"Rev Dr" Lenny Flank
Posts: 2560
Joined: Feb. 2005
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| Quote (skeptic @ Dec. 12 2006,22:24) | | As a suggestion, you might want to point your students to the Reasons to Believe website. As Lenny said ID in it's current form is dead but if I had to guess this site offers a preview of where the movement is going. |
"Reasons to Believe" is old news. It's an old-earth anti-evolution creationist group, that has recently taken up "intelligent design" verbiage because no one is paying any attention to OEC.
As for its founder, Dr Hugh Ross, some measure of his, uh, credibility can be found in Ross's recent book (co-authored with two other fundie kooks) , entitled "Lights In the Sky and Little Green Men: A Rational Christian Look at UFO's and Extraterrestrials" (NavPress, Colorado Springs CO, 2002).
Over several chapters, Ross dismisses, on scientific and Biblical
grounds, the existence of any life other than terrestrial. But, he
declares, there are so many reliable UFO reports that they can't all
be mistakes or hoaxes (he calls the remaining reliable reports
(Residual UFO's"). His "rational Christian" conclusion is something he calls the "trans-dimensional hypothesis"---flying sacuers are actually entities that come from "beyond out space and time dimensions" and which, although real entities, are not physical beings. OK, so what ARE the flying saucers, then? Hear the gospel according to Ross: "It can now be determined who is
behind the RUFO experiences. Only one kind of being favors the
dead of night and lonely roads. Only one is real but nonphysical,
animate, powerful, deceptive, ubiquitous throughout human history,
culture, and geography, and bent on wreaking psychological and
physical harm. Only one entity selectively approaches those
humans involved in cultic, occultic or New Age activities. It seems
apparent that residual UFO's, in one or more ways, must be
associated with the activities of demons." (pages 122-123).
Want to see how Ross's "UFO's come from the Devil" hypothesis
can be scientifically tested? Well, we flip to page 124 and find:
"The conlcusion that demons are behind the residual UFO
phenomenon is a testible one." Ross points out that "according to
the Bible" demons only can attack people who dip into the occult
and make themsleves vulnerable. Ross declares, "All that is
necessary to further prove the conclusions of demonic involvement, therefore, is to continue surveying people to ascertain who has encounters with residual UFO's and who does not. If the demonic idenficiation of the RUFO phenomenon is correct, researchers should continue to observe a correlation between the degree of invitations in a person's life to demonic attacks (for example, participation inseances, Uija games, astrology, spiritualism, witchcraft, palm reading, and psychicreading) and the proximity of their residual UFO encounters." (Ross of course neglects to mention another possible reason for these "correlations" --- people who believe one goofy thing are more prone to believe other goofy things as well.)
And why is that scientists and other researchers decline to study
Ross's, uh, "theory"? Why, because they're all ATHEISTS, silly:
"One reason why research scientists and others may be reluctant to say that demons exist behind residual UFO's is because such an answer points too directly to a Christian interpretation of the
problem." (page 125)
(Does this sound familiar to anybody? Is there some other topic
that Ross thinks involves the supernatural, but nobody takes
seriously because they are all atheists . . . . ?)
Believe it or not, though, Ross isn't the first creationut to yammer
about flying saucers and the Devil. Creationist theologian Norman
Geisler was one of the witnesses at the Arkansas creationism trial
back in 1982. During his pre-trial deposition, Geisler was asked if
he believed in a real Devil. Yes, he replied, he did, and cited some
Biblical verses as confirmation. The conversation then went:
"Q. Are there, sir, any other evidences for that belief besides
certain passages of Scripture?
GEISLER: Oh, yes. I have known personally at least 12 persons
who were clearly possessed by the Devil. And then there are the
UFOs.
Q. The UFOs? Why are they relevant to the existence of the Devil?
GEISLER: Well, you see, they represent the Devil's major, in fact,
final attack on the earth.
Q. Oh. And sir, may I ask how you know, as you seem to know, that
there are UFOs?
GEISLER: I read it in the Readers Digest."
At trial, Geisler testified under oath (apparently with a straight
face) that flying saucers were "Satanic manifestations for the purposes of deception".
Anyone who thinks, in the 21st century, that "flying saucers come from the Devil", is simply not worth taking seriously.
I think it's just a matter of time before the anti-evolutioners start publishing new updated versions of the Malleus Maleficarum, telling us how to detect and punish, uh, witches.
They are utterly nutty, all.
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Editor, Red and Black Publishers
www.RedandBlackPublishers.com
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