Did you know that God explicitly bestowed the ability to generate explosive diarrhea on Cyclospora, and that this is true science?
I just threw this together outside, never mind the screeching squirrels. They’re more pleasant to listen to than Georgia Purdom.
She’s trying to claim that pathogenic microorganisms are the product of “sin”. My answer:
“Sin”. That’s not a good answer, because sin isn’t a real phenomenon — there is no external deity who can impose a judgement on humans, and what is “sin” varies from culture to culture and human to human.
But this is where I must object to the nonsense Purdom is peddling. She’s not engaging with the scientific evidence at all. Cyclospora is a genus of pathogenic parasites related to, for instance, toxoplasma and cryptosporidium. The species we’re dealing with is an obligate parasite of humans — it requires a human digestive tract to reproduce. She doesn’t produce an iota of observation, measurement, or experiment to support her thesis that its specific, complex biology arose in a flash, when two humans ate some fruit. All she has is Bible quotes.
This is a common game apologists play, pointing at some partial fragment of a scientific observation and claiming that it is justified by some Biblical BS — they are trying to piggy-back on the credibility of science and drag their Christian mythology into the real world.
It reminds me of my childhood, when I innocently attended church for a while, looking for some reason behind the beliefs I was expected to hold, and asked for the evidence for their god.
I was given a familiar rationale, one you’ve probably heard before. “Look at the trees! Look at the stars! They reveal the wonder of God!” Only now Georgia Purdom is adding “Look at the pathogenic microorganisms!”
Their mistake was that I did: I looked at the trees, the stars, the biology of the natural world. I’ve been doing that for sixty-some years. And I learned two things:
One: natural processes explain how the world works, contra bible stories.
and
Two: Evangelicals know fuck-all about trees, stars, or pathogenic microorganisms.
Since those Cyclospora are divinely created, all those christianists should chow down on them to get some of that ghod-juice into themselves.
Plague bacillus, also, too. If they believe fervently enough, their savior will save them! Otherwise, to Hel with them.
Lettuce is the new forbidden fruit.
It’s human hubris to think that the only way to make cool stuff is through purposeful design by a human-like being. They refuse to believe that simple natural laws can create things. They invent a human-like creator god so that humans can bask in the vicarious glory, rather than confront humanity’s humble origins.
The simplest analysis is that, if Cyclospora is evidence of sin, then the sin must be because of eating plants. Thus, the obvious answer is to avoid eating plants, and to eat only animal products. Beef, butter, bacon, and eggs are the only things god wants us to eat. And the penalty for tasting forbidden plants is all the proof anyone needs!
All things dull and ugly…
Just another no thought process with the easy answer of God did it. Life is so simple when you can answer every question with God ______ (fill in the blank).
That is lazy.
Purdom the AiG stooge? Why are they still a thing?
I failed to find the classic old high-speed photo of a bearded man sneezing, captioned “God creating the universe”, that I recall from ~the ’60s.
I hope never to see the ’20s Cyclospora equivalent!
Maybe Yahweh meant explosive diarrhea is very good. He’s into some weird stuff.
You’re beginning to look like an OT prophet, PZ.
I always thought God created Cryptospora when Adam and Eve ate some unwashed lettuce. On another note did cryptocurrency evolve from cryptospora because it seems a good way to shit money against a wall?
There are multiple known pathogens that require a human host: cyclospora, smallpox, polio…
So who hosted these germs in the Garden of Eden; Adam, or Eve? Which member of Noah’s family hosted them during and after the Ark episode?
Reginald, I can’t speak to the Adam/Eve question, but it’s obvious from the perspective of the xtian nationalists that only one of Noah’s family members could have been the host: Ham.
Best take was Robert Lund & Spaff song Supercrappyparasitixplosivediarrhea The way he’s able to sing all those acronyms makes it extra funny.
If pathogens are caused by sin, what sin did bacteria commit to get bacteriophages?
@5 Akira MacKenzie : “All things dull and ugly…”
.. All creatures short and squat.. (1 min 35 secs.)
Seems God really gave us the shits..
I wonder if the reason religion is so popular is that it appeals to the lazy side of humanity. Whenever something problematic appears, just say a few nonsensical words and voila!–Goddidit. So easy and now we can stop worrying about it (unless it happens to us!) because God takes care of everything (until it happens to us!).
God was just some stranger from another village who was suffering from diarrhea, and being a fairly learned naturalist he warned the local doofuses Adam and Eve to beware that he had been handling the fruit from that tree, but they were science deniers so of course they didn’t listen…
@5 Akira MacKenzie and @16 SteveoR. Thanks for reminding me of the Python Version. I wonder whether verse 3 of the original is widely known?.
The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.
Poverty is divinely ordained, so it’s probably a favourite with people like Musk and Trump.
I guess the Egyptians should count themselves lucky that that particular plague wasn’t visited on them.
As Josh Johnson has noticed, it’s apparently god’s way of uniting us all, as one people with a common language, amen.
(disclaimer: he did not couch it in religious terms, that’s me spinning in the spirit of this thread)
Taking a system designed out of human greed and neglect and calling it “god,” like it’s fundamental to how the universe operates. Fun.
The related species cryptosporidium got loose in Skellefteå, a nearby town, after a freshwatwer conduit developed a crack. We might assume El/Yahwe let his creation loose to punish northern Swedes for apostasy.
But in that case, why not use the more punishy yersina pestis?
redwood @17: “Whenever something problematic appears, just say a few nonsensical words and voila!”
Sometimes God wants a trophy.
Wikipedia – Emerods
[OT]
CA7746, the ritual framing is there to justify 10 weights of gold as tribute.
Notice it’s not wooden emerods and mice, or clay, but gold.
(Babblical literalism is for the goddists, surely)