Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Yes, reading a good book will increase your happiness.

[jakelafortParticipant]

I wish there were more like her as well. Although i wonder how she turned out. Is she another ideologue going with the current? Or is she free as can be within the paramaters of our nature and the laws of the unvirse?

[jakelafortParticipant]

And yet more evidence of how stupid far left ideologues are. Ignorance and stupidity reign supreme. Twas ever thus.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

jakelafort wrote:

And yet more evidence of how stupid far left ideologues are. Ignorance and stupidity reign supreme. Twas ever thus.

Is it cheating if I just bypassed 1-1/2 hours of video and got a 5-minute gist of it by scanning the YT member comments? I do that fairly often now, for long videos.

Or, what can we do to mitigate these dysfunctional idealisms? YT’s business model is to get as many clicks and comments as possible, like yet another kind of fertilizer produced by domesticated livestock and sheeple, running off into our streams and “academic discourse”.

I don’t mean to imply that anyone actually knows viable solutions. A lot of people think they know. While we’re generally done with woke orgasms, right?

I’ve been retreating back to pessimistic helplessness for a while, but will still vote in November.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Pope, not sure how valuable comments are since my assumption is that tendentious videos about ideological issues will have most views and comments primarily from those aligned with speaker. But i don’t typically read the comments so i am not sure.

About dysfunctional idealisms? We have to recognize some fundamental truths. Humans are so utterly easily led in terms of their beliefs and morality. The evidence is every place you look and in every era. Further it is beneficial if we recognize how wrong it is to posit a model and fudge constructs to fit that model. So on the left the oppressor/oppressed model is BS. Whites are not the bad guys. Blacks and minorities are not the good guys. We are all essentially similar. The ones with the power are the oppressors and the ones without are the oppressed. See every revolution. See how Blacks are governming and getting on after achieving independence and autonomy. BTW as i write i am reminded of the member here who posted a lot of good stuff about horrifying racism against Blacks. He reminded us over and over that race is a construct and how we are all the same. And yet he could not apply that knowledge and still looked at Whites as the bad guys. In my own experience i could not until my 20s get over notion that Germans were inherently evil.

Viable solutions? In terms of the issue of Islamism that academic anthropologist being interviewed appears to have a deep understanding and offers ideas that the power structure is not willing to even listen. Some stuff is obvious as it relates to Islam. The protection of Islam as a set of ideas should be vociferously denounced. Instead it should be attacked like rabid dogs on delicious treats. Free speech should again be affirmed as a core value of all liberals. Take Islamophobia and jettison it into outer space. Retain the notion that discrimination against any discrete group is verbotten. The UN, UNWRA and all of those racist groups need to be reformed or ended. Promulgating and promoting the same tired antisemitic BS and looking the other way all over the globe at atrocities and human rights abuses is literally the most destructive path possible.

The apostates who have lived in Islamic nations and understand intimately the realities need to be appreciated and heard. No persons are better situated to expose the horrors of Islam. Live up to humanist ideals and do whatever we can within reason to discourage the continuation of Islamic ways. Literally compare western humanist ideals with Islamic realities. Stop the political BS that enables Islamic progress into the west. Specifically in Gaza and West Bank if the goal is to create stability, end the terrorism and foster better lives for Palestinians then western schools and teachers are needed. The degree of indoctrination and utter obsession with murdering Jews and destroying Israel has to stop. Without changing those UNWRA schools and indeed the hatred of Jews all over the middle east nothing changes. We also need infiltration of human rights watches into those nations to allow gays to be open in middle east. We need to stop the draconian Sharia punishments. We need to have these same human rights watchers in all of those Islamic nations to further the rights of little girls to be educated, to prevent the rape of girls by men. etc.

In western schools we need to implement critical thinking at every stage of education. If we had that we might not have as many university students championing terrorism and propagating Jew hatred. We might not have the Trump cultists who are so utterly incapable of seeing Trump for who he is. Yea so i was shocked just how ignorant and incapable of reason Muslims on social media are. And it is no wonder being born into that cult. The hard core Trumpists are similarly incapable of anything remotely critical of their hero. They are insanely ensconced in the most ridiculous conspiracy theories.

The sense of helplesness and pessismism is warranted. Without a movement based in reality that addresses basic human rights and needs, that ends the partisan and ideological BS, that instructs and inspires us…

Woops can’t get too idealistic when i don’t think there is much chance of anything good transpiring.

[_Robert_Participant]

I don’t even see how anyone promoting Islamic ideology can call themselves a liberal. What a con job.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I had a debate recently with a theist (No, I don’t have a life) who spent time trying to convince me that Evolution was ‘only a theory’. I won’t repeat it here as you are all familiar with the usual tropes about Irreducible Complexity, Fine Tuning Arguments, The Watchmaker analogy etc. I pointed out the assumptions and fallacies in his arguments but I knew it would lead nowhere.

He noticed and then commented on my DNA tattoo and became very keen on explaining the ‘Complexity of Information in DNA’ to me. Basically, it argues that because the Information held within DNA is so vast and specific that it cannot arise naturally and therefore must be the product of an intelligent source.

They present their “evidence” with so much enthusiasm that I almost think for a moment that they have some grasp of science. They seem to think they are presenting novel ideas to us and cannot grasp that we can debunk any point they make because we have heard it all so many times.

I got an idea then and decided to give it a go. But first I had to change the topic away from ‘Evolution’ and get him talking about the Bible. (No, it was not difficult to do).

We got to the story of King Solomon, whose wisdom is showcased when he proposes to split a baby in two to determine the true mother. The real mother reveals herself by giving up her claim to save the child.

I suggested to him that if a similar dispute happened today King Solomon would take a different approach. With modern DNA testing, a situation like that could be resolved with far less drama and much more certainty. Maternity DNA kits would quickly provide an objective and scientific answer to the question of parentage, making a modern-day Solomon’s job easier—and sparing everyone the theatrics.

He agreed with me and tried to link it back to the ‘Complexity of Information in DNA’ argument he made earlier. I interrupted him.

You have just accepted that DNA can tell us about the relationship between a human and their ancestors. You have stated twice that the Information stored in DNA is vast and complex. That “vast amount of data” you are talking about shows not just the relationship between a mother and child but also contains genetic information to link the child with their siblings, cousins and grandparents and further extend family. It also goes back far enough for us to see that we are related to all other forms of life in Earth.

We now know that Humans are more closely related to chimpanzees and bonobos than gorillas are. We can describe this with the SAME level of confidence that we can describe the relationship of that child with its mother. In fact, genetic evidence suggests that humans and chimpanzees (including bonobos) diverged from a common ancestor around 5-7 million years ago. This is not guesswork. Chimpanzees and bonobos are each other’s closest relatives, having diverged from each other about 1-2 million years ago. Despite their different behaviours, they share a very close genetic relationship. This is not guesswork. Gorillas, on the other hand, split from the lineage that would eventually lead to humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos around 8-10 million years ago. This is not guesswork.

So even if I grant you that the information in DNA is so vast and specific (your words, not mine) and that it could indeed point to an intelligent origin, can you please tell me where my points are scientifically incorrect and remind me again why Evolution is ‘only a theory’.

I think I could hear Peter Gabriel singing Sledgehammer at that point. Game Over.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Nicely done Reg.

There goes special creation and a young earth.

[jakelafortParticipant]

If you have written negatively about Trump you may want to write something in public sphere that praises him. If you’re male sumpin like i love that man in a heterosexual way. If female you can go on about he can grab you by the P any time you want.

If it comes off according to the betting odds it really will be interesting to see how this plays out. Is the guy gonna go for dictatorship> a rapid descent into fascism?

https://www.actionnetwork.com/politics/donald-trump-favorite-to-win-presidential-election-major-sportsbooks-election-odds

[jakelafortParticipant]

First Nasrullah. Now Sinwar.

These valiant freedom fighters are falling like dominos. Imagine the consternation and period of mourning our university students will endure. Just awful. If they can sacrifice a few Jewish student it won’t offset the loss obviously but it will be just enough to go on.

[UnseenParticipant]

Let’s imagine that 10% (or any %) of atheists turn to terrorism. Would that form a valid basis for attempts to stifle or stamp out atheism?

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

remind me again why Evolution is ‘only a theory’.

That’s pretty neat.  It is a theory, but it’s consistent with every biological phenomenon.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Unseen wrote:

Let’s imagine that 10% (or any %) of atheists turn to terrorism. Would that form a valid basis for attempts to stifle or stamp out atheism?

It would give people a reason to dislike atheism, as is the case with Islam.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@jakelafort – If you have written negatively about Trump you may want to write something in public sphere that praises him.

I have a friend who is going to finish his Masters in Philosophy at a university in the USA next spring. Yesterday I suggested to him that he should write a treatise on the merits of MAGA policies with praise for it going to their Dear Leader. I told him I was concerned for his welfare as they will purge the intelligentsia first and this time it will be televised…on Faux News. 🙂

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

MAGA policies

“Wrong is right, and lies are truth”.

[Author]

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