Re: ot:In memory of S.T. Gould


"Kevin Gowen" <kgowen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:44d00abf$0$19143$88260bb3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sean wrote:
On 2006-08-01 09:55:02 -0700, "John W." <worthj1970@xxxxxxxxx> said:

chance wrote:
Is America still such a backward country
that it is yet to be decided if the students in grade schools
should be taught whether god created the universe 6,500 years ago
or not in this 21st centruy despite such a devoted effort
of Harvard's Stephen Jay Gould? Don't they know how much they are
being ridiculed throughout the world for their incredible
benightedness?
Just incredible!

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/us/01evolution.html?th&emc=th

Don't stereotype too much; most people disagree with those folks or
don't care all that much about it. There are backwards-thinking people
all over the world; doesn't mean the whole world agrees with them.

John W.

http://pewforum.org/docs/index.php?DocID=115#3

"Most Americans believe that God was responsible for the creation of
life on earth but divide on the question of whether and how life has
changed since the creation. Overall, 78% say God created life on earth,
while 5% think a universal spirit or higher power was responsible for
the creation.

Despite this broad agreement regarding the origins of life, the public
is deeply divided on precisely how life developed. A plurality of
Americans (48%) say that humans and other living things have evolved
over time, but nearly as many (42%) say that humans and other living
things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.
The latter group is often called "creationist" because this view is seen
as consistent with a literal reading of the Bible's account of
creation."

And so on. 42% of the population of an advanced industrial nation seem
to believe in superstitious mumbo jumbo. (Actually, 78% or 83% do, but
42% believe in the mumbo jumbo-est stuff.) And they choose as their
leader, who arguably becomes the most powerful person on earth for the
duration of his term in office, someone who wholeheartedly believes in
that mumbo jumbo, including the scariest bit of all: The
Rapture/Apocaplypse.

This may surprise you, but all presidents in recent memory have been
church goers. What offends your crowd is that when this president
expresses belief in God, they know he is telling the truth.

Although I do not believe in the Rapture, I don't see what is scary
about that belief. I have heard rather stupid people claim that the
president and/or other politicians take certain actions in order to
hasten the Rapture. I am sure you are not one of them, though. At any
rate, from your point of view, the Rapture should delight, since that
would mean all Christians evaporated from the face of the earth. I
should expect you to be awaiting the Rapture with baited breath.

I hasten to add that there is no such event as "the Apocaplypse" [sic].
An apocalypse is a revelation, not an event. Most informed readers of
the Bible know that John of Patmos was writing about the events of his
century. Everything in the Bible has already happened.

Chance's bemusement is reasonable.

I don't think that it is. The fact that a majority of Americans believe
in a creator God does not mean than those same Americans must believe in
a young Earth based on a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation
account and a calculation of the ages of the patriarchs.

Is Chance a frog? I can't remember.

- Kevin

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com


I wonder why they don't hasten the coming of the 'rapture'
by whatever means available or, say, 'do it right now'
by themselves and disappear from the earth once and for all
if they long for it so much 'obviously'. What need
for bated breath? It's not our delight but must be theirs.

CK

.

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