Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

A school in Texas wants to inflict religious counselors on young students.

Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian Nationalist.

Speaker Mike Johnson says God told him, in late-night hallucinations, that he was Moses.

New study links Christian nationalism to increased prejudice against atheists.

Christians in New York feel the need to bring guns into Church.

Canadian missionary couple jailed for sex assaults on kids.

Will Iran change its legislation because Denmark feels offended by something an Iranian could do? Would Pakistan ban burning women if Denmark asked?

Britain has moved a step closer to the disestablishment of the Church of England.

World of Woo:  Another magical device from the world of Quackademia.

Environment: The past decade was the hottest on record.

Earth may have had all the elements needed for life within it all along and scientists discover unknown prehistoric world — on Earth.

CRISPR 2.0: a new wave of gene editors head for clinical trials.

Most of the world’s countries receive failing grade in global ‘human rights report card’.

Disinformation is rampant on social media – a social psychologist explains the tactics used against you.

Long Reads: America’s unique, enduring gun problem, explained. One Swedish zoo, seven escaped chimpanzees. Does AI know you better than you know yourself? How to live like a Cynic.

Sunday Book Club: Starborn – How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them) by Roberto Trotta.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Video:  Two from Aron Ra: Making kids believe in God by lying to them and a Mad House Speaker 6 – Bible v Constitution. This is a great example of good scientific communication and an important topic too.  Denise finds a hard-earned freedom in Colorado’s alpine skies.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Have a great week!

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

I wish that all the people
who peddle God
could watch my mother die:
could see the skin and
gristle weighing only
seventy-nine, every stubborn
pound of flesh a small
death.

I wish the people who peddle God
could see her young,
lovely in gardens and
beautiful in kitchens, and could watch
the hand of God slowly
twisting her knees and fingers
till they gnarled and knotted, settling in
for thirty years of pain.

I wish the people who peddle God
could see the lightning
of His cancer stabbing
her, that small frame
tensing at every shock,
her sweet contralto scratchy with
the Lord’s infection: Philip,
I want to die.

I wish I had them gathered round,
those preachers, popes, rabbis,
imams, priests – every
pious shill on God’s payroll – and I
would pull the sheets from my mother’s brittle body,
and they would fall on their knees at her bedside
to be forgiven all their
faith.”

Philip Appleman.

[Strega]

Thanks, Reg 🙂

[_Robert_]

Powerful poetry Reg.

[TheEncogitationer]

Reg,

A gut-wrenching poem there! Not made easier by the fact that some of her beholders would still believe!

[_Robert_]

RE: Pakistan: Woman killed after being seen with man in viral photo.

It would be fun to ask Muslims if their long-ago ancestors were Jews, Christian, or Pagans. Their incredibly down-throttled brains would simply short-circuit.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

More about the poet here. Yes, that poem Gertrude resonates with me from the experiences of my own mother  (who also had the same name has the poet) as I think it probably does with many of us.

Reading a poem when not expecting to has an impact.  My friends mother is close to her death….as Hitchens said, there is no stage 5….and she visits me to rant about all the god bothering that her family engages in. “Ask them to stop saying the rosary as it seems to be making things worse”. 🙂

[unapologetic]

Disinformation? HA! Religions have been bombarding us with disinformation our whole lives. (and I’m 71) I’d like to think that by now I can spot disinformation better than anyone.

That photos link at the Atlantic, wants us to subscribe, for money, before it will show any photos.

[TheEncogitationer]

Greetings, Unapologetic!

I’m glad to see that somebody else is a big-pants person about Misinformation/Disinformation/Malinformation (MDM *Growl!* 🦁)

We don’t need a Mary Poppins like Nina Jankowitz or anyone else to protect us from MDM. We only need what ol’ TJ espoused: “…the homage of Reason rather than blindfolded fear.”

[TheEncogitationer]

Fellow Unbelievers,

Some egg-on-face for everyone: One egg for me thinking that the Israelis were universally-armed, but a whole soufflé for anyone who thinks the policy of gun control has a friendly outcome:

Anxious and Armed, Israel Has Been Transformed After Hamas Attack
Story by Gwen Ackerman and Alisa Odenheimer •
1d
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/anxious-and-armed-israel-has-been-transformed-after-hamas-attack/ar-AA1luj01

The nation’s dark mood reflects a level of threat unknown to the Israeli public for many years, said Dan Orbach, a military historian at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. People have been motivated by disquiet that the “allegedly mighty Israeli military isn’t able to protect you, even in the most basic sense,” he said.

The number of people applying for gun licenses over the past two months has soared to 260,000, with the volume of new requests each day exceeding those received each week before the war began.

Although the country has widened eligibility, the criteria for approval remain strict. As of the last week of November, 26,000 new applications had been approved while 16,000 people were rejected as unfit to carry a firearm.

The legal requirements should be reduced to none and the licensing office should be closed for good…

Roll, the lawmaker from the opposition Yesh Atid party, said that allowing more citizens who pass government scrutiny to carry guns is necessary to help people to feel safe. The government may revoke the licenses once peace is restored, he added.

No one expects that to be soon.

If anyone proposes to take Israeli guns after this war is over, they need to be lined up with any Hamas members captured alive.

[Author]

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