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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
 Posted - 01/04/2010 : 11:36:59 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Originally posted by filthy
...and the composers of the Bible were scarcely experts in Natural History. |
Except Matt believes the bible is the infallible word of god. The "author of all living things" should be the natural history expert. It is important to highlight such errors because they cast doubt upon the assertion of divine authorship.
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Or at the very least, that the bible should be taken literally, even by believers.
There are plenty of Christians and Jews who believe that the bible is divinely inspired, but also take many of its stories, like Genesis, as an allegorical truth and not a literal truth. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2010 : 12:11:00 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
There are plenty of Christians and Jews who believe that the bible is divinely inspired, but also take many of its stories, like Genesis, as an allegorical truth and not a literal truth.
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What's the allegorical truth of a 4-legged grasshopper? If the details of a larger allegory are factually incorrect, then we can still conclude that the allegory wasn't authored by a divine intelligence.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2010 : 13:14:30 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Originally posted by Kil
There are plenty of Christians and Jews who believe that the bible is divinely inspired, but also take many of its stories, like Genesis, as an allegorical truth and not a literal truth.
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What's the allegorical truth of a 4-legged grasshopper? If the details of a larger allegory are factually incorrect, then we can still conclude that the allegory wasn't authored by a divine intelligence.
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It's easy enough to demonstrate to Matt (whether he takes it in or not) that Genesis can't be taken literally. And that other stories in the bible can't be taken literally. And that's where we are at in the discussion. If you want to take on the larger point, go ahead. But I have my doubts about how productive that will be in this debate. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2010 : 13:29:57 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by bngbuck
Filthy.....
Due to my somewhat spotty attendance record here, I must have missed the thread referencing the "four-legged grasshopper" and it's relevance to evolutionary theory.
Would you mind giving me the reference to the original thread; or better, briefly restating the essence of the discussion that involved the lubber grasshopper, it's legs, and their significance to evolutionary biology?
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Dave brought it up a couple of times in this thread, asking where the fossils of it were. I think that it's relevance is simply that of any prey species: lunch for others, even including ourselves.
Eastern Lubbers are really neat. The one pictured is a nymph on the cusp of adulthood. As a small child, in FL, I used to collect them. I also collected scorpions, much to my parent's shock & despair.
I will, in my warm and generous way, also give Matt the cud-chewing bunny, which, to the best of my memory, hasn't been brought up as yet. Lagomorphs don't actually chew the cud, but what they really do amounts to pretty much the same thing.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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| Edited by - filthy on 01/04/2010 13:32:36 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2010 : 17:34:53 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
I will, in my warm and generous way, also give Matt the cud-chewing bunny, which, to the best of my memory, hasn't been brought up as yet. |
Well, I figured it would be kind of tough to tell from a fossil whether a bunny chewed cud or not. A four-legged grasshopper fossil ought to be a snap.
Next, matt can give us the "exact scientific evidence" for that bizarro census that allegedly took place while Mary was preggers. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 01/04/2010 : 18:30:20 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by filthy
I will, in my warm and generous way, also give Matt the cud-chewing bunny, which, to the best of my memory, hasn't been brought up as yet. |
Well, I figured it would be kind of tough to tell from a fossil whether a bunny chewed cud or not. A four-legged grasshopper fossil ought to be a snap.
Next, matt can give us the "exact scientific evidence" for that bizarro census that allegedly took place while Mary was preggers.
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Oh, that's a good one that I'd completely forgotten! But then it's been a while since I stuck my nose in the Bible.
A fossil in reasonably good condition could identify it as a lagomorph, all of which re-ingest their food. So the possibility is there, and I'd love to see someone try it. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 01/04/2010 : 19:21:11 [Permalink]
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| This thread has been locked due to length. Please continue the discussion here. |
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Dennett answers NY Times on Dawkins’ book
Topic Locked
