Friday, March 18, 2011

#171: Tim Harlow

An exceptionally dense creationist, pastor Tim Harlow is hardly a major figure, and it seems to be a coincidence that his pamphlet containing some of the most common creationist canards (mixtures of ignorance, fallacious reasoning, wishful thinking and dubious respect for veracity) has come to the attention of the rest of us. The pamphlet, “Creationism for my Child’s Teacher”, is apparently intended for parents among Harlow’s flock, to be handed out to teachers (for discussion of various points, see here and here). It really is a collection of quote-mining, dishonesty and desperate twisting of facts, patched up with, uhm, inaccuracies where even the standard dishonest techniques do not work.

There is nothing unusual about Harlow, of course. There are people like Harlow in every small town, people who are diligently doing their own small parts in forwarding delusion, religious fundamentalism, anti-science and anti-rationality. It is their numbers that makes Harlow and his band of liars for Jesus dangerous, of course, and Harlow deserves an entry as a representation of all those delusionally lunatic minor players that seemingly exist everywhere. And for this beautiful takedown by PZ Myers, of course.

Diagnosis: Kook and Liar for Jesus. Apparently a nice chap, but his ignorance and bias make him dangerous nonetheless.

6 comments:

  1. The American Loons and Liars for Jeebus of Idiot America. I just discovered your blog and I bookmarked it. Please keep up the good work.

    http://darwinkilledgod.blogspot.com/

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  2. "There are people like Harlow in every small town..."

    I call hasty generalization!

    Okay, so there is a decent point there...

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  3. Everyone on this site is retarded.

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  4. Hey Looners! It's me, #171. I really don't mind being on your list, but could you update occasionally? The paper you are referencing here is something I don't even allow to be published any more. It really was bad! I wrote that paper 15-20 years ago. We were all still worried about Y2K:) i haven't preached any of that for over a decade. I'm not saying i don't still believe that God created the universe - but if you want to poke at me, please jump into the current Millennia. I have publicly apologized for my bad attempts at science, and i think the argument creates barriers that keep more people away from a belief in God, than they ever create (no pun intended).

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    Replies
    1. Well... Thank you, anyway... But when will you stopo believing in the Sky Dad?

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  5. I currently attend the Church were Tim Harlow is senior pastor and I love it. Tim is a great guy and preacher. I've been a regular attendee of his church for the past 5-6 years and believe it is the best church I have ever been a member of. I think Tim and our church are great for the community and I plan on going there for many more years to come.

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