Sunday School

Sunday School 24th December 2023

This topic contains 9 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by  Simon Paynton 1 year, 1 month ago.

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  • #51960

    Church nativity scene featuring two mothers of Jesus sparks accusation of blasphemy. Great!

    Angry about your kid’s After-School Satan Club? Blame Clarence Thomas.

    Mike Johnson’s Christian fundamentalism is too toxic, even for his own family.

    Iran executes a victim of child marriage and domestic violence.

    World of Woo: Don’t use homeopathic eye drops.

    Environment: Is tackling “loss and damage” as urgent as drawing down carbon?

    My children, the atheists.

    Misinformation is pervasive, and AI will turbocharge it as researchers say Bing made up facts about European elections. So, what’s in your Internet-based Toolbox to help you combat the online lies?

    A fresh look at some old fossils has rewritten the story of human evolution.

    The robots will make us more human in 2024?

    After 2 years in space, the James Webb telescope has broken cosmology. Can it be fixed?

    What was it like when the very first stars died?

    10 of the most mystifying open questions in Science.

    Long Reads: I will keep going with my warnings about Mike Johnson. How the meat industry indoctrinates children. Is Santa Claus buried in Ireland? What can board games say that other art forms can’t? Consciousness, free will and meaning in a Darwinian universe.

    Sunday Book Club:  Blood in the Machine.

    Some photographs taken last week.  Some of the best photographs of the year.

    While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

    Coffee Break Video:  History for Atheists – The date of Christmas. What The Prisoner’s Dilemma reveals about Life. Gravity is not a force. But what does that mean?  Comedian dismantles Bible Thumpers with their own logic.

     

     

     

    #51963

    Happy Christmas and have a great week!

    #51964

    TheEncogitationer
    Participant

    Reg,

    My objection to that creche at The Church of Saints Peter and Paul (and Mary, Mary?) is that Baby Jesus isn’t to scale! It would take two Mommies to birth a baby that damn big! 😁

    Marry Christmas to all! Hope Hanukkah was good for all our Jewish friends especially in these dire times! A Good Winter Solstice for all in this bitter cold time of year! And a Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us! May The Airing of the Grievances be brief!

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling and addendum
    #51969

    Strega
    Moderator

    Hey thanks, Reg – it’s been an amazing year for Sunday School. We all owe you a huge debt of gratitude.

    Thank you for all you do.

    S xx

    #51970

    Thank you very much Strega. I am thinking of re-vamping it a bit so all ideas are welcome.

    It is Christmas Day here and the little baby Jesus will be getting ready for “The First Breakfast”. I wonder what he will use the Myrrh for? Probably to disguise the smell of cow dung or camel breath.

    #51975

    TheEncogitationer
    Participant

    Fellow Unbelievers,

    Get a load of this big Dhimmi Dummy from The Great White North! It’s like Phil Robertson and Ayatollah Khomeini merged together in Scotty’s Transporter on Star Trek.

    A Non-Muslim Canadian: “I can’t wait for the Muslims to take over.”

    I wonder if this dumbass realizes that under Sha’ria law that “The People of The Book” (i.e. Jews, Christians, and sometimes Zoroastrians) aren’t allowed to have houses of worship bigger than a mosque, cannot build new houses of worship, and cannot rebuild or restore old houses of worship?

    I wonder if this dumbass realizes that “The People of The Book” under Sha’ria law cannot be on the sidewalk as equals with Muslims, they have to wear special badges or clothing distinguishing them as “The People of The Book”–(where else have we heard of this?)–and that “The People of The Book” cannot have administrative positions of authority over Muslims?

    I wonder if he realizes that the “usury” he opposes is how banks and financial institutions in a Free Marketplace provide capital for production and innovation of new products and services? And does he realize that “usury” encourages people to make wiser uses of the resources they already have, both for consumption and production?

    I wonder if he realizes that, although the Jizya tax for “The People of The Book” is only 2.8 percent, the penalty for non-payment of this tax–paid for the indignity of second-class citizenship–is exile or death? It’s called a “Head Tax” for a reason.

    I wonder if he realizes that under Sha’ria law “The People of The Book” are not allowed to ride horses or to keep and bear arms for self-defense?

    And I wonder if he realizes that under differing schools of Sha’ria law, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians, Pagans, Animists, and Non-Theists are not even considered “The People of The Book” and under the laws of Jihad are subject to instant extermination?

    And I wonder if he realizes that part of the “Progressive” craziness he claims to oppose wants to allow Muslims to bring their separatist enclaves operating under Sha’ria law into the midst of freer Western societies?

    Nope, I guess not. And this Dhimmi Dummy–if he ever gets his wish–deserves all he gets!

    He can have it. As for me and any other freedom-loving individual: Lan Astaslem! (which is Arabic for “I Will Not Submit!”)

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Punctuation and spelling
    • This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Punctuation and addendum
    #52006

    Simon Paynton
    Participant

    What The Prisoner’s Dilemma reveals about Life.

    This is an interesting exploration, not necessarily of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, which I think has limited application in the real world (interpersonally) – but of tit-for-tat reciprocity, which is what we do all the time.  What should I do in response to someone else’s behaviour?  Should I “cooperate”: keep on working together with you towards our joint goal of mutual benefit; or “fuck you off” (defect) by just being self-interested?

    The winning strategy was found to be “hopeful, generous and forgiving”.  “Hopeful” means that you need to start the interaction by being cooperative, and hope that this will encourage the other party to cooperate in return.  “Forgiving” means that if the other person defects, you will work hard to rebuild a working relationship of cooperation.  “Generous” means not to be too worried about getting exact returns for what you have put in, but instead be pleased to be engaged in a cooperative relationship where everybody benefits.

    But don’t cooperate all the time, when the other person defects, otherwise you will get walked all over.

    #52009

    Davis
    Moderator

    We encounter scenarios like the prisoners dilemma more often than you think. And these test your integrity to your values when under pressure. At work two of us were at fault with a client, if we admit the error the client had a very tiny chance of being badly affected but guaranteed to complain and create problems for everyone and harm the organisation and many players involved. If we both stayed silent, 99% chance of no one being harmed, if we both bring it up, we get moderately chastised and the organisation would suffer, if only one of is did, one gets slightly chastised, the other in deep shit for staying silent and organisation suffers .

    Regardless of the choice we made, we both trusted one another sufficiently to agree on what to do, if we didn’t trust one another, we would have faced this dilemma with the additional consideration 9f our organisation and others suffering 9r a strong likelihood of no problem being not8ced, no damage done, no feathers ruffled. Different moral systems would say very different things.

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by  Davis.
    #52020

    Here is another look at the problem of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. See also some of the links at the end of the article.

    #52027

    Simon Paynton
    Participant

    I think the Prisoner’s Dilemma captures situations where trust is required in order for both sides to walk away with a payoff – to create a positive sum result.  In this situation, trust is everything.  The incentive is to trust.

    I don’t think it captures collaboration per se.  In collaboration, trust is also required to reach a positive sum result, because each partner needs to be able to trust the other to follow through the collaboration.  So they make an agreement and put their good names on the line.

    But the incentives are different from the Prisoner’s Dilemma.  Each stands to gain more by taking a risk and cooperating than they do by doing nothing.

    Michael Tomasello proposes the Stag Hunt where, on the savannah, I could stay at home trying to catch tortoises, or I could make an agreement with you to go off and try to hunt an impala, taking a risk for potentially a higher mutual payoff.

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