Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Children are still dying because prayer is not a cure.

Child abusers within the Jehovah Witness cult are still in denial while Catholics in Australia are still delaying reporting child abuse.

The Religion of Peace is prepared to kill people for thinking differently but the numbers of ex-Muslim atheists continue to grow.

In some places freethinking is just too controversial.

Teachers in the UK are learning about Humanism.

The Religious Right praise Trump for his SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh who will not be terrific for the rights of LGBTQ citizens or for the environment.

Some teenagers, it seems, have the ability to communicate directly with the Creator of the Universe who apparently lives up some flight of stairs.

This weeks’ Woo: Wine and geology.

Climate Change: It is happening and the mainstream media should take note.

Human Evolution and the evidence for the multi-regional hypothesis.

We should learn to dance long before the light fades but don’t get too passionate about it or worry about not having time to catch your breath as none of us will ever worm our way out of it.

There is a link between religiosity and lower intelligence. Let’s call it Conservative Syndrome.

Six myths about Roe v. Wade, debunked.

A look at Aztec moral philosophy.

Free Speech doesn’t protect Nazis. It protects us from Nazis.

Humor can be a powerful act of protest.

Scientists discover a new source of neutrinos in space.

This week I am reading this book: The Drowned and the Saved.

Some photographs taken last week.

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

Coffee Break Video:  A Hitchens debate I only just found. Does evidence undermine religion? How to build synthetic DNA and send it across the Internet.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!!

The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it.

– Terry Pratchett.

[_Robert_Participant]

re: Free Speech doesn’t protect Nazis. It protects us from Nazis.

I will admit that I am torn between the right to free speech and protecting people from hate crimes. It’s a thin red line and I oscillate back and forth. I worry about our ability to criticize ideas. Yes, that offends sometimes. I am offended by the religious all the time. I go to city council and I have to listen to an invocation prayer.  I work hard to earn dollars that say “in gawd we trust”.  And I will offend as well. I don’t want Muslims or JW’s to dominate my community and I will voice my opinion. That is NOT a hate crime and we have to keep it that way.

 

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!

(autocorrect just changed ‘Reg’ to ‘Are God’)

[UnseenParticipant]

Re: wine woo

Everyone knows, it’s not geology that determines a wine’s taste, it’s the position of the heavenly bodies.

[UnseenParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Free Speech doesn’t protect Nazis. It protects us from Nazis.

Attempts to stifle hate speech allow governments to regulate speech. Better we have hate speech than government-approved “good” speech. At least when we allow hate  speech, their hate is out in the open so we have no need to wonder who hates and who does not. Better to know.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

You are very welcome Strega and may I say that outfit looks great on you!

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Unseen wrote:

Better we have hate speech than government-approved “good” speech.

I agree 100%. Once attempts are made to curtail free speech we are forced to moderate our thoughts. That is the main reason I oppose blasphemy laws, where writers must censor their thoughts before picking up their pens.  You have rights but your beliefs do not.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Wine woo lives in its own class, literally! Profit in hundred+ dollar bottles of wine drives both the science and psuedo-science of it. But I think its cultism is relativley benign, and the trickle-down effects are mostly beneficial.

(Also notice in that article, the author disclaims “commercial affiliations”, while simultaneously selling his new book on Amazon. I guess I don’t know what that word affiliation means, or its context. Anyway, not much harm done here, imo.)

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Considering some of Woo topics I have covered, I would tend to agree. It is  harmless on the scale of things. But when you have to listen to a wine “connoisseur” explain it to you over lunch……..

[DavisModerator]

_Robert_ wrote:

It’s a thin red line and I oscillate back and forth.

Indeed. I always come back to the case of the Westboro Baptist church, something I’ve mentioned several times here). The ones who went to the funerals of fallen US soldiers in Iraq. They chanted that they were killed (and deserved to be killed) because the US lets fags get married etc.

America has near absolute free speech laws and are so used to it that it is taken as a given, as though other countries have just as extreme speech protection. These people would be arrested in just about any other country in the world. And people wouldn’t shed a tear for these assholes being convicted.

There is a difference between speaking your mind, and using hate speech in an abusive, grossly offensive and bullying way. I also think about LGTB people walking down the street on a Friday night holding hands and being endlessly taunted again and again to the point that they just don’t go out, move to San Francisco or hide who they are. We can attack this problem of free speech vs. the rights of others to live their lives and work out where to draw the line, or have an anything goes policy and sympathise with those who suffer the consequences.

I personally have no problem with jailing people who taunt those mourning at a funeral with bullying harassing hate speech. And I have no problem with people being sanctioned for grossly and repeatedly bullying, harassing, denigrating and shaming people (fag, the n-word, towel-head) of vulnerable groups trying to live their lives.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by  Davis.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by  Davis.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

I would tend to agree.

Here we go:

(I don’t believe it. A minute after I posted this, I found a dead bug in my Trader Joe’s Organic salad.)

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@ Pope Beanie:

I like to have a homeopathic beer after a tough day at work.

[Daniel W.Participant]

It’s not homeopathic, but this is my favorite M &W video.  An old standard, I imagine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8-8WJxA-cI

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by  Daniel W..

[PopeBeanieModerator]

I love them both… this British humor is spot on!

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