Christian Idiocy : Creationist Ken Ham Says Aliens Will Go To Hell

Creationist Cretins live in a World that's devoid of science or reality. For example:

"Creationist Ken Ham, who recently debated Bill Nye the Science Guy over the origins of the universe, is calling for an end to the search for extraterrestrial life because aliens probably don't exist -- and if they do, they're going to Hell anyway.

"You see, the Bible makes it clear that Adam’s sin affected the whole universe," Ham wrote on his blog on Sunday. "This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but because they are not Adam’s descendants, they can’t have salvation."

The post was driven in part by NASA experts saying that they expect to find evidence of alien life within the next 20 years.

"It's highly improbable in the limitless vastness of the universe that we humans stand alone," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said last week.

But Ham, president and CEO of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., said we probably are alone. He wrote "earth was specially created," and the entire hunt for extraterrestrials is "really driven by man’s rebellion against God in a desperate attempt to supposedly prove evolution!"

If aliens do exist, however, Ham said even Jesus can't save them:

Jesus did not become the “GodKlingon” or the “GodMartian”! Only descendants of Adam can be saved. God’s Son remains the “Godman” as our Savior. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that we see the Father through the Son (and we see the Son through His Word). To suggest that aliens could respond to the gospel is just totally wrong.

Sorry, Worf"

SOURCE: HUFFINGTON POST& ED MAZZA

Children exposed to religion have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction: researchers

A study published in the July issue of Cognitive Science determined that children who are not exposed to religious stories are better able to tell that characters in “fantastical stories” are fictional — whereas children raised in a religious environment even “approach unfamiliar, fantastical stories flexibly.”

In “Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds,” Kathleen Corriveau, Eva Chen, and Paul Harris demonstrate that children typically have a “sensitivity to the implausible or magical elements in a narrative,” and can determine whether the characters in the narrative are real or fictional by references to fantastical elements within the narrative, such as “invisible sails” or “a sword that protects you from danger every time.”

However, children raised in households in which religious narratives are frequently encountered do not treat those narratives with the same skepticism. The authors believed that these children would “think of them as akin to fairy tales,” judging “the events described in them as implausible or magical and conclude that the protagonists in such narratives are only pretend.”

And yet, “this prediction is likely to be wrong,” because “with appropriate testimony from adults” in religious households, children “will conceive of the protagonist in such narratives as a real person — even if the narrative includes impossible events.”

The researchers took 66 children between the ages of five and six and asked them questions about stories — some of which were drawn from fairy tales, others from the Old Testament — in order to determine whether the children believed the characters in them were real or fictional.

“Children with exposure to religion — via church attendance, parochial schooling, or both — judged [characters in religious stories] to be real,” the authors wrote. “By contrast, children with no such exposure judged them to be pretend,” just as they had the characters in fairy tales. But children with exposure to religion judged many characters in fantastical, but not explicitly religious stories, to also be real — the equivalent of being incapable of differentiating between Mark Twain’s character Tom Sawyer and an account of George Washington’s life.

This conclusion contradicts previous studies in which children were said to be “born believers,” i.e. that they possessed “a natural credulity toward extraordinary beings with superhuman powers. Indeed, secular children responded to religious stories in much the same way as they responded to fantastical stories — they judged the protagonist to be pretend.”

The researchers also determined that “religious teaching, especially exposure to miracle stories, leads children to a more generic receptivity toward the impossible, that is, a more wide-ranging acceptance that the impossible can happen in defiance of ordinary causal relations.”

SOURCE: RawStory.com & Scott Kaufman

Dog goes from death row to changing a man's life

In late 2013, a dog named Baron was pulled off of "doggy-death row" in Greenville, S.C., by a local rescue agency. For a short time, Baron went to boarding, and then he was taken in by the non-profit rescue agency, Carmen's Rescue.

 

Soon thereafter, a woman who had adopted two dogs from the rescue agency reached out to the founder of the rescue agency because her son, Christian, was hoping to find a new companion.

Christian had a bit of a rocky past with dogs - when he was a younger man, he described himself as an owner who was less-than-dedicated and at times, impatient. But time had passed, he had matured and he wanted to do things right this time around.


Carmen, the founder of the rescue agency, knew Christian's story and she knew which dog would be perfect for him - Baron. Christian drove over 10 hours to meet the dog who would soon become his soul mate, and the rest, as they say, is history.


When Christian and Baron met, an instant bond was formed.

READ THE FULL STORY AT EXAMINER.COM

The Valley of the Giants in Tasmania

This is a photograph of one of the biggest trees in the Valley of the Giants in Tasmania, Australia. It is believed to be more than 500 years old. 

 Source: Possibly Dr Craig Emerson

The Valley of the Giants is also known as the Styx Valley and is about 90 minutes from Hobart, the capital of the State of Tasmania. It is home to the World's tallest hardwood trees - Swamp Gums (Eucalyptus regnans), also known as giant ash, mountain ash, Victorian ash, swamp gum, Tasmanian oak or stringy gum. Many are over 400 years old, 16 feet wide at the base and grow up to 375 feet tall. 

Eucalyptus regnans is the tallest of all flowering plants. The tallest living specimen, is named "Centurion" and stands 327 feet tall (100 metres).

I've walked and camped amongst those giants on four different occasions over the years between 1974 and 1982, three times with friends and once alone. To say that they were awe-inspiring experiences would be an understatement. I still remember those giants whispering to me during my quietest moments.

The Beauty of Lofoten

Lofoten, Norway, in all its rugged beauty. It's hard to imagine that this was the target of Royal Navy actions and British Commando raids during World War II.

Source unknown

Also:
Operation Claymore the Commando attack on the Lofotens