Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Some good news to start with: Atheism doubles among generation –z

The Trump administration is allowing religious medical providers tell people to get up and walk back out the door untreated, just like Jesus didn’t. No, you did not just read satire.

Roy Moore puts down his banjo for a minute and asks supporters for donations to help him fight one of his child sexual abuse lawsuits.

Dear Mike Pence, Jerusalem is not an end-of-days Biblical theme park.

The false slaveholder religion of Pence and the Evangelicals is losing its soul as the hypocrisy of Christian nationalism is revealed.

The editor of “Egypt Today” conflates atheism with terrorism in a poorly structured pathetic argument that he refuses to let me comment on.

Secular Rescue helps persecuted atheists to board an underground railroad.

For centuries Religion has been an inspiration for Science.

Once again, are atheists smarter and more moral than religious people?

This weeks’ Woo:  Confessions of a former Naturopath.

Climate Change: Searching the world of fake science journals.

The multiverse is real except in one of those Universes it is not real.

Can I have a platform to talk about the flash floods of liberal outrage? Let’s also talk about why Free Speech matters.

The tricks propagandists use to beat science.

We could go to Mars as a trial run for getting to Jupiter and its moons. It even looks more interesting.

Should I accept a cash reward for doing the right thing?

On searching for black swans.

Can we reach consent that Aziz Ansari is not Harvey Weinstein?

Is Evolutionary Science in need of an overhaul? (See also video below).

Some photographs taken last week.

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

Coffee Break Video:  AronRa: Why do religious believers hate reality so much? How Evolution works. George W. Bush talks about Donald J. Trump.

• This topic was modified 7 years, 12 months ago by  Reg the Fronkey Farmer. Reason: new link added

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!!

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!

[StregaModerator]

Re atheists being more moral link, I felt a surge of delight that my Brits over the ocean feel this way.  However, I was also delighted to read the replies to that article, specifically a rebuttal to the ‘atheists are to blame for everything’.  The rebuttal was made by a guy called Robert – magnificent!

• This reply was modified 7 years, 12 months ago by  Strega.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

It is not that we atheists are “morally superior”, it is just that an ethical code of conduct based upon reason and under constant development has to be better than an enforced one that is based mainly upon the worship of a deity or the fear of eternal damnation. Reward and punishment should never play a part when it comes to doing the right thing by or for others.

I always read the comments. I sent two reasonable comments to the “Egypt Today” article earlier this week. No sign of them appearing!!

[Old AccountParticipant]

Thanks @regthefronkeyfarmer for another excellent list of sunday school lessons.  I will be reading them through the week.

On religious medical providers refusing care, Im sure that’s Pence’s doing.  Trump is too stupid.  Maybe evangelicals lobbied Trump, but it feels like Pence.  When Trump dies of a Viagra overdose in the arms of a Russian Ivanka-look-alike hooker, we will get even more of Pence’s Calvinism.

I knew a number of gay, lesbian, transgender, and intersex  patients who were refused care by religious providers.  And that is in a secular health plan, in the progressive Pacific Northwest.  They would lie and state, “I’m not trained to take care of the needs of a [____] patient.”  The religious exemption might result in more honesty and let people make more informed choices, but I doubt it.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 12 months ago by  Old Account.

[ZweifelParticipant]

Reg —

Good article on propagandists’ tricks. Unfortunately being a “merchant of doubt” (along with manufacturing lethal weapons and peddling religion) is one of the most profitable undertakings known to mankind. Here’s a particularly insidious example of a dirty propagandist trick:
Abortion Foes Hijack Racial Justice: This ‘Black Genocide’ Argument Is Particularly Dangerous

[Alternet]
Anti-abortion activists are hijacking the racial justice movement in a craven effort to restrict the reproductive freedom of black women. It’s insulting and cynical and, if the reproductive rights movement isn’t careful, it just might work.

A recently released short documentary explores this disturbing trend, which has zeroed in on the black community with a false but darkly resonant message: Abortion is leading to black genocide.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Thanks Daniel. You are most welcome.

Trump is being totally ignored by the Evangelical Theocracy. They are happy to allow him to undermine the fourth estate of professional journalists with his wolf cries of fake news, the autonomy of the Supreme Court when they rule against him (we were warned by the next POTUS!) or his lack of respect for the FBI.

This allows them to push for welfare cuts against the marginalized as they reward Republican corporate donors with massive tax cuts. It allows them to overturn or enact laws that diminish women’s rights…because Jesus.

The Evangelical Christians are quite happy to pander to Trump. They are happy if he takes all the praise and even happier when he finally takes all the blame. They don’t care if voters sold their souls to Trump or that he lied to them. They are happy to sacrifice the future because of some false romantic notion about the past as they quietly put their people in place. But people are starting to see White Evangelicals for what they are. What they are is a vulgar perversion of anything that Jesus would ever have been, unless of course anyone wants to argue that they are exactly what Christianity actually represents. If so, no argument from me. Don’t get me started 🙂

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

The AronRa  video is good. It reminds me of the discussion on TA when I  posted that theists don’t really have faith because faith just means pretending to know things can one cannot possibly know. Those of strong faith are the greatest pretenders.

Just a thing about me –   at about 15:20 he talks about meeting a Muslim apologist at the world atheist convention (Dublin 2011). I was standing beside him at the time having just finished a conversation with PZ Myers about the “new” Creation Museum plan of Ken Ham.

The picture above is disturbing. All these adults grimacing as they pretend to have the ability to channel the Creator of the Universe into the body of the President. It is madness.

[Old AccountParticipant]

On Aziz Ansari’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, date, I’m just glad I’m not young any more.

 

Also, thanks for the articles highlighting  the importance of, and threats to, free speech.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 12 months ago by  Old Account.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

From the Free Speech link:

Only 13% of the world’s 7.4 billion people enjoy free speech. 45% live in countries where censorship is the norm.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Great links/curation, Minister Reg!

The Atlantic today (Jan 29) is a gold mine of other articles, too… like the one on Manafort.

(btw, funny that article is already “archived”, in what they call their March 2018 edition. They should be able to just take a month off on vacation, at some point.)

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