Slashdot Mirror


Creationist Bets $10k In Proposed Literal Interpretation of Genesis Debate

HungWeiLo writes "A California man who believes the literal interpretation of the Bible is real is offering $10,000 to anyone who can successfully debunk claims made in the book of Genesis in front of a judge. Joseph Mastropaolo, the man behind this challenge, is to put $10,000 of his own money into an escrow account. His debate opponent would be asked to do the same. They would then jointly agree on a judge based on a list of possible candidates. Mastropaolo said that any evidence presented in the trial must be 'scientific, objective, valid, reliable and calibrated.' For his part, Mastropaolo has a Ph.D. in kinesiology and writes for the Creation Hall of Fame website, which is helping to organize the minitrial. It's also not the first such trial he's tried to arrange. A previous effort, known as the 'Life Science Prize,' proposed a similar scenario. Mastropaolo includes a list of possible circuit court judges to oversee the trial and a list of those he challenged to take part on the evolutionary side of the debate."

15 of 1,121 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Easy... by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Adam and Eve had two sons and no daughters.

    I propose that their children were mother fuckers.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  2. Re:6 days by hawguy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yea the first day the earth was already there and light was created, of course it was a few days later when the sun was created so where did that light come from?

    An omnipotent being created the earth and the rest of the universe, and you're quibbling over how he could create light before the sun? If he can create matter from nothing, surely creating a few photons isn't beyond his powers.

  3. Re:Easy... by Ghaoth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not being able to believe in any form of super being, I find the Bible and its ilk just best selling novels. However, if it weren't for computers, we wouldn't be discussing this, so.... In the beginning GOD created the Bit and the Byte. And from those he created the Word. And there were two Bytes in the Word; and nothing else existed. And God separated the One from the Zero; and he saw it was good. And God said - Let the Data be; And so it happened. And God said - Let the Data go to their proper places. And he created floppy disks and hard disks and compact disks. And God said - Let the computers be, so there would be a place to put floppy disks and hard disks and compact disks. Thus God created computers and called them hardware. And there was no Software yet. But God created programs; small and big... And told them - Go and multiply yourselves and fill all the Memory. And God said -I will create the Programmer; And the Programmer will make new programs and govern over the computers and programs and Data. And God created the Programmer; and put him in Data Center;

    --
    Nos Morituri te salutamus
  4. Re:Easy... by mtm_king · · Score: 5, Funny

    Friend, converting from Baptist to Catholic is like switching from Marlboro cigarettes to Camel. Try kicking the habit completely.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  5. Re:Easy... by ldobehardcore · · Score: 5, Funny

    Amen.

    --
    Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you
  6. Re:Easy... by DragonWriter · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't agree with the arguments for a literal interpretation of Genesis (few outside the US do), but I do believe in Biblical inerrancy

    In other words, you have convinced yourself the logically impossible is possible

    Biblical inerrancy without biblical literalism isn't impossible: it just means that whenever what you thought the Bible meant turns out to be false, well, then that's not actually what it meant.

  7. Re:Ill add $10,000 by taustin · · Score: 3, Funny

    In order to orate, the teapot would have to make noise. If there were a patch of gas between the Earth and Mars big enough for that, we'd have detected it by now.

    I'll take cash or gold.

  8. Re:Easy... by ldobehardcore · · Score: 4, Funny

    But god saw that the programmer was lonely. And so he said, let there be internet porn, and such there was porn of every proclivity and vice and fascination, and he saw it was good. And he rested.

    --
    Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you
  9. OKay sister fucker then by aepervius · · Score: 4, Funny

    See luke and leia were not the first to be tempted :P.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  10. Re:Easy... by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Funny

    my faith flew apart until I converted to Catholicism some years ago.

    You're doing it wrong.

    --
    No sig today...
  11. Re:Oink! by a_hanso · · Score: 2, Funny

    The reason no one takes this idiot up, is because the odds are in the houses favor, and he knows it.

      Never wrestle with a pig. You will end up covered in mud and the pig will enjoy it.

    Unless you huff and puff and blow his house... oh wait.

  12. Re:Easy... by DrXym · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have to wonder how anybody could possibly believe it's full of contradictions and absurdity. The contradictions start when one half of the book is about vengeful, spiteful, cruel god who'll kill the shit out of you in imaginatively sadistic ways, and the other half features a non-interventionist, loving god whose gay son does crowd pleasing magic tricks.

  13. Re:Easy... by Alioth · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's easy to disprove the invisible pink unicorn in your garage: the unicorn cannot be both pink and invisible at the same time; it has to be visible to have a colour. However, this does not disprove that there is a visible pink unicorn in your garage nor does it disprove that you have a colourless and invisible unicorn in your garage.

    We can disprove the visible pink unicorn quite easily just by looking for it and not finding it.

    Therefore, you have a colourless invisible unicorn in your garage.

  14. Re:Easy... by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 5, Funny

    I knew I forgot to do something this morning. I thought I just left the stove on. Hold on, brb.

    --
    Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
  15. Re:Easy... by dkf · · Score: 4, Funny

    the unicorn cannot be both pink and invisible at the same time; it has to be visible to have a colour.

    It's color attribute (RGBA) is #FF69B400, which is hot pink with a fully transparent alpha channel. QED!

    --
    "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"