Silly absolutes in the bible

Did you know almost 50% of Americans believe that lung cancer is caused by little elves tearing holes in lungs, and not things like smoking? Well, the politicans elected by the tobacco lobby might like people to believe that. Did you know that 50% of Americans believe earthquakes are caused by a wrathful god, wait, a lot of Americans do believe that. I bring this up because almost 50% of Americans believe that the earth and the universe is less than 10,000 years old.

Anyone who believes that lung cancer was caused by little elves or food poisoning by a spell by a witch, would be laughed off as an idiot. But, we respect, for some reason, the belief that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. Contradicting all fossil evidence, all genetic evidence, all radioactive dating longer than carbon dating, but who cares what scientists say anyway?

Because it is a religious belief of unfortunately just over 1/2 of all American Christians, then that belief supposedly deserves some form of intellectual respect. No, it does not. Intellectual respect is only deserved for things that are built on a solid foundation of knowledge and reason. Talkorigins is a great website by the way, to learn about evolution. Oh by the way, music can evolve by people listening to random noise. People rate parts of the noise or sound and through steps, that eventually becomes music.

Lastly, I was just listening to conservative talk radio while writing the above part, and I heard a guest talking about atheists. Of course, whenever the Christian right-wing talks about atheists/atheism, you should be as careful as walking around fields with a lot of bulls.

He believed that atheists opposed Christian religious symbols put up by the government (such as 10 Commandments displays on public courthouse lawns) because atheists are supposedly afraid of any religion with moral absolutes. Really, that's it. Us atheists are just afraid of the great moral virtues in the bible. Here, are some of them by the way.

"Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death. Such evil must be purged from Israel." (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)

" Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB)"

(Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT) "If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her."

So, the moral absolutes into the bible are killing anyone who rejects verdict of judge or priest or who strikes his dad. Also, if you rape a woman, make sure you have some silver, and you are all good. Yes, the bible does have absolute moral rules, stupid ones, but absolute ones none the less.