Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Who can tell the difference between policing bigotry and imposing a religious test on Christians in public office?

The Tremendous One is a man for all Christian faiths but may embrace atheists soon as our numbers grow.

In Australia Christian women are having a problem giving headship to their men. When does such indoctrination start?

A Catholic priest confuses the depraved actions of his Church with those of the Satanic Temple.

There is no sharp distinction between a cult and a regular religion.

Denmark scraps its Blasphemy law.

This weeks’ Woo: The correlation between the number of yellow cars on the road and autism

Climate Change: GOP leaders, especially the Evangelical dominionists, view it as fake science  and Scott Pruitt wants to start a scientific debate about it. What is left to debate?

Try a thought experiment as to what you understand “Now” to mean and you may come to understand that it all relative to where you are. The concept makes no sense across the expanding Universe, does it? Some thought experiments have led to beautiful ideas that have waited years to be confirmed while some lead to inventive literature.

Some thought experiments require one to be a good skeptic. To become one you need to have the right people in charge of children’s education. If the Bible or Quran are the benchmarks then education standards will be low and only further inequality in society.

What does the edge of the Universe look like?

Potential building blocks of life are found in a very young star system.

Ten things we did not know last week. Some photographs taken last week.

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

Coffee Break Video:  It is a worthwhile challenge to write down what you think you know for sure. Brian Cox discusses the Universe.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!!

It’s a strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. It’s the opposite. We have nothing to die for; we have everything to live for. – Ricky Gervais.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by  Reg the Fronkey Farmer.

[NoelParticipant]

Great article by Ethan Siegel, “What does the edge of the universe look like?”. Dumbed it down so even I could understand that it’s all a matter of perspective and realizing that we see it all as a product of time. If we could take time out of the equation could we maybe see an edge? A beginning?

Thanks Reg.

[NoelParticipant]

 

Yeah, The Brits have this whole election crap figured out… In the end it’s all nonsense anyway. That’s candidate “Lord Bucket Head” and candidate “Give me back Elmo”. LMAO!

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Thanks Noel, I highly recommend this book by Carlo Rovelli. It is easily understood in the same way the video of the Brian Cox lecture in the “Coffee Break” is. I learn a lot from both of them as they help me to conceptualize the ideas and then I can study and develop them further.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony Party was great because he would stand for election in whatever constituency the current Prime Minister of the day was standing in. He was the original. I don’t think the Russians were bothered to even try to influence this unnecessary election.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by  Reg the Fronkey Farmer.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I don’t think it is possible to take Time out of the equation. In our daily lives we understand what “Now” is. It is our present “time”. But when we consider it on a Universal scale it is meaningless, in the same sense as saying the moon is “up there”. When it comes to Space there is no “Up or Down” and when it comes to measuring Time, there is no universal “present time” or universal “now”. What happens on Mars in their “now” would not become our “now” for another 15 minutes or so.

We would not see the edge of Space without Time because neither exist on their own. There is only “SpaceTime”. This is what gets warped when a massive object, a star or planet, interacts with it. The Earth warps Spacetime which keeps the Moon spinning around it, just as the Earth is spinning around the Sun. What I mean is that the Earth “thinks” it is travelling in a straight line outwards in an ever expanding Universe but really it is just trapped in the curved SpaceTime that the mass of the Sun creates.  Time and Space do not exist independently of each other.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“In Australia Christian women are having a problem giving headship to their men.”

I find this sad – even honest and well-meaning people spend their lives trapped by having to stick to what they think it says in their holy book.  If they could toss it out of the window, they would be free.

It also reminds me of this great blast from the past from our long-lost friend kOrsan:

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“When does such indoctrination start?”

– I think the “Atheist dad” is just being a prissy snowflake.  It’s not going to kill the little girl to say the words “love God” – that’s totally inoffensive.  The school are being reasonable.  I presume she’s not being force-fed Creationism or misogyny.  That would be a different matter.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“In Australia Christian women are having a problem giving headship to their men.”

– I’m not sure if “honest” is the right word.  The Christian feminist lady is trying to polish a turd.  She’s wrong that the passage from St Paul is ambiguous and out of context.  It couldn’t be clearer or plainer.  He’s stating, pure and simple, that women should submit to men and double standards.

As for the speaker, Carmelina Read, I don’t understand why, but she loves being oppressed.  That’s pretty weird.  I guess she favours cultural values over human values.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Would the “atheist dad” be a prissy snowflake if his daughter was being asked to pray to Allah?. If he and his daughter were Muslims and she was being asked to pray to Jesus would you think that is “totally inoffensive” too?

[NoelParticipant]

Thanks for the book; I’ll be sure to read it. My daughter gave me a new copy of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Astrophysics for people in a hurry”. I always have a need to dumb things down and no one did it better than the Zimmerman’s with this book:

WHY NOTHING CAN TRAVEL FASTER THAN LIGHT… : AND OTHER EXPLORATIONS IN NATURE’S CURIOSITY SHOP
BY BARRY E. ZIMMERMAN , DAVID J. ZIMMERMAN

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I don’t think it is a matter of “dumbing things down”. I think the most important thing is to be able to visualize the concepts involved. The mathematics are not needed at this stage. Even Einstein was not very good with the math and had to enlist the help of others when it came to (say) the geometry of spheres. He gained his insights by doing thought experiments and was able to “see” Spacetime and intuit much from doing so. Then he put the math together and others used it to peer review his work. He is still being proven correct today.

Mathematics is the language used to express our understanding of it. There is an eloquence to the math that some will find as moving as a Beethoven symphony or an ode by Keats just as there is to realising what Einstein actually visualized. He stood on the shoulders of giants like Newton, Faraday and Maxwell and saw in his mind how the Universe works.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

@Reg – “Would the “atheist dad” be a prissy snowflake if his daughter was being asked to pray to Allah?”

– I don’t know.  But the little girl is not being asked to pray – just to include the words “and love God” in the school creed recited at assembly.  That’s not praying.  The school has said she doesn’t even need to do it if she doesn’t want to.  So I think the dad is being a snowflake, and teaching his daughter to be a snowflake.

If they were Muslims – I sincerely doubt they would be at all offended at having to say the words “and love God” every day at assembly.  The school would no doubt say she could substitute the word “Allah”.  So – no problem.

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