So what if my science is wrong? The bible is wrong – part 1:

I remember back in the 1980s when a story was circulating around within the religious community, that “genetic science,” had finally proven that the description given in the bible of “human creation,” was in fact true. That science had proven that the ancestry of every human alive on the earth today, had all been traced back to one single woman – that science had proven the story of Adam and Eve in the bible, was in fact true. The only problem was that the “proof” which they were offering, was not based on real science – in fact, in the 1980s; we simply hadn’t yet developed the technology to base such a conclusion on. So just what was the big deal about proving that the story of Adam and Eve in the bible was in fact true, and why were the religious (mainly the Christians) even willing to manufacture stories, and even tell outright lies? Because the theory of evolution was fast gaining acceptance as a fact, and without dirt man and rib woman, and the talking-snake and the original “sin” (sex) that opened up the door for every other type of “evil,” then there was also no need for a savor – the whole story about Christ dying for our sins, then all falls apart like a house of cards in the wind.



So fast forward to the twenty first century; there are mountains of evidence, which all support evolution as a fact, and with 99.999% certainty; we now know that there was never any less than 5,000 pairs of genes (10,000 almost human and human beings) involved on the road to becoming the human beings that we are today; and we now know with 99.999% certainty, that both humans and all of the great apes, all evolved from a common ancestor – so where does this leave both the stories of Adam and Eve, and the story of “our” “savor” “Jesus Christ”? It leaves them all in the dirt, where they all belonged in the first place.



You really wouldn’t think that there would be much more here to debate on this subject? But there are current debates going on among the Christian scholars:






From NPR:


According to the Bible (Genesis 2:7), this is how humanity began: "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." God then called the man Adam, and later created Eve from Adam's rib.


Polls by Gallup and the Pew Research Center find that four out of 10 Americans believe this account. It's a central tenet for much of conservative Christianity, from evangelicals to confessional churches such as the Christian Reformed Church.


But now some conservative scholars are saying publicly that they can no longer believe the Genesis account. Asked how likely it is that we all descended from Adam and Eve, Dennis Venema, a biologist at Trinity Western University, replies: "That would be against all the genomic evidence that we've assembled over the last 20 years, so not likely at all."


Researching The Human Genome


Venema says there is no way we can be traced back to a single couple. He says with the mapping of the human genome, it's clear that modern humans emerged from other primates as a large population — long before the Genesis time frame of a few thousand years ago. And given the genetic variation of people today, he says scientists can't get that population size below 10,000 people at any time in our evolutionary history.


To get down to just two ancestors, Venema says, "You would have to postulate that there's been this absolutely astronomical mutation rate that has produced all these new variants in an incredibly short period of time. Those types of mutation rates are just not possible. It would mutate us out of existence."






You can click (here) or anywhere in the above text and the link will take you to NPR and the whole story – it is well worth the read.


In the video below Ken Miller (a catholic) does an excellent job of explaining of how we now know that both humans and the great apes, both evolved from a common ancestor.






I’m going to explain what all of this really means to me in part 2 of this story – but I forewarn you, it will be done in the foul mouth style of The Dyslectic Atheist! But what does this all mean to you as an atheist?

This is your brain on creationism:

I grew up constantly hearing about the “good news,” and about just how loving and wonderful their “god” was, and just how wonderful all of “god’s” “creations” were. I had heard that god had “created” the universe and the earth, and all within 6 days, simply by speaking; and I had heard that everything which “god” had created, had a purpose and a reason, and that “god” had seen all of his work as being good, great even -- everything was a part of “god’s” plan, or so I was told.

Then one day when a friend and I, were watching one of those Sunday Christian nature shows on television about fish, a little fish who used a spot on their fins (the red drum fish) that looked like an eye, to fool the bigger fish who were trying to eat them into believing that their fin was actually their head, and then when the bigger fish tries to attacks the smaller fish’s fin, the smaller fish simply laughs, and says: “I fooled you, you big stupid fish,” and then the little fish swims away (okay, this was of those Sunday morning Christian TV shows for young children – we were both about 10 or 11 years of age at the time).


The narrator went on to say that “god” had “created” this little fish and gave the fish the spot on its fin, so that the fish could use its little gift to escape from larger predators – and just like “god” had given humans legs so we could run away from danger (god had designed this fish, and his fin). Both this kid and his grandmother exclaimed: “wow, god is so smart, and “he’s” so great – what man could have ever thought of doing that?”


Even at the young age of ten, I had already totally dismissed the biblical story of “creation,” and the story of the “great flood,” and the story of the” virgin-born” “savior” as being totally contrived bullshit. However, I hadn’t yet, totally dismissed the notion that some other “god-like” being might exist, but I found this fish story, was just a little too fishy for me to believe – but for most noncritical “thinking” Christians, “god” did it was the only true answer – and then if one would question “god’s” handy little fish work, then they ask: “if god didn’t do it, then who did?” And even at age ten, I found this “then who did it" question, was the wrong question to be asking, the more logical question would be what caused this fish to have this spot in the first place, and why? However, most devout Christians believe that questioning any of “god’s” “infallible” “word” is a “sin,” and a “sin” that will earn you a one-way trip to “hell” (you wouldn’t believe how many times that I was told that I would be burning in “hell,” and simply for questioning the deluded bullshit that is written in the bible).


This fishy situation was one of the things that drove my interests in science. I wanted to learn just how this fish had gotten this spot, and understand why – and what was the big deal about a fish having a spot on its fin in the first place – and not simply believe that some fucking “god’ did it. It would take me a few more years before I fully understood why this fish has this spot, and the answers were even simpler than “god did it.’ The spot on this fish’s fin is simply the result of a gene mutation that happened in one its ancestors eons ago. This gene mutation was then passed on to its offspring and then passed on to their offspring and so on. And because this spot fooled so many of this spotted fish’s predators, more of the spotted fish were able to live to maturity, and then pass on the spot causing gene; the populations of spotted fish, then exploded – while the populations of none spotted fish declined (the spot is simply a favorable mutation - natural selection, and the survival of the fittest, or the survival of the trickiest at work, and not the work of some “god”). Is this fish even aware of the functionality of the spot on its fin? Hell no, its not, it’s just a hell of a lot easier escaping from an attack from the rear, than one from the front!


How do I know that this is a better explanation than “god did it,” because its backed up by years and years of research and countless observations – in the end, I had learned more about fish than I had even wanted to know.


There is a big difference between telling children how and what to believe, and teaching them how to learn and understand. But thinking is not held as a big asset within religion; questioning god’s word is seen as being rebellious and as an evil sin – and to some teaching evolution is one of the greatest sins of them all. They fear that children will actually start thinking for themselves, and start realizing that all of that deluded bible bullshit that has been forced upon them every since birth through fear, has all just been simply a pack of deluded lies – this is why child indoctrination is so important to the survival of the Christian-cult – just let them walk up to a well educated Japanese teen, and start spewing that deluded Christian bullshit at them (the 6,000 year old earth, dirt-man and rib-woman, the virgin-born savior…,etc…. and they’ll be in for a rude fucking awakening).


It’s one thing if someone wants to remain enslaved through fear to silly old deluded myths and silly superstitions, but it’s quite another when they try to get our government to force their deluded and asinine bullshit on others – and today, that’s just what some of these deluded morons are trying to do:






From Mother Jones:


State governments are grappling with massive budget deficits, overburdened social programs, and mountains of deferred spending. But never mind all that. For some conservative lawmakers, it's the perfect time to legislate the promotion of creationism in the classroom. In the first three months of 2011, nine creationism-related bills have been introduced in seven states—that's more than in any year in recent memory:


3. Florida

Legislation: SB 1854 would amend Florida law to require a "thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution." In 2009, Florida state Sen. Stephen Wise, the bill's sponsor, rhetorically asked a Tampa radio host: "Why do we still have apes if we came from them?"


I guess that it doesn’t matter to these deluded idiots and morons, that creationism has already been ruled as a religion by a federal court judge, and that it has no place in our public schools?