Mindgames

[ebonlock]

If someone can explain the difference between this sort of fundie indoctrination of young kids and brain washing, I'd dearly love to hear it:

Evangelist Ken Ham smiled at the 2,300 elementary students packed into pews, their faces rapt. With dinosaur puppets and silly cartoons, he was training them to reject much of geology, paleontology and evolutionary biology as a sinister tangle of lies.

"Boys and girls," Ham said. If a teacher so much as mentions evolution, or the Big Bang, or an era when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, "you put your hand up and you say, 'Excuse me, were you there?' Can you remember that?"

The children roared their assent.

"Sometimes people will answer, 'No, but you weren't there either,' " Ham told them. "Then you say, 'No, I wasn't, but I know someone who was, and I have his book about the history of the world.' " He waved his Bible in the air.

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"Who's the only one who's always been there?" Ham asked.

"God!" the boys and girls shouted.

"Who's the only one who knows everything?"

"God!"

"So who should you always trust, God or the scientists?"

The children answered with a thundering: "God!"

Wow...

Comments

[ellid.livejournal.com]

A. There's no difference at all.

B. If a kid had the nerve to interrupt class like that, I'd give him detention. And if his parents complained, point out that the Bible says that children are to honor their parents and teachers, and that disrupting a lesson like that does nothing but undermine discipline.

C. If the kid approached me *afterwards* with such nonsense, I'd tell him that yes, of course God was there at the beginning of time. However, the human being who wrote the book of Genesis was not there either, and that putting a mere human on the level of God was verging on sacrilege.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, that's disturbing.

However, if a kid asked me that question, my response would be to say, "Great question. How do we know things that happened before we had recorded history?" And then give a basic lecture on things like fossil records, radioactivity, and carbon dating. I think you could get kids to get the general idea. And definitely point out that we don't know the answer to every question, but that doesn't mean we won't figure it out someday, and maybe some of them will figure out a way if they grow up to be scientists!

I think a lot of people really don't know why scientists believe what they believe, that it actually comes from observation, and that carries some weight.

There's certainly plenty of room for Christianity that's respectful of such things.

[psyfic.livejournal.com]

Sheesh. I love how overzealous fundies completely forget/disregard about the fallibility of man and the fact it was men who wrote the Bible he touts, that it's been translated umpteen times and, on top of that, is incomplete at best.

*sigh* What ellid said.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

"Excuse me. Have you been to China?"
"No."
"Does the bible mention China?"
"No."
"Then obviously it doesn't exist! I have God's book about the history of the world! Who should you trust? God or the map makers?"
The children answered with a thundering "You're a moron!"

[scar-let.livejournal.com]

I think that might count as child abuse.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

I think this whole “Christian Youth” stuff is something that doesn’t stick, for the most part.

Sooner or later, the kids who really “count” will go to college, (because chances are the ones who “don’t” will never vote,) and find themselves out of step with their peers. Their views on history and sexuality will either mature or isolate them from their classmates.

If they go to a “Christian” college and then go to work at a “Christian” business they’ll live in their bubble permanently, unless something educates them.

If not, who cares?

This Christian crap does get nauseating, though.