Welcome to the Age of Denial – ‘Today, it is politically effective, and socially acceptable, to deny scientific fact’
By ADAM FRANK
21 August 2013 ROCHESTER (The New York Times) – IN 1982, polls showed that 44 percent of Americans believed God had created human beings in their present form. Thirty years later, the fraction of the population who are creationists is 46 percent. In 1989, when “climate change” had just entered the public lexicon, 63 percent of Americans understood it was a problem. Almost 25 years later, that proportion is actually a bit lower, at 58 percent. The timeline of these polls defines my career in science. In 1982 I was an undergraduate physics major. In 1989 I was a graduate student. My dream was that, in a quarter-century, I would be a professor of astrophysics, introducing a new generation of students to the powerful yet delicate craft of scientific research. Much of that dream has come true. Yet instead of sending my students into a world that celebrates the latest science has to offer, I am delivering them into a society ambivalent, even skeptical, about the fruits of science. This is not a world the scientists I trained with would recognize. Many of them served on the Manhattan Project. Afterward, they helped create the technologies that drove America’s postwar prosperity. In that era of the mid-20th century, politicians were expected to support science financially but otherwise leave it alone. The disaster of Lysenkoism, in which Communist ideology distorted scientific truth and all but destroyed Russian biological science, was still a fresh memory. The triumph of Western science led most of my professors to believe that progress was inevitable. While the bargain between science and political culture was at times challenged — the nuclear power debate of the 1970s, for example — the battles were fought using scientific evidence. Manufacturing doubt remained firmly off-limits. Today, however, it is politically effective, and socially acceptable, to deny scientific fact. Narrowly defined, “creationism” was a minor current in American thinking for much of the 20th century. But in the years since I was a student, a well-funded effort has skillfully rebranded that ideology as “creation science” and pushed it into classrooms across the country. Though transparently unscientific, denying evolution has become a litmus test for some conservative politicians, even at the highest levels. Meanwhile, climate deniers, taking pages from the creationists’ PR playbook, have manufactured doubt about fundamental issues in climate science that were decided scientifically decades ago. And anti-vaccine campaigners brandish a few long-discredited studies to make unproven claims about links between autism and vaccination. The list goes on. North Carolina has banned state planners from using climate data in their projections of future sea levels. So many Oregon parents have refused vaccination that the state is revising its school entry policies. And all of this is happening in a culture that is less engaged with science and technology as intellectual pursuits than at any point I can remember. [more]
Richard Carrier (and many others) have done a very good job disproving the concept of a "Creator."
Their work is based upon biblical research, ancient history and archeology. As both scholars and experts in their fields, they have vastly more experience then anyone else. They also have access to many research materials that others have never even heard of.
In essence, what they found was the majority of the bible was fabricated. This was not something easily learned, but has taken many years to investigate and prove. The primary figures (Moses, Jesus, Daniel, patriarchs) never even existed. Their stories were cobbled together over thousands of years and through tradition, misinterpretation and even more ancient religions, become accepted and adopted. But belief does not make something true, only evidence does and the evidence shows that much of what Christians and Jews believe is simply so far from fact that it is simply pure fiction.
The Hebrews for example, never even believed in a 'devil' (Satan), this was adopted much later on then most people realize, it's only a few thousand years old belief, but it doesn't date back to Genesis. The Israelite's adopted many ancient beliefs and superstitions from other cultures preceding them, eventually calling them their own.
Figures like Moses are not even found in history. Nor is Jesus, there is not a single contemporary report of his life. Even the apostle Paul did not believe in an embodied (real) Jesus and admits this in his writings. All four of the Gospels are all well known to be forgeries, none were written by the apostles. Unfortunately, this is true for nearly all of the New Testament. Hebrews was not written by Paul.
Throughout the bible, the number of errors and contradictions have added up to a staggering number. Far from being 'inerrant' and perfect in every sense, the bible is actually a collection of fabricated stories with a scattering of actual events (found in the Old Testament, but not the New).
The essence of their research means that both the Torah and the Bible are fraudulent, based upon superstition, fabrication, misinterpretation and tens of thousands of mistranslations (over 30,000 errors are known in the King James bible at this time).
It is the bible that "teaches" Creationism and the very recent development of mankind – who was allegedly "created". Evolution is thought by believers to be a lie, a teaching of the devil. Virtually every teaching within Christianity and Judaism regarding the development of life is simply wrong, having no basis in facts, science or ancient history.
History and science have quite conclusively proven, through actual evidence, what the history of man is. This also means that the teachings of the bible regarding Creationism is simply false. And it also means that concepts such as salvation, heaven, hell, a chosen race and much more are also false.
It is no wonder that this information is hidden from the generally uninformed public. This has profound implications on human history, ancient history (the real history), church history and activities – and the future of mankind, and even "life after death". All of these things must be reexamined in light of the actual evidence and research that has been done.