[Scrapped] Blasphemy Unearthed!

[Chan Island]

Posing as tourists, a group of foreign palaeontologists have excavated then spirited away a significant fossil. Now the team is claiming that this is a groundbreaking fossil in the story of human evolution, in clear violation of the nation's deeply held religious views.

validity: must teach creationism/ is anti-evolution

[option] "Isn't it amazing?" offers @@RANDOMNAME@@, a hip young rising star in the faith circles. "That the creator could make such a beast within the past 4000 years? While clearly these blasphemers are wrong to describe the bones as proof of evolution, it's still deeply impressive. Maybe we should host exhibitions of these so-called 'fossils' in places of worship, demonstrating to the people how remarkable the creator really was."
[effect] the nation is amazed to think how quickly granite is made

[option] "Heresy!" screams @@RANDOMNAME@@, a self-proclaimed enforcer of the creed while waving a torch. "These foreign agents are now digging within our very soil in a desperate attempt to discredit our religion! We must expel any unbelievers we find and destroy their works. Like...um... well, surely there must have some other heretical 'fossils' around somewhere."
[effect] religious agents are trying to set fire to rocks

[option] "Wait, are you telling me we have a new angle for my department?!" squeals the Minister of Tourism @@RANDOMNAME@@, while grabbing a pickaxe and sun hat. "We are truly blessed if the very ground our nation stands on can reap such bountiful rewards! Think about the marketing. Adventure tours to the underworld. The bones beneath us. Dig now, study later! If you let me do this, I tell you, it'll be the next big thing for our tourism industry."
[effect] tour guides need a degree in theology

[option] Looking very perturbed in the back is @@RANDOMNAME@@, who's been staring at the article in the 'History Today' magazine for several hours now. "I'm sorry, but this evidence really is difficult to explain away. These bones are just too close to those of modern humans. I think it's time we faced the unfortunate, unspeakable truth...". @@HE@@ gulps. "Ev- evolution might be true after all."
[effect] significant turmoil is rocking spiritual life

[SherpDaWerp]

A couple of minor word tweaks, nothing major:

it's still deeply impressive nonetheless.

Mild tautology here, maybe say "it's still deeply impressive".

"Heresy!" And there's @@RANDOMNAME@@,

I would suggest "declares @@RANDOMNAME@@", instead of "and there's @@RANDOMNAME@@.

I tell you, this is going to be the next big thing in tourism if only you let me do this."

This could be "if you let me do this, I tell you, it'll be the next big thing for our tourism industry" or similar. Having "if only you let me do this" at the end seems a bit weird to me.

[Baggieland]

We must expel these unbelievers and destroy their works

How can you expel them, when, according to the intro, they've already left? How can you destroy their works if they've already taken them out of the country?

I think there are some choice examples in our museums we could burn to make a statement.

If it's a nation that doesn't believe in evolution, why would these examples be in the nation's museums?

[Chan Island]

All suggested changes implemented. Good calls

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Posing as tourists, a group of foreign palaeontologists have excavated then spirited away a significant fossil. Now the team is claiming that this is a groundbreaking fossil in the story of human evolution, in clear violation of the nation's deeply held religious views.

So there's two presented dilemmas here.

First, they stole a fossil out of the country. That's for the police to sort.
Second, some foreigners are claiming that fossils are evidence of evolution. Which isn't exactly news for Creationists -- they're used to such assertions, and have long had all their counterarguments prepared.

No national issue exists.

[Australian rePublic]

Many of us creationists believe in evolution, at least to some degree.

As far as Christians are concerned, The Catholic Church, the largest denomination of Christianity, for example, has official doctorine regarding evolution, and not believeing in evolution, according to Catholics, is heresy. Us Orthodox, are split about it, with many (myself included) believing in evolution. It's really only those evangelicals/Southern Baptists who believe that anyone who believes in evolution will burn in hell, and will deserve it, because they're heretic scum bags conspiring with Satan.

As far as Islam is concerned, the religion is quite split, and Jews are quite split on the matter. And in either case, this is a matter for the religious leader, not the nation's leader. @@LEADER@@ would probably tell them to take this up with the Archbishop

[Trotterdam]

Real-life religions are irrelevant, There already exists an issue which allows you to declare that religion is an evil lie.

[Chan Island]

Posing as tourists, a group of foreign palaeontologists have excavated then spirited away a significant fossil. Now the team is claiming that this is a groundbreaking fossil in the story of human evolution, in clear violation of the nation's deeply held religious views.

So there's two presented dilemmas here.

First, they stole a fossil out of the country. That's for the police to sort.
Second, some foreigners are claiming that fossils are evidence of evolution. Which isn't exactly news for Creationists -- they're used to such assertions, and have long had all their counterarguments prepared.

No national issue exists.

Hmmm...

Perhaps it could be that some amateur diggers then found them? Then the creationist country could be faced with what to do with thus huge deposit.

Many of us creationists believe in evolution, at least to some degree.

As far as Christians are concerned, The Catholic Church, the largest denomination of Christianity, for example, has official doctorine regarding evolution, and not believeing in evolution, according to Catholics, is heresy. Us Orthodox, are split about it, with many (myself included) believing in evolution. It's really only those evangelicals/Southern Baptists who believe that anyone who believes in evolution will burn in hell, and will deserve it, because they're heretic scum bags conspiring with Satan.

As far as Islam is concerned, the religion is quite split, and Jews are quite split on the matter. And in either case, this is a matter for the religious leader, not the nation's leader. @@LEADER@@ would probably tell them to take this up with the Archbishop

And this issue is deliberately vague about what religion the nation has. Only criteria is that it has in previous issues explicitly rejected evolution.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Hmmm...

Perhaps it could be that some amateur diggers then found them? Then the creationist country could be faced with what to do with thus huge deposit.

Fossils aren't hard to find, and creationists don't deny fossils exist, they just argue what it means.

For example, as Aussie says, most modern day creationists acknowledge that evolution exists as a concept, but don't accept the premise that human beings are the product of evolution.
Even hard-line deniers of evolution tend to have some explanation for fossils existing. For example, they argue that fossils are thousands rather than tens to hundreds of millions of years old, or they claim that the fossils were placed there as a test.

That is to say, they don't argue against the existence of the object, they argue against the meaning of the object.

So if amateurs were to unearth some fossils, the expert theologians might say "Ah yes, fossils, which are the remains of dragons turned to stone by King Purple, who was the Prophet of Violet, as set out in the Book of Violet. More evidence that Violetism is undeniably true."

It's a common flaw in the arguments of rationalists to believe that belief systems can be eroded with something so trivial as physical evidence.

[Chan Island]

Hm... tricky. Will have to think about this.

[Australian rePublic]

Hmmm...

Perhaps it could be that some amateur diggers then found them? Then the creationist country could be faced with what to do with thus huge deposit.

Fossils aren't hard to find, and creationists don't deny fossils exist, they just argue what it means.

For example, as Aussie says, most modern day creationists acknowledge that evolution exists as a concept, but don't accept the premise that human beings are the product of evolution.
Even hard-line deniers of evolution tend to have some explanation for fossils existing. For example, they argue that fossils are thousands rather than tens to hundreds of millions of years old, or they claim that the fossils were placed there as a test.

That is to say, they don't argue against the existence of the object, they argue against the meaning of the object.

So if amateurs were to unearth some fossils, the expert theologians might say "Ah yes, fossils, which are the remains of dragons turned to stone by King Purple, who was the Prophet of Violet, as set out in the Book of Violet. More evidence that Violetism is undeniably true."

It's a common flaw in the arguments of rationalists to believe that belief systems can be eroded with something so trivial as physical evidence.

Except many of us Creationists do believe in human evolution. I, for example, tend to side with CS Lewis on the matter, where he says that our pre-human origins are irrelevant, and the fact that our ansestors weren't humans is irrelevant to what we believe in about God. And CS Lewis was orders of magnitude more religious than I. orders of magnitude. Compared to him, I'm an atheist. He was also orders of magnitude more educated about such matters

[Candlewhisper Archive]

It's a pretty broad term, Creationism. I mean, theistic creationism like yours doesn't really differ from atheistic rationalism at any point except to say that God exists, and that he set things in motion. That is, before there was anything, there was God, after there was anything, the atheistic rationalist model is identical to the theistic creationist model.

[Trotterdam]

It's a pretty broad term, Creationism. I mean, theistic creationism like yours doesn't really differ from atheistic rationalism at any point except to say that God exists, and that he set things in motion. That is, before there was anything, there was God, after there was anything, the atheistic rationalist model is identical to the theistic creationist model.

You mean "theistic evolutionism", right?

God can also continue interfering with evolution after "setting things in motion". It's like, say, gardening - the plant can grow on its own, but it grows better if you occasionally give it a push in the right direction by pruning, though you certainly can't produce a healthy plant by just snipping at it a lot without ever giving it time to do its own thing. This notion is called teleological evolution.