Left Behind

[beardad]

I went through elementary school in the very early 80's graduated high school in the early 90's. I don't remember ever being taught creationism in school.

[KC9DDI]

Sorry, but if you are relying on other people to decide what is true for you, you are a faith based observer.

 

I never said anything that contradicts this statement.

 

I recently had someone provide me with another idea of scientific evidence. They told me that 97% of scientists endorsed the idea of global warming.

 

What evidence did that person present to support this statement?

 

science is not a one man, one vote program.

 

I absolutely agree.

 

These days science is regularly prostituted by political and economic interest groups using the methods described above.

 

Yep, people with an agenda have tried to influence peoples' decisions using science, religion, persuasion, bribery, and any number of other means. That is not a failure of science, but rather a failure of people to act honestly and think critically. At least the scientific method can be used as a tool to challenge or verify the validity of these claims.

 

[HerpetologyScout]

It takes a lot of faith to believe in science.

 

No it doesn't. You don't need to "believe" in something that can be conclusively proven, reproduced, and independently verified.

 

As a Conservative Christian who believes in Creation and a Herpetologist who loves science including evolutionary history, this is how I look at it:

 

Science is the study of natural phenomena. Supernatural is thus beyond the scope of science.

 

When looking at things from a scientific viewpoint, it is important to keep any supernatural beliefs out of the study because that would taint the science and make it pseudo-science.

 

Since science can only answer questions with a hypothesis of how the phenomena happens (or in the case of evolution happened) by natural laws, it can only provide answers restricted to natural laws. That might not be what actually happened, but it is a scientific explanation.

 

Don't let science taint your religion and don't let religion taint your science.

If you need science to back up your faith, well then you lack faith, just like Thomas did when he needed to put his fingers in the wound. So keep them separate.

 

How science fits into the creation of this Universe is a question I will have answered when I meet the Creator, if it is something I care about. Until then, only scientific explanations can be considered when investigating something from a scientific viewpoint, and I live knowing that it may not actually be what went down, but it is the (or at least a) scientific viewpoint.

[NJCubScouter]

As a famous man once said:

 

"Wait a minute. Perhaps she's right. Perhaps I've been wrong to blindly folow the medical traditions and superstitions of past centuries. Maybe we barbers should test these assumptions analytically, through experimentation and a "scientific method". Maybe this scientific method could be extended to other fields of learning: the natural sciences, art, architecture, navigation. Perhaps I could lead the way to a new age, an age of rebirth, a Renaissance!"

 

"Naaaaaahhh!"

 

[OldGreyEagle]

Theodoric of York

[Old_OX_Eagle83]

Now Camping states he mis-calculated it is to be OCT 21st, not May 21st.. Can't give up on his dream of world annihilation

 

Oh, good, I'll be back from Wood Badge, and able to throw a party.

[SeattlePioneer]

There is an unpleasant bias among our educated elites to sneer at religion, and this latest prediction certainly brought out that bias.

 

 

I seem to remember a Robert Heinlein short story about such a prediction and a person who sneered at it. At the appointed time he happened to look up at the sky and saw the stars winking out....

 

 

Along the same lines, I see all manner of predictions of Armageddon from asteroid strikes comet strikes, global warming, super volcanoes, new ice ages, global pandemics, super bugs, nuclear terrorists and whatever. Really, FAR more predictions of armageddon than religion cranks out.

 

It seems to be a part of the scientific method these days to get funding. Scare the socks off a gullible population. Exactly how is that different than this latest religious guys prediction?

[moosetracker]

SP - I don't know did any of them name the exact date and time to the exact minute that the comet will stick or global warming or the ice age will hit?? If so I would say they were missing a few bats in their belfry also..

[Beavah]

There is an unpleasant bias among our educated elites to sneer at religion, and this latest prediction certainly brought out that bias.

 

Oh I don't know. While I suppose I'm an educated fellow, I sneered at Camping because I am a Christian and he was talking damnable nonsense. And yes, God really does damn people for falsely claiming to speak in His name.

 

About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Matthew 24:36

 

To claim to know the time of Judgment is to claim to be greater than the Son of God. It is pure and simple blasphemy. And like all blasphemy, it cast all of us people of faith in a bad light.

 

Most people's knowledge of most things is based on listening to and trusting others. Listening to and trusting what parents say, listening to and trusting what teachers say, reading and trusting what books and newspapers say. If it weren't for that, we'd still be back in da bronze age. Just because yeh pick good sources and listen to them doesn't mean those sources are wrong. Even most scouts eventually admit that their parents were right about most things.

 

No different when talkin' about science. Yah, yah, we can be like a petulant teenager in our approach and stick our fingers in our ears and go "la la la not listening!" or argue this that and the other thing the way we all did with our parents. Doesn't make da science wrong. Just makes us look like petulant little kids who really need a program like scouting.

 

Beavah

 

[NJCubScouter]

I apologize for yet another quote from, ahem, the cinema, and this one is kind of lengthy, but this time it is directly relevant, so... who you gonna call?

 

Dr. Peter Venkman: Hi, welcome back to "World of the Psychic," I'm Peter Venkman. I'm chatting with my guest, author, lecturer and psychic, Milton Anglund. Milt, your new book is called "The End of the World." Now can you tell us when it's going to be or do we have to buy the book?

Milton Auglund: Well I predict that the world will end at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.

Dr. Peter Venkman: This year?

Milton Auglund: MmHmm.

Dr. Peter Venkman: Well that's cutting it a little bit close, isn't it? I mean, just from a sales point of view, I mean your book is just coming out, you're not gonna see any paperback sales for at least a year. It'll be at least another year before you know whether you've got that mini-series or movie of the week kind of possibilities. I mean just Devil's Advocate Milty! I mean shouldn't you have said: Hey the worlds going to end in 1992! Or better yet 1994!

Milton Auglund: This is not just some money-making scheme! Alright! I have a strong psychic belief that the world will end on New Year's Eve. [begins to cry]

Dr. Peter Venkman: Well, for your sake, I hope you're right. Okay. But I think my other guest may disagree with you. Elaine, now you had another date in mind?

Elaine: According to my source, the end of the world will be on February 14, in the year 2016.

Dr. Peter Venkman: Valentine's Day. Bummer. Where did you get your date, Elaine?

Elaine: I received this information from an alien. As I told my husband, it was in the Paramus Holiday Inn, I was having a drink at the bar, alone, and this alien approached me. He started talking to me. He bought me a drink, and then I think he must have used some kind of a ray or a mind control device because he forced me to follow him to his room and that's where he told me about the end of the world.

Dr. Peter Venkman: So your alien had a room at the Holiday Inn, Paramus.

Elaine: It might have been a room on the spacecraft made up to look like a room in the Holiday Inn. I can't be sure about that, Peter.

 

Does this constitute "sneering"?

[NJCubScouter]

Along the same lines, I see all manner of predictions of Armageddon from asteroid strikes comet strikes, global warming, super volcanoes, new ice ages, global pandemics, super bugs, nuclear terrorists and whatever.

 

Seattle, which of these things do you think COULD NOT happen?

 

But as someone pointed out, none of these predictions come with an exact date attached to them. And most of them are not really "predictions" but rather possibilities, since in most cases scientists don't say they WILL happen, just that they COULD happen. Well, global warming is definitely happening, the debate is really over what's causing it. And nuclear terrorism isn't really a matter of science, it's more a matter of finance and theft. (Do you really think it's IMPOSSIBLE that a terrorist group could get a nuclear device? If so, I wish I could agree with you.)

 

For that matter, I firmly believe that the world will end -- but not on a date predicted by a book, or an interpretation of a book. The last time I read about this, "science" seemed to be predicting that the Earth will be destroyed by the expanding Sun in about 5 billion years. I'll go with that.(This message has been edited by njcubscouter)