sermon contest entry

Ladies and gentlemen, we must be on guard against the religious fanatics forcing our children to become Fundamentalist Christians by teaching that there could be intelligent causes for life's development. This stealth activity should have been put to death with the humiliating cross examination of William Jennings Bryant decades ago in the Monkey Trial. But unfortunately some backward and uneducated people still want to challenge the orthodoxy of Charles Darwin. We know that man descended from ape like primates without any aid other than Natural Selection. We must therefore be on guard that any questioning of SCIENCE is a attempt to have our children singing "How Great Thou Art" in their highschool science classes and will probably be followed by passing a collection plate around for Jimmy Swaggert.

Beware then, my friends, of this the non-sceintific questioning of Darwin's truth in the form of Creationism or even worse "Intelligent Design". This is not SCIENCE. We cannot accept that any Intelligence is anywhere associated with either Evolution or Abrupt Appearance without allowing some pesky "divine foot" in the door. For it was not without significance that Harvard's Lewontin has said -

"Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the pattent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spuite of its falure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a a prior commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priore adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, not matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiate. Moreover that materialism is abolute for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door."

Step then, on any divine foot sneaking into our science classes. Even the insinuation that the human mind is not the end all and be all of intelligent invention must be viewed with extreme caution. Today, creationism. Tomorrow the Pope in the Prinicpal's Office. Be on guard and non science. Be on guard for those fighting for the separation of Ape and State !

Edit: testing.

I'll accept this, but please put it in the right thread everyone else,ie. "this is my Srmon". I'ts going to get confusing otherwise

Edit: testing 2

Originally posted by jaywill
Ladies and gentlemen, we must be on guard against the religious fanatics forcing our children to become Fundamentalist Christians by teaching that there could be intelligent causes for life's development. This stealth activity should have been put to death with the humiliating cross examination of William Jennings Bryant decades ago in the Monkey Trial. But ...[text shortened]... nd non science. Be on guard for those fighting for the separation of Ape and State !

I thought the sermon topic was supposed to be on wisdom and knowledge.
This sermon seems to be on science fiction.

Originally posted by RJHinds
I thought the sermon topic was supposed to be on wisdom and knowledge.
This sermon seems to be on science fiction.

It's fine by me, but luckily we have 2 other judges who can over vote me if they choose.

Edit: testing 3

Edit: testing 4

One third of that sermon is basically quoting Harvard's Lewontin. Surely that doesn't count as your own sermon.

Originally posted by karoly aczel
I'll accept this, but please put it in the right thread everyone else,ie. "this is my Srmon". I'ts going to get confusing otherwise

I concur. I am making a Word doc of each sermon, including the above one. I don't want to have to look at this particular thread again. Therefore, I will not pay any attention to any further sermons submitted on this thread.

Cheers.

Edit: Testing 5

Originally posted by whodey
Edit: Testing 5

I was testing my sermon to make sure it fit within the limit. My first draft went over by a fair amount. I had to keep editing and re-editing it to get it down to size. Thus all the testing.

bump