Even Pat Robertson Calls Young Earth Creationism "Nonsense"

Methuselah Pat Robertson, image from source, Raw Story

As an atheist, it is unlikely I'm ever going to reach complete understanding with the devoutly religious. But it is interesting that there are levels of devoutness. See, I would have pegged Pat Robertson as a "Young Earth Creationist." But he isn't, and that's kind of interesting.

Young Earth Creationists believe in the literal creation story told in the Bible, complete with all of Genesis and all of the begets. Counting each day of creation as a literal day, believing that man was created in the first literal week of existence, and adding up all of the generations listed, YECs have calculated that the Earth (and also the universe) is only 6,000-or-so years old. This--to most rational people--is preposterous. There are things on earth (beer, trees) that are older than that. There are stars whose light couldn't possibly have reached us in that short a time. There are geological formations that couldn't possibly have formed so quickly. And on and on, and that's not even picking apart the very pick-apartable Genesis.

Well, ol' Pat surely does believe in talking snakes, the firmament and Noah's Ark. But he's having none of this young Earth nonsense. Even a nutcase like Robertson gets one right once in a while!

[Excerpt]
 
Pat Robertson implores creationist Ken Ham to shut up: ‘Let’s not make a joke of ourselves’

Pat Robertson responded to the recent debate between Young Earth creationist Ken Ham and Bill Nye, a.k.a. “The Science Guy,” by reiterating his disagreement with Ham’s form of creationism.

“Let’s face it,” Robertson said, “there was a Bishop [Ussher] who added up the dates listed in Genesis and he came up with the world had been around for 6,000 years. . .”

Read more at: Raw Story 

Bill Nye the Science Guy Debates Creation Museum Guy

It can't have been a contest. I haven't had time to watch it yet, but it just had to be a lopsided "debate." I mean, the topic is science, and there is no science in Creationism. So, if you've got the chance to take a look at this, see what you think. Once I've seen it, I'll try to give it a proper review. In the meantime, I'll simply congratulate Bill Nye on his inevitable win over Ken Ham, who thinks the universe is 6,000 years old.
 

God Smites "Creation Museum" Employee with Lightning

Kidding. Sort of. I'm actually an atheist, but a Creation Museum employee getting struck by lighting on the grounds? Erhm. . .that's just too funny, sorry. I mean, I'm sure it hurts like hell. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. But hey, this is literally what people mean when they say, "act of God," is it not? Oh, and for the record, the Creation Museum is ludicrous in virtually every way. Maybe God's a critic?

[Excerpt]

Creationism museum employee injured by lightning strike while on the job

A bit of the idiocy at the Creation Museum

An employee of Petersburg, Kentucky’s Creation Museum was struck by lightning Wednesday while clearing guests from a zip line attraction at the museum during a thunderstorm. According to Kentucky’s WLWT.com, the man was helping guests down from the wires as thunderstorms rolled into the area. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

Sam Seder: Conservative Radio Host Wants Bill O'Reilly Hanged for Marriage Stance

Here's Deace with his motto, and a quote from the Huckster. Ugh.

One nice thing about having your own blog is reporting on the little things that bug you. Or the big things.  One of the things that bugs me is a radio host named Steve Deace out of Iowa. Now, I live in Nevada, so this really should be completely off of my radar, right? Except for a few degrees of separation, little filaments that connect A to B, or maybe M in this case.

See, I'm what some call "gay married," (though I just call it married), and my husband was born and raised in Iowa. Also, though I went to school in Ohio, one of my classmates became a conservative pastor in Iowa. Through Facebook, I became reacquainted with the pastor, and through him I became acquainted with Steve Deace. All of this Facebooking happened during the time when Iowa approved same-sex marriage, and began marrying gay couples. The pastor, the radio host, and other inter-connected "friends" got very vocal in this public forum about repealing marriage equality, with the "LUV: Let Us Vote!" campaign, spearheaded by the ultra-creepy perennial failed candidate Bob Vander Plaats. They also mounted a successful repeal of three of the judges responsible for the decision.

The Deace kids at the creation museum. Scary!
From SteveDeace.com

I'm not much of a shit-stirrer on the subject, or at least I try not to be confrontational. But when I see something that really rubs me the wrong way, I sometimes can't help interjecting. This usually leads to a very lengthy back-and-forth, and I often have trouble just dropping it. It's difficult to discuss anything strictly on its merits because the ridiculousness and insulting tangents thrown at me can be a bit dizzying. But I often get kudos--usually privately--from people reading the interaction. And so, that's nice. The funny thing is, the people who post the incendiary remarks in the first place often bow out early, leaving the arguing to their friends and/or congregation.

Bill O'Reilly said gay marriage foes need
a better argument than "Bible thumping."
Steve Deace really didn't like that.

It is safe to say that I've ruffled some feather with both Deace and the pastor, and neither is very good at arguing marriage equality, because they are incapable of separating church and state in their minds (Deace even proudly displays photos of his family at the Creation Museum on his Facebook page, making me wonder if he has any reasoning skills at all). And I have to wonder what drives these overtly religious people to focus so strongly on gay people anyway. It leads my mind to all sorts of speculation, but that's neither here nor there.

All of that is a very long way to go to say that I'm a fan of Sam Seder, of The Majority Report, a show he used to have on Air America Radio with Janeane Garofalo. And Seder has discovered the inanity of Steve Deace, and the over-the-top reaction Deace has to anyone who disagrees with him on the topic of gay marriage. And I just thought I'd share. Take it, Sam. . .

Crazy Creationists: Dinosaurs Fled the Flood!

Last night I posted a piece about Mitt Romney' literal belief in his wacky religion. And, I noted that as an atheist, I find 'em all wacky, so I'm not so much singling Mormonism out, as I am saying it's just extra special goofy. But Mitt's not alone in his belief in unbelievable things.

Somehow, I got on the Creation Ministries International mailing list. And these folks are literal believers in the book of Genesis. Just FYI, that's the book that set me on the road to atheism, because it was taught to me at the same time as freshman Earth science. Guess which book won? Anyway, Genesis is chock full of ridiculous things that only the deeply deluded could believe are literal. From the "firmament" to the items set into it, from the cleanliness rules to the list of sacrificial requirements, from the conflicting dual creation stories to there being light before there was a light source? All of it is frankly unbelievable.


























But nothing is more ridiculous than the flood story. Forget that there are (again) two conflicting Noah's Ark stories, and different numbers of animals in each. There are problems with the size of the boat. There are problems with the technology of building such a boat. There's the problem of how every kind of animal got to the middle east, and then re-dispersed themselves back to from whence they came. There are the uncomfortable facts about feeding and housing these animals for such an extended period, and what they would do about the waste. How did they keep the animals from eating each other, or the humans? How did they transport the bacteria, viruses, insects, arachnids and amoeba? How did the sealife and freshwater animals survive in the stirred up, seawater/rainwater/sediment-filled water? How did plantlife and fungi survive submerged for 100 days? And we're not even talking about where the water came from, and where it went! Why would an "all-loving" god murder his "children," no matter how disobedient they were?

Creation Museum folly. Image from Bay-of-Fundie.com

On top of this is the question of dinosaurs. Why doesn't the Bible mention dinosaurs? Well, some try to parlay allusions of "dragons" and whatnot into dinosaurs, but it's a stretch. It actually makes the bible sound more like a bunch of fables to me. So, the question is, if man coexisted with dinosaurs, why do they get such scant coverage in the Bible? Why weren't they on the Ark? Did Noah take dinosaur eggs, rather than full-grown T-Rexes and Stegosauri? Why isn't it mentioned?

Obviously, it isn't mentioned, because the writer(s) of Genesis never heard of dinosaurs, and thus couldn't write about them. They didn't realize that the sun is the source of our light, so they could say it was created after light. They didn't know how clouds, the atmosphere, the orbits of the moon and planets, or stars in the universe worked, so they made crap up about the celestial bodies being placed in a bowl that separated the waters of heaven and earth. There are so many, countless, obvious problems with Genesis, an irreligious person like me just stands with my mouth agape. How can any adult take these fairy tales seriously?

And then I get my latest installment of further attempts at devising a narative that makes sense out of a book that really doesn't.  You know what I liken groups like Christian Ministries International to? I liken them to Rankin-Bass. You know, the studio that made such holiday classics as, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Year Without a Santa Claus. In those holiday specials, they took all of the implausibilities in the Santa Claus story, and explained them in such a way as to keep kids believing it just a little while longer. And as kids, we wanted to believe. That's all this foolishness is.

If you are interested (and I hope it's only for amusement value), you can find this group here: Christian Ministries International.

The Creation Museum. No, Really.

Photo from source, faggotyassfaggot.com (yes, really)

It's really amazing what contortions people will go through to shoehorn science into religion. For a humorous look at this unbelievably stupid "museum," please visit: faggotyassfaggot.com. The name of the site might indicate the kind of humor you'll find there!

For a less snarky description of the place, try the write-up at Wikipedia.com. And if you're really brave, try the actual official website at: CreationMuseum.org.