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From: tenneral
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  • Hi, I am a creationist, but I really want to know the truth and follow the evidence wherever it might lead, whatever the cost might be. Would you please send me some convincing links on Evolutionary theory? I can't seem to find anything palatable and convincing. Thanks!

  • Hi.. it's great for anyone to have his own views, away from any ideology. However, i can notice your disconvience of creation theory, and I can attribute that to the lack of clearance in the Chapter of Genesis, in the Old Testament  in which you build your attitude to the process of the creation. Here, I would like to invite you to read the Islamic view on how God created the universe, and I am sure that you will be able to balance between all the views..

  • @Naseer958 Thank you for this thoughtful comment. I will deal with your suggestion later.

  • @tenneral Look!! when I read the book of Genesis, I feel sorry for those who follow both Christianity and Judaism although I believe in God's creation of the universe.In islam, the matter is different. It's not a historical prose. Islam makes us feel God and his oneness first, then the role of Quran comes to mention simple explanation to the creation of the universe.God in Islam is like the pain.. when can feel it, but never touch it or see it...

  • Having Science teachers who are creationists is like having conspiracy theorists teach history.

  • There are creationists in the UK. There was one in my RE class. Only pro-lifer I know too. Definitely creationism in the UK. met more on YT than offline as far as i know.

  • @unassumption My Science teacher was a creationist he was so bad I actually thought I discovered Natural Selection by reading about dog breeding.

  • we all know who disliked....

  • How can anyone watch this and still believe in religious fairy tales?

  • I accidentally stumbled across your channel not too long ago, and absolutely love your videos. I think I could spend hours talking to you, picking your brain and hearing your points of view on any number of subjects. Do you think it's possible that neither the creationists nor Darwin are completely correct, or completely wrong? Is it possible that God created the universe, and that Darwin merely discovered the creation process? I hope the question's not too corny.

  • @MarxIsDead I am not a biologist but I'm currently reading Dawkins' book "The Greatest Show on Earth". Of course it's possible that there is a god who set things going but I don't see any evidence for him. On the other hand science keeps piling up more and more evidence for Evolution by Natural Selection. By the way, I hear that the contribution of Wallace to the early days of the debate is becoming more widely appreciated recently.

  • @tenneral, good sir, evolution is a fact, so I'm with you there, but I just haven't been able to reason away a creator. I just can't work it out in my head how all of this order; the concepts of good and evil; time; and matter came into being without intelligent design. It seems that something has existed for all infinity past, either matter or intelligence, and I can't convince myself that it was matter. Truly, this has troubled me for years... I plan to pick up the Dawkins book.

  • Enjoyed your video, as always, tenneral. I live in the US and, as an atheist and a rational human being, I fear for the US because of what is happening to our “education system.” The religious right has entirely too much power and the religious moderates don’t seem to understand or care what this is doing to the minds of the young people who will be in charge in the future.

  • I shall endeavour to incur your wrath: Hippopotamii !

    *runs off*

    With regards "crossing the road" - Damn right. And I'm happy for it. Imagine a British MP saying something like the occasional Senate member does. They'd be laughed at openly.

  • @Widgetas Quite right too. BTW I'm sure Hippopotami would have only one 'i' at the end (?!)

  • @tenneral Aha that's where you're wrong. Hippopotami is exactly the same as the plural of octopus which is octopiiiii.

  • You're like patcondell but with less scathing criticism... Still more than enough to warrant my immediate subscription to your channel!

  • I want my, I want my £10 note...

  • I so enjoy listening to your calm and honest way of putting everything. The question that no-one can really answer for me is WHY WHY WHY do people need to have these beliefs? Why cannot they listen to logic and reason, have a good think and then admit 'ooops, i do feel a bit foolish. i'll rearrange my way of thinking now'. WHY?

    It is truly terrifying to realise how easy it is to indoctrinate 'blind faith' (i.e. ignorance and stupidity) into the human brain.

  • I couldn't imagine that anyone would take the stories in the Bible literally, until i met one of those people myself fairly recently.

    I think they are better regarded, in places, as a source of ancient wisdom rather than a source of facts; just like other mythology, equal to the Greek epics (Homer et al) and other such works.

  • @Cihl280777 Very true, although I'd prefer Homer and Ovid to all the old testament - given the choice!

  • I loved your video, you know, I was brought up in a religious family, but thank god they were nor bible-thumping conservative creationists; my mother taught me not just the bible, but the Talmud, the Gilgamesh, Evolution, the Classics, and she was more open-minded in school than any other christian kid in school. I'm still a believer in god though, but I still have doubts.

  • I had exactly the same feeling when I started youtube

  • You have no idea bro. None.

    Half of my family are religious. But not your average - "I believe in god" religious.

    These are evolution denying, snake talking, magic apple juggling creationists.

    I love em' but they are all Conservative Republicans who are Pro Life, anti-homosexual, anti-science morons.

    It IS a cult. NO evidence will convince them otherwise... I just got done trying. I gave up.

    Oh well. Thanx for sharing your video and thoughts!

  • @JayJayAbels Don't forget to write your autobiography one of these days. It will, I feel sure, make for fascinating reading - with possibilities for a film adaptation too.

  • "People would cross the road to avoid you."

    LOL!

    It is all but a perpetual battle to get science taught in the United States. It is astounding and deeply distressing.

  • Richie Benaud's long lost twin?

  • @scepticVseptic Well spotted! Only one of us could enjoy THAT much cricket!

  • I thought about this … a lot... and I think it takes courage to believe in nothing, meaning that a world without God is quite scary and you need to be rock solid mentally to bear that idea.

    It is so easy to abandon yourself to religion and let someone else decides things for you.

    But we need to respect others opinions and religions. It would be equally dishonest to force them to believe in nothing if they don't want to.

  • @iom6666 Yes and no. Religion HAS become political. They are well funded and extremely powerful in America. They attempt to get "Intelligent Design" taught along side science in schools. They have prevented homosexuals from getting married by having "mega churches" hold rallies for donations and then use that money to purchase promotional material, commercials and time slots to push their ideologies. They disrupt abortion clinics daily with threats and violence.

    So no.

    NO respect from me.

  • I am surprised that so few Brits seem to know about the Genesis Expo Museum in Portsmouth, UK.

  • @cablepanos Because it's far less interesting to us all than the Cumberland Pencil Museum at Keswick!

  • @tenneral Okay, fair enough. That 25ft long, 984lb pencil is rather awesome. However, Genesis Expo has a 20 ft tall, 4,000 year old dinosaur!

  • As a child growing up in the U.S., I honestly never realized just how many people thought this way until I got older. Then for a time I believed that our society had somehow "changed" in those short few years, rather than it being myself that had changed.

    I've often thought about leaving the States for Britain, but then I realize that the skeptics can't abandon this country when it needs them so badly. It would be thoroughly irresponsible.

  • I had much the same experience when I first realised that so many people thought this way. It really is mind boggling! I've learned a lot via the Internet - but learning how irrational otherwise sane people can be when it comes to religion has been a learning curve in itself!

  • I heard somewhere that the Texas School Board was considering changing the standard unit of measurement back to cubits in the next edition of school textbooks.

    If Sarah Palin becomes the next president. That's it for me.

    You've heard of the Berlin wall? I'll petition the Canadian Parliament to build the Canadian wall. Not as much to keep people in but, to keep people out.

  • Our city zoo was forced to take down a display of the evolution of man, because the religious people objected to it. A display at the Grand Canyon regarding the formation of the canyon was removed because religious people objected to the display showing that the canyon took millions of years to form. Religious people on our tour bus objected to visiting Mammoth State Park because the tour guide stated mammoths were 15,000 years old, and their bible said the earth was only 6000 years old. 

  • i've seen the documentary and found it quite disturbing

  • @TurnTacit  Your cryptic doggerel and appalling number-puns betray you unambiguously my dear, and thus am I gauchely interrupted to be introduced to you thirty-eighth (by my count) screen name.

    Would that this one weren't so starkly incongruous.

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  • My experience exactly! I was completely flabergasted learning about the belief statistics in the US. To this day I cling to a straw of hope that those poll responses come from sense of identity and belonging rather than actual thought!

  • Much the same story for me, I was amazed how easy it was to find someone that believed in creation when I first started using the internet.

  • Religion, it does boggle the imagination, doesn't it?

    We have a TV show here in the States with a character named House (played by Hugh Laurie), he said "if you could reason with religious people there would be no religious people."

  • @mcrd2001 I'll remember that quotation for future use. Hugh Laurie is indeed a wonderful actor too : I also envy his authentic [to my ears] American accent.

  • The schools you are talking about are called high school. its 2ndary education along with jr.highs. we only have primery and 2ndary. the creationists are mostly in the southern US

  • I saw it too, and I was just as surprised as you, despite being an American myself. It should be noted that not all of the US is like that. Most students in my high school would have been appalled if something like that happened there. Clearly though, it's a bigger problem than I thought.

  • i see the anguish on your facial expressions & voice when u talk about "modern" ppl still believing in "creationism". i feel your pain good sir! Excellent video! you're one of the much needed voices of reason in YT. but next time pls be "accurate & correct" when you make a video about our HOLY BIBLE. GOD didn't use his finger to create GOLD FISH... he used his TAIL!!! british..jeez!

  • its always a pleasure to watch your videos, and I hope I grow up to be as reserved and libreral as you obviously are

  • The most troubling thing about this is the influence of these woefully ignorant people on the American  political landscape.

  • @Nhurm You're spot-on, but for your use of "ignorant" as a euphemism for simple rank stupidity.

    There is no excuse for any grown adult in a literate society with free access to to books to believe that drivel.

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  • I live in Missouri and you are correct. Americans are fundamentally stupid in regards to science, especially evolutionary biology. A billboard near my home says "Life with Jesus" advertising catholic education.

  • I shared the same incredulity but also came to realise we can not feel too smug. Remember Tony Blair's creationist schools. We are also plagued by Jehovah's Witnesses and their anti-evolution pro-creation drivel. Also don't forget our shame in having stood by while fundamentalists managed to close Jerry Springer the Opera.

    On the plus side we also have Darwin on one of the Two Pound coin designs.

  • @digitaljez Many good points raised here. I am now examining my £2 coins more closely too. As for Blair and his bloody faith schools, I think he must have taken leave of reality towards the end of his premiership.

  • @digitaljez Very true. Like fleas, these creationists get everywhere. Blair must have taken leave of his senses to promote 'faith' schools.

  • @tenneral

    Not only that, but after leaving office one of the first things he did was create a "Faith Foundation" dedicated to supporting the idea that it's vitally important to have a "faith", whatever it is. Presumably he's one of those theists that fears that without a religion to tell you what to do we would all be raping and pillaging all the time

  • Creationists in the US - Great news for Europe - Europe will continue to produce high-calibre scientists - Fewer in the USA. The USA can become a net importer of new technology instead of an exporter. Will they still love their magic-man? Probably.

  • I.

    Good to have you back, sir.

    Since you begin by observing that Darwin's portrait is on your ten pound note, I think it not incidental to observe that here in the U.S. the notion putting mere scientists or artists on our bills (rather than statesman)is simply unthinkable (the closest thing to a real exception is Benjamin Franklin). I would bet Dickens is on one of your bills as well, but if one were to suggest to the average American citizen that Richard Feynman or Henry James...

  • II.

    ...be put on currency you'd be met with the same bemusement as if you were to ask a dinner guest if he'd like ketchup on his cake.

    It is no exaggeration to say we have no public intellectuals and no public intellectual discourse, and the closest thing we have to a television journalist is a quasi-erudite corporate courtier by the name of Charlie Rose.

  • @polymath7 We have had Edward Elgar, the great English composer, and Elizabeth Fry, the wonderful prison reformer, on our paper currency in England, besides of course our excellent Queen.

  • @tenneral No Dickens or Newton or Shakespeare? That seems a bit neglectful. But I do love Elgar. I think his cello concerto one of the three best in the common repertoire.

  • @polymath7 Newton, Dickens and Shakespeare have all been depicted. Shakespeare, i think, was the first and appeared on the £20. Newton lost out when the £1 note was replaced by a coin. Dickens was replaced by Darwin.

  • Thanks for the link! The whole series is very interesting.

  • great as always :)

  • This is the first video I have seen from you and it is simply awesome. Keep up the great work.

  • I went forward and got through this episode (early.) All I can say is 'wow."

  • Tenneral I'm not sure if you have seen Evid3nc3's video about the historical foundations of the Judaeo-Christian God. Given your interest in classical history I suspect much of this will not be new to you, But I think you would find at least interesting if not fascinating: watch?v=MlnnWbkMlbg

  • God was created as a way of keepin order & peace, when there were no other way of doing so. Now days we got a real justice system plus were better educated, so how can ppl beleve in shit that some old story book says?

  • I'm sure your marmalade is really yummy, but you need to spend more time feeding my appetite for your marvelous videos! Welcome back!

  • @sonvolt48  Okely-dokely!

  • Creationists blow my mind. And it's not something I can just pin down. They've got excuses that defy reality, logic that isn't just circular but spherical, and an annoyingly smug attitude. I drop them in the same bin as conspiracy theorists, because they have the same symptoms. In fact, there's a lot of cross-over on that Venn diagram.

  • Fundies are silly and ridiculous, more and more peolple are reaching this conclusion. Bad news for Fundies.

  • Yes, I am in the land of the Creationists. It was when I found YT, I found some people that thought like me. You honestly have no idea. Just imagine you are getting ready to go under for surgery and the Doctor tells me to start praying, now that is fear.

  • here the people cross the street to avoid me because I DON´T believe hahaha

  • @Oshyoga That's awesome!

  • @Oshyoga I wish religious people would avoid me like that!! hahaha

  • I had a feeling, but it's been confirmed. The "episode" you're referring to is among a series I've been watching....but I haven't gotten to this episode yet. The others have been awesome.

  • @Hereticbooks  Isn't it a great series? It should be required watching in all schools of the English-speaking world.

  • @tenneral

    Yes indeed. I agree.

  • ahhhh Tenneral. You are NOT an "old" man, but a mature man. I am a woman of 49 years. My loving spouse is a 60 year old British man. He cares less for these issued than I do. Having grown up in the U.S., I've seen these (noisy) pockets of religious fundamentalists wage their wars. It's important to note that MOST theists in this country accept evolution and write Genesis up to allegory. But unfortunately the most fundamentalist, the most noisy. They ARE a threat to collective intelligence

  • Tenneral, I have always considered you "one class act." Thanks again for posting.

  • In the US it's the opposite. In most places here, if you DON'T believe in god, not only will they cross the street to avoid you, but they will abuse you, verbally, and sometimes otherwise 0_o

    Thank GOD (sarcasm) that I live on the west coast!!!

  • What an interesting thing the Internet is. Your internet experience was one of "I can't believe people believe this stuff!", and mine was one of "I can't believe there's other people like me who don't believe that stuff!

  • i enjoyed this vid glad some one mentioned you to me :) keep up the good work

  • Thank you for taking the time to make your video, I enjoyed it.

  • Isn't Darwin buried in Westminster Abbey as well?

  • @johncrwarner Yes indeed. He himself wanted to be buried beside his darling daughter: but his greatness was something that could not be ignored in his own lifetime. His grave in the Abbey is a pilgrimage-site for many.

  • @tenneral

    It is interesting that his greatness trumped his own wishes and the fact he was at least an agnostic by the time of his death but not a very public one.

  • The only thing that the idea of a creator might explain according to Eddie Izzard is toilets in French camping sites - obviously a rushed job and got didn't have time to get them right. LOL

  • going to college changed by husband's life. he was raised to in a fundamentalist church.

  • As ever........a delight.

  • spook!

  • I felt sorry for the young man trying to penetrate the shield of his fathers literalism, so desperate to retain respect for the silly man. The entire video made me grind my teeth.There is a certain type of american that requires absolute certainty in all things.The bible is history, history only has one truth, america is the best country in the world yadda yadda.So...infantile.

  • When you said "magic finger" and pointed all around, I laughed up a storm. :-)

  • Very well said. A few years ago I thought creationists in usa was just a tiny group of nutters in the south. Boy was I mistaken.

  • Watch out Tenneral, those crazy bible literalists are starting up in Brittain too. No nation is safe; not even my little New Zealand on the other side of the world.

  • @WavegirlThinks Yes, they're like fleas - they get everywhere, especially into otherwise clean environments!!

  • @WavegirlThinks Ray Comfort was born in New Zealand. Couldn't you have kept him over there? LOL

  • I put a lot of blame on Fox News. When you have a large mass-media network in the US supporting the backward thinking of creationists they feel like their ideas are valid and acceptable. Then they have that bullshit pseudo-science museum in Kentucky showing dinosaurs living with humans making things even worse... Gah.. it's enough to make me scream!

  • "Special creation" is the claim that, while other species may have evolved, human beings did not, being instead the special creation of the deity. ("May have" is always accompanied by eye-rolls worthy of a professional gymnast.)

    Yeah. It's abysmally and terrifyingly stupid.

  • You are a bright light on YouTube

    Your words are both rational and reassuring

    Make more videos

  • Christmas has come early! Two videos over one weekend!

  • The statistics for belief in creationism and religious fundamentalism in the USA are staggering. There the rigidly religious are, as you point out, far more likely to be adamant about spreading absurd religious propaganda dressed as 'science.'

    Like you, I am amazed by them (and I grew up partly in Texas btw)... I live in the UK now but I've seen the sad situation in much of America firsthand.

  • Gee Tenneral, You point out a shameful part of my nation.

    Some even have gone as far as to use their silly beliefs to state their magical deity is against state sponsored health care.

    I wish that the churches and religions that chose to go political would lose their tax free status.

    This would be especially true of Catholics who have told their worshipers that if they vote for the wrong candidate that they would lose the rite of communion.

    Religion is pure silliness. As is creationism...

  • Its all about power. The religionists crave power so badly they can taste it. They don't even have the perspicacity to see its a self-defeating objective to crave power just for the sake of power. If they gain control in the U.S, they WILL drag that country back into the dark ages.

  • I always do enjoy your commentary, glad to see you again

  • Two tenneral videos in one day? It is like all my Christmas' have come at once! :)

  • @Oct195 "Two tenneral videos in one day? It is like all my Christmas' have come at once!"

    I was about to say the same thing!

  • Even though it is common opinion that the bible isn't supposed to be taken so seriously, I'm finding that I'm becoming more aware of people who still haven't got the idea of critical thinking. I thought we were supposed to be the nation of pessimists, which I've always thought, pessimism and skepticism are likely bedfellows... Not so. I know far too many people who will readily accept the most ridiculous things to be true or even give them a try. From magnets to reiki.

  • Thank you Tenneral! I see it's still some time before your grey matter becomes fossilized ;-)

  • "hayseed, slack-jawed.....dragging their knuckles along the ground"....ah......Norfolk.

  • @LordProfBear Naughty! But then half my ancestors were from Norfolk : Wymondham, since you ask. By the time I & my brother came along, we had evolved up the ladder. So I am living proof of evolution!!

  • Always a pleasure to see your videos uploaded. I look forward to plenty more!

  • When I came to YT I though it was just a handfull of nbutcases that actualy believed genesis ot be true.. how I was mistaken just rattles the mind.

  • @Vogter2100 That is because growing up in Denmark you are use to people actually thinking, I am from Denmark too I remember when I first started going online on different online networks many, many years ago what a shock it was for me to see how many people compleatly failed in the use of logic and how many was against the use of logic reasoning and in general just religious fanatics. I soon learned that some people do not care for the truth and just want to spread their believes. Peace

  • I think this is a blessing in disguise.

    When people realize that they've been lied to at later ages, that makes them angry. That anger is a catalyzer for change.

  • Pretty much same here, only recently I discussed about evolution with a person who didn't accept it, and his arguments were the same you have seen repeated over and over here. Looks like creationists are the same everywhere.

    And in my previous work, most of my co-workers were atheists. Religion hasn't come up in my new work.

    But I have hope, recent Gallup polls show that acceptance of evolution is rising, albeit slowly, in U.S.

    Enjoyable video as always, tenneral.

  • I never thought I would have to, one day, use the adjective 'backward' for the powerful rich country, USA! At least for parts of it.

  • yep, I was just as astounded when I started to find out what huge numbers of people believed in the US about creation. Staggeringly backward and utterly against both science and common sense.

  • @kalsolarUK It's going to ruin science in the USA. See New York Times - google:

    Republican spending plan signals a new culture war

    By Dana Milbank

    Friday, January 21, 2011; 8:00 PM

  • @kalsolarUK

    I can't disagree with you there, mate.  But it's important to realise that most theists actually DO accept evolution. It's just the most backwards fundamentalists are the noisiest....and the most well funded. Some of that funding comes from the Republican Party. That shit, my friend, is scary.

  • @kalsolarUK No need to rub it in =p.

  • LOL, of course the counter argument is- You don't even believe in the giant trans-dimensional troll ! How can you possible know what he is capable of?

    Stage directions:

    Deliver the above with music in a major key, pictures of the Grand Canyon and a plaintive tone in your voice to be understood.

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