Sunday School

[fullermingjrParticipant]

Happy New Year!  Greetings Reg, Simon Paynton, jakelafort, and others…. It’s been about a year since I’ve had any time to browse through the Atheist Zone site.  It’s me – the one theist who really appreciates your humor, thought, and dialogue!

Reg, I had to read the article about Christian privilege sent in your December 26 Sunday School article.  It is sad that there really are evangelicals who hear “news about American secularization” and it sends them “…into a sort of frenzied moral panic” as the opening of the article stated.

The article referenced some Pew research data explaining that about 29% of the US population is religiously unaffiliated.  The author simply wanted to be respected, included, and taken “…seriously as stakeholders in the national discussion around values, politics, and the place of religion in society.”  As an American, this sounds reasonable to me.  As a Christian – to be honest, these trends do not bother me at all because of a simple domain invariance; at its core, Christianity does not fit into a philosophy of cultural and political dominance… but I digress. The author, Chrissy Stroop, has rightly assessed many of the flaws and hypocrisy within American evangelicalism.

Stroop’s observation is that many evangelicals embrace a confluence of religion, politics, and culture. Thus, they view secularization as evil.  She explains that these people are actually employing “confirmation bias, question begging, and victim blaming.”  That last accusation is especially damning regarding sex-abuse victims of clergy, which she also referenced.

But what I really appreciated was her statement, “There is no healthy one-size-fits-all human approach to meaning-making and community.”  She explicitly applied this to how religion could both “…provide social and psychological benefits to some people” but also produce “psychological damage” to others.  Her statement should also be applied equally to any human philosophical or political system not just religion.  The statement is true even if the system is complexly made up, invented by people, filled with weird metaphysical false ideas, and simply not based in reality. (Of course, some systems are overly damaging, and I am not talking about such systems.)

_________________________

Anyway, that’s enough for now.  I did have a small break in my life and calendar and so I just wanted to check in and say Happy New Year and comment a little on Reg’s Sunday school email… which I still occasionally glace at!

Peace!
—Fuller

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Greetings, Fuller!

I believe I seen you post many months ago. I’m glad you like Reg’s choices of articles as much as the rest of us. He can pick some chin-scratchers and goat-getters and knee-slappers all at the same time and that’s wonderful!

Please don’t be a stranger and drop in anytime you can!

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@fullermingjr – Good to hear from you again. A Happy New Year to you and yours too.

Secularism is a very misunderstood term. Many religious groups wrongly equate it with atheism. In the USA the First amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The government (any government) should not give any special preference towards any religious group or any particular faith. But it should also not show any favouritism towards any atheist groups. The role of the State is to act as an independent referee to ensure that all citizens can freely participate in the religious traditions of their choosing according to the law. The same applies to those that have no religion. Atheists are also entitled to protection from all forms of religious persecution and discrimination by government bodies.

Many Evangelicals (mostly white) try to portray secular attempts at rolling back Christian privileges as a form of religious discrimination or even persecution. We are just looking for equal treatment.

An example is prayer in public schools. We atheists are not trying to stop believers praying. We are trying to get them to stop breaking the law by coercing non-Christians into prayer or praying over intercom systems.

We would also like to see the Johnson amendment enforced to stop tax-exempt churches from endorsing politicians and President.

All citizens are entitled to equal treatment under the Law. Why should non-Christians have to have their day in court and see it biased towards Christianity with religious symbols and “The 10 Commandments” engraved on monuments? The court should only deal with the law of the land. Religious laws have no place there.

We would also like to see no religious interference or lobbying against Equal Protection Rights where the governing body must treat an individual in the same manner as others in similar conditions and circumstances irrespective of the creed, color or sexuality.

I don’t know of any atheist (and I have met hundreds of them in various countries) that wants to live in an atheist state. All we ask for is to be treated equally to every other citizen. We want the government of supervise this and to act as an independent arbitrator where one religious seeks special privileges not given to others. We want to live in a Secular state where everyone is treated equally and all rights to practice any religion or to participate in none are protected.

Atheist Ireland adopted the Dublin Convention on Secularism at the World Atheist Convention in 2011. I was there. You can read it here.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Autumn,

It’s actually just the term for a positivity movement centred on the phrase “You da man!” At first they called it ‘youdamanism’, but it wasn’t being taken seriously, so they tried ‘eudaemonism’. The pronunciation shifted a little, but it felt more academic-ish.

That is “veeeeery creative!” 😁 I think some of the kids now have abbreviated it to just BRO-ism.

There is even a site for BRO-ism and according to Bro Tip 100: “Being a Bro has nothing to do with gender. If you are always rad and forever legit, you’ve got what it takes” I think that describes you too, Autumn!

BROism
https://bro-ism.tumblr.com/

Either way, of all the horrible -isms of history and of the past 100 years in particular that still haunt us today, Eudaemonism, YouDaMan-ism, and BRO-ism all sound like a welcome change! Here’s to all the Bros in the world, of every sex, gender, orientation, shade, nation, and sane worldview! 🍻

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Fixing a tag
• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling. Bros admit their mistakes and correct them

[jakelafortParticipant]

Fuller, coexistence in place of insistence. Happy happy joy joy aint life a gift? Ahoy

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg and Fellow Unbelievers and Friendly Lurkers,

Happy New Year!

And since it is still technically The Twelve Days of Christmas, I thought I would share some Secular Sounds of the Season that I’ve enjoyed whenever I discovered them at this time of Year:

Run With The Fox by Alan White and Chris Squire of Yes (Thoughtful lyrics to take with you this time of Year and always.)

Solstice Bells by Jethro Tull (Made before music videos became a thing. For it’s time, it was pretty sophisticated in production values and still a treat to watch!)

[jakelafortParticipant]

I am doping the ponies and decide to give Aqueduct a quick look see. And in the second race there is a pony named Eudaimonia. I don’t fancy his chances but it is another in an endless sequence of coincidence-the telltale incidence of coincidence.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

And some more videos:

The Winter Tree by Renaissance (A song that makes clear that The Season is The Reason For The Season.)

Northern Lights by Renaissance (I picked this one for it’s Winter visuals. It also harken to a time when lights in the sky were the only guide for humans and had significance for them, even before the story of the Star over Bethelehem.)

And what Holiday Jukebox would be complete without a gut-wrenching number like Vienna Teng’s “The Atheist Christmas Carol”:

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Grammar and seeing if I can squeeze in one more

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@jakelafort – I think Kay Tee Gal would get my $2. Second fav with no history? But I usually don’t back maiden claimers (Is that what the mother of the little baby Jesus pretended to be?) useless I get info from my professional gambler friend as he was born in a stable and knows all the trainers too.

However, if “You-da-man” wins we might suffer a little mania……

[jakelafortParticipant]

Reg, there is a lot to unpack there. I can see part way into the valise.

You are wise to look for surprisingly low odds in maiden races. But ya gotta know how to assess the chances of each entry and the probable price. Ya see that horse you mentioned is trained by Pletcher who usually gets hammered with any 1sters so it would have taken lower odds than that to pique my interest because while he tends to get bet with all 1sters he is weaker in md claimer than md sp wt. The one i was torn by was the outside horse dropping from special who seemed to have more innate talent but had an Irish dam and pedigree to match the assumed turf preference. The confusion was in the surprisingly fast dirt workouts. Then again it is not uncommon to see turf horses work fast on dirt and yet not be able to compete well in races on dirt.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Enco, thanks for the Vienna Teng vid. Was not familiar. I like her and she is good mellow background while doping equines.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

You guys like Electric Six “Gay Bar” over there? Wow! 😁

That certainly would come as a shock to all the prim-and-proper SoCon Americans like Buchanan and O’Reilly who think Ireland should be all Thistle & Shamrock, Riverdance, and Celtic Woman, with the wildest thing being U2! Tip o’ the fedora to ya, m’lad! 🇮🇪 🍀 👍

Makes me wonder, would Gay U.S. Marines have their own version called “KA-BAR?” 😉

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling

[—Participant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Autumn,

It’s actually just the term for a positivity movement centred on the phrase “You da man!” At first they called it ‘youdamanism’, but it wasn’t being taken seriously, so they tried ‘eudaemonism’. The pronunciation shifted a little, but it felt more academic-ish.

That is “veeeeery creative!” 😁 I think some of the kids now have abbreviated it to just BRO-ism. There is even a site for BRO-ism and according to Bro Tip 100: “Being a Bro has nothing to do with gender. If you are always rad and forever legit, you’ve got what it takes” I think that describes you too, Autumn! BROism https://bro-ism.tumblr.com/ Either way, of all the horrible -isms of history and of the past 100 years in particular that still haunt us today, Eudaemonism, YouDaMan-ism, and BRO-ism all sound like a welcome change! Here’s to all the Bros in the world, of every sex, gender, orientation, shade, nation, and sane worldview! 🍻

I usually shy away from ‘bro’ because I never quite know how people mean it, but in this case no need to brood or browbeat, cry over spilt brose, or get broken up about something broadcast with goodwill.

I wonder if bro-ist aphorisms are called bromides? Or if a band of bros is a brocade?

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Jake,

There’s a mixed bag of gifts there for the Eudaemonic Daemon and the YouDaManic Maniac.

Aquaducts are a good thing…as long as they aren’t Lead like the Romans’ were and the in-take Aquaduct is up-stream from the out-put Aquaduct.

Aqualung the device is good for underwater survival.

Aqualung the man may make a good Roman Catholic Priest, but I’d swim the Channel with an Aqualung device and a boat on my back to keep kids away from him.

Glad you like Vienna Teng. I didn’t know there was such a thing as Music to Dope Horses By. I’d imagine that sounds like Mr. Ed dropping acid or peyote.

“W-i-l-buuuurrrr! Did ya see the size of that chicken???”
🎠 ☮✌

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Autukn,

I am brooding for an answer to all of these very creative queries. I may fraternize with this fraterity to find finality to them.

[Author]

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