|
Bigfoot Evolved
- 20081107
"Skeptical" atheist
Steven Novella has a blog post on "Mande Barung,"
an Indian version of the Himalayan Yeti and the North American
Bigfoot. Novella ruminates on the credulity of one Dipu Marak,
a local passionate believer in the shy mythical creature.
Debunking Yeti sightings is low-hanging fruit for skeptics
like Novella, whose skepticism knows no limits — except
for his own materialist ideology, about which he is credulous
to the bone. One wonders why atheist "skeptics"
need to explain to their readership — presumably compliant
atheist skeptics all — that Yeti probably don't exist.
Logan Gage explains why. Gage
has a superb essay entitled, "Which Secular Superstition
do you Believe?" Gage asks:
…[Who] is more likely to
believe wild eyed superstitions these days, the religious
or irreligious?
The answer, Gage observes, is
unambiguous:
Just last week Rodney Stark, a respected scholar
at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion,
released a study entitled "What Americans Really Believe."
Stark and fellow researchers commissioned The Gallup Organization
to poll Americans on questions of religious import…Many
of the fascinating findings of this year's Baylor Religion
Survey, which asks much deeper questions than typical religious
surveys, center on atheists and the irreligious…Gallup
asked questions regarding belief in things like Bigfoot and
the Loch Ness Monster, Atlantis, haunted houses, and astrology.
Baylor's researchers aggregated these figures, producing an
index of paranormal belief. As Mollie Ziegler Hemingway reported
in The Wall Street Journal, "While 31% of people who
never worship expressed strong belief in these things, only
8% of people who attend a house of worship more than once
a week did."…"In fact, the more traditional
and evangelical the respondent, the less likely he was to
believe in, for instance, the possibility of communicating
with people who are dead."
The theistic and particularly the Christian
view that nature is the creation of a rational mind is the
foundation of modern science. Atheistic ideology, which denies
rational purpose or design in nature, does nothing to advance
science. Gage notes:
Even many non-religious historians of science
now understand that, far from perpetuating old superstitions,
the Judeo-Christian tradition constituted a radical break
with pagan thought. It posited a single rational mind behind
the universe rather than myriad irrational spirits in the
universe…This Gestalt shift was crucial in the rise of
modern science. It is no accident that experimental science
arose in the West where the idea of the intelligibility of
nature took root, for it made sense to seek orderly laws of
nature if there exists a rational lawgiver of the universe…While
the findings of the Baylor study appear counterintuitive,
perhaps they shouldn't. Once we lose "faith" in
the rational intelligibility of the universe, what is left
to dissuade us from the latest findings of UFO-logy?
It is amusing that, despite the pretensions of atheist "skeptics"
such as Novella, atheists are much more likely to believe
pseudoscientific claims such as UFOs, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness
Monster, psychics, Atlantis, and astrology than are traditional
religious believers. Four times as likely, to be precise (31%
vs. 8%). Yet this should come as no surprise. Nearly all atheists
believe that the genetic code and the intricate nanotechnology
in living cells arose entirely by random mutations and natural
selection. Compared to the belief that life arose by chance
and tautology, Bigfoot and astrology seem downright plausible.
Gage sums it up eloquently:
The existential question facing science today
is whether it can survive an intellectual milieu dominated
by the materialist superstition.
THE 'X' ZONE
RADIO & TV SHOW IS NOW ON
X FILES PARANORMAL
NETWORK
AND
AMERICA TALK
RADIO
|
|
SOME REL-MAR WEBSITES:
'X' ZONE FEATURED WEBSITES
OF THE MONTH
- DR.
ANGELA BROWNE-MILLER - Readings, Counseling, Treatment,
Training, Retreats, and Books, Tiburon, California, USA
- LADY
ELAINE - Psychic Readings and Full Astrological Charts,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada,
- STAGED
TO GO - Home and Business Staging Services, Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada
- TALKSTAR
840 WPGS - The TalkStar Radio Affiliate in Titusville,
Florida, USA
- TALKSTAR
RADIO NETWORK
- The 'X' Zone's Syndicator & Network
|
