Not Getting Through to the Propaganda Mill

I just thought I'd have a quick look at the AiG website to find something to write about. One article jumped out at me, it was called "Are They Teaching the Truth in Biology Class?".

The large majority of the article was about how scientific progress is made, and old ideas are sometimes overthrown by new ones. I'm not going to address this part as it was fairly innocuous.

What I really wanted to see was their latest and greatest arguments against evolution. What surprised me when I read it, is that they really didn't have a single argument against it, they just kept saying things like "[Evolution] is getting harder to defend." and "this view is getting more difficult to defend in a logically coherent fashion." They didn't present a single piece of evidence, or even try to construct an argument, they simply tried to explain the mechanisms evolution works by and claim that science is going to prove it wrong. I specifically remember at the beginning of the article they wrote that "Science has become somewhat of an idol in our culture." yet here they are waving science as a magic wand trying to claim that it will prove evolution wrong.

AnswersinGenesis are an absolute joke, as with all creationists, there is an enormous wealth of evidence for evolution, and it's available at a single click of a button, seriously, click here. If creationists wish to remain pig-ignorant it's their onus, but whenever they say something stupid I'll continue to call them morons, or if they're not telling the truth I'll call them liars.

Anachronistic Old Testament.

I don't feel like I need to go into depth explaining why the Bible is utterly unreliable as a history book. In any case, here is what I consider to be one of the strongest criticisms of the 'good book' and its historicity.

It has been shown by archaeology that the Old Testament (almost in its entirety) was composed at the very earliest, during the reign of Josiah. Josiah was King of Judah between 641 and 609 BCE, and many of the events described within the Pentateuch are supposed to have occurred around 4000 BCE. Here are a few anachronisms that place the limit of date composition to the mid first millennium.
-Camels are mentioned in the Patriarchal Narratives as used by Arabian Traders, and the products they were carrying "gum, balm, and myrrh", as these products were not traded and camels were not used in the area until well after 1000 BCE.
-Isaac encounters the Philistines in Genesis 26, but the Philistines didn't even enter this area until after 1200 BCE. (several-thousand-year discrepancy there)
-The names of several cities are recorded as being destroyed by Joshua, but the majority of these did not exist at the time. Including Jericho, Ai, Gibeon, Lachish, Hazor and many others. The ones that did exist at the time were not destroyed during the timeline of Deuteronomy.

In fact the entire history before ~1200 BCE written in the Old Testament is like a complete fabrication, as all evidence points towards the Israelites only appearing in Palestine around this time, and it is most probable that the Israelites were simply a sub-group of Canaanites, but that's an issue for another day.

What fascinates me with the historicity of the Old Testament the most, is that Jesus, as attributed to him in the Gospels, speaks as if Abraham and other Old Testament characters were really historical figures. Christians believe that Jesus is actually God, yet he doesn't seem aware that the people he speaks about are fictitious.

Demons and Devils

They don't exist, and to prove it I will write out my challenge to any evil (or good) spiritual entities online. When nothing happens, my point will have been proven.

I challenge any supernatural forces or spirits or anything to come prove your existence to me right now. I will worship the first one that appears, so Gods, Goddesses, fairies, Poltergeists, Demons, Devils, Angels, Djinns, whatever, have a race to prove your existence.

Some time later...

I actually feel a bit silly writing this, but nothing has happened. It just goes to show that either A) no conscious supernatural force exists or B) if one exists, it doesn't want us to know about it.

Ussher

No, nothing to do with the singer.
I had always thought of the work of Bishop Ussher trying to add up the dates from the old testament to come up with a date for the creation of the world was a bit of a joke. It just seems so obviously wrong to me. Apparently the folks at CMI don't feel the same way. They're still promoting this 17th century hack-job of a history book.

Link

Sorry!

To all my readers I apologise for being so inactive in the last few weeks. I was supposed to be practising for my end of year recital, but I always managed to find ways to procrastinate, but keeping up with the blog didn't end up being one of those things. I've been reading a bit lately so I have some fresh ideas to put out there.

I plan on getting some posts done this week.