Comment by Heather Spoonheim on March 12, 2011 at 2:19am

You would think that guys like these would at least brush up on their bible facts and set-up their timeline before putting on their show.  You could actually see some of the kids looking confused at the whole fiasco.  The curator guy kind of reminded me of Jack Black.

Comment by Misty: Baytheist Living! on March 12, 2011 at 12:58pm

What bothers me the most is that religious schools are teaching this pish to kids who (I at least assume) have hopes and dreams of successful careers in the real world.
To achieve this, they must go to college and earn a degree.
To graduate college, you have to have at least a basic understanding of the sciences, right?
How in the HELL are these people going to develop into anything other than ignorant, backwards, poverty stricken, baby producing inbreds living in trailers?

Comment by Heather Spoonheim on March 12, 2011 at 2:43pm

You might want to consider the case of Francis Collins...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Collins

He is the head of the human genome project, and he is a theist, or perhaps, more accurately, a deist.  As you become educated, it is possible to cling to the most central mythology without inhibiting your ability to accept scientific findings.  That core mythology is, "There is god, he loves me, he wants me to be a good person, and I will have a wonderful life in eternity even after this life is over."

There is, of course, absolutely no proof for this sort of belief, but neither is there any conflicting evidence.  Such belief can actually be very comforting to the mind, and doesn't actually result in external conflicts.  Religious conflicts come about when one starts to add to those beliefs by saying, "You are not a good person, god doesn't love you, you won't....blah blah blah...because I know what god is thinking and you don't."  That concept, at it's most basic, is what I view as the difference between theists and deists.

Comment by Reg The Fronkey Farmer on March 12, 2011 at 3:48pm

I cannot abide the people who push this purile crap as knowledge to children. It is yet again another example of child abuse.

This is another one from those idiots in th creation museum. http://www.thinkatheist.com/video/creationism-propaganda-for-1

Comment by Misty: Baytheist Living! on March 12, 2011 at 5:36pm

Heather-
How many deists do you see claiming the earth is 6,000 years old?
None.
Because deists are sugar-coated agnostics for all intents and purposes. Deism is just a name you give to people that aren't concerned with facts, but want to feel secure. You see them in Christianity, Buddhism, Hindu, New Age, Neo-Pagans...They go along with the crowd because it's comfortable, but they aren't out pipe-bombing abortion clinics or protesting gay weddings.
Many of our founding fathers were Deists.
That's probably just because Darwin hadn't come along yet and 'something' for the explanation of existence was more plausible to them than cosmic eventuality, of which they had no concept of.
Deism doesn't make claims on the detail of things, so they can't really make dogmatic claims. If you don't have a dogmatic claim against science, you can pretty much be ok with evolution...thus no need for a creation story to 'prove.'

Comment by Heather Spoonheim on March 12, 2011 at 6:09pm

I guess my point was that not all people who are indoctrinated to theistic fundamentalism turn out to be "ignorant, backwards, poverty stricken, baby producing inbreds living in trailers." Neither do all "ignorant, backwards, poverty stricken, baby producing inbreds living in trailers" come from fundamental theistic backgrounds.

True, exposing kids to this crap is counter productive to the advancement of civilization and likely constitutes a form of child abuse - but these beliefs do not persist into adulthood without conscious re-enforcement. Fundamentalists don't hold to their beliefs because their ability to reason was crippled in childhood but, rather, because of conscious choices that they make as adults.

Comment by Scarlette Blues on March 12, 2011 at 6:32pm

I don't think a lot of them will "grow" out of it, not without some outside forces. Most of these children are secluded from the outside world. Take the WBC, they all live together in a compound of sorts. They grow SURROUNDED by the same non-sense over and over again. Also, most Creationist children are home schooled.

Without the public, most of the children will become/are brainwashed. This same type of thinking will following them into their adulthood.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure there are some who deny their indoctrination. However, I think it would be a lot less than those who don't.

 

Yes, I believe it is child abuse. These children are not being given the opportunity to experience life, including the right to think for themselves. That, in my mind, is an abomination.

Comment by Scarlette Blues on March 12, 2011 at 6:37pm

@ Heather- "exposing kids to this crap is counter productive to the advancement of civilization."

This is what it comes down to. It makes me feel that it's up to Atheists to stand up and say "DONT LISTEN KIDS!!"

Comment by Heather Spoonheim on March 12, 2011 at 6:50pm

In my youngest days I grew up with thousands of creationists and most of the kids who were home-schooled lived in atheist households.  Considering that about 40% of Americans are creationist (at least in so much as they deny evolution)  and no where near 40% are home-schooled, or even schooled in fundamentalist institutions, I don't think it's fair to say that most creationist children are home-schooled and/or secluded from the public.

 

That being said, I do believe you are right that Atheists need to stand up and make the voice of science and reason heard loud and clear.

Comment by Scarlette Blues on March 12, 2011 at 11:54pm

I don't think the numbers should be piled together like that. Just because you don't believe in evolution, doesn't mean you are a creationist. If 40% (or even around that) believe in creationism, I've been giving American too much credit.

 

Creationists live in their own little world.

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