# Nearly a third of Texans think "The Flintstones" was a documentary **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 20, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814 "2010-02-20T22:30:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/81 "2010-02-25T19:27:31Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Ya know, there are ignorant assholes in other states, too! **Like Iowa, got ignorant assholes**. I would like to point out that we limit them to the western edge of the state a pretend that they are Nebraskans. Just sayin’ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/82 "2010-02-25T19:28:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Do you know why Texas gets so much pull with the text book publishers when CA has considerably more people than they do? Unless I’m mistaken, it has to do with Texas having a textbook committee that selects books for the entire state, while California school districts have more autonomy; thus, the books selected for the San Diego Unified School District will not necessarily be the same as the books used in Napa County. If California school districts all used the same books, they would represent a much larger bloc of customers than the Texas school system. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/83 "2010-02-25T19:41:46Z")
Ah, that would make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/84 "2010-02-25T20:07:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Unless I’m mistaken, it has to do with Texas having a textbook committee that selects books for the entire state, while California school districts have more autonomy; thus, the books selected for the San Diego Unified School District will not necessarily be the same as the books used in Napa County. > > If California school districts all used the same books, they would represent a much larger bloc of customers than the Texas school system. That’s my understanding also. The selection committee might have had to work from an approved set, but I think the set was fairly large, and I didn’t get the sense that they felt constrained. In our district, if the schools did anything at all that might be seen as devaluing the worth of the high school diploma, there would be a firestorm of protest. Good SAT scores and good school reputation is hundreds of times more important than religion. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/85 "2010-02-25T20:10:00Z")
The thing I always found strange about the Flintstones is not that it was about humans living among dinosaurs, but that they celebrated CHRISTMAS. They even had a Christmas version of Fruity Pebbles cereal! So what % of people thinks that Jesus walked among the dinosaurs too? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/86 "2010-02-25T20:31:08Z")
Even Jesus would be careful about walking amongst dinosaur. The dangers of walking directly in front of a dinosaur are obvious, but walking directly behind and beneath…well, lets just draw a discreet veil over that, shall we? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/87 "2010-02-25T20:34:54Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > The thing I always found strange about the Flintstones is not that it was about humans living among dinosaurs, but that they celebrated CHRISTMAS. They even had a Christmas version of Fruity Pebbles cereal! So what % of people thinks that Jesus walked among the dinosaurs too? Ah, but that’s the magic of the Flintstones - the show was set not in the past, but in a dimly imagined future. Sort of _Fallout_ meets _Jurassic Park_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/88 "2010-02-25T20:52:27Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > The thing I always found strange about the Flintstones is not that it was about humans living among dinosaurs, but that they celebrated CHRISTMAS. They even had a Christmas version of Fruity Pebbles cereal! So what % of people thinks that Jesus walked among the dinosaurs too? Judging from the pictures I’ve seen of Jesus and dinosaurs I rather think He sort of mosied among them. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/89 "2010-02-26T18:55:45Z")
I mean, Texas has world-class universities, and a lot of very wealthy, educated people. Yet much of the populace embraces medieval theological ideas…witness the popularity of frauds like Robert Tilton! (Tilton went to jail for fraud, and yet, re-established his “church”-and is now rolling in dough!) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/90 "2010-02-26T23:49:58Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Even Jesus would be careful about walking amongst dinosaur. The dangers of walking directly in front of a dinosaur are obvious, but walking directly behind and beneath…well, lets just draw a discreet veil over that, shall we? But having a figure of Jesus smushed in dinosaur poop on the walls of many Christians would be awesome! I trust they wouldn’t change the composition of the Communion wafer. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/91 "2010-02-27T04:15:31Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I mean, Texas has world-class universities, and a lot of very wealthy, educated people. > Yet much of the populace embraces medieval theological ideas…witness the popularity of frauds like Robert Tilton! > (Tilton went to jail for fraud, and yet, re-established his “church”-and is now rolling in dough!) If you want to make sense of it, I suggest you read [_Made in Texas,_](http://books.google.com/books?id=Ig63J-SveWUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=made+in+texas+lind&source=bl&ots=nNFoSmStNa&sig=DphJsYinuv6Rzm6-2wmuq3y-oRU&hl=en&ei=B5yIS6aCFdGUtgfeo7CTDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CA0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false) by [Michael Lind](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lind) (a native Texan – who also wrote a [book-length epic poem](http://www.amazon.com/Alamo-Micheal-Lind/dp/0395827582) about the Battle of the Alamo). It explores the various historical legacies and subcultures that have gone into making the Lone Star State the paradoxical place that it is, and that could produce both LBJ and GWB, a purely extractive oil industry and a vibrant, creative computer industry, etc. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/92 "2010-02-27T04:20:41Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > The thing I always found strange about the Flintstones is not that it was about humans living among dinosaurs, but that they celebrated CHRISTMAS. They even had a Christmas version of Fruity Pebbles cereal! So what % of people thinks that Jesus walked among the dinosaurs too? Similar cognitive dissonance emerged in _B.C._ when [Johnny Hart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Hart) got born again late in life. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/93 "2010-02-27T05:08:59Z")
An epic poem about the Battle of the _what_? ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/94 "2010-02-27T17:37:51Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Even Jesus would be careful about walking amongst dinosaur. The dangers of walking directly in front of a dinosaur are obvious, but walking directly behind and beneath…well, lets just draw a discreet veil over that, shall we? Hey, if Jesus could walk on water, surely he could walk on … not-water. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/95 "2010-02-27T17:54:07Z")
> [@Cyningablod](#): > > \ > > Respectfully, IMHO, this is the sort of po-mo “fashionably relativist” (Dawkins’ term) ideology that allows utter hogwash to assume the esteemed mantle of Truth, when in fact it possesses no actual truth. This type of thought is ultimately counterproductive, because it allows pretty much anyone to come forward and assert various kinds of “truths”, invariably contributing to the factually baseless perception of a “controversy” in areas such as science. > > Yeah, I know that an academic argument can be made to the effect that there are different kinds of “truths” (and indeed, I recognise and acknowledge, perhaps ironically, that this is a truism in itself), but I really think that calling a creation myth any kind of “truth” is a reeeeeal stretch. It might just have partially been this academic relativism that has allowed creationism/ID to have grown in influence and respect! > > \ > > Carry on. Nah, gotta disagree with ya here, **Cyningablod**. It’s not so much a matter of “truths” as “discrete classes of phenomena”. Science is a way of understanding rational phenomena - those things that can, ultimately, be described mathematically. But there are nonrational phenomena, as well. A thought experiment: Consider the statement “_Huckleberry Finn_ was Mark Twain’s greatest book.” Can this statement be proven or disproven scientifically? No, of course not. Does that mean that the statement is meaningless? Also no - just that that statement is subject to a different set of analytical tools. Does that mean that science and literary criticism are antithetical? That’s also a “no”. That’s my objection to statements like **ninjachick** ’s in post 48, that science and religion are antithetical. (Credit where it’s due - I got this idea from Stephen Jay Gould’s essays on what he called “nonoverlapping magisteria.” The thought experiment is my own, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/96 "2010-02-27T19:02:14Z")
> [@slowmovingvehicle](#): > > Hey, if Jesus could walk on water, surely he could walk on … not-water. We already established upthread that Jesus didn’t walk among dinosaurs. He rode them – bareback. (Jesus was immune to STDs.) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/97 "2010-02-27T19:59:29Z")
> [@slowmovingvehicle](#): > > …(Credit where it’s due …Stephen Jay Gould’s… The sorely missed. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/98 "2010-02-28T14:44:29Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > The sorely missed. True dat. Bows head reverently for a moment of silence ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/99 "2010-02-28T14:47:37Z")
Not only that, [the Texans are dumbing down history for everybody else.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=551835) ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814/100 "2010-02-28T15:36:09Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > An epic poem about the Battle of the _what_? The Battle of the [Alamosaurus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamosaurus). Pay attention, geez :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nearly-a-third-of-texans-think-the-flintstones-was-a-documentary/529814.md?page=6)