Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Trump promises Christian Nationalists unprecedented power.

Alito’s cries of religious persecution are a chilling preview of SCOTUS in another Trump term.

There are 5 Supreme Court cases tied to the same money funding the Jesus Super Bowl ads. There will be more hand wringing than foot washing as America is facing a threat of biblical proportion.

After saying women who wear shorts deserve to be raped, pastor admits “I was wrong”.

Tennessee Governor rolls back Marriage Equality in just one sentence.

Minneapolis Area School District to allow Islam special privileges in case it is accused of Islamophobia. Reg, stop it. You are creating your own narrative here!

After non-binary teen’s death, lawmaker says Christians don’t “want that filth” in Oklahoma.

‘I’m not at church.’ Even the GOP is balking at Speaker Mike Johnson’s religiosity.

World of Woo: The Conscious Life Expo.

Environment: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming.

Is the Internet paving the way for the decline of organized religion?

How long will life persist in our Universe?

Political correctness is now a bullying tactic aimed at stifling legitimate debate.

Groundbreaking treatment targets and kills prostate, skin and breast cancers.

Major quantum gravity breakthrough could spark new ‘theory of everything’.

Researchers achieve breakthrough in solar technology.

Where on the planet did Humans evolve?

Darwin Online has virtually reassembled the naturalist’s personal library.

Long Reads:  Scientists may have finally solved the mystery of consciousness – their discoveries are troubling. The Enlightenment and the making of modernity. Why you will never know what ‘Healthy Eating’ is. Recovering the lost aviators of World War II. The new great Pretenders.  Why listening well can make disagreements less damaging.

Sunday Book Club: Our Moon.

Some photographs taken last week.  In pictures: Two years of war in Ukraine.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Video:  Skeptilab – Ghosts and the Afterlife. When apologetics backfires.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week!

A baby was born in February 2020 from an embryo frozen in 1992. Although she looks and talks like a four-year-old girl she is to be recognized as a 32-year-old under the new Alabama embryo state Supreme Court ruling.  She is to move there over this summer in order to be able to purchase and consume alcohol and get a firearm for the glove box in her new car. If the state refuses to allow any of this she will sue on grounds of discrimination as according to them she is officially older than 21.

 

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

After saying women who wear shorts deserve to be raped, pastor admits “I was wrong”.

This is the best news I’ve heard all week, in that not many people can admit they’re wrong these days.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

The fact that he, an adult male, even had that idea in his head is disgusting. Saying it out loud in public shows just how fucked religious morality is. I do not take his apology as being sincere. He is a scumbag.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

I feel soiled knowing that the barbaric sentiment of this Jack-legged preacher came from just a fairly short drive away from my town!

I equally take offense at both Bobby Leonard and Hemant Mehta saying: “Men are men” in regards to rape. Mere desire or lust does not equal violence and neither does being a man! Don’t lump the innocent in with predators in the name of either religion nor ideology!

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Saying it out loud in public shows just how fucked religious morality is. I do not take his apology as being sincere.

That’s true – it shows how religion can warp normal morality.  I find that religion is a moral domain in itself, which has a slightly different agenda (worshipping God? – broadly) than mutual well-being and humanitarian justice.  Instead, it can be very punitive about the strangest things that in fact support the status quo (patriarchy, etc.).

We cannot say whether his apology is sincere or not.  If he has a shred of decency, he’s appalled at what he said and it’s a sincere apology.  I would be grovelling in the dust if I said that.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Don’t lump the innocent in with predators in the name of either religion nor ideology!

It would be good if the innocent weren’t so sensitive, because they shouldn’t mind being tarred with a brush because of the seriousness of the peril and danger for women coming from a minority of men.

[DavisModerator]

I agree, that some men get offended when rape culture is pointed out, as in, pointing out that other men engage in rape culture is tantamount to lumping them in with that rape culture. That is seriously problematic, the sensible reaction should be “yeah, that is a problem, I stand with all victims of rape culture”. But if all men are being painted as participants in rape culture, that is unfair and one should be right to take offense to that.

Same thing with calling all Muslims terrorist animals. Same with calling all gays attention seeking queens. All republicans heartless selfish bigots. Tarring all with the same brush is the worst kind of human behaviour that quickly leads, unchecked, to unspeakable human atrocity.

Recognising you are in a community with problematic members, calling it out and standing with victims of that, should be uncontroversial.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

But realistically, men aren’t actually being accused of being rapists, just of being dangerous, which I think is really a fair point.  It’s clear that men as a species are potentially lethal to women.  So, men should just suck it up if women are suspicious of them – it’s rational for women to be that way.

Also, men are the physically stronger (and potentially lethal) ones, so they kind of have a duty to get the kid gloves out physically when dealing with women.

[UnseenParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Reg, I think you inadvertently changed the color of your post’s body text to white. I’m sure you actually wrote something, right?

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Reg, I think you inadvertently changed the color of your post’s body text to white

Thanks Unseen, I was posting a photo of my soul 🙂

Nah, I don’t have one! I was trying to upload a picture and only getting PHP errors. Something up with WordPress, I guess.

[DavisModerator]

Yeah I’m quite aware of that. I tend to date big guys (rugby player types) and I have been in more than a few situations where I had to physically stop them after asking them to a few times and them ignoring me. I started becoming super careful afterwards. And I am a big guy who can fight back. So yes, could not agree more, on the whole, women can often be in vulnerable positions and men, in general, are in a position where they could take advantage of women. This shouldn’t be controversial. If you disagree with this you should also disagree that the sky is blue.

I’m less concerned by men who get defensive over the above, and more by the general slowness in tackling rape culture in general. It’s amazing how quick one is to get angry when your friend is a victim of sexual harassment or worse but then defend a friend if they are accused of anything (or ignore them when they do or say rapey things/jokes).

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Davis wrote:

I’m less concerned by men who get defensive over the above, and more by the general slowness in tackling rape culture in general.

I don’t seem to come across it much.  Andrew Tate is the patron saint of rape culture.  It was @robert who said that rape culture is a spectrum of behaviour from mild to severe, and this would be a good way for boys to understand it.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

rape culture is a spectrum of behaviour from mild to severe..

Is some of it sort of OK when compared to the severe cases?

“He only slapped her once. At least he did not leave her unconscious and with a serious head injury”.

It would be better if all boys (and girls) were taught that any aggressive violence against another person is wrong, morally and legally. I think that is a better approach and then nobody has to justify or minimize the violent behavior of anyone else.

[_Robert_Participant]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Davis wrote:

I’m less concerned by men who get defensive over the above, and more by the general slowness in tackling rape culture in general.

I don’t seem to come across it much. Andrew Tate is the patron saint of rape culture. It was @robert who said that rape culture is a spectrum of behaviour from mild to severe, and this would be a good way for boys to understand it.

Everything is a fucking spectrum Simon, wake up. “Rape culture” is another manufactured idiotic woke bullshit term. Either you raped someone, or you didn’t. But if a guy ‘cat calls’ a woman, or whistles, that would be considered to be part of rape culture (but only if he is ugly or undesirable) in which case yes, there is a rape culture spectrum in the minds of morons.

[Author]

Posts