STOP THE BULLYING
Stop the Lies Campaign
Inclusive Language Lies
#1 Fix the Bible
I thought atheists and agnostics were the biggest challenge to be confronted but have discovered a bigger group. - people who profess to be Christians but demand changes to Christianity. One example is the call for inclusive language changes to the Bible and church teachings.
Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago has the following statement in its "Inclusive Language Policy" posted on its webpage,
"In terms of gender, it is clear that Christianity was born into a male-dominated society whose language reinforced such discrimination. In fact, the Christian understanding of God and God’s acts has been dominated by male-oriented imagery and language while ignoring complementary feminine images. The very survival of this feminine imagery is testament to its importance in the life of the church."
A cursory reading of this paragraph yields 2 immediate observations;
1) The concluding sentence contradicts the premise of the preceding sentences. If the female imagery was important enough to the church to survive then Christianity wasn't as male dominated as suggested.2) We are celebrating Christmas as I write this. Preparations are well underway and have been since Thanksgiving. Christmas is the birthday of Jesus who is God incarnate, very God and very man. Mary gave birth to Jesus. Mary was a woman - A female. The church celebrates Mary's role in Christianity; some Christian groups go so far as to venerate her. How much more specific can a group get in demonstrating its admiration for females? A female gave birth to God's son. And BUMC is worried about too few 'hers' in the Bible?
Churches like BUMC are engaging in a campaign to bully Christianity into changing. It is all about a liberal agenda to promote feminism and homosexual rights.
It is time for Christians to stand together to oppose these bullying tactics.
The Bible does not need to be fixed.
BTW, in a future post I will enumerate the number of stories of key women in the Bible. Far from ignored females played key roles in the history of the Jews and in the development of Christianity.
http://assets.communityspice.com/bumclakeview/assets/misc/Inclusive%20Language%20Policy.pdf
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteKevin continues the error of cherry picking verses without context. Kevin, please repost the verses with the relevant surrounding verses for a start. Second, in order to impeach the Bible's teaching on women you MUST include ALL the verses from the Bible that deal with women. Please let me know when you have done that.
ReplyDeleteKevin, you must be bored. Where are the hoards of your followers that were going to invade my blog?
Wayne, I never said I was going to send hoards of people, just that I could, and since you asked I just put the word out. Expect some actual comments on your blogs rather than the crickets.
ReplyDeleteI love when Christians tell me verses they don't agree with are cherry-picked or out of context. You want to attempt to rationalize the verses I posted, please do! The only person guilty of cherry-picking the bible is the creationist. You eat shell-fish, you wear mixed fabrics and you have never participated in the stoning of any women for not being a virgin on their wedding night, etc. etc. etc. Take a look at the Republican war on women that is happening right now, today, in 2013. It's happening because of the bible. Take a look at Sharia law and its treatment of women. You're delusional if you think women weren't treated like garbage due to biblical law. How weird that your 'god' endorsed slavery and the death of women and children. Clearly man made. If Christianity were true, there wouldn't be thousands of sects with dozens of versions of "Gods word." There would be one religion, a single sect and ONE version of gods word. Why isn't that the case??
"It is time for Christians to stand together to oppose these bullying tactics."
Wow. Bullying tactics? I enjoy seeing Christians get all pissy when they don't get their way. When a group of people gains right that you've had all along, it's not called bullying, it's called equality. I know that is a tough thing for you bigots.
Want to talk about why "white hole cosmology" and the creationist "model" of the universe are clearly wrong?? When I take a poop, I watch creationist lectures. Seems appropriate enough as the "scientists" lecturing are absolutely full of it. And since you can't answer when the earth was formed, when were Adam and Eve formed? And if 8 people survived the flood, how could they have repopulated Egypt in just a hundred years to have enough slaves to build all those pyramids? There's just too many questions the creationist cannot answer.
Kevin, I am leaving your comment as posted as it speaks for your insights much better than I could.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great rebuttal. Bravo! Thank you for proving to your audience that as a Young Earth Creationist, you cannot back up ANY of your claims. I realize there are verses praising women, but why hasn't the pope ever been one? What if Jesus were a women? What if god were too? Because 'he' is clearly a male figure....
ReplyDeleteYou know you're a bigot and you know you're wrong about the age of the Earth. Again, I thank you.
Please let me know when you would like to attempt to prove any of your assertions to me regarding cosmology and the creationist "model" of life. You know why creationism isn't science? Because your basic underlying principle of how life arose asserts it was supernatural and therefore cannot be explained with natural processes. That's not science! Disproving evolution is not proof of creation. If only the creationist would understand that. Let me sum up your argument as briefly as possible...
The creationist argues that life is too improbable to have arose due to natural processes. What you fail to realize is improbable is not the same as impossible, not to mention the numbers you've thrown at me are nothing more than creationist propaganda. Oh, and the first living cell didn't magically poof into existence. The only ones asserting 'magic' are the creationists, who think it's more plausible that a god created all the trillions upon trillions upon trillions of cells needed for all living creatures in the blink of an eye. You can't even tell me what "kinds" were created. Please tell me again how rational creationists are. Your argument is based on the god of the gaps and nothing more.
You've mentioned to me the bible contains no errors, so is it true you can cure leprosy using the blood of a bird? Seems legit...
And just for fun, maybe you can see how silly creationism is to the thinking person: "I believe that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created life. There's MY explanation. Just don't ask me how he did it, only the Spaghetti Monster knows. I simply KNOW that my explanation is right and yours is wrong. Sorry, but the almighty FSM revealed it to me, so I know that it's true."
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteWOMEN
My comment was not a rebuttal, it was a critique. Your comment was logically flawed. You can't prove a theory by selective selection of verses. You must consider ALL verses on a subject in their context. Your statement about women in the Bible needed no rebuttal as it fails to rise even to the level of an argument.
CREATION.
The creation account requires no proof as it is a statement and not a theory. On the other hand the theories science puts forth regarding the creation of the universe and the origin and evolution of life do require proof and I have stipulated the proof test: CREATE A LIVING CELL FROM SCRATCH.
The failure of MODERN WASTELAND.
I reconsidered deleting MODERNWATELAND' s comments. One of my rules is no anonymous commenting. She argued that she was not commenting anonymously since she was using her blog userid but I was not convinced so I deleted her comments. After the fact I visited her blog and discovered her to be a depressed, judgemental, and not very nice person. But aside from that, her comment on TAT said that science was close to creating a living cell but just didn't know enough yet to do it. She DESTROYED her own argument with that statement. According to Carl Sagan, the cosmos is all there is, ... if that is true, there was no intelligence involved in creating life and therefore scientists should be able to do it now.
BTW Carl Sagan is the Kardasia sister of Science. He is famous as a scientist for being famous. He never discovered or contributed anything to science.
"The creation account requires no proof as it is a statement and not a theory. On the other hand the theories science puts forth regarding the creation of the universe and the origin and evolution of life do require proof and I have stipulated the proof test: CREATE A LIVING CELL FROM SCRATCH."
ReplyDeleteWow. You sure are a very special kind of stupid. So statements do not need proof? Clearly that is the position only a loser would create for themselves. You made the claim the Earth is less than 10,000 years old but you can’t prove anything. How strangely typical of someone lacking evidence.
Please stop appealing to the god of the gaps, it makes you look very foolish and well, stupid. The natural formation of the cell took 500+ million years to form, I’m sorry you think that because science cannot yet replicate the process that that somehow means evolution is false and that biblical creationism is then true. That is really hilarious. Another bravo for constructing an argument from pure ignorance. Don’t tell me that creationism is science but that it doesn’t need proving because it’s a statement. Thank you for collapsing under your own stupidity.
Regarding Modern Wasteland, it’s much easier to delete someone’s comments and give ridiculous reasons for doing so than to actually have a rational discussion. Again, only the position a loser creationist would create for themselves.
Now, let’s discuss some of Sagan’s contributions to science so that I can further expose your ignorance and stupidity:
Mars, the dusty planet. Sagan contributed significantly to our understanding of Mars. Mars was once thought to be covered with vegetation that changed with the seasons – leading to its varying patterns of light and dark as seen through telescopes. Sagan examined new data and determined that the changing color patterns were caused by dust blowing in the wind across different elevations. This was confirmed by later expeditions to the planet, which found it dusty and devoid of life.
Habitable moons. Sagan was one of the first to hypothesize that water was present on Saturn’s moon Titan and Jupiter’s moon Europa. These two moons are now the source of much fascination and speculation, with many contemplating the possibility of human colonization, as well as the exciting idea that the moons might be capable of developing life independently. Though neither would currently be a very comfy place to live – both have almost unimaginably cold climates and Europa possesses potentially fatal levels of radiation – they both present possibilities
Venus and the greenhouse effect. Venus was once thought to have a climate like Earth’s, only even more appealingly tropical. We now know it’s quite the opposite – hot and dry and uninhabitable. Sagan was the first to suggest that Venus’s clouds might not be an indication of a balmy climate; his study of radio emissions from Venus led him to hypothesize a surface temperature of 900° F. He later helped design and manage NASA’s Mariner expeditions to Venus, which proved that Venus is indeed uninhabitably hot. Sagan determined that while Venus may once have had water, it evaporated due to an intense greenhouse effect – and he warned of the danger of a similar path here on Earth, if global warming were allowed to careen out of control.
The list goes on, so nice try.
Kevin, You have cited nothing to contradict my statement about Sagan. If he is remembered at all he will be a footnote for his failed SETI project. Nothing you cited demonstrated any in sight by him at any level above basic science.
DeleteI heard a report this week that the NYT is rejoining a growing list of publications which are banning anonymous comments. After deleting Modern Wasteland's comments I reconsidered and contacted her. I offered to let her repost them but so far I have not heard from her. I will add that after viewing her blog, I think I made the right call in the first place.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI proved your statement to be as dumb as your belief that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. I'm sorry that your delusional mindset thinks otherwise. Thank you again for proving your stupidity on your own blog. I wonder what straw man you will attempt to bring up next. I truly find it sadly hilarious the position you've attempted to create for yourself. You don't care about the truth. You've decided that your god exists and you sadly cling to what science cannot yet answer and attempt to present that as evidence. Again, only the position a loser creationist would create for themselves. So sad. I still despise you and your family. Want a good laugh? Listen to me school Jenn on the age of the earth. I'm embarrassed by the stupidity she spews, you should be too.
DeleteI find it hilarious you are sadly attempting to rag on Sagan when GK Chesterton wrote a lot about fields of science he literally had ZERO education in. So please try again. You know, I wish GK were alive today so that he could see just how laughably wrong you creationists have been all along. Oh, and I bet the Kardashian’s* are dumb enough - like yourself - to believe in biblical creation when no piece of evidence supports such a CLAIM. THAT is truly an epic FAIL.
ReplyDeleteGoing by your own "logic", all religions and their creation myths must be true. Such a pathetic position to create for yourself. You're a coward that is intellectually dishonest. If you're not a coward, then let's discuss creation "models" of biology and the cosmos. I get it, if I were in your shoes I wouldn't want to discuss genetics or astronomy either. You're making this too easy for me...
ReplyDeleteOnly the ignorant creationist will look at something as complex as the cell and think, "Gee whiz, the cell is so complex that I am going to suggest something far more complex created it" and sadly think that that is a more reasonable and rational answer. Again, FAIL. I absolutely despise you because creationism stems from scientific ignorance and you're living proof of that.
ReplyDeleteKevin, you are allowing your emoticons to control you. The assertion that I am disputing is yours. You are claiming that NO intelligence was required to make a cell. So, make one. You should be up to the job.
DeleteWayne, only the small minded uneducated creationist (YOU) would expect to "make" a cell from scratch in an instant. Please, keep proving your complete stupidity regarding our origins. So sad you cling to mythology which has been proven wrong many times over.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI guess you don't understand that it is impossible to prove a negative. YOU are making the positive claim that YOUR god exists, so prove it. Please stop using the god of the gaps, it is really quite pathetic.
ReplyDeleteAnd just because I really do enjoy proving you wrong as I have done many times I over. I found this on the interwebz, enjoy...
ReplyDeleteCarl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrobiologist, and highly successful science popularizer. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which was the most-watched PBS program until Ken Burns' The Civil War in 1990. A book to accompany the program was also published.
He also wrote the novel Contact, the basis for the 1997 film of the same name starring Jodie Foster. During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated scientific skepticism, humanism, and the scientific method.
Dr. Carl Sagan helped design the plaques carried by both Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. These plaques, bearing the images of a man and a woman as well as a diagram showing Earth's location in the Galaxy, may one day be found by an extraterrestrial civilization.
Carl Sagan was an astronomer and a Pulitzer Prize winning author who was often described as "the scientist who made the Universe clearer to the ordinary person". Dr. Sagan helped to popularize science through the writing of hundreds of articles and over two dozen books. His television series "Cosmos" became the most watched show in public television history. It was seen by more than 500 million people in 60 different countries.
His scientific curiosity led him to earn four degrees in physics, astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Chicago. Carl Sagan taught and conducted research at Harvard University. He was among the first to determine that life could have existed on Mars. In 1968, Dr. Sagan became a professor at Cornell University where he was also director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. He was well-known as a pioneer in the field of exobiology, the study of the possibility of extraterrestrial life. He constantly appealed to NASA to extend its exploration of the Universe.
In his role as a visiting scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Carl Sagan helped design and manage the Mariner 2 mission to Venus, the Mariner 9 and Viking trips to Mars, the Voyager mission to the outer solar system and the Galileo mission to Jupiter. Dr. Sagan suffered from a rare bone marrow disease called myelodysplasia. Complications from the disease caused the pneumonia which ended his life on December 20,1996.
Along with Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, he founded the Planetary Society in 1980, which inspires and involves the world's public in space exploration through advocacy, projects, and education. Today, The Planetary Society is the largest and most influential public space organization group on Earth.
Sagan began researching the origins of life in the 1950s and went on to play a leading role in every major U.S. spacecraft expedition to the planets.
"We have looked close-up at dozens of new worlds. Worlds we never saw before. And unless we are so stupid to destroy ourselves, we are going to be moving out to space in the next century," he said. "And if I'm fortunate enough to have played a part in the first preliminary reconnaissance in the solar system, that's a terrifically exciting thing."
"We have swept through all of the planets in the solar system, from Mercury to Neptune, in a historic 20 (to) 30 year age of spacecraft discovery," Sagan once said.
Outside his research, Sagan also hosted a popular television series on PBS called "Cosmos." He published hundreds of scientific papers; wrote eight books, including the Pulitzer Prize winning "The Dragons of Eden"; and was a professor of astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. (to be continued)
Sagan was central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of the planet Venus. In the early 1960s, no one knew for certain the basic conditions of Venus' surface and Sagan listed the possibilities in a report (which were later depicted for popularization in a Time-Life book, Planets) — his own view was that the planet was dry and very hot, as opposed to the balmy paradise others had imagined. He had investigated radio emissions from Venus and concluded that there was a surface temperature of 500°C (900°F). As a visiting scientist to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he contributed to the first Mariner missions to Venus, working on the design and management of the project. Mariner 2 confirmed his views on the conditions of Venus in 1962.
DeleteSagan was among the first to hypothesize that Saturn's moon Titan and Jupiter's moon Europa may possess oceans (a subsurface ocean, in the case of Europa) or lakes, thus making the hypothesized water ocean on Europa potentially habitable for life. Europa's subsurface ocean was later indirectly confirmed by the spacecraft Galileo. Sagan also helped solve the mystery of the reddish haze seen on Titan, revealing that it is composed of complex organic molecules constantly raining down to the moon's surface.
He furthered insights regarding the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter as well as seasonal changes on Mars. Sagan established that the atmosphere of Venus is extremely hot and dense with crushing pressures. He also perceived global warming as a growing, man-made danger and likened it to the natural development of Venus into a hot, life-hostile planet through greenhouse gases. Sagan speculated (along with his Cornell colleague Edwin Ernest Salpeter) about life in Jupiter's clouds, given the planet's dense atmospheric composition rich in organic molecules. He studied the observed color variations on Mars’ surface, concluding that they were not seasonal or vegetation changes as most believed, but shifts in surface dust caused by windstorms.
Sagan is best known, however, for his research on the possibilities of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation.
"Kevin, You have cited nothing to contradict my statement about Sagan. If he is remembered at all he will be a footnote for his failed SETI project. Nothing you cited demonstrated any in sight by him at any level above basic science."
DeleteFeel dumb yet? And please tell me how SETI has been a failure. I need a good laugh, and another statement made by you that I can ridicule.
Nothing you cited about Sagan demonstrates any discoveries he made. The US was exploring planets with probes and made the discoveries independent of his speculation. As for SETI, real scientists say that one would have a greater chance of success using a tin can pointed towards the sky than how SETI is doing it. This is not a trivial criticism as the resources SETI is using could be devoted to doing real science. In that respect Satan has IMPEDED science, NOT helped it.
DeleteKevin, I have been planning a post on the SIX LOGICAL SINS RICHARD DAWKINS. I think I will also start working on one about Satan though I need to weigh the benefits of doing so against the cost of keeping his name from sinking further into obscurity.
ReplyDeleteKevin,
ReplyDeleteThe motto; STUPIDITY IS AN EXCUSE; IGNORANCE ISN'T, is applicable to many of your posts. By IGNORANCE I mean a lack of care to investigate the basis of your criticisms. Let me to explain;
1) You ridicule the idea that the blood of a bird cures leprosy. Indeed, that is correct, but you failed to accurately characterize the CURE. The process involved MUCH more than just a blood sacrifice. In fact, there was an involved process requiring many steps and the priests.
2) The reference to stoning adulterers also demonstrates your fundamental IGNORANCE of the material you are ridiculing. In a material way the error you make here is related to the one in #1 above. That error is applying the Mosaic law to non-Jews. The Mosaic law was given to the Jews and does NOT apply to other than the Jewish people. Further, the Jews cannot enforce the Mosaic law without the Temple in Jerusalem.
I understand that these points are standard fare for atheists but they betray intelllctual dishonesty and laziness, or just plain old IGNORANCE, which is NOT an EXCUSE.
3) You continue to mischaracterize my understanding of the date of creation.
Coming soon, Carl Sagan, The Kardasian of Science.
ReplyDeleteKevin asked me for justification that SETI was a failure. Here it is along with support for my claim that Sagan will be remembered, if at all, as a footnote;
"Other problems multiplied. In 1993 the NASA SETI program, which he [Sagan] had defended on critical occasions in the past, was abruptly terminated by Congress. His [Sagan's] book on nuclear winter, written with Turco, sold only a few thousand copies; no one cared much any more about issues of nuclear war. Perhaps worst of all, a book that he [Sagan] and Annie put a great deal of themselves into, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, did not receive the enthusiastic welcome they expected. Although some reviewers consider it one of Sagan’s best works, it was not a best seller. No longer a media star, Sagan was slipping from public consciousness."
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/carl_sagans_life_and_legacy_as_scientist_teacher_and_skeptic