Hi nfp,
Okay. You got me.
I should probably have mentioned the quote in which Joshua famously demands "sun stand thou still."
The Catholic church used this to define planetary orthodoxy at the beginning of the modern era. The sun moves around the earth because the Bible says it is so.
But it does not, of course. It took a telescope to demonstrate the earth was not the epicentre of creation. That the moons of other planets revolved around them.
In my view, it was the very public failure of the Church's dogmatic approach which changed the world and ended the inerrant, literalist view of the Bible in the West.
Except in America, of course.
So I guess it is important to me. These freedoms were hard won before the USA was a gleam in Thomas Jefferson's eye. It is worth humiliating fundamentalists with the errors and inconsistencies in the Bible. Rather than submit to their adherence to a Bronze Age social order and morality. If that is the choice they force upon us.
I have no problem with those who do believe the evidence of their senses and try to reconcile this with their religion. Or those like doma who have their own version of reality while trying as best as possible to fit the facts. But those who distribute ignorance and attempt to enforce it on everyone else need to be exposed.
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