People rode dinosaurs just like on the Flintstones

[dionysus]

Religion is always touchy, so let's hope noone blasts anyone's personal beliefs.

But wanted to share this. Apparently these answers make a perfect test score at this school. Any thoughts?

 

[dunover]

Any philosophy which seeks to deny known facts and truth is highly flawed. If it can't accommodate those facts then it is doomed to isolation, conflict and failure. If most churches can accept Darwin and work with science, that is progress. Regressive beliefs and ideologies can only prevail through oppression, indoctrination and propaganda. Look at hard-line muslim countries. Look at N.Korea and the insanity of Stalinism. I remember at school in History 'O' level being shown a Russian textbook with the classic photo of Lenin on the podium with Leon Trotsky, but with Trotsky missing. 'Your oppressor's truth is YOUR truth' sort of thing.

We can laugh at the photo you posted, but the underlying rationale is quite perturbing.

 

[chayton]

When I was a kid I wanted to take my dad's camera apart to see the bird that was drawing the pictures.
[/derail]

 

[skiny]

To be honest I've spent most of my life tip toeing around people's personal beliefs but I find myself in recent years a little less diplomatic about it. I still try and be as polite as possible when engaged in religious discussions but there are some religious groups who simply refuse to accept reality or admit the truth. Not only is there no logic in what they want you to believe there is no logic in the method they use to convince you of it. Once you deny basic facts you lose all credibility. If you want people to accept what you have faith in you should at least start with something that hasn't been repeatedly proven wrong.

I think that's the separation where I lose my tolerance. Some religions seem to have realized that they can't expect you to have faith in their beliefs if what they believe in is known to be incorrect. So they admit they were wrong about this but maintain they are right about that. This at least makes some sense. They might say they admit the earth is not the center of the universe but still believe that God created it. They at least try to stay in a position where what they currently believe cannot be proven false. Other religions like these young earth creationists simply say it doesn't matter how many ways science has proven us wrong and it doesn't matter what we learn about ourselves, our planet and the rest of the universe. If it's not in this ancient text, it's wrong. And that is where my patience grows thin.

If a person has faith that a God exists, it's not really my job to convince them otherwise. If a person takes comfort in this belief or seeks guidance from this entity that's entirely fine. You can take comfort and seek guidance from your vacuum cleaner for all I care as long as it's not telling you to do socially unacceptable things. It really doesn't matter to me. But when people use ancient literature written by people who had virtually no real knowledge of astronomy, geology or biology with a completely different set of moral and cultural values to teach their children how the universe and the world works and to dictate how people should behave in a modern civilization I really have to draw the line.

 

[djkice]

I got the answers now I can cheat on my test ~!~~ lol

 

[skiny]

To my understanding this is the story of creation.

In the beginning there was nothing and God said "Let there be light" and there was still nothing but at least now he could see it. In fact I have to kind of wonder why he was sitting around in the dark all this time to begin with. Then (a day later.) God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters" (I guess the waters were already there.) And he called it heaven. And he moved right in because up until then he really didn't have a place to stay. And then (another day later) he created the land and vegetation and he said that the land should separate the water (at least for now. He plans to flood it again later.) And on the fourth day he created the moon and the sun and the stars. Because he hadn't discovered yet that the sun actually is a star just like all the rest. And then he wondered if he just created the sun now, where the light came from on the first day. And then on the 5th day he created the sea animals and the birds and said "Let the birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament" And then the ostriches and the penguins and the dodos said "Hang on, this ain't working." And God said to the dodo "What do you care? You'll be extinct soon anyway." And then on the sixth day God made land animals (and dinosaurs) and a man. And he gave all the creatures the vegetation to eat. And he gave some of the animals razor sharp claws and teeth in case any of the plants tried to fight back or get away. And he made some of the dinosaurs weigh as much as 20 tons which made Adam feel a little uneasy. And then finally Adam said "Seriously? You make males and females of a bazillion different species and you make one man? What kind of game is this?" So God put Adam to sleep and took one of his ribs and created Eve because for the first time in all of creation God needed building supplies. And when Adam woke up probably feeling a little violated he had a mate. And they bore children and their children bore children. (No problem there.) And the world was incestuously populated by sisters, brothers and cousins.

This is just how I understand the story. I could be entirely wrong.

 

[Jasminebed]

I went to Catholic School when I was growing up. They didn't seem to feel a need to deny science, instead what we were taught is that God gave Moses the story of creation in a format the people of the time could understand. And that's God hand guided creation of the universe and evolution.

There's still theorizing and debate about the origins of the universe, and evolution is not entirely documented in full. I don't see a need to lie to children to teach them faith.

I do hope this comes from a private religious based school and not a public school paid for by taxes.

 

[dunover]

I went to Catholic School when I was growing up. They didn't seem to feel a need to deny science, instead what we were taught is that God gave Moses the story of creation in a format the people of the time could understand. And that's God hand guided creation of the universe and evolution.

There's still theorizing and debate about the origins of the universe, and evolution is not entirely documented in full. I don't see a need to lie to children to teach them faith.

I do hope this comes from a private religious based school and not a public school paid for by taxes.

True - we don't know all the facts. We are told humanoids came from Africa, we share DNA with fish etc. Basically remains are only preserved in certain climates, and we had an ice-age 10,000 years ago where glaciation swept the soil line away in most Northern regions, so remains would be hard to find there anyway, except preserved in glaciers. The story is constantly being revised as we go along and more discoveries are made. We have no concept of infinite boundaries, so the universe is explained in terms of time warps and dark matter. Whether life was created by a God or by very flukey chemistry where only very precise conditions and elements must be present, it's pretty miraculous from where I'm standing.

 

[IanO]

I do hope this comes from a private religious based school and not a public school paid for by taxes.

Seems like it is the blue ridge christian academy in south carolina.

I love snopes for getting to the facts...

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They have the second page of the test, and an apparent letter from the childs father.

 

[dunover]

Seems like it is the blue ridge christian academy in south carolina.

I love snopes for getting to the facts...

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They have the second page of the test, and an apparent letter from the childs father.

Well, the quiz may seem fundamentalist to us, but I bet the kids won't be going round when they're older exploding bombs at marathon events or running down and beheading off-duty soldiers.....

 

[Sovietsky]

Well, the quiz may seem fundamentalist to us, but I bet the kids won't be going round when they're older exploding bombs at marathon events or running down and beheading off-duty soldiers.....

They will instead go around with signs saying "God hates America", "Pray for more dead soldiers", "Thank God for 9/11".

 

[just play]

I went to a private Catholic school from K-8, then went to a private Catholic High School. Religion was pushed on us, we HAD to go to church, we HAD to have religion class. I believe this worked against me. After I left that high school, I have never been back to church. I personally don't believe in God, I think it's ridiculous, but that's just my personal opinion. Everyone in my family believes in God, all of my friends believe in God, so I'm the "outcast". I only discuss religion with my husband, who believes (but in the last few years he says he doesn't, but I know he does) I am bringing up my younger daughter to believe in whatever she wants to believe in, no way in hell am I going to push her into believing or not believing. My older daughter was brought up not believing because of me and her father, (I was very young when I had her, just turned 19, he was 23) I don't want to influence someone elses beliefs.

These are just my thoughts...I think the people that have strong beliefs are afraid to die, they want to believe you just don't die, you will reconnect with your loved ones, have an after life, what have you. They need something, they search for something, so dying won't be as bad/scary if they believe in the things I have just said. I am not afraid to die, when your dead your dead, end of story. (for me) To quote Clint Eastwood from Gran Torino talking to a priest..."I think you're an overeducated 27-year-old virgin who likes to hold the hands of superstitious old ladies and promise them everlasting life."

Like I said, everyone I know believes in God, so don't take what I say as an insult to those who believe, just as I don't take what people say who believe as an insult. Everyone makes their own decisions, for whatever reasons. In my mind, my reasons for not believing are good enough for me, I'm satisfied with those decisions.

 

[dunover]

They will instead go around with signs saying "God hates America", "Pray for more dead soldiers", "Thank God for 9/11".

Well, unless I'm mistaken, if they do that it won't kill anyone.....

 

[skiny]

The thing about believing in a god is that you have to have faith. To me faith is a belief in something without evidence. My personality just doesn't allow me to believe things without evidence. It doesn't matter if it's as simple as something someone said or a person who has been accused of committing a crime or the idea that a divine being exists. I need evidence to suspect something and proof to believe it.

I can't say there is no God. It's impossible to prove something doesn't exist. But just because you can't prove something doesn't exist is not a reason to believe it does. I could name a million things that would be impossible for me to prove false but that doesn't mean I believe they are true. The only evidence that has ever been provided to me that a god exists is evidence by default. If you don't know of any other way that something could happen then God must have caused it. The only problem with this logic is that we continually find new ways that things can happen. One by one all the riddles of nature are being solved and each time this happens God or "the Gods" depending on what religion you follow becomes responsible for less and less of our universe and it's history.

This doesn't mean you can't maintain a belief in a God. But to deny all new knowledge because it contradicts our ancient literature only serves to hamper our development. It renders the study of the universe, our planet and ourselves pointless. This is a completely foreign attitude to me. It seems like a desire to remain the dark ages - an unwillingness to progress.

It's almost beyond comprehension how insignificant humanity is in the over 14 billion year history of our universe and how insignificant our little planet is in a universe with a billion galaxies each with a billion stars. The universe won't care when our sun expands and swallows our planet like a mid day snack and it won't care if another asteroid randomly smacks into it and kills every human in one fell swoop. To the universe we just don't matter. That is why humanity has to matter to humans. Nobody came around and showed us how to cure diphtheria or polio. Nobody came around and showed us how to harness electricity or build cars, trains or airplanes or launch rockets and satellites and nobody is coming to tell us how to get from here to Alpha Centauri in less than 150,000 years and nobody is coming to show us how to live without war and poverty.

We figured things out on our own and we'll figure more things out on our own. But we won't if we maintain an attitude that nothing we learn can be true if it doesn't agree with something we wrote over two thousand years ago. For humanity to progress our knowledge has to progress and the only way that can happens is if we admit when we're wrong regardless of who wrote it (or when) and agree that divine beings aren't the cause of everything we don't understand.

 

[dunover]

The thing about believing in a god is that you have to have faith. To me faith is a belief in something without evidence. My personality just doesn't allow me to believe things without evidence. It doesn't matter if it's as simple as something someone said or a person who has been accused of committing a crime or the idea that a divine being exists. I need evidence to suspect something and proof to believe it.

I can't say there is no God. It's impossible to prove something doesn't exist. But just because you can't prove something doesn't exist is not a reason to believe it does. I could name a million things that would be impossible for me to prove false but that doesn't mean I believe they are true. The only evidence that has ever been provided to me that a god exists is evidence by default. If you don't know of any other way that something could happen then God must have caused it. The only problem with this logic is that we continually find new ways that things can happen. One by one all the riddles of nature are being solved and each time this happens God or "the Gods" depending on what religion you follow becomes responsible for less and less of our universe and it's history.

This doesn't mean you can't maintain a belief in a God. But to deny all new knowledge because it contradicts our ancient literature only serves to hamper our development. It renders the study of the universe, our planet and ourselves pointless. This is a completely foreign attitude to me. It seems like a desire to remain the dark ages - an unwillingness to progress.

It's almost beyond comprehension how insignificant humanity is in the over 14 billion year history of our universe and how insignificant our little planet is in a universe with a billion galaxies each with a billion stars. The universe won't care when our sun expands and swallows our planet like a mid day snack and it won't care if another asteroid randomly smacks into it and kills every human in one fell swoop. To the universe we just don't matter. That is why humanity has to matter to humans. Nobody came around and showed us how to cure diphtheria or polio. Nobody came around and showed us how to harness electricity or build cars, trains or airplanes or launch rockets and satellites and nobody is coming to tell us how to get from here to Alpha Centauri in less than 150,000 years and nobody is coming to show us how to live without war and poverty.

We figured things out on our own and we'll figure more things out on our own. But we won't if we maintain an attitude that nothing we learn can be true if it doesn't agree with something we wrote over two thousand years ago. For humanity to progress our knowledge has to progress and the only way that can happens is if we admit when we're wrong regardless of who wrote it (or when) and agree that divine beings aren't the cause of everything we don't understand.

Excellent. Thanks. A pleasure to read.

 

[Sovietsky]

Well, unless I'm mistaken, if they do that it won't kill anyone.....

So far...

Still I see your point but I belive that any extrem religious group can start a killing spree.

Who would have thought that buddhist (possibly the most anti violent people) would mob up and start killing muslims?

Buddhist mobs wielding sticks and swords attack Muslims in Meikhtila – where last month more than 40 people were killed and 12,000 displaced

 

[incrediblestuff]

On a lighter note...

 

[GrandMaster]

Well, unless I'm mistaken, if they do that it won't kill anyone.....

Fundamentalist Christians have killed people working at abortion clinics.

 

[skiny]

This is why we need to teach evolution in school.

 

[weesie]

I went to a private Catholic school from K-8, then went to a private Catholic High School. Religion was pushed on us, we HAD to go to church, we HAD to have religion class. I believe this worked against me. After I left that high school, I have never been back to church. I personally don't believe in God, I think it's ridiculous, but that's just my personal opinion. Everyone in my family believes in God, all of my friends believe in God, so I'm the "outcast". I only discuss religion with my husband, who believes (but in the last few years he says he doesn't, but I know he does) I am bringing up my younger daughter to believe in whatever she wants to believe in, no way in hell am I going to push her into believing or not believing. My older daughter was brought up not believing because of me and her father, (I was very young when I had her, just turned 19, he was 23) I don't want to influence someone elses beliefs.

These are just my thoughts...I think the people that have strong beliefs are afraid to die, they want to believe you just don't die, you will reconnect with your loved ones, have an after life, what have you. They need something, they search for something, so dying won't be as bad/scary if they believe in the things I have just said. I am not afraid to die, when your dead your dead, end of story. (for me) To quote Clint Eastwood from Gran Torino talking to a priest..."I think you're an overeducated 27-year-old virgin who likes to hold the hands of superstitious old ladies and promise them everlasting life."

Like I said, everyone I know believes in God, so don't take what I say as an insult to those who believe, just as I don't take what people say who believe as an insult. Everyone makes their own decisions, for whatever reasons. In my mind, my reasons for not believing are good enough for me, I'm satisfied with those decisions.

Hey! It sounds like we were raised in the same place. Catholic boarding school for K-8th. All girls catholic high school. Mass almost every morning! Like you, when I got out, I changed my mind about the whole religion thing. Nothing like living with nuns for years to change your way of thinking..

I have always wonder why, and statistics say it is true, why more religious people tend to try expensive life extending measures. To me, it seems if you have such a firm belief in the almighty, wouldn't you be happy to die sooner and meet him/it/whoever?

 

[skiny]

I was doing a little reading tonight and it mentioned that the Milky Way was about 100,000 light years in diameter. I've actually read this before but from some reason tonight when I read it my mind follwed the statement with "In a 6000 year old universe."

Just another little fact about Young Earth Creationism. A literal interpretation of the Bible for this religious group puts the Earth at around 6000 years old and the stars were actually created the day after the land which I'm assuming IS the earth.

If the stars were created 6000 years ago and we can see them that means none of them are more than 6000 light years away.
Our galaxy actually has around 200 billion stars and there are over a 100 billion galaxies. The estimates I've read about how many stars are in the entire universe say there's probably at least a sextillion and possibly as much as a septillion. So that's somewhere between 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars.

All shining in a space about 1/10 the size of our galaxy. I suggest closing your blinds when you go to bed.