Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

More and more New Jersey kids are going unvaccinated on religious grounds. If only those kids would make better choices!!  In Alabama the Senate committee approved a bill that allows religious exemption from vaccination.  Texans are advised not to attend freedom freckle parties but taking medical advice from the new HHS website may also not be the best idea.

Texas Senate panel passes bill to require Ten Commandments in all public K-12 classrooms.

Right-wing Christian worship leader faces life in prison for child sex crimes.

Three men with beards who don’t want to see women in the public sphere.

Atheists ask Court to defend workers’ First Amendment Rights.

Where is the people’s right to freedom from religion?

A report exposes blasphemy laws as a tool to persecute religious minorities in Pakistan. A priest makes some interesting points on blasphemy laws.

An idea for Democrats: take back religious freedom and the moral mandate of faith.

World of Woo: Quackery is as quackery does.

Environment: Has climate persuasion become a fool’s errand?

Elon Musk is the reason I resigned from the Royal Society.

Scientists discover simpler way to achieve Einstein’s ‘spooky action at a distance’ thanks to AI breakthrough.

My own answers to “30 Questions to ask Atheists”.

It’s 100 years since we learned the Milky Way is not the only galaxy.

Long Reads:

Oklahoma is testing ground for Project 2025 to erode the line between church and state.

The future of murder.

Holy shift: What it means to be spiritual (not religious). (Then why not just say not religious?). But what does it mean to be religious?

I used to teach students. Now I catch ChatGPT cheats.

Is Democracy overrated?

The hidden world beneath the shadows of YouTube’s algorithm.

Sunday Book Club: Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead: Olga Tokarczuk

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Podcast:  The 404 Media weekly chat.

Coffee Break Videos:  How the Elite rigged Society (and why it’s falling apart) | David Brooks. Something strange happens when you trust Quantum Mechanics. Stupidity as a greater threat than evil itself. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s 20-Minute TAKEDOWN of Christianity.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week!

 “The principal goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive, and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered.”

Jean Piaget.

[unapologeticParticipant]

Re. ‘The future of’

It’s a shame Tom Crooks didn’t have one of these on the day.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

World of Woo: Quackery is as quackery does.

In the wake of RFK JR becoming HHS head, some truths about food need edification and reiteration:

* If it’s part of the Natural Universe, it’s “All-Natural” and can be nothing else, if it’s part of the Natural Universe, it’s made of Chemicals, and if it is Carbon-Based, as verifed by Dr. “Bones” McCoy’s Tri-Corder, it is “Organic.”

* Everything is “local” to anybody who is anywhere and everything is “global” to anybody else who is anywhere else.

* Unless it’s made with live yogurt cultures or raw yeast dough, all dog food is dead food, along with all other food.

* A clone of meat is real meat as is the clone of any other living thing.

* Anything Man has ever domesticated, raised, and grown in the past 10,000 years is “Genetically-Modified,” whether by selective breeding or by Petri Dish. And everything Man has ever foraged or hunted is “Genetically-Modified”, just by Natural Selection and much slower.

* And speaking of slow, the most sure way to get “Slow Food” is in a fast-food drive-thru, especially during a COVID lockdown. No surprise, the rhapsody over the idea of “Slow Food” is Marxist in origin. Marxism is expert at slowing food.

* Halal hummus, kosher schmeer, and a Friday Fish Fry are delicious regardless of religious words said over them

* “Virtue-Signalling” with food is like playing with your food in public. It’s just not polite!

More to come as I think more on this savory subject!

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Addendum

[_Robert_Participant]

Enco, speaking of food, I asked my waiter how they prepared the chicken here and he said “we flat out just tell ’em they are gonna die”.

[unapologeticParticipant]

What are freedom freckle parties?

 

My answers to the 30 questions:

1. Are you certain that God does not exist, or that you can’t know whether He exists?
A: I am certain that god exists as a fictional enforcer for a heaven/hell protection scam.

2. How do you know that?
A: From the manipulative actions of your cult and it’s followers.

5. Did you use your reasoning to determine God does not exist?
6. How do you know your reasoning is working correctly?
7. Did you use your reasoning to determine your reasoning was working?
8. Do you see the problem with that?
A: I see a problem with the cult’s and your reasoning skills and arguments for god/afterlife. Such as your argument here against using reasoning.

9. The Bible says that skepticism about God is the result of a mind suppressing what it knows to be true. Have you ever tried doubting your doubts about God?
A: I started out as a christian. Religion was suppressing what we all know to be true.

10. The Bible contains hundreds prophecies fulfilled hundreds of years after they were written. How would that be possible without God?
A: What the bible said is irrelevant. It is propaganda. You need to find questions NOT based on the bible.

11. The Bible says that objective moral values are based in God’s morally perfect nature. Without God, what do you think they are based in?
A: What the bible said is irrelevant. Morals are based on civilization and culture.

12. Jesus’ disciples went from being terrified of death, to being willing to die for their belief that Jesus rose from the dead. If Jesus didn’t rise, what do you think changed their mind?
A: Their need to keep their cult and their leader alive.

13. There are hundreds of varieties of unbelief. How do you know yours is the right one?
A: Hundreds? It doesn’t matter. I only need to know the belief in the supernatural is false.

14. Archaeology is constantly confirming the details of the accounts in the Bible. Why do you think that is, if the Bible isn’t true?
A: Bullshit.

15. There is more evidence that Jesus Christ lived, died and came back to life than for just about any other event in ancient history. If God did not exist, or Jesus’ claims to be God were not true, then how would you explain his resurrection?
A: Lived, died and came back are three different things. There is absolutely no evidence that he came back. Your bible proves nothing.

16. What do you think makes so many Christians able to live radically different lives from the way they used to live prior to becoming Christians–even to the point of forgiving their abusers for terrible crimes?
A: Don’t know, don’t care. Proves nothing about the supernatural.

17. One of the most basic principles of philosophy, confirmed by science is ex nihilo nihil fit (“out of nothing, nothing comes”). Without God, how do you think everything came into being?
A: I do not know. Neither do you. That does not prove god.

18. The Bible says that we were created to live forever, and that death is an unnatural enemy, brought about by sin. If you are a naturalist who believes death is simply part of life, how do you explain why we feel like we ought to live forever, and why pain and death feel so unnatural and wrong to just about everyone?
A: Wishful thinking. What the bible said is irrelevant.

19. If your brain is merely the unplanned result of evolution by natural selection, aimed at survival and nothing else, what makes you think you can trust your reasoning to discover the truth, rather than just whichever belief is best for survival?
A: Understanding is important for survival.

20. If no God, why would anything objectively matter?
A: Some things matter TO ME AND MINE. I don’t give a shit what matters to your self-centered god. You ask such stupid questions.

21. If no God, why is there so much good in the world?
A: Your cult does not have a monopoly on ‘good’. Why does your ‘all powerful’ god allow so much ‘bad’ not caused by humans?

22. If no God, how did our DNA get programmed with such incredibly complex language and instructions?
A: You must have heard of ‘evolution’, even if you don’t believe it. You reject evolution and science, because it makes your cult unnecessary.

23. Is everything in the universe really just matter and energy?
A: Maybe. I sometimes wonder if ‘matter’ is just different combinations of the 4 forces.

25. The Bible says every good and perfect gift is from the Father above (i.e. God). To whom are you grateful for the good things in your life?
A: What the bible said is irrelevant. It is propaganda. Your cult does not have a monopoly on ‘good’. I thank the people who made the good things possible.

26. Where do you think the laws of logic come from?
A: People.

28. What evidence would actually convince you that Jesus Christ is God, the Lord, and the only Savior?
A: God needs to show-up. (Putting an end to your cult would help)

29. How much do you know about the heart of the Christian message, AKA the “Gospel” or good news?
A: I was raised christian.

30. Are you ready to learn more about Jesus? Start here with the Gospel of John.
A: FUCK NO. You are a fool if you think any of that was convincing.

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by  unapologetic.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Robert,

I’m sure that doesn’t affect the texture of the meat once the Cajun marinade or Jamaican Jerk season works it’s way through their fright-stiffened pullets.😋

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Addendum of emoticon

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unapologetic,

Some clever answers, but I would go further and take on the premises behind the questions.

For instance, why is the efficacy of reason to be questioned and not faith? Why does the Natural Universe need creation instead of having always existed? Can’t any prophesy be said to be true if stated vaguely enough? Assuming that Jesus or the Disciples existed, couldn’t they have been deluded, about either Jesus’ status as a deity or their witness of his Death and Resurrection or the witness of the five hundred? And can’t followers die for delusion, as any Highway Patrolmen will tell you happens every day?

One things for sure, we aren’t checkmated yet.

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling

[StregaModerator]

Well thanks Reg, sorry I was late to the party 🙂

[_Robert_Participant]

Strega wrote:

Well thanks Reg, sorry I was late to the party 🙂

This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco. This ain’t no fooling around.

[StregaModerator]

Robert, colour me shocked. You mean you don’t want to dance with me after all?

[_Robert_Participant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Unapologetic, Some clever answers, but I would go further and take on the premises behind the questions. For instance, why is the efficacy of reason to be questioned and not faith? Why does the Natural Universe need creation instead of having always existed? Can’t any prophesy be said to be true if stated vaguely enough? Assuming that Jesus or the Disciples existed, couldn’t they have been deluded, about either Jesus’ status as a deity or their witness of his Death and Resurrection or the witness of the five hundred? And can’t followers die for delusion, as any Highway Patrolmen will tell you happens every day? One things for sure, we aren’t checkmated yet.

Agree with both of you. It’s funny how they go from “something had to create all this” to a specific deity who instructs specifically on how to deal with your disobedient wife or handle slaves and war prizes. That “creator” gets a free pass to not require a creator himself, else we need an infinite number of backwards recursive gods to finally get to El, who had Yahweh as a son. In Deuteronomy 32:8-9, El gives each of the gods authority over a segment of the people of earth.  Yahweh is assigned to the Israelites, who will eventually make him their supreme deity. If that alone doesn’t give anyone pause, sorry about their lack of brain cells and/or neurons.

[_Robert_Participant]

Strega wrote:

Robert, colour me shocked. You mean you don’t want to dance with me after all?

Oh, by all means, let’s dance if that song is on.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Fellow Unbelievers,

More thoughts on food:

* There are only two kinds of fish: “Wild-Caught” and “Son-of-Wild-Caught” a.k.a. aquaculture-raised. Of the two, “Son-of-Wild-Caught” is more likely to be better, since at least in principle it can be isolated from the Mercury, Lead, and microplastics that the “Wild-Caught” eat.

* Food is a process, actually many processes, from foraging, hunting, raising growing, and culturing, to cleaning, dressing, cooking by mulitudinous methods, to preservation by every means from air dehydration to canning to irradiation, to packaging, warehousing, protection from pests, shipping, shelving, storage in refridgeration, checking out at the register, to the biological processes of digestion, metabolization, and waste disposal. Five ingredients and 30 minutes just won’t cut it.

* Raw milk means not having to worry about nutrition when you’re heaving up your guts from e coli, salmonella, trichinae, and other nasties that cow udders brush up against on a farm. Best left for calves with four stomachs that can handle such things.

* The only distinction of “Steel-Cut Oats” is that they take a Crock Pot amount of time to cook. And “regularity” is real issue if that is a priority for the cook.

* Wash your hands, use plastic gloves, check the pinto beans for pebbles that the machine at the factory may have missed, drench fhe salad in a colander before serving, sanitize all surfaces and utensils after contact with raw meat and voila!. You have a “Clean Diet.”

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@unapologetic – What are freedom freckle parties?

During COVID many  people who “did their own research” decided it was a great idea to have parties so that they could get COVID and would then be able to build up their own natural immunity to the virus. As it transpired many of them  only gate-crashed Heaven. You know, religious freedom and all that.

Now some of these anti-vaxxers are thinking about taking themselves and their kids to a “measles party” but this time they will follow the HHS advice and take some Cod Liver Oil with Vitamin A as a cure.  I call these ‘Freedom Freckle Parties’.

I ain’t going to be dancing even if they play both kinds of music.

 

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