The Crafty Attacks on Evolution

The New York Slimes ^ | 23 January 2005 | EDITORIAL

[gobucks]

I have a Dr. in ministry, Biblical Counseling specialty. There are certain mental illnesses or personality disorders that promote a need for the perception of control. This causes, in some, a very rigid mental state similar to what you might see as someone approaches senility.

ANOTHER doctor on FreeRepublic! Thank God for all these authority figures!! We'd be in big trouble but for you guys helpfully pointing out our underlying mental illnesses. Hey, I'm game .... what 'certain mental illness' do I need to look up which describes the cause of my 'rigid' mentat state?

I didn't have an any idea I had such a need for 'perception for control' as you describe, good doctor. Your degree is from, lemme guess, the Unitarian Universalist University?

But, I'm unafraid ... let's see your links which describe the illnesses to which you so boldly and with degreed authority refer to ....

[shubi]

DSMIV

[gobucks]

If your Mom was dying of cancer, but telling her she would get better would extend her life and give her strength, would you lie to her?

If you mean I was aware of the cancer, but she wasn't? This implies I have a time machine and I have proof she'd live longer by lying? Well, if I had the time machine, I suppose I would be tempted to enjoy having her around longer, by indulging in a lie of omission about the cancer she has...

but then I'd be playing the role of God, wouldn't I?

[shubi]

The question required a yes or no answer. I take it you would be unwilling to lie and would like to shorten your Mom's life and make her feel worse. How nice of you.

[gobucks]

What a second here ...

Lots of good stuff here. Are you just teasing, or do you have something specific, heh heh, in mind.

You are a doctor, you claim. You evidently like to heal people given what you claim are your credentials. Ok, so far so good.

But then, we see you sarcastically state 'how nice of you' about a post where my MOTHER is going to live longer only if I lie to her?

Wow. I'm astonished. The professors which taught you how to counsel folks (biblically even!) must have been very bright. Did you learn this particular 'mother has cancer' technique from them? I can just imagine the extent of your success rate.

You know, where success is defined by the fact your clients don't need your help anymore.

But maybe you are one of those types that give the counseling profession such a bad name; where keeping your clients coming back week-after-week-after-week is good for your ....., dare I say it, cash flow?

[shubi]

I run a homeless ministry. So you can stop the personal attacks.

[gobucks]

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

I liked that post Shubi .... it is a good one, when it is kept in mind.

As for running a homeless shelter, let me say thanks. We need people to do this effectively - at best, I could handle only about an hour a day at such a place.

Let me also say this: a golfer with a bad slice doesn't do much to improve it if he spends all his time at the practice range surrrounded by .... slicers. Who knows how you schedule your day, but one thing is quite obvious in my experience: one's dreams at night stitch together the previous's days experiences.

I'm not into personal attacks fwiw. But I'm quite convinced that a whole lot of folks fail to engage on any of these issues because of fear.

[shubi]

Creationists spout their nonsense, because some false prophet has misinterpreted the Bible and convinced them they will go to hell if they believe scientific fact.

[gobucks]

"Creationists spout their nonsense, because some false prophet has misinterpreted the Bible and convinced them they will go to hell if they believe scientific fact."

Some creationists spout nonsense, I agree. But not all of them. And we'll avoid going down the road of what is a 'scientific fact' for now. I have to clean my garage ... it is a mess. Very disorganized.

[Thatcherite]

I'm not into personal attacks fwiw. But I'm quite convinced that a whole lot of folks fail to engage on any of these issues because of fear.

I would say this is particularly true of many of the creationists who post here. The fear that evolution might be true and that any denial of it, no matter how invalid, buttresses their faith comes shining through in their posts.

FWIW, the cod-psychiatrist in me says it is their fear of death. Their religion shields them from having to confront the reality of death, so any perceived attack on their religion is taken extremely personally.

[balrog666]

So you can stop the personal attacks.

Obviously, he is incapable of doing that.

[judywillow]

I run a homeless ministry. So you can stop the personal attacks.

Evolutionism pretty much led to communism and naziism and WW-II and when all that shit was over in 45, hundreds of millions of people were homeless on account of it.

[Outraged]

Now why is it required for evolutionists/materialists to single out Christians (not Jews, Muslims, secular critics of evolution et al) for all of your frustrations?

Number One, the Bible says that you folks will do exactly that. Number Two, history demonstrates that you folks will do exactly that. Number Three, the balance of posts by the materialists demonstrates that this is an unending pattern of behavior. We can look at your posts, and the variety of self-proclaimed atheistic theologians (there is an oxymoron for you) who feel completely qualified to describe and characterize a religion they know very little about and have every reason to ridicule.

Well said...Bravo!

[Right Wing Professor]

I'll take that in the spirit (I think) it's offered. Thanks.

[Right Wing Professor]

Other than the sex stuff I have argued elsewhere, for you are a front line witness to this decadence everyday in your culture in academia and remain .... silent;

What reason do you have to believe I remain silent?

If you want a non-theistic reason why lying is (generally) wrong, try Kant's first categorical imperative

Kant said that any maxim is ethical only if it can be made into a universal law. So, if you adopt the maxim "I lie when to do so will further my argument"; if everybody did that, then nobody would trust anybody's argument, and arguments themselves would become useless. This would render the maxim contradictory, since if no argument is useful, lying to further one is useless.

[Outraged]

Did you know that I am a Christian minister that runs a homeless ministry in the inner city?

Really reverend?...then...

Creationists spout their nonsense, because some false prophet has misinterpreted the Bible and convinced them they will go to hell if they believe scientific fact.

With Christian ministers like you, you wonder why people hate Christianity...."Get behind me Satan!"...Shubi, I would highly recommend you desist from calling yourself a minister when you are passionately preoccupied with diminishing Christ...You better do some more research on evolution, you better be really really sure evolution proves the nonexistence of God, because at your rate you are going to fry in eternal torment with a guy named Satan and a roommate named Robert Byrd

[gobucks]

.I'll take that in the spirit (I think) it's offered. Thanks.

You're not mis-reading the, heh heh, spirit (I love it when I see you use metaphors like that! The underlying assumptions of shared symbol translation systems, in this case at least, ... it is just beautiful.).

Anyway, You're welcome.

(BTW, as a frame of reference for shared systems of symbol translation, you might be interested in this link, given your perchance for safaries of the mind: The Body Snatchers of the Collective Unconscious .

And yes, it is definitely fringe leftist stuff of course; it needs an abstract and an editor, big time, but it is one of the few places where an author in a global kind of way seeks to address the whole issue of symbol translation.

In an indirect way, it touches effectively upon the forces behind what is fueling the fight between creationists and scientists imho.)

[longshadow]

Troll-fest™ Extravaganza placemarker

[Right Wing Professor]

Why don't you post a picture of a carnivore with a carnivore's teeth which you think could use those carnivore teeth to strain for krill. Even a little bit...

You'll pardon me Shubi, but this is just too good to pass up.

Whale Sharks are not a threat to people. They have about 300 tiny, hooked teeth in both jaws. A Whale Shark feeds by filtering small crustaceans, squids and fishes from the water using filtering screens on the gills. This species feeds by swimming with its huge mouth open, however it can also feed by hanging vertically in the water and opening its mouth to let water rush in.

I guess that since judywillow's premise - that carnivores could not filter krill with their teeth - has been refuted, she will now be admitting that whales could have, in fact, have evolved from toothed ancestors.

And then Ariel Sharon will be given the 'Palestinian Man of the Year 'award.