Sunday, September 15, 2019

In which the pond heads off to Ballarat, and then visits Planet Janet in her world above the faraway tree ...


Bless me mother, for the pond has sinned, and it has been an eternity since the pond's last confession, and the pond keeps on sinning and sinning, and while some have been venial sins, some have been most mortal … such as still occasionally reading the reptiles, and coming across little items that send a shiver of fear down the spine …

So it was when the pond tripped its toe on this story …


Dear sweet long absent lord, is this going to send the reptiles into a frenzy, or what? All that they hold most sacred and dear will be challenged by this shocking, outrageous claim … 

Naturally, this being a Sunday meditation, the pond wandered off to the Ballarat Christian College and found some particularly fruity things to contemplate …


Well that was pretty much as expected, found in a pdf here, but the pond found the last item on a rather lengthy list of biblical references particularly appealing ...


Well there go the dinosaurs, they didn't make it into the bible, so they simply didn't exist. All those bones? Put there by God, because She's big on April Fool jokes ...

Clearly this was a story involving dedicated loons, and as the story unfolded, it only got worse ...


Uh huh, and there goes science, since anyone who thinks that the bible trumps science is going to have a few difficulties teaching the theory of evolution, or geology, or anything pretty much outside young eartherism, creationism,  and nonsense of the Ussher chronology kind …(come on down, Andrew 'Pastie' Hastie).

Not that the pond has anything against Ballarat, a dank, festering town, which in winter numbs the mind, and chills the soul, with bleak winds trapped in the hollow, and which saw into the world the Pellists and other bizarre creatures slouching towards Bethlehem or prison. 

Oh okay, it has a good regional gallery, well worth the visit, and the gold-funded period buildings are a treat to look at, and what about all that weed in the lake, a metaphor for mind and soul, but that said, all the pond could think was … how typical ...


When will they stop? Will it never end? Will dinosaurs somehow force their way into science curriculums?

What we need is Donald style science …


Here children, it's recess, go out into the yard and play …


And now, because the pond had the best of it yesterday - prattling Polonius and the burbling bromancer in one gigantic packet of joy - the pond thought it best to attempt some kind of thematic unity, and so had to stumble into the time machine with the Doc and head back a few days to Dame Slap's world above the magic faraway tree …


Steady, the pond can hear some moan, just because Dame Slap went MIA this weekend, there's no need to turn gravedigger and do a Burke and Hare on an ancient corpse of a column, best left alone rather than disinterred …

But it's relevant you see, and while the pond mocked it and ignored it yesterday, it sheds a light on the debate above ...


Now from the get go, a few things must be made clear. The pond understands that when Dame Slap talks about restoring freedom of speech, it should be understood that the pond is aware that Dame Slap has never been stripped of her freedom to speak, and in fact, she never shuts up, she's always speaking, except when she decides to take a few days off from her handsomely paid job, paid to blather on endlessly, with enviable, well-rewarded freedom, about the freedom to speak …

So it's a nonsense, a furphy, just more meaningless gibberish, but what can we learn about the rights of a science teacher to speak freely about dinosaurs in a creationist school, or perhaps a human bean to take a stand against bigotry, homophobia, intolerance, and sundry other fundamentalist Xian delusions while teaching in a school staffed and run by fundamentalists for fundamentalists?


The liberal democratic project?

Oh okay, the pond should have realised what we're really talking about here is the right for bigotry, prejudice, hate and fear-mongering to run rampant … which reminds the pond of a cartoon …


Okay, that's an aside, a distraction, the pond will jibber jabber against the reptiles for the pleasure of comments …

And so back to the main theme … and what's amazing is that it's still going on, what with the local Nine rag featuring this at the top of its digital page yesterday …


And yet Dame Slap still can't let it go. She's like the Donald with a Sharpie, valiantly fighting for what might be termed the right of reptiles to be reptilian ...


Um, or how highly subjective, not to say barking mad delusional words from a Christian college in Ballarat might be used to end a woman's career?

And that's the joke of course. All this blather about rights and the freedom to speak and the freedom of beliefs is a bit like a pack of dinosaurs in the path of a meteor …(relax, She sent the meteor to teach the giant lizards a lesson and ensure they didn't make it into the approved text).

As for censoring speech? Try saying something not endorsed by scripture and see where you get ...


So will Dame Slap enter the Ballarat Christian College matter and smote and smite the fundies with righteous anger and indignation?

In your dreams. That clash of values wouldn't wash in the world of the reptiles, where the only business plan they have is to peddle fear, hate and loathing …and where fundamentalism and loonacy is a lifestyle choice, and in the case of Dame Slap, a handsomely paid one. It isn't easy maintaining a world above the magic faraway tree, what with all the grease needed to keep it revolving in a circle ...

And now, speaking of the latest attempt to demonise the poor, what a pleasure it is to end with an infallible Pope cartoon from a few days ago. 

No link to the source - no point, what with the paywall - but trust the pond, it's still possible to keep in touch with the master …



9 comments:

  1. Ballarat College: "In order to understand the world, humanity and history, they must be seen in their relationship to God as the Bible speaks of them."

    Yes, but, butt if that is so, why did "God" create "humanity and theirstory" long before he created "the Bible" ? No wonder Adam and Eve's offspring had such a hard time of it with no "Bible" to guide them. Why, one of them even murdered one of his brothers, didn't he ?

    But then Adam, and Eve too I expect, supposedly had 33 sons and 23 daughters before Adam passed on at 930 years old, though no mention is made of Eve's demise, so she could well be still alive and giving birth. But apparently, those 56 offspring created humankind in a glorious orgy of incest and polygamy - and all of it without any understanding of "humanity and theirstory" because God didn't supply them with a Bible.

    "Well there go the dinosaurs, they didn't make it into the bible,"

    Oh yes they did, DP: all those references to dragons, some of them fire-breathing, which were, of course, but primitive (before science came along to clarify matters) references to dinosaurs.

    "oh okay, it [Ballarat] has a good regional gallery ..."

    And once upon a glorious time, it also had Bertie's 'Ballarat Bitter' ... once upon a time. Now long gone, just like Richmond's Pilsner.

    Ah but once again there's our Dame Slap, ranting feverishly about how offended she is because she's not allowed to be offensive.

    But then, as you say about "the world of the reptiles" DP, indeed "the only business plan they have is to peddle fear, hate and loathing …". And how they love to push it upon us.

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    1. PS: the count of 33 sons and 23 daughters comes from a footnote in 'The Works of Josephus' (Flavius Josephus) as stated here:
      https://creationmoments.com/article/how-many-children-did-adam-and-eve-have/

      But that bastion of all learning, the New York Times, reckons it was only 10 sons and 18 daughters here:
      https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/02/science/the-human-family-tree-10-adams-and-18-eves.html

      But what about the Bible ? It only mentions that "After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters." Genesis 5:4 ESV Eve doesn't even rate a mention there.

      Still one heck of a festival of incest and polygamy though.

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  2. You can pretty well assume anything said in the reptile press is the exact opposite of the reality. Rather than alter their ideas they have decided to alter the reality instead.

    Take Dame Slap's endless blathering about freedom of speech. She casts the net rather wide to produce a poor catch of bigots and fundamentalists who either haven't suffered in any way or really do have a case to answer. Dame Slap maintains these are hot issues among the public, however, I haven't personally encountered anyone leaping to the defence of bigots. Some would be happy to hear less from them - it shows in the Austalian's circulation figures.

    To work their way around reality they paint everything as opinion - a sort of wingnut version of Plato's cave where the facts are not to be trusted. Religion is placed in a black box you cannot open. Faith seems to be protected precisely because it is so weak logically and factually.

    In truth what they want is to accrue privileges for themselves and at the same time deny them to their enemies.

    Ah - whatever happens there will always be something to fear and loath

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    1. Slight disagreement here, Bef: they want to accumulate inalienable rights for themselves and at the same time deny everything - including the "right to free speech" - to everybody else.

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  3. Good one, DP.
    All that blather by the BCC is, of course, their interpretation of the Bible. Ms Colvin could have an interesting time in court with other learned people challenging their interpretation, and inviting the Judge to hold that the interpretation of the BCC is wrong.

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    1. But then if she can do that, Joe, why can't she, or other people, challenge other interpretations: eg the interpretations of the Catholic Church. And [shudder] the interpretations of the Pentecostals. Whoa, she could even challenge SloMo's beliefs in court ? No, I don't think that's a goer, mate, not in the time of the present regime anyway.

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  4. For religious schools who collect government funding they should lose the right to be selective in who they will accept as students and employee's.
    Keep up the great work Dorothy.

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    1. So it's ok to proselytise, but not to enforce you reckon ww.

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    2. A real test would be if they were willing sacrifice any funding to pursue their "faith". I think we all know the answer.

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