Neil Hopcroft

A digital misfit

“The Bible is true. No doubt about it! Paul explains God’s authoritative Word, and everyone who rejects His history-including six-day creation and Noah’s Flood-is ‘willfully’ ignorant.”

A walk-through of the Creation Museum

…guess I’ll stay ignorant then, anyone up for an en-mass visit? Theres bound to be some fun to be had…


Categories: Memories.

/ 33 Comments

33 comments

  1. dmh

    The World was created no earlier than 2000BC. Any scientific theories or findings that suggest otherwise are lies spread by Satan!

    *Cough*

    Sorry, got carried away there.

    Reply
    • neilh

      Might’ve known it’d be something to do with your lot…you’ve tried to explain the full horror of your life before escape before…but I’d not twigged just how bad it was…

      Reply
      • neilh

        How? How is it increasing? Surely anyone with any sense will just throw out the fundamentalists when they come round to convert you? Or maybe invite them in for a good old discussion before being steadfastly unconvertable.

        Reply
        • evilmandykins

          kentucky has by and large gone pentecostal religion wise. ohio borders on the bible belt, and believe me it is scary. my only thought is that their lives must be really terrible to depend so heavily on religion as a source of mass hysteria ( pentecostals beleive that they can “touch” god by raising their hands during hymn singing, among other things) and education. ;/ Also, kentucky and west virginia are both mountainous areas, very rural. ever seen deliverance?….
          my favourite bit on that site is the whole notion that dinosaurs like the t rex were around with humans….

          Reply
          • neilh

            How is the religion growing? Is it mainly conversions or new births? How do they convert people? Can I play with someone who tries?

            Hey, dinosaurs and people, could be true – look at Jurassic Park? I was quite amused where they said that Christians could understand the mindset of the geologists but the geologists couldn’t understand how the Christians saw things. As if that demonstrated how small-minded the scientists were…”it just shows that your story doesn’t hang together, fools!” …erm…

          • evilmandykins

            scarily it seems to be mostly converts. not that i am sure how that works, but given that america has seen some “troubled times” people may rely on religion as a sort of drug to kill the pain. i mean no one likes to think they are suffering for nothing right?
            there is also the issue of eductaion in the areas involved in the first place ;/ and also fanatical parents do tend to drag their kids along….
            it is all rather scary to me…. more since the trend of dumbing down seems to be on the increase rather than the decline…
            and my mom wonders why i dont want to return…

          • neilh

            They’re only troubled times ‘cos of whats going on at home[0] – nothing else particularly bad is going on, nothing more than we’ve had in Britain for the last few decades at least.

            [0] and the way outta that one is to stop re-electing the monkey….

          • evilmandykins

            heh don;t i know it!
            american mentaility is something i don’t think anyone really can understand, unless you grew up with it, and even then it is tricky. i think part of the reason the monkey was re-elected was due to the american fear of admitting they were in the wrong- which sounds odd, but in a culture that no longer totally seperates church and state, and which has grown up with the mentaility of “we’re number one” … the shock of learning that other nations REALLY do not like americans and their heavy handed politics etc gives rise to doubt. And so, rather than admit they might be wrong, they cling to whatever path they are on. Never mind what the monkey is actually doing to the country, or other countries…
            *shakes head*
            i really need to get hitched so i don;t have to go back.

          • neilh

            I was listening to a talk by Michael Perenti the other day, he was taking a look at the “We’re number one” attitude, pulling it apart and ended with the conclusion that America isn’t number one in anything apart from things that aren’t good. Gun crime, oil consumption, bunch of other things.

            It shouldn’t be a shock if you’re paying any kind of attention to whats going on in the world. But I guess thats where the problems are, isn’t it?

            Thats the thing, Europeans have such a long history of fighting each other that we’re very well aware that other countries hate us, its not a big deal these days ‘cos its no longer about guns and is more about football, which although it matters more to more people actually causes less deaths.

          • evilmandykins

            its not the attitude, its the indoctrination. If you live outside of major cities like New York, you’ll find that news is more local area centric, with little attention paid to world, and sometimes even national impact [1]. American national news on TV is also very america centric, and that world events, unless they are pretty huge, take a back seat. World history isn’t taught as core curriculum, but American History (sometimes america’s version of history) is taught as compulsive education tho. twice (junior high, and then high school)[2], just to make sure you got it.
            America’s biggest problem isn’t the attitude, it’s the insulation it seems to spin around itself. This may be improving a bit but there;s a long way to go ;/
            (btw not arguing with you, i totally agree that america as a country really needs to make long strides in foreign and home policies)
            [1] remember that thing where ohio cops were using people’s identities in sting operations without telling the person whose identity details were used? barely made the state capitol’s newspaper. seriously. no one in my family knew anything much about it, and they all read the Columbus Dispatch. Apparently it wasn’t big enough news.
            [2] this may have changed, but i kind of doubt it ;/ european history was an advanced placement (college level) elective that i chose to take, and was _allowed_ to take as i had a high grade point average. if i hadn’t , i wouldnt have been able to take it as an extra class)

          • neilh

            Oh, no, I understand, its good to talk to someone who knows the culture from the inside, I can only see what gets out through the official channels, and that is deeply sanitised to project the “We’re number one” message.

            World history not taught? Thats quite scary! I was taught about the rise of civilisation from Egypt through Rome and on to the modern age. We always concentrated more of British history but it was in the context of what was happening in Europe and where everyone had come from. I wasn’t paying much attention to it, it wasn’t taught in a way that would engage me at all, but it was there and most of it made some kind of sense.

            If you’ve got a history that started 500 years ago theres not much to be taught is there? Thats modern times and reserved for the last couple of lessons in the context of our (british) history.

          • evilmandykins

            What you get by way of world history is the “dawn of civilization” package. outside of that you really only get bits and pieces of british history ( mostly as it pertains to the US) and a bit of WWI and WWII. the american revolutionary war ia taught a bit like gospel in sunday school lol. and teh Civil war is something you spend months on. well we had to at any rate.
            but yeah, world history is backshelved in favour of trying to make kids remember the names of every president.
            when i was home last, another weirdness that i hasnt twigged when i was younger, was the columbus museum of art. their collection of art is small, and almost entirely american. (i cant remember seeing even a european piece anywhere). Larger museums i know are much better, but still, it was shocking. i have no idea how i managed to turn out as i have!

            earlier you mentioned the speaker saying something about america’s petrol/oil consumption. in some ways it is justified, what people don’t get really is just how BIG the us is, and how far apart houses etc can be outside of cities. (fuel consumption within urban enviornments is just silly. and the existance of housewives with SUVs is just WRONG within city limits ) you have that isolation here to some extent in rural bits, but the the middle of the US it is pretty much one big rural bit, say, 10 or 12 times the size of the UK. so i get that bit. (though it would be nice if they would up their consumption of alternate fuels).
            and lets not go anywhere near what the national budget is spent on….

          • neilh

            I suppose remembering president names isn’t much different than us remembering our monarchs names. Not that I ever did that, but it was important when I was younger. I think the Sex Pistols have a lot to answer for.

            I understand the US is not a small place, and that driving really is the only way to get around some of these places, but its gotten to the point where people aren’t able to walk distances, there isn’t the infrastructure for it. But its not just personal driving – theres a lot of fuel consumption in general consuming, packaging and delivery of goods, etc.

            Britain has a lot of these problems too, and we’re suffering from the ‘drive everywhere’ mentality here too, and I think *we* should do something about it. That doesn’t mean I’m going to get rid of *my* car anytime soon, but it does mean I think about some of the journeys I make, and try to figure out better ways to travel, if its possible.

          • neilh

            Scary stuff….next they’ll be pulling the ‘if you’re not with us you’re against us’ stick out of the bag and putting all us non-creationists into ‘conversion camps’ until we say we agree.

        • dmh

          I think it’s more of a social phenomena; a climate of fear causing more extreme views to take hold. But I’m no sociologist.

          Reply
          • dmh

            “Terah-ists.”

            I believe Christian fundamentalism is on the rise in the US partially through the increased climate of fear post-September 11th. (No, really.)

            But then, I also think 9/11 increased the drive towards family values and “simpler times” retro-appeal which caused traditional board games to be more popular last Christmas. ;o)

          • dmh

            With my clothes on, thank you very much.

            (Well, apart from the ones that need ironing, obviously.)

    • neilh

      Indeed. But they’re allowed to be wrong, thats fine, I don’t mind that. What I worry about is where that leaves the mechanism for making political decisions, how it influences the world as a whole.

      Reply
  4. neilh

    Me too – I think its something to do with the kind of demonisation we’re seeing of fundamentalists of other religious pursuasions, (I assume) those people ‘we’ are fighting are associating us (all) with these creationists, and demonising us in the same way.

    I am agnostic – there is a place for a god (or several) in my worldview, but not the kind of god that wants his people to stop thinking, stop questioning.

    I’m tempted to use their ‘tell us you’ve linked our site’ button…

    Reply
    • neilh

      Nice, playing them at their own game. Particularly like:

      “This book was anonymously donated to your school library to discreetly promote religious alternatives to the theory of evolution. When you are finished with it, please refile the book in the fiction section.”

      Reply

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