A World Where Lies Are True

I don't need scientific "proof" to confirm my "faith".....acc. to the Bible, we live by faith,not by sight....when does faith need science to confirm it's ability to solidify our relationship with God....put away this stupid arguing about "where we came from" and get a handle on where your life is going and what value you contribute to real people everyday , and most of the scientific, theological and political crap you want to argue about will take it's proper place in the back of your life where it should be....life is too short to be beating your gums or your keyboard at 3a.m....try fly-fishing in a wild mtn. stream... it will go a long way to alleviating some of your hypertension.....

OT

Re: prosecutor-purgegate

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/10349.html

What explains the failure of the mainstream media to cover the purge scandal for so long, and so many other scandals? Do you think somebody just set up newspaper editors to cheat on their wives, and threatened to tell if the editors wouldn’t play ball when they come back some day and ask for something?

It wouldn’t be that hard to do, when you think about it. People wouldn’t talk about it.

There is NO possible way to legitimatize 'creationism' or so-called 'creation science,' a pseudonym & oxymoron created to disinform & distort reality for all of the religious right but especailly to confuse the young, who are largely captive to their parents' previous choices of church & cultural exposures. 'Cultural' is sub- or anti-cultural in the best sense of the word, pablumized halftruths & outright lies and ditto for 'church' which operates in a fringe-setting & often in substandard, artless physical environs. If the child goes to a non-public school or is home-schooled, the miserable quality of data or information is more propoganda than anything else. While I have not been for children taking their parents to court as they reach majority age for various allegations, more & more I find myself favoring such an outlet when basic information has been witheld that narrowed the child's right-to-know. Surely such is 'child abuse' in the child's formative learning years; moreover, when the child is a pawn in a parents' crusade against public schools, recovery & recompense is hardly a stretch. Most often 'science' & 'science education' is an area of lack par excellence when a literal bible imposes a narrow creationism without discussion or dissent. Some bright children may rise above it in spite of the lack of exposure, but most do not when it is the only thing they are taught. In recent times, 'intelligent design' is a wedge in the doorway for 'creationism' as it seems to be more pallatible even tho' it is flimsy & insubstantial. The Dover, PA decision AGAINST the school board by Judge Jones pretty much silenced this means of approach since Judge Jones did such a thorough job [141 pgs] of explaining & defining in the process of documenting the lies & lies-upon-lies perpetrated by the school board in its attempt to impose a curriculum for the district that scuttled science for creationism/intelligent design. Thus, the effort imploded not only in Dover, PA but nationwide, even now as states like Kansas & Texas seek to circumvent the law. Further, Judge Jones reaffirmed the Separation of Church & State in an all-encompassing way that was unexpected but appreciated. The religious right is absolutely shameless in distorting time-honored maxims & tenets of law for its destructive & asocial ends. Lies are used every day without even a whim or pang for the evidence.

The White House had an Office For Science for years for advisory purposes & initiatives, but that ended with the current occupant of the WH. There were five (5) elected representatives of legitimate science backgrounds on the advisory board when this office was terminated & suspended. Hopefully the next occupant will bring back this important office & seek its expertise. We know that the current occupant dismissed this office in favor of his so-called "faith-based initiatives" which were politicized to the hilt, including the 'creationism' push in all its illegality, still easier than not for Dubya who, when asked his motive, solemnly said, "I'm not too sure about gravity either." Does anyone wonder where any influence abroad went?

When facts may be made willy-nilly "in reporting the events of the day," I am reminded of the scandal that is so-called christian-radio & its overt lies and halftruths. This is why Americans United [for the Separation of Church and State] ranked christian-radio in its top-5 list of threats to the nation & its Constitution over five years ago. The audience that is its target is ignorant & gullible, aiding its receptivity and dissimenation the more. Questioning much less honest doubt is not part of this audience as the lies are further spread by the recipients. Cable tv run by rightist religious groups may even be more shameless: beyond CBN of Pat Robertson is something called 'SkyAngel' that is lies, lies & more lies but "doing the lord's work" as you will hear claimed. The audience is not only anti-intellectual & uneducated but adamant in their ignorance as they draw on ever smaller gene-pools damning the next generation.

I was an early visitor to the Darwin exhibit at the Museum of Nat'l History in NYC & marveled at its fullness of presentation. At that early point, a few 'protestors' for i.d. were seen, but this changed to nothingness once Judge Jones rendered his emphatic decision. I saw the exhibit again October 2006 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, which was not as striking in a slightly telescoped program, but the live animals were quite striking as was the viruses evolving at the end and "i.d." interviews & commentary that had come forth since the first stop in NYC. We now have a Clergy Letter Project that has resulted in Evolution Sunday for a second year in a row & subsequently with much publicity. It is more than a Celebration of Darwin & Religion --- a statement for the compatibility of religion and science & an affirmation for Science teaching in the public schools that is not threatened by local opposition or distortion over the 'creationism' nonsense. I proudly wear my "Darwin" tie then & often procured from the NYC first exhibit.

"Fundamentalist science" [as 'creation science' is better termed] never gets beyond a literal bible as its textbook for 6-days when poetry is sacrificed for bad science & the life of hell that its adherents live as inadequately equipped for both life & job but supported by similar nutcases in fringe religious operations. A simple knowledge of manuscripts & transmissions opens the door to variants & problems thereof, a rich statement to religious diversity in the earliest centuries lost to a 400 year old King James Version & a most corrupt and unenlightened Textus Receptus (TR), followed by even worse theological [sic] paraphrase translations that say what the narrowness of literalism wants to hear, depending on viewpoints within fundamentalism. Nothing liberated me like studying the Literary Criticism & Textual Criticism of both testaments, richer for the variants & variety, even if logic and a thinking mind had already liberated me long before I got out of high school. These are all denied for lack of all legitimate education, much less graduate theological education in the pseudoleaders of cultic sectarianism & the demagoguery that is the everyday rant of the literalist agenda, more political than religious. It is Christofascism, which we ought to use as the term of choice in dealing with these who perpetrate so bastardized a faith. Faith & Knowledge is a two millenia foci & tension, but this is unheard of in a one-line ad agenda scandalized even for the most ignorant. All fundamentalism is scurilous for its inhibiting people from all things sane but more especially the 'extreme' churches who pride themselves on their extremism & having no contacts within themselves but themselves: brainwashing. The religious right is not to be underestimated and especially for its permanent molesting of the minds of people.

The Museum of Creationism being groomed for opening soon by Ken Haws of the "Answers in Genesis" operation & website is shameless par excellence, with parking facilities groomed for school buses in northern Kentucky. Open distortions & dysinformation will compete for allegiance of genuine Science with the young & poor sacrificing their minds thereafter. Also, we the taxpayers will fund their trips via bus mileage & fuel dare we not step in early with legal challenges. It's not a case of this today, then that other next week, when anything from AiG and its Museum of Creation is unfit for childish minds. Our due diligence must just have begun with challenges like these, both to stop the damage to be done before it happens and to eliminate the menace altogether. Only in America! And what a shame our country has become! Some of us still remember better & must work for its return.