Is the world flat?

[Ninong]

New "View" Co-Host Sherri Shepherd Doesn't Know If World Is Flat

What can I say? You have to see this to believe it.

After declaring she didn't "believe in evolution, period," new "View" co-host Sherri Shepherd was asked if she thought the world was flat. Her response to moderator Whoopi Goldberg is in the clip below.

Here is a 29-second clip.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Is the world flat?

SHERRI SHEPHERD: Is the world flat? (laughter)

GOLDBERG: Yes.

SHEPHERD: …I don’t know.

GOLDBERG: What do you think?

SHEPHERD: I… I never thought about it, Whoopi. Is the world flat? I never thought about it.

BARBARA WALTERS: You’ve never thought about whether the world was round or flat?

SHEPHERD: I tell you what I’ve thought about. How I’m going to feed my child–

WALTERS: Well you can do both.

SHEPHERD: …how I’m going to take care of my family. The world, is the world flat has never entered into, like that has not been an important thing to me.

ELIZABETH HASSELBECK: You’ll teach your son, Jeffery, right?

SHEPHERD: If my son, Jeffery, asks me ‘is the world flat,’ I guess I would go…

JOY BEHAR: You know, didn’t some person already work this question out? I mean, why are we doing this again? (laughter, applause)

Background:

Sherri Shepherd is the new permanent 'conservative' Christian co-host who was added to the show on Sept. 10, 2007 to give Elizabeth Hasselbeck some backup. They're trying to be fair and balanced and they wanted someone to balance out Whoopi Goldberg's views. Another possibility is that the show's producers wanted to be politically correct and have someone who would be representative of all the really stupid people in the world. You know, the people who are too busy being a good little housewife to think about such complicated scientific matters as whether the world is flat.

According to her Wikipedia profile, Sherri Shepherd was raised a Jehovah's Witness but later became a born-again Christian after moving to Los Angeles. Her son Jeffrey is now two years old. She announced on "The View" just this morning that she is divorcing her husband because of his extra-marital affair that has resulted in him having another child by his mistress. Divorce among born-again Christians is higher than among any other groups.

If you're wondering how the ladies on "The View" got into a discussion of whether the Earth is round or flat, it came following a discussion of evolution during which Sherri Shepherd stated that she believed in the Bible 100% and that was why she didn't believe in evolution, period.

P.S. -- In this article, Dr. Richard Land of the SBC tries to explain why he thinks born-again Christians have such a high divorce rate (27%). According to Dr. Land, who should know, Baptists have the highest divorce rate of all (29%). Dr. Land doesn't talk about it in his article, but non-believers have the lowest divorce rate at 21%. In fact, Dr. Land's article fails to mention any of the real reasons why born-again Christians, and Baptists in particular, have such high divorce rates compared to Atheists, Agnostics and Catholics, whose divorce rates are all the same at 21%.

Non-believers are more likely to engage in cohabitation prior to marriage. This probably results in fewer surprises and allows both parties to figure out if they're really meant for each other before the marriage ceremony. Atheists and agnostics are more likely to reject the quaint patriarchal model and treat each other equally. This is against the teachings of born-again Christians who believe that women should be subservient and obedient to their husbands. I think the main reason divorce among Catholics is so low is because it has historically been forbidden and not recognized by the Church.

P.P.S. -- This episode with Sherri Shepherd raises the possibility that maybe Dr. Sam Harris is right in his book "The End of Faith," in which he discusses the role of religion in "this era of science and reason." I haven't read the book but another member highly recommended it in this thread. From what I have read about Dr. Harris' position, he believes that religions are harmful to the general welfare. I don't know if Dr. Harris goes beyond the usual observations that religions are frequently the primary causes of violence in this world but this Sherri Shepherd example demonstrates that religions can be hazardous to your mental health, too. One would have to be extremely stupid or willfully ignorant to not know that the Earth is not flat. Maybe Sherri Shepherd has all the channels on her TV blocked except for Fox News?

Seriously, I wonder what fundy parents like Sherri Shepherd do about all those 'sinful' nature programs on TV? The ones that are constantly bombarding us with programs on scientific topics like evolution and astronomy and telling us about "millions and billions of years?" Everybody knows that nothing is more than 6,010 years old because the Bible tells us so. I guess they must have a lot of blocked channels?

[zhenya]

Is the world flat?

As a pancake. :eek3:

Now why would someone try to hide ignorance behind the "need to take care of the family" is beyond me. I could accept the fact that she believed the world is flat because of her convictions but not that stupid back talk about trying to feed someone. We all need to take care of the family but I I am sure we all have an opinion if the world is flat or not.

[Ninong]

As a pancake. :eek3:

Now why would someone try to hide ignorance behind the "need to take care of the family" is beyond me. I could accept the fact that she believed the world is flat because of her convictions but not that stupid back talk about trying to feed someone. We all need to take care of the family but I I am sure we all have an opinion if the world is flat or not.

It is a basic tenet of Christian fundamentalism that a woman's role is to be a homemaker, a good mother to her children and an obedient companion to her husband. It is not the role of a woman to be concerned with complicated scientific matters such as whether the Earth is flat.

After all, it was Eve who first ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge that resulted in God condemning her and all future women to a painful and sorrowful childbirth experience as punishment for her disobedience. Furthermore, God ordered that the men shall rule over the women from that moment on. That was the second part of the punishment. So a good fundy Christian woman is not supposed to question her husband's authority over her or concern herself with scientific inquiries. She's supposed to look after her husband and her children and keep the kitchen clean and tidy. No more eating any of that knowledge fruit.

“And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat….Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Genesis 3:13-16).

"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Timothy 2:11-14).

"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church" (1 Corinthians 14:34-35).

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in every thing" (Ephesians 5:22-24). "But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God" (1 Corinthians 11:3). "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord" (Colossians 3:18).


P.S. -- The brief video clip that I posted was the exchange between Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd that followed a discussion of evolution. Sherri had just told Whoopi that because she believed every word of the Bible, she didn't believe in evolution, period. Whoopi then raised the flat Earth question as a way of getting Sherri to admit that she didn't really believe every word in the Bible literally. Sensing what Whoopi was up to, Sherri chose to stick to her guns by declaring the biblical view that the woman's role is to look after her family and not concern herself with a quest for knowledge beyond what is required to fulfill her God-given role as mother to her children and obedient companion and housekeeper for her husband.

Since Sherri professes to believe every word of the Bible literally, then it is obvious that she understands that she is not to ask questions, period. However, if it is absolutely necessary for her to know something, she is to ask her husband at home. This is a problem for Sherri at the moment because she and her husband have separated and are planning to divorce. It seems he has committed adultery with another woman. The Bible says that they must both be taken outside of town and stoned to death. No word yet on when Sherri plans to carry out that commandment.

[Ninong]

Sherri Shepherd went on Leno last night and lied her ass off.

She recanted her belief in every word of the Bible by telling Leno that of course she knows the Earth is not flat.

As every 'good' Christian knows, God made the Earth flat with four corners:

“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth” (Revelation 7:1). “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:12). “And the devil taking [Jesus] up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time” (Luke 4:5; see also Matthew 4:8). “The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth” (Daniel 4:11).

The lying part came when she totally lied about the exchange as it happened on "The View." The way she told the story last night, it was strictly an exchange between herself and Baba Walters. She didn't mention Whoopi Goldberg once. She said it was Walters who asked her if the Earth is flat and she misunderstood the question. She said she was befuddled because, "I was defending my faith and didn't want to mess up my lines." She gave some incoherent explanation of what she thought she heard Walters ask her.

The bottom line is that in spite of how stupid she looked on "The View," she wants everyone to know that she's not really that stupid and was just defending her faith and got tripped up by Walters with a complicated question that she didn't understand.

She then went on to a discussion of her personal life that was rather strange. She made a comment about the time she had a relationship with a boyfriend who was in prison. Not receiving the response she expected from the audience, she went on to chastise the audience because "we've all had a man in prison." Must be a cultural thing with fundamentalist Christians?

[Samper]

Nuff said

[zhenya]

It is a basic tenet of Christian fundamentalism that a woman's role is to be a homemaker, a good mother to her children and an obedient companion to her husband. It is not the role of a woman to be concerned with complicated scientific matters such as whether the Earth is flat.

I'm aware of that, George. I'm also aware of the fact that a good Christian woman shouldn't be on television either...
( unless it's a televised Church function, of course)

The bottom line is that in spite of how stupid she looked on "The View," she wants everyone to know that she's not really that stupid and was just defending her faith and got tripped up by Walters with a complicated question that she didn't understand.

I wonder why she dropped Woopi out of equasion, maybe she conviniently forgot who really tried to trip her.

[Ninong]

I wonder why she dropped Woopi out of equasion, maybe she conviniently forgot who really tried to trip her.

Sherri Shepherd's appearance on Leno Friday night was clearly a damage-control appearance set up by her agent. I have no idea how many people watch "The View," but I'm not one of them. I only heard about her Earth-is-flat episode because it was all over the internet within hours (minutes?) last Thursday. I have seen two video clips that were posted online and both of them pretty much end before she gets into quoting the Bible to back up her beliefs.

I think the most revealing comment of all was when she told Jay Leno, "I was defending my faith and didn't want to mess up my lines." Do the ladies on "The View" know in advance what topics will be discussed? Maybe she knew that the topic of evolution would come up and had rehearsed her "lines" in advance? She has mentioned "my religon" on several occasions already on "The View," so I suspect that's going to be a recurring theme for her. If so, she would be wise to avoid bibical truths that have already been refuted beyond a reasonable doubt and just stick to the ones that have not yet been shot down. Unless she slept through first grade, she should know that the world is not flat.

Checking ABC's "The View" website, I couldn't find any clips of that particular exchange. They do have clips of previous "hot topics" but I guess that wasn't one they wanted to memorialize. There is a clip where the ladies discuss the topic of celibacy. Sherri volunteers that since premarital sex is against her religion, she does not engage in premarital sex. One of the other women asked her if that meant that now that she has separated from Jeff Tarpley, will she be celibate until her next marriage. She said yes, she will absolutely be celibate until her next marriage because she doesn't believe in premarital sex. Someone then asked, "What if you don't remarry for another ten years?" Sherri's reply: "Then it will just shrivel up and die."

[SPasse]

Ninong,

I do wish that they could have found an example of a “person of faith” that had a little more on the ball.

With Sherri Shepherd carrying the flag, it isn’t even an interesting contest…

Regards,

Scott

[Ninong]

I do wish that they could have found an example of a “person of faith” that had a little more on the ball.

With Sherri Shepherd carrying the flag, it isn’t even an interesting contest…

It may still be entertaining. Now that she is setting herself up as a semi-official defender of the faith (to use her expression), her personal life will come under constant scrutiny from the biased liberal media out to catch her if she slips up on any of her stated beliefs. In particular, she may regret having said on national teevee that she will not engage in any sexual intercourse until her next marriage, if there is one, because extramarital sex is against her religion.

Sherri was quite emphatic in stating that she is now celibate since her husband left her and she will remain celibate until she remarries, if she remarries. The other ladies didn't seem to share Sherri's devotion to celibacy and said so.