1. Comment #17585 by Luthien on January 15, 2007 at 2:14 am

Disturbing, but a pretty standard technique for religious brainwashing. I remember having to repeat religious 'beliefs' over and over again at school, and I know my mother had her arms beaten black and blue at school for forgetting the words to a prayer (she was only 7).

One little girl in the front row looked a little embarassed to be singing it, so perhaps the sheer "cheeseyness" of the song might put some of them off it (wishful thinking I know).

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2. Comment #17586 by alfonso on January 15, 2007 at 2:20 am

I don't believe in evolution either!

I don't need to! For I know it is scientifically proven to be as valid as something needs to be in order to be considered true! Truer than any religion!

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3. Comment #17587 by Phil on January 15, 2007 at 2:43 am

Luthien Said: One little girl in the front row looked a little embarassed to be singing it, so perhaps the sheer "cheeseyness" of the song might put some of them off it (wishful thinking I know).

Perhaps it is not entirely wishful thinking. It was those very kinds of shitty songs that made me stray away from the church in the first place. Whatever! It's wishful thinking.

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4. Comment #17588 by Corylus on January 15, 2007 at 3:12 am

Well, I don't know, maybe the singer had a point.. He did look somewhat unevolved!

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5. Comment #17591 by Logicel on January 15, 2007 at 3:59 am

Mucho cash was being collected at the door.

There were a slew of kids in the first row next to an adult female. The last bit of the vid focused on two kids (they were situated to the left of the last unsmiling kid that were lined up next to the female who was trying to encourage the kids to merrily go along with the song) looking pretty happy and going along with the song, but the rest of the kids in the room (I had to watch this crapola a lot of times to determine this) looked miserable.

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6. Comment #17592 by Logicel on January 15, 2007 at 4:03 am

Luthien, Unhappy kids will be motivated to find a way out of their misery. The more these rabid supporters of religious superstitions pile on their crap, the more their kids will eventually rebel.

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7. Comment #17593 by Roy_H on January 15, 2007 at 4:08 am

All together now : "Ernie, Ernie, and he drove the fastest milk cart in the west"
"Guest speaker Ken Ham", well that guy is an insult to science for a start!

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8. Comment #17606 by Lionel A on January 15, 2007 at 5:23 am

Blast! In the name of Thor, Odin, Zeus and Apollo I will not be able to appreciate American Country music again!

Who was that singer anyway?

Seemed familiar from the 'Root of All Evil'. I'll have to buy the DVD of that now in order to watch it again.

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9. Comment #17607 by Tomcat on January 15, 2007 at 5:29 am

A bunch of zombies singing a zombie song to continue to feed their delusional zombie nation. They're turning our kids into vegetables.

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10. Comment #17621 by Traytheist on January 15, 2007 at 6:49 am

Great...now this damned song is stuck in my head just before sleepy-time. Sometimes I wish there was a hell, just so that "singer" could burn in it!

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11. Comment #17623 by Roy_H on January 15, 2007 at 6:57 am

"Well, I don't know, maybe the singer had a point.. He did look somewhat unevolved!"

"A bunch of zombies singing a zombie song to continue to feed their delusional zombie nation. They're turning our kids into vegetables."
http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2006/bill-hicks-p1.php

This is hilarious. Note, he mentions President Bush. It is G.W.'s Daddy he is refering too, but nothing changes, same crazy God fearing attitude.

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12. Comment #17625 by chbg21808 on January 15, 2007 at 7:15 am

Well of course, it is not a case of belief. I accept evolution based on the overwhelming evidence, from many separate scientific disciplines. Indeed, there is so much evidence in favour of evolution today, that it would take one person a lifetime to even scratch the surface of what we know... millions of none contradictory facts that fit the theory.

The song starts of from the premise that evolution is just a belief and is thus held based on nothing more than faith. Indeed, it is a favourite of creationists to call evolution another religion.

What is particularly sad in that video. is the children who are being brainwashed with creationist nonsense at the expense of science.


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13. Comment #17628 by archon88 on January 15, 2007 at 7:36 am

I've seen this before. Absolutely nauseating indoctrination - and the kids just sit there lapping it up, another generation of faithful fundy idiots in preparation. Why does Dawkins' "virus" metaphor seem so apt here...

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14. Comment #17631 by anon on January 15, 2007 at 8:11 am

Wow, that song has changed my life, i can finally see that evolution is all wrong and that we're all god's special creations! I've been saved!
[/sarcasm]

Seriously though, brainwashing kids... nice... If they were doing this in the name of the galactic lord Xenu instead of Jesus it would provoke a national outrage.

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15. Comment #17636 by StephenH on January 15, 2007 at 8:34 am

The song: Jesus Loves Me
Children are often encouraged to learn and recite it

The full song lyrics go as follows:
---
Jesus loves me! This I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.

Refrain

Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.

Jesus loves me! This I know,
As He loved so long ago,
Taking children on His knee,
Saying, "Let them come to Me."

Refrain

Jesus loves me still today,
Walking with me on my way,
Wanting as a friend to give
Light and love to all who live.

Refrain

Jesus loves me! He who died
Heaven's gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in.

Refrain

Jesus loves me! He will stay
Close beside me all the way;
Thou hast bled and died for me,
I will henceforth live for Thee.
---
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/j/e/jesuslme.htm

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16. Comment #17642 by He'sAVeryNaughtyBoy on January 15, 2007 at 8:48 am

Great, those lyrics are almost identical to one of my favourite Sheryl Crow songs.

"Jesus loves me I know, for my mom told me so."

Now I'm not going to be able to listen to it without thinking about and getting angry at backwards thinking faithheads.
Bugger!

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17. Comment #17652 by CF1 on January 15, 2007 at 9:47 am

This is a clear example of what RD has called "Group Solidarity". The feeling of belonging to a group is very powerful, and the greater the number, the better one feels. It provides the sense that one is on the winning team, and great joy is the resultant feeling.

It does become more & more clear that this childhood brainwashing needs to stop.

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18. Comment #17656 by Martin on January 15, 2007 at 10:17 am

I didn't watch it. I'm afraid I will have to throw up. I just ate ...

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19. Comment #17658 by solera on January 15, 2007 at 10:23 am

Everyone recognizes the power of 'group dynamics', 'mass hysteria', etc. What I find deeply reassuring is that many of 'us' have experienced similar dynamics, even at a young age, and still understood what was going on.

We intrinsically knew that there was more to the picture than was being shown to us. This particular example could easily create more dissention, than unity, among the stout idiotists.

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20. Comment #17663 by Mitchie2006 on January 15, 2007 at 11:11 am

I couldn't view the clip because I'm at work. But if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's probably that one that was in the PBS Evolution series, right?

You know that line in it about "Adam was my ancestor and not a Chimpanzee"? Look at the sentence structure, it may be the only thing in the song that's accurate. He may well have had an ancestor named Adam, and he definitely wasn't a chimpanzee - since we are not descended from chipanzees, but rather share a common ancestor with them.

oops!

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21. Comment #17693 by MarcKeys on January 15, 2007 at 2:42 pm

I was tempted to just laugh at the sheer stupidity but then when I seen the kids signing it I wasn't so inclined to a humorous view.

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22. Comment #17722 by DavidJMH on January 15, 2007 at 5:14 pm

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Children of the ages shown only want to please their elders and "betters", this a prime example of the most basic form of brain washing; the tune will always bring back the words for the rest of their lives. Whenever I hear the music of the psalms from my choirboy days over 50 years ago, the words are as clear as they ever were. Absolutely ghastly, a Christian madrassa.

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23. Comment #17730 by Galactic Lord Xenu on January 15, 2007 at 6:43 pm

I feel sick.

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24. Comment #17766 by Will S on January 16, 2007 at 2:15 am

It would be good to know what was going on in the mind of that kid on the left, wouldn't it? She certainly doesn't look convinced.

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25. Comment #17767 by Andrew Charles on January 16, 2007 at 2:47 am

Well, I have never seen anything like that before. I used to sing christian songs myself at high school and primary school(it was compulsory), but never anything so explicitly against a scientific theory. It was mostly just those old traditional hyms that actually didn't sound to bad some times. We never paid any attention to what we were singing in any case, but this....!???!!?

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26. Comment #17768 by Andrew Charles on January 16, 2007 at 2:49 am

Jesus Christ! Those poor kids!

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27. Comment #17777 by gersheimer on January 16, 2007 at 8:48 am

In case you didn´t know, there is a song with which we can more than adequately counter this offensive - and two or three leagues higher if it comes both to the poetic value and informational content:

Cat Faber - Word of God (1994)

(the author is a charming lady, a middle-aged high-school teacher, singer and songwriter - see www.echoschildren.org - living in Oregon, U.S.)

From desert cliff and mountaintop we trace the wide design,
Strike-slip fault and overthrust and syn- and anticline. . .
We gaze upon creation where erosion makes it known,
And count the countless aeons in the banding of the stone.
Odd, long-vanished creatures and their tracks & shells are found;
Where truth has left its sketches on the slate below the ground.
The patient stone can speak, if we but listen when it talks.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the rocks.

There are those who name the stars, who watch the sky by night,
Seeking out the darkest place, to better see the light.
Long ago, when torture broke the remnant of his will,
Galileo recanted, but the Earth is moving still.
High above the mountaintops, where only distance bars,
The truth has left its footprints in the dust between the stars.
We may watch and study or may shudder and deny,
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the sky.

By stem and root and branch we trace, by feather, fang and fur,
How the living things that are descend from things that were.
The moss, the kelp, the zebrafish, the very mice and flies,
These tiny, humble, wordless things---how shall they tell us lies?
We are kin to beasts; no other answer can we bring.
The truth has left its fingerprints on every living thing.
Remember, should you have to choose between them in the strife,
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote life.

And we who listen to the stars, or walk the dusty grade,
Or break the very atoms down to see how they are made,
Or study cells, or living things, seek truth with open hand.
The profoundest act of worship is to try to understand.
Deep in flower and in flesh, in star and soil and seed,
The truth has left its living word for anyone to read.
So turn and look where best you think the story is unfurled.
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world.

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28. Comment #17786 by Scep on January 16, 2007 at 11:37 am

These two guys say it much better than I can:

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've been so credulous." Carl Sagan

"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence".
Richard Dawkins (attributed: source unknown)

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29. Comment #17807 by Homo economicus on January 16, 2007 at 5:10 pm

Well yes but I will still enjoy Johnny Cash and Ken Rogers. They will not take my country from me!

As someone that came from an indoctrinating cult as a child (JWs) I can assure you the best defense is having the curiosity to ask why and seek out answers. The problem is where the curiosity is killed. I hope the kids will grow up curious about what evolution is all about.

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30. Comment #17810 by NoLongerHaveBelief on January 16, 2007 at 5:26 pm

'I don't believe in Creation-ism,
I know evolution is true;
I don't believe in God above
He didn't create me or you'.

There! Now that's better! I've just re-phrased that lovely country and western tune, to something more apt. Fantastic!

Mind. That singer DID look like Father Xmas - and I do believe in him!

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31. Comment #17852 by Duff on January 17, 2007 at 3:43 am

Jesus wants me as a sunbeam
to shine for him each day....(I forget)
I'll be a sunbeam for him.

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32. Comment #19269 by linck on January 26, 2007 at 2:57 am

"God created me and you"

...more than a billion years of sexual reproduction and god still has to single handedly create Papa Bear countrysingers that spread the gospel.

As pre-schooler I also went to church. I never was forced to, I liked it.
We could climb up where the big organ was, sang and did handicrafts. It was lots of fun and I liked the stories just as much as Snowwhite and the seven dwarfs and Hansel and Gretel.

Around five I realized that church ment that these stories are actually supposed to be true!
I mentally tried to fit the animals of my grandpa's 8 booked "Animals of the World" series into the model arch we kids crafted the previous week and immidiately saw the flaw.

I needed much longer to realize that some people actually DO believe.
If it is bloody obvious to a five year old that these stories cannot possibly be true, how can grown-ups be so stupid?

...I still wonder.

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33. Comment #34386 by ahurley on April 23, 2007 at 11:47 pm

One of my favorite singers, Buddy Davis. You rock Buddy!

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34. Comment #54574 by steveroot on July 7, 2007 at 9:40 pm

15. Comment #17636 by StephenH on January 15, 2007 at 8:34 am
The song: Jesus Loves Me
Children are often encouraged to learn and recite it

The full song lyrics go as follows:

Stephen, there's another verse I learned in high school many years ago:

"Jesus loves me, this I know
for the bible tells me so;
even though he was a Jew,
I like him and so do you."

The money being placed in the offering box reminded me of another thing. I was in a church choir for 5 years. We used to secretly mock the Doxology:

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
praise Him, He's where our money goes..."

Steve

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