I think we've all (atheists and theists alike) received insipid life lesson godspam in our e-mail at one time or another. Some of my friends are so god-soaked (hat-tip to Human Ape for the adjective) that they hardly realize that the feel-good stories they send are religious. After all, a pithy religious note at the end of a long series of cute puppy photos doesn't make an e-mail religious, does it? *facepalm*
Recently, one of my atheist friends at work (yes, I found another one here in Indiana!!!) received the NASA spam claiming to validate two Biblical miracles. It claims that astrophysicists have proved a "lost day" during which the Sun "stood still" in the sky (Joshua 10:12-13) for 23 hours and 40 minutes, and another fable about Hezekiah demanding the Sun go backwards as proof that Isaiah was visiting him as a ghost, filling in the remaining 20 minutes. *groan* This is such utter nonsense it ought to make baby Jebus cry.
How can you tell it's nonsense if you're not an astronomer (which I'm not)? Here are some tips:
It's an e-mail that purports there is scientific proof supporting a Biblical miracle. Miracles by definition defy science so this would be big news indeed. And yet the only people who know are the lucky few who happen to be in the spammer's contacts list. Wouldn't this be common knowledge if it were really true? Here are some clues:
The person sending it is a Christian. There. I said it. Christians are gullible. They are so eager to be right that they will believe anything, from Creationism to the Virgin Mary appearing in an office building window.
NASA scientists are supposedly wasting the taxpayers' money proving a religious myth. That would be unconstitutional, besides also being a waste of time. And anyway, why would NASA worry about something like that when they have bigger problems to solve?
The noble Christian character, who figures out The Truth thanks to his prior indoctrination as a Christian, is a classic trope. He's the Christian Mulder. Doesn't every conspiracy theory have one? Crackpot loners always have the right answer against common sense and the scientific method. *rolls eyes* Their colleagues suppress The Truth (tm) and he can only get the message out through spam.Complete lack of detail, such as dates, references to written articles, etc. That's pretty much a trait of all urban legend type spam too.
...and then as I was getting ready to finish this post and publish it, I find this piece of shit in my e-mail account (sent as an e-mail). WTF? How did they get my e-mail address? That's the most pathetic spam I've ever seen! Although I have to admit, I am intrigued by the thought that the book teaches the fools how to spot logical fallacies!
2 comments:
I find this piece of shit in my e-mail account (sent as an e-mail). WTF?
A laborious delusional world-view no different in principle from that guy in Canada who thinks all world political leaders are actually reptiles from outer space disguised as humans (and he probably also has "proofs" that no one who understood science would take seriously).
Expect more and more frenzied religious propaganda of all kinds, because they are losing and they know it. Surveys have shown religious belief receding all over the world for decades, and the trend is accelerating, while atheists grow more confident and assertive. So they religious will keep on sputtering out this kind of befuddled incoherence that they're used to repeating to each other within their own echo chamber, and never understand why the rest of us just laugh at it.
My bosses Irish, hella old dad keeps sending her (then as a joke, she sends it to me) puppie stories, god and government stories-the end is always 'those crazy liberals' and god is great stories...they are so wishy washy I can't beleive anyone believes that crap. Haven't seen the NASA one...yet.
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