Posted on 12/11/2009 8:50:14 PM PST by Phileleutherus Franciscus
Too bad I got zapped. I was going to post this last night, but thought calmer heads would prevail. Guess I was wrong.
What has become of the FreeRepublic I joined so long ago?
Years ago, when this forum was young and gaining membership, the dedication to conservative principles was the theme that attracted many who were looking for an outlet to voice matters of political opinion in light of the Lewinsky Scandal. It was my primary reason for signing up. It gave me solace when I was racked in pain with a broken neck and back from an accident. It has been a place where returning the kindness shown to me has been easy, and rewarding. It has been a place to share the horror of 9/11, and the tears of the nation, the celebration of birth, and the tragedy of death and loss.
It has become a home of sorts, where I can share my experiences, and laugh at some of the wit and humor of so many valuable people. I have laughed with you, and cried for you and with you.
But that has all changed.
Through the years I have seen people come and go and be purged for political views that became, not one of debate, but one of demeaning personal attacks on those who did not agree with them politically. Once again, that has reared its ugly head here at FR and in the form of religious beliefs.
Recently, there has been a new creeping fascism by a small group of Creation Science believers into FR. These few individuals would have you believe that the Earth is 6000 years old, there is no other belief other than Jesus Christ, a great flood killed everyone and everything, leaving only a few survivors on a boat, which make little sense, and that any other opinion that does not agree with them either makes you either a ‘liberal’, an atheist, not worthy of posting here at FR, and not a ‘true’ conservative. They would have you believe the Theory of Evolution is the cause of every human disaster since the time of the printing of Origin of the Species and that all science is a lie. The threads promulgated by these very few proclaim the fact they are ‘right’, while anyone disagreeing or choosing to debate them are ‘wrong’. Some of these individuals have promoted bigotry and personal attacks, which would have gotten any other individual here banned.
Yet, under the protection of the owner of the site, these very few have had the audacity to instill their beliefs into the core of what was once a great conservative site, and is now one that determines your conservatism by your acceptability of Creation Science. It has now become a site that determines your conservatism based on rejection of Mormonism, the Roman Catholic faith, atheism, on any religious belief but their own, and not on conservative values that have nothing to do with religious beliefs, but on what is best for the country and what we revere as America.
This is the worst kind of fanaticism as it pits a particular religious belief against an individuals ability to think. Something that has developed over millions of years, from the use of rudimentary tools to the complexities we enjoy today, an individual’s ability to think sets us apart from most of the other animals. And we are still in the adolescence of that developing technology and intelligence. Look how far we have come from the written word to the printing press to the Internet.
This kind of fanaticism was used by Hitler against the Jews and just about every other race and culture, by the Italians against the African Continent, and by the Japanese against the Chinese. It was used by the Catholic Church in Spain as a weapon to force those not of the Catholic faith underground or tortured to death for heresy. It was part of the Crusades and the slaughter of millions of both Muslims and Christians. A struggle that continues even today, although it pits radical self-serving Islam against the free-thinking individual of any religious belief, basic human freedoms, and forces each of us to stand up to that type of extremism.
There are many religions in this world, and many beliefs in a different ‘god’. History is replete with various religious beliefs that either evolved or were discarded. Even those who do not adhere to the Christian belief should be free to choose what and how they think, and not be condemned by the few who see nothing but their way and dismiss their conservative values. This type of religious fanaticism degrades this forum to the very thing that the DUmmies expect from FR, intolerance of others.
Science is the quest for knowledge. That quest requires that each individual take a look at data and information and make a valued opinion. Science is not perfect, nor has it claimed to have all the answers, otherwise, cancer would be cured tomorrow, food would be grown enough to feed the world, and disease would be eliminated. But that is not the case. It is that quest that has sent us in directions to search for who we are, and where we came from. If the science leads us to god, or whatever deity that created the universe, then so be it, but to dismiss it is to ignore the progress of generations, and reinforces an ignorance that only education can alleviate. By using one book as the sole source to how everything has come to where it is now, is ignorance on the highest level. And to use that belief as a ruler to measure your worthiness as a conservative is beyond the pale.
I will miss the valuable wealth of knowledge of the gun-owners here. I will miss the total dedication to the memory of our brave fallen heroes, and the devotion to our military around the world. I will miss the realistic social and fiscal conservative values I found here that reinforces my own political views.
I will not miss the tolerated religious bigotry, the insulting, uneducated, demeaning tripe that passes for knowledge by those few who would dictate to the rest.
Yes, Jim, it is your site to do with as you please, but to allow the few to demean and dictate to the many what beliefs are acceptable and ‘conservative’, and with your blessing, is intolerable to me and probably many, many other conservatives here. It shows that the intolerance the left accuses conservatives of being does live on FreeRepublic. Maybe this kind of self purging is what you wanted allowing the sort of tripe we have seen lately. It serves conservatism very little and demeans everything you started this site to be.
I will continue to fight for conservative causes, pro-life causes, pro-gun legislation, and real conservative candidates to help us get this country of ours back to where it should be. It just won’t be here, where my beliefs in that conservatism will be questioned because my religious beliefs are not coincidental with the owner.
I pray for our country and those who fight for her, in whatever capacity they can.
Please remove my name from all ping lists.
Goodbye and good luck.
Say, isn't having multiple accounts frowned upon on FR?
OH...... I think I am starting to see the light..... there is a Flame War transpiring between the Creationists on FR, versus the Darwinians who exist on some other entirely different board, and they are saying meanie things about FR?
“I said *SEEMS* to be......”
I know you said that, but since it is objectively measurable why make the claim at all?
“That’s why I never touch those issues. Check my posting history.”
You and I seem to always end up sparring on those threads. It *seems* to me that if you don’t touch “creation science” and I don’t touch questions of honestly expressed faith that we’d never find opportunity to discuss much of anything.
Yet here we are. Again.
Going through a bajillion posts on hundreds of crevo threads simply isn’t feasible.
I only made an observation and told you what I noticed seemed to be the case that there were more in numbers or percentage, of non-evos who held science degrees than evos.
The best I can do at this point is suggest that you pay attention to either what the poster says about their actual education, or what they post and discern from their arguments and ask them.
A lot of the problem is also the inability or unwillingness of some of the more agressive creationist posters to distinguish between criticism of what they post and criticism of Christianity.
Because I don't know for ALL posters so I can't.
I only know for the ones who have definitively stated. That's why I said *seems to be*.
“There was a evo/DCer who left that site because they turned on him.
It’s not just us.”
I was once approached via freepmail and invited to join DC. I didn’t but the stated view that the DC folks are on here recruiting is true enough in my experience.
I did find I was quoted on there though - but I have no control over that.
They are poo-poo heads.
Who are you praying to?
My experience has been that this is not the case. Rather, evos utilising circular reasoning assume that any challenge to their mythology constitutes "anti-science," thereby disqualifying opposing arguments on philosophical, rather than scientific, grounds.
“I only know for the ones who have definitively stated. That’s why I said *seems to be*.”
You are missing my point. You shouldn’t make the claim at all - the burden is on you to prove it if you make that claim.
I think you should steer away from that claim rather than keep repeating it.
.....This is the worst kind of fanaticism as it pits a particular religious belief against an individuals ability to think.....
Thinking is not permitted.
As the rind around the brain grows, a point is reached where rational thought ceases. The rind prevents rational thought from entering or leaving.
Reason is forever excluded an self righteouness controls
America has been blessed because it was founded upon the notion that the Judeo/Christian God IS the true God. God has been acknowledged as the leader of our country. That's changing and that's not good. Those who don't believe in God and support a conservative country don't have their foundation in place. Their vision of the country is as wrongheaded as the leftists.
That being said I don't believe in a 6000 year old earth. I think the earth is very old. But I believe that there was a special creation approximately 6000 years ago, a recreation. The bible has ample evidence to show that something destroyed the ancient earth, probably the demonic revolt, and that God recreated it for our benefit.
It's ironic you should say that. I have yet to get a single one of the evos on here to actually address the fact that their necessary belief in abiogenesis is completely impossible from the standpoint of the laws of organic chemistry. I've even provided my "data," quite openly, and they've never addressed it.
“that any challenge to their mythology”
Why do you say it is “mythology”?
There is an awful lot of research and data for you to refute before you can make this claim. The difference between actual science and “creation science” is that the data is in plain sight for you to refute. “Creation science” is not so rigorous, to say the least.
“Creation science” is the triumph of rhetoric over reason, as your post certainly demonstrates.
BS
“abiogenesis is completely impossible from the standpoint of the laws of organic chemistry”
Is abiogenesis required to substantiate the science behind the theory of evolution?
I don’t think it is. If you wish to start an organic chemistry thread and ping me to it, I’d be willing to participate.
NOBODY pings them, and yet they find them... --- I think that in light of the fact that the Internet is a PUBLIC place open to ALL people almost everywhere, and that the search at FR and all the big search engines send bots through FR makes this a very silly irrational naive complaint.
Obviously you are reading your words differently from how others are reading same.
Claiming to to be true would be using the word *is*.
I didn’t. I merely stated an opinion based on casual observation.
“A lot of the problem is also the inability or unwillingness of some of the more agressive creationist posters to distinguish between criticism of what they post and criticism of Christianity.”
I’ve repeatedly asked GGG if there is a difference between “creation science” and faith. I’ve never gotten an answer.
I think that it’s an ego thing - a “mini-god complex” - where folks assign divine meaning to their own beliefs - making them unable to distinguish between criticism of their beliefs (even if it is preposterous science) and Christianity itself.
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