And this is just the place to muster it! I can see one problem in it, though: the creators of this ridiculous poll have cunningly split the good answers into two, so we have a double challenge: we should run up both the first and fourth answers to outnumber the other two.
The Bible: God’s Word or pious myth?
9%Â The Bible is a book of myth and is of human origin
77%Â The Bible is inspired by God in all its parts
5%Â The Bible is partially inspired by God and partially uninspired
2%Â The Bible is untrustworthy and irrelevant
6%Â Don’t know
I wish they’d done a little consolidation. The bible is a book of pious myths created by humans, and is untrustworthy and irrelevant. Ready, set, pharyngulate!
23% myth already
So when will they take it down to prevent a landslide that’s not in their favor?
I’m so convinced people are cheating on these polls. We ran up 45,000 votes on a poll yesterday, but in two days of full court press by multiple skeptic bloggers Dr. Rachael only go up to 900 votes.
But they’re online polls, cheating is to be expected.
@Gus Snarp:
There’s probably some cheating, but Twitter requires registration, which some may not do. Personally, I won’t do any of these polls that require registration.
The bible has inspired, and continues to inspire, far too much horror for it to be considered irrelevant, I think.
The first answer seems to be the best fit.
Sorry PZ, can’t agree with you about the bible being irrelevant. I *wish* it was irrelevant, but it sure as hell isn’t, simply because of the gravity given to it by others.
I managed multiple votes, got #4 (irrelevant) up to 27%:
Myth = 42%
God = 27%
Keep up the good work!
@Saction
agree… but it surely is untrustworthy
If you’re going to vote only once, I’d suggest that “book of myth and is of human origin” is probably more on point.
The bible is not untrustworthy at all. To begin with, “The bible” referes to a huge corpus of literature with a vast range of attributes. Many “books” of the bible are excellent sources of information about various past cultures, cultural systems, legal systems, and so on. At the very least, the bible represents key emerging belief systems of certain historical periods in certain regions, especially when the text is compared to contemporary or earlier documents, whence we can infer contemporary transformations and interpretations.
….
Or do you mean the part about miracles and stuff? Oh that. That part’s probably not very trustworthy.
BWAHAHAHAHA. Damn, I wish they allowed comments
I doubt you have a career as a cheer leader, PZ. Try:
2, 4, 6, 8;
Ready to pharyngulate!
Then again, I’m not sure whether pharyngula runs to a pom-pom(/n?) squad anyway.
I put my mouse click to match what my keyboards say…
You can view their responses to questions asked. I asked about whether the Bible condemns sex with children.
On a side note, there is a Facebook group that is getting 1 million people who believe in evolution to sign up.
Steve_C
Did you see this?
http://www.thisisyourbible.com/media.asp?id=190
I’m curious. But no way I’m signing up to get it.
Untrustworthy and irrelevant. Think of all the lies, falsified testaments, falsely attributed books to Paul, the councils that selected the books, conflicting mis-translations which were added to further Church political power, and the creeping in of Platonism. Deception is all that’s left.
Vote for Untrustworthy!
I voted part insprired and part uninspired.
For the lulz.
I kind of like the answer “partially inspired by God and partially uninspired”. I can really see how god just couldn’t muster any inspiration for some parts. He must have really trudged through the begats, like “lets just get this done so I can start on the cool chapters”.
That was fast. Must be a small poll.
52% myth when I voted. I wish I could say it was irrelevant, but I’m afraid we don’t live in such a peaceful world just yet.
Also, I must say that I admire, in a purely political fashion, the squishiness of saying the Bible was “inspired” by God. It’s definitely not as strong a wording as saying the Bible is the literal word of God and a reliable historical record. “Inspired” can mean a lot of things. Those goalposts just can’t sit still!
Looks like it’s going both favorable ways that it could go at the same time.
On a close look this is a Christadelphian site. Christadelphians unlike most Christians don’t believe Jesus is God but is a sinless man.
I voted myth as the most accurate.
If you have time, I invite you to give the voice of reason to this poll.
http://www.pandf.org.mx/quieroopinar/index.php
After declaring the law for homosexual marriange and adoption, the conservative party of Mexico PAN, has woved to fight to declare unconstitutional the law.
It even has made an alliance with catholic, orthodox and evangelical churches, and is trying to justify it´s actions by polls.
Mexico City es important since it has more population than most states:
The questions are:
1- ¿do you agree or disagree that homosexual partners can adopt girls and boys?
2- ¿do you agree or dissagree with the marriage between homosexuals?
3- ¿do you think an children adopted by homosexuals will be victim of discriminations by his/hers school mates?
Unfortunatelly the site does not work well with firefox, and does not reports the votes numbers so we do not know if they are going to publish results they did not like… but we need to try.
Hehehe. Pharyngulation is taking its toll.
55% myth, 32% untrustworthy.
I will say, for my part, that I don’t find the Bible TOTALLY irrelevant…just largely so. The entire Old Testament is irrelevant, a bit of real history mixed in with large doses of myth and legend. I agree with Thomas Jefferson that the New Testament has a few good things to say about how people should treat each other. Most of these are the “quotes” of Jesus in the Gospels. Once you get to Paul, it is mostly back to the reprehensible stuff.
That was fast:
58% The Bible is a book of myth and is of human origin
8% The Bible is inspired by God in all its parts
1% The Bible is partially inspired by God and partially uninspired
33% The Bible is untrustworthy and irrelevant
1% Don’t know
And as for the Mexican poll:
Su voto ya ha sido guardado.
elnauhual, done. :)
You are missing out on the really inane religion polls if you don’t look at the polls on facebook. The stupid is very, very thick, and, of course, there is no response from godbots when confronted with facts.
The surprising thing, tho, is that atheists are holding their own on these polls quite nicely. Seems to drive the godbots up a wall that everyone does not simply roll over when they make their proclamations.
thanks for yout vote :)
They’re also offering a free DVD on Science & the Bible! If thousands of people sign up for it, think of the money they have to spend sending them out, thats money not spent on proselytizing.
61% myth. I couldn’t find the other questions
No. 4 is arguable: it’s not irrelevant because it our culture and language have reference to it. glad to see we’ve got No. 1 up to 14%.
Interesting to see they can’t add up as well…
That’s what happens when you leave your desk for 20 minutes and just press submit when you get back… now up to 62%
I voted inaccurate and irrelevant. It is inaccurate both in its metaphysical statements as well as almost all of its historical ones. It is irrelevant both politically and morally, which are the big ways in which it is used by the fundamentalists. Of course it’s not irrelevant culturally, but that seems to me a trivial point. The keepers of this site would certainly be offended by the proposition that the Bible is merely “great literature.”
The poll discriminates against Muslims.
The Bible was God’s word but was distorted by the devil.
Looks like you can use your back button and vote #1 and #4 alternately as many times as you want. Not sure, since the only evidence that it works would be that #2 would eventually bump down to 3%. If anyone has OCD and would like to click until you drool, it would sure frustrate a Xtian or two to see #2 stuck at 0%.
I’m offended by the proposition that the Bible is “great literature”, myself. Even in the works of religious thought, the Bible is completely outclassed in English, German, French, Spanish, Latin, etc.
@Abdul, #34:
What, you mean this devil?
well i don’t know if others have thought of this as a method of double voting on other polls but to easily vote for the first and fourth option vote for one with firefox and use ie for the other.
@37 All one! All one! :)
You can really vote as many times as you want. The dumbasses don’t store a cookie or check IP. GO GO GO! Yay! Go for 0% god!
This is fun! I wonder how long until the results are hidden.
What is the Bible’s answer?
See: The Divine Origin of the Bible
63% The Bible is a book of myth and is of human origin
3% The Bible is inspired by God in all its parts
0% The Bible is partially inspired by God and partially uninspired
33% The Bible is untrustworthy and irrelevant
0% Don’t know
Oh the games you “people?” play!
I see the perfessor dandy is attempting to sound like he isn’t an unintelligible godbot. He fails.
Dendy must be lonely. His imaginary friend isn’t speaking to him right now, so he has to get his abuse from elsewhere.
Dumby’s back for more, so he can go off and write another whine about how mean atheists are, no doubt.
Hey Dumby, do you agree with Pat Robertson?
I don’t think atheists are mean… I just think they don’t get it!
Says the person who can’t see why we call him a troll.
Wish I could stay and play, but I have to go to work so I can make more money so the godless liberals can take it from me and spread it around. :)
And Jesus said give 1/7 of your wealth to the poor. Your Messiah a “liberal” huh?
You speak of Jesus as if you know something about him… Praise God!
Clearly, Dendy opposes any form of charity work because that would be “spreading your money around.”
Dendy doesn’t realize that many of the people here are former Christians who have read the bible and knows Jesus.
The dendytroll is back to score some more persecution points.
PS Luke 16:13
I do, I was a Christian too, until I looked more into the lie that was the history of the church, and the hypocrisy of believers. History and truth highlight the lies of religion.
Somehow I don’t think Dendy the Dunderhead himself knows much about Jebus…
That’s gross, professor. Please do that in your own home next time and keep it out of our park.
No such thing as a “former” Christian… It’s like once you are a Marine, you are always a Marine. If you claim to be a “former” Christian, then you never were a Christian!
Go back and read your bible and see if you can understand. You see, you either “accept” Jesus as your Saviour or you don’t. You don’t accept Him and then decide later, you don’t want Him.
I really do have to go to work… and believe me I spread the “wealth” around… I just like doing it myself rather than handing it over to the liberals to spread around for me!
Uh-oh, untrustworthy is catching up to myth. At least 98% of all votes are for one of those two answers. I wonder how they’ll spin this.
Shine on sweet Jesus.
Could dendy be a teabagger?
Please remember your bible, render unto Caesar and blah. blah, blah…
Here are the current numbers:
What is the Bible’s answer?
56% The Bible is a book of myth and is of human origin
2% The Bible is inspired by God in all its parts
0% The Bible is partially inspired by God and partially uninspired
41% The Bible is untrustworthy and irrelevant
0% Don’t know
*stifling laughter* Not very bright, are you Dendy? And you call yourself a biologist?
Wow, someone doesn’t realize that Christians can convert out to whatever religion/irreligion they want and they have been doing so for centuries.
Fine, asshole, while I was teen lay member of a methodist church, I was never a believer. So, would you like a boot camp for sunday school? Would it look like Jesus Camp?
I also love how you are implying that the people here all not employed. Dendy works! And he supports the non working liberals! Isn’t he special?
Dendy, you do realize that their is an international readership here?
I have to say, I love all of you. I go at 10:15am my time worried that this split poll would be work, but it was already ravaged. I just love all of you.
But what if I find out he’s dead (or even fictitious altogether), and I’ve been wrong about thinking there’s a saviour or any need for one?
What then?
I see perfessor dandy is still spending too much time looking at himself in the mirror. Still waiting for a cogent post (no former delusional fools called xians-that could only be said by a present totally delusional fool). But, that starts with acknowledging the truth. His deity is imaginary and his babble is a work of fiction/myth. He has presented no hard physical evidence to the contrary. When will he see the light?
I know this was from the weapons thread, but I want Dendy to see this:
Professor Dendy here highlights the epitomy of the evil of the hypo-Christian.
Let’s examine:
1. God said “Love thy neighbour” and basically made this the one new commandment to follow. But, he wants to disallow healthcare that looks after his sick country men.
2. God said “Thou shalt not kill.” Yet all these Christ fags love inscriptions on guns, and seem to like violence and war.
3. Jesus said he hates hypocrites. 1 + 2 show Dendy is a hypocrite.
Dendy, if you believe in hell, I hope you feel the heat right now.
It’s like once you are a Marine, you are always a Marine.
Yeah, yeah, that’s a card the catholics like to play.
People who have been indoctrinated/brainwashed can recover. Actually reading the bible is good for that.
Moving right along EST 13:33
53% The Bible is a book of myth and is of human origin
2% The Bible is inspired by God in all its parts
0% The Bible is partially inspired by God and partially uninspired
45% The Bible is untrustworthy and irrelevant
0% Don’t know
That was easy. 49/2/49 now.
49/2/51
Their percentages seem off.
Im was wondering about that little bit in the bible. I get that it’s a snappy comeback and all on Jesus’ part and all, but isn’t he tacitly admitted that god doesn’t own certain things in the world, am I reading that right?
I mean, either god created, and has mastery and ownership over all of the world – including, presumably, a gold coin regardless of who’s image might be stampted into it – or humans can ‘de-godify’ stuff by just slapping somebody’s face on it. The former case would make Jesus’ point utter crap, while the latter case…
Ah, the possibilities if the latter case is actually ture! Twisted Smile
In any case, I’m glad to see that Prof. Dendy has a little bit of stamina – I get very tired of drive-by trolls.
50/1/49
Looks good to me.
I think this poll has been sufficiently pharyngulated; the “completely inspired by God” answer is down to 1%.
True story. In the 1970’s, I was a computer operator for IBM Canada in Victoria, British Columbia. One of our customers was the Victoria School Board and they had their own computer person who came on site to oversee running their reports. While there, this individual was assembling a deck of punch cards with biblical quotes, charging the processing to the VSB. I entered the code BIBL into the billing, hoping that the VSB would question what this code meant. No one did question it.
This person was the least charismatic person I have ever encountered. I was once accused of having a personality conflict with this guy – I responded that he had no personality to conflict with. Honestly this guy only needed a half of a toilet seat, he was a side of donkey, a real half-ass.
This was my introduction to a Christadelphian (sponsors of the poll), not a pleasant experience. Since that time I have not been surprised by Xtian dishonesty.
I came, I saw, I pharyngulated!
I came.
I saw.
I left.
Im was wondering about that little bit in the bible. I get that it’s a snappy comeback and all on Jesus’ part and all, but isn’t he tacitly admitted that god doesn’t own certain things in the world, am I reading that right?
I mean, either god created, and has mastery and ownership over all of the world – including, presumably, a gold coin regardless of who’s image might be stampted into it – or humans can ‘de-godify’ stuff by just slapping somebody’s face on it. The former case would make Jesus’ point utter crap, while the latter case…
The gospel of Mark is quite political. It’s anti-Roman (witness the exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac: “Our name is Legion”), but it’s also opposed to open resistance to the Romans. Not paying taxes to the empire was probably the best way to get crushed by a legion or five. Jesus’s point might be summed up as: “focus on the way of God; let the worldly stuff sort itself out.” In The Kingdom, presumably, there will be no need of money. So, while Jesus’s rejoinder might be interpreted as ceding a whole realm to humanity, that will last only as long as “the strong man” still rules the house. The gospel exhorts the believer to be patient in holding out for the day when everything belongs to God.
Great, how much the sign-in process has improved. That “Posted by” code crap for my comments is supposed to be my “Google sign-in,” and the Movable Type sign-in always tells me “invalid login” even though I can sign into my Movable Type account without the hint of a problem right in the next browser tab.
Does anyone have an idea? If not, I give up.
Through this whole business with registration, I’ve had very little trouble with my TypeKey login.
Also tried my WordPress-Account, as a third option. But it just tells me “You don’t own that WordPress identity” every time although it’s exactly the identity I own. If I hadn’t read in other postings/comment threats that I’m not the only one with that kind of problem, I’d really start to wonder whether I really exist.
Someone give me a “d” please.
Dendy seems to be overlooking some differences. He’s offering the baptism-as-magic theory: once this hocus-pocus has been applied, it can’t be undone (in the same way that I can’t undo my tetanus or polio vaccines, but with no need for boosters).
And then he jumps to something closer to belief-as-marriage, with no room for divorce. He’s seeing atheists, apostates, and converts to other religions as committing adultery: if you don’t want his god, you must be sleeping with some other deity. (Even if that were true, it is still possible to walk away: outlaw divorce and people will still separate from their spouses.)
It’s god, or Christianity, as stalker. Where do we get our restraining orders?
“The Bible is a book of myth and is of human origin” is in the lead with 51%.
Take that, “The Bible is untrustworthy and irrelevant”.
Ah, you’re showing your true colors now, it’s all about money. I’ve argued elsewhere that Capitalism in the true religion of America, and the Dollar is the true God. And here you are, nicely illustrating the point. Thanks.
8BzLY #80, 82, & 83,
I just rechecked my Movable Type sign-in process, and I don’t know if this will help but you must use the username you first chose for your Movable Type account, not your email address and not your current screen name (because you can change your screen name once signed on).
Hey, you guys broke the god machine. Looks like He can’t count past 32768:
The Bible: God’s Word or pious myth?
What is the Bible’s answer?
See: The Divine Origin of the Bible
Microsoft VBScript runtime error ‘800a0006’
Overflow: ‘cint’
/index.asp, line 442
Curses, Zernk! Beat me to the report! I thought it was just my Firefox acting up at first, but it seems the poll is pharyngulated beyond repair. Way to go and break it, guys – now how will they know how badly the results are skewed?
Can you imagine the squid squad pulling out pharyngula-inspired pom poms?
All those tentacles…
*shudder*
Dendy, that statement is just so blatantly full of FAIL that’s it’s difficult to know where to start. Most people have their religion crammed down their throat by their parents (who probably didn’t know any better, to be fair) from the time they learn to say “Ga ga”.
Then, when we’re older and know better, we (that is, *some* of us) can examine the evidence and make decisions for ourselves. I decided the whole jebus thing was a load of bunk a long, long time ago. Christian I most certainly am not. Moral, yes, but that’s the good part of what my folks taught me. And please don’t try to equate religion with morals unless you’re trying for secondary fail.
Of course, dendy has left his troll droppings an departed by now. Cya on the next thread, chump (but SO not looking forward to it).
Better yet, if it’s a signed int, it’s just gone negative ;-)
@stevieinthecity
I signed up to get that DVD. I used my address but a different name and my spam e-mail address. I hope they spend me more crap, I find a certain amount of joy in getting frustrated and angry with these types of things.
Maybe there’s something to this “bible”, I mean… look how prescient this quote seems to be.
[URL=http://lookpic.com/i/398/1ZcGI58D.jpeg][IMG]http://lookpic.com/t/398/1ZcGI58D.jpeg[/IMG][/URL]
Looks like god needs a better coder.
must take issue with Greg Laden @#9. The bible is too untrustworthy. Not to elaborate again, as someone else already has, on the politics of the selection into the canon, the “orthodox corruption of scripture” (you should read that sometime!),the lies told by Paul etc. How about a simple example – the alleged census that required Jesus to be born in Bethlehem; we know there was no such census at that time. The romans who recorded everything have only a census ordered by Quirinius who was in charge of the area now called syria/lebanon. his writ did not extend to galilee which was a vassal state controlled by the Herod family…or how about the fact that there is two thousand or so years of oral history before anyone wrote down anything at all. How trustworthy is that do you think?
I thought that would work…
http://lookpic.com/i/398/1ZcGI58D.jpeg
That’s the actual link.
I’m pretty sure they can fix it with a few prayers.
Dendy keeps coming back even though he gets intellectually stomped over and over. Guess that makes him at least as much a christomasochist as a christofascist, but that’s par for the course with a belief system for which torture and death are sacraments.
Hey, Dendy – does it ruin the illusion if you pleasure yourself manually while fantasizing that both your hands are nailed to a cross?
#94,
I don’t think Greg was saying that the biblical literature is trustworthy in its historiography. But it can be considered a primary source of historical information about ancient Near Eastern belief systems and socio-political organization, in that these concerns are reflected in the texts in ways that were not subject to falsification. Consider that political propaganda, for instance, is “untrustworthy” in the sense that you shouldn’t expect from it an objective, disinterested historical account. But it still can tell you what the interests of literary elites in a given time and place were and who their sociopolitical opponents were. The Bible, I agree, is worthless as far as telling us what actually happened in ancient Palestine. But it’s an interesting window into how ancient Semitic peoples constructed their social world and how they conceived of the various roles within that world and resolved the conflicts between them.
Its a TRAP!
This is what I got when trying to vote:
Don’t forget my feet are nailed as well… :)
http://professordendy.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/this-just-in-you%E2%80%99re-gonna-love-this/
don’t let that get your panties all in a bunch!
G’day
@ Sanity Jane
His perception of his encounters here do not match yours.
He is arrogant, smug and always right…he is on the side of gawd almighty, which is nearly the same as being gawd almighty.
When he drops his turds here, he thinks he is being witty, clever and doing gawd’s work…and if he gets in some blog whoring and scores some persecution points, so much the better.
@ 100
As I was saying about his self-perception as witty and clever…
Dendy, role-playing for Jebus:
Quite the sicko. Is there any appendage of yours not nailed to the cross?
Your little necrophilic fantasy you linked to is a tad disturbing for what it says about you. Otherwise, it ain’t funny, just meh.
Kinda my point. He really must get a stiffie from the whole persecution thing, since he’s obviously not making any headway among Pharyngulites even with “almighty” gawd on his side.
Which reminds me, dendy: I can see how you might believe your imaginary friend made you in his image, since you’re both impotent hacks with delusions of adequacy.
professordendy,
I wish Americans wouldn’t abuse the word “liberal” like this. I am a liberal: I believe in limited government, civil liberties, the rule of law, and the separation of church and state. This does not imply that I support higher taxes or left-wing economic policies. “Liberal” is not necessarily synonymous with “left-wing”. And contrary to what Professor Dendy and his ilk (including the likes of Chuck Norris and Ann Coulter) seem to believe, the world does not divide neatly into Good God-Fearing Christian Conservatives and Teh Ebil Godless Liberals.
OK, rant over.
I got: “What is the Bible’s answer? See: The Divine Origin of the Bible Microsoft VBScript runtime error ‘800a0006’ Overflow: ‘cint’ /index.asp, line 442”
Typical crap Microsoft technology… or did it just know I’m an atheist? :)
God must have shitty programmers on His side. When I voted, I got this:
Yeah! And that’s why so many grown-ups believe in Santa Claus. If you really believed in him as a kid, you can’t just decide later that you don’t. If you claim that you used to believe when you were younger but don’t now, the obviously you never did!
Oh, great argument, the “Santa Claus” one! I definitely believe in Santa Claus more today than ever ’cause raising three children “Santa Claus” doesn’t get more real than that…
For those of you that are a little slow… I am talking about “playing” Santa for your kids, i.e. it cost a lot!
…and the hits just keep on coming!
The perfessor is back with more nonsense. Hey perfessor dandy, your mirror is calling you. And next time, use your brain. Your deity exists only between your ears, and your babble is a work of myth. Show a little intelligence and get with the program.
You don’t accept Jesus to begin with you crouton. Did read your own fucking book or not? Specifically, the parables of Lazarus Long and the Goats/Sheep? It doesn’t matter whether or not you accepted Jesus. What matters is whether you treat people well. Which makes your insistence on your own christianity, combined with your overloud and near constant whinging about Libruhlz in ur account, takin ur lootz even more amusing.
Honestly, how the hell do Christians square the Right’s utter lack of charity into their theology? Is it all just the Talent parable?
I got the same ‘error’ message as #107, but it’s very likely fake considering what LIARS believers tend to be.
professordendrophiliac wrote:
There were only two hits – Pharyngula hitting you, and you hitting the ground.
Apparently they “fixed” this as I clicked on myth as got a message that my vote was an error!
If you think this poll is funny, check out this one over at:
http://shelleytherepublican.com/?p=5968
Your dream ticket 2012:
o Limbaugh/Palin
o Beck/Palin
o Limbaugh/Beck
o Limbaugh/Palin
o Keyes/Beck
o Keyes/Limbaugh
I think I will go for Limbaugh/Beck myself!!
Ditto on the same error as 107.
Wowbagger, if dendy’s a treehumper surely he keeps it hidden from his righty christy bros lest he be mistaken for an ebil liburl greenie nature worshiper.
I tried to vote, and I got this:
For a moment there, I thought the poll swore at me!
I love how even the error messages tell you that the Bible is true because the Bible says it’s true. lol
Funny, I voted, and voted, and voted, etc., and it took them all. Though it was several minutes before I returned here before I got to the fails. I helped crash a poll…huh, I must be evil now…pff.
Let me get this straight:
You pretend to your kids that a fictitious character is real, then you play the part of that character to your kids, they then believe he’s real, and therefore that makes him real?
(As real as Jesus?)
And you’re using this in defense of your previous argument?
Ha ha wow, I didn’t even notice that text when I tried to vote. I don’t think they could put their faulty reasoning in any plainer language than that!
“Does the Bible tell the truth? Let’s ask the Bible!”
I tried to view the document mentioned “The Divine Origin of The Bible” just because I was hoping to get a cheap, circular-logic-induced laugh. Wouldn’t you know I couldn’t view that either. Let’s see, we have a poll fail, a download fail, and possibly a circular logic fail all on one site. I have to wait until the pdf comes back online to determine the last one, but would anybody bet against the supposition that “The Divine Origin of The Bible” brings anything other than a circular, “The Bible is true because The Bible says it’s true” argument?
Dendy, in the first few centuries of the Christian faith, your belief system was apolitical. The Christian world view prohibited participation in politics because “the affairs of the world corrupted” and “concern yourself with the heavenly not the earthly”.
Hasn’t Christianity changed? You hypocrites now organise political parties and pressure groups, which are against your own religious code, with all the hatred and judgment your own holy text tells you not to harbour.
Read the bible again, and your use of the “religion” for being a pious, morally superior arsehole will soon be shown to be against your faith. Then read the bible again, see the lies and politically expedient texts inserted by the biblical councils around 500AD to control people, and the ball of yarn that was your religion will fall apart.
I have never organized a political party… why I am a just a poor registered Democrat!
Please Do Not Feed The Trolls
Haha, the poll software can’t handle more than 32767 votes, apparently.
So it can’t handle pharyngulation. We’re debuggers! (Or are we buggers?)
I find this really amusing.
Lars, that error is actually in the Vacation Bible script. :P
And it is not a bug, it’s a feature.
Perfessor Dandy, Your mirror is calling. Your jokes are older than you are. Pitiful. But typical of idjit godbots. They have nothing cogent to say, and prove it by saying things. Dandy is classic case. He could show some intelligence by not posting…
It’s down!
“Survey suspended temporarily.
An unscrupulous atheist group has attacked our site. Your patience is appreciated”
I love how using a poll exactly the way it was meant to be used is an unscrupulous attack.
Aw, the poll says the site was “attacked” by an atheist site. Apparently “voting” in a way they don’t like = “attack”.
How democratic of them.
So you would have thought, if real their god would have stopped this from happening lol
or maybe he made it happen mowhahahaha
I haven’t had time to read all the post here, but:
“An unscrupulous atheist group has attacked our site.”
In case no when else has noticed, the survey has been suspended! Now, what evidence do they have to support an accusation like that? Unscrupulous indeed. We are just people giving our opinion – and I wasn’t even allowed to vote. What are they afraid of?
Another goddist lie. We’re quite scrupulous.
:)
Wow, this is the democracy we all love. We are free to vote, as long as we vote for the option chosen by them. Otherwise they get sad and stop giving us the opportunity to express our opinion, which they asked for in the first place.
You must admit that in some ways, the Church was right. They always said that if you play with it too much you’d break it. :-)
Really funny that you can still vote for the one choice they give you, that we are unscrupulous. And, surprise! 100% Victory.
They would have been much happier if they had just done the poll that way from the beginning. Dissent is so unbiblical.
“Your jokes are older than you are. Pitiful.”
Not quite sure what you are referring to… haven’t told any jokes here and all the posts on my blogs are original.
The only thing I can imagine you would think is a joke is my statement that I am just a poor registered Democrat… and I am!
They closed the poll citing an atheist group’s invasion. I wonder if they would have done same if a Muslin or Hindu group responded to poll in high numbers?
JNorris
Delusional Dandy, you appear to be under the fatal delusion that we give a shit about you or your inane opinions. We don’t. You are simply delusional chew toy for us to use to keep our coats sniny and our teeth clean with our snark. If you really want to have a discussion on something, loose the attitude.
Your deity doesn’t exist as you have provided no conclusive physical evidence for it. Your babble is a work of fiction/myth since you have not proven otherwise with solid evidence. Those unevidenced beliefs makes you a delusional fool.
Perfesser Dumbdy thinks none of us have ever heard of Will Rogers, so da perfesser can steal one of Rogers’ most famous jokes.
They close down a public poll because they didn’t like the results… but WE’RE the unscrupulous ones. Heh.
Oh, I dunno, Red…
I mean, sure, he’s inane, lame, and tedious, sure… But…
But when you think about it, his presence here may actually explain one of those Deep, Mystifying Theological Questions them thar’ theologians have been puzzling over for centuries…
I mean, sure, I’ve been one of those who’s laughed as hard as the rest of us at the neo deists whose answer to the very puzzle you mention–why there is no evidence save some pretty transparently fictional silliness written by some hilariously obviously self-serving con men for their alleged deity–has been simply to redefine said deity in such a fashion that evidence or its lack becomes a non-issue…
As in: their god needs no evidence because it is alleged there would be none. This deity is the universe itself, or it wrote the physical laws, set the thing in motion, then stayed well outside the view of any method we might use to detect it…
Now, sure, you could argue that this god has as much evidentiary basis as a massless, chargeless elementary particle designed and defined to have exactly no interaction with anything else–a particle added, presumably to a physical model for no better reason than that some drunk theoretician on a weekend bender figured he wanted to name something after himself and had a little room left at the bottom of the page in his notes…
But theoretically, at least, given the evidence of this very thread, it seems to we must now concede that this may be the only sort of god which is even logically possible.
Stay with me, here… See, it is also alleged the deity is eternal and omniscient, with a timeless awareness that takes in all that has ever been, and all that has ever been…
Consider where this will lead the theologians: such a being would know two things, for all time, and for all eternity–indeed, could not but help but know them–these two things would be unavoidable, inescapable–a drumbeat of self-inflicted torture that would reverberate through the whole of its timeless being, for all of its ageless existence:
It would have to know that due to its creating the universe, the near infinite lame that is Dendy and his ilk would also eventually exist. And would thus, in a deep and painful sense, be very much its own stupid fault…
Given this, I think we could only expect that it would never, ever show its infinitely ashamed face anywhere near this universe. Not even on a dare.
(/I mean, fuck… Would you?)
AJ, I need another cup or two of coffee to digest your post. Plus, getting today’s reaction going.
*Someone cleaned the lab while I was off, and I can’t find anything, grr*
‘Kay… So now I know I’m overwriting this stuff…
(/If it helps, let me assure you: the argument presented is roughly as deep, well thought out, and actually useful to anyone’s case as is most Complex Theology™)
I voted
“We are investigating. Your patience is appreciated.”
since the alternative
“We appear to have been the victims of a hacking attempt to stuff the ballot box.”
is clearly false.
They put up an open access, unrestricted poll on the internet and invited site visitors to vote, which the visitors kindly did. That hardly constitutes hacking.
53/47 in favor of my vote!
okay so now we know this dendy person does not have a doctorate so s/he can’t be a professor either. so i guess her/his claims on her/his own blog are a trifle exaggerated (including the beard and silly hat)……that’s good. it worried me that this person could actually be teaching biology somewhere – even in texas or mississippi s/he’s unqualified. So from now on can we just refer to her/him as misterdendy? or msdendy since we don’t know the marital state of this very odd and obviously confused person?
Actually it is not necessary to have a doctorate to become a professor, although it is extremely unusual.
Mick Aston became a professor of archaeology at Bristol University with having a Ph.D..
Unless the discipline doesn’t have doctorates. The Redhead is an artist, and the terminal degree in her field when she was in college was a Master of Fine Arts.
AJ – That took a lot of work to get through, but the end was worth it. I’ll have fun passing that on today.
I envy The Redhead. She can defend any of her positions by using the phrase “May I remind you that I do hold a terminal degree in the field”. I heard a Music Phud use it once to a challenge from a member of an audience to a point in his lecture, and the crowd just politely applauded. You don’t see that kind of class often.
Since there are doctorates in biology I don’t believe a “professor” of biology in California would not have a PhD. I realise other disciplines and other parts of the world have different academic practices, that may in fact make more sense.
The only thing I can imagine you would think is a joke is my statement that I am just a poor registered Democrat… and I am!
Big fucking deal. Know who else is a Democrat? Fred Phelps.
As for what to call this clown, I just been calling this clown, dendy.
Zernk, I didn’t say the Redhead has a MFA. Just that it was the terminal degree in her field at that time.
AJ, I will get back to you eventually. It wasn’t you. I scanned it, but I need to digest it properly. But, the chemicals are not behaving themselves today…
Ah, Nerd. Sorry – didn’t read that right. Chemical difficulties over here too.
They’ve changed the poll.
What is the Bible’s answer?
See: The Miracle of the Bible
46% No. It is purely the work of human genius.
2% It is only inspired by God in its ideas and ideals.
29% Yes. It is wholly inspired by God and therefore infallible.
22% The Bible is manmade and responsible for much evil in the world.
1% Don’t Know.
Gleefully voted again. 61% for The Bible is manmade and responsible for much evil in the world.
AJ, after getting the recalcitrant reaction going, and an afternoon cup of joe, I have to give your post two thumbs and two big toes up…
They are back to the original survey. It is possible that they may now have realized that the interest in their site was not caused by a bot. Maybe they were taught something about on-line polls?
The poll may be back on, but the choices are poorly phrased. It’s a worthless group of questions, regardless of one’s own thoughts. The “best” choice from my perspective actually points in two not necessarily related directions simultaneously.
Whoops!
If they’ve changed the poll to what is posted in #157, the situation is muddier than before!
as someone who’s made an effort to read the bible in an educated and objective way, all of these choices offend me.
1. “myth” is perhaps the wrong word. certainly some sections of the bible are collections of myths, but the word is generally being used to contrast “factual.” this is a genre error that christians and atheist make alike: much of the bible has very little to do with factual claims. think the book of psalms, here. it’s neither. and what’s worse is that this statement is both true AND false, depending on the section in question. the torah, for instance, is steeped in the language of mythology. kings is written like (a biased an inaccurate, but academic) history (for the time period). genre matters, and the bible is not one genre. such an assertion is about like walking into a video store and declaring all the contents fiction. what about the documentaries? the concerts? koyaniqatsi?
2+3. “inspired” means many, many different things to different readers. at least the second poll sort of vaguely specifies two options.
4. untrustworthy, perhaps, yes. it is a selection of sources that does warrant a skeptical reading. but “irrelevant” is just idiocy. even starting from the assumption that it is a book of nothing but lies, it’s clear to see that it’s culturally relevant to at least a few cultures. even if it should be irrelevant in contemporary culture, it would still be historically relevant, specifically to the jewish people: “look at this literature our ancestors wrote, doesn’t this give us an interesting picture of the way people used to think?” even if the culture weren’t around anymore, it would still be anthropologically relevant, in the same way that gilgamesh and other ancient writings are.
5. don’t know? yeah, isn’t that always the problem. too many people are uneducated on this subject. which wouldn’t be so much of a problem if people like these clowns didn’t open their mouths about it.
even the second poll is an alarmingly simplistic take on things. can’t it be a human work of genius, that’s responsible for a lot of evil? and perhaps good?
The bible poll was up to 59% myth, so I guess someone fixed it.
I voted on the Mexican poll: Yes, Yes, No.
The “if you disagree with us that’s an attack” sounds mighty familiar.
Try logging into WordPress in another window and then using it to sign in here. Some kind of verifying goes on that makes it smoother.
Poll is back up with original phrasing.
They’ve changed the order, their preferred answer is now at the top, probably to “inspire” people to vote for it.
Myth and irrelevant are at a combined total of 95%, with a 60/35 respective split.
Whilst I understand it’s not COMPLETELY irrelevant, I figure that the bulk of it is. Due to all the mistranslations, any animal which took on this amount of nonsense mutations would already be well and truly dead by now. :p
@MolBio: (#166)
yeesh. way to make an analogy and screw up both the biblical aspect and the biology you’re comparing it to. that’s pretty impressive.
the “mistranslation” argument is extremely overplayed. most translations are fairly good, and the transmission of the text over time is also fairly consistent (our older documents look 99.99% like our newer documents). the changes we’re talking about are small and subtle, and the bits lost in translation are things like cultural context and poetics. some translations are better than others, of course, and some impose improper bias, but any translation you pick up off the shelf will likely say mostly the same stuff as any other translation, and as the source.
and as for the biological angle, i’m sure someone here would be happy to explain exactly what’s wrong with the notion of “nonsense” mutations.
The poll seems to be back up again.
Latest results:-
2% – Bible is inspired by God in all its parts
1% – don’t know
1% – Bible is partially inspired by God and partially uninspired
63% – Bible is a book of myth and of human origin
33% – Bible is untrustworthy and irrelevant
Surely the last two are really the same thing – 96% for the bible being full of irrelevant mythology :-)
Well… So much for the investigation. They still aren’t saving cookies or appearing to check IP.
I like the tiny circular reasoning in the poll question. To prove the Bible is the Word Of God, check the Bible.
Loo-hoo-hooooo-SERS.