Last year (2005) the Kansas State Board of Education decided that in addition to the scientific explanations of where the universe and people came from, that public school children should also be introduced to the possibility that the universe did not come about over billions of years but was made in only a few days by a god who spoke it into existence and that the first man did not evolve over millions of years from primitive ape-like ancestors but instead was made in only seconds from potting soil.
In protest to this decision, a computer scientist named Bobby Henderson professed his belief in a supernatural being called the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” and called for the teaching of “Pastafarianism” in public school science classrooms which seems equally reasonable.
For example: in Pastafarianism when asked why the earth appears in tests to be billions of years old, the reply is that the invisible Spaghetti Monster is there changing the “true” results with his “noodly appendages” to fool the highly trained scientists.
Pastafarianism also suggests that Global Warming is coming about because of a dwindling number of Pirates. It points to the fact that the number of Pirates has been going down since the 1800s while the average temperature of the earth has been increasing.
Also instead of commandments, the Pastafarians follow eight “I’d rather you didn’ts” that were given to a Pirate named “Mosely” by the Spaghetti Monster himself. It was originally 10 IRYDs but 2 were accidentally dropped on the way down the mountain which explains the exceptionally poor moral standards of Pastafarians.
Here is the official website of this exciting new religion:
http://www.venganza.org/index.htm
BTW, Pastafarians end all their prayers with the word: “Ramen.”
I am not claiming that the actual Christian explanation for existence needs to be taught, and when accurately presented, this isn’t what is being asked for by creationists. Given, most if not all creationists are Christian, but I am sure that people would be satisfied with the option of believing that a creator might have made us. I have heard mention of people protesting the reading of a sentence that offers the possibility that God made us. I believe it was Pennsylvania, Dover to be exact, but if it doesn’t ring a bell then by all means, deem it inadmissable. All I am saying is that we (Christians) catch a lot of slack for believing what we believe. (I realize that we are not perfect and that we make mistakes that make people angry) but do you ever wonder about the consequences of evolution. If evolution is completely true to the point where there is no God, then there can be no absolutes. In turn, there is no explanation for love, guilt, happiness, goodness, badness. All of these are either deceptions that we have lured ourselves into or shackles we or society has placed on us. How do you explain these things?
Of course there are explanations for love, guilt, happiness, etc… no god or gods needed. These are simply psychological manifestations, many which have to do with the development of humans in social groups.
Living in social groups is/was a big advantage to humans. Laws can and were derived from what we call “common sense” today. No need for mountain gods to hand them down to sheep herders, no need for “absolutes,” they simply made sense and were likely derived from trial and error.
Example: Do not kill.
Why? Because a god told someone on a mountain? No, many cultures derived this law without any kind of belief in the god of the bible.
Obviously people determined very early on, through trial and error that if you kill one of your neighbor’s clan, they might come back and kill one or two of your clan? If you don’t want that sort of thing then you agree not to kill each other and across a large group of people such an agreement is called a “law.” Punishment for the action is then from the entire group of people against the lawbreaker so there is less chance for “tit for tat” escalation to occur.
Steve said:
“…then there can be no absolutes.”
no absolutes is a paradox..
GOD misread. He did not say “There are no absolutes,” he said “There’s no need for absolutes” in order for humans to make logical decisions based upon instinct. GOD has made a mistake? *gasp*
Yes, Christians do make mistakes that make other people angry. This being one of them. We of other religions and beliefs would not feel anger toward the Christians and Jesus lovers if not for the fact that they shove their beliefs in our faces and have caused many, many unreasonable wars and disputes because they don’t want to accept the fact that people can, and will, think on their own and sometimes refuse to “follow the herd” that walks the Christian path through life. Should I mention the idiotic worldly witch trials as an example? All those innocent men and women were killed senselessly for making medications that HELPED people, and all because a little girl cried wolf as a practical joke and refused to stand up for what was right once the trouble started, knowing that the consequences that she faced were fairly heavy. The Christian child didn’t want to be punished so she pushed her new found burden onto countless others. (Might I mention that our modern doctors and medications originated with ‘witches and shamans’ and their practices?)
The raven has spoken.
Thanks for the post.