Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

 

Catholic priests in France ‘must report abuse allegations heard in confession’.

Joel Osteen’s untaxed Church will repay the taxpayer funded PPP COVID-19 loan.

Welcome to Ken Ham’s war against Science.

The Vatican is given immunity for its crimes against humanity. The Cuddly One thinks that hundreds of years of sexually abusing tens of thousands of children equates to a “moment of shame”.

A representative of Gentle Jesus, meek and mild here on Earth fully supports a bigoted scumbag.

World of Woo: The Blue Zone diet.

Environment: A little girl stamps her authority on the winter.

I was going to suggest we go on a fallacy hunt with this book but I was quickly forced to conclude that it is just too idiotic.

Surprise: The Big Bang isn’t the beginning of the universe anymore! What if the Universe had no beginning?

Long Reads: The parable of the Fair-Weather believer. Anti-vaxxers turn NBA stars into disinformation heroes. An Atheist reconsiders God in the Pandemic. The journalist Marie Colvin was murdered for reporting on War Crimes in Syria. What drove Homo Erectus out of Africa? How the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists. How to cope with an existential crisis.

Sunday Book Club: How to talk to a Science Denier.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Video:  TED – Adventures of an asteroid hunter. The Diamond miners of Arkansas. Professor Brian Cox: Our Place in the Universe.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!!

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

It looks like a great and promising Sunday School.  Though I must confess I’ve got backlogged on reading the last one due to other activities.

The topics reminded me of those activities.  Through the wonderful invention of Indernet video streaming, I binged-watched all of Lee Strobel’s videos on Tubi.tv making the case for Faith, God, and Christ.  I took notes of his main arguements and factoids, just to see what it was that made Matt Dillahunty and friends face-palm.

Then, after counting the fallacies and errors of binge-watching Lee Strobel, I had to do a purge-watch of Marvel’s What If… and The Simpsons on Disney +.

These are great antidotes to Theistic nonsense.  In What If… Uatu The Watcher presides over all of the ugly and awful things that happen in all of the Marvel Multiverses, and, like the asshole God worshipped by so many in real life, even though Uatu The Watcher is all-powerful, he almost always does nothing.  Without spoiling the plot, Uatu finally gets his when he breaks his oath of non-intervention.

The Simpsons is also great entertainment for Unbelievers.  Cartoonist Matt Groening is one of “our boys” who has parodied religion often in this 31+ seasons of episodes and even at his worst behavior, Bart Simpson is far better than many “Preacher’s kids.”

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Filling a Godless gap

[UnseenParticipant]

@Reg or anyone

Regarding Surprise: the Big Bang isn’t the beginning of the universe anymore, can you explain the Lady Gaga reference? I probably don’t know enough about the talented performer.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@theencogitationer

I understand the sentiment about requiring antidotes to theistic nonsense. Lee “the former atheist” Strobel offers a Degree in Applied Apologetics which has an elective in Critical Thinking and Logic. “Well fuck me pink” was the wording that echoed in my mind when I first discovered that.

Every religious person is a former atheist (says the fronkey farmer atheist). He converted to Christianity after studying the “evidence” for God. A case of yet another theist confusing ‘argument’ for ‘evidence’.

He has another syllabus in Apologetics and the Bible which is a course in circular reasoning where they teach how to use the Bible to prove the Bible. Ooh Ye of little logic!

But can they show us any of this evidence or define the god they insist is real or spot the fallacies in their own arguments? No, not even with a “Masters” in Christian Apologetics can they.

At the same time, it is worthwhile learning how to spot common fallacies. It improves our ability to win a debate and to spot the flaws in articles and arguments. Not just against theists (my thing) but also when listening to any vested interest telling us why we need something or why their opponent is wrong. Even when they say that the leader is great!

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@unseen.

I think it is a reference to her Monster Ball show and “Born this Way”. We are “determined” by our genetics and not by the society we live in. The “initial conditions” that make us who we are coded into our DNA long ago. The same can be said with the “initial conditions” of the early Universe. It “had” to become the way it is because of how it began.

Not being an expert on Lady Gaga (who keeps surprising me), I will stand corrected on the above.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Not for everyone but World CRISPR Day is Oct.20th. Registration is free for this virtual event.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

The video of Lady Gaga and Metallica isn’t there.  I guess in “The Village” of YouTube, they got swallowed by the bubble and they indeed  are a number.

Where did they go?  That would be telling.

Be seeing you.😎 #6

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

That is par for the course, so to speak, that Lee Strobel would call critical thinking and logic “an elective,” but I’m not comfortable calling it mandatory either, since critical thinking and logic operates only by conscious choice.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to call critical thinking and logic conditional musts i.e. If you want to understand Life, the Universe, and Everything, then you must learn and practice critical thinking and logic.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@theencogitationer – for the record, I am not a number, I am a freeman…..who just happens to look cool on a Pennyfarthing 🙂

Critical Thinking should be taught in schools instead of undergoing religious indoctrination classes. It is a skill that improves with use.

The Metallica video is loading for me but I will link here again.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Writes Enco…since critical thinking and logic operates only by conscious choice.

Nope. We don’t choose to believe or disbelieve. We don’t choose to think/reason logically or fallaciously.

When i practiced law my identification of BS/illogical/fallacious arguments in court occurred unconsciously. But then i had to consciously contemplate how the arguments of opposing counsel failed. Two steps. Try that on your own when you read/hear arguments. Do you know before you’ve even consciously examined the argument?

I also wonder about the fallacies. I realize how valuable they can be but did you need to have a label for say the argument from ignorance? If you are reasoning reasonably well it is apparent without any formal introduction to the fallacy.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

[DavisModerator]

Jake, humans don’t reason reasonably. The fallacies are very necessary. After properly studying them, it very much changed the way I reason, catching on to flawed arguments I thought were reasonable until I realised how and why they were flawed. I still need to review them from time to time. But you are right, you not only have to consciously analyse arguments but be conscious of how conscious you are when doing so.

[DavisModerator]

Critical Thinking should be taught in schools

It is absolutely outrageous that it is not a mandatory subject during every single year of school.

[Author]

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