But the promises he made are. Christians do not heal the sick, survive poisonous snakes, or get whatever they wish for, any more often than atheists. And unless you believe in Last Thursdayism, science has proved conclusively that the earth is older than 6000 years (they recently dated aStonehenge-like structure in Turkey to about 12000 years ago).
Besides, I take him at his word that he was just making a deadpan joke; I’ve had what I thought were the most obvious jokes taken seriously by people.
To be fair, I also think that about half the politicians who say they believe in the dead guy are lying.
"When he walked into the voting booth, he wasn’t electing a Sunday school teacher or a pastor or even a president who shared his theological beliefs; he was electing the president of the United States with the talents, abilities and experience required to lead a nation,” - Jerry Falwell jr
(Replying to the idea that his dad would roll over in his grave for supporting Trump despite Trump not being the most Christian guy in the race)
The age of the Earth is also testable and falsifiable. So is the theory of evolution. Still a lot of people in office who don’t believe in either of those things.
Would the dumbass’s concerns about Guam been any more palatable if he’d said he was worried that God would make the island flip over if we put too many marines on it?
No, it’s not obvious at all. Many folks on this MB are OK with the president targeting people to be killed, but not OK with torture under any circumstances. That is, in fact, the position of the current president of the United States.
It’s true: both the age of the Earth and the theory of evolution are absolutely testable, and falsifiable, and when their predictions are tested their basic tenets hold up.
That’s why I believe the Earth is 4.5 billion years old. (Actually, 4,500,000,045 years old, because it was 4.5 billion years old 45 years ago when I learned its age.)
And I agree that the failure to accept this fact is fairly described as intellectually dim.
But I still say that the belief that an island could tip over and capsize because of more people living there is in a different category of dim. In other words, while both are failures of intellect, the truth is that stratigraphic analysis and radiometric dating are not self-evidently true. Accepting the truth of the information they provide requires at least some education in their underlying principles. Evolution similarly is not self-evident; it requires education and insight. DNA proves evolution is real, but it’s not something anyone can just see. We as a species didn’t glom onto the truth of evolution until recently, historically speaking.
But when it comes to islands tipping over from weight, the historical record is clearer. We don’t need a specialized understanding of the rate of beta decay to observe that islands don’t tip over. We don’t need a specialized understanding of the Falkland Islands wolf genetic variations to understand that the Falkland islands themselves have never tipped over.
All that proves is that they didn’t have enough Marines on them.
It’s now pretty clear that fracking can cause earthquakes, so it’s not inconceivable that if an island was already unstable, a huge number of people could give it a nudge over the edge, especially if they were drilling wells or excavating for building foundations or whatever.
Anyway, it’s not as dumb as thinking the pyramids were grain silos. And unlike the Guam situation, there is no doubt that Carson was serious about it.
I’ll agree there’s a difference in degree here. But the standard for who’s smart enough to be President should be pretty high. A person who thinks islands can flip over isn’t intelligent enough to be President. But a person who thinks the Earth is seven thousand years old also isn’t intelligent enough to be President. I’m not saying Christians are necessarily stupid but an intelligent Christian has to be aware that the Bible is a moral guide not a textbook. If you believe God created the universe then you should give primacy to evidence you get from studying the universe over evidence you get from reading a book written by fallible human beings.
Small nitpick. Fracking causing earthquakes??? I believe it’s the waste water injection into areas with significant faults that’s been pinpointed as the cause. http://www.usgs.gov/faq/categories/9833/3426%20
Before you get yourself all in a tizzy, you should probably check to see if anyone would actually say that. Progressives who believe no official should be using their office to impose their religious views aren’t going to want Islam being imposed anymore than Christianity.
“A nudge over the edge,” meaning that their presence would trigger an earthquake, or “a nudge over the edge,” meaning that the island would tip over and capsize?
Yes, it is – it’s dumber, in fact. The pyramids were not grain silos, but that’s simply knowing a historical fact. It’s physically possible to store grain inside the pyramids. The fact is that the Egyptians did not do this. But they could have done so without violating basic laws of science.
Islands, on the other hand, don’t tip over and capsize. This is not simply because the inhabitants are skinny.
The simplified process with shale oil and gas wells is to drill to a formation, seal the hole except for the pressure injection mechanism, and inject under high pressure water (with various chemical added) and fracking sand. The high pressure fractures the rock formation in the area of the drill hole and fills the resulting cracks with the fracking sand. The pressure is removed (some of the water/chemical mixture along with other contaminants from the drill process and the rock formation are recovered at this time). The fractured rock cannot completely collapse because the sand holds the rock apart. This allows the oil, gas, and gas liquids to flow through the previously impermeable rock to the bore hole. Much of the remainder of the initial injection water is recovered at this stage.
What to do with all the returned water? As mentioned, it’s got various contaminants from the initial added chemicals plus crude oil, dissolved gases, minerals, and drilling detritus. You can’t irrigate fields with it and the contaminants make it unsuitable for re-injection without expensive filtering. So they pump it into waste water injection wells where it may act as a lubricant in existing small faults.
The initial oil/gas fracking is done (usually) at a depth where small faults shifts causing earth quakes are not felt at the surface (note the “usually”). Waste water injection is done at a lesser depth (it’s a cost) and acts as a lubricant to small faults. The “closer to surface” quakes are felt more often and cause more damage.
That’s the $.25 explanation. I’ve done a lot of time in Oklahoma with some related work to the oil and gas industry. Note that Arkansas and Ohio had significant quake swarms and damage. They closed off or severely restricted the waste water injection which dramatically dropped the incidents of quakes.
The basic laws of science have to be learned; they’re not something we’re born knowing. And they include wacky things like quantum phenomena that even scientists don’t fully understand, and that show that we can’t trust our “common sense” on things we haven’t verified.
AFAIK, nobody has actually tried loading up an island with Marines, so although common sense would tell you it wouldn’t matter, it’s not a verified fact. On the other hand, the pyramids have been studied extensively, and it IS a verified fact that they have a very low ratio of interior space to total volume, and that they could not have been built with ancient technology in a few months, or even 7 years (which was when Joseph’s famine would begin), and that they were built long before the earliest possible date of Jacob’s alleged migration to Egypt.
Not in our recent experience. The same is true of people walking on water or rising into the sky, both of which all the Republican candidates (claim to) fervently believe.
