Dead Badger, that is funny! If I didn’t get all ethical and stop using warez (and I hate GIMP), I’d make another one with the beak put in a funny position and… “Dave, I’m a self-made man!” nyuk, nyuk.
My first illustrated thread, and my first thread with 1000 views that didn’t have “sex”, “penis”, or “boobies” in the title. Now all I need to be a true Doper is to piss someone off badly enough to someone pit me.
Oh, and and I show off my fruit.
WooHoo! Nice one.
Well, it might have if God’s involvement in the physical world was the most important (or even a really serious) aspect of God. On the other hand, if the physical is simply a place to hang out and form our psyches that will one day blow away like so much chaff and the essential nature of God has much more to do with our hearts and how we develop our psyches (or whatever) in the ways we treat each other, then it would seem to me that your mother has learned far more about God (even if S/He does not exist) than you credit your Mother.
“…and she’s been showering my parents in AiG & ICR videos and books”
OK. I got “YEC” thanks to http://acronymfinder.com (indispensable when reading SDMB), but what are “AiG” and “ICR”?
[j]Well, it might have if God’s involvement in the physical world was the most important (or even a really serious) aspect of God. On the other hand, if the physical is simply a place to hang out and form our psyches that will one day blow away like so much chaff and the essential nature of God has much more to do with our hearts and how we develop our psyches (or whatever) in the ways we treat each other, then it would seem to me that your mother has learned far more about God (even if S/He does not exist) than you credit your Mother.*
You’re right, I can’t argue with that. I’m sorry I started this pit thread… my beautiful mother is the least deserving person in the world to be pitted. 
With as little anger as you’ve demonstrated, one of the local Mods is liable to send this off to MPSIMS or IMHO, anyway.
As a general sigh of exasperation in the ways that different people see the world and the ways our own views conflict with those of loved ones, it is not a bad rant. I would not see it as good Pitting material, so I don’t think you owe your Mom an apology or anything.
Sorry. Got this bad habit of assuming everyone knows what I’m speaking of, but then again, this is the Deep Deep South where EVERYONE believes in young-earth creationism. Probably a clue that I’m too self-centered. The two main Young-Earth Creationism outlets are:
Answers in Genesis
and
Institute for Creation Research
My grandmother, bless her heart, keeps buying videos & books and sending them to my parents. So many, that I imagine they’ve got a whole closet full somewhere. As said before, I feel guilty about that for 2 reasons: (1) she HATES addressing me face-to-face, so if she’s got a concern or question about me or my friends, she always tries to pry them out of my parents, and the evolution thing really freaked her out, and (2) she’s spending her retirement to enrich creationist organizations because of me.
tomndebb this is as angry & cussy as I get as I hate confrontation even on-line, but if the mods feel free to see it fit, go ahead. 
Is it just me or are you apologizing for using an abbv. and then… still don’t say what it means?
I see much later on that it apparently means Young Earth Creationist. But what of post #45 by Barely Adequate? I feel for your plight but this has been more work than it need be. Sorry to complain.
Nic
No, your point is perfectly legit. I didn’t think to define it in #35 because the right answer was in #26. Young Earth Creationism. Sorry, bad omission.
Really, your mom sounds like she’s trying to keep the peace as much as anything. She’s stuck between Grandma, who really, really believes, and her kid, who really, really doesn’t. If she makes one completely happy, the other will be completely unhappy.
This way nobody’s too terribly offended. Grandma gets to rant until she goes to discuss creationism with god, in person. Then your mom will hopefully have many years to watch you come to realize what a delicate balancing act keeping family from killing each other can be.
No balancing act involved here. The family (siblings, parents, grandparents) is pretty much unified against me 100% of the time which probably has contributed to a lot of the frustration behind the post. She agrees with my grandmother, she’s just not happy that she has to be the target of Grandma’s freakouts over my beliefs. Grandma’s never had a real conversation with me, probably because she’s not comfortable speaking to someone who has severe speech impediments.
Do you really think that? I’ll bet that quite a few folks in the Deep Deep South are agnostics or atheists or have other views about creation.
I’m a Southern Christian and I’ve never heard of “young-earth creationism” by that particular name. There are a good number of Creationists, but I doubt that most of the population believes it.
Pax
Watching ABC News the other night, a Gallup poll was flashed on the screen that said 45% of Americans believed God created the universe 10,000 years ago. :eek:
Nothing was said regarding error or methodology, but that was the quote. Not quite a majority, but close.
Admittedly, maybe it was my particular community. We don’t throw out acronyms, but Institute for Creation Research & Answers in Genesis are about as well known as James Kennedy, World Magazine, Focus on the Family, and the like. Believing in evolution just isn’t an option any more than being pro-choice or pro-gay-marriage is. I don’t like to debate, but I lurk on Great Debates a lot, and I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve read “only a very tiny minority of fundamentalists believe that” and I thought it was perfectly mainstream Christianity.
Just in case you don’t have a clear enough picture of how extreme my family’s beliefs are… my family was against me leaving a tech monkey job (which I was only doing temporarily until I acquired my MS) for a programming job in a high profile company, because a woman shouldn’t be without her family or her husband. :rolleyes: These little conflicts have been accumulating ever since I moved back to the hometown, so the penguin incident probably affected me a lot more than it normally would have.
Wait, let me get this straight. You believe the vast majority of Christians feel a certain way, and you are female?
::Sits down next to her::
So, how you doin’ ?
And you say you have evolved.
IMHO, perfectly acceptable to hold jobs as being “beneath you”. One shouldn’t expect that someone with a law degree would be happy doing a paralegal, and one shouldn’t expect that a PhD researcher at Google would be happy in my new job. My job is a low-pay dead-end that requires the education of 2 community college classes, max.
What would be wrong is if:
(1) I blame not getting the job I want on brown people, the economy, whatever, instead of improving my marketability and expanding my skills;
(2) refuse to accept a job on the basis that it is “beneath you” when no other alternative exists;
(3) judging someone as being worth less because the career they choose is not one you would want to choose.
I’m just curious now. Where do you live? Of all of those organizations and people you named, the only one I’ve heard of is Focus on the Family. They’re the ones in Boulder, right?
(I’m on the other side of the spectrum. Last week I had to defend my opinion that George W. Bush isn’t “evil” to my parents.)
