64Digits

...Opinions?

Posted by Ronnica on Oct. 9, 2012, 5:27 p.m.

Hi everybody!

So this is slightly random, doesn't really have a point to it. It’s one of those things that have happened but I’m only just realizing that it bothers me. Again, it’s random, and I really hope that I don’t offend someone.

Yesterday I was teaching ESL and only one student came. His name is Pedro and he’s like 60-something. He’s originally from Nicaragua, been in Alaska for 20 years, wants to improve his English because he’s also a church pastor and wants to be able to share the word of God with more English speaking people.

Anyways, he was telling me a story (as best as he could in English) about his last missions trip to Nicaragua. While he was there, he explained to me that a 10 year old boy asked, “So you’re from Alaska? Does that mean you speak English?â€? and then they proceeded to talk for a while. Turns out the kid was born and raised in California, but ended up in Nicaragua because his parents were deported.

That doesn't really bother me. That happens A LOT in America and yes, it sucks and immigration laws should be different and whatever. I’m not into politics so that isn’t what I’m bitching about. What seems to bother me and make me think is that he then tells me, “I’m a big part of my church’s ‘program’ against abortion.â€? And then compares deporting an American-born child to his parents’ native country to abortion. “Either way, it’s just getting rid of children.â€?

…I disagree. Relocation of a person (as unjust as it seems) and a medical procedure (as unjust as it seems) appear very different to me. I don’t feel it’s a fair to compare the two. Only I wasn't sure how to explain that to Pedro without offending him.

Another thing that comes to mind is when I was 15 and living close to Vancouver. We had a church youth meeting and the topic was something like “Being able to defend God’s plans,â€? which required us to come up with topics like Abortion, Stem Cell Research, Cloning, Gay Marriage, and write out Bible verses that “provedâ€? why all those things were against God’s will so people couldn’t “shake our faith.â€? My brother and I were among the most unenthusiastic ‘youth’ there.

What that has to do with aborting/deporting American-born kids I don’t know. I think my brain just compares it all to how in my opinion, the church (or the churches I've gone to, who knows, it’s probably just me) dramatizes everything and makes it the world sound worse than it really is. Woman gets raped, can’t raise the child so terminates her pregnancy. American born child is deported with his family because his non-citizen parents are not allowed to be in America. “OMG HOW EVIL THEY’RE ALL GOING TO HELL!!!!!!â€?

I don’t know if that’s an appropriate response, but that’s how Pedro feels. I also assume he’s not the only one. It’s just… it doesn't sound right. To me, at least.

ANYWAYS, I hope y’all are doing alright. I’m getting my wisdom teeth removed early on the 12th. Wish me luck. Or pray for me =P

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comments

Cesque 12 years, 2 months ago

Quote:

And then compares deporting an American-born child to his parents’ native country to abortion. “Either way, it’s just getting rid of children.â€?

I actually laughed at that - because it sounds like a witty word joke someone might post as a Facebook status and then it'd get reposted around the Internet for a day or two and then stop being funny.

Glen 12 years, 2 months ago

My girlfriend's family is from Nicaragua.

Not Me 12 years, 2 months ago

To be honest, the term "Christian" is used very loosely. The most accurate definition of the term today is "Someone who believes in a religion which involves Christ."

That generally fits anyone who claims to be one into the category.

However, there are also the people who both whole-heartedly believe and act on their faith. They are generally bunched up with the phony "I believe in God, therefore I will go to heaven and am much better than all you lowly heathens!" people. They get a bad reputation because nobody bothers to look at what anybody is doing.

And honestly, I do agree that the Bible isn't the best thing to use in an argument with an atheist. However, I don't believe anybody has scientifically or historically proven it wrong, either. And you really can't prove something wrong with science, anyway. In a decade or two, all of our knowledge of science could be thrown completely in the garbage. Just like the theory that the universe revolved around the earth.

While I'm on the topic of science, I'd like to say… er type a few words about carbon dating. First of all, I want to explain how it works.

Carbon dating is actually just simple math. Based on carbon's half life (The time it takes for half of a sample of carbon to… rot or whatever, I forget the word. Dematerialize, I guess.), and a record of the amount of carbon in the air, you can determine the age of stuff. One method of obtaining those records is to use a tree's rings. Since each ring represents a year, you can test the amounts of carbon in each and thus have an accurate record. As you've likely noticed, this would work just fine, up to a point. Eventually, you would have things that are simply too old to be dated this way (e.g. dinosaur bones). So anything older than the oldest datable sample of carbon that they can find cannot be accurately dated. Attempting to do so would be almost entirely guesswork.

/rant

pounce4evur 12 years, 2 months ago

Quote:

In a decade or two, all of our knowledge of science could be thrown completely in the garbage. Just like the theory that the universe revolved around the earth.

There's a distinct difference between scientific theory and scientific fact. In the age that people believed that the earth was the center of the universe, there was really no way (or reason) to disprove them, because it was considered the truth. A scientific fact. There were no naysayers, because it was simply accepted as the truth.

The days of people simply accepting that something exists, and acknowledging something as a fact before it has been tested and proven, have long passed. You seem to believe that science should be abandoned simply because our world, as far as scientific fact goes, has changed many times over. This is the most faulty logic I've ever read. You talk yourself in circles. I don't even know where to go with the Carbon dating thing, it's so misplaced…

colseed 12 years, 2 months ago

Quote: Not Me

Carbon dating

You…you do know that carbon-14 isn't the only radioactive isotope used for dating things right? Like…it's basically the one with the shortest half-life. And it only really works for organic things (i.e. things that would contain decent amounts of carbon), which is why you wouldn't see it being used on rocks like dinosaur bones (there's a reason they're called "fossilized"…).

I mean, maybe you haven't taken high-school-level earth science yet, but you're on the Internet - it can't take that long to fact-check through Google can it?

edit: yeah no

Ferret 12 years, 2 months ago

Quote:

However, I don't believe anybody has scientifically or historically proven it wrong, either.

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/1.html

No proving the bible is incorrect is easy because of it's many inconsistencies, historical inaccuracies, and lack of foundation due to factual scientific findings. What is difficult is the proof or disproof of a god figure, because the claim of something existing that can't be detected is unfalsifiable, and is actually a fallacy. (good examples)

Quote:

>Carbon dating is actually just simple math

…

>entirely guesswork

What? No, no no no. That is not how carbon dating works, you don't compare carbon with living existing objects to relate the rate of decay, the isotope carbon-14 itself decay's at a set rate no matter what matter it's in. So long that the matter being tested has been in the earth's atmosphere it will be able to be tested. The only guess work is that the older it gets the wider the window of age gets, but the minimum age and maximum age is still calculable.

Quote:

In a decade or two, all of our knowledge of science could be thrown completely in the garbage. Just like the theory that the universe revolved around the earth.

Yeah pounce put it perfectly already. Things that have been proven as facts don't go away.

Anyways I don't want this to become another derailed thread, because honestly you kind of came out of nowhere on this one, and also these debates get tiresome.

Rez 12 years, 2 months ago