{"id":3944,"date":"2016-06-02T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=3944"},"modified":"2016-06-02T10:00:34","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T14:00:34","slug":"original-sin-strikes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=3944","title":{"rendered":"Original Sin strikes again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like most people, I was saddened by the unfortunate events at the Cincinnati zoo, which culminated in the death of an extremely rare gorilla when a child slipped into its exhibit space.  As an engineer who has spent countless hours listening to objections to design details from people who can barely say which way water runs<sup>1<\/sup>, I&#8217;m not going to second-guess the decision made by the experts; it&#8217;s just a terribly sad thing that happened.<\/p>\n<p>BUT!  Since theology has no epistemic standards whatever, and is not a branch of actual knowledge, I <i>would<\/i> like to say a few words about some remarks made by Ken Ham, proprietor of the so-called Creation Museum, about the events in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>The young boy (unlike the gorilla, which is just an animal) is made in the image of God and is a human being who has a soul that will live forever.<\/p>\n<li>\n<p>We cannot impose human emotion\/morality on a gorilla\u2014it is not made in the image of God. We should not anthropomorphically assume that the gorilla&#8217;s decency would have kept him from harming the boy in the enclosure had the zoo professionals not intervened so quickly.<\/p>\n<li>\n<p>Because we live in a fallen world, sin has affected everything, including gorillas and three-year-olds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So there you go: We are all no damn good, but gorillas are even <i>more<\/i> no damn good.<\/p>\n<p>Ken Ham came to this area years ago to peddle his ridiculous books and, while here, delivered a sermon at a local Southern Baptist (naturally) church.  After a long schtick about wickedness and Original Sin, and a couple of bad poodle jokes, he made what I consider one of the most degrading statements I have ever heard, and I wonder still what goes on in the mind that could author such a remark: &#8220;We don&#8217;t even deserve to be here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t believe in Original Sin, but the idea of it soils whatever it touches.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<br \/>\n<sup>1<\/sup> &#0160; Downhill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like most people, I was saddened by the unfortunate events at the Cincinnati zoo, which culminated in the death of an extremely rare gorilla when a child slipped into its exhibit space. As an engineer who has spent countless hours &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=3944\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3944"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3947,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944\/revisions\/3947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}