Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

In most countries Christians have stopped murdering atheists like they used to but a minimum of 13 nations are still inspired to kill other humans for not believing in their imaginary god. The rest of us get off lightly by comparison.

Some more Bible addicts called to me during the week. On two occasions I had to correct them for misquoting the Bible. They excitedly offered me some of the usual “evidences” assuming I had never heard any of them before. They struggled with my more difficult questions. No bananas for them this week so. I suggested they should study the “Song of Solomon” slowly to find its hidden meaning 😉

Cardinal sinner George Pell has lost an appeal against his conviction for child abuse. His boss here on Earth, The Cuddly One, claims a US televangelist performed a miracle.

Trump’s new religious freedom rule looks like a license to discriminate against other citizens. He could be driving young Evangelicals away from the GOP.

This weeks Liar for Jesus is Pastor Jeff Adams..

This Rep. State Senator remembers being born so abortion must be made illegal.  I suspect Evan Bergeron in Louisiana thinks differently.

This weeks Woo: The world before vaccines.

Climate Crisis: Arctic permafrost is thawing faster than expected.

Does religion cause violence?

Scientists start building a Parts List for the Brain. I don’t expect “the soul” to be on it. I think CRISPR will soon be part of mainstream smart medicine. Imagine just gene-editing away chronic pain? What about the great mystery of human vision and that of electron microscopy?

Seven key misconceptions about Evolutionary Psychology.

Humans have no monopoly on moral behavior while universal emotions unite us all.

The life and breath of galaxies.

Too many people think satirical news is real.

Long Read: On being raised in a doomsday cult.

This week I am reading this book: The Assault on American Excellence.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil…..(Scroll down through them).

Coffee Break Video:  If when you get tired of all that winning, try a game of Ping-Pong. When Christians Break Bad. Proving the historicity of Jesus.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!!

“I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turn’d to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

– William Blake.

I know I posted this previously but it is worth another read.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Humans have no monopoly on moral behavior

Philosophers argue that, even if animals were to be motivated by these sorts of states, this is still not moral motivation. When they occur in animals, these states are not moral ones.

There are two kinds of “core” universal morality: 1) helping; 2) fairness.  Animals are good at helping all day long, but only humans have a fully-fledged sense of fairness, although Frans de Waal claims to have found some fairness in chimpanzees.  I think what he describes as fairness could be simple empathic concern.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I found the Ted Talk on Ping Pong good food for thought.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!

(Did you see the cricket?  We snatched victory from the jaws of defeat which we had fed with near victory, after the previous defeat. Amazing!)

[_Robert_Participant]

RE:Proving the historicity of Jesus.

Hmmm. As more and more “non religious” scholars study the case for the historical existence of a Jesus fella; he may go the way of Moses. And Thor. And Neptune. Ad nauseam.

He just doesn’t seem to have independent corroboration one would expect a miracle worker and famous political rebel would have.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Yes Strega, Ben Stokes was amazing. I am not in the mood to talk Rugby though 🙂

 

 

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Nailed is his first book on debunking the Jesus myth. I have never been able to get a Christian to read it. I have revised the go to line for new Christians to read “I have a personal relationship with my invisible friend”. Oh wait, that is the same thing anyway!

If you want to see a “real” imaginary friend in action then be sure to watch Happy! on Netflix. He is sitting on my shoulder as I type.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Hail Satan trailer.

[_Robert_Participant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Nailed is his first book on debunking the Jesus myth. I have never been able to get a Christian to read it. I have revised the go to line for new Christians to read “I have a personal relationship with my invisible friend”. Oh wait, that is the same thing anyway! If you want to see a “real” imaginary friend in action then be sure to watch Happy! on Netflix. He is sitting on my shoulder as I type.

Nice, gonna look into that…I enjoyed how Carrier shreds these biblical hacks with such little effort. Seems there is a second centroid forming off to the side of the Bart Ehrman school.

 

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I am not sure what merit there is to opening an argument with Pascal’s Wager. Do these apologists and theologians still not see the intellectual paucity of it? I mean it has been debunked so many times and yet they consider it a “big gun” in their debating war chest. Yikes, I just remembered this from TA in 2010!! Must mean I am a real atheist now 🙂

[DavisModerator]

There are two kinds of “core” universal morality: 1) helping; 2) fairness.

That only makes sense in a highly idiosyncratic system of morality. And even then, it’s still incredible vague. (kinds of “core”…)??? And fairness is probably not the best term to use, if you are, which I can only guess, referring to something along the lines of justice/virtue.

[Belle RoseParticipant]

I am not sure what merit there is to opening an argument with Pascal’s Wager.

It seems to me the entire basis of the entire argument presumes that you know better than God to begin with.

Thats a slippery slope…just sayin’

[Jody LeeParticipant]

I would rather risk an unjust God than abandon my intellectual intelligence.

Worse case scenario, my coffee stays hot. 😊☕

[Belle RoseParticipant]

@jody Lee

I would rather risk an unjust God than abandon my intellectual intelligence.

How precisely do you decide what is “just” or “unjust?”

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by  Belle Rose.

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