Entry 1001, on 2009-05-02 at 19:32:35 (Rating 4, Religion)
What would a religious person say if I tried to prove evolution is true by quoting a page and paragraph reference to Darwin's book, the Origin of Species? They wouldn't be impressed, would they - and rightly so - especially if that page reference was a story quoted entirely in isolation and without any support from other sources.
Of course, scientific sources rarely present evidence in isolation. There is usually plenty of supporting material from other independent sources and references to external sources of evidence which indicate the truth of the statement.
If a religious person asked me for proof of evolution and I said something like "Origin of Species, page 142, chapter 3" they would ignore me, right? So why do they think crap like "Job 38:22" is likely to be effective in convincing anyone about the existence of god? Except if it was someone who has already fooled themself into believing the Bible is true, in which case its pointless anyway.
By the way, here's the actual content of that verse (and a few following it, from the ASV): "Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow, Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, Against the day of battle and war? By what way is the light parted, Or the east wind scattered upon the earth? Who hath cleft a channel for the waterflood, Or the way for the lightning of the thunder; To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; On the wilderness, wherein there is no man; ..."
Right, good. That makes things totally clear... not!
According to a writer in the public opinion column of our local paper "the treasures of the snow" refers to the hexagonal structures of snow crystals and the "fact" that the writers of the Bible knew this (before microscopes) proves the Bible is the word of God.
No wonder these people make Bible references before embarking on such ludicrous illogical arguments. They hope the more discerning readers will stop right there at the reference and not read the rest. Only people who have already abandoned all attempts at using logic will read the argument that follows and find it convincing. This must avoid a lot of embarrassment to all concerned! It was only because I was writing this blog entry that I read past the initial reference to the Bible verse but I'm glad I did. The rest was really quite amusing!
Actually there was more illogical drivel after that in the letter and even then the letter was abridged. I guess the paper's staff wanted to avoid any further embarrassment to the writer but they didn't need to bother. The Bible reference was a good enough filter for most purposes!
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