News Kirk Cameron plans to re-distribute The Origin of Species

[TheStatutoryApe]

According to the Harris Poll cited in the previous post, about 60% of all Americans believe in Hell and in the Devil.

I've had a christian lesbian friend whom, depending on the day and her mood, believed that she may be going to hell. Of course she did not always believe this but she obviously believed in hell. I had a supervisor at one of my jobs that often told me about how he was cheating on his wife and worried about whether or not god would forgive him. He had made friends with some of the gay students and occasionally wondered if they would be forgiven by god or whether or not god really hated gays. He was an open minded, if not very well educated, guy and was always willing to hear my interpretations of things from the bible even though I do not believe in god. While people may believe in hell and the devil it does not mean that they absolutely believe the fire and brimstone evangelical teachings about all unbelievers going to hell and such. There are plenty of liberal christians that believe only the 'truly evil' (ie, serial killers, ect) go to hell.

 

[mgb_phys]

Ok, aside from the question of why stupidity is inversely related to latitude.

Just because Origin is out of copyright can anyone take it, make some adjustments and republish their own edition?
I can imagine having some fun with editions of Popular Jewish Mythology 2.0, remove a few 'nots', add a requirement to eat only skittles on friday, that sort of thing.

 

[Al68]

I have an old friend/former neighbor who was tag-teamed weekly by a couple of young ladies from a fundamentalist church in the area. "Fig" (his last name is Newton) is a very nice and patient guy, and he enjoyed the company when he wasn't on-duty at the fire-house. The ladies gave him a bunch of crap, though, when they stopped in and he was re-loading ammunition for one of his rifles at the kitchen table. After he ran them off, he stomped down-stairs and ranted about how they had told him that it was "sinful" for him to enjoy shooting and hunting.

After that, he put up a hand-made sign saying "No god-damned (insert fundamentalist sect here) ALLOWED! He was pretty ticked.

I bet after a few weeks, he wished he had just shoved his guns and ammo in a closet whenever they came over.

 

[Sorry!]

Ok, aside from the question of why stupidity is inversely related to latitude.

Just because Origin is out of copyright can anyone take it, make some adjustments and republish their own edition?
I can imagine having some fun with editions of Popular Jewish Mythology 2.0, remove a few 'nots', add a requirement to eat only skittles on friday, that sort of thing.

Let's do it. Seriously I'm down.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Ok, aside from the question of why stupidity is inversely related to latitude.

Just because Origin is out of copyright can anyone take it, make some adjustments and republish their own edition?
I can imagine having some fun with editions of Popular Jewish Mythology 2.0, remove a few 'nots', add a requirement to eat only skittles on friday, that sort of thing.

Anyone can do pretty much anything with it except take credit for it. If there is significant enough change from the original someone may be capable of copyrighting that and taking credit for it. I am fairly certain that you could get in trouble though for printing an abridged addition of something in the public domain and making people believe it is the original. It wouldn't have anything to do with copyright law I don't think. Probably just some form of fraud.

As far as making a funny edition of the Torah or some such, even if it were still copy righted, you could likely getaway with it under the satire and parody clause. It would probably have to be significantly different though and titled in such a way as to leave little doubt that it may be the original.

 

[Al68]

Perhaps. I would qualify this by saying that perhaps 60% of all Americans stupid enough to respond to such a poll might respond that way. When pollsters call me or mail me, I ignore them and hang up or toss the mailings. I have a sneaking suspicion that most PFrs would do the same.

This is a good point. Especially since most polls don't disclose the percentage of people who didn't respond like they wanted.

In fact, in many polls I see, especially about the economy, the questions assume facts that are false, and only reflect the results from people who believe the falsehoods. Many polls reflect only the opinions of people who apparently believe that the President "runs the country", "manages the economy", and other such nonsense.

I would be interested in seeing the results as the percentage of the total number of people called, not just percentage of "responders". It would be nice to know what percentage of people told them they were full of nonsense, or just hung up.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I've had a christian lesbian friend whom, depending on the day and her mood, believed that she may be going to hell. Of course she did not always believe this but she obviously believed in hell. I had a supervisor at one of my jobs that often told me about how he was cheating on his wife and worried about whether or not god would forgive him. He had made friends with some of the gay students and occasionally wondered if they would be forgiven by god or whether or not god really hated gays. He was an open minded, if not very well educated, guy and was always willing to hear my interpretations of things from the bible even though I do not believe in god. While people may believe in hell and the devil it does not mean that they absolutely believe the fire and brimstone evangelical teachings about all unbelievers going to hell and such. There are plenty of liberal christians that believe only the 'truly evil' (ie, serial killers, ect) go to hell.

Beliefs about hell range from the idea that we are already there [this is it], to existence in the absense of God [no more, no less], to a place where some red guy with horns pokes you with a pitchfork. If you asked 100 Christians to describe the nature of hell and Satan in detail, you would probably get about as many different answers.

 

[Mgt3]

Watching his video makes me want to kick myself in the nuts.

No, watching Kirk Cameron makes me want to kick him in the nuts.

 

[Flat]

I ended up missing the giveaway yesterday. They were finished and off campus by noon. Oh well, not a huge loss.

 

[noblegas]

Look on the bright side, at least people will be receiving free copies of the origin of species.

 

[Astronuc]

I like the accompanying video, "Origin of Stupidity." I agree with the suggestion made at the end of that video. If you see someone distributing these copies with the nonsense introduction, take as many as you can. Cut out the introduction and use it to kindle your fire this winter, and you have a free copy of the The Origin of Species.

- Excellent rebuttal!

 

[Alfi]

- Excellent rebuttal!

TOO funny - well done.