An email about the young earth belief

Yesterday I got an email by a listener of The Phileas Club. I often get emails and answer them privately, but after writing this one I thought that it was summarizing my thoughts on the topic enough that I should make a blog post about it. So here is the original email, and my answer.
Quick note: the topic is sensitive, and in the past we have managed to keep these kinds of debates very civilized on this blog. If you chose to comment, please keep that tradition alive, thanks!

B.’s email:

I recently started listening to your show and started from the beginning and have been slowly catching up to the recent shows. I was a little disappointed at the sara palen talk because of the anti religious tone it took but let it go because i figured that was going on in the media at the time as well. Then I got to episode 10 and was completely offended at the comment you made that something should be done to people that preach the young earth theory. Evolution is not fact, it might be the majority view but remember that the majority also thought the world was flat at one point. There are scientists that use the same research as evolutionist and show it to back the theory of a young earth. I don’t expect you to change your view on this subject but I think you should know that our comment upset me.

And my answer (I didn’t address the Sarah Palin comments or the other details, as I thought they weren’t really the core of the issue):

Hi B.,

First of all let me thank you for taking the time to write to me; I really appreciate it.

That being said, I’m very sorry but I’m afraid that I cannot subscribe to what you’re saying… The “young earth theory” is not a theory, it’s a belief. The people who support it aren’t scientists, they’re spokespeople for organisations that have other agendas. A theory is supported by verifiable fact, and no fact comes to support the idea that the earth is 6000 years old. No scientist worth their salt, and no one who understands the meaning of the word, will give any credit to it.

This is my whole argument: by treating this “idea” as a theory, we validate it and lead people to believe that there might be some truth to it. There isn’t, and we should stop indulging it altogether. Don’t get me wrong: you are of course free to believe whatever you want, but believing something like that is very simply ignorance and missinformation, not “just another theory”.

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Phileas S1 – Islam for dummies

Do you ever get tired of thinking in stereotypes and inaccuracies? I know I do, and my knowledge of Islam certainly is vague… but here’s an idea: how about sitting down with a Muslim and asking him all sorts of candid questions? Simple enough, right? But maybe you don’t have a Muslim right next door to ask him yourself. Well, fear not! The Phileas Club is here to help.

We asked Turki (our resident Saudi panelist) to take us on a tour of the Muslim faith. I also asked Scott (from Utah) to join the discussion and help us ask the best questions we could.
And to make this show even more special we enlisted the help of twitterers around the world, too! Thanks go out to all of those who were kind enough to answer the “instant questions” I asked.

So we hope you’ll learn a thing or two about Islam in this episode (or at least that you’ll have fun listening to Scott and I make fools of ourselves) and we’ll try to bring you more “for dummies” specials in the future.

(And by the way, if you enjoy comics that are made by a dummy, you should go check out Scott’s website.)

Listen to the show:

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You can also use iTunes, the RSS feed or the the MP3 file.

Phileas #9 – Micheal Dell needs more bodyguards

Happy new year! Alright, we went through that part last month already…

2009 does get an awesome start though, with a wonderful Phileas cast:
Turki (Saudi Arabia), Randy (Texas / Canada), Mohammed (Qatar) join me on the show to talk about Gaza, Obama and the religious police, as well as the Dell / Putine incident, ad-sponsored adultery and more!

We all hope you enjoy listening to the show as much as we do recording it, and if you do, please consider leaving a comment on iTunes, which will help give us more visibility.
And if you want to hear more from Randy, you can go to the Warcraft show he hosts.

Listen to the show:

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You can also use iTunes, the RSS feed or the the MP3 file.

Have a great month of february, talk to you in a few weeks.

Marriage ™

I wanted to wait a bit before commenting on Proposition 8 and the banning of gay marriage in several states in the US. For those who don’t know, a few states now have it written in their constitution that marriage is only possible between one man and one woman. Which is ironic since the California campaign for this was heavily pushed by the Mormon church, in which men often (sometimes?) have multiple wives…

Anyway, that’s besides the point, but it does also state the obvious fact that the organizations supporting this mostly take roots in religious circles (though I imagine not all supporters are religious).

And before I talk about the ban on marriage proper, I just want to say that Florida not only banned gay marriage, but also pre-emptively banned any contract that would try to “emulate” marriage. While the language isn’t crystal clear, this pretty much puts a ban on civil unions too. This is just ridiculous… Marriage is one thing, and I can understand the debate. But this?!… Ok, let’s not derail the post.

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Phileas #6 – The world almost ended. Twice.

Tom Merrit (from the US) and Turki (from Saudi Arabia) join me on this month’s adventure as we tackle the financial crisis, Pakistani elections, the US presidential debate, the question of Sarah Palin’s choice and edicts to kill broadcast companies owners, as well as investigations on toilet parts theft, fat taxes and reasons why Mickey Mouse should be put down.

As always we had a great time recording, and we hope you have a great time listening!

• If you want to learn more about Turki, you can find his blog: A Saudi Life.
• To learn more about Tom‘s, go to his personal blog or to the East Meets West homepage.
• And here are my bolg’s rants about the young earth theory and the obesity issue, as well as my twitter.

And don’t forget to digg digg digg to bring us to page two of news shows, thanks!

Listen to the show:

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You can also use iTunes, the RSS feed or the the MP3 file.

Phileas #5: Utah is now its own country!

Summer one on one
An epic “new world vs old world” confrontation makes the august edition of The Phileas Club a memorable one. With only two panelists this time, Scott Johnson (from Utah, US) gets a chance to show the world his serious side when we tackle topics like the Russia / Georgia issue, the Beijing Olympics, the deaths of French soldiers in Afghanistan and more. They also talk about the Mormon “condition”, drug enhanced cyber athletes and kids with a heightened sense of smell.

To find out more about Scott, visit Myextralife.com where you will find his webcomic and many podcasts. And if you want to help The Phileas Club out, you can Digg us or review our show on iTunes. Lastly, I (Patrick) recently started a blog you might be interested in.

Enjoy the show, and see you in september.

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Phileas #2: Made up holidays

A Saudi, an Armenian, an American and a Frenchman walk into a skype call…

This month we get our share of testosterone with an all male cast. Turki from Saudi Arabia, Artur from Armenia, Randy from Texas and myself, Patrick from France, bring up difficult stories and fun facts from around the world with a healthy amount of discussion.
We talk about the crisis in Burma, Hezbollah in Beirut and Israel’s 60 years, but we also bring you stories of people dining at gunpoint, mining resources out of the moon and more.

And if you want to hear more from our panelists, you will find these fine gentlemen on the web here:
- Turki’s A Saudi Life blog and podcast.
- Artur’s Armenian Observer blog.
- Randy’s The Instance video game podcast.
Big thanks also go to Chloe for her help on preparing the show.

Enjoy!

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You can also use iTunes, the RSS feed or the the MP3 file.