Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Belief isn’t dying, it’s just getting less certain.

Supreme Court asked to block Ten Commandment displays in public schools.

In Northern Ireland nonreligious children are still being squeezed into Orange-and-Green boxes. Religious segregation imposes financial as well as social costs.

Inflaming Anti-Muslim bigotry is the GOP’s desperate distraction strategy from MAGA failures.

How narrow should the religious exemption be when the privileged information reveals an identifiable child is currently being abused?

Massachusetts High Court blocks Catholic idolatry at Quincy police HQ.

World of Woo: What evidence justifies the causal direction being claimed?

Environment:  Stop saying “Climate Change”. It’s the mechanism, stupid.

The European Court of Human Rights confirms ethical veganism is a protected philosophical belief in Europe.*

It’s no use crying over spilled raw milk.

This is a very important study into the effects of pollution on children.

Have we underestimated the physics the brain is already doing?

A.I. is everywhere in China.

What can we learn from Australia’s social media ban for teens?

Sunday Book Club: Force of Nature. Understanding Evolution’s deepest logic.**

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil.

Coffee Break Videos: Brainwashed Christian tells atheists what they believe. Why scientists are worried about this El Niño. Do we need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat debate. The future of deepfakes and the decline of reality.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

*Governments and legal systems still tend to conceptualize atheism and humanism merely as an absence of religion rather than positive philosophical convictions entitled to equal respect. Freedom of religion or belief doesn’t mean religion plus an exemption for everyone else. The State doesn’t get to decide that theological convictions are substantive while secular convictions amount to an empty box.

** Darwin didn’t merely give us an alternative explanation to creation. He gave us a general-purpose way of thinking about complex systems that acquire apparent design without a designer.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Have a great week!

Some nights I sneak around the Campus, spray-painting ‘QUALIA’ on the walls of the Psychology Dept block then strike it through.

RTFF

[Strega]

Lovely rainy day here – no need to do anything at all 😉

Thanks Reg!

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Strega….If the rain becomes persistent and you discover you’ve been staring through the same window for twenty minutes……..

[Strega]

I remember playing Echoes from Pink Floyd’s Meddle, some 50+ years ago, with the record arm lifted so it would play on repeat. Around the third time, my father unexpectedly burst into my room shouting at me to turn it off, as it was like Chinese water torture to him.  So obviously I did, but I had remained astounded that the notes of Pink Floyd at their finest, could cause such an enormous negative reaction.

Having now endured (and I most definitely mean ‘endured’) 1.38 minutes of that 2.30 minute YouTube, I finally and completely understand his distress 😉

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Echoes gets a regular airing in my house 🙂 Remastered….

[Strega]

Ironically the Live in Pompeii version you posted, doesn’t actually start with the water drip sounds on the studio album…

[TheEncogitationer]

Reg:

Do we need God? Steven Pinker vs. Ross Douthat debate.

This video was slightly disturbing at first. There were a couple of moments where Ross Douthat was so still, it looked like he died and was propped up by his podium!

I was thinking Piers, Tucker, Candace, and Megan were going to have videos entitled: “Atheist Jewish Sorcerer Steven Pinker slays Roman Catholic Pundit Ross Douthat in staged Free Press debate!”. (Hey, a Wizard hat would compliment Steven’s cascadading Is-ro. 🧙🏼‍♀️😁)

Pinker did the best job of defending his position on God and Religion. And when it comes to bad, Cardinal Richlieu Douthat had to concede that: “A-Oui, religion sure did that thing!”

Of course, Pinker could look on the back of a yearly Income Tax Instruction Manual and see that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and National Debt service, plus wars and bailouts of banks, investment firms, and automobile industries are going to be the big things that may kill the Enlightenment Dream for the United States. The “Safety Net” of the Welfare State has became a hammock with outweighed capacity and rotting, unravelling ropes.

Only a much greater economy will provide a better alternative to the Salvation Army soup kitchen and the Womb-to-Tomb Housing Project, which is all a different thread.

[TheEncogitationer]

Reg:

The European Court of Human Rights confirms ethical veganism is a protected philosophical belief in Europe.*

*Governments and legal systems still tend to conceptualize atheism and humanism merely as an absence of religion rather than positive philosophical convictions entitled to equal respect. Freedom of religion or belief doesn’t mean religion plus an exemption for everyone else. The State doesn’t get to decide that theological convictions are substantive while secular convictions amount to an empty box.

I don’t see why a particular belief or philosophical system has to be recognized to be granted equal rights before the law. A blanket recognition of freedom of thought and conscience would sufficiently encompass everyone. And in fact. Atheiism, per se. isn’t a full philosophical system, but rather a particular view about one Supernatural being and everything that logically follows.

From the story:

He took the government to court because he was not offerevd a sufficiently nutritious vegan diet.

I doubt there is such an ani-mule as a “sufficiently nutritious Vegan diet”, especially with regard to protein and especially Vitamin B-12 (which, if I understand correctly, has to be synthesized from analogs in animals for Vegans.)

If a “sincerely held religious belief” requires steak, caviar, and champagne 3 times a day, no obligation for the State to fulfill that follows from freedom of conscience.

Crusading or jihad would certainly be right out.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks ago by TheEncogitationer.

[jakelafort]

Sick and tired of your jiggery-pokery foppery.

That man will punch your mouth loose. Loose.

[TheEncogitationer]

Jake:

Sick and tired of your jiggery-pokery foppery.

Whose “jiggery-pokery foppery”? There’s so much to go around.

That man will punch your mouth loose. Loose.

And which man? The only ones punching mouths loose are the strongmen of MAGA. CRINK. and the OIC. And sadly, few in the West anymore has the stonage to punch back.

[jakelafort]

Stone age?

Agreed. We’ve bearly surpassed it. Jiggery-pokery on a bicycle spoke to me. It is my own shadow. It follows me wherever i go. Then suddenly, suddenly, suddenly and without warning it disappears. Just as suddenly it reappears and follows me dispensing jiggery-pokery ensconced in foppery.

So when i summoned courage to punch that man’s mouth loose it shadow boxed me and i never layed a glove on it. Is it any wonder paranoia has set in?

[TheEncogitationer]

Jake:

Stone age?

Agreed. We’ve bearly surpassed it. Jiggery-pokery on a bicycle spoke to me. It is my own shadow. It follows me wherever i go. Then suddenly, suddenly, suddenly and without warning it disappears. Just as suddenly it reappears and follows me dispensing jiggery-pokery ensconced in foppery.

So when i summoned courage to punch that man’s mouth loose it shadow boxed me and i never layed a glove on it. Is it any wonder paranoia has set in?

You and your shadow, you say? Well next time you two go bicycling, ask your shadow why the man’s bike has the bar in the center. Neither a divinely-created Universe with a Just God nor a godless, rational, Natural Universe should have that.

Meanwhile, I am still pondering how these words can come from a Neurosurgeon who successfully separated co-joined twins joined at the head:

I’m guessing these words came from the same self-operated lobe that convinced Ben Carson that Evolution is a lie encouraged by Satan, among his other absurdities.

[jakelafort]

Enco i never thought about the bicycle gender apartheid. I am not sure why. Usually i look junk up. Not this time. I may die never knowing why.

You should not make fun of Ben. Soon all Bens will be replaced by Benbots. They can’t be contained. Sandboxes are futile as you have probably read or heard. BTW how soon can i expect the brave new world of AI when it is causing us pain to be pinned on Jews?

[Author]

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