Physically I feel like an elephant is dancing on my chest. I cannot take a full breath. I'm coughing out so forcefully and at the same time the sensation of pressure is so heavy. Outside it's blissfully beautiful with 72 degrees of blue sky sunshine perfection, but I'm shivering and wearing layers of clothes under a blanket. I have SO MUCH that I needed and wanted to accomplish today, but instead of seizing the day I'm cooped up inside and discarding time online because I cannot concentrate on anything. I feel like I've retained nothing from school today because my brain couldn't let anything be absorbed.
I feel weary by the Christian adults on this Christian forum. If I wasn't in a grouchy mood from being sick I would be unsurprised and unaffected because it's the same set of people who indulge themselves in the same type of antics. But today I'm just feeling vexed by Christian adults who do smarmy things like sign off with "in Christ" when how they behaved in the post they just wrote is diametrical to all of Christ's teachings. When I joined this site I anticipated that there would be bickering, pettiness, pestering, and provocation, and all the other behavior you see online where people are posting behind the cloak of anonymity. I'm not brand-new to the internet, haha. I had not anticipated that there would be so many adults who would shamelessly indulge in gross unethical misconduct such as quote mining, intellectual dishonesty, subterfuge, belligerence, and outright deceit as their modus operandi. To me, if someone has to resort to manipulation in order to make their case, their case lacks substance. For example, this man took quotes from a blog that is called.....wait for it..... The Emperor Without Clothes, that features quotes that are purposefully ripped out of context from scientists, philosophers and prominent historical figures, sewn together, and presented to appear in such a way that completely misrepresents what the original content actually meant. I found out about it from copying and pasting a bizarrely disjointed quote a man kept posting here into Google out of curiosity about its context. The blog is meant to be used satirically, not literally, but this man apparently couldn't recognize that and presented it as legitimate and true. If he wasn't prone to bellicose actions and he didn't repost the same mined quotes repeatedly maybe that would be the kinda thing you'd understand as a mistake. He's not presenting the butchered quotes from the 80s to be used as educational information, but purely to try to malign and discredit those who disagree with his own beliefs and perceptions. I just read this post where he has a pathetic tantrum berating those who essentially......... failed to rave about the imaginary clothes on the emperor he trotted out. The irony meter has now been broken from excessive use. Sighs.
On a lighter, brighter note, I've literally been very blessed by fellow teens here. If any of you would like some blessings, please send me a PM.
<--- You need one of these. That's good to know, though: Don't go on CF sick (and BTW I'm a bit nervous that I've acquired the flu or will get it tomorrow!)
But as for your problem, well, I guess my only advice would be to just ignore the creation-evolution debate section of the forum. That was why I never paid much attention to it--one side brings up one thing, then another side brings up another thing, and so on and so on and so forth. I think I already explained why YEC is adhered to so strongly by some Christians (it's for a number of complicated reasons). But ultimately, I leave them alone. Their beliefs aren't harming anyone outside of their group, really, and so long as the option is given for someone to affirm or reject something like YEC than everything is fine. Honestly, if YEC could be completely validated it would certainly make things easier, and I will say that the Christians who support it to have a point in that sometimes scientific fact can be twisted to validate beliefs, and then the scientists can say, "Our beliefs are verified by fact (when in reality we simply took the facts and made inferences about them)". But I won't ramble on and on about this, I don't want to start a discussion.
And hey, as bad as it might be, I doubt we'll be seeing Ken Ham create a Christian version of Boko Haram.
As for quote-mining, yes, that's a major issue, but I think the problem is that YECers aren't aware of it, and the people that are compiling it all together--the Ken Ham types--I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt. Here's why:
You see, in Western culture we are very individualistic. Admit it, you selfish jerk!
We often place value on forming an independent, autonomous identity, an idea that's foreign and even repugnant to other cultures in the world. The Bible was not written in an individualistic culture--in fact, I'd say that that only came about in the West only, and even then during the second half of the 19th century, or maybe during the early 20th century. Not that various verses can't have an individualistic interpretation--indeed, the Bible speaks across generations and cultures and stuns many with its messages if one is willing to listen--but for the most part the Western tradition of taking some individual verses out of context tends to extend to other things besides the Bible (it's not always bad when that happens there, BTW, since it gives a fresh but still valid interpretation).
So basically Ken Ham and others, while disagreeing with their sources' assessments, are most likely searching for what appear to be discrepancies in them--not a bit like atheists who would search the Bible just to find "the contradictions" that are supposedly there. The difference here is that the authors of the Bible are long dead and so can't say "You idiots, that's not what I meant! Stop taking my writing out of context!" Which is why given the much younger age of the scientific documents, the YECers can't get away with saying what they do as easily.
I think it would be easier, though, if secular scientists were less aggressive. It seems like for the most part some of them come across as condescending, especially considering that Richard Dawkins, the notorious anti-theist, has sort of made himself their spokesperson (although I've heard some atheist scientists are not a fan of his for his strawman-esque positions). Yeah, sure, from a scientist's perspective it's annoying to have to talk down to "those idiots", but if they were nicer about it then maybe the YECers would listen. You wouldn't listen to your opponents in a debate if they called your views "Dangerous for society", would you? YECers really don't pose that much of a threat since they tend to be limited in number and have no scientific, political, or military backing (kind of hilarious to imagine, but a lot of ideas persisted because the right people backed them). And frankly some of the things evolution proposes seem a bit too naturalistic for my tastes. I think a way to end that is if there were just more theistic evolutionists who could look at the same evidence as the secular scientists but come to a different conclusion--and the secular scientists would have to be willing to say, "Ok, your opinion is as valid as mine. No more, no less". But...that's not happening, usually because with any controversy both sides will say, "Well, if the other side would just SURRENDER, then we wouldn't have this problem!"
Regardless, don't let it get to you. Take some Tamiflu (I think that's what works) and direct all of your rage at the CDC (since they guessed wrong in terms of which flu strain would be prevalent this year, so the flu is going around).
And, uh...in Christ!
