Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Children’s story time in South Carolina is anything but a drag.

I disagree with this apologists’ definition of Islamophobia.

An atheist lawmaker stood up to a ‘Christian bully’ in front of the Arizona state legislature.

This weeks’ Woo:  Can we put some blame upon Academia for Junk Science and Media Hype?

Climate Change: Michael E. Mann speaks out.

The strange inevitability of Evolution.

Supernovas show the universe expands at the same rate in all directions.

A different kind of Theory of Everything.

Artificial Intelligence finds ancient ‘Ghosts’ in modern DNA.

Dan Dennett on the future of A.I.

The arguments for Creationism and Evolution are a study in contrasts.

An interactive map shows how the Earth has changed over the last 750 million years.

Collapse may be a normal phenomenon for any civilization but would cultivating a more generous society make a difference?

Deepfakes and the threat to Privacy and Truth.

You don’t have to read this article today.

Long Read: The Satanic Verses.

Finally we get to know what the lions had to eat on Noah’s Ark.

This week I am reading this book: The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil…..

Coffee Break Video:  Darwin Day lecture 2019, with Richard Dawkins. Can boredom give birth to our best ideas? An old BBC video exposes three mediums.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Have a great week everyone!!

[_Robert_]

I already knew the lions ate the unicorns. I just wish Ken Ham would have rounded up all the types of animals left on the planet and placed them in his ark and then launched that thing. A boat shaped building with a few stuffed animals seem like an automatic failure to me.

So Islam is now considered to be a human race, not just a terrible set of ideas. Awesome.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

@_Robert_, Yes, it is good to know that it is not just atheists that eat babies 🙂

All religions are open to criticism. You have rights, your ideas and beliefs do not.  Islamophobia, just like blasphemy, is a made up crime to protect religions from being criticized because they have little or no defense against rational arguments. Attacking an idea is not attacking a person. I do not care if they get offended by it.

[Strega]

Thanks, Reg!

[Noel]

Thanks Reg!

Thought the whole “what the lions ate on the ark” was hysterical:

“In the end the meat problem solved itself. Hundreds of corpses banged up against the ark and were easily hauled aboard. It was messy and awful cutting up bodies, but that problem was solved by culling the ample floating mass for babies and small children, which were then dumped whole into the relevant carnivore pens.

It was horrible work that they all hated, but, as Noah told his little band, “God will provide.””

Douglas Whaley

So obvious. I never thought about all the dead bodies. And those pesky unicorns done in by hungry tigers. That explains it!

[Simon Paynton]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Attacking an idea is not attacking a person. I do not care if they get offended by it.

I can understand if someone gets upset about insulting the Prophet or God, but criticising a religion is something different.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

I once went into a bar in Highbury in London for a coffee. Some guy asked me if I was a supporter of the local soccer club Arsenal. I said no and turned back to my paperwork. He then rather menacingly asked “which team did I support”. I replied that I supported none of them and that I had very little interest in the game. I reminded him that while he thought that I was in an “Arsenal bar” that I was actually in a public house. As a member of the public I was entitled to be there and that I did not to have to follow his soccer club in order to be there. He started to get more aggressive and said that he took offence to my lack of respect for his team. I told him I “did not give a flying fuck” about his team or about how offended he was. At this point the barman intervened and suggested that I should leave. He was also a “lifelong fan” of Arsenal.  Ok, I will leave. I suppose you won’t want to rent the offices next door you have advertised? I was going to give you a 3 month deposit but I have no interest now in setting up in this area. He was not expecting that. I passed by 5 weeks later and it was still unoccupied.

I treat religions the same way. I don’t care if you are a member of the Jesus team or the Allah team. I have no interest in following any of them. What many of their fans do I find vile. Stay away from me in the public space.

[Simon Paynton]

It’s amazing how tribal people can be, for no apparently good reason, especially young men.  It’s as if they have genes telling them to behave this way.

I heard the other day that testosterone makes young men more cooperative if it means being adversarial towards another group.

[Noel]

@Simon: and that’s exactly why the Marines love them some teenagers. For one, all that testosterone makes them think they’re indestructible.

[Simon Paynton]

would cultivating a more generous society make a difference?

This article looks really interesting, I’m studying “fairness” and “sharing” at the moment.  Half of my material comes from AZ.

“Sharing” seems to be a hot topic of research at the moment.

[Author]

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