Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 59 (9164 total)
5 online now:
Newest Member: ChatGPT
Post Volume: Total: 916,927 Year: 4,184/9,624 Month: 1,055/974 Week: 14/368 Day: 14/11 Hour: 2/1


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   Why we should not expect many if any Creationists
dwise1
Member
Posts: 5952
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.7


Message 19 of 107 (782056)
04-14-2016 9:13 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by jar
04-12-2016 9:04 AM


Jar, I don't think that the wish to isolate themselves explains the absence of creationists here. For one thing, we have never seen those creationists anyway because they have no reason to be active and every reason to avoid encounters. Rather, we would only expect to see the active creationists visit us. Even though the inactive creationists may be interested in discussing "creation science", they will still want to do so only with other creationists and not with "evilutionists", so we should still not expect to see them anyway. On "Evolution Fairy Tale" maybe, but not here.
The active ones can be divided into two groups: the newbies and the old hands. Of the two, it's the newbies that we'd be much more likely to see, because the old hands know better than to talk with "eviliutionists", especially ones who are familiar with their claims. The newbies don't know any better and will barge in thinking that their claims are true and unassailable; as one former YEC described it:
quote:
{The evangelical Christian community} gave me a gun loaded with blanks, and sent me out. I was creamed.
After having gotten creamed a few times, the newbie becomes an old hand, assuming that he continues to stick around. As an old hand, he learns to only confront ignorant "evilutionists" or to restrict themselves to church presentations, YouTube clips, debates (which are rigged in their favor), run-by flamings (ie, nasty emails the responses to which they refuse to respond to), etc. Above all they avoid any discussion of their claims and refuse to defend them. As such, social media would serve their purposes well.
That's too bad, because having a discussion with an old hand would be far more interesting than with a newbie. The big problem with the newbie is that he usually doesn't even understand his own claim, let alone the science involved. At least there's more of a chance that an old hand would have a better understanding of his claim, but then he knows far too well to avoid discussing it. We just cannot win!

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by jar, posted 04-12-2016 9:04 AM jar has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 20 by jar, posted 04-14-2016 9:36 PM dwise1 has replied

  
dwise1
Member
Posts: 5952
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.7


(1)
Message 23 of 107 (782062)
04-15-2016 4:03 AM
Reply to: Message 20 by jar
04-14-2016 9:36 PM


Yes, the YEC position is impossible to defend. And the "old hands", the creationists who have sallied forth and gotten creamed, know that even if they can't admit it to themselves. That is why they avoid having to defend it by controlling all their venues. Debates are nearly perfect, because the creationist can freely lie about everything and anything while their opponent feels constrained to being truthful -- eg, in Bill Morgan's debate with Phil Summerfeld (on YouTube), Morgan quoted a PhD Molecular Genetics, making sure to over-emphasize her PhD, without ever mentioning that she's a professional creationist speaking as a creationist. Presentations also, though in an article about creationist debates I read about a presentation where the creationists learned that a couple guys familiar with creationist claims were in the audience so they had to quickly change their presentation.
The bottom line is that, even though YEC is impossible to defend, they persist in believing in it. That's why they're called PRATTs. It's like on Doctor Who: No matter how many times you kill or annihilate ( the Daleks / the Cybermen / Devros / the Master / YEC claims ), they keep coming back in subsequent episodes. They refuse to stay dead!
The only thing that would result in a decreased number of YECs would be a decreased number of fundamentalists (to apply a single term to a number of different Christian YEC cults). The main thing lowering their numbers is the hemorrhaging of their youth, the next generation which they had raised themselves. The estimates of how many fundamentalist Christian youth leave the faith (with many of them leaving religion altogether) range from 65% to 80% -- interestingly, as I recall, the higher figures come from sources in the youth ministries. As a result, the only way those churches can maintain their membership numbers is through more aggressive recruiting, AKA proselytizing, for which they rely heavily on the "creation science" position which is so impossible to defend.
YEC is not about to go away. But the experienced YECs know all too well to avoid EvC. And the nave newbies are now being drawn to other forms of communication, to social media, which is better suited to YEC's superficial hit-and-run tactics and avoidance of any actual discussion of their claims.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 20 by jar, posted 04-14-2016 9:36 PM jar has seen this message but not replied

  
dwise1
Member
Posts: 5952
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.7


Message 40 of 107 (782293)
04-22-2016 1:22 AM
Reply to: Message 39 by ICANT
04-22-2016 1:00 AM


Re: It's not the Internet that's Changed
So maybe we could have a serious discussion and you and the gentlemen here could straighten out my thinking on what the Bible actually says in comparison to what your science says.
Uh, none of your beliefs have anything to do with what the Bible actually says.
Rather, it has to do with what you believe that the Bible says.
Science says what the physical universe is. God created the physical universe. If you happen to believe that the physical universe is completely different from what your God had created, then shouldn't you be getting in your God's Face about it?

This message is a reply to:
 Message 39 by ICANT, posted 04-22-2016 1:00 AM ICANT has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 42 by ICANT, posted 04-22-2016 1:57 AM dwise1 has replied

  
dwise1
Member
Posts: 5952
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.7


Message 43 of 107 (782296)
04-22-2016 2:17 AM
Reply to: Message 42 by ICANT
04-22-2016 1:57 AM


Re: It's not the Internet that's Changed
I am an atheist. I do not care one whit what the Bible says nor what you "true Christians" want to imagine that it says. None of that means anything at all.
Like all "true Christians", you do not care one whit what the Bible actually says, but rather what you want to claim that it says.
In Message 39, you said:
So maybe we could have a serious discussion and you and the gentlemen here could straighten out my thinking on what the Bible actually says in comparison to what your science says.
Who cares what the Bible says? Who created the universe? According to your own theology, Who created the universe? Your god, right? Do you disagree that your god created the universe? If you do disagree that your own god created the universe, then do please present that argument.
Science discovers how the universe works. Your own god created the universe. So how could science, as it describes how the universe works, be wrong?
If what you say about what the Bible says about the universe directly contradicts the way that the universe actually is, then just exactly who is wrong? The universe itself, which your own God had created? Or your own puny fallible human inability to understand the simplest things about nature?
Do please answer that question very specifically.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 42 by ICANT, posted 04-22-2016 1:57 AM ICANT has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024