A column in the Polk County Democrat today starts off just fine talking about the religious significance of Easter. But then it descends into a mindless, parroting rant against evolution. Finally, the writer hits rock bottom with a good ol’ fashioned scare tactic: “So far no black helicopters have appeared to hover above as men in ski masks board up the doors of our churches and burn our Bibles.” The stupid, it burns.
Many worship at the University of Science instead of the Altar of God. Reason has replaced faith; thus, evolution is taught in schools as cries of objection arise if any hint creationism, or “intelligent design†is inserted into the curriculum.
Reader comments are allowed at that site.
I note that this article has a well deserved rating of 1 out of 5.
I posted a comment, but it apparently has to be “approved first. We’ll see if that happens.
Pointing out the red herrings and straw man arguments contained in “Chips” column would be lengthy.How ever the his half quotes/ miss quotes concerning Russell and Einstien are simply horrendous.
What a lush!!!
Darn! I just finished blogging this one, and now I find it here. This is an outrage!
The Privilege of Worship
By CHIP BALLARD
Published:
Saturday, April 11, 2009 10:09 AM EDT
It’s that time of year again when Christians all over the world reflect upon the most awesome event in all of mankind’s recorded history.
Two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, a man called Jesus suffered torture and death because He claimed to be God. Three days after His execution a great stone sealing His tomb was rolled away. His body was gone.
Over the next few days Jesus appeared unto his disciples. One of them, Thomas, from whence our term “doubting Thomas†comes, refused to believe until he put his finger into the nail holes in the Master’s hands. As soon as he did his eyes were opened and he recognized the Lord.
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OK, so we get what Christians believe. All of us can accept these theses of the Christrian faith as precepts accepted by many if not most of our American brethren. I don’t see how this has any bearing on the article in question.
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As we press on into the 21st century, technology has left spirituality sputtering in the dust.
Many worship at the University of Science instead of the Altar of God. Reason has replaced faith; thus, evolution is taught in schools as cries of objection arise if any hint creationism, or “intelligent design†is inserted into the curriculum.
Science, before the Wright brothers built their flying machine, “proved†man would never fly.
Albert Einstein said: “I believe in the God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists . . . It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe we dimly perceive and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature.â€
In “The Watch and the Watchmaker,†philosopher Bertrand Russell poses this question: If a man who has never seen a watch finds one, takes it apart and examines all the parts that fit together so perfectly to make it run so precisely, will common sense prompt him to conclude the watch was created, or did it come into existence by chance?
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Wow. Can we quote-mine any more efficiently? Does the writer think Einstein or Russell would have anything to do with his demonstration of their respective faith? Really? Is he just crazy? Or just dishonest?
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Many of the greatest scientists of today, like world-renowned Dr. Gerald Schroeder, have concluded that life on earth did not happen by chance. (See “Genesis & the Big Bang,†“The Science of God,†and “The Hidden Face of God.â€)
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Again, really? Gerald Schroeder is hardly one of the greatest scientists of today, unless you need to reconcile your faith with science. He’s a YEC who’s sold his soul to the craziest of the crazies, to pronounce the greatest of the truths is to tout Anthony Flew’s controversial (and clearly put-upon late-dementia) conversion as THE proof of the Christian God? This is a scientist’s stance?
Few deny that evolution has happened; but is it the whole truth?
Most of our ideas about evolution today are based on a movie called “Inherit the Wind†about the famous (or infamous) 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial†in Tennessee, which was based on a collection of essays by the great debunker, H.L. Mencken.
Mencken, according to Marvin Olasky, had his own agenda and was careless in reporting the substance of the trial. (For the truth about the events leading up to that trial and the trial itself, see the book by Marvin Olasky and John Perry, “Monkey Business: The True Story of the Scopes Trial.â€)
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I don’t particularly care what Mencken said, although I did appreciate his humor. And since when does a decades old movie determine what should be taught in science classrooms in our SECULAR schools. Whatever was said there makes not a whit’s worth of difference on the real topic.
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If the American people are supposed have some say regarding the laws that govern them, surely the majority of citizens would not object if a smidgen of “intelligent design†were inserted into textbooks, even if only as a footnote to evolution.
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I’m sorry, but your religious viewpoints don’t influence the scientific theories that underlie that science, nor is science up to a popular vote! If that were true, then Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and Hubble would have been voted off the island long ago, and we wouldn’t have this pesky difference of opinion between scripture (as written by people thousands of years ago) and truth.
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Powerful forces have undermined the religion upon which America was founded.
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Really! Only religion insists that their truth must take precedence over actual fact when discussing observed facts that have no bearing on the religious teachings of the bible. If the observance of reality threatens religion, then religion needs to re-evaluate its assertion of scientific facts that are based on interpretation of scripture! (Human fallibility is a bitch!)
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Men like Dr. Peter Singer, head of Princeton University’s ethics department, assure us right and wrong do not exist; that everything is relative, depending on how one perceives it.
So far no black helicopters have appeared to hover above as men in ski masks board up the doors of our churches and burn our Bibles.
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Hm. OK, a given secular humanist asserts something that offends. So what? We atheists are far more likely to worry about the Luddites forming mobs to storm the walls with torches and pitchforks and far more likely to have reason to worry. The number of threats to the atheist community dwarf the perceived threats of “black helicopters” merely alluded to here.
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We are still free this Easter to worship in the church of our choice, to bow humbly before the God of our understanding.
For that privilege, we must not forget to be grateful.
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Absolutely! Please feel free to praise God in any way you choose, and be as grateful as you can manage. Enjoy it; it’s your right under the Constitution, and I support your rights all the way. Just don’t think that because you believe these things that all the rest of Americans MUST believe along with you. Or that disagreement on theological grounds makes me less of an American. Or that disagreement with you on your shaky (actually non-existent) scientific grounds lessens me. Oh, and BTW, be grateful to the founding fathers, not God, for your privilege to believe as you will. God didn’t write the first amendment.
Sorry, forgot to delete the extra junk after my highlight of the offending column cut/paste. Oops!
Alan, I cleaned up the junk at the end. As comments go, it’s still a bit on the long side.
we will see if they print this:
How sad that Mr Ballard uses the science and technology that forms the foundation for computing and the internet to bash those same principles and in doing so shows his total ignorance of the scientific basis for the comforts and protections of modern life. It is nonsense like this that sadly drives so many thoughtful young people away from religion.
Science is not a religion. It asks questions only about the material world, not the spiritual one. Proof of this is simple. How many scientists do you see coming into Sunday school classes trying to indoctrinate your children in their personal beliefs by telling them lies in the form of numerous misquotes and distortions such as you see in the this column? I have seen none at my church even though many scientists attend there. On the other hand, I am sure that Mr Ballard expects the teaching of “intelligent design” to your children in their public school classrooms to indoctrinate them with his personal beliefs whether their parents wish it or not. And he expects teachers untrained to teach religion to perform this task.
Our children deserve the opportunity to learn science taught accurately so they can be successful citizens and perhaps even take advantage of the economic bonanza that science will provide in the society of their future. And they and their parents also have the right to practice their own religions in their homes and churches without interference from people such as Mr Ballard.
I notice that those of us who posted comments to this at the Polk Democrat, seem to have been ignored or censored,so much for the “free press”
I don’t see any comments at all. I think they’re embarrassed. Their local genius attributes Paley’s watchmaker argument to Bertrand Russell; he claims that our knowledge of evolution comes from “Inherit the Wind,” which he alleges was based on Mencken’s essays; and he’s worried about Darwinist black helicopters. It doesn’t get much worse.
I think all our comments have appeared. Maybe they are just slow readers! I am not sure they read all the way through that awful column before posting it!
I am just so sick of the same crappy arguments over and over again. What nincompoops! (sp?)
MaryB