The Worldnutdaily has yet another advertisement for a book they’re selling, barely disguised as an actual news article. But this one is particularly stupid, even for them. It’s a creationist book called The Magic Man in the Sky, and the “article” tells you all you need to know about the reasoning ability of the author:
Scientists throughout history have a less-than-stellar track record of accuracy, and cannot be counted on to definitively ascertain the origin of life, claims the author of a brand-new book defending the Christian faith.
In “The Magic Man in the Sky,” Carl Gallups, a supporter of the Bible’s creation account, says there’s a world of difference between someone declaring a momentary truth, and the actual “true truth.”
He recalls some ludicrous ideas once steadfastly believed and promoted by the most intelligent people of their day.
“At one point in history, the brilliant minds of the world declared that the earth was flat,” writes Gallups. “A number of great minds proclaimed that the world was held up at the four corners by giant elephants. This was declared as truth. Others thought the sun revolved around the earth. To believe anything different was considered unscientific, to the point of absurdity.
“For eons, men believed that if one sailed upon the seas long enough, one would reach the end of the world and then tumble over the edge. At one time, all of these concepts were declared as truth, and they were thought to be truth because the enlightened minds and the scientists of their time said so. As we now know, they were not true. In fact, they were not even close to the truth.”
Wow, how terribly compelling. Of course, he conflates the findings of science with “the brilliant minds of the world” in centuries past, ignores the fact that many of those bad ideas came from religion and that the only way we know they’re false now is because of science. But anything you have to say to your ignorant followers to make them think that science is wrong and there really were talking snakes, burning bushes and people rising from the dead.
14 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
Brett McCoy
May 14, 2012 at 1:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s bad reasoning because other brilliant minds in the past (like pre-Christian Greece) postulated that the earth was round, that the world was made of atoms and they also developed some pretty advanced mathematics, too.
Reginald Selkirk
May 14, 2012 at 1:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And what about the track record of religionists throughout history?
Larry
May 14, 2012 at 1:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Look! Over there! Its the Goodyear blimp!!!
Jadehawk, cascadeuse féministe
May 14, 2012 at 1:23 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
and entire book, and all of it soundly pre-refuted by a single essay by Isaac Asimov.
sc_01b2b83c75253e8943fcd61c8df56a2b
May 14, 2012 at 1:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And of course it’s a magic Man in the sky
otrame
May 14, 2012 at 1:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ah, Asimov. I loved him as a young atheist. That essay is an example of why. I only found out he died of AIDS about a year ago, but that his wife insisted on keeping it quiet.
The Lorax
May 14, 2012 at 2:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wait, so the argument basically is, “Don’t accept anyone who proclaims something to be ‘the truth’, since we have seen that such things can be wrong. Incidentally, god is ‘the truth’, and will never be wrong.”
Their cognitive dissonance has cognitive dissonance.
matty1
May 14, 2012 at 2:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Name one.
As mentioned in the Asimov essay linked above people who actually studied the matter have known since at least 350BC that the earth is roughly spherical. Of course there were plenty of people, even highly intelligent people, who didn’t think about that particular question much and so accepted religious views that the earth is flat but is there anyone who proclaimed this view as scientific?
As for the elephants I love Discworld but they are novels not textbooks.
Trebuchet
May 14, 2012 at 2:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Some scientists thought the earth was the center of the universe, and put Galileo under house arrest for saying otherwise. Oh wait — that wasn’t scientists, it was the church. Because it said so in their infallible book. I’m pretty sure it says the earth is flat, too.
bksea
May 14, 2012 at 3:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It makes me wonder if the joke is on WND. The text is so hillariously moronic, you could run it as a story in the Onion without changing a word. Is the author of this book for real?
Michael Hoaglin
May 14, 2012 at 9:48 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And even earlier than that, people believed in gods. Your point?
dingojack
May 14, 2012 at 11:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As early as the 1st century ce (more than 400 years after the Greeks figured out the earth was round) until the mid 15th century ce, great religious minds thought the Earth was flat – until science proved it wasn’t!
@@
Dingo
—–
I think Whirlednutsdaily just got poed.
demonhauntedworld
May 15, 2012 at 12:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As has been already pointed out, it’s a myth that any great number of people every believed that the Earth was flat – and those that did, did so for religious reasons.
Amazing how often the Flat Earth Myth still gets trotted out, even by those who should know better.
fifthdentist
May 15, 2012 at 11:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yeah! And at one time people believe the earth rested on pillars because it said so in the Bib- … never mind.