"God exists because I have 1 fewer rib than a woman"

[Pryderi]

I overheard my ex-supervisor say this to another supervisor about 15 years ago.

When I heard Akin's comment, I remembered that quote.

Yes, my supervisor was a "good ole boy" republican from the South.

[SoCalDem]

1. proof of rib-count (unfortunately, it's scientific proof)

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio105/ribs.htm
man

woman

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Wadda maroon. Dude needs to count them -

everybody, regardless of gender, has 24 ribs. Vesalius discovered this in the 16th century, so I guess your ex-supervisor is hanging out in the Middle Ages with the other GOPers.

[Warpy]

6. You think these dumb fucks can count?

Well, that's your first mistake. Try not to accuse them of thinking along with it.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

12. They can count, but only to five

They have to use the other hand (Hand #2) to point out the fingers on hand #1.

[cthulu2016]

3. Aristotle said men and women had a different number of teeth

The empirical approach to science isn't for everyone.

It's easy to just count them... but that takes all the fun out of theorizing.

[aquart]

5. Aristotle was pretty much wrong about everything.

Shakespeare took particular delight in demolishing the Poetics.

But I will always cherish his wide-ranging "everybody does it" response to being asked about Alexander's suspected murder of his father.

[Le Taz Hot]

24. Iirc, didn't Aristotle also say that women

were deformed men? I know we owe a great deal to Aristotle for Western Thought but . . .

[DBoon]

29. No wonder Ayn Rand thought so highly of Aristotle

nt

[aquart]

4. It's a Sumerian pun, not a biologic fact.

Lotta Sumerian puns in the Torah. Abraham came out of Ur, a Sumerian city.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. And the Genesis writer may have known that bodily changes during life aren't passed on to children

If a man's finger is chopped off, his subsequent children aren't born without that finger. I don't see there's any evidence the author expected subsequent readers to start counting ribs, or that he didn't know the numbers himself.

[aquart]

19. No, it was just a pun. They were mad for puns back then.

When you see a stork at a baby shower? Akkadian pun on "vulva". Didn't even have to be in the Bible to last thousands of years.

[Aerows]

21. I love your sense of humor

And I can't help but love puns

[undeterred]

15. The ancient egyptians may have taken a rib out

as part of their mummification procedures, which involved removing the internal organs. I've always wondered if there was a connection between the adam's rib myth and these practices.

[aquart]

18. Of men only?

[Aerows]

23. It's a barbecue, aquart

ribs get readily yanked out of everyone when the beer gets flowing. And we all know that beer was made in Egypt, so it is suspect that they have anything to do with science. Or Mathematics. Or Beer.

[undeterred]

25. Probably both.

But there was something about the fifth intercostal space.

[NightWatcher]

7. my college educated brother (32) thought the same thing up until a year ago

He also thinks that dinosaurs are only lizards that never stopped growing.

Christian fundies have always wrestled with what to do with dinos. When I was little we were told that the fossils were put there to test our faith, now they are lizards that walked with man...per the creation museums. They just cant get it that they are wrong and science continually proves this.

[gollygee]

8. My brother said that to me once

I laughed out loud. I couldn't help it. Then I told him to consult Dr. Google.

[4th law of robotics]

9. There's a reason it took the Scientific Method so long to be invented

and even then it caught on slowly and only after extensive training.

Apparently just going out and seeing for yourself is deemed less appropriate than going with the consensus and not bothering to look in to it.

This does kind of make sense given that being right but at odds with the majority was so often fatal whereas being wrong (particularly about things like this) but in agreement with the majority was not at all risky.

[librechik]

11. and now the Repubs want to repeal it.

[SheilaT]

26. While you're right about the Scientific Method taking a long time

to be invented, when I had small children it was obvious to me that they were natural scientists. They went through each of the steps of the Scientific Method on a daily basis, just not in a formal, write-it-down sort of way.

I suppose that when you grow up in a totally non-scientific environment, that natural usage of the SM simply disappears, and it took a very long time for rational people to re-discover what they'd known all along as children.

[Confusious]

30. Children don't automatically know the SM

Kids today still believe in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny, don't they?

What you are probably seeing is them imitating adults, picking up on their habits and behaviors.

so I don't think kids of yesteryear knew it, and then forgot it.

[SheilaT]

31. I will politely disagree.

What I observed was my very young children, by the age of two, simply instinctively use the SM. I could watch them as they formed a hypothesis, tested it, observed the results, and re-tested. Keeping in mind that they were in the presence of parents who were themselves very rational, I can assure you that I wasn't leading them on, but merely observing.

But a couple of years later, by the age of four or so they'd picked up so much from the culture around them, that later on the formal Scientific Method was brand new to them.

It would be even more powerful in a non-scientific culture. Very young children would still behave in the manner I observed, but a couple of years later would be even more thoroughly immersed in a culture that simply didn't understand what today we know as the Scientific Method.

What I'm suggesting is an innate sense of logic and order, that is swiftly overcome by the surrounding culture. Think about how we absorb the religious teachings that many of us are immersed in. Children are not born with the belief system of any one denomination. They absorb it. There is, I think, an inherent inclination towards a kind of magical thinking that most religions encourage.

In a similar vein, think about astrology and astronomy. Astrology makes perfect sense, if you have no idea how incredibly huge the universe actually is, when the night sky is vastly darker than most of us have ever experienced. When things like comets and rainbows and full solar eclipses are not only not predictable, but are overwhelming experiences. In that context, astrology makes sense of what's happening. Now that we understand the vastness of the universe, and how planets, stars, comets, and so on, actually behave, most people reject astrology.

Back to my original post. I still maintain that very young children are rational creatures, although that rationality can be overcome by culture and teachings.

I just got done watching "Brideshead Revisted" which I had seen when it was originally broadcast thirty years ago. It's underlying theme is religion, specifically Catholicism, and to me it's very clear that the Church was right when it said Give me a child to the age of seven, and I'll have him forever.

[4th law of robotics]

32. It had to come from somewhere

and the default setting for mankind is that of superstition.

If children are taught by adults not to think rationally where did those adults learn it? From their parents sure. And so on and so on.

But the notion had to come from somewhere.

[RagAss]

10. How long did you work for this cretin?

[TlalocW]

14. My high school had a SCIENCE teacher

That taught this (fortunately hired after I graduated). A friend of mine who then attended the same college told me about all the arguments he had with him in class over that and how thunder caused lightning instead of the other way around, etc. I hope they got rid of him.

TlalocW

[pinboy3niner]

16. FAIL on the rib count, but your ex-supe appears to have 1 fewer brain lobe

If God exists, she has a wicked sense of humor.

[cthulu2016]

17. After we laugh at the incorrect statement, consider the deeper problem...

What if men and women did have a different number of ribs? Then Genesis would be a "just so" story explaining an observed natural fact.

If Genesis said, "And God formed Eve with boobs" would the existence of breasts lead one to credit Genesis as a factual account?

Adam names the animals in Genesis. And the animals have names. See... Proof!

[gollygee]

20. Yeah it would be illogical anyway

or circular anyway. But as it is, it's just silly and 100% false.

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

27. I always figured that they gave them real names, like Dan

Adam: The one with the mane and big teeth is Tony, the girl version is Tonia.

Eve: Sure, whatever.

Adam: and that one with the stripes; He's Bob.

Eve: But I thought the squishy one that lives in a pineapple under the sea was named Bob?

Adam: Damn it Eve, I said His name is Sponge-Bob. This one is just Bob.

Eve: Why would you name anything that?

Adam: Trust me, in a little over 6000 years, it will make sense.

Eve: Adam-Shit

Adam: I knew I shouldn't have named that one after me. His new name is Bull....

[nolabear]

22. Bet him a hundred bucks and see where his God leaves him.

And don't forget to be sure the money goes to Obama.

[chollybocker]

28. Is this why

the McRib is only available for one month each year? To symbolize the one-in-twelve rib thing?

Now I'm scared.