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Topic: What is it about evolution theory that Albertans don't get?
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Snuckles
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2764
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posted 12 August 2008 08:07 AM
quote: Rob Breakenridge, For The Calgary Herald Published: Tuesday, August 12, 2008However you describe it -- distinct, peculiar, or stubborn -- it's undeniable: Albertans possess a unique propensity for bucking national trends. Not that we're troubled by it, mind you; quite the opposite, in most cases. When Albertans are seen to be out of step with much of the country, we wonder what's wrong with everyone else. This is a case, however, where we should be wondering what's wrong with us -- a case where Alberta's anomalous body of opinion is not a source of pride, but rather a deep embarrassment. An Angus Reid poll released last week asks Canadians their views on the question of evolution versus creation. Overall, 58 per cent of Canadians say they are believers in evolution. By region, the numbers are more or less in keeping with the national average. However, there's one notable exception in this poll: Alberta. A shockingly low 37 per cent of Albertans supported the position that humans beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years. An even greater number of Albertans -- 40 percent -- agreed that humans were created by God within the last 10,000 years. How can this be?
Read it here.
From: Hell | Registered: Jun 2002
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Ghislaine
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 14957
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posted 12 August 2008 09:40 AM
quote: Originally posted by Trevormkidd:
Not long ago I was reading about a texas oil man finding no inconsistency inbetween his knowledge that the oil he searches for under the ground is at least 50 million years old and his knowledge that the universe is only 6000 years old. I can't remember where I read it. Of course George W. Bush once talked about how he had scientists studying the bird flu to learn how the strain of the virus might evolve, while at the same time denying evolution.
But Jesus and Mohammed were real people! how can you imply that they may have come from apes? Good thing the UN is looking into whether religious blasphemy should be legal!
From: L'Î-P-É | Registered: Feb 2008
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Polly Brandybuck
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7732
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posted 12 August 2008 09:56 AM
quote: Originally posted by Robespierre: Once more of Alberta gets cable TV access the situation will change.
I wish. My little town in Alberta - well, not mine really but the one I live in - has a population of 1,350 people. For that piddly few, we have five churches AND a bible college!! Ga, can't swing a stick without hitting a religious nut. For my son's grad, the guest speaker felt it necessary to pray for their souls ad nauseum. While half of the grads sat docile with their heads bowed, I was pleased to see my son fiddling and fidgeting, whispering and playing with the tassel on the cap in front of him. All the behaviours that almost made it impossible for him to be graduating...and I thought "good on ya" during grad. In the elementary school, the gideons were invited to hand out bibles to all the poor unenlightened bible-less children. The kids were free to refuse....which of course works so well with 8 year olds. We returned the one my son brought home, along with a very strongly worded refusal and complaint letter to the schoolboard. I demanded that the school either shit or get off the pot, cancel science class altogether or call off the bible thumpers. Thankfully, the gideons won't be back. That coulda gone either way and I might have had to homeschool!
From: To Infinity...and beyond! | Registered: Dec 2004
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TemporalHominid
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6535
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posted 12 August 2008 11:49 AM
We like to keep it real in Alberta... real dumb!
and We don't care what people think of our websites quote: Harry has a strong interest in Creation Science and a drive to see this view shared with the public and taught alongside evolution in the science classroom.
[ 12 August 2008: Message edited by: TemporalHominid ]
From: Under a bridge, in Foot Muck | Registered: Jul 2004
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TemporalHominid
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6535
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posted 12 August 2008 01:11 PM
quote: Originally posted by Polly Brandybuck:
My coffee just come right out my nose.
now that I know where coffee comes from, I am considering quitting drinking coffee.
From: Under a bridge, in Foot Muck | Registered: Jul 2004
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Robespierre
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 15340
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posted 12 August 2008 03:11 PM
quote: Originally posted by Polly Brandybuck:
I wish. My little town in Alberta - well, not mine really but the one I live in - has a population of 1,350 people. For that piddly few, we have five churches AND a bible college!! Ga, can't swing a stick without hitting a religious nut. For my son's grad, the guest speaker felt it necessary to pray for their souls ad nauseum. While half of the grads sat docile with their heads bowed, I was pleased to see my son fiddling and fidgeting, whispering and playing with the tassel on the cap in front of him. All the behaviours that almost made it impossible for him to be graduating...and I thought "good on ya" during grad. In the elementary school, the gideons were invited to hand out bibles to all the poor unenlightened bible-less children. The kids were free to refuse....which of course works so well with 8 year olds. We returned the one my son brought home, along with a very strongly worded refusal and complaint letter to the schoolboard. I demanded that the school either shit or get off the pot, cancel science class altogether or call off the bible thumpers. Thankfully, the gideons won't be back. That coulda gone either way and I might have had to homeschool!
That's a great story there, Polly.
From: Raccoons at my door! | Registered: Jul 2008
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Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560
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posted 12 August 2008 03:17 PM
Yeah, the Gideons brought those little mini-bibles when I was in grade 3 and also in grade 5 (two different schools - I moved around a lot as a kid). And in Kindergarten, at yet another school, the teacher did New Testament book name drills (e.g. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, etc.), and the kid who learned them all ended up getting a toy train from some religious freak visitor. All of this at public schools in various towns in Ontario.Of course, this all happened 25-30 years ago, when they were still saying the Lord's Prayer as part of opening exercises and announcements, etc. There sure as hell isn't any excuse for that sort of thing now, I shouldn't think. It ain't the 70's anymore!
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001
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Sven
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 9972
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posted 12 August 2008 03:43 PM
quote: Originally posted by Michelle: I thought you guys down there still had prayer meetings before football games and all that. (Like Jesus gives a damn who wins the game...oh yeah, I was nailed to a freakin' cross so that I could make sure you beat Downtown Central High today at the game...piss off you little twerps!)
Isn't that (praying about a football game or other athletic event) pathetic? If there was a Gawd (who had pressing responsibilities throughout the universe, not just with regard to lowly Earth), about the last fooking think Gawd would be involved in would be a sporting event—and taking sides, no less!! And, this would be true of weightier events of human concern…such as: “The War Prayer” By Mark Twain It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way. Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation *God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!* Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory -- An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!" The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said: "I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think. "God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it. "You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen! "O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. (*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!" It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
From: Eleutherophobics of the World...Unite!!!!! | Registered: Jul 2005
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RosaL
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 13921
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posted 12 August 2008 04:02 PM
quote: Originally posted by Sven: Good stuff, RosaL!! Particularly:"I guess I figured I'd left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?"
I think the ending is particularly good. But it would lose its force if I quoted it ETA: I didn't mean to criticize your quoting from it. (You didn't quote the end.) [ 12 August 2008: Message edited by: RosaL ]
From: the underclass | Registered: Mar 2007
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