Is Cutting Corners Ever Justified?

Posted by Ir (Helen) on: 07.03.2006 /

On Hemant’s site Pastor Tim wrote:

i’m tired of arguing this subject. one more time, i wrote this paper to open the minds of my kids teachers to the possibilities of creationism. i may have misquoted, i may have oversimplified - i didn’t take the time i would have if i’d planned on it being the only discussion on an athiest websight.

I understand that Pastor Tim didn’t write his paper expecting it to be discussed on an atheist website.

What I don’t understand is: he seems to be saying that since this paper was only intended for his kids’ teachers, it’s ok if he misquoted and oversimplified some things in it.

Maybe that’s not what Pastor Tim meant. But (to me) it does seem to be the implication of what he wrote.

3 Responses to "Is Cutting Corners Ever Justified?"

  • Comment by: Marty

    1 07/3/06 7:37 AM | Comment Link |

    I woke up this morning troubled by exactly the same things relative to what Tim wrote - and taking it one step further - looking at how well I do in the same area - and not liking the answer.

    My 93 year old born again Christian mother who has strong prejudice relative to both Athiests and Gays drove up yesterday and will be going home today.

    I asked her what she thought about Bill Gates andd Warren Buffett and she went on and on about how wonderful they are. I then asked her if she knew that they were both Atheists. She was amazed and shocked and didn’t believe and asked how I knew - and I said it says so on the Internet.

    I then went on the Internet to find the proof. In doing so - I found some evidence that Gates may well be Atheist - but certainly no proof. I had caught myself in the same thing that was troubling me relative to what Tim had done.

    It may well turn out that there is absolute proof that Gates is indeed a Atheist - but what happens if I find out that as a part of his incredible move to give money and time to worthy causes I find out he has become a Christian?

    I think I fell into the same trap as Tim - wanting something to be true so that it could prove my preconceived point. Neither of us seemingly willingly gave up our integrity to make our points - but in doing so - I find that my integrity may not be what I thought/hoped it was.

  • Comment by: Siamang

    2 07/3/06 10:09 AM | Comment Link |

    All we can take as evidence of Gates’ atheism are his own statements:

    Frost: Do you believe in the Sermon on the Mount?

    Gates: I don’t. I’m not somebody who goes to church on a regular basis. The specific elements of Christianity are not something I’m a huge believer in. There’s a lot of merit in the moral aspects of religion. I think it can have a very, very positive impact.

    Frost: I sometimes say to people, do you believe there is a god, or do you know there is a god? And, you’d say you don’t know?

    Gates: In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don’t know if there’s a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid.

    Gates was profiled by Walter Isaacson in a January 13, 1996 TIME MAGAZINE cover story. Here are some excerpts compiled by the Drudge Report:

    Isaacson: Isn’t there something special, perhaps even divine, about the human soul?

    Gates: I don’t have any evidence on that.

    “Gates face suddenly becomes expressionless,” writes Isaacson, “his squeaky voice turns toneless, and he folds his arms across his belly and vigorously rocks back and forth in a mannerism that has become so mimicked at MICROSOFT that a meeting there can resemble a round table of ecstatic rabbis.”
    Gates: Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.

  • Comment by: Eliza

    3 07/6/06 5:02 PM | Comment Link |

    Marty - I wouldn’t be so hard on yourself. It’s probably pretty hard to prove that anyone’s an atheist, unless that person has chosen to make that statement plain and loud. Given the negative reflex people have to hearing “atheist”, not to mention the personally directed negativity that can come with “outing” oneself, I’m not surprised proof wasn’t there to be found. The dialogue Siamang just posted is what I’ve heard/read before (maybe even from Siamang!) - imo seems pretty darn suggestive but not enough that I’d put down money for an ad that states that Bill Gates is an atheist. Anyway, I’m not going to “out” someone else.

    I can’t speak to how much you wanted it to be true, and indeed the skeptic would usually advise you to check facts as best you can before spreading them ;) - but here I think as long as you qualify it a bit, as in “from what he has said in interviews, he may well be an atheist” you’re on just about as solid ground as it gets when guessing at beliefs that people have only hinted at publicly!

    Another way to say it is, his philanthropy doesn’t seem to stem from Christianity or any other organized religion…would that be sufficient?