Can we please have a planet for just us sane people?

[misterx]

Ben Stein has made a movie decrying "big science's" oppression of the "smart new idea" of intelligent design. Unfortunately, he isn't trying to be a comedian this time.

http://expelledthemovie.com/

Folks, if you're going to float a theory that a big man in the sky made it happen, here is the test I will apply to your arguments. I will substitute the phrase "my hairdryer" for the phrase "the big man in the sky". If the evidence supports the fact that my hairdryer may have created the universe, I will listen. If it doesn't, you need to get over your fascination with the imaginary sky man.

I want to point out the "no intelligence allowed" tagline is extremely ironic.

Comments

[thefile.livejournal.com]

Raaaaaamen

[misterx.livejournal.com]

if that's a ben stein joke, I don't get the reference.

[thefile.livejournal.com]

It's a reference to the "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

He was "discovered" to fill the same role as your hairdryer.

[misterx.livejournal.com]

oh, ok. :)

[nonspecific.livejournal.com]

Whee! I was trying to explain FSM to E the other night, without directly saying "I don't believe in God and creationists can shove it." I don't want to get her in trouble with her religiously brainwashed classmates, but at the same time, I don't want her to be brainwashed too...

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

What's driving me crazy is that these wangnuts are making it absolutely impossible to publicly admit I believe in a higher consciousness ("God" for short, though plenty of other descriptions could apply, "hairdryer" not one of them, however) without being mistaken for "one of them." I am not a creationist. I do not accept Jesus as God's personal doorkeeper. I don't see God as a bearded white guy in white robes. Still, I believe that there is something larger and more loving and more peaceful than me. Why is Ben Stein trying to kill that in me?

[misterx.livejournal.com]

I'd be surprised if you believed in a higher power that resided in a hairdryer, mine or otherwise.

I like using "hairdryer" though, because if there is sound theory based on evidence that explains life on earth, it should stand up without having to invoke a "creator figure" to make it work. It's like the Far Side cartoon where the professor stands at a blackboard full of formulas, and near the bottom it says "THEN MAGIC HAPPENS" followed by a result. It doesn't count as science, and I think the scientific establishment are right to "expel" those who are trying to redefine it as such.

To say "I don't have science that shows definitive proof", and then use that lack of fact to justify the jump to the big man in the sky theory is inexcusable. It just means we need more science, not witchdoctors.

I feel to allow "intelligent design" to be accepted as science is stepping back to the primitive ages, where superstition and gods were used to explain all natural phenomena we couldn't understand.

I believe there is something more going on than I can prove scientifically. I believe that given time, if we don't nuke or destroy our selves or our planet first, we will figure out how to detect and prove the existence of spirits, ghosts, telepathy, and what have you. Who knows, maybe even a higher power.

[brujaoscura.livejournal.com]

WAit until 12/21/2012
It will ALL COME TO YOU

[misterx.livejournal.com]

Pardon?

[brujaoscura.livejournal.com]

On December 21, 2012- depending on what you believe- the world as we know it is supposed to come to an end.
This could be a polar shift, evolution in action, or and age of enlightenment.
12/21/2012 is the termination date of the calendar for this age.

[misterx.livejournal.com]

You holding off on buying Christmas presents then?

[brujaoscura.livejournal.com]

NAhhh I usually star GIVING mine that day- it's the first day of Yule

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

"Intelligent Design" is not science, I agree. I have long believed that science -- experiment, investigation, measurement -- could someday find "God," but I don't think ID is science.

I'm also frustrated by some loudmouth atheists who insist that our lack of scientific evidence for the existence of some sort of god is proof that no god exists. We haven't scientifically disproven the existence of a god or gods, although we may have scientifically proven that one person (or group's) "proof" for the existence of God doesn't stand up to scientific scrutiny. There's an important distinction between those two things.

[misterx.livejournal.com]

Agreed... there is simply not enough data to know. That's why I can't justify attaching myself to any particular religion, it's all a bunch of He-said/She-said. Some seem more in line with my personal beliefs than others, but hey, who is to say I'm not way off base, about gay marriage, for instance. Maybe the spiritual power(s) that be really do abhor it.

It's going to be a really disappointing day when we get our science up to snuff and realize our existence was created by an overworked mid-level manager in an alien bureaucracy. It *would* explain a lot though.

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

Shades of Douglas Adams! Or Ursula LeGuin, who wrote a great short story about some space travelers who discovered that the creator is an 11-year-old kid named Bill Koffman who sorta accidentally created the universe as a game which he is now growing bored with and about to abandon.

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

Also, I've always loved that particular Far Side cartoon.