(no subject)

[rivendellrose]

Your Creationist WTF moment of the day. I don't even know how to comment on this one, except to say that these people are even bigger morons than I could ever have guessed. Let me try to get this straight.

They're saying that after God created the earth in six days, dinosaurs were there eating plants (and only plants) in the garden of Eden with everyone else. Because apparently God thought it'd be funny to watch things with razor-sharp ripping-and-tearing teeth try to eat leaves. Then, after that harlot Eve went and thought for herself disobeyed the holy word of God and condemned us all, then they started eating meat. Along with everything else. And, my favorite part of all, "About 4,500 years after Adam and Eve arrived, the theory goes, pairs of baby dinosaurs huddled in Noah's Ark, and a colossal flood drowned the rest and scattered their fossils. The ark-borne animals repopulated the planet — meaning that folk tales about fire-breathing beasts are accounts of humans battling dinosaurs, who still roamed the planet."

The fact that dinosaurs and humans have never shared the planet together at all has nothing to do with this, naturally. That's a fallacy spread by all those evil, godless scientists. And they probably worship the devil, too.

"Go to Disneyland, they teach evolution. It's subtle; signs that say, 'Millions of years ago'..." Umm... huh? I've never been to Disneyland, but I find this kind of insanely unlikely. Anybody know what they're talking about?

The fact that he has a "Creation Evidence Museum" that "sponsors a continuing hunt for living pterodactyls in Papua New Guinea" just makes this all the better. Now, admittedly, I'm kind of intrigued about the pterodactyls, but that's because I loooove cryptozoology. Most of it's total bunk, I think, but it's fun stuff.

And, later in the article, I'd like to say that it's a sad day when I'm agreeing with a spokesman for that damned Intelligent Design think-tank here in my fair city. "There's little question that the Earth is billions of years old." You've got that right, budddy.

"If the Bible's history is accurate, then so is its morality." They sooo don't want to say that. Because that phrase also implies the reverse, which, being the truth, would kind of screw them the fuck over. Completely.

This last bit is really fun. ""If [evolutionists] convince people that dinosaurs are exotic, strange creatures, they've won right there, and the Bible looks like a book of Jewish fairy tales," [my emphasis] said Sean Meek, executive director of the Tennessee group Project Creation."

...

You said it, bud, not me.

Comments

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Disneyland has a ride that follows the fall of the dinosaurs and the rise of humankind.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Ahh. That makes sense. Which makes for one point out of everything the guy's quoted as saying...

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

It's actually a neat ride. It's got the death of the dinosaurs, and then it follows mankind/the earth from cave dwelling days all the way through history. It focuses on America, if I remember correctly, and the animatronics are actually pretty damn impressive. There's one scene of a lightning storm over red rock mesas.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Huh, that sounds really cool. I guess I'll have to pencil that in as something to do if I ever actually end up down there - unlikely, but at least now I know one thing I'd definitely want to try!

[ophidiae.livejournal.com]

I've been on that ride. It's pretty cool.

Also, for your amusement, I present American Scientist stamps (http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/08/science_stamps.html)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh, those are just lovely. Thank you!!!

[ophidiae.livejournal.com]

You are most welcome.

I assume, of course, that you have seen the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (http://www.venganza.org/)? If not, I highly recommend that you convert to Pastafarianism as soon as possible.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh gods. I'd heard of that, but I had no idea he had a website! That's wonderful! I especially love the wallpaper, and the responses from the Kansas schoolboard... although those are a bit sad as well as funny. Poor four moderates.

[ophidiae.livejournal.com]

It's a great site, isn't it?

I passed the link around work, and now my boss wants a FSM poster to put up in the office. I may have to oblige her. *g*

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That's awesome.

I have to ask - what's the story behind your icon?

[ophidiae.livejournal.com]

Oh, lord. It's very silly.

I was working on a Stargate: Atlantis fanfic that involved one of the puddlejumpers suffering a catastrophic systems failure in high orbit. In the course of working out the details of how, exactly, a ship with the aerodynamic profile of a soup can would behave during an uncontrolled reentry, I wound up in the backyard lobbing canned goods through the air.

The education & science director at the museum where I work was thoroughly disappointed that I did not videotape the experiment. *g*

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's just fabulous - the worst I ever do is sit around with a funny look on my face trying to remember smells or sensations, or beg my roommates to hold their arms in certain ways so I can have a model to draw off of. *g*

And I didn't know you work at a museum (or did I? I forget things like that sometimes...)! I volunteered for years at our local science museum, and I've worked for the last almost-month at a children's museum. Not really my speed, this last one, but nonetheless, aspects of it have been a total blast.

[ophidiae.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am a whopping big geek. When I wrote my Magnificent 7 story "Transit", a friend and I actually took a roadtrip up into the Rincon Mountains and crossed Redington Pass just so I'd be able to write about it accurately.

Truthfully? I think that's one of the reasons my M7 stories were so popular. I actually lived in the area I was writing about, and was able to give my stories a lot of local color and real history.

And I didn't know you work at a museum (or did I? I forget things like that sometimes...)!

You may have missed it, as I don't really post much about my job in this journal.

But yeah, I work in the collections department of a natural & cultural museum in South Florida. My actual job description is kind of nebulous, as I do pretty much whatever needs doing at any given time. Last week I was "curatorial assistant"; this week I'm "archaeologist's lackey."

It's pretty cool. I've handled everything from Incan pottery to whale vertebrae to 19th century porcelain to fossil teeth. I'll add you to my RL journal's f-list so you can see the locked pictures of me playing with mammoth bones. :)

[ophidiae.livejournal.com]

That should say "natural and cultural history museum" up there.

Go here (http://pics.livejournal.com/bonniebluebitch/gallery/00001f3z) for on-the-job pictures. :)

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thank you! I can't wait to see the pics. *g* I've been looking into the museology grad program at my school, and I've got to say, it's one of my most tempting options. I've heard it's hard to get into, but it'd be worth it if I made it in!

[lovelies.livejournal.com]

Oh boy. The creationist museum. I remember their website used to have these dancing animated dinosaurs.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's really... special. In a "those people are so fucking crazy" kind of way.

[diea.livejournal.com]

I just had an idea. Why is it always the Christians we hear about trying to prove the Old Testament is historically acurate? Why aren't there Jewish organizations like this? Or have I just not heard of them?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

As I can tell, most Jews either a) don't care whether the rest of the world believes that their religion is based on cold hard fact, or b) are reasonable enough not to try to convince the rest of the world, if they do actually care.

I could be completely wrong, of course, especially since the only Jews I know personally are pretty much totally secular.

[miss-arel.livejournal.com]

Because the Jews just rock that much. ^_~

I think it's because only Christians have this "missionary spirit", which says they have to go out and convert people and 'enlighten' them. They think non-Christians need to be 'saved'. They just can't stand people not being Christian. >_> Not all Christians are like this, but a lot are.

Whereas until recently, you couldn't convert to Orthodox Judaism at all. You had to be born Jewish, or you couldn't be Jewish. Now most Jewish sects are accepting converts, but it's still not an actively recruiting religion. It seems content to be what it is.

Also, the Jews realize that the contents of the Old Testament are very subjective and open to interpretation; one requires a lot of training and practice just to read the Torah. They don't take everything that's in there as fact; that's something fundamentalist Christians have decided is the right thing to do.

Oh, and re: the Disneyland thing; I'm not surprised, since I am pretty sure Walt Disney was a Freemason, and the Freemasons are all about secularism. Notice how the only Disney movie with a Christian theme was The Hunchback of Notre Dame? And in that one, the holy judge was the villain. And the priest was this nice, quiet guy.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That, too. ;)

I totally agree with you on the subject of the missionary aspect of Christianity. It seems to insult Christians that anyone could possibly choose another religion over theirs... and that just boggles my mind. I'm not shocked that other people aren't pagan - hell, I'm shocked when I actually meet someone else whose beliefs are anywhere near mine. And I certainly wouldn't go out trying to convert people.

It's interesting, isn't it, that the oldest of the monotheistic religions is, when it comes down to it, also the most laid-back and accepting of the idea that their sacred book isn't the absolute literal truth of everything. And yet, you have Christians every day who just can't fathom that possibility... and they're just reading a crap translation of that book, to boot! It fascinates me.

I still really really need to see that movie - I'm told it's fabulously dark and interesting, especially for a Disney movie. I'll be interested to see what sort of stuff they start putting out, now that they're going to be coming under new management pretty soon... and particularly with the current political climate. Certainly could lead to some... unique possibilities.

[diea.livejournal.com]

Well, the whole deal with Christians and missionary work stems from the fact that Jesus' last commandment before ascending into heaven was to "go into all the world...teach people...and baptize them." So they to convert everyone because they have to, otherwise they would be breaking a commandment. Although, Jesus never added, "And belittle people of other beliefs and make yourselves look like idiots in the process" but perhaps that part is open to interpretation.

...Having a Christian background is usefull for attempting to understand the crazy fundies, but it does not explain all of their logic...or lack there of.

[miss-arel.livejournal.com]

"Any religion less than 2000 years old is a cult." Erm, yes, I need to show you all Angels in America. ^^;

Yeah.. Judaism has a lot that appeals to me. The idea that in the end, you're responsible for your own actions, that God isn't going to solve all your problems... in a lot of ways, it's a very personal religion. And the very best wedding I ever went to was a Jewish one. (My aunt told me, "I don't care what religion you belong to when you grow up, but you have to have a Jewish wedding!")

'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' isn't a bad movie. I wouldn't see it if you're expecting it to be anything like the book. But yes, it is pretty dark, and has wonderful music and character designs. It's worth seeing just for that.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

So damned true.

Judaism is a fascinating religion, definitely - the more I study it, the more I feel like they've done a lot of things really right, even if I'm somewhat bemused that they've managed to take a tribal religion that was, as near as I can tell, originally intended only for the people of this one tiny little ethnic nation, into worldwide status. Kind of funny, that.

Fortunately, I've never read the book (I'm such a bad lit major!), so I'd probably like it quite a bit.

[godlessharlot.livejournal.com]

"There's something in their DNA that knows man walked with these creatures on Earth."

Head.

Desk.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was about my reaction as well. There's stupid, and then there's "do you even have a brain?"

[kleio-the-muse.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks for the link! My favourite bit was about kids having some sort of a natural bond with dinosaurs after playing with them all happy and carefree thousands of years ago. Can't you just see them, playing in the muck with those adorable little giants? Happy days, happy days:D

Creationists, an endless source of amusement, they are.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was hilarious. Such a bizarre way of looking at the world...

Most definitely. Do you think we'd get in trouble if we suggested that clearly, God had created Creationists to amuse the hell out of the people smart enough to see deeper levels in things? ;)