The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Creation Truth

Our buddy, Johnny Kaje, got us going yesterday with ‘Day One-ish of the Big Silly Jesus Circus: Lies About Dinosaurs‘. This is a perceptive article by someone whose viewpoint is ‘reality-based’. Start there, and then come back here (ya gotta promise to come back!).

Dr. G. Thomas Sharp, founder of the Creation Truth Foundation, does presentations regarding what he considers to be the greatest threat to Christian families: secular thinking, especially “Darwinian evolutionism” (sic). Today, I attended a session ‘Mount St. Helens’ of his 3-day seminar.

Sharp {it is difficult for me to repeatedly use the appellation of “Dr.” for a title bestowed by a Bible College – yes, I know of some fine institutions – but I’d have to see some bona fides first} is not the sort of Intelligent Design Luddite that we usually encounter. He offers a sort of Creationist antithesis to I.D.. He makes no attempt to establish scientific validity for his beliefs: “If this were a scientific issue, it would already be solved … but, it’s religious” and “Creation and Evolution are 100% biases”. He asserts that his viewpoint and that of science are both exclusively religious.

His homogeneous tactic, spread like smooth peanut butter to the very edges of a world-view sandwich, is to show that science is defective, even stupid (a word which he never used, offering instead the equivalents of condescension and derision). The logic sequence which he re-iterates is: Since ‘science’and religion are really both religious, and since science is defective, then, ipso facto, his religious view is correct. He made zero effort to establish any credibility for (his) religion. Such an effort would probably have been superfluous for most of the audience.

It is difficult in this space to analyse the deficiencies paraded before us in an hour. Smart’s comment at 50 minutes is exemplary: he said that since the talk was to be about Mount St. Helens (not yet discussed), he had “10 minutes to talk about the good stuff”. It felt like I had been confronted by a burglar who, instead of taking my valuables, devoted much time to sticking me with a knife before saying “oh, yeah – I came here to get valuables”.

How does a person receive a Ph.D. (with an ’emphasis’ in the philosophy of religion and science) and yet exhibit such an utter lack of organization? Also, his intellectual rigor was, at best, mortised. This is why I do not grant Bible Colleges the same assumed respect that I apply to my hometown state university.

There were many (many, many) other deficiencies in simple content. Try these:

“Mount St. Helens was the smallest known volcano in the history of record keeping.”

But it formed the “biggest land debris slide in the history of record keeping.” {He insisted upon repeating the strange phrase “land debris slide” subsequently.}

“Fossils are not made by dying.” But this “probably includes dying.” {I think that this might have been an example of profundity.}

“The Heavens are where the birds fly.” {His Biblical exegesis is as poor as his science.}

Regarding a geological process: “how long it would take based on observable reality.” {“Observable reality” being incorrect, in his view.}

We “can’t put creation / evolution predictions in a test tube and test them.” {Which would be pointless, regardless – “observable reality” being bogus.}

“Geological uniformitarianism is the result of the lusts of men.” {I heard of another guy who says that rape is the result of the lusts of women. These statements leave the stork as the best explanation for pregnancy.}

“I’m not a scientist.” {This one is ok by him, by the majority of his audience, and by me.}

The Ten Commandments of GodStone

Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 8:18pm

The Church of GodStone

Ten Commandments
of GodStone

 

Commandments by number, with comments and corollaries

Commandment I

Thou shalt maintain deference for the Holy One of GodStone,
Who are infinitely greater than mere mortals.

— Corollary 1 —
Knowledge of the Holy One is unattainable by the limited intelligence and character of mortals.
Dogmatic assertions of knowledge of the Will of the Holy One demonstrate this truth.

— Sub-Corollary A —
The Holy One are unknowably many, for She resides with Her Paramore for the Completion of Sameness,
and the Paramore is that which is All – Beginning, Eternity, and Ending – for the Holy One.

— Sub-Corollary B —
Understanding of each and all Commandments, including Commandment I, is subject to Commandment I.

— Corollary 2 —
In worship, mortals presume to have knowledge of the Holy One
and Their relationship to deities greater than mere mortals.
Hence, they may not worship any other than Holy One of GodStone,
nor may they disparage the forms of worship by those who do not worship Them.

— Corollary 3 —
No mortal can truly know Her will or act as Their proxy, hence,
claims on, from, or to the Authority of the Holy One, are void.

— Sub-Corollary A —
Judgement is Theirs, sayeth the Holy One; judge only as you have judged yourself.

 Commandment II

Thou shalt not damage anything indiscriminately,
that thine emotional energy may be directed toward productive ends.

— Corollary 1 —
Usurpation is arrogance, so do not damage anything which isn’t yours.

— Sub-Corollary A —
Do not damage anything at the behest of the owner,
lest you become a proxy for their violation of Commandment II.

— Sub-Corollary B —
That which has no owner is owned by all mortals, so do not damage it.

— Corollary 2 —
The value of your fellow mortals is never less than your own, so you may not kill or damage them.

— Sub-Corollary A —
You have value to the Holy One, so do not damage yourself.

 Commandment III

Thou shalt devote some small time to the Holy One,
and a much greater time to one’s own pleasure and improvement,
and a still greater time to that which benefits other mortals,
for only in this manner may the Holy One be granted eminence.

Commandment IV

Thou shalt be productive,
for the needs of mortals are many and great, and the time granted to serve those needs is transient.

Commandment V

Thou shalt have affection for thy mortal family and for steadfast friends,
for mortals will die like flowers in a desert without giving and receiving from each other.

— Corollary 1 —
Those who reared you from infancy have freely given you that which you could not have given yourself,
so reserve greatest affection for them.

 Commandment VI

Thou shalt not steal.

— Corollary 1 —
Theft damages others and yourself and diverts others and yourself from productive pursuits.
Do not take another mortal’s possession by stealth or by subterfuge,
nor usurp their relationship with another.

 Commandment VII

Thou shalt not contemplate the theft of another mortal’s possession,
for neither the Holy One nor thine own self is deceived.

Commandment VIII

Thou shalt not be hypocritical.

— Corollary 1 —
The Commandments are One.
You may not persist in the presumed observation of a Commandment by the violation of another Commandment.

— Corollary 2 —
It is easy to rationalize contradictions to the direct meaning of the Commandments.
You may not grant the observation of rituals a priority over serving the Holy One, or oneself, or other mortals.

— Sub-Corollary A —
Such rationalisation and self-delusion is the inherent and errant guide of mortals,
from which all violations of the Commandments devolve.
You will learn and practice critical and skeptical thought.

— Corollary 3 —
Truth destroys hypocrisy.
You must candidly and unequivocably acknowledge your deficiencies and errors.

 Commandment IX

Thou shalt establish means by which thou may adhere to these Commandments,
for obedience is the harvest from a planting of deliberate self-control.

Commandment X

Thou shalt not be invariably literal.

— Corollary 1 —
Dogma is the converse of critical thought and skepticism.
You may not be dogmatic, except in observing Commandment VIII.

— Sub-corollary A —
These Commandments are an exemplar of a contradiction,
so you may not regard the Ten Commandments of GodStone
as being immutably or incontrovertibly ten in number.
They are all One.

 

Premise: A viable religion may be formed from the gaps, either overt or effective, in existing religions.
A viable religion may seek to establish directly those things which existing religions indirectly establish
or to which they merely allude.

~ ~ ~ Copyright 2009-2010 James R. Stone ~ ~ ~

Criteria of Truth – observations

Criteria of Truth
1  Authority
2  Coherence
3  Consensus gentium
4  Consistency (mere)
5  Consistency (strict)
6  Correspondence
7  Custom
8  Emotions
9  Instinct
10  Intuition
11  Majority rule
12  Naive Realism
13  Pragmatic
14  Revelation
15  Time
16  Tradition
 – from Wikipedia Criteria of Truth