I hate dishonest people, willfully ignorant people piss me off too. Bill O'Reilly is at least one of these.
In response to an atheist organisation that puts up bill boards that say things like "Religion is a scam" Bill brings on a spokesperson and tries to rail road them in his usual manner.
The atheist points out the bill boards are to counter the "you are going to hell" bill boards put up by some religious organisations. Freedom of expression on both sides.
Here is where my issue comes in. Bill's bad philosophy/theology and the fact that he probably has a lot of followers that subscribe to that philosophy. I'm not saying being religious is bad philosophy. What I'm saying is the ignorant bull shit that Bill spills forth from his lips is bad philosophy and either based on him being dishonest or willfully ignorant probably both.
I'll point out what I mean and you decide.
Bill O'Reilly still tries to say we can not explain the tides and that them being regular is a sign of "God".
About 1m50s into this "interview"
O'REILLY: You know, I'll tell you why it's not a scam, in my opinion, all right? Tide goes in tide goes out, never a miscommunication. You cannot explain that. You can't explain why the tide goes in…
SILVERMAN: Tide goes in, tide goes out.
O'REILLY: The water, the tide comes in and it goes out, Mr. Silverman. It always comes in…
SILVERMAN: Maybe it's Thor on top of Mount Olympus who's making the tides go in and out.
O'REILLY: No, no, but you can't explain that.
Watch about the whole thing if you want but the bit I'm talking about is 1m 50s into the "interview" use the link to jump right to the section I'm referring to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BCipg71LbI#t=1m50s
Bill's reasoning that there is a "God" because he doesn't seem to understand that the moon causes the tides and it because we know this that we can predict, down to the minute when high tide will be for any location on the earth.
Ok so we do know the reason for the tide. "We" being the collective scientific knowledge of human kind. Silverman may not know, or more likely he does know but that "interview" would have been very stressfull and he had a hard enough time getting any word in on that "interview"
If you don't understand how the tides work check out this NASA animation
or listen to this kid.
a older more "educational" video
So you can say that Bill might just be ignorant of how tides work but think about this. This isn't the first time he's used this exact line of reasoning. If fact it is word for word what he's said many times in the past and when pointed out he moves the goal post like in this video done a year ago.
So he knows why the tides happen. He therefore is dishonest in saying we don't know what causes the tides. Now I don't care what your religious beliefs are but do you think that dishonesty and scientific ignorance is a good basis for your philosophy in any "God" or "Gods"?
Watch his whole video just above. When told about the tide he moves his ignorance out to something else science explains very well. He is pigeon holing is "God" as a "God of the gaps". This is where someone tries to use gaps in our scientific knowledge as evidence of their "God" IE "You can't explain [insert topic here] there for God did it". The problem with this is as our knowledge gets better and these "Gaps" are filled the "proof" becomes less and less. Worse still it often isn't a gap in our, human kind's knowledge, but a gap in the person's knowledge who is making the claims. Like Bill who was probably ignorant of what causes the tides, then tries to move it to the origin of the moon, or the sun.
Don't let ignorance drive your faith. Let faith drive your faith and let the magnificence of the universe inspire you. Because every time you try to use a hole in your knowledge as proof of your God(s) you cheapen and limit your God(s). Every time you stand idlely by and don't stop others from doing the same you are complacent with bad theology and philosophy. Something I bet your God(s) wouldn't be very proud of.
What Bill is doing is probably "Lying for Jesus" which is a when some Christians believe that falsifying information is acceptable if the falsification brings more people to Jesus or keeps people from leaving.
I served in the USMC for 6 years defending peoples religious rights and it sickens me to think people like this are among the majority of honest religious people. Sadly those "lying for Jesus" often are just like Bill and try to drown out everyone else when they try to express themselves.
Have a little introspection and decide carefully if you are happy or even proud to be counted as someone like Bill.
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