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^
  21. Re:We need balance. There should be counter exampl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You should be cited along with them as someone who'd rather see discord over reason.

  22. still a bad sign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Science only one this round because it happened to complain the loudest ("sparking outrage among some scientists"), it could have very well worked out the other way.
    We shouldn't be deciding what is taught based on popular opinion or who had the loudest voice in expressing their opinion instead based on what is true and verifiable.
    I think the age of science is ending, it is the dawn of the age of stupidity.

  23. You can't explain that! by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 2

    evolution of the horse

    I'm sorry, but science simply cannot explain how the pegasus (equus aves) and unicorn (equus magicus) arose from the earth pony (equus terra) without intervention from the goddess Faustia.

  24. which T-shirt is that? by oneiros27 · · Score: 2

    I don't see any obviously Lord of the Rings images on their website:

    http://controversy.wearscience.com/

    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
    1. Re:which T-shirt is that? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      I like how they have the timecube up there. That's now entertainingly obscure.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  25. Re:Attention Obama-Drones! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You do understand facts don't you? Bush - unemployment 4.5%, gas $1.80 per gallon. Obama; longest stretch of unemployment over 8% in recorded history, gas nearing $4/gallon. But like a drone you blame bush and are perfectly willing to go and pull the Democrat lever aren't you?

    Because obviously the President has full control of oil prices and private businesses' hiring rates.

  26. In North Korea... by Razgorov+Prikazka · · Score: 1

    The beloved Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un wins from both science AND religion! All hail Kim Jong-un!

    --
    rm -rf --no-preserve-root / ...and let /dev/null sort them out...
  27. unbiased and controversial by deodiaus2 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I think there should be far more discussion in the schools of the falacy of religion. It should be done under the guise of critical thinking. Students should be actively pushed to write papers and have public debates poining out the falacies of religion. Simple subjects like, "Why Believe in God", and a good discussion of "The Suffering of Little Children" from "Brothers Kramozov" should start things rolling around. More active discussions should include "The God Dilusion" by Dawkins, and pretty soon, most priests will be pissed off.

    1. Re:unbiased and controversial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think there should be far more discussion in the schools of the falacy of religion. It should be done under the guise of critical thinking.

      This would not work out quite as you would expect. When people use valid logic, they tend to see truth. It turns out that the origin of life is not a scientific question at all, and it cannot be proved or disproved with science. Where life came from, and whether a God exists, is clearly a question in the realm of philosophy and theology more than it is in the realm of science. You cannot use repeatable, observable experiments to prove things which are by nature not repeatable and observable within nature.

      If science classes taught strictly "science", and not a metaphysical origin of life, then this whole debate over what should be taught in classrooms would be much easier.

  28. Re:We need balance. There should be counter exampl by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 1

    ...include examples of devolution.

    Here you go! We're through being cool.

  29. Afraid of something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why are anti-Christian bigots so afraid of alternative views? Is your belief so weak that at its mere mention you crumble or is it something else? You hide behind scientific theories and force your atheism on the rest of us. We have freedom of thought and speech and religion in the United States BECAUSE of Christianity, not in spite of it. To believe in “A” or “B” except “you” decide mine is wrong. And I have to pay taxes to have your view “evangelized.” Bonus!

    1. Re:Afraid of something? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Afraid of alternative views? Are you kidding me? That's the absolute base of Science... bring my a new theory including facts and we discuss it. If these facts are good enough, lets scrap the old theory and accecpt your new one. Simple as that.

      But spare me from your religous beliefs. This whole discussion has nothing to do with hiding behind scientific theories.

      Science is Science
      Religion is Religion

      Keep these two in their respective fields and noone in their right mind would start a fight... the problem is mixing in your beliefs and trying to use these beliefs as a scientific base called creationism. Just the thought of teaching these two as "alternatives" makes me sick and afraid.

    2. Re:Afraid of something? by dyingtolive · · Score: 1

      We're afraid of (your) 'alternative views' because they're both A) insolvent and B) constantly trying to get pushed into law.

      Old fairy tales aren't evidence, folks. The bible can't "prove itself". When you come up with a way to turn your "alternative views" into something a little more concrete than "this book is true, cause the funny dressed man in the old building told me so", let me know, cause, like, I'd really love to be Christian. I really would. The problem is that, sans lobotomy, I'll never be able to be one of you, cause I can't stop trying to think critically.

      --
      Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
    3. Re:Afraid of something? by kommakazi · · Score: 0

      No, we do not have freedom of thought and speech and religion in the United States because of Christianity (or any religion, for that matter), we have it because of the Constitution, an entirely secular document written by some rather intelligent men.

    4. Re:Afraid of something? by hierofalcon · · Score: 1

      The Bible is not in conflict with science. Many people have interpreted the Bible in ways that are in conflict with science. That does not make their interpretation correct and science wrong, nor does it make the Bible wrong because their incorrect interpretation does not line up with science.

      My interpretation, which I have held for decades, doesn't have issues with an old earth. Indeed, it requires the earth to be older than the ~ 6k+ year old value that is commonly bandied about. I feel my view is consistent with what the scripture actually says from cover to cover. My view doesn't address evolution, as the Bible doesn't address it. I am completely neutral on whether macro-evolution occurred in the past or whether God just had fun tinkering because He was bored. Science really can't prove that macro-evolution is true over other options due to the time scales involved. Natural selection and micro-evolution is observable, but macro-evolution is not and probably won't be at least in the near to mid range future. Macro evolution / God experimenting - will remain unresolved.

      The important thing is this. Whichever view is correct doesn't matter as far as the purpose of the Bible and doesn't affect my religion at all. Pastors have taught young earth theories from the pulpit and have taught old earth theories from the pulpit over the course of my lifetime in a single church. I'd say the congregation was about evenly split if a vote were to be taken as to which was right. But who is right and who is wrong is completely irrelevant. It simply doesn't matter in the grand plan of things.

      Since you mentioned it, I'll also note that I have no desire that the schools be forced to teach religion by law. All I do expect is that the schools be fair in their treatment of religion should the topic arise and present a balanced view of any side that wishes to be heard. I wholeheartedly agree that the place is not in a science class room.

      I believe in God because I see His work in people's lives today. I observe how He is interacting with my life and in the lives of those around me who I personally know. I have observed tangible changes and events which cannot be explained by science or medicine. Yet they match up with what the Bible said would happen in words written ~2k+ years ago. Thus I stand as one of the few in the forum who is both a champion of science, and a champion of religion. Yet I realize that what I have experienced in my life will be just as irrelevant to you as the Bible you mock.

      If you really are honest in wanting to be a Christian, find a smaller Pentecostal church and attend it for as long as you have studied science. Go in skeptically. Don't let those who attend off the hook about their beliefs and make them give you real answers, being respectful to ask the questions in a normal learning environment like a Sunday school class or small group when the topic arises. Realize that some topics like creation have wide ranging views. Remember that these topics aren't what Christianity is about - they are fringe issues which are largely irrelevant to the Gospel's message and that you will hear a wide range of opinions. Go with the intent of finding out what Christianity is really all about. Do go in with an open mind and stay for an extended period of time and really get to know the people and their lives. That way, when God does do something special that you observe, you'll have the confidence that it wasn't just some trickery since you really know the lives of the people involved.

      If you do, then God will prove Himself to you, and that is the important thing. Once He has proven Himself to you, then you will look at the Bible in a new light and read it and see how it really is about a whole bunch of things other than the five or six that get bandied about in this forum when people start trying to tear it down and raise science up.

  30. Re:We need balance. There should be counter exampl by andy16666 · · Score: 3, Informative

    What people mockingly call "devolution" is evolution. You can even cite examples of traits which wither away because they are no longer advantageous for genetic selection. There's no need to cover it as a separate topic. The loss of a trait or ability can be and often is advantageous as most require energy to maintain. (Our large brain is a huge disadvantage when food is scarce.)

    There's also the myth that evolution has an overall direction, for example from single celled life to humans. While humans might take longer to evolve and might seem more advanced to us, we share the world and even our bodies with billions of single celled organisms which are doing just fine. They have been evolving for just as long as we have, and in that sense are just as evolved.

  31. First it was better broadband... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...now it's a vastly more sensible attitude about biology. Korea is so far ahead of the USA we may never catch up...

  32. Re:Attention Obama-Drones! by hazah · · Score: 1

    Right... Bush has *nothing* to do with the current state of affairs? Did I read that correctly?

  33. Abiogenesis is not equal to evolution by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Look, Newton's Laws of motion didn't explain "where the First Motion came from" but people didn't claim that meant that Newton's Laws were wrong. In Christianity, the doctrine of Original Sin doesn't explain where God came from, does that mean Christianity is therefore wrong?

    Abiogenesis is definitely an unsolved problem - so far. So what? The question of how life got started is logically distinct from how it developed after that start. And evolution addresses that question comprehensively. (Even in the case of the putative examples of 'irreducible complexity' that ID'ers have advanced - e.g. the bacterial flagellum, the clotting cascade, or the vertebrate immune system.)

    (Oh, and progress is actually being made on the abiogenesis front anyway.)

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
    1. Re:Abiogenesis is not equal to evolution by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      FWIW I believe in panspermia and evolution. We have already discarded the possibility of full up design by any sort of intelligent designer. At most what may have happened is that the building blocks came from somewhere else and then iteratively we reached the present state by mutation, selection, etc.

  34. Name three. Hell, name ONE. by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 2

    Gimme the name of any textbook actually in use in any school that "claims that life can be created synthetically using Natural means".

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  35. Whole issue is grossly misunderstood by Koreantoast · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think it's worth reposting this:

    No Evolution in Korea?

    "What STR did manage to pull off with three textbook publishers was this: STR convinced those publishers that two diagrams in their books -- one about the evolution of horses, and the other about archeopteryx -- and the text accompanying them were scientifically incorrect. Notice the claim here: the claim was not that the diagrams were against creationism. The claim was that the diagrams were scientifically incorrect."

    "And you know what? Technically, they were right! The diagram above showing the evolution of horses is horribly outdated, and the pictures no longer comport with the current scientific consensus. The text accompanying archeopteryx said archeopteryx is the middle step between dinosaurs and birds, which is also technically incorrect -- archeopteryx is considered a close relative to the true ancestral birds, not itself a true ancestral bird. So the three textbook companies decided that they would drop the two diagrams in the next edition of their textbooks."

    "Pay close attention to what actually happened here. What got dropped was two diagrams and the accompanying texts about evolution that were scientifically incorrect -- not the theory of evolution. It is not possible for the textbook publishers to drop the discussion about the theory of evolution, because that would violate MEST guidelines. Further, not even the decision to drop the two diagrams was final, because MEST still had to approve the new textbooks that the publishers proposed to make."

    "But of course, STR nutcases thought they scored a huge victory for creationism, and started trumpeting their "victory." By and large, Korean media yawned -- exactly one national newspaper (and a relatively minor one at that) covered the story, and even that story made it quite clear that all that got dropped were diagrams. But the Nature magazine decided to run with the story, with a sensational headline that read: "South Korea surrenders to creationist demands," and here we are -- Korea is branded as a dumb country that doesn't believe in evolution."

    Basically, it didn't become a problem until foreigners misunderstood what happened and trumpeted it as the beginning of creationism in Korea. The Korean government responded not because of creeping creationism but to save face in front of the international community. If anything, this whole misunderstanding may in fact work in favor of creationists in Korea because now it has drawn attention to what had been a fringe, ignored cause from other creationist movements overseas.

    1. Re:Whole issue is grossly misunderstood by noobermin · · Score: 1

      Nature did this? You'd expect more sensible articles from them. Sigh, may be the journalists penning supposedly sensational journalism in what is supposed to be an academic journal should peer-review each other's work.

    2. Re:Whole issue is grossly misunderstood by Koreantoast · · Score: 1

      I didn't realize until now that the link wasn't posted. Give credit to where credit is due.

      http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2012/07/no-evolution-in-korea.html

  36. Re:Attention Obama-Drones! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do you get "American election" from this topic?
    Do the usual republican hater that post as AC on slashdot fail at reading too?
    Or is it that everything about Creationism is really about the USA even if it's in Korea?

  37. Live as you see fit by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 1


    Assuming you're not harming anyone else, live as you see fit. I believe that if by living and learning you happen to ignore religious "law" god will understand it's all a part of growing up. If god does will not understand then he is not god, so why worry about it?

    If god was so offended that creationism is not taught, why didn't god write/inspire his holy book/s correctly the first time?

    Don't get me wrong, I completely agree creationism must be taught alongside of science, my problem is which version of creationism to teach.
    Once we can decide which religion is true and which is false we can finally begin the holy work of teaching the right version of creationism and all that good stuff.

    Of course I'd not want to put many different people of different religions in a room to debate this, god might be offended by their consequent behavior.

    Come to think about it, if god is so bothered about people believing in him and their eternal souls and all that, why doesn't he just say so? heck Amazon will give him an exclusive on the Kindle Fire HD. I can see it now "Kindle Sin Hellfire - GOD EDITION!"

    --
    A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
  38. Oh, 'holes'. Right. by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The truth is, there are holes in the evolutionary theory.

    There are 'holes' in General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, too. (They make conflicting predictions in conditions we can't yet test, so at least one and probably both are wrong.) But we still teach them in schools, because they are the best theories we have and they cover such a huge range of phenomena with such precision that, whatever the truth turns out to be, it'll still look a hell of a lot like GR and QM.

    As Isaac Asimov put it, "[W]hen people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was [perfectly] spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."

    Newton's Laws are wrong, yes... but they are so close to right we still use them every day, and teach them in schools. Hell, NASA still uses plain old Newtonian physics to pilot their space probes, with just a few occasional relativistic fudge factors, because a full GR treatment would be prohibitively complex and add no useful accuracy.

    It's the same with evolution. We know that all life is related by common descent, and that life has changed drastically over the course of 3.5 billion years, and that complex structures were built by numerous small tweaks well within the realm of chance. Natural selection has been demonstrated now and over the fossil record.

    Evolution is true. Will there be further clarifications and refinements? Sure. But they won't upend evolution any more than GR and QM could possibly be 'overturned'.

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
    1. Re:Oh, 'holes'. Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A singl change in the past of any of the laws of nature that are assumed to be unchanging has the potential to blow predictions of the past out of the water. Future predictions are testable because the claimed moment will arrive after the prediction has been made. Predictions of past conditions are not testable. If you think we know how things were even 10000 years ago you are confusing knowledge with belief and supposition.

  39. "Science wins over creationism" by Bob-taro · · Score: 1

    And that's about as far as most posters read, I'll bet, before posting their "look how stupid religious people are" rants. Creationists are not all stupid. You might think they're wrong, but people can be very intelligent and wrong at the same time. Archaeopteryx and eohippus are oft cited examples of evolution, but there is some doubt today about their accuracy. Heck, the scientists COMPLIED with half of the request. The eohippus to horse scenario is inaccurate and should be removed! However, they let the Archaeopteryx stand even though it might not really represent a transition between dinosaurs and birds. "Science wins"? Maybe Korean educators should be embarrassed that creationists had to point out the scientific flaws in their textbooks. BTW, my kids' science textbooks had the same examples.

    --
    Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
  40. Nice start by jez9999 · · Score: 1

    Now can the South Korean government please use science to figure out that you can't die from being exposed to a fan overnight?

  41. Discussing the Topic by arthurpaliden · · Score: 0

    Disusing The Theory of Evolution or abiogenesis with a Creationist is pointless for they do not have the required educational background to understand the principles involved to even support their own position let alone contradict an opposing view.

    Disusing The Theory of Evolution or abiogenesis with a Fundamentalist is also pointless because their faith is absolute as opposed to the faith of a Creationist who requires bastardized and antiquated scientific 'facts' in order to shore up their own faith.

    1. Re:Discussing the Topic by John+Allsup · · Score: 1

      If you'd like me to play an educated creationist and see where we go, I'd be more than happy. There is a rational alternative to the theory that our origins are purely evolutionary if you question your assumptions deeply enough. As my other post points out, however, the discussion has no place in science. For reference I'm a WeDontHaveAClueist in the sense that my position is we don't know and can't know and science can't tell us where we really came from. Truth, when you dig in, is one of the biggest cans of worms in creation/uncreation/notcreatedatalleation.

      --
      John_Chalisque
  42. Precedence by Epeeist · · Score: 1

    It was a Catholic priest, Georges Lemaître, that most pushed for the big ban theory, which was advanced science in that day. It was the atheists that were anti-science then, with their now-debunked "Static" theory.

    Actually the person who first came up with a dynamic cosmological model of general relativity was Alexander Friedman, hence the reason for the term FLRW metric. Lemaître did come up with a "primitive atom", but it was Fred Hoyle who first coined the term "Big Bang".

  43. Equivocation by Epeeist · · Score: 1

    Or we could, you know, present both possibilities and let people decide from themselves instead of trying to force one theory or the other down someone's throat. I'd imagine, when presented with the facts, most people would look to science for the answer in this debate, but I don't see the need to force one argument or the other.

    There is only one theory, i.e something that makes testable predictions, has undergone testing and not been falsified. Creationism whether of the original kind or in its clown-shoe variant "ingenuous design" are not theories in the scientific sense.

  44. Naturalism != Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have yet to understand why people conflate the two.

  45. Creationists by Epeeist · · Score: 1, Funny

    Creationists are not all stupid.

    As the saying goes, you can be intelligent, honest and a creationist.

    Just not all three at the same time.

    1. Re:Creationists by John+Allsup · · Score: 1

      It is, however, just a saying. It is nice, succint, but just plain wrong. You cannot be reasonably intelligent, reasonably honest and a creationist: that much I'd agree. To make creationist ideas work properly you need to be seriously intelligent, brutally honest about what we do not actually know but merely believe we do, and take a totally free-minded approach to possibility. Doing this may just drive you crazy, and is pointless for the most part because if you do realise how to reconcile science and creationism, the people who understand you, yourself included, will most likely be countable on the thumbs on your left hand.

      --
      John_Chalisque
  46. Correction on Title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Science Wins Over Creationism In South Korea" is a horrible title.

    Creationism is a "theory" just as evolution is. It is wrong to say that Creationism isn't science because you disagree with it. Both religion's scientists view the same evidence and make different determinations based on the assumptions they have.

    The title should read:

    "The Religion of Evolution Wins Over the Religion of Christianity in South Korea."

  47. Use of nonmainline version error by RobertLTux · · Score: 1

    Dome may not be a correct translation of the word more commonly translated as Firmament (and may be due to the limits of people reading this).

    Anybody that can read hebrew wanna comment??

    a big thing when reading the bible is REFERENCE THE ORIGINAL TEXT (as much as possible) one could notice that the Latin for verse 14 reads dixit autem Deus fiant luminaria in firmamento caeli ut dividant diem ac noctem et sint in signa et tempora et dies et annos

    --
    Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
    1. Re:Use of nonmainline version error by mnooning · · Score: 1

      An earlier reply by nedlohs, using KJV, shows that the "firmament" has both fowls and stars in it. That is consistent with the Catholic New American bible.

    2. Re:Use of nonmainline version error by sourcerror · · Score: 1

      a big thing when reading the bible is REFERENCE THE ORIGINAL TEXT

      Then why are you referencing a latin translation?

    3. Re:Use of nonmainline version error by RobertLTux · · Score: 1

      because i do not read Hebrew (and 98% chance i couldn't reference it here anyway) and besides Folks that speak Latin and Hebrew both were common back in the day.

      If you want to take a stab at it crosswire does have a couple hebrew texts for you to read (assuming you don't already have a copy now).

      --
      Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
  48. Re:Attention Obama-Drones! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Good grief you people are dumb. No one is hiring now unless they absolutely have to as they are waiting to see if Obama is thrown out and then secondarily if Obamacare is dumped."

    Can I be in your living-room the night when Obama will be declared president for another 4 years?
    That will be so much fun.

  49. Too right: Science classes should teach evolution by John+Allsup · · Score: 1

    My thoughts: Science classes should teach evolution, not creationism, the latter is not science. If you want to rationally approach the subject of our origins in an open minded way, that is the place of an appropriate branch of philosophy. If you look for a theory that fits the evidence and make reasonable assumptions that batsh** crazy stuff isn't happening behind the scenes, evolution's what you get, thus that's what should be taught in science classes. What direly needs to be taught is that the scientific approach isn't the only way to view the world, and that science divorced of its underlying philosophy becomes like a house with its foundations removed. There is a point to faith, and indeed to myths. The point of myths is that much meaning can be conveyed to a level sufficient for everyday life that would require thousands of journal articles to pin down to scientific standards, if it can be pinned down at all. Sometimes a myth is enough.

    In short, teach basic maths, basic science and teach people how to be open-minded, reason carefully and not be dogmatic about what they believe.

    Also develop a good notion what faith is, in both a secular and religious context and teach that. Do not teach the agressive secularist idea that faith is old-fashioned, backward, inconsistent with evidence or just plain wrong. That is, alas, the seed of religious dogmatism growing up within the humanist viewpoint, where surely religious dogmatism has no place.

    --
    John_Chalisque
  50. MOD PARENT UP by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 1

    The cult leader is dead. Sudden outbreak of common sense.

  51. Two questions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1. How does science explain where the material for the big bang came from and why it was there? Where's the scientific explanation of the material's origin, I would love to hear it... science only goes so far no matter HOW MUCH of it you accept

    2. How did the reproductive system evolve? If the theory of evolution is that mutations that help an organism survive are what get selected, none of the system in either gender existed at the outset, most if not all of it needs to be present in order for it to work, and without it working there is no survival advantage, how did it evolve? Was it just 1,000 random mutations all happening at exactly the same time?

    I am not really religious. But I will discount all theories of some other being having a hand in creating us when science has a full and fully defensible explanation

    1. Re:Two questions by jecblackpepper · · Score: 1

      1. How does science explain where the material for the big bang came from and why it was there? Where's the scientific explanation of the material's origin, I would love to hear it... science only goes so far no matter HOW MUCH of it you accept

      As far as I know, science does not yet have a solid theory for how this came about. There are some interesting hypothesises, for example one is that that the universe actually has a net zero energy state. The energy in the matter is balanced by negative gravitational energy - see this article. Of course this is just one hypothesis, there are others. However, just because we don't yet have a complete answer for the origin of the universe doesn't mean that it's acceptable to say "god did it".

      Also the origin of the universe has nothing to do with evolution as taught in school and college. The origin of the universe is more properly part of cosmology and physics. Evolution is biology and ONLY deals with how organisms change over time, it doesn't even address how life might have come about in the first place. So if the argument is that we shouldn't teach evolution because science does not yet have a theory about the origin of the universe, you might as well say that we shouldn't teach ANY science at all. Should we not teach chemistry because we don't know where the matter came from, should we ignore physics as well?

      So while it's true that science only goes so far as you say that is still not an excuse for not teaching it. Science it can only address topics where, by definition, the scientific method can be applied. Religions' claims are, again by definition, not scientific. One cannot apply the scientific method to supernatural claims - since no hypothesis can be tested; a god could always use its supernatural power to ensure any result it wanted.

      2. How did the reproductive system evolve? If the theory of evolution is that mutations that help an organism survive are what get selected, none of the system in either gender existed at the outset, most if not all of it needs to be present in order for it to work, and without it working there is no survival advantage, how did it evolve? Was it just 1,000 random mutations all happening at exactly the same time?

      Your first misunderstanding is that the reproductive system needs all of it's current complexity to give an advantage. Being able to combine DNA without having different sexes gives a huge advantage in terms of natural selection, and then once you have that then selection pressure will evolve fitter and fitter mechanism until one has the full complexity that we see today. The system evolved in very very gradual steps. If you are thinking that sexual reproduction is an example of irreducible complexity, then I suggest that you do a little bit of research into it. For example, a quick look at Wikipedia provides a useful starting point for the layman.

      I am not really religious. But I will discount all theories of some other being having a hand in creating us when science has a full and fully defensible explanation

      So if you discount all theories until there is full and fully defensible explanation, then I guess you discount gravity. That can't be useful at all since we don't yet have a full explanation. Oh wait, yes it's still useful to use Newton's equations even though they've been superseded by Einstein's, and it's useful to use Einstein's even though they don't work so well at the quantum level.

  52. You don't have to be athiest to accept evolution by darkonc · · Score: 0
    First of all, Genesis only says that God created the world -- It doesn't say how. Science doesn't say who -- It just investigates how.

    Genesis doesn't claim that God's days are 24 hours long. By some reports, the original Hebrew word that we now translate as 'days' is more like 'aeons' -- the Sun and the Moon weren't even created until the 4th 'day'.

    Then, of course, there are those who say that the 31 lines of Genesis that describe creation aren't to be taken as a detailed account of creation -- and, more importantly, that we shouldn't make up all sorts of random stuff and pretend that that's in those 31 lines as well and demand that other people accept the stuff that people made up be included as God Given Truth. They even expect god to abide by our own 24 hour day. Rather presumptuous of us, yes?

    Consider it, instead, as a parable for people who didn't even have a firm grasp of Newtonian mechanics, much less Relativity (and for the most part wouldn't have cared less about the later, even if God had tried to explain it back then). Notice, even, that between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 there is a different order for the creation of man and beast. God, it seems, is outside of the ordere of time.

    I take from Genesis a few key talking points:

    • God created this world, and gave us Dominion over it.. There's no promise of another one, so we better treat our 'toys' nicely
    • God takes time off to rest and recuperate and so should you.

    The details of how god created the universe, the world and us is really left as an exercise for the reader. Those who claim that the stuff that they made up after reading Genesis is the God given truth are simply playing god, themselves.

    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  53. Crappy science by operagost · · Score: 1

    I usually avoid these flame-fest articles entirely anymore, but I have to point out that any texts that claim archaeopteryx as an avian ancestor (it's more like an avian uncle) or show horse evolution in an equally flawed manner need to be revised. A creationist group was involved, but the fact remains the book needs to be fixed. But let's not bother reading the article. TL;DR. Don't let a good attack on those radical fundies go to waste.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  54. Re:We need balance. There should be counter exampl by dinfinity · · Score: 1

    Well, there is a direction in the sense that single celled life needs to evolve before more complex life can evolve. One could also argue that, given relatively stable circumstances, complex life is bound to evolve at some point. And even though complex species can be much more fragile than single celled species as a whole, the individuals can be more resilient in the face of changing circumstances and less prone to die.

  55. Re:So you believe in evolution? by jecblackpepper · · Score: 1

    Okay, I'll feed the troll.

    White people did "evolve" from black people as you say, however your complete misconception appears to be that evolution means "better", i.e. that white people are better that black people. Yes white people are "fitter" for an environment that it far from the equator. However, black people are "fitter" for an equatorial environment. That's it, that's the only conclusion that you can draw, nothing about any other traits. One cannot draw any conclusion about which is "best" from this evidence - except that black people are "better" for equatorial regions and white people are "better" for non-equatorial regions.

    Also don't forget that the black population that remained near the equator also continued to evolve based on fitness for their environment, just as the population who moved away from the equator evolved paler skin based on fitness for their non-equatorial environment.

  56. Give me a fscking break by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 1
    If you want to go that route, how do you know that the unicorns didn't create the universe last Thursday with all our memories pre-loaded? I am perfectly willing to grant that such a proposition is impossible to disprove. Of course, that's logically equivalent to saying that it makes no difference whatsoever if it's true or not. There's no possible observation that could be made that would in any way have any bearing on its truth or falsehood.

    So guess what? Piss on such ideas. Even if they were true, they'd still be totally worthless.

    In passing, I note that I've seen people who argue both that (a) the universe is so fine-tuned that any change would make life impossible, so God must have designed the universe, and (b) the laws of nature might have been totally different in the past, so that 4.6 billion years of radioactive decay could happen in 1/750,000th of the time without evaporating the Earth. I don't know if you're one of that ilk, but it wouldn't surprise me.

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  57. Re:You don't have to be athiest to accept evolutio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Science tells me that the Sun formed before the Earth and the Moon, but the Bible says the Sun and the Moon were created after the Earth. If the Bible was the word of God, or even just divinely inspired shouldn't the order in which things came about at least be correct?

  58. Re:You don't have to be athiest to accept evolutio by darkonc · · Score: 1

    The fight is between science an creation in any case. If God created the universe, the earth and all creatures in 144 hours (6 days), there's no need for it to have occurred in the 'known' order either.

    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  59. South Korea vulnerable to Creationism? by cpghost · · Score: 1

    I'm really wondering that the creationism debate infected South Korea at all. Up until now, I thought that the debate of creationism in textbooks and education was a typical Americanism, strictly confined to the USA (or maybe just to its Bible Belt). Is South Korea's educational system such a carbon-copy of the US's system that it is just as vulnerable to the same memes? Anyone from South Korea caring to shed some light on this?

    --
    cpghost at Cordula's Web.
  60. Turning Back Time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here in TN, they have taken steps though new legislation to allow creationism back into the classroom. This law turns the clock back nearly 100 years here in the seemingly unprogressive South and is simply embarrassing. There is no argument against the Theory of Evolution other than that of religious doctrine. The Monkey Law only opens the door for fanatic Christianity to creep its way back into our classrooms. You can see my visual response as a Tennessean to this absurd law on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/04/pulpit-in-classroom-biblical-agenda-in.html with some evolutionary art and a little bit of simple logic.

  61. Dude, I didn't object to faith-based programs. by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 1

    I objected to faith-based programs at the White House. As in, " religion driv[ing] policy that [atheists] have to live with." So your response is rather beside the point.

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
    1. Re:Dude, I didn't object to faith-based programs. by hierofalcon · · Score: 1

      Your reference to "Office of Unicorn-Based Programs" at the White House seemed to be a reference to the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships I referred to. Its goal is to selectively distribute funds through faith based groups or other neighborhood organizations to combat poverty - thus my comment. You could read the Wiki page on its purpose if you're interested.

      I also checked the statistics after I posted and the latest government survey indicates as much as 70% of each tax dollar gets eaten up by overhead, so the percentages I gave for government help were quite optimistic. I wasn't going to post just to correct it, but since we're clearing up confusion I'll do that too.

      Sorry I wasted your time. I'm sure that at some point the atheists will be running everything from the White House down. I just hope I and my family don't live to see that day and particularly not if I'm in need.

  62. Pity and Preservation. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We should be sorry for the creationists. Their life is so difficult and keeps getting more difficult because of all the new knowledge that they can't explain. Without a scientific education, they have to struggle to deal with explanations for the scientific evidence pouring in from geology, biology, anthropology, genetics, radioactivity, and astronomy. Worst of all, they have to tie it into cutesy metaphors designed by ancients who thought that the Earth was flat, to guide the tribes of Israel in the Bronze Age. This burden has become too great to pass on to their children, and anyway they understand that there will be no tolerance for creationism in the more savvy next generation.

    Still surviving today in living human form is a a precious relic from the ages of ignorance: that 2000 year era during which a very strange miracle-based religion had shaped contemporary western culture. Soon that relic will be gone, and it will be increasingly difficult for living humans to believe that their predecessors could have been so naive. The most interesting studies will be concerned with the 20th and early 21st centuries when, at the very time that science was making enormous strides in explaining the origins of life and the universe, that there actually grew for the first time in the most advanced nation an incredible phenomenon: a significant portion of the population (said to be 40 to 50 percent at the turn of the century) who believed the Bible in an absolute literal sense. They even believed from a simplistic counting of incomplete generation records of one illiterate nomadic Hebrew tribe, that the world was less than 10,000 years old. This evidence may also and also how the mind of somewhat educated 20th century humans could become trapped in ignorance by their fear of what may happen to them after death.

    We need to preserve this most important cultural artifact so that it can be studied by future generations trying to understand human evolution. How can we do this preservation? I think we must record their voices and images telling us what they really believe and find a way to store it indefinitely in digital form. Dozens of satellite TV channels must have valuable recordings of the most effective preachers. The Bible alone is not a sufficient record, because no intelligent future human life form will believe that it was ever taken literally. We must find the best examples of this human evidence. Prime specimens are believed to be still living in large numbers in the wild in places like Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas. The Smithsonian must get on to this quickly and develop a new annexe for the American History Museum.

  63. Re:You don't have to be athiest to accept evolutio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought the argument was that "days" wasn't a correct translation and could mean aeons, the point I was making was that even if that was the case the Bible is still wrong.

  64. Give me two breaks. by Dr.+Manhattan · · Score: 1
    Firstt off, if it were an "office of efficient and effective programs", and it just so happened that the most efficient and effective programs tended to be faith-based, that wouldn't be a problem. It's when they are specifically seeking out faith-based programs that the problem comes in. Using faith as a proxy for efficiency and effectiveness http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/rightsandfreedoms/a/bushchurch.htm ">is the problem.

    I'm sure that at some point the atheists will be running everything from the White House down. I just hope I and my family don't live to see that day

    Yeah, yeah, the terrible atheists are coming. Sorry my asking for effective government policy implies that I crave to be a totalitarian oppressor.

    and particularly not if I'm in need.

    The differences between religious and secular giving aren't that pronounced. And that situation is influenced by lots of propaganda that there's no reason to be good to others if you don't believe in God, which seems to be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy for people who lose faith sometimes.

    --
    PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
  65. Burning people on stakes by gay358 · · Score: 1

    I guess that burning people on stakes wasn't called fundamentalism as it happened before that. Maybe the correct would have been mainstream Christianity and others were called heretics and tortured to death (of course many mainstream Christians were also tortured until they "confessed" and then they were burned at stake).

  66. Another by yangli520 · · Score: 1

    We don't know how it happened

    --
    http://www.aiyiagroup.com Hot dipped galvanized steel coil
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