More Bullying from the Discovery Institute
No wonder creationism outrages me. I see what it does to people. I saw it growing up from people like Duane Gish, and Henry Morris, and Dr. Norman Geisler, who famously claimed at the Little Rock "Creation Science" trial that UFOs came from the devil. And I see it today - and I see people getting taken in by it today. The level of paranoia and verbal abuse from its adherents is just unbelievable. I didn't know what was happening when I was younger but I see things clearly now. This is a political movement, based not upon an alternate view of "science" but upon an alternate view of domination.
As I have demonstrated in my post below, which took a lot of courage to write (and the conclusion of which came as a surprise to me), creationists employ bullying tactics and hyperbolic language out of their own desperate search for a faith not yet found, rather than a desire to give the world a happiness that they already have. They are sad, frightened, and angry people who project their sense of "meaninglessness" and lack of purpose onto others, scientists and professionals who have no idea what the creationists are talking about. ("Meaninglessness?")
My evidence for this is the further behavior of the members of the Discovery Institute, who, after having repeatedly lost their case in the courtrooms and the school boards of this nation, now resort to the creation of imaginary enemies, "Darwinist storm troopers" and eugenicists right out of Nazi Germany, in order to scare Americans (already weary of hearing from the Bush Administration about terrorists around every corner) into fighting an army of ghouls that does not even exist!
This is beyond belief. As RedStateRabble reveals in a series of excellent posts, it is the Christian Dominionists of the Discovery Institute who hold racist and eugenicist ideas and who aren't even above finding justifications for slavery.
You know, when the Jewish Anti-Defamation League denounces your equation of Charles Darwin with the Holocaust, that doesn't exactly help your argument.
So, who are these supposed "Darwinian storm troopers"? The same bleeding-heart liberals who don't even own guns? The godless vegetarian lesbians who work as substance abuse counselors? The legions of, according to Ann Coulter, left-wing librarians with their Dewey Decimal classification? Peace activists? The Hindus and Buddhists who, having no religious objections to evolution, come to America to work in the sciences, since so few Americans bother to learn about the subject, let alone choose it as a career? The gays? The Latinos? The doctors and nurses who got thrown in jail for treating AIDS patients in Libya? The people who are trying to do something about global warming? The monsters under your bed?
Don't ask questions. That's not patriotic. Don't bother the Discovery Institute with facts. First order of business, panic! The Empire strikes back! The storm troopers are invading the Millennium Falcon, and Dawin Vader is among them! Run, run, run for your lives!
Light-sabre lift to RedStateRabble and After the Bar Closes.
As I have demonstrated in my post below, which took a lot of courage to write (and the conclusion of which came as a surprise to me), creationists employ bullying tactics and hyperbolic language out of their own desperate search for a faith not yet found, rather than a desire to give the world a happiness that they already have. They are sad, frightened, and angry people who project their sense of "meaninglessness" and lack of purpose onto others, scientists and professionals who have no idea what the creationists are talking about. ("Meaninglessness?")
My evidence for this is the further behavior of the members of the Discovery Institute, who, after having repeatedly lost their case in the courtrooms and the school boards of this nation, now resort to the creation of imaginary enemies, "Darwinist storm troopers" and eugenicists right out of Nazi Germany, in order to scare Americans (already weary of hearing from the Bush Administration about terrorists around every corner) into fighting an army of ghouls that does not even exist!
This is beyond belief. As RedStateRabble reveals in a series of excellent posts, it is the Christian Dominionists of the Discovery Institute who hold racist and eugenicist ideas and who aren't even above finding justifications for slavery.
You know, when the Jewish Anti-Defamation League denounces your equation of Charles Darwin with the Holocaust, that doesn't exactly help your argument.
So, who are these supposed "Darwinian storm troopers"? The same bleeding-heart liberals who don't even own guns? The godless vegetarian lesbians who work as substance abuse counselors? The legions of, according to Ann Coulter, left-wing librarians with their Dewey Decimal classification? Peace activists? The Hindus and Buddhists who, having no religious objections to evolution, come to America to work in the sciences, since so few Americans bother to learn about the subject, let alone choose it as a career? The gays? The Latinos? The doctors and nurses who got thrown in jail for treating AIDS patients in Libya? The people who are trying to do something about global warming? The monsters under your bed?
Don't ask questions. That's not patriotic. Don't bother the Discovery Institute with facts. First order of business, panic! The Empire strikes back! The storm troopers are invading the Millennium Falcon, and Dawin Vader is among them! Run, run, run for your lives!
Light-sabre lift to RedStateRabble and After the Bar Closes.
Labels: army of dorks, Discovery Institute, wingnuts
posted by Kristine | Saturday, May 05, 2007
5 Comments:
Jesus cares about your hurting heart Kristine.
Okay, Anonymous. You mean well, and I embrace you for that. ;-) But I’m sorry, Jesus is beside the point. I don’t see “Jesus” healing the obviously hurting hearts of the Discovery Institute fellows when they’re willing to wage a war for Jesus. With all due respect I’m not the one who needs help. This is a human-created problem. It’s a psychological problem. How we view relationships causes or heals our hurting hearts.
A black-and-white view of the universe is one that divides the “godly” from the “Darwinian storm troopers.” It’s simplistic and it’s puerile, and it’s emotionally barren, this hankering for “perfection.” There is no perfection. There is no absolutist, omniscient, all-powerful authority for us to bow down to. We’ve outgrown that; we need to learn to interact with each other and with everything. There is only imperfect interaction, between us and other human beings, between us and nature, which is itself an imperfect interaction, between us and our ideas. The universe is a decentralized interaction and that is why the Founding Fathers took inspiration for democracy from Nature. (I can’t quite understand how Americans want “less government” but don’t apply that hankering to the spiritual realm.)
Can’t you see that these people are talking themselves into a mental illness? Can’t you see that a label like “storm troopers” conjures up nameless, faceless, anonymous (sorry), and dehumanized horde? This isn’t Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. Well, at least you credit me with having a heart because calling people “darwinian storm troopers” dehumanizes them. But I’m a writer (such as that goes) and a dancer, Anonymous. I need my hurting heart! I don’t want my hurt taken away! It connects me to all living things and it keeps me relevant. Pain is necessary. That’s the difference between you and me, and between me and John West or William Dembski or Denyse O’Leary—they feel a pain that I don’t understand and they want it just erased, without really examining the cause of it. People turn to God because they don’t believe in themselves.
The level of hysteria surrounding the issue of education and science has reached a fever pitch, just as it did during the “creation science” trials in the 1980s, just like the hysteria surrounding abortion in the 1980s just before people started shooting doctors (which did not ignite the popular revolution that its believers expected it to). Apocalyptic visions, whether they be of hordes of “abortionists” or “darwinians,” are always misguided; they are a way of taking away something from other people. That is a mental illness, too. I call it for what it is.
It’s time someone pointed a finger at the fact that this nation is creating a culture of simplistic “answers,” paranoia, self-recrimination, low self-esteem, magical thinking, self-loathing, unreasonable perfectionism, and shame. It’s a toxic culture and it’s got to stop! “Jesus” won’t take it away. Don’t worry about my pain, Anonymous. I am a tower of strength. As an artist I willingly embrace and use my pain. Worry about the believers whose religion has given them guilt then given them “salvation” that never lasts, starting the whole vicious cycle again.
If I saw religion really solving someone's problems, then perhaps I would consider your belief. But I don't. Religion seems to exacerbate people's pain and fear. I needed people to model myself after when I was young and those people were Carl Sagan and Stephen Jay Gould, not people in a hysterical mess all the time about phantom enemies.
None-the-less, I'm still concerned about you, and I'm sorry that others have hurt you and not seen you for fantastic person that you are. People of all kinds let us down. It is obvious that you are a very strong woman -- I wouldn't want to see that changed for anything. Sometimes things can overwhelm even the strongest though ... If you do find yourself in that situtation, don't lose hope, it is not weakness to be saved by Someone who has the ability to save us.
Aw, I thought I knew who this was, and then you went and threw in the "fantastic person" comment to put me off the scent! ;-)
Well, that's very sweet. If you are who I think you are, then I'm impressed you were brave enough to climb Mt. Kristine, active volcano.
But now that I've succeeded in my mission to freak out everyone on all sides, let me tell you some secrets about me:
Artists want everyone in the world to love them, and when people (inevitably) don't, watch out.
Artist are vain and blasphemous. We're creators; so we don't worship creators. We compete with creators, including Creators. Just so you know.
I am an up-and-down person and I don't have much inhibition about blatting embarrassing details about my life. It's the only way I know how to be honest. (I do get told that I don't have to be quite so honest by people close to me.)
I really do think that I've put my finger on something here, with his vituperative language ratcheting up the level of emotion in this debate about science and science education.
At any rate, regarding this Someone of which you speak, if you want to answer my barrage of questions launched at poor Crandaddy at this post, I'd love to read your answers when I get back from my trip.
A note to the unsigned anonymous-The Christian god, aka Jesus, is dead. Has been for well over 1900 years, if he existed at all. May he rest in peace.
Scotius
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