Comments on: The good book

By: Monado

Monado — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:06:11 +0000

Yeah, the other day I was trying to sort out the difference between Green Ash and Black Ash trees, and discovered that what my mom told me was a White Ash when I was 13 was really a Box Elder. It totally destroyed my faith in Botany.

By: catgirl

catgirl — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:08:30 +0000

MadScientist,
Actually, the Catholic church holds the official position of accepting evolution as real and compatible with their faith. Of course, not all Catholics agree with each other or with the Pope, but Catholicism is generally less hostile towards evolution than Evangelical Christian groups. Catholicism had its own special brand of evil, but it often differs significantly (both for better and for worse) from Evangelical groups and we should be careful about lumping them together.

By: zayzayem

zayzayem — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:44:40 +0000

Oh dear. At least she had the courtesy to bide her time and ask only one question each visit.

By: gwen

gwen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:40:38 +0000

Please write a book!

By: MadScientist

MadScientist — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:29:51 +0000

Wow. Who wrote the book? I wonder what religious nonsense book will come up next. There seems little going on other than parroting that bozo who invented his own version of geology – what was his name again?

I’ve noticed even with the catholic propaganda texts, the religious folks take words and phrases used in scientific fields, then claim they mean something else and proceed to attack their straw man. They also like to take facts, perhaps distort them a bit, then put them into an entirely fictional setting and proceed to argue how their distorted facts in their imaginary setting is all wrong. It’s all very convincing to people who have never had the opportunity to learn the true facts, and unfortunately the people thus brainwashed are usually very difficult to educate. It doesn’t only work for religion though; politicians seem to love that ploy and it has even been adopted by the climate change deniers.

By: Cactus Wren

Cactus Wren — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:28:08 +0000

This is the phenomenon called the Stumper Question: Mary no doubt was certain you would be unable to answer. She wasn't really listening to your answers: all the time you were talking, she was trying to figure out why you hadn't panicked and run out of the room, like the Evil Atheist Professor when his chalk didn't break.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:57:31 +0000

Yea, but in the 80s we had not burned all the 70s music yet, so there was that.

By: Bridget McKinney

Bridget McKinney — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:42:05 +0000

“This was in 1985.”

I often wish I had been born about 20 years earlier. So I could have enjoyed a youth when Answers and Genesis didn’t exist. Also, it would have been nice to have good music when I was in high school. The ’90s were pretty lame in that regard.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:18:20 +0000

You’d never seen any version of that book before?

Well, I certainly didn’t say that I hadn’t, but in truth, no, I had not at that point, 25 years ago, seen that book. Answers in Genesis did not exist, the Internet did not exist. This was in 1985.

But there was of course a lot of material on both sides of the debate, and when I heard the question, I knew they were coming off the standard list of creationist questions.

No, there was no mind changing. She did not ask better questions. She just kept asking more questions, and I think she believed that by asking me questions a) I would change MY mind and b) her children would be impressed.

By: Susannah

Susannah — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:09:26 +0000

The same could be asked of books in the Bible. Since the Apocrypha are not considered good enough to be included, how do we know the other books were wisely included?

We don’t.

This was one of the questions, the shape of the argument taught me by my creationist family, that was instrumental in destroying my faith in an inerrant Bible.