{"id":4293,"date":"2010-08-10T05:20:34","date_gmt":"2010-08-10T09:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=4293"},"modified":"2010-08-10T18:45:56","modified_gmt":"2010-08-10T22:45:56","slug":"knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2010\/08\/10\/knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"knowledge&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"justify\"><em>Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.<\/em><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com\/2010\/08\/conservapedia_founder_takes_on_the_notorious_liber.php\">Conservapedia: E=mc<sup>2<\/sup> Is A Liberal Conspiracy<\/a><br \/>                <font color=\"#990000\">Talking Points Memo<\/font><\/strong><br \/>                by Megan Carpentier<br \/>                August  9, 2010<\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" hspace=\"4\" border=\"1\" align=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/www.talkingpointsmemo.com\/assets_c\/2010\/08\/schlafy_einstein_1_split-cropped-proto-custom_2.jpg\" \/>To many conservatives, almost everything is a secret liberal plot:  from fluoride in the water to medicare reimbursements for end-of-life  planning with your doctor to efforts to teach evolution in schools. But  Conservapedia founder and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eagleforumu.org\/EAGLEFORUMU\/student\/course\/dsp_all_courses.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Eagle Forum University<\/a> instructor<\/strong> <strong>Andy Schlafly<\/strong> &#8211; Phyllis Schlafly&#8217;s son &#8211; has found one more liberal plot: the theory of relativity. <\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">If you&#8217;re behind on your physics, the Theory of Relativity was Albert  Einstein&#8217;s formulation in the early 20th century that gave rise to the  famous theorum that E=mc<sup>2<\/sup>, otherwise stated as energy is  equal to mass times the square of the speed of light. Why does Andy  Schlafly hate the theory of relativity? We&#8217;re pretty sure it&#8217;s because  he&#8217;s decided it doesn&#8217;t square with the Bible.<\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">In the entry, &quot;<strong>Counterexamples to Relativity<\/strong>,&quot; the authors [including Schlafly] write:<\/div>\n<div align=\"justify\">The theory of relativity is a mathematical system that  allows no exceptions. <strong><font color=\"#200020\">It is heavily promoted by liberals who like its  encouragement of relativism and its tendency to mislead people in how  they view the world.<\/font><\/strong> To what does that reference lead? Why, a note by Schlafly:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">See, e.g., historian Paul Johnson&#8217;s book about the 20th  century, and the article written by liberal law professor Laurence Tribe  as allegedly assisted by Barack Obama. Virtually no one who is taught  and believes relativity continues to read the Bible, a book that  outsells New York Times bestsellers by a hundred-fold.<\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">In other words, reading a theory about physics is correlated to a  decrease in people&#8217;s interest in reading the Bible, which means that it <em>causes<\/em> people to stop reading the Bible. Schlafly also points to the Bible as a reason that Einstein&#8217;s theory must be wrong:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">9. The action-at-a-distance by Jesus, described in John 4:46-54.<\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">Conservapedia defines &quot;action-at-a-distance&quot; as &quot;Action at a distance  consists of affecting a distant body instantaneously. At the atom  level, this is known as &quot;non-locality.&quot; In non-confusing terms, that  indicates the ability to cause something to happen instantaneously in  another location (i.e., faster than the speed of light). Since Jesus  could, reportedly, do this, thus Einstein is wrong. Schlafly&#8217;s evidence  is <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=John+4%3A46-54&#038;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\">John 4:46-54<\/a><\/strong>, in which Jesus reportedly cured someone&#8217;s son just by saying it had happened.<\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned  the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son  lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he  went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to  death.<\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\">&quot;Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,&quot; Jesus told him, &quot;you will never believe.&quot; The royal official said, &quot;Sir, come down before my child dies.&quot; Jesus replied, &quot;You may go. Your son will live.&quot;The man took Jesus at his word and departed. <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, &quot;The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.&quot; Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus  had said to him, &quot;Your son will live.&quot; So he and all his household  believed. This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.<\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\">Schlafly <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/conservapedia.com\/User:Aschlafly\" target=\"_blank\">brags on Conservapedia<\/a><\/strong> that he has homeschooled 185 children, all of whom do exceptionally well on standardized tests. As with Wikipedia and other online crowd-sourced resources,  Conservapedia is a colloborative effort of its users and any registered  user can post to the site. Schlafly is a frequent contributor to the  site, and <strong>i<a href=\"http:\/\/conservapedia.com\/index.php?title=Counterexamples_to_Relativity&#038;diff=prev&#038;oldid=724599\" target=\"_blank\">s identified as the initial author of the entry<\/a><\/strong> and well as <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/conservapedia.com\/index.php?title=Counterexamples_to_Relativity&#038;diff=next&#038;oldid=724642\" target=\"_blank\">the editor of the note identified above<\/a><\/strong>. Schlafly did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\">So, <em>e<\/em> doesn&#8217;t equal <em>mc<sup>2<\/sup><\/em><\/font><\/strong>. Since the child was cured exactly when Jesus spoke, the cure must have traveled faster than the speed of light, therefore <strong>Einstein<\/strong> is a fraud and his formula must be wrong.&nbsp; Actually, Conservapedia has 24 examples of &quot;<strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.conservapedia.com\/Counterexamples_to_Relativity\">Counterexamples to Relativity<\/a><\/strong>.&quot; Conservapedia already has an answer to the above article in the <strong><font color=\"#990000\">Talking Points Memo<\/font><\/strong>:<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\"><strong><a title=\"Conservapedia\" href=\"http:\/\/www.conservapedia.com\/Conservapedia\">Conservapedia<\/a><\/strong>: over 165,000,000 page views &amp; over 765,000 page edits.<\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com\/2010\/08\/conservapedia_founder_takes_on_the_notorious_liber.php\"><em>Talking Points Memo<\/em><\/a><\/strong> strikes out in trying to ridicule <strong><em>Conservapedia<\/em><\/strong>, so it makes a snide remark about the <strong><a title=\"Bible\" href=\"http:\/\/www.conservapedia.com\/Bible\">Bible<\/a><\/strong> too.  <strong><em>TPM<\/em><\/strong> readers and writers, check out this table:<\/p>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" border=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tr>\n<td> <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.conservapedia.com\/Counterexamples_to_the_Bible\">Counterexamples to the Bible<\/a><\/strong>  <\/td>\n<td> 0 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td> <strong><a title=\"Counterexamples to Evolution\" href=\"http:\/\/www.conservapedia.com\/Counterexamples_to_Evolution\">Counterexamples to Evolution<\/a><\/strong>  <\/td>\n<td> 60 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td> IQ of <strong><a title=\"Atheists\" href=\"http:\/\/www.conservapedia.com\/Atheists\">Atheists<\/a><\/strong>  <\/td>\n<td> 0 divided by 60 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">It&#8217;s hard to take these things seriously enough to figure out what these people are getting at. But in their &quot;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.conservapedia.com\/Counterexamples_to_Relativity#cite_ref-0\"><strong>Counterexamples to Relativity<\/strong><\/a>,&quot; there is a strong hint for a reason to add Einstein to the list of Liberal Heretics:<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\">It is heavily promoted by liberals who like its encouragement of  relativism and its tendency to mislead people in how they view the  world<\/font><\/strong>.<sup>[1]<\/sup><\/div>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\"><sup>[1]<\/sup> Historian Paul Johnson&#8217;s book about the 20th century, and  the article written by liberal law professor Laurence Tribe as allegedly  assisted by <span class=\"mw-redirect\">Barack Obama<\/span>.   <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Virtually no one who is taught and believes relativity continues to  read the Bible<\/font><\/strong>, a book that outsells New York Times bestsellers by a  hundred-fold. <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\">Einstein&#8217;s theory says that all things are relative. That would mean that nothing is absolutely true. Extrapolating, the Bible is not absolutely true. That part about &quot;<strong><font color=\"#200020\">Virtually no one who is taught and believes relativity continues to  read the Bible<\/font><\/strong>&quot; isn&#8217;t documented but why be cheeky about their messing with facts. The point is that the notion &quot;all things are relative&quot; would probably lead one away from a literal interpretation of the Christian Bible &#8211; &quot;fundamentalism.&quot; So, what they say may be somewhat correct, at least in the Fundamentalist world.     <\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\">There is a piece of logic in these arguments that gets lost in their rhetoric. In the world of Conservapedia, Liberal refers to a broad group of people who are <strong><font color=\"#200020\">unified<\/font><\/strong> in their beliefs and motives &#8211; a community. That&#8217;s hardly true. Unlike most Conservatives, Liberals tend to be a widely heterogeneous group for exactly the reason described in this article &#8211; they are skeptical about absolute truths. But there&#8217;s a piece of logic that is even further afield. It&#8217;s in this sentence, &quot;<strong><font color=\"#200020\">It is heavily promoted by liberals who like its  encouragement of  relativism and its tendency to mislead people in how  they view the  world<\/font><\/strong>.&quot; Apparently, the reason we Liberals &quot;like&quot; Einstein&#8217;s Relativity is because it misleads people &#8211; Liberals want to mislead people. There are two implications. First, Liberals are evangelical, out to convert others to become Liberals. But even more to the point, Liberals want to recruit others <u><strong>because<\/strong><\/u> they want to undermine Christianity. <strong><font color=\"#990000\">Liberals are a unified group, motivated to get people to stop being Christians.<\/font><\/strong> And the way to fight this is to stop people from teaching things like evolution and relativity which are tools being used to undermine Christianity. If Liberals can get them doubting the story of creation, and seeing all things as relative, then they&#8217;ll flee the Christian Church [and follow Satan &#8211; though they don&#8217;t often say that last part]. And these arguments are familiar from their stance on homosexuality [Conservapedia has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.conservapedia.com\/Homosexuality\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>a lot<\/strong><\/a> to say about homosexuality] &#8211; recruitment, anti-christian,&nbsp; etc.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">It&#8217;s kind of hard to argue with their argument, because of course we&#8217;d deny having those motives &#8211; Satanic trickery and lies are well known from the Garden of Eden story onward.   <\/p>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em><img decoding=\"async\" hspace=\"4\" height=\"90\" border=\"1\" align=\"left\" src=\"http:\/\/t2.gstatic.com\/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQG28uik2r2hU5pEq14RxWRlaW9PiJZvyWGOfz0LuY782Y3bsw&#038;t=1&#038;usg=__EVTkSbykb-V31gBO-Spjdg0AWqo=\" \/>I&#8217;ll have to admit that it is a kind of Biblical argument. In the creation story, God forbids Adam and Eve eating the fruit on the <strong>Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil<\/strong>. Presumably, if you know of the distinction between good and evil, it is possible to choose the latter, so you&#8217;re expelled from the Garden of Eden. <strong><font color=\"#200020\">Knowledge and Choice<\/font><\/strong> lead people astray. I guess that&#8217;s Andy Schlafly&#8217;s big point.<\/em><\/div>\n<p>   <\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\"><em>And he&#8217;s right that Liberals do generally go for knowledge and choice. But that part about believing Evolution and Relativity <u>because<\/u> it leads away from Christianity? Not so much&#8230;<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Conservapedia: E=mc2 Is A Liberal Conspiracy Talking Points Memo by Megan Carpentier August 9, 2010 To many conservatives, almost everything is a secret liberal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}