Broadway and the Primordial Ooze

Well have fun at the play, we’ll handle the evolution thingie.
I think these guys know they haven’t a snowball’s chance in hell of actually being president, and are running for the vice president. As soon as they raised their hands they were showing their cards, as it were.
Actually, the more I hear from the Repubs, the more they sound like Democrats of the 70’s and 80’s - sort of trapped in the fishbowl of issues that the majority of the country is sick of hearing. That doesn’t mean to say that the Democrats are saying the correct things now - education, environment, health care and business reform are the issues I am interested in. I am not interested in whether a woodpecker’s bill is proof of the infallibility of the Bible.

Do you know if they the evelution deniers were asked this follow up question: Do you believe in the Judeo-Christian creation myth or are they Pastafarians?

I accept and acknowledg your great lobster but His Noodly Greatness has called me.

RAmen

Hey, it’s true that I could have baked this cake without using magic, but that doesn’t mean I did!

Lately, I’ve felt drawn to the services at the Untied Dyslexic Church of Dog down the street, but their hymns all sound like cacophonous howlings at the full moon. Obviously there’s not much happening in upstate Vermont during the mud and black fly season. I just wish we could get more than three TV stations with these cheap Radio Shack rabbit ears.

Aften dum Norgies mene “evolution”!

I can think of no more compelling refutation to the theory of intelligent design than the current crop of Republican presidential candidates.

Mr. Felber, you didn’t mention the worship of gerbils. Gerbils, inside certain body cavities, came be a truly religious experience.

I do hope that people who are knowledgable about nuclear energy also know a thing or two about biology. The primary objections to nuclear energy have to do with the effects of nuclear radiation on living things.

I was about to acknowledge my error for using the phrase “believe in”, but reading it in context I think it may be accurate. I agree with historyenne and Ann that evolution doesn’t call for belief. Part of my main point though, is that I don’t think there is much critical thinking going on for the average American. Hence, saying that they “believe in” evolution may be quite accurate. Afterall, if a person doesn’t really understand the theory, but is going along with it anyway, belief, rather than scientific reasoning is probably a more accurate description of what is going on. I wasn’t originally intending to make that distinction, but looking back I think it makes sense.

Though it is surprising, after reflection it isn’t too hard to understand how a senator and a governor could believe in creationism. With little critical thinking going on in general, and knowing that even less occurs when it comes to religious and spiritual beliefs, it is merely a matter of shifting the line and placing creation or biology within a religious context rather than the more usual secular context to come up with the result we see. This, I think, explains how certain people could be successful and still hold a belief which most people find absurd.

My point, which I have elucidated primarily as an exercise to help myself understand, is that the senator, governor and representative are not necessarily very different from myself.

This is good fun and should be required viewing for lurkers like waterfowler. http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/05/maher-slams-conservatives-who -poison-the-national-debate/

Dear Dirk,

Nice to hear you are back home and enjoying some of the local natural beauty. I am pleased to see you still remember many of the details regarding your home state. Your time away is showing, however. Post City is still officially known as Post Falls. Unless that was a slip. Are there plans afoot which have not yet been made public?

SD

I’m slipping out of lurker mode for a slight detour in the topic, but I am struck by the stillness of the religious right in the wake of the Greensburg, KS tornado. Have they not yet discerned this community’s sin that justifies its utter destruction at the hands of a righteous god? I am eager to know what it was, myself, and who better to weed out transgressions, cast stones, and utter disparagements than the religious right? Funny how it did not take them long to understand the connection between wickedness and Hurricane Katrina.

“Although the loss of lives is deeply saddening, this act of God destroyed a wicked city,” stated Repent America director Michael Marcavage. “From ‘Girls Gone Wild’ to ‘Southern Decadence,’ New Orleans was a city that had its doors wide open to the public celebration of sin. From the devastation may a city full of righteousness emerge,” he continued. -Repent America web site

Okay, so the investigations around the Abramoff scandal seem to be getting a second wind. I’m not worried - really. The secret is to get the slimiest and most repugnant barracuda on the face of the earth and keep pushing money down his throat. I’ve been able to do both and, in the end, it will all pay off big time, with Christine and I walking away doing zero jail time and having full access to certain “funds” squirreled in the Cayman’s and with our good friends in Abu Dhabi.

From the Houston Chronicle - “Mr. DeLay is eager for the investigation to run its course,” DeLay’s attorney Richard Cullen said Tuesday. “He has been fully cooperative and he remains at peace — confident that he has done nothing wrong.” Nothing that I’ll ever ‘fess up to, anyway. By the way, Richard is a particularly smooth and gifted talker. Who says money can’t buy happiness. No jail time makes me very happy!

Of course, now they’re coming after Christine for that $115,000 she got paid for filing papers and her nails at that lobbying firm funded by Abramoff. Christine has always been a huge Sharon Stone fan and she’s been practicing crossing and uncrossing her legs like Sharon did in that movie. This may come in handy, if she’s ever on the witness stand, but she’ll have to “go commando” or “do a Britney” or whatever it’s called these days when she leaves her panties at home.

I’ve admired Jack Abramoff’s heartless nut-cutting from the get-go, but the boy was just plain sloppy not covering his tracks. So, now he’s in the pokey. I wonder how prison ever got such a ridiculous nickname. I wonder if it had anything to do with getting poked in the shower. Hopefully, I’ll never find out and Christine doesn’t become a lesbo toy for some trustee in the big house.

If you see Lemuel, let me know. He has a number of items that belong to me and some may prove unfortunate, if they ever see the light of day.

Ann, when I bake a cake, believe me, it’s magic. Nay, it’s witchcraft.

I’m pretty good at baking bread, something I haven’t done in too long a time. And what this has to do with evolution, I don’t know. But I think, by and large, that evolution is good thing. Except when once semi-social-liberal GOP canididates tell me that their views are “evolving”.

Rusty, I have to admit I personally concluded that Kansas was flattened by tornadoes because of its persistent refusal to accept the evidence for the evolutionary developments so carefully arranged by the Lobster. As my husband commented, any God can poke at things every day to make them work out, but it takes a Real God to create a set of rules that will work out right over billions of years, and then sit back and watch them develop. My husband isn’t a Lobster fan but I’m sure the Lobster will accept the credit.

Yes, blaming the sins of the victims is convenient when you have an axe to grind on some city. (Just wait till SF has its next big quake). It’s also interesting how the same moralists are quiet when God does his axe grinding on a favored city.

Isn’t it interesting how easy it is to use the Wrath of God to prove what ever point you want?

Evolution.

Let’s get some definitions straight here. Science works on exact definitions, if you don’t agree with the definitions, that’s OK but it is no longer science.

Faith - What you believe in the absence of proof. If you had proof for it, it wouldn’t be faith.

Science - What you believe only with the presence of proof. If you can’t prove it, it’s not science.

Anyone who claims that science is just another faith is not sticking to the definitions. Again, you can do that but don’t call it science.

I’m sure that there is no ONE person on earth who can tell you EXACTLY how your computer works, both hardware and software. Yet we still accept the outcome. On the other hand just because something is complicated doesn’t mean it can’t be explained and proven. Same with Evolution. You don’t have to take it on faith, you can test any part of it you want. (It has always passed the test).

The problem we have is that one small section of Christianity takes one section of the Bible and reads it literally. My guess is that the same people don’t sell their children into slavery, or stone them if they disobey, let alone refrain from eating pork chops or Clam Chowder. They have set the Bible up against science and so because God has to be right, science has to be wrong. The only way you can do this is to stay ignorant about what science is and how it works. Anti-Science as I call it. Or you can stretch for more magic by saying that God created the world to “look” as if it were 4.5 billion years old while actually being only 6006 years old. (Oh and the light coming from the Andromeda Galaxy which is 2 million light years away was also only meant to fool us. God’s such a joker).

It’s not surprising that troglodytes get voted into power, just look at their constituents. There are large swaths of dumbasseryness through out the country.

Is WF misunderstanding the meaning of the word theory in the scientific context? Sad, very sad.

wf, Diane and Harry have the gavel now. Get used to it. Jefferson is a crook and is going to be sharing a cell block with Bob Ney, Mark Foley and Jack Abramoff real soon.

Something wrong with Hillary? God told me in a dream to vote for her and I woke up speaking in tongues, so it must be the right thing to do. No science needed there; I have faith. You should have faith, too.

And now let’s get back to reality. Kansas was flattened by tornadoes because - tornadoes Happen. Sometimes things just Go Wrong for no obvious reason, and innocent people who have taken every precaution they could think of get flattened in spite of it. I can’t think of a single place to live where the weather, or the geography, or the combination of the two, can’t possibly turn deadly. And if all those threats fail to materialize, there’s always the neighbors. Ask anybody in the Middle East.

This is why the Romans worshiped Fortuna as a goddess; and it’s why some Christians blame disasters on the Wrath of God. It’s much more comforting to believe that there’s a deity out there who will protect you if properly worshiped. It just isn’t true.

And no, WF, I have no scientific evidence for that statement; it’s pure personal opinion.

hedera, …well reasoned “personal opinion”, I’d say.

Donna, apparently we’re just sick of Islamic extremist posturing. Standing in front of the flag on bended knees and pandering to our god is still de rigeur. Now let’s batten down the hatches and prepare ourself for another harangue from waterfowler - you, for misspelling “American” and me, for using Frenchie-type words.

Been away in NC for a bit of a while. Got back just in time to say Amen! to Murray’s comment. Science constantly acknowledges current limits, whereas dumbassery clearly has no bounds, but quite a frightful history.

The Clash of the Titans will one day, hopefully sooner rather than later, refer to the National Title Game between the Gators and the Longhorns, Harold (felt sure you’d want me to point that out), with the Gators enjoying generous servings of flank steak, of course.

Murray, the “Creationalists” definition seems to be exactly that of Noah Websters’. Please enlighten me if I should use a different dictionary in order to converse w/ you. The problem I have w/ evolution is that it is taught in public schools as fact. You should have the same objection. Also, science is being completely disregarded in the global warming debate, but that seems to be ok w/ you since it fits nicely into your political/world view.

Seriously, the whole argument against evolution rests on ignoring the very clear scientific term ‘theory‘ for a general definition? It just boggles my mind that fundamentalists can’t envision a God powerful enough and ingenious enough to create all these physical laws and set everything in motion.

No, no, no. It’s turtles all the way down.

What I object to is science being taught in public school. I’ve taken my children out of school and my wife teaches them the Lord’s way at home. We’ve also become tax resisters in the last two years for the same reason. Join the fight! Say “No!” to science. Wasting tax dollars in such ways is sinful.

You know what theory really ticks me off? That blasphemous Pythagorean theorem. “A squared plus B squared equals C squared” my ass. How dare they teach mere theories in math class? Get back to us when you’ve proved it, old dead Greek guy. I don’t even think he was Christian.

And don’t get me started on the value of pi.

“Also, science is being completely disregarded in the global warming debate”

*snip*

Waterfowler, I actually agree with this part of your statement. However the folks I think are disregarding the science are probably different from the folks you’re talking about.

If an apple falls in an orchard and no one is there to see it, does gravitational theory still hold? Said theory is, of course, selectively provisional at best, given that it will be superseded for the elect when they rise sans clothing into the sky on that day of days.

Aarg. That was going to be hang out. Then it was stand. Not hang stand. Why I should not post before noon.

I kind of like “hang stand,” Dale. Seems like it might involve a surfboard with special dispensation. And what a way for a gay to rise naked in the sky with the other saved souls.