Topic: Religion and Philosophy
As many of you probably already know, Creationism is the belief that the God of Abraham of Judaism created life, the earth and the universe as described in the book of Genesis. Because Creationism is not a scientific theory, but rather a theory based almost exclusively on religious belief it is not taught in state funded schools in respect to the 'Establishment Clause' of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".
Creationism, however, has done anything but fade into obscurity. It has but transformed itself into new entities such as 'Intelligent Design' and 'Young Earth Creationism'.
Unlike Intelligent Design (the belief that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." - Intelligent Design Network) which claims to be scientific theory and desires to redefine science to include supernatural explanations, Young Earth Creationism is sort of the dumb cousin of Creationism.
Young Earth Creationism is the belief that the life on earth, the universe and beyond was created by the Judaic God between 6000 - 10,000 years ago in accordance to the literal interpretation of the Hebrew text of the book of Genesis (the God of Abraham created the earth in 6 24-hour days). It asserts that dinosaurs and homo sapiens existed together at the same time.
One of the most outspoken, and probably best well known supporters of Young Earth Creationism is Kent Hovind. He has gained fame through his 'Creation Science' seminars, his amusement park 'Dinosaur Adventure Land' in Pensacola, Florida (in which dioramas of dinosaurs co-existing with man are displayed), and his literary work entitled "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". However, infamously, Mr. Hovind is known to have been found guilty of federal tax offenses and related charges, for which he is currently serving a 10-year sentence and has been ordered to pay the federal government restitution of over $600,000.
These theories, as well as the more scientifically supported and universally accepted theory of Evolution which is part of the present-day educational curriculum, have recently been the subject of much debate on 'YouTube' between Evangelical Christians and Atheists.
However, there has been an attempt recently to silence the voices of Atheists who have voiced criticism with Christianity on 'YouTube' in a phenomenon known as 'Votebots' (a program that spams the vote feature on videos either positively or negatively) and the false 'Flagging' (complaints of inappropriate material objectionable to 'YouTube's rules and regulations) of videos. Flagging can lead to removal of a video and potentially lead to the suspension of a 'YouTube' user account.
Literally hundreds of Atheist's videos have been attacked in this way in the past few months, leading to multiple suspensions, instant rating drops within a space as little as an hour and bannings of many Atheist vlogs. This is a clear attack on their Freedom of Speech, as none of the users that were targeted disobeyed 'YouTube' Terms of Service. Those responsible were clearly only interested in eliminating an opposing point of view in a faceless and cowardly manner.
The following are videos that have been posted recently in regards to the 'votebot' and false flagging that have occurred. I urge you to please watch them in their entirity:
Yes, I am Pagan. Yes, I believe the theory of Evolution. But, I am none of these at the exclusion of any other view that might differ from my own. I have no wish to be an island unto myself and silence the voices I disagree with. I am not nearly so spineless.
Thank you for reading this.
Brightest blessings.