Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

The Satanic Temple goes to court to have the equal right to pray at city meetings.

In West Virginia, a father who reported illegality at his child’s school is threatened by Christians who hate him as a neighbor.

Humanism is now included in the school curriculum of all public schools in Wales.

A Pagan sues Panera Bread Company alleging religious discrimination.

Evangelical churches must confront their deviant teachings about human sexuality and stop indoctrinating children with its toxicity.

I have often heard this Catholic priest speak and I generally agree with him.

The Catholic church opposed suicide hotline because it included support for LGBTQ people.

World of Woo:  An energy therapist who trusts the Universe.

Environment: Coronavirus lockdowns cut global carbon emissions by an estimated 7%.

On taking a pop at the idea of falsifiability in Science and finding spiritualism without employing magical thinking. OK, have a go, I will listen.

On waiting for the Rupture as America becomes more secular each year.

Georgia legislator arrested for knocking on a door. I hope that she don’t get weary from the experience.

I spoke with a mob of two anti-vaxxers this week. They are as deluded as any Christian I have spoken with. They all speak like they are experts but are just unthinking echo chambers for what someone else has told them is the truth. The stuff they say they believe makes them pathetic. I asked each of them about the Avian Genocide going on all around them and I was outraged they were doing nothing about it. I think they thought I was a little cuckoo.

We pause to remember: Nawal el Saadawi.

Long Reads: Privacy – Your face is not your own. The truth about lying. Psychology as secular mythology.

This week I will order this book: Dark Skies.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Video:  Richard Dawkins reads more hate mail on his 80^th birthday. Sir Roger Penrose & William Lane Craig – The Universe: How did it get here & why are we part of it? The Genes we lost along the way. The Qonspiracy Warehouse.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everybody!

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Regarding the story from West “By God” Virginny: This is why, when I reply to religious pamphleteers who leave their address, I always use a silly pseudonym, a fictional street address, and drop it in a mailbox far from my ZIP Code.

No threats, of course, just polite Socratic questioning, pointing out obvious contradictions and atrocities, and referral to The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible, Infidels.org, 1001BibleContradictions.com, 666ChristianCrimes.com, and other suitable Skeptical Web Sites.

Oh, and no fingerprints or hair on the paper, stamp, or envelope.  Crucial detail.   Funny, snailmail is actually safer than Internet communication when you do it right. 😈

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Addendum for safety

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

finding spiritualism without employing magical thinking

For me, spirituality is about two things:  1) personal well-being, especially long term; 2) connecting with something bigger than myself.

It’s not spooky at all.  But if you think about it, when religious people talk about spirituality, they’re invoking these two factors.  We can easily have them without God.

Long term personal well being comes down to “putting the right conditions in place” – as if I were a flower in the garden, that needs the right soil, rain, sunshine etc. in order to make itself thrive.

 

[DavisModerator]

Simon I think you have to modify your definition.

A well rounded mentally stable athlete who is a communist would fit that definition (takes care of themselves over the long term [fitness and self-care] and connects with something greater than themselves [a political ideology]) and yet that just doesn’t automatically seem spiritual to me. You can easily call someone who doesn’t take care of their well being as spiritual (a lazy unhealthy neurotic mess who meditates, reads the Kaballa and goes to seances). I believe many people would call that person spiritual.

[_Robert_Participant]

Yeah, I agree with Davis. The word “spirituality” is meaningless to me. I am sure Simon, you can find better words to describe well-being, so why bother the the word at all. The origins involve the ancient understanding that we breath something invisible and when that stops we die.  The Latin spiritus means “breath”. And then there is the “smoke” emitted from burning a corpse certainly evokes symbolism. Alcoholic drinks are called spirits because we can sense the evaporation.

What I really hate is the appeal to “something greater”. When every dickhead politician wants to add levity to their bullshit speech….here comes to appeal to “spirituality” instead of just appealing to logic, data, or science.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

To me it’s a good catch-all term that I don’t regularly use.  There are a lot of things greater than ourselves that we connect to: for example, social groups of some kind, and that old favourite, the biological pressure to thrive, survive and reproduce, and of course, these two are connected, because humans thrive and survive collectively.

But the word probably means a lot of thing to a lot of people.

What does that have to do with the word “spirit”?  I guess it’s about the health of the spirit or of some kind of inner essence, like the eternal flame which isn’t supposed to go out.  So, in a metaphorical way, it fits.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I agree with the non-confrontational approach to religious callers and pamphleteers. Generally, I have no issues with them and if I engage in conversation with them, I turn on my full Socratic approach which is well honed from debating with them over the years. (Some people play golf).

There have been times when they have become very aggressive in their tone towards me and I have remained calm. I usually offer to turn the other check after I tell them I forgive them. That confused them.  On 2 occasions it turned violent and I had to defend myself. It is amazing how the asking the “right” questions can cause their cognitive dissonance bubble to burst 😊 I then asked them if they felt a little more humble now that 2 minutes ago.

But when they drop homophobic leaflets though my mailbox, ignoring the “no junk mail” sign, I have no problems calling to their office to tell all twelve of them what I thought of them and their pathetic little minds, made vulgar by their indoctrination from primitive literature.

When in a police station an officer offered me a crucifix to “help me find Jesus”, I had no problem asking him to provide some lube as it looked a little too rugged to use on him without it and then staring at him with a lecherous grin on my face.

If what happened in WV happened to me, I would end up having them paint the town red and putting up a sign saying “Welcome to Hell” at each end of the town. I would leave them mentally horrified for life as I drifted off back to the plains. I will not tolerate religious intolerance if I think I can do something about it.

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