Is it for the DIRTY money?
Seriously, why is it whenever I hear a scientist dismiss some religious claim, people think they have an agenda?
When Stephen Hawking said something like; “The Big Bang Didn’t Need God”, some people actually thought he was mad at god because of his disability.
Are there any theories why most scientist are “anti-god”? There’s no motive so far as I can see.
What I guess I’m looking for is, what do crazy religious people think is going on? What’s the conspiracy?
The skeptical mindset that is an asset to a scientist is a hindrance to a theist.
This isn’t the theory of theist because believe that atheist scientists are mad at god is more comforting to them.
Because they don’t want to admit that the reason that their baseless, illogical, physically impossible fantasy is being dismissed is because it’s baseless, illogical and physically impossible .
Right… but WHAT IS the agenda, that’s what I’m asking. Why does Bill Nye care about what children think? What motive are they supposedly supposed to have?
Nice people don’t like other people lying to children.
That various from believer to believer. Satanism is a popular one.
You asked why people think there must be an agenda, and DT is right. If the other party is unwilling to agree with what I know to be true, (and I am unwilling or unable to re-examine / critically think about what I suppose I know), then that other person must be stupid, or lying, or corrupt, or an evil pinko commie, etc.
I’d expect that the exact reason / agenda perceived is going to depend on my worldview, what I know (or what other people say) about the other person and so on. I wouldn’t expect every rebuffed loon to arrive at the same answer. (Although if they did that might either point to there being one, or reveal something very interesting about how we think). 
Certainly one would look for a reason for why people ask questions, however the religious mind sees anyone questioning their belief to have an agenda, Richard Dawkins said give me proof, un-denying and un-reproachable proof that GOD exists and he will then believe in a GOD, however there is no proof that you can give to any religious zealot that will make them change there mind about their GOD. So you can therefore surmise that the atheist “agenda” is to give evidence that we evolved from apes…where the theist “agenda” is to convince us that we all appeared here in a poof of magic…that’s what I see
Well, you see, there is this book called the Bible. This book was written by God and it is the only and absolute truth. This book was also written in English so the “good” people could understand the word of God. This book is the only truth one ever needs in their life.
Some basic facts from the Bible and the “scholars” that study it.
God created the World in October 4004 BC
God did this in six days
God created all life, exactly as it is now, in that time including Dinosaurs which either died in the flood or shortly thereafter.
God had a son with a virgin and fixed any problems that God might have missed the first time around, even though God is infallible.
Scientists dare to question these truths, even claim to disprove them, therefore scientists are against God and their agenda is to brainwash children into not believing the “truth”. This takes the children away from God and condemns them to eternal hellfire. Really it is all about the children.
So, it works kinda like this. Scientists lie about evolution to get the kids away from God and soon they will be working in gay porn or something.
That is the agenda as far as I can tell
Capt atheist for a reason or six
So it’s win/win!
Scientists have been tempted by Satan to disparage the revealed holy truth of God and replace it with their own puny reason. Satan uses their hubris to work against God and turn people towards darkness. Good Christians must resist these false teachings at every turn, not only for our own sake, but for our country’s sake.
Is that the official position of a particular denomination?
IIRC I’ve heard that used in anti-evolution arguments. Fossils are the work of Satan, and scientists know this but lie about it.
It’s mostly the people who empathize with religion or need it to be true who say this kind of thing; It’s easier to deal with the fact that you believe in something so fervently that is so unlikely if you pretend that anyone with the knowledge to refute your claims is hostile, or to pretend that they’re your adversary.
Okay, I call myself a Christian, and believe most of the content of the Nicene Creed. But my understanding is that a follower of Jesus should treat others in the compassionate, generous, non-judgmental manner He taught, not as the thpical Christian Right does. So I may be able to give a bit of perspective here.
First, for the so-called “Bible-believing Christians,” it is the ultimate authority, being in origin the written word of God, and anything which contradicts it in any way must be in error. Of course, this requires that one disregard the obvious genres of writing contained in Scripture, and take it as literal reportage of events. Hence any Christian who has bothered to study the Bible in the contexts in which its constituent elements were written rejects this facile literalism.
But let me propose, for the sake of argument, that we make the contrafactual presumption that the first dozen chapters of Genesis are literal accounts, etc. And then we go about examining the cosmos, the rocks and fossil record, the ethnic distribution of mankind, etc., according to the prinicples or their respective sciences. In point of fact, despite our insane presumption, we will come to the same conclusions as the moderrn scientific consensus in each discipline has.
Why? Because science is limited to examining what can be presumed to have happened in accordance with the natural laws we can induce from the world we observe, It tells us what would be the logical inference from astrpmp,ocal pbservation, geological and paleontological studies, ethnological relations, etc. That according to literally-understood Scripture God did something different is not relevant to what cosmology, geology, and so on can tell us. “If I drop tjos ball, it will fall to the ground.” “Yeah… unless someone catches it first.” Fpr pbvious reasons, the catching of the ball is not a ‘disproof’ of what dropping the ball proves.
And, of course, since any Biblical scholar worth his salt knows the importance in Jewish literature of haggadah, the story-with-a-point, of legend, the literalist approach is of no value to anyone who bothers to try thinking things out.
But in a world where things change and people lie, the idea that the Bible can be relied on for factual information about the universe’s and world’s origins and early history is a comfortable untruth.
Their “agenda” is to replace glorious belief in a wondrous and almighty God with a blind secular adherence to cold logic and reason.
Well sir, I for one do NOT want my children growing up with a belief that THEY are responsible for their actions and choices instead of an arbitrarily benevolent all knowing, all seeing being guiding them through life!
I looked at what Bill Nye had to say:
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/health-science/science-guy-warns-about-creationism-1.1378160
We’re taking fundamentalists of course, not everyone. Science contradicts the truth of the Bible. Saying scientists think the Bible is wrong because they are stupid doesn’t work very well, given what science has given us. So, if don’t contradict the bible because they are too stupid to know better, it must be because they are evil.
Same kind of thing as theists saying atheists are atheists because we hate god. They can’t let themselves even consider the alternative.
This is essentially the viewpoint of the syndicated radio essayist Mel Mulder and his “Beyond Intelligent Design” syndicated programs. Other bible-radio essayists hold very much the same view. According to them, all “Darwinists” actually know their anti-Bible viewpoints are flawed, but they keep lying to the world, out of sinful pride.
It is a not-uncommon affair of projection, given that the majority of the core creationists are, themselves, knowingly lying. An ugly phase in the history of knowledge and ignorance: some people deliberate poison the waters.
Their agenda is the same as this board’s.