monkeys flinging Poo

i don’t know if monkeys fling feces in the wild, but i know they do in captivity.

so do people as it turns out.

one of the tactics inmates used when things looked to get hostile with the guards (or when we wanted them to get hostile) was to fling a 32 oz cup full of urine and feces through the bars at them.

9 x out of 10 the guard never knew who threw it . . . unless it was all of us.

it did serve to create instant outrage and confusion, however, and that was usually the goal.

primitive, true.

. . . but effective.

one of the arguments i heard many times from the pulpit against evolution was that if we are evolved from monkeys then we can excuse bad / excessive behavior as natural.

monkeys are primitive, poo-flinging critters, and if we evolved from monkeys then we have every excuse to be primitive poo-flinging critters ourselves.

of course, that kinda negates the implied meaning of the word *evolved*

– ie we are supposed to have moved beyond that sort of behavior @ this point.

(btw – evolutionists do not claim that we evolved from monkeys, but that monkeys and humans evolved from a common ancestor – a small difference, perhaps, but significant).

but what do christians claim?

that we are the creation of god. an all powerful god. his children.

and as children of an all powerful god, wouldn’t we emulate our creator? would we not claim sovereign right and dominion over the earth. would we not be arrogant and aloof, placing ourselves above all things but god.

cuz that’s exactly what we’ve done down the ages and we’ve only to look around us to see the results.

i am ashamed to say that once upon a time i spouted *logical* arguments like the one above to belittle evolution and *prove* it false.

i knew all the right words to make average joe citizen feel the fool for believing such an obviously false doctrine as evolution.

luckily for me i never came up against anyone who had really studied the facts or i’d have had my head handed to me.

also luckily it is in my nature to really explore the facts (once i get over being all full of myself and all)

but this whole concept really came home to me about a year ago when i started hanging out with some Latter Day Saints online. even being a part of mainstream christianity for some 30 years, i did not realize how persecuted these people were by other branches of the church. i simply had never encountered it in depth.

and i had the enlightening experience of hearing (at the same time) what they believed and what their detractors SAID they believed.

it was an eye opening experience.

so what does that have to do with my little rant on evolution?

just this :: your pastor’s job is not to educate you. it is to indoctrinate you. and you will never learn what evolutionists believe or the real science behind it @ church.

facts will be given to you, to be sure. stood up to be knocked down. some of the facts may even be factual, but they will be taken out of context, incomplete, or glossed over without a chance to really look at the evidence.

in fact, one of the chief arguments against evolution is the lack of evidence.

there are mountains of it

i am not telling anyone what to believe. frankly, i don’t much care what you believe

myself, i once was *asked to leave* a sunday school class for suggesting that evolution was one of the coolest things god ever invented.

i am only saying, when you go to learn something, go to the source.

you will never learn about anything from its detractors. they are too invested in proving the thing false.

you don’t have to live up to the stereotype of the blind-eyed, willfully ignorant christian. you can believe a thing all you want, but believe with all the facts in your hand, not with your head in the sand.

there is a middle ground between the arrogance of gods

and the inanity of monkeys flinging poo