Atheists, why can't we be Scientific "Renaissance men (and women)" like Creationists?

Question

I saw Deke's question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiWORc8IL.okNfODtWSXLofd7BR.?qid=20070727094801AAQaZnS

And I realized, many Evangelical Creationists with no formal education in science still manage to be experts in everything from cosmology to biology. In particular, many of them are PhD-level experts in entropy, and the only reason MIT hasn't granted them honorary degrees is that the atheists who control academia are keeping them down.

Why can't WE aspire to the same universal understanding of all things science that our counterparts in the Evangelical Creationist movement have already achieved?

Answer 1

Smooth, creamy sarcasm. Yummy! =0)

Answer 2

Because science and religion do not complement each other. And creationists are not renaissance men, they are simply people who subscribe to a certain superstitious belief system. There is no room in science for superstition because science deals with logic and reason to explain the unexplained, two things that must be suspended to accept blind faith. Can you clarify exactly which scientists have been "kept down" by MIT? In the scientific community, evolution is fact. In the rest of the modern world, evolution is fact. Only in America, where there is a healthy Evangelical movement does one find this dissent and doubt about evolution. What amazes me is the lack of understanding of the evolutionary process among so-called "Creationist" scientists. And if you were an expert in biology it would be no problem to accept evolution. This debate has been settled decades ago, yet a few religious groups refuse to accept reality if it deviates from their complicated belief in faith. The argument that you are being oppressed by "the atheists who control academia" is more of this illogical belief created by religious faith, similar to the myth of the "liberal media". If a group of people wanted to believe that the Earth is flat, they can believe it, but they shouldn't expect it to be accepted by the scientific community. And what has the Evangelical Creationist movement acheived to advance the universal understanding of "all things science"? If anything, religion has done everything in its power to subvert and deny all scientific understanding, from making Galileo take back his claims about the structure of the cosmos to the current attacks on evolution. All the prayer in the world can not change these processes which have been in effect since billions of years before we existed, or do you mistakenly think that Earth is only 6,000 years old too?

Answer 3

So, you're saying that, using the same logic and diploma mills that creationists use, I could be an expert in biblical history?
SAAAAAY I LIKE that idea!
Who's up for printing out some phony degrees in biblical history? 10 bucks a pop!

Answer 4

Creationist have a very big handicap when trying to do their scientific works. They must also try to keep a religion alive while in the process of doing their research. So far, their works have been a big flop because of that.

Answer 5

Great idea! You know, I've already gone online and gotten my 30-second divinity degree. If I were to get ones in molecular biology and quantum physics, why then I'd have my bases covered and could speak with authority on virtually any subject, couldn't I? Hold on... I'll be back in five minutes...

Answer 6

Those Star Bellied Sneeches SU@K!

Answer 7

You've inspired me, squirrel. I will loosen my stranglehold on the scientific community long enough to let some of those evangelical experts in.

Answer 8

Because then we would know that if we evolved from monkeys, there wouldnt be any monkeys. Without this information, what would the creationists do?

Answer 9

It's this damn real degree. I can't seem to get around having been tought things, in real classes and actually understanding them. I think that's whats getting in the way of my "knowing" absolute "Truth"

Answer 10

It means they're witches!

"Well, basically there are two sorts of opera,' said Nanny, who also had the true witch's ability to be confidently expert on the basis of no experience whatsoever. 'There's your heavy opera, where basically people sing foreign and it goes like "Oh oh oh, I am dyin', oh, I am dyin', oh, oh, oh, that's what I'm doin'", and there's your light opera, where they sing in foreign and it basically goes "Beer! Beer! Beer! Beer! I like to drink lots of beer!", although sometimes they drink champagne instead. That's basically all of opera, reely."

-- (Terry Pratchett, Maskerade)

Answer 11

Oh, if we only had God on our side. Because with God all things are possible, including saddled dinosaurs.