The Incredible World of Creationism

Unedited

Firstly, in order to clear up any misconceptions, I am not in fact a rabid atheist. My lack of belief in my previous life was something that would never cross my mind from one year to the next.

But, as I say, that was in a previous life, BPC if you will, before personal computer.

It was only after I joined the twentieth century, plugging myself into the world wide web quite late in life, that my atheism became a concious thing.

For reasons that matter not, I started to take an interest in monumental amount of injustice that was endemic within the American judicial system. Perhaps I might not haven taken such an interest in the subject, had it not been for cloak of hypocrisy that shrouded not only ''justice'' but virtually everything else that is America. (See hypocrisy tag in sidebar, Only in America)

And it will come as no great surprise, where there is hypocrisy there is religion. And hypocrisy having no closer bedfellow than the religious fundamentalist of America. And of this extremely dubious group, there is none more, and other things included, insanity being just one, there is none more hypocritical than the fruitloops of the creationist movement.

So, inevitably, due to my growing interest in injustice, my attention was drawn to the insane world of Young Earth Creationism. This particular group being the most vociferous in calling for the stoning of all transgressors, guilty or otherwise, who sin against the greatest nation of earth, home of the fruitloops, USA! USA!

And what a world it turned out to be, in fact, what an incredible, batshit crazy world it turned out to be. And in describing it such, let us not undervalue the word Incredible. Def: Too extraordinary and improbable to be believed.

It was that alright, to say the very least.

So I suppose you cold say by now, that I had a developing interest in two subjects; Injustice, and the batshit crazy world of the Christian fundamentalist. As you might well imagine, over the five years that I have blogged, I have come across some pretty amazing, sorry, incredible claims and theories emanating from this disgraceful group of loops.

And it is not in error or by accident that I label the loops disgraceful, because that is exactly what they are; a disgrace.

They disgrace, and quite shamelessly so, that wonderful gift which sets us apart from all other beasts of the field, rational thought. And in doing so, they disgrace not just themselves, but they disgrace we as a species as a whole.

So having been witness to some of these theories, some quite innocuous, some extremely dangerous, not least when invoking the very word of God. That word, not written on gold tablets in this particular case, but by man. Doing so quite probably whilst sat in a cave, taking respite from the task of using the most technically advanced innovation of the time, a wheelbarrow.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Nothing more dangerous than those words of wisdom, when applied by the fundies. Little wonder our planet is irrevocably fucked. Never mind, I'm sure the Rapture will be along any day soon, so what is there to worry about?

Have you ever read Genesis as an adult? Give it a go if not, it's, how shall I describe it, err, incredible? But you may wish to strap in before doing so. Firmly.

It's when I read stuff like Genesis or anything of that ilk, it always invokes Bill Maher and his Scientology gig. But that's a road I don't want to wander down here, but what I shall do, is leave the clip at the bottom of the page.

So is today's choice of creationist nonsense any less or more incredible than usual? Perhaps, perhaps not, but it was something I came across whilst looking for a graph on population growth. That particular graph (first up) I have no problem with, it being near enough to serve its purpose.

The same can't be said however for the second pictorial, a graph entitled World Population Since The Creation. Now it's at this point things really start to shed light on the world of the Christian fundamentalist. I've tried to analyse what it was exactly that sent me into a trance when looking at the thing. I suppose I could if I wished, lay it at the door of many things, not least I suppose the text. But then perhaps not, I mean let's face it, you know you are on a winner, and the writer on a looser when the passage includes, which occurred when the latter (Noah) was 600 years old.

No, I think it was seeing the double spike in the graph that shook the foundations somewhat, not to mention world population pre-flood. Although in keeping with the creationist way of thinking, logically it has to when you think about it, it was just seeing this testament to creationist insanity, there in black and white, that even as I write, still causes my head to oscillate. And that wouldn't be in an up and down direction, believe me.

World Population Since Creation
by Lambert Dolphin

The Antediluvian World

Genesis 4 and 5 records the history of the Antediluvian world in a highly condensed account. From the genealogical list, which is probably complete without any gaps, the time between Adam and the flood of Noah---which occurred when the latter was 600 years old---can be calculated to be almost exactly 1656 years. If one takes Barry Setterfield's chronology as more accurate, the time period from Adam to the Flood was 2256 years.

During this time period, man was much healthier than he is now; the gene pool, less corrupted by subsequent harmful mutations and other defects; and the environment on earth, was much more favorable to good health and long life, as can be seen by the recorded pre-flood longevities.

While classical evolutionary theory presupposes earth's early atmosphere was a reducing atmosphere (devoid of Oxygen) newer scientific evidence confirms what Bible scholars had previously suspected: the earth's ancient atmosphere probably contained a larger fraction of oxygen than it does at present. It is even possible that photosynthesis in plant life was more efficient than it is now. A warmer average climate in ancient times would also mean a higher rate of oxygen generation by the more numerous plant life.

At age 65, Enoch became the father of a son whom he named Methuselah, a name which means "when he dies it (the flood) shall come." Enoch went on to walk with God another 300 years and was taken up ("translated") into heaven by God without dying. Methuselah survived to age 969, the oldest man who ever lived. True to prediction, the flood came the year Methuselah died.




The following chart assumes the human race began with two persons, Adam and Eve, relatively recently. Population growth was very rapid for 1656 years until the Flood of Noah reduced the population to eight persons (4 couples). I have arbitrarily chosen the population at the time of the Flood as 9 billion, though as shown above this may be too conservative. Very little data on world population is available until recent times, so a few intermediate points have been selected. I have guessed the world population at the time of Abraham at 5 million. For example there seems to be broad agreement that the world population at the time of Christ was between 200 and 300 million. The latest demographic data used to plot this chart is available on the Internet and is referenced below. More if you must.

A longer clip below that includes the same sketch.



Religion ala Eddie Izzard.



Off Topic but still for me the funniest couple of minutes around.



Off topic again, but to round off, Maher on Michael Jackson, as always, spot on.