I have just finished my 4 day trip to Nashville, TN, the "Buckle of the Bible Belt".
I saw a few things that I could not believe.
At the Tennessee state museum, they started a timeline 4.5 billion years ago. They literally said:
"Some scientists believe the Earth was created 4.5 Billion years ago"
Then last night I took my 80 year old mother and my special needs son to a Christmas concert at Opryland.
They sang this ridiculous song:
two times, in a row, and the crowd was asking for it a third time.
At that point, my son said he wanted to go and we got out of there.
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4 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.You probably knew you were going to hear some ridiculous religious crap.
Christians who believe in the Trinity believe that there is only one God, but that Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is also God. That only one of the three is called the Holy Spirit even though they were all spirits before Jesus impregnated his mother with himself through the Holy Spirit, making himself flesh, and that the Father is still a spirit but is distinguishable from the Holy Spirit even though they are all one spirit and person.
They should make a song about that.
That is why Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus." - Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, 30 July, 1816
nogod4me
Level 8
Oct 4, 2023
2
Did you go to Corky's BBQ while you were there? Tasty stuff, my friend.
ChestRockfield
Level 8
Oct 4, 2023
1
I’ve sung this song with my choir in the past a few times when it’s been included in our Christmas programme. I pay no attention to the words just as I don’t with any other of the carols & other songs. At least this one does have quite a good tune behind it….but the words are ridiculous of course, as are most of the others….
Marionville
Level 10
Oct 4, 2023
2
I can understand how you might think the song is silly but what is the issue with the age of the earth?
skado
Level 9
Oct 4, 2023
1
I think that the issue is not with the age of the earth, but with the assumption implied, in the sentence, that it is something only held to be true, by a minority of scientists and no one else.
@Fernapple He really didn't understand that?
He just used that exact same bullshit tactic by saying, "I can understand how you might think the song is silly" [emphasis mine], but he couldn't suss that out? Give me a break with this guy.
Permission granted.
Feel free to take all the breaks you need. 
@Fernapple
Oh, OK, I see.
It’s good to keep in mind though, that every period of history thought it knew, but the estimate has changed with advances in the technical means of determining such. We would be silly to assume that no further advances could be made in the future. I suspect most scientists realize that our current estimate is likely to change again.
@skado But anyone with half a brain knows they're not saying, "Some scientists believe that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, when it's likely only 4.4 billion years old" but instead, "Some scientists believe that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, when we all know it's only 6,000 years old." The estimate may change in the future, but it's never going to be the case that those "most scientists" realize the Earth is actually only a few thousand years old.
@ChestRockfield
Nashville knows its own culture. You don't win converts to science by blurting out "You're fucking wrong!!" If they believed the earth was 6K y.o. they probably would have said so. I live in the south - not far from Nashville. I know these people. If you're trying to educate the public in the Bible Belt, you tread lightly. The purpose of a state museum is most likely to raise public awareness, but you need to be mindful of where they're coming from in order to do that.
Realistically, neither of us knows what was in the mind of the person who scripted that sign. I can only go by the actual words on it. And I agree with every one of them. Some scientists surely do believe the Earth was created 4.5 Billion years ago. Any spin you or I put on it beyond that is based on our personal assumptions. I assume they're soft-pedaling in order to get the truth across without offending the expected audience. I can't imagine why they would say it was 4.5B in the first place if they really believed it was 6K.
@skado That's a good point. I overlooked the part about it being a state museum. I don't think my "spin" is unfounded, though, the word "some" in this context is a gross underrepresentation.
True, it is no doubt an underrepresentation.
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