Science Within The Church Setting (Part 3)

June 03, 2021

The Effects Of Christian Media On This Topic

Since many months have passed since the last "Science Within The Church Setting" (Oct. 6, 2019) article, I will link to it below. Continuing from the last article, fundamentalist have mobilized Christian media into the fight against science as well. Movies like A Matter of Faith and the God's Not Dead series is a product of this conflict. These movies tend cater to there audience by incorporating the common stereotypes and caricatures. These Christian movies often incorporate the inaccurate and one-sided tropes of casting the professors and atheist as anti-Christian boogeymen that are angry, disrespectful, villains out to destroy a person's faith. The adversaries are essentially presented as cartoon villains and a cardboard cutout that's very representative of stereotypes held by American Evangelical Christians.

As one could probably tell, I'm not a particular fan of these movies. I personally see them as spiritual exploitation, catering to the fears and paranoia of American Evangelical Christians for the sake of selling movie tickets. The movie plays into stereotypes and fears held by that audience.

Anyone who are familiar with Friedrich Nietzshe's quote wouldn't be impressed with the response quote that's been used in the films using it as the title. The annoyance with the quote "God's Not Dead" is that it takes a literal response to a figurative quote that was meant to be a eye-shot observation. Anyone who spent even 5 minutes under Nietzshe's context would know that it was a figurative phrase stating that with the pace of industrialization and science, religion and spirituality would play a much less role in this society. He was not be literal in declaring that God's dead. It was basically a observation based on opinion. However, this phrase was purposely misinterpreted so that there would be a plot for a series of spiritual exploitative films. Also, if a person has to remind themselves that God's not dead, then they probably felt that he was dead at some point in their life. Why else make the declaration? I know that this statement will probably get me in trouble, but a devout Christian wouldn't need to make this declaration because they know in their hearts that he's very much alive.

The first God's Not Dead movie was largely based on a Chick Tract comic. For those who don't know what Chick Tracts are, there essentially Christian-based comics that are intended to answer questions in relation between modern trends and a person's faith. However, the Chick Tract series have gained notoriety over certain controversies.

Some of these comic had strong anti-Catholic sentiments, insinuating that Catholicism is part of some grand conspiracy. According to the Wikipedia article, the Catholic church created Islam, Communism, Nazism, and Freemasonry to cover-up the story of Creationism. This idea is heavily promoted in the conspiracy documentary"The UnHoly See" (I will eventually cover that train-wreck). Essentially, the Catholic church created Darwinism because they had evidence about the pre-flood cultures which had secret tunnels linking there civilization together. Under this theory, the Catholic Church didn't want people to know about these cultures and there secret tunnels and advance science. As such, they created the theory of evolution to cover up the idea of Creationism. I've stopped watching it when the conspiracy theorist declared that the ancient cultures had access to nuclear fusion. Many will have grievances about the Catholic Church. Those grievances though should be based on actual complaints and issues, and not this stupid conspiracy tripe.

Kent Hovind

The Chick Tract covering evolution tract referenced the evolution findings of Kent Hovind, a Christian Fundamentalist, who has no degrees from accredited universities that covers that area of science. His works runs at odds with those who are professionals in the field.

According to the Wikipedia article about Kent Hovind, he graduated from East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois in 1971. He then entered the accredited Illinois Central College before transferring to the unaccredited Midwestern Baptist College in 1972, attaining a Bachelor of Religious Education in 1974. In 1988 and 1991, Hovind received a master's degree and doctorate in Christian Education throughPatriot University (also unaccredited)in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was revealed that Patriot University is a diploma mill. Karen Bartelt, an organic chemistry professor who debated Hovind, examined Hovind's dissertation and found it is incomplete, contains numerous spelling errors, lacks references, shows flawed reasoning, and states that it does not present any original research.

He had a website called "Dr. Dino" that provoked those in the academia to examine Hovind's education credentials. All his known degrees are from unaccredited institutions, and he has no training in paleontology. Yet, despite his lacking credentials, his work is often embraced by like-minded individuals.

Wrapping Up

To wrap up part too, I have linked the clip of Bill Nye setting a globe on fire. This is a very symbolic clip. Anyone who watched Bill Nye, The Science Guy wanted us to reject rhetoric and conspiracy theories and understand and embrace science as it often provides explanation on various topics while teaching us about the planet and the universe. When we understand our planet, we understand more about ourselves in the process. He wanted us to examine things at a deeper level, and not just to take things at face value. Unfortunately, many of those children who watched his show in the 90's grew up into adults that did exactly the opposite of what Bill Nye taught us not to do. Many embraced outlandish conspiracy theories and absurd ideas that had no scientific backing. He expected better from us. Bill Nye is disappointed in that we much rather wanted to be entertained instead of being informed. His anger is justified.

Satan is real. Satan is the state of mind that gives in to our personal demons by telling us to reject logic and reason and embrace our fear and paranoia instead. Numerous villains can be found, and it's quite easy though. Just walk into any room in the house that has a mirror in it and look at in. The villain can be found in the reflection of the mirror. Anyone who rejected critical thinking and embraced rhetoric and conspiracy theories not grounded in reality are responsible for the current situation today

Science Within The Church Setting (Part 2)
Kixmiller Pigeon
RKIXMILLER.DUDAONE.COM/

https://kixpigeon.blogspot.com/2021/05/science-within-church-setting-part-2.html