Answers in Genesis: Reaping What They Sow

A very brief post.

One of the things about extreme beliefs that I have increasingly come to understand is the way they tend to alter the way people think--not just what they think, but how they think and what they are capable of believing. Take my most recent class on conspiracy theories. Once you internalize the premise that, say, the Illuminati have held sway over the populace over the decades, you are a sparrowfart away from believing that they are shape-shifting reptoids (look at how incrementally crazy David Icke has become). I think back to a conversation I had with a relative's boyfriend, who asked me about psychics. When I said I would believe in them when they were able to predict the location, time and magnitude of 3 earthquakes, then we'll talk, and not before I examine their basement for advanced seismic-detecting doohickeys. "Oh, that's too harsh," he said. And it occurred to me, this guy, having seen shitty psychics doing a shitty job for so long had lowered his expectations of them, doing a lot of the work of convincing for the psychics. Goofy beliefs beget goofy beliefs.

Well, the cows have come home to roost. Or something.

It comes in AiG's response to the "news" that some "dickhead" with a "fake ark" in "jolly Asia" has "discovered" a "real Ark" in Turkey.

Since posting a preliminary comment about recent reports that the remains of Noah's Ark have been found on Mt. Ararat in Turkey, Answers in Genesis now has more to say, while still remaining highly cautious in coming to a conclusion about what has supposedly been found. Throughout the week, AiG supporters have peppered us with questions about the validity of the reported discovery, especially as major media outlets (like ABC-TV news in the U.S.) have been covering the story and quoting one of the Ark hunters as saying he is 99 percent sure they have found what is left of the Ark.

You bastards. You have made people who trust you more vulnerable to other scam artists. You are a horrid, horrid outfit. Horrid. Stupid in, stupid out.

What also makes AiG so cautious about the latest report is that we have heard such claims several times before, even as they were made by people who described themselves as Bible-believing Christians. Some “discoveries” were eventually dismissed as structures of geologic origin and were not of wood. The “crying wolf” syndrome has already kicked in this week, as non-believers are dismissing this Ark claim as yet another bogus one. The creationist movement in general will have its credibility undermined further if this Ark-remnant is shown to be a fraud, and thus the testimony we seek to have in the world will be hindered.

Ah, you seem to think that the creationist movement has credibility. Pathetic.

HJ