Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

The FFRF forces Florida Elementary School not to disrespect the Constitution while The Satanic Temple is to place ministers in Oklahoma schools if SB 36 becomes law. (see also final “long read” article below).

8 of the richest pastors and televangelists that cannot look a needle in the eye.

Metro Atlanta church employee arrested for sexual exploitation of children, police say. (I have often driven or walked past this church).

Archdiocese of New Orleans suspected of Child Sex Trafficking.

A former “stay-at-home daughter” exposes Christian patriarchy.

A high school artist called out Christian bigotry and her school board is furious.

People who pray to planks discriminate against those that pray to a rock.

Here are the countries that rank worst in the world for religious freedom.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali takes on Richard Dawkins over New Atheism.

World of Woo: The Washington Post on past lives.

Environment: Coral reefs may soon be a thing of the past.

How does the brain think when it can store 1,400 TB of data with one cubic millimeter? I expect Christof Koch will have some good ideas about it.

On preventing the emerging “digital afterlife industry” causing social and psychological harm.

The genetic code of life is a developing story.

How to tell if a conspiracy theory is probably false.

Pioneering gene therapy restores UK girl’s hearing.

Papua New Guineans carry Denisovan genes that help their immune system, study suggests.

Identical twin study reveals whether a vegan or meat-based diet is healthier.

Podcast: Why can’t Christians agree on “True Christianity?” with Seth Andrews.

Long Reads: Does the Universe expand by stretching or creating space? The teens making friends with AI chatbots. China is still at war with words. The real science behind the billionaire pursuit of immortality. Discovering the first Other Earths. ‘Demolishing democracy’: how much danger does Christian nationalism pose because the devil is no longer in disguise. Atheist/Agnostic Republicans? How many are there? The ‘Remnant Alliance’ is coming for a school board near you.

Sunday Book Club: The Prophet and the Astronomer: Apocalyptic Science and the End of the World.

Some photographs taken last week.  Please, no laughing at these animals!

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Videos:  How Bayesian Statistics can explain our World. Douglas Murray: Choose Life, not the Death Cult.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week!

[unapologeticParticipant]

High school art:

“First of all, how the hell do all these people know about the specifics of artwork at a local high school?
And how do people get so worked up over a student’s project that they demand a response from a school board member?
That’s hard to believe.”

Not at all. It’s typical.

“It’s even more bizarre that the school board called a special session to deal with this—on a Saturday night, no less.”

Not at all.

“And how deluded do you have to be as a school board member to think you need to personally review Supreme Court decisions in order to find an answer?

The school board is a hot mess full of delusional, thin-skinned adults.”

HA. No shit.
When I was in school. My old man was on the school board.
Most school board members ARE parents of current students.
It is what motivates them to be on the (unpaid) school board.
In my district, members are elected for 3 year terms. so they think/act like politicians. Sometimes.
But they don’t think they represent all members of the community, just ‘the kids’. (sometimes just their own kids)
“Several people” reporting it, could just mean one or two parents on the board.
In my district regular meetings are held monthly. So a ‘special session’ might be necessary to discuss a short lived ‘art show’.
More ‘special’ in timing than worry.

In the end, the board ignored it.

[unapologeticParticipant]

Dawkins thinks Is-lame is a ‘mind virus’.

I call Is-lame a ‘weaponized religion’.

[unapologeticParticipant]

Will someone please summarize Douglas Murray’s speech. I fell asleep after 5 minutes.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!!

[jakelafortParticipant]

Unapologetic, Murray is giving a panegyric to Israel and to its brave citizens who exhibit an esprit de corps and selflessness in defending their own and their country. He heralds their bravery and as a war correspondent/journalist whose seen real shit all over the world: wars, atrocities, insurgencies and the like juxtaposes the failure to respond or acknowledge the sore spots with the unending preoccupation/obsession with all things Jewish.

He thinks Israel is a shining star and that USA and Great Britain have declined in terms of their citizenry and what they believe. There is no woke BS in a country where reality hits you in the face.

He despises the death cult of Islam and decries the hypocrisy and sickening misunderstanding of the dynamics of the war in Gaza. Antisemitism is obviously at bottom the cause of the antipathy to Israel by so much of the world and the indoctrination and absence of critical thought among our students and ersatz philiosophers is ever so evident.

[_Robert_Participant]

Murray captures reality here. Such a rare occurrence.

 

[_Robert_Participant]

Strange how leftists can get so far off track with the Gaza terrorists. And what are we to make of an old dude who throws on a cheap wig and stuffs a bra with some rubber strap-on tits and claims to be a lesbian….

It never occurred to me that so many guys would exploit the good will for trans people or purposefully cheat female athletes, but here we are. Sorry, but not a woman, dude.

 

 

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Ayaan Hirsi Ali takes on Richard Dawkins over New Atheism.

What no one is asking is: If Theism and the tenets of Christianity are without basis in evidence, then just how exactly are they “useful” in defending the ideals of Western Civilization, or for that matter, for anything else?

Why does this remind of workplace prankery, where long-time established employees send the new rookie out to get some “sky hooks,” “filet steam,” “spotted paint,” and “the peeperual motion machine?”

[jakelafortParticipant]

Enco, it would be interesting to get to the bottom of Ayan’s adoption of Christianity.

Such a trippy life and so much overcome and now a world view that makes no sense against her background and intelligence.

[_Robert_Participant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Reg,

Ayaan Hirsi Ali takes on Richard Dawkins over New Atheism.

What no one is asking is: If Theism and the tenets of Christianity are without basis in evidence, then just how exactly are they “useful” in defending the ideals of Western Civilization, or for that matter, for anything else? Why does this remind of workplace prankery, where long-time established employees send the new rookie out to get some “sky hooks,” “filet steam,” “spotted paint,” and “the peeperual motion machine?”

“I came here prepared to persuade you, Ayaan, that you’re not a Christian. I think you are a Christian and I think Christianity is nonsense.”

It’s as if she just grabs whatever belief is convenient at the time. Or perhaps her childhood indoctrination into religion grabbed its hooks into the primal recesses of her otherwise smooth brain. She just can’t shake the need for a dictator. Not buying her story that Christianity is some great force against Islamists. It is just a variation, and they always unite together against rationality when they are not killing each other.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

All religions are like chocolate bars. They all contain the same basic ingredients in varying amounts. Dark chocolate (the OG) is just cocao beans and cocoa butter while milk chocolate, a modern interpretation of the original, is sweetened with sugar to keep the dopamine flowing. Some chocolate can be beneficial to the immune system but it may contain nuts too. I know the 1990 Council of Snickers dealt with the branding of the “Marathon Bar” heresy but Western Civilisation survived.

Gandhi was once asked what he thought about Western Civilization. He replied that he thought that it might be a good idea if it happened.

Ali says in the post that ‘On the personal level, yes, I choose to believe in God’.

Sorry, but no, you don’t choose to believe in (a) God).  People come to believe in gods over time and from people already indoctrinated with the same beliefs.  Nobody says ‘OK, I think I will decide to believe in God today”.

A second later she says “I think it’s something subjective, and it’s a choice”. Yes, it is entirely subjective but again it is not a choice.

Christianity is not philosophy. It is not a philosophy. It is theology. Kant said that the best way to live a virtuous life is to act as if God exists. This line is responsible for the lingering assumption that morality is best derived from religion. Maybe he ate too many chocolate Summum Bonum bars.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Fellow Unbeleivers,

I meant “Perpetual Motion Machine.” A “Pee-petual Motion Machine” would be a non-stop feed of diuretic down a cathetered throat. Not something I’d want in perpetuity or any amount of time.
😁

• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Addendum

[UnseenParticipant]

_Robert_ wrote:

Strange how leftists can get so far off track with the Gaza terrorists. And what are we to make of an old dude who throws on a cheap wig and stuffs a bra with some rubber strap-on tits and claims to be a lesbian….

It never occurred to me that so many guys would exploit the good will for trans people or purposefully cheat female athletes, but here we are. Sorry, but not a woman, dude.

Unless someone goes full monty with a sex change operation, taking hormones the rest of their life, learning how to behave like their newly-chosen sex, are they not simply cross dressers?

If I were to believe I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body, what elevates that beyond a mere belief? And beliefs can be false. And to be meaningful, many philosophers would say, any belief needs to be at least in principle falsifiable.

Looking at the matter this way is seldom done.

[Author]

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