POL- Evolution A Big Jewish Conspiracy?

[JPhillips]

It is if you want to believe a couple of State reps in Georgia and Texas. Really, this is just too bizarre to make up. Follow the link for links to other sources.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/012504.php

It's times like these you've just got to miss that dear lady Molly Ivins.

Meet our new friend, Georgia State House Rep. Ben Bridges (R), chairman of the retirement committee in the state house.

Bridges is now in a bit of trouble for spilling the beans about evolution being the product of a Pharisee Jew conspiracy to bamboozle normal Americans and destroy Christianity.

“Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” reads the letter that went out under Bridges' name. “This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”

It seems that the actual author or analyst, I guess you might say, was a fellow named Marshall Hall, the husband of Bridges campaign manager, Bonnie Hall. Then they sent it out over Bridges' signature to state legislators in Texas, California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio. And they didn't stop by letting the cat out of the bag on evolution. They also blew the whistle on all this hokum about the earth revolving around the Sun.

Barnes' memo pointed fellow state legislators to the information at fixedearth.com which rails against the “a mystic, anti-Christ ‘holy book’ of the Pharisee Sect of Judaism” and claims that “the earth is not rotating … nor is it going around the sun.” They've even caught on to the "centuries-old conspiracy" on the part of Jewish physicists to destroy Christianity.

Now, it was down in Texas that things started to spin out of control. Warren Chisum (R), House Appropriations Committee Chairman in the Texas state House, took the memo from his friend Bridges and used the House operations system to distribute the memo throughout the legislature. (Here's Chisum's cover letter and the Bridges' memo.)

The ADL caught wind of the Bridges memo and now Chisum says he's "willing to apologize if I've offended anyone" if anyone got their big nose bent out of shape.

Reports the Dallas Morning News: "Mr. Chisum said he hadn't looked at the Web site and didn't realize that he was distributing that type of material. He expressed chagrin that he didn't vet the material more carefully."

Indeed, even Bridges is now saying that he didn't have anything to do with the memo.

Hall doesn't agree. He said he wrote it and got Bridges' approval to send it out. "I gave him a copy of it months ago,” Hall, who is a retired high school teacher told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “I had already written this up as an idea to present to him so he could see what it was and what we were thinking.” And of course the two have teamed up to ban the teaching of evolution in Georgia back in 2005. So, Bridges' denials are ringing a tad hollow.

And the views expressed in his memo are just too compelling for Bridges to deny outright.

Asked if he agreed with the Kaballah evolution conspiracy theory and the earth's lack of motion, he told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory. I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?”

(ed.note: Additional research provided by Eric Kleefeld.)
-- Josh Marshall

[Axxon]

Curses, if I wasn't at work my thread would have been posted before yours.

This is a very weird story and a bit disconcerting. In my thread Incommented on the flatearth.com referred to which states that

The Bible and all real evidence confirms that this is precisely what He did, and indeed:

The Earth is not rotating...nor is it going around the sun.


I thought by now this was pretty much beyond doubt. *SHURG*

[st.cronin]

All motion is relative, it's just as logical to say the earth revolves around the sun as vice versa.

[st.cronin]

dola

but claiming the earth is flat is just dumb

[Jonathan Ezarik]

I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?

Good point. Let's shut down all schools! We can't run the risk of teaching our children something that years later we find out is incorrect. I call for all schools to be closed until we know the Absolute Truth About Everything.

Is this guy serious? From the way the quote is attributed, I'm confused as to who is speaking. I hope it's not the retired teacher. If so, that's one of the saddest things I've ever read. The silver lining is that he's a retired teacher, so hopefully he can't ruin any more minds.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

All motion is relative, it's just as logical to say the earth revolves around the sun as vice versa.

Well, the scientific belief is that the sun doesn't really revolve at all so there isn't any motion from the sun to make everything relative.

Oh, and think about how illogical it is if you account for 9 erm 8 planets each revolving in their own orbits. How is it relative that all of these can maintain the same distance around the central object but the central object is rotating around all 8 separately and each entity maintaining it's spacial relationship with all the other planets and the sun.

Relativity doesn't exactly work when more than 2 entities are involved.

[st.cronin]

Originally Posted by Axxon

Well, the scientific belief is that the sun doesn't really revolve at all so there isn't any motion from the sun to make everything relative.

Oh, and think about how illogical it is if you account for 9 erm 8 planets each revolving in their own orbits. How is it relative that all of these can maintain the same distance around the central object but the central object is rotating around all 8 separately and each entity maintaining it's spacial relationship with all the other planets and the sun.

Relativity doesn't exactly work when more than 2 entities are involved.

First of all, the planets don't maintain a constant distance from the sun. Relativity of motion works just fine for as many bodies as you want - you just call one fixed, and measure the motion of the others with respect to the fixed body. You could, if you like, construct a model of the "solar system" with the moon as the center.

The difficulty only comes in when you want to explain WHY the bodies are moving the way they do.

[Maple Leafs]

Kabbala, eh? So we can blame Madonna? OK, I'm good with that.

[flounder]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

All motion is relative, it's just as logical to say the earth revolves around the sun as vice versa.

Except the website is talking about rotation not revolution. You can't just say that the Earth is fixed and everything is rotating around it. A reference frame can't be rotating or else it becomes non-inertial and all sorts of crazy stuff (centrifugal forces etc.) starts happening.

[Drake]

The fact that the Big Bang has some (very) loose similarities to the process of creation described in some Kabbalistic literature is not ground-breaking exegesis.

And there is no 'holy book' for the Kabbalah...oh, unless dude means the Torah, which happens to be part of the same 'holy book' Christians study.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Ezarik

From the way the quote is attributed, I'm confused as to who is speaking.

I can at least clear that one up for you I think. Here are the original quotes from the AJC article a lot of that was taken from

"I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory," said Bridges, who sponsored unsuccessful legislation in 2005 that would have required Georgia's teachers to introduce scientific evidence challenging evolution. "I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie, why teach anything?"

It is Hall, the supporter & flat-earther (whose wife has allegedly been Bridges campaign manager for a number of years), that is a retired teacher.

said Hall, a retired high school teacher who said his wife, Bonnie, has repeatedly served as Bridges' campaign manager since 1996.

Here's the long version of the original (or at least the latest "original")
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...legevolve.html

[Jonathan Ezarik]

Thanks. It's sad to hear a state rep. saying something like that, but it's better than hearing it from a teacher.

[Greyroofoo]

Mel Gibson must hear about this ASAP

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

Mel Gibson must hear about this ASAP

Please wait until he sobers up first.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Axxon

Well, the scientific belief is that the sun doesn't really revolve at all so there isn't any motion from the sun to make everything relative.

Oh, and think about how illogical it is if you account for 9 erm 8 planets each revolving in their own orbits. How is it relative that all of these can maintain the same distance around the central object but the central object is rotating around all 8 separately and each entity maintaining it's spacial relationship with all the other planets and the sun.

Relativity doesn't exactly work when more than 2 entities are involved.

You're both wrong. Everything revolves around TO.

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by Axxon

Well, the scientific belief is that the sun doesn't really revolve at all so there isn't any motion from the sun to make everything relative.

I'm pretty sure the sun revolves around the center of the galaxy.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

I'm pretty sure the sun revolves around the center of the galaxy.

Well, since the revolution supposedly takes 226 million years, I'd call that one firmly a theory.

OK, so I mistyped but you are indeed correct.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

You're both wrong. Everything revolves around TO.

If you mean TO Madiera for one magical incarnation of CM, you'd be correct.

[Greyroofoo]

I think right now everything revolves around Anaa Nicole Smith

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

I think right now everything revolves around Anaa Nicole Smith

I don't think she got big enough to have that much of a gravitational field.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Axxon

I don't think she got big enough to have that much of a gravitational field.

But the news coverage of her death has.

[bulletsponge]

i tune out the second i hear "huge Jewish Conspiracy"