Comments on: Creationist Essay Contest… Who’s Entering?

By: Gabjoh

Gabjoh — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:22:40 +0000

When my brain fries from the “research” necessary to do this, I am blaming you, Hemant Mehta…

By: Creationists? At MY alma mater? « The Defiant Skeptic

Creationists? At MY alma mater? « The Defiant Skeptic — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:00:22 +0000

[...] At MY alma mater? September 25, 2009 Alex Leave a comment Go to comments Creationist Essay Contest… Who’s Entering? | Friendly Atheist by @hemantmehta A couple years ago, Marcus Ross received his Ph.D. in paleontology from the University of Rhode [...]

By: nerdiah

nerdiah — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:11:57 +0000

Mate, I’ve got your anatomical evidence right here:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/b1e50c566e/further-proof-that-god-created-us

(Warning: contains anatomical drawings, or you can just watch the version with the naughty-bits covered up)

By: hoverFrog

hoverFrog — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:10:35 +0000

In Richard Dawkins new book “The Greatest Show on Earth” he started calling the creationists “history deniers”. It is an apt phrase. If you take the a selection of the evidence and ignore whatever you don’t like the look of then you can come up with plenty of “proofs” for creationism.

The biblical account for the creation of humans, if memory serves, goes something like this: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

There are a number of ways a writer could approach the Genesis account. God supposedly “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” so a writer could discuss our nostrils. Nostrils in human babies are actually very interesting in that they are not in the way when the baby sucks milk but still allow breathing. Also I’ve never heard of nostrils being used for a creationist argument.

A writer could take the idea of man as an image of God and discuss the many perfections of man. We’re one heart beat away from death at any given moment. If your next heart beat doesn’t come you’re dead in about 4 minutes. So the created heart would have a backup system to reboot an ailing organ or two hearts that worked independently. If one stops you have time to get it going again.

What about those vestigial organs and body parts that we don’t have. There’s no reason for our stomachs to contain an appendix except as the vestige of the cecum used by vegetarian animals to aid digestion of cellulose. Clearly we don’t have a coccyx as a vestige of our ancestral tails. Anyone who has had trouble with Wisdom Teeth is clearly going against God’s plan as we don’t need them. They are another vestige of a plant diet. We never get goosebumps either. These are a vestigial behaviour trait to raise the hairs on our monkey bodies to make us appear bigger and more threatening to predators. As created beings we don’t need such things.

By: Sven

Sven — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:34:19 +0000

I’m also to old to enter. It would have been fun to, at least, mention Nathan Poe in there somewhere.

By: jenwes

jenwes — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:48:20 +0000

Inspired…
“might do a comparison of the elements that make up the human body and compare them to the elements found in a sample of dust (extra credit for finding a soil sample analysis from the Garden of Eden)”
That is the ticket right there…and try to use the word irreducible a couple of times, kiddies…

By: Sowmya

Sowmya — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:45:33 +0000

Interesting contest! Never knew that anyone can pose a question like that as a topic!

By: AnonyMouse

AnonyMouse — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:23:35 +0000

Dang it, I’m too old! I had a really great idea, too.

If anyone’s poking around looking for inspiration, here’s a topic you might consider: pain in childbirth. Humans are the only species who (normally) feel pain in childbirth, and Genesis clearly states that this is a result of the Fall, therefore God exists. Flesh out as you need.

By: Nena

Nena — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:39:28 +0000

I am going to show this to my 13 year old daughter. She is a very good creative writer, has been exposed to plenty of conservative Christianity, and has a fantastic grasp of real science. She could easily combine those three elements and win this competition.

As a bonus for me, if she wins the laptop, I can have her old one, which is newer than mine…

I don’t know whether she will be able to get past the aspect of dishonesty in the paper, though…I’ve represented honesty as a pretty important moral value to her…

By: Jack Bentley

Jack Bentley — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:26:33 +0000

It has to be a paper on the penis. Think of the research. Why did god make my penis this shape? Are they all the same? Unfortunately, I’m too old to enter.