Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Were tariffs applied to the Trump Bible as it was printed in China?

MAGA divided: Are hurricanes God’s wrath or a Deep State weather weapon?

Christian TradWife Lori Alexander’s idea of a happy marriage is horrifying.

These states are under fire over spending millions of taxpayer dollars to push religion in schools.

Will Humanity ever escape the grip of religion?

World of Woo:  Raw Milk.

Environment:  How mainstream climate science endorsed the fantasy of a global warming time machine.

Compatibility between scientific and religious beliefs in a country is associated with better well-being, study finds. OK but please tell me which views are compatible.

Have we reached peak human life span and could eating less lead to a longer life?

It sounds about right that we may suffer from the “illusion of information adequacy.”

Jerry Coyne takes a critique of how modern genetics is taught to task.

“Nothing” doesn’t exist. Instead, there is “quantum foam”.

How foreign operations are manipulating social media to influence your views.

Long Reads: The ‘Beautiful Confusion’ of the first billion years comes into view. A guide to (not) understanding quantum mechanics. Political polarization has made meteorologists targets of online death threats. Misinformation is Bad. Prohibiting it is worse. What does the belief in witches say about humanity.

Sunday Book Club:  WHY WE DIE: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality. (See also final video link below)

Some photographs taken last week. Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Videos:  Akiko Takakura survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The problem with pleading “religious insanity” in court. Roger Penrose thinks Quantum Mechanics is dead wrong (as I prepare to get a tattoo of the collapse of the Wave function). A discussion of the book club recommendation above.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

–Bertrand Russell (The Triumph of Stupidity)

[unapologeticParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Were tariffs applied to the Trump Bible as it was printed in China?

MAGA divided: Are hurricanes God’s wrath or a Deep State weather weapon?

*R*O*F*L*

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!

[UnseenParticipant]

“Nothing” doesn’t exist. Instead, there is “quantum foam”.

Possibly irrelevant comment: the philosopher Willard V.O. Quine held that everything exists once properly categorized. For example, faeries exist wheh you categorize them as mythological beings.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

New Atheist in Ireland: Reg, thank you for your patience. You have been very good at listening and your arguments have finally persuaded me that my belief in the Christian god is no longer possible to maintain. What really triggered it for me was when you said to me to embrace and challenge my doubts and not to fear them as I was always told to do. I will probably need to visit again if that is ok? I mean I know what I don’t believe but I have no idea what I should put in its place.

Me: You don’t need to believe in any ideology.  You will just discover  new ways of understanding the world and..

Is there a particular starting point or resource you would recommend as I feel confused.

Me: I did not mention Christopher Hitchens before but I think he might be someone you would enjoy listening to.

I have heard the name but don’t know anything about him.

Me: Try a Youtube search and if you like what you hear, I have all his books so you can borrow them.

He said this:

“In other words, that the discussion about what is good, what is beautiful, what is noble, what is pure, and what is true could always go on. Why is that important? Why would I like to do that? Because that’s the only conversation worth having. And whether it goes on or not after I die, I don’t know. But, I do know that it is the conversation I want to have while I am still alive. Which means that to me the offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can’t give way is an offer of something not worth having. I want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I don’t know anything like enough yet… that I haven’t understood enough… that I can’t know enough… that I am always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest of future knowledge and wisdom. I wouldn’t have it any other way. And I’d urge you to look at those who tell you, those people who tell you at your age, that you are dead until you believe as they do. What a terrible thing to be telling to children. …and that you can only live by accepting an absolute authority. Don’t think of that as a gift. Think of it as a poisoned chalice. Push it aside however tempting it is. Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.”

• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by  Reg the Fronkey Farmer.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Thought to do or taught to do?

Now lets see that magic with a hard core Muslim!

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Possibly irrelevant comment: the philosopher Willard V.O. Quine held that everything exists once properly categorized. For example, faeries exist when you categorize them as mythological beings.

Aristotle had an elaborate system of categories and that influenced our way of thinking about the world until Occam came along and sorted that out. What category are mythological beings in?

“Everything you can imagine is real.”
― Pablo Picasso

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@jakelafort….as she was indoctrinated by Jehovah Witnesses for all of her life, I have edited it to read “always told to do”.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Reg you get full credit for your role in deprogramming or deconverting.

I love that Bertrand quote. The certainty comes in knowing how far afield the cocksure are from the cockswain as the former are taken along by the river while the latter navigate it.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Thanks Jake. There is a similar quote from Richard Feynman;

“I’d much rather have questions I can’t answer than answers I can’t question”.

[_Robert_Participant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

New Atheist in Ireland: Reg, thank you for your patience. You have been very good at listening and your arguments have finally persuaded me that my belief in the Christian god is no longer possible to maintain. What really triggered it for me was when you said to me to embrace and challenge my doubts and not to fear them as I was always told to do. I will probably need to visit again if that is ok? I mean I know what I don’t believe but I have no idea what I should put in its place. Me: You don’t need to believe in any ideology. You will just discover new ways of understanding the world and.. Is there a particular starting point or resource you would recommend as I feel confused. Me: I did not mention Christopher Hitchens before but I think he might be someone you would enjoy listening to. I have heard the name but don’t know anything about him. Me: Try a Youtube search and if you like what you hear, I have all his books so you can borrow them. He said this: “In other words, that the discussion about what is good, what is beautiful, what is noble, what is pure, and what is true could always go on. Why is that important? Why would I like to do that? Because that’s the only conversation worth having. And whether it goes on or not after I die, I don’t know. But, I do know that it is the conversation I want to have while I am still alive. Which means that to me the offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can’t give way is an offer of something not worth having. I want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I don’t know anything like enough yet… that I haven’t understood enough… that I can’t know enough… that I am always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest of future knowledge and wisdom. I wouldn’t have it any other way. And I’d urge you to look at those who tell you, those people who tell you at your age, that you are dead until you believe as they do. What a terrible thing to be telling to children. …and that you can only live by accepting an absolute authority. Don’t think of that as a gift. Think of it as a poisoned chalice. Push it aside however tempting it is. Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.”

I think I’ll take in a tiny dram and toast Hitch. We could use him right about now.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.

[jakelafortParticipant]

If happiness is exercising curiosity it follows that all religion and ideology is its enemy.

[jakelafortParticipant]

I think Harris is making a mistake in following tired advice to stay above the fray. Instead she should roll up her sleeves, get her hands dirty and expose the utter mess that is Trump.

Perfect opportunity right now as he asks her to take a cognitive test. She is stupid says he. Well call him out for F’s sake! Tell him he is a blow hard and is only projecting and that when he looks in the mirror his reflection is the embodiment of narcissism and stupidity. Challenge him to a live on air test not only involving ability to reason but general knowledge about history, the US constitution, foreign affairs, geography etc. Imagine those ratings as the audience gets the questions simultaneously and the answers shortly afterwards. And the questions should go from 6th grade knowledge to more advanced. Perfect opportunity to humiliate him and in so doing have the image of trump among his adoring followers crack. Probably most of them would end up buying some conspiracy that explains away his performance. But there are many who would realize how bad an idea a second term is.

And when he says no shout from a bull horn that Trump is a coward, a demagogue appealing to the LCD and a convict who is in no way qualified for the office of US prez. He would not have a second debate after losing first. And he wont permit the exposure of his deep deep inadequacy.

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