Sunday, February 12, 2006

Happy birthday, Charles Darwin

It's Darwin's 197th birthday today. I just thought I'd celebrate that by linking to a Catholic group that is offering a reward for people that can prove the Earth goes around the Sun. Why? Because they think the Sun revolves around the Earth.

Seriously. It's not a joke.

The basis for this group's geocentrism is that it must be true because the Bible says so. Which is basically the same evidence Intelligent Design creationists spout for their movement. In the mind of ridiculous Christians, scripture trumps reality, every time. That's what the whole evolution vs. ID debate boils down to: does science take observable reality as its touchstone, or one group's religious myths?

The whole idea of the Earth going around the Sun or vice versa is a mathematical convenience, of course. There is no stationary reference frame to measure movement against, a concept which the author of this challenge obviously doesn't understand. You just try telling him that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OTOH, just to be fair, hundreds of churches and xtian groups across the US participated in Darwin birthday celebrations and believe that evolution is in no way incompatible with believing in god. And most of those churches made a fairly public display of it since they wanted to remind people that the vast majority of xtians do NOT believe that the bible is the litteral word of god. The ID folks and the sun-around-the-earth folks are a small but sadly vocal and political minority that appear to want the US to function under the xtian equivalent of Sharia (sp?) law.

Definitely a tangent but I would very much like to see those people who state that the bible is the litteral word of god and must be obeyed to every letter wearing no clothes of blended material; following strict kosher rules; not allowing a menstruating woman to cook, cross running water, or work; and take a full year off of work and forgive all debts every 7 year. This "no premarital sex and we hate gays because that's what it says in the bible" but ignoring all else kills me.

MFN

Narc said...

Good point, and I should have pointed out that that day was also Evolution Sunday.

As for keeping the kooky Old Testament laws, I understand that very Orthodox Jews still keep some of the weirder ones, like the ones where menstruating women are unclean.

Every day I think more and more that there simply is no idea so kooky that no one will believe in it.