Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Pew Research: How the Global Religious Landscape changed from 2010 to 2020 with the number of Nones growing as a share of the world’s population.

Why are so few atheists committing crime? (Maybe we are too clever about it and don’t get caught!).

Separation of church and state dodges a bullet — for now.

Christian parents let their baby die because of their faith. Now they’re going to prison.

Why Pascal’s Wager doesn’t hold up.

World of Woo:  Hair analysis and bioresonance food sensitivity tests.

Environment:  Three years left to limit warming to 1.5C, leading scientists warn.

New research finds the universe is twice as old as we previously thought.

Tiny nuclear battery produces 50 years of power on a single charge.

Why do conspiracy theorists appear so confident in their beliefs?

Long Reads:

Why birds don’t buy Bentleys and we humans will never fly.

Believers’ estimates of God’s beliefs are more egocentric than estimates of other people’s beliefs.

Opioid policy. It’s not the pill mills.

Social Media platforms allow conspiracy theories to run wild with nobody ever held accountable.

The Enlightenment’s Gravediggers – When Westerners hate the West.

Another acclaimed religious book is just a voyage from “the God of the gaps into the dead end of dogma”.

‘Huge surprise’ reveals how some humans left Africa 50,000 years ago.

Blinding lights: the hidden science behind gambling’s glow.

Sunday Book Club: Free Creations of the Human Mind: The Worlds of Albert Einstein.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Videos:  A digitally restored edition of James Randi in Australia. Neil deGrasse Tyson – Is our Universe inside a Black Hole?  Chemistry of Life begins with Water. Ukraine update. Theories of Everything can’t exist.

 

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week!

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!!

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Everything but the obvious?

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Yes, noticeable by its absence but I decided not to mention anything about the nation whose supreme leader of the religion of peace said, “We will support and assist any nation or any group anywhere who opposes and fights the Zionist regime, and we do not hesitate to say this,” (Khamenei’s official English-language Twitter account).

I could have written something about its support for numerous proxy groups that Tehran continues to fund, train, arm, and coordinate with regional militant proxies, like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and other Palestinian factions, Iran-backed Shi’a militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, and even elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

I also considered mentioning how the IRGC’s elite Quds Force is their primary conduit for conducting overseas operations like providing weapons, training, financial backing, and operational direction to these terrorist groups. I could have mentioned its long history of involvement in high-profile attacks, including embassy bombings, assassinations, and plots targeting Western, Israeli, and dissident figures abroad or that it harbored senior al‑Qaeda figures, including Saif al‑Adel and others, offering them sanctuary while continuing to back anti‑Western insurgencies or that it now engages in cyber‑warfare by deploying destructive malware and ransomware attacks against global critical infrastructure.

I could have expressed my anger for the thousands of Shahed drones sent to Russia to bomb Ukraine and how a recent attack damaged my friends’ home and caused their adopted cat to die from a heart attack which was a horrible experience for them until they found their neighbors arm in their back garden the following morning.

But I might have sounded biased so instead, I sat watching TV with my Iranian neighbours and listened to them cry, cheer and shout “fuck the regime” in their new Irish accents 😊

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg

Well. You’re right. However. I was expecting at least an article on “What is it like to be a pistachio tree on the outskirts of Teheran?” 😉😁

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

“What is it like to be a pistachio tree on the outskirts of Tehran?”

Nervous, they don’t like being shelled.

[UnseenParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

“What is it like to be a pistachio tree on the outskirts of Tehran?” Nervous, they don’t like being shelled.

I got it. LOL

[Belle RoseParticipant]

Hahahahahahhahaha!!!! 😂😂😂😂Reg you’re nuts 😉

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Very pithy wit! And thanks for the subtle spell-correction.😁

[UnseenParticipant]

To those who poo poo the idea that Israel could spark WW3, it turns out that there’s more than one way for Iran to get some nukes.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

Here are the only nations that have nuclear arms: United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea.

The U.S., U.K., Israel, and India definitely wouldn’t give or sell them to Iran. None of the rest would give them to Iran but only sell them or exchange consideration for them. Shia Iran and Sunni Pakistan have an on-and-off relationship, sometimes using proxies against each other. Russia, China, North Korea and France can get their oil elsewhere. All this makes Iran’s options rather limited without domestic production.

Dimitry Medvedev may just be using the crisis to sabre-rattle and posture.

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Addendum

[jakelafortParticipant]

One thought that keeps occurring to me is that the aftermath of Sep 11 in USA has been without Muslim terrorism. And we are so vulnerable. Yet nada or next to nothing. A few lone wolf actions. It is deliberate. They know that they can’t defeat us militarily. They know that if they continue with acts of terrorism in USA like the unending terrorism against Israel that they would never get a foothold in universities, in media, in the facade of having legitimate academic middle eastern studies that are in reality lefty/islamic propaganda. It is wise of them.

That so many have been indoctrinated is a crying shame. I noted long ago that there is nothing so preposterous, obviously contrived, that it won’t be believed in a religious context. Same thing for secular religions aka political ideology.

[_Robert_Participant]

Plenty of MAGA upset about Trump’s new plan to Make Iran Great Again. Thats kind of funny. It would have been better if he bombed before that long line of trucks were doing something at that enrichment facility, perhaps moving the high-grade material? Damage assessment seems impossible, but now the mullahs have a new excuse to rally the brainwashed people, so I hope the bombing mission was worth it. Perhaps Ukraine gets a break because Iran may stop sending arms to the great Russian army.

[jakelafortParticipant]

`Pope, i think that girl has political aspirations. She is articulate and may become charismatic.

They are eating the dogs. They are eating the cats. And the Russians are eating each other? Jesus.

In other news the universe is double the age it was thought to be? Yeah i pretty much figured some time ago that unless AI can get there the cosmos is way too recondite to be comprehended by mere mortals.

I have been reading social media posts from both Maga and progressives. It is clear to me they are mirror images. Their views so entrenched, so convicted and so resistant to reason. They feed off each other and despise the other side with passion and genuine hatred. Rock on world. I think the only hope for civilization is to be programmed by AI. Humans can be conditioned to behave any which way and to believe anything. Yeah there are biological necessities that may not be programmed but in general that is how it is.

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