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Barton: The Founding Fathers Opposed The Theory Of Evolution, Which Was Established In 500 B.C.

AthenaAwakened

AthenaAwakened

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Sometimes you just don't know why you bother getting up in the morning.

Back in October, David Barton spoke at First Christian Church in Kernersville, North Carolina, during which he doubled down on his infamous claim that the Founding Fathers opposed the teaching of evolution, despite the fact that Charles Darwin didn't even come up with the theory until several decades after America was founded.

How is this possible, you ask?

Well, according to Barton, the theory of evolution was established way back in 500 B.C. and so the Founding Fathers knew all about it nearly a century before Darwin wrote his book.

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/conte...h-was-established-500-bc#sthash.XCm7OwQ9.dpuf
Click to expand...
 
AthenaAwakened said:
Sometimes you just don't know why you bother getting up in the morning.

Back in October, David Barton spoke at First Christian Church in Kernersville, North Carolina, during which he doubled down on his infamous claim that the Founding Fathers opposed the teaching of evolution, despite the fact that Charles Darwin didn't even come up with the theory until several decades after America was founded.

How is this possible, you ask?

Well, according to Barton, the theory of evolution was established way back in 500 B.C. and so the Founding Fathers knew all about it nearly a century before Darwin wrote his book.

- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/conte...h-was-established-500-bc#sthash.XCm7OwQ9.dpuf
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

We have people like this over here too; they used to be confined to psychiatric institutions for the protection of themselves and others, but increasingly they are being expected to care for themselves in the wider community, with in some cases, tragic results.
 
The Earth is flat.
Things that are better suited to the environment don't pass on their characteristics.
Nobody lies.

The three things that everyone believed until around the time of Erasmus.
 
Evolution did in fact precede Darwin, his grandfather was an evolutionist, then there was Lamark et al. But only with Darwin did evolution become a complete enough theory to endanger genesis as received wisdom. It was not until the early 1900's that anti-evolution became a political crusade with William Jennings Bryan leading the charge. Barton is full of crap. I know of no discussion of Anaximander's or Empedocles evolutionary theories by any American founding Fathers. Much less that they disagreed.
 
Yeah, its just shocking that the Christian fundamentalists like George, John, Thomas, and Ringo just go all out and set up a theocratic state....
 
David Barton: founding fathers disproved evolution

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friend...ebunked-evolution-long-before-darwin-existed/

If you've ever been in church/state separation debates with Christian conservatives, chances are they cited the work of "historian" David Barton to prove their claim that the founding fathers intended to establish a Baptist theocracy until an evil atheist conspiracy created the myth of separation of church and state.

Above is David Barton proving what an expert on history he is by arguing that the founding fathers disproved the theory of evolution nearly a century before it was proposed!
 
Anyone who wants to try that line of argument will have to rule out everything Thomas Jefferson said or wrote, which eliminates the Declaration of Independence.
 
David Barton reminds me of preachers in the Church of Christ who claimed the Church of Christ existed before Alexander Campbell in the early 1800's. Then they would go off and find some church that called itself church of Christ that existed back in the 1500's or 1600's and claim "See, the Church of Christ existed before Campbell and we go all the way back to AD 33." Upon closer inspection when records were left detailing the beliefs of these "church of Christ" before Campbell they turn out to be nothing doctrinally like the Church of Christ you find in the US south. But no matter how wrong you show them, they keep on using these examples.

I know they use freedom of speech, religious freedom, and supposed academic freedom to get around charges of lying and fraud, but I do wish some blatant lying about the historical record could be prosecutable.
 
Sorry guys. I posted an identical thread in another forum because I consider this a church/state separation issue.

Barton is the "historian" conservochristians cite when arguing against separation of church and state.

Frankly, I think most conservatives would find Barton's arguments compelling. After all, they believe that FDR caused the Great Depression, and Obama caused the recession that hit during the Bush administration. I'm pretty sure that one or more of their conspiracy theories involves the communo-fascist Islammo-atheist conspirators being in possession of a time machine.
 
BH said:
[...]

I know they use freedom of speech, religious freedom, and supposed academic freedom to get around charges of lying and fraud, but I do wish some blatant lying about the historical record could be prosecutable.
Click to expand...

If you did that, the government would immediately start prosecuting the majority of climatologists for "lying" about anthropogenic climate change, prosecuting a majority of biologists for "lying" about evolution, prosecuting a majority of physicists for "lying" about the origins and age of the universe, and just for good measure prosecute medical researchers for "lying" about the link between smoking and lung cancer. (For those of you confused by that last part, I'm old enough to remember when conservatives argued that the link between cancer and smoking was just a conspiracy by scientists.)

I'm sorry, but your suggestion is a bad, bad idea even if I can appreciate your frustration.
 
BH said:
David Barton reminds me of preachers in the Church of Christ who claimed the Church of Christ existed before Alexander Campbell in the early 1800's. Then they would go off and find some church that called itself church of Christ that existed back in the 1500's or 1600's and claim "See, the Church of Christ existed before Campbell and we go all the way back to AD 33." Upon closer inspection when records were left detailing the beliefs of these "church of Christ" before Campbell they turn out to be nothing doctrinally like the Church of Christ you find in the US south. But no matter how wrong you show them, they keep on using these examples.

I know they use freedom of speech, religious freedom, and supposed academic freedom to get around charges of lying and fraud, but I do wish some blatant lying about the historical record could be prosecutable.
Click to expand...

It is prosecutable, but only in the court of public opinion.
 
Bronzeage said:
Anyone who wants to try that line of argument will have to rule out everything Thomas Jefferson said or wrote, which eliminates the Declaration of Independence.
Click to expand...

Everything he said and wrote is a work of fiction created by the atheists in on the conspiracy to prevent the USA from becoming a true Christian nation.
 
Bullmoose Too said:
Bronzeage said:
Anyone who wants to try that line of argument will have to rule out everything Thomas Jefferson said or wrote, which eliminates the Declaration of Independence.
Click to expand...

Everything he said and wrote is a work of fiction created by the atheists in on the conspiracy to prevent the USA from becoming a true Christian nation.
Click to expand...

Maybe so, but in Jefferson's time, the church was an arm of the Government. At the time of the Revolution, every minister was born and educated in Britain. Their natural loyalty was to the King, as head of the Church of England. They were known to be Loyalists and suspected to be spies. Churches of all denominations, even the Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Baptists were tax supported. Jefferson and many other founding fathers repeatedly warned of religious influence in government and saw all as threats to their concept of liberty.

Modern Religious Conservatives have been skilled revisionist historians, with little more evidence than the few performatory prayers recorded from the time, such as George Washington at Valley Forge. The substance of the prayer is not known and the report of the prayer was made nearly 40 years after the fact. The famous painting of the event dates to 1976. Never let a good story go to waste.
 
seyorni said:
I wonder what Barton's position is on Copernicanism and germ theory.:rolleyes:
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The Germ Theory of Disease is just a theory, and therefore false, therefore I just proved that diseases are communicated by invisible demons instead of microorganisms.

Heliocentric theory is just a theory, therefore heliocentric theory is false and geocentric theory is true!
 
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