Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Why the U.S. is heading toward non-belief.

Majorities of Americans oppose religious-based anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination even though some Christians are given a legal right to workplace discriminate.

What is the value of hundreds of years of precedent or unambiguously clear constitutional language compared to the personal preferences of six religious conservative justices? Maybe it is now time that ethics reforms at the high court must either be imposed by the judiciary or by Congress.

God pays the mayor of New York yet another visit and told him not to be silent.  Yeah, it not delusional to wake up in a cold sweat after being visited by the Creator of the Universe.

No one should be granted a privileged place in local democracy just because of their religion…..because it is not a democracy if they are not elected.

Saudi Arabia wants tourists. It didn’t expect Christians.

I have no time for theists that think we want to take away their favorite toy, as Hitchens once called it.  We need to counter every attempt at religious bullying.

In 2020, properties in 102 countries and territories were targeted in incidents tied to religion.

I met two Mormons street hawkers yesterday and they were very confused that I knew that Bibles were back in schools in Utah. Yes, Brother Reg, we can communicate with the Creator of the Universe.

World of Woo: This is just taking the piss out of science 😊

Environment: Extreme heat is more deadly than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined.

Nonbelievers and the “Holy Trinity of Truth Detection”.

Scientists uncover which came first, the Chicken or the Egg.

Did physicists get the idea of “fundamental” wrong?

The assembly theory definition of what Life is.

When did humans start settling down?

Long Reads: Soon we might all have a digital clone. The world’s top art forgery detective.

Sunday Book Club: The Hidden Spring – a theory of consciousness.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Video:  The great free will debate: Who controls your mind?  How not to be ignorant about the world. Dave Farina vs. James Tour Debate (Are We Clueless About the Origin of Life?).

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone. I am off to catch up with some people at the Dublin Pride Festival.  If you are joining in the festivities this week I wish you a great time!

[_Robert_Participant]

RE:I have no time for theists that think we want to take away their favorite toy….

To repeat, none of this is to say that God actually exists, that there’s really an “Afterlife,” or that in the final analysis the universe has some sort of Meaning. It might well not have any of these; it might also have all of them. Both positions cannot be proven – and most probably never will be. But if “belief” in and of itself provides great succor to myriads of humans, when there are no other effective forms of “medication” for existential angst, then let the believers be.

…then let the believers be!

Is he effing serious? I don’t know any atheists who want to control what others believe. I certainly have the right to express my thoughts on the subject. Human history is practically a continuous example of subjugation by theists.

• This reply was modified 3 months ago by  _Robert_.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg 🙂

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

As a scholar of Israeli politics, he would do well to keep in mind the history of other faiths and to what lengths their adherents went to, in order to force their beliefs upon other theists. None of it had anything to do with atheists.

Mohammed continued these conquests until, at his death, in 632, he was the master of nearly all Arabia and revered almost as a god. Yet, when Omar, his first lieutenant, captured Jerusalem in 636, he ensured the conquered Jews and Christians free exercise of their religion, and the security of their persons and their goods. But when the Crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099, they massacred all the Mohammedans, and burnt the Jews alive. It is estimated that 70,000 persons were put to death in less than a week to attest the superior morality of the Christian faith.

Yeah……and the old gods all laughed themselves to death.

[UnseenParticipant]

While heat-related deaths are rising because duh!, studies show that it’s still true that far more people die from cold weather than hot weather.

Look it up!

[_Robert_Participant]

Unseen wrote:

While heat-related deaths are rising because duh!, studies show that it’s still true that far more people die from cold weather than hot weather. Look it up!

Nope, not even considering tropical diseases like malaria or hurricanes, etc. People in cooler climates live longer as well.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

On what was first, chicken or egg, this question is so similar to our preference for other black and white answers, e.g. (one of my favorites) masks work vs masks don’t work, where the actual answer lies on a scale in between, or “it depends” on circumstances.

Evolution works on gradient scales, too, while creationists over-simplify reductionist claims of apes vs humans and why do apes still exist if we came from them? (Not even caring what came before both humans and apes.)

So not to criticize the article, but I’m surprised it didn’t mention egg-laying fish, which came before reptiles. It’s no surprise to me if the hard shells came about much more often on land dwelling reptiles, just to keep soft eggs from drying out. In any case, eggs had to have evolved in different ways, e.g. for insects, too. And even in some bacteria like anthrax and tetanus, they “sporulate”, giving shell-like protection to offspring that can survive for long periods of time in different environments.

The point being, and I’m mentioning this especially for people (like creationists) who are highly prone to prefer the simplest answers they can quickly store in their God-given brains, it takes a whole lot of scientific research and observation to understand HOW evolution took place, whether or not God made it happen.

[UnseenParticipant]

@robert

According to a Google Sumarizer if you ask “Does cold kill more people than heat?” you get this:

…In 2019, cold temperatures killed nearly four times as many people as warm temperatures, and deaths due to moderately hot or cold weather substantially exceed those resulting from extreme heat waves or cold spells. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found that cold temperature deaths are most common in Europe, Central and East Asia, and North America. However, both studies contradict data from the National Weather Service, which found hot weather to be the biggest killer, followed by tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods, and cold is only the eighth-leading cause of death. A study from The Lancet analyzed data on over 74 million deaths in 13 countries between 1985 and 2012, and of those, 5.4 million deaths were related to cold, while 311,000 were related to heat. (emphasis mine)

• This reply was modified 3 months ago by  Unseen.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Hmm, mortality due to cold vs heat is an interesting question. So I asked ChatGPT version 3.5, which failed to answer it clearly, and got a more detailed answer from version 4.0. I asked both “does cold kill more people than heat in USA, and (separate query) in the world?”.

Excerpt of version 4.0 answer:

As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, I don’t have specific, up-to-date information on this topic. However, generally, studies have found that cold weather contributes to more deaths than hot weather, both in the United States and worldwide.

According to a study published in The Lancet in 2015, cold weather kills 20 times as many people as hot weather, analyzing over 74 million deaths in 13 countries across the globe. The study found that cold weather killed people in warmer climates and colder climates alike.

[…]

[UnseenParticipant]

@popebeanie

What I said.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

I don’t even remember who said what, but was considering how different  seemingly credible sources could give different answers. And then how to find more evidence, or maybe ask the question differently.

[_Robert_Participant]

Finding that ChatGPT is not so great. I ask for evidence of god and it gave me a ton of BS apologetics. Also gave me pretty bad excel BASIC code, but I was able to use some of it.

I would think it is very country dependent, but those intense heatwaves take a toll on the US Northern, urban, elderly who are not prepared for them. I recall that wave in Europe:

The 2003 European heat wave saw the hottest summer recorded in Europe since at least 1540. France was hit especially hard. The heat wave led to health crises in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall in parts of Southern Europe. The death toll has been estimated at more than 70,000.

[UnseenParticipant]

I have feeling that a medical journal like The Lancet looks far more closely at the causes of death than a meteorological agency.

[_Robert_Participant]

Unseen wrote:

I have feeling that a medical journal like The Lancet looks far more closely at the causes of death than a meteorological agency.

It depends on what they are counting. There are direct and indirect causes. Cold/snow causes more accidents. Heat (and associated drought) cause mass starvations or disastrous floods or storms/lightning. The weather guys are right about that.

As for direct cause, as long as you have shelter you probably won’t freeze to death. Do many people freeze to death in an apartment or house? You can usually warm up somehow. If it’s 115 and you are frail/elderly with no A/C (and associated power brown-outs), you are toast, right there in your bedroom. Heat exhaustion acts fast. A baby left in a car for just 30 minutes is cooked alive here in Florida 6 months of the year.

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