Evangelicals continue their crusade to stomp out science...

[cynatnite]

Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya's national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans' early ancestors.

Leakey called the churches' plans "the most outrageous comments I have ever heard."

He told The Daily Telegraph (London): "The National Museums of Kenya should be extremely strong in presenting a very forceful case for the evolutionary theory of the origins of mankind. The collection it holds is one of Kenya's very few global claims to fame and it must be forthright in defending its right to be at the forefront of this branch of science." Leakey was for years director of the museum and of Kenya's entire museum system.

The museum's collections include the most complete skeleton yet found of Homo erectus, the 1.7-million-year-old Turkana Boy unearthed by Leakey's team in 1984 near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/061203_richard_leakey.html

Will it ever be okay to believe something different than what the bible says? My RW mother buys into that whole myth of how Adam was created and all that. It's really startling to hear someone say man was made out of a pile of dirt.

[Counciltucky]

1. Why can't God and science co-exist?

I guess I don't understand why the fundies are so scared of science.

[Kiouni]

10. you have to be open

to two things:

1) science may not be able to explain everything.
2) the possiblity that there may not be a god.

[immoderate]

20. Same reason fire is scared of water.

--IMM

[Counciltucky]

21. I see no problem with extinguishing the fundies.

:rofl:

[Union Thug]

2. Fundies throw their entire lives away believing in this rubbish.

I guess they believe in the out of sight, out of mind approach to challenging the evidence that undermines their creation myth.

I saw Richard Leakey lecture in the Paramount theatre in Seattle many years ago. It was perhaps one of the most fascinating nights of my life. I hope he continues to take on these bastards.

[Kiouni]

4. Is he a good

speaker? I really wasn't familiar with his name until reading this and then it jogged my memory. I looked him up on wikipedia and read this:

A high school drop-out, Leakey discovered his love of paleontology when he led an expedition to a fossil site he had discovered while flying. Frustrated by the lack of recognition he received for his accomplishments due to his lack of scientific credentials, Leakey left for England to catch up on his high school education. However, after six months, Leakey returned home to continue his safaris. He never completed his degree.

Interesting huh?

I only ask because i though Howard Zinn was brilliant author but a my cousin (ph.d candidate and NYU) saw him lecture and said he was awful at public speaking so it always makes me curious.

[Union Thug]

6. I found him extremely engaging. n/t

[Kiouni]

3. blatant stupidity

like reply #1 religion and science do not have to be at odds with each other. But when these fundie nuts try to billed up the sanctity of their little book they end up accomplishing the opposite by disenfranchising their laity.

"The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact," said Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, head of the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya, the Christ is the Answer Ministries.

What horse-shit huh?

[gulfcoastliberal]

9. If you saw "Borat" you know how insane Pentecostal churches are...

very.

[Selatius]

5. You simply cannot accept the idea of evolution if you also believe the Bible is literally true.

The two are mutually exclusive.

[mconvente]

7. technically that is correct, but then you can't eat shrimp either.

:bounce: http://www.godhatesshrimp.com/

[krispos42]

11. II Chronicals chapter 4 verse 2

"Also he made a molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and five cubits the height thereof; and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about."

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible%2C_King_James%2C_2_Chronicles#Chapter_4

So pi=3.0000, not pi=3.1416?

Oops!

Hear that? Fundie heads exploding in the distance as they take a measuring tape to a circular trash can and see that I'm right!

[EST]

13. Believe it or not, there was even a law passed to make pi equal

three.
Of course, the real engineers and builders of that period knew better but had to keep quiet about it.

One of the contrary notions of the fundies and the junior administration (and its sycophants) is the scientifically astounding and upsetting notion that science-such as global warming-should be something that can be voted on. As though reality is a matter of opinion-sheesh!

Sort of like voting on whether or not an armadillo has sex (and assuming it to be of any interest to anyone besides armadillos and republicans.)

[krispos42]

19. Yeah, it defied the perfect universe

They could not understand WHY God would have such an oddball number for such an important ratio, and decided that He would not have done that.

One of the astronomers, I think it was Kepler, figured out that the planets moved in ellipses but could for the life of him figure out why God didn't make the orbits circular.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Does 'round' have to mean 'perfectly circular'?

It might mean 'elliptical', and the 'brim to brim' measurement could be the major axis. Or they could be quoting the measurements to the nearest whole number - if it were 9.6 cubits, then 9.6 * pi gives you a circumference of 30.16 cubits.

[krispos42]

18. Well, we can run through some math if you want

The cubit was defined usually as the distance from the elbow to the fingers (18" or so), and was divided up into "palms" and "digits", a palm being about 3" and a digit being about ¾". God could have said, "9 cubits, three palms, and two digits" which is 9.6 cubits. He did a similar description with 666, which is described as "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

It was almost certainly circular. It is easy to build in a circle. Simply drive stake into the ground, measure out five cubits of rope, tie one end of the rope to the stake, and put bricks in the circle it scribes on the ground.

Now, it could have been elliptical, but as a practical construction matter, the builder would have to know either the major and minor axis of the ellipse, OR God would have had to tell him to drive two stakes a set distance apart, use a rope of a set length, pull the rope taunt, and put the bricks on the resultant ellipse scribed on the ground.



In general usage, compass is used like encompass, which means to encircle or include within the scope of. Again, the circle thing.

Besides, the simple fact that we could be debating this, that God's word is not 'clear enough', proves the fallacy of literal biblical interpretation.

<edit: fixed typo>

[fasttense]

14. You can't believe in the bible

if you you also believe the bible is literally true. Have you read the thing? There are contradictions after contradictions. The fundies pick and choose what they want to believe. It is ok to own slaves, stone to death an alcoholic son (just get permission from his mother before you kill him) and have sex with your daughters. Yet Jesus said love thy neighbor as thy self and he forgave an adulteress woman who was about to be stoned to death. Go figure :shrug:

[cynatnite]

15. It occured to me I have never heard of God telling people...

to censor anyone.

[Blue-Jay]

8. B-b-b-b-but gravity is only a THEORY!

Education is evil.

[krispos42]

12. So is Reaganomics, yet they can somehow believe in that... n/t

[Hubert Flottz]

16. I'll continue my own crusade to stomp out Evangelicals...

I was content to live and let live like their good book says to do...until they sElected George Bush. I'll never forgive them, or I'll never forget what they have done, to this country and the world, with their mixing of church and state. I'll reach out to them with the back of my hand from now on.

EDIT...and I'll keep my grandsons away from them too! Don't want my kids on speed!