This is the letter that I've sent to the Purdue Exponent on Nov 21st and had published on December 7th, 2005:

"Believing in Intelligent Design and also every word of The Bible? Are you serious?"

A writer (I'll leave out his name to avoid embarrassing him as much) in the November 8th Exponent said that the October 27th Scopes Monkey Trial article was biased against Intelligent Design. I don't know if the November 8th editorial writer even saw the Scopes Monkey Trial at Loeb, but I saw it at Loeb. The William Jennings Bryan actor said that man is not a mammal at Loeb, and according the Forgotten History Newsletter that I subscribed to; it also verifies Bryan said that.

If man isn't a mammal then what the heck is man!? The word "mammal" is based on the word "mamma" which means breast, and mammals by definition nurse their young.

Of course not everybody that follows Intelligent Design is an out-of-touch religious fanatic. However, Intelligent Design is biased. Many, but not all of the proponents of Intelligent Design have a hidden agenda for Creationism for the God of Judaism or Christianity, instead of Deism, Islam, Quetzalcoatl or other Native American Gods, Mithras, Zeus, Ra, Thor, Krishna, or others.

In the November 18th Exponent, a different writer's editorial was for Intelligent Design. His editorial was so odd that especially with the second paragraph I thought it was parody. He linked to a Computer Scientist's site where he believes in the God of the Bible. That's not why I'm complaining. I'm complaining that he didn't study Biology and doesn't believe in Evolution or Divine Evolution.

This November, even a top Vatican official refuted Intelligent Design: (Update: This November 18th web article doesn't exist on Yahoo anymore. I saved it as an archived html.)

Let me tell you about outdated Bible Science since you claim Evolution lacks scientific validity... I'm at the 300 word limit and the more interesting half of my letter is http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~stathmk/bad-bible-science.htm (Now at http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~skeptic/bad-bible-science.htm)

Matt Stath
Senior, College of Technology

Part 2: "This Gets More Interesting"

Illustration showing that Babylonians believed that the Earth is half a sphere from "Gods, Graves, and Scholars: The Story of Archeology" by C.W. Ceram.

The Babylonian-Sumerians and Egyptians believed that the Earth is half a sphere according to history and mythology books. The Jews believed in Noah's ark and that the water subsided because the Earth is flat or a half a sphere and water had been flowing off the Earth.

Joshua holds the Sun in the sky an extra 24 hours apparently to prepare for battle in Joshua 10:12-14. If this were true, then all the cultures in the world would have recorded a day or night that's longer by 24 hours. The account is written as if it's a longer day everywhere in the world. The only way that it could be day for the entire world would be that the world is flat without the curve of the Earth blocking somebody's sunlight.

Daniel 4:10-11, 20 indicates that the writer of the Book of Daniel thought that the Earth is flat with the gigantic tree on it. With a spherical Earth, the curve of the Earth would prevent people from seeing the tree.

In Matthew 4:8-9, Satan kidnaps Jesus and takes him to the tallest mountain in the world. From this mountain, Jesus can see all the countries of the world, and Satan said, "All these things (that you can see from this mountain) will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." It's not possible to see all the countries of the world from one mountain because the world isn't flat. By the ways, my name is Matthew, and I think that people believe in "The Gospel of Matthew" because they haven't read it. The more I read the Bible, then the less I believe it.

On a web site similar to "Book of Enoch Expose" about "The Book of Enoch" from The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, there's a bottomless abyss of fire in passages like Enoch 10:13, 18:10-11, and 90:24. Then there's a foot note that the web designer doesn't believe it and that a bottomless pit of fire is only possible if the world is flat and something weird with gravity makes the Earth levitate while people fall through the hole in it. That was the understanding that ancient people of the world had at the time. Possibly they thought that angels held up the Earth instead of the Greek God Atlas. Something else is awry in "The Book of Enoch" when Enoch and others are in flying chariots. I don’t believe in flying chariots.

In a strange passage in Revelation 1:7, Jesus is apparently as tall as a mountain, comes down to Earth, and everybody looks at him. The only way that everybody could be looking at him at the same time would be if the Earth were flat instead of a 3D sphere with the curve of the Earth blocking the view of Jesus.

In Revelation 7:1, 4 angels are guarding the 4 corners of the Earth. What do we make of this passage? What if the Jewish and Christian mapmakers in the first century AD thought that the magnetic North Pole was at one corner and that the magnetic South Pole was at another corner of the square, since the account is strange? I think its better that I don't cause trouble with this passage because maybe "4 corners of the Earth" was metaphorical because the phrase still is around today and metaphorical.

In Revelation 20:2-3, Satan is thrown into a bottomless pit. Once again, only people that believe that the Earth is flat would believe this. This passage is probably somewhat based on "The Book of Enoch."

For those of you who claim that Evolution lacks scientific validity, the Bible taken literally has even less scientific validity than Evolution.

I don't care if you believe in only Evolution and that Earth is 4.6 billion years old, or that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old and God made mankind through Evolution. I'm not making fun of you simply for believing in God. However, if you believe that every word of the Torah, Bible, or Koran is true, that the Earth is flat and 6,000 years old, and that Noah was 600 years old in Genesis 7:6 when he built the Ark, then I am making fun of you since your understanding of Science would embarrass a child. However, that is only if you actually do believe every word of the Bible. I've already met at least 5 college students who believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old. Did it ever occur to you that when Christians believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old that they could be unintentionally cheapening Christianity?

Do not misquote me. I didn't say that the entire Bible was written by madmen. I'm saying that the Book of Revelation is inappropriate and was written by a madman.

Matt Stath
Senior, College of Technology

This editorial cartoon is from Slate.com and Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index.

To contact the Skeptics webmaster: s t a t h m k (at) y a h o o . c o m . Put something such as, "Purdue Skeptics" in the subject line so that it won't be flagged as spam.

© 2004-09 Purdue Skeptics Society