That big tent

Posted 19 January 2006 by Tara Smith

Buridan of Buridan's ass has some discussion about Vedic creation in America (Short EvoWiki blurb on vedic creationism), linking an article that claims

Prominent I.D. theorists (Philip Johnson, Michael Behe) and some Catholic creationists have endorsed Vedic creationism.

Afraid of kickin' anyone outta that tent, ain't they?

16 Comments

Bayesian Bouffant, FCD · 19 January 2006

The circus adds another ring.

Distilling out common components from various religions does not make those components scientific, and does not even make them nonreligious.

Besides, they'll never get the Theravada Buddhists on board.

k.e. · 19 January 2006

Bayesian Bouffant, FCD
Besides, they'll never get the Theravada Buddhists on board.

oooooohh I don't know ;)
I'm sure they would argue that they would make them better at their 'game'
But they may have to go through a few 'ego' deaths to do it :0

Arden Chatfield · 19 January 2006

Besides, they'll never get the Theravada Buddhists on board.

Agreed. I don't think fundies of any stripe would like this:

"So, as I said, Kalamas: 'Don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, "This contemplative is our teacher." When you know for yourselves that, "These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness" --- then you should enter & remain in them.

That whole 'thinking for yourself' thing doesn't dovetail real well with fundamentalism, Abrahamic or Vedic.

Tyrannosaurus · 19 January 2006

Somehow I don't see the fundies going along well with Brahman hatching from an egg !!!!!!!!! with half the shell as the sky and the other half the Earth. But, hey all you need is faith (oops!!!! should have said Intelligent Designer) after all
HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE

Marine Geologist · 19 January 2006

Point of interest, is there something called the "Atlantean Theory". Something to do with pyramids of whatever stripe (Mayan, Egyptian, etc.) and the theory that every civilization gets to some point where they nuke each other and the survivors degenerate then reinvent civilization. I don't have all the details, the guy trying to tell me about it had been at Happy Hour since noon and the sun was well down at the time.

Gorbe · 19 January 2006

This is too funny. You know what also would be very funny? If all the herculean efforts of IDers result in a Philosophy and/or Comparitive Religions course(s) being included in public school curriculuns. How sweetly ironic that would be. Hey, I can dream!

Corkscrew · 19 January 2006

I think the Atlantean theory is just that there was once an Uber-civilisation living on an island in the Atlantic that somehow got clobbered and vanished. The Atlanteans then migrated to a variety of places worldwide where they apparently spent their remaining years convincing the locals to build lots of pyramids.

Often aliens are mentioned. This should not be a surprise.

AC · 19 January 2006

That whole 'thinking for yourself' thing doesn't dovetail real well with fundamentalism, Abrahamic or Vedic.
— Arden Chatfield

Not just thinking for oneself, but doing for oneself. After all, even if you can't control someone's thoughts, controlling their welfare and happiness through other means will usually do.

'Rev Dr' Lenny Flank · 19 January 2006

Vedic creation in America

A cyber-friend of mine from the DebunkCreation email list, archeologist Michael Brass, has written a book shredding all of Cremo's crap, entitled "The Antiquity of Man". I recommend it highly.

Raging Bee · 20 January 2006

What about Norse creationism? I vaguely remember specific references to the EVOLUTION of humans, from brutish ugly animals to refined civilized people, each generation improving on the last. (Carol Clouser's been going on about scientific truths in the Bible, so she might find this of interest.)

Anton Mates · 20 January 2006

What about Norse creationism?

They believed the first humans were fashioned from trees, didn't they? It'd be interesting to have a class teaching that humans and trees belong to the same created kind...elm to woman? Pah, that's just microevolution! According to Lovecraft, the Star-Headed Old Ones of the Antarctic bred hominids for food and entertainment. That's a promisingly testable variant of Intelligent Design...do we taste good? Do we dance amusingly?

Corkscrew · 20 January 2006

Norse creationism, huh? I assume everyone's seen this cartoon?

Tara Smith · 20 January 2006

I hadn't seen that before, but that's excellent.

Henry J · 20 January 2006

Ah so! Humans are descended from ents. I wonder if Gandalf knew that? Hmmm...

Steviepinhead · 20 January 2006

Don't know about Middle-earth "humans" being descended from ents, but the origin of hobbits remains pretty mysterious. And, hmm, Merry and Pippy were the ones who brought the ents into the alliance...

But then, the origin of "hobbits" is still a bit of a (paleontological) mystery in our world, as well.

some random guy · 21 January 2006

"by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability"

As a philosopher I can only ask, what's wrong with these?