D
Deleted member 5174
Guest
Hello LoR,
I haven't been here in a while but I think I will get into the forum like I once used to.
But that's besides the point - I am taking a summer class on Fine Arts due to my preference of learning the paintings than actually drawing.
I thought I would enjoy the class when the teacher, a band teacher at my school, described our course and said that we would be learning the various different philosophies behind the art, such as existentialism and pluralism and the like.
It got particulary disastrous when he started the "teaching" with this statement (not exact, this is from yesterday and today): "I don't believe in evolution and everyone who knows me knows that. I'm not gonna tell you what I do believe, but I just can't believe in evolution."
So far I have been in that class for a total of 8 hours. Here are the arguments/techniques he uses that I have gathered and summed up, as well as why I could tell he was a fundie Christian, not a true skeptic:
1. Our textbook, "The Creative Impulse", starts off the paragraph by stating humans have been hunter-gatherers for some millions of years. He stopped us there and told us he would teach us a quick "critical thinking" method: he told us that the book has a 'pro-evolution' bias and that people will try to brainwash you into thinking what they think.
2. He then drew a line on the chalkboard and divided Philosophies with God on the left and Philosophies without God on the right.
3. He told us his main reason, out of one of "many reasons", why he does not believe (I would say accept) evolution: the textbook continued on to say that men discovered fire, clothing, and et cetera. He then said, "we've been walking around for millions of years and one day we just discover clothing?!"
4. He used the same reasoning when we came to the page about the ancient Egyptians: "if evolution is true, they are saying that we came up with the Harp after one day.."
5. He constantly advocates skepticism [which frankly is a good thing when used and applied properly] - "I don't know but we do know these people are wrong" yet, he does not apply the same degree of skepticism to the Bible - he does admit it could be wrong on several accounts but says it's a "historical document" and it is "accurate" because it mentions cities like Ur, nations like Egypt and Babylon.
6. He's glad that he can talk about religion in this class since it stays within the rules. He also believes he is equipping us with tools to challenge University professors who usually will 'beat down' on kids who do not know anything, as he says..
7. We are watching the documentary "Egypt's Golden Empire". He periodically stops and inserts his own comments in. He accuses Zahi Hawass with the claim that he is being paid by the Egyptian government and is "painting the history of Egypt in the way the Egyptians want it"..
8. He mentions the possibility that the Hyksos who invaded Egypt (the documentary never mentions how they took over, so the teacher assumes it was power transfer) could be the Hebrews because the Hyksos were sheperd-kings and Hebrews were sheperds.. Well, he not only mentions the possibility but acts according to.. then stops at the end and says "it's all for debate guys, no one knows".
9. And he also says that Moses could have been the pharaoh who wiped Hatshepsut's name off the records.
10. He claims that when you calculate the "accurate" and "consistent" Jewish lunar calendar (???) it will make the date of the Exodus 1440 BC.
11. He believes that an actual Exodus happened, but also says the number is "debatable"..
12. He doesn't believe that the Egyptian pharaohs built the Great Pyramid - "they just didn't have the technology". He postulated the idea that a global flood could have wiped out the technology since the lesser two pyramids are more crude and less exact in measurement..
13. He mentions "factoids" about the Great Pyramid, such as how it lines up with the stars and how the blocks were too heavy. The Egyptians couldn't have done it, in his mind.
14. He paused the video when one of the experts in the documentary said that Akhenaten was the first recorded monotheist and then proceeded to apologized to us because "that statement could be offensive to any of you that is religious". He went back to a timeline he drew earlier (in which he tried to demonstrate Moses and the walls of Jericho and other things) and said that the evolutionist's worldview is people walking around for few m.y. and suddenly discovering civilization and polytheistic religions arising and Akhenaten coming up with monotheism. Then he contrasted with how if you believe in God, you believe some people went wayward from God and then Akhenaten stole monotheism from the Hebrews.
15. I am backtracking because there is so much to remember. He made us "research" (i.e. Google) up similiarities between the flood stories of Noah's Ark and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
16. He also made some of us look up "is Gilgamesh Nimrod?" (Nimrod is mentioned in the Bible)
17. He tried to make the case that the Sumerians could have stolen the story from the Old Testament, not the other way around (and in the process assumed that all scholars firmly believe and have established that the Bible stole from Gilgamesh Epic).
18. He said that the "modern scientific worldview" says there is no god.
19. He mixes "science" and "evolution" frequently in the context of: "If you believe in evoltuion, ...." and "If you believe in science, ..."
20. Back to the Egypt thing: he CONSTANTLY mocks the Ancient Aliens hypothesis [I will call it hypothesis since the teacher uses the word Theory like political theories] and once said, "If you believe in evolution, you might as well as believe in aliens.."
21. He mentioned "the teacher from Ferris Bueller" and how he made a documentary about "challenging the universities" and that "Universities are the worst places you can go, actually".
22. Claims mainstream scholars/historians are anti-semitic, just like how he claims they are evolutionists, embrace science, don't believe in God, etc.
Hm, those are the ones I can think of for now. I am sure I have more and will either come back and post some more absurdities or edit and expand this post.
For 4 hours the last two days I have been wishing for someone like Dawkins to come walk in to the classroom. I'd like to hear any comments, feedback, etc.
I haven't been here in a while but I think I will get into the forum like I once used to.
But that's besides the point - I am taking a summer class on Fine Arts due to my preference of learning the paintings than actually drawing.
I thought I would enjoy the class when the teacher, a band teacher at my school, described our course and said that we would be learning the various different philosophies behind the art, such as existentialism and pluralism and the like.
It got particulary disastrous when he started the "teaching" with this statement (not exact, this is from yesterday and today): "I don't believe in evolution and everyone who knows me knows that. I'm not gonna tell you what I do believe, but I just can't believe in evolution."
So far I have been in that class for a total of 8 hours. Here are the arguments/techniques he uses that I have gathered and summed up, as well as why I could tell he was a fundie Christian, not a true skeptic:
1. Our textbook, "The Creative Impulse", starts off the paragraph by stating humans have been hunter-gatherers for some millions of years. He stopped us there and told us he would teach us a quick "critical thinking" method: he told us that the book has a 'pro-evolution' bias and that people will try to brainwash you into thinking what they think.
2. He then drew a line on the chalkboard and divided Philosophies with God on the left and Philosophies without God on the right.
3. He told us his main reason, out of one of "many reasons", why he does not believe (I would say accept) evolution: the textbook continued on to say that men discovered fire, clothing, and et cetera. He then said, "we've been walking around for millions of years and one day we just discover clothing?!"
4. He used the same reasoning when we came to the page about the ancient Egyptians: "if evolution is true, they are saying that we came up with the Harp after one day.."
5. He constantly advocates skepticism [which frankly is a good thing when used and applied properly] - "I don't know but we do know these people are wrong" yet, he does not apply the same degree of skepticism to the Bible - he does admit it could be wrong on several accounts but says it's a "historical document" and it is "accurate" because it mentions cities like Ur, nations like Egypt and Babylon.
6. He's glad that he can talk about religion in this class since it stays within the rules. He also believes he is equipping us with tools to challenge University professors who usually will 'beat down' on kids who do not know anything, as he says..
7. We are watching the documentary "Egypt's Golden Empire". He periodically stops and inserts his own comments in. He accuses Zahi Hawass with the claim that he is being paid by the Egyptian government and is "painting the history of Egypt in the way the Egyptians want it"..
8. He mentions the possibility that the Hyksos who invaded Egypt (the documentary never mentions how they took over, so the teacher assumes it was power transfer) could be the Hebrews because the Hyksos were sheperd-kings and Hebrews were sheperds.. Well, he not only mentions the possibility but acts according to.. then stops at the end and says "it's all for debate guys, no one knows".
9. And he also says that Moses could have been the pharaoh who wiped Hatshepsut's name off the records.
10. He claims that when you calculate the "accurate" and "consistent" Jewish lunar calendar (???) it will make the date of the Exodus 1440 BC.
11. He believes that an actual Exodus happened, but also says the number is "debatable"..
12. He doesn't believe that the Egyptian pharaohs built the Great Pyramid - "they just didn't have the technology". He postulated the idea that a global flood could have wiped out the technology since the lesser two pyramids are more crude and less exact in measurement..
13. He mentions "factoids" about the Great Pyramid, such as how it lines up with the stars and how the blocks were too heavy. The Egyptians couldn't have done it, in his mind.
14. He paused the video when one of the experts in the documentary said that Akhenaten was the first recorded monotheist and then proceeded to apologized to us because "that statement could be offensive to any of you that is religious". He went back to a timeline he drew earlier (in which he tried to demonstrate Moses and the walls of Jericho and other things) and said that the evolutionist's worldview is people walking around for few m.y. and suddenly discovering civilization and polytheistic religions arising and Akhenaten coming up with monotheism. Then he contrasted with how if you believe in God, you believe some people went wayward from God and then Akhenaten stole monotheism from the Hebrews.
15. I am backtracking because there is so much to remember. He made us "research" (i.e. Google) up similiarities between the flood stories of Noah's Ark and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
16. He also made some of us look up "is Gilgamesh Nimrod?" (Nimrod is mentioned in the Bible)
17. He tried to make the case that the Sumerians could have stolen the story from the Old Testament, not the other way around (and in the process assumed that all scholars firmly believe and have established that the Bible stole from Gilgamesh Epic).
18. He said that the "modern scientific worldview" says there is no god.
19. He mixes "science" and "evolution" frequently in the context of: "If you believe in evoltuion, ...." and "If you believe in science, ..."
20. Back to the Egypt thing: he CONSTANTLY mocks the Ancient Aliens hypothesis [I will call it hypothesis since the teacher uses the word Theory like political theories] and once said, "If you believe in evolution, you might as well as believe in aliens.."
21. He mentioned "the teacher from Ferris Bueller" and how he made a documentary about "challenging the universities" and that "Universities are the worst places you can go, actually".
22. Claims mainstream scholars/historians are anti-semitic, just like how he claims they are evolutionists, embrace science, don't believe in God, etc.
Hm, those are the ones I can think of for now. I am sure I have more and will either come back and post some more absurdities or edit and expand this post.
For 4 hours the last two days I have been wishing for someone like Dawkins to come walk in to the classroom. I'd like to hear any comments, feedback, etc.