Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

World Social Progress Index 2020. Humanist International Report 2019.

Can you believe people believe that bullshit, asks Trump, as people try to channel the imaginary Creator of the Universe with their minds.

Sudan has decided not to establish an official religion so no group will be able to discriminate against other citizens for not believing as they do.

Betsy DeVos has been stopped from rerouting CARES funding to private schools.

For Neil Gorsuch, Religious Freedom hasn’t gone far enough.

Catholic Christians want the right to be able to fire gay teachers while other Catholics have prioritized the rights of children not to be abused by their clergy. Polish bishops call for “clinics to help LGBT people regain natural sexual orientation” while their boss, The Cuddly One, fights to free the Virgin Mary from the Mafia.

A hell of a good story about Heaven.

Atheists are getting more comfortable being open about their atheism on campuses.

Iran’s secular shift: new survey reveals huge changes in religious beliefs.

Atheist Ireland asks UN to defend the right to not attend religion class.

This weeks’ Woo:  The Taopatch does not cure gullibility.

Climate Crisis: Extinction Rebellion, politics and ethics.

Could the Universe die from a Big Freeze……..because it is too thin? Maybe many of the stars we see in the night sky are already dead?

Evolution education in the U.S. is getting better while Abiogenesis studies how life could have originated in the first place.

An indoctrinated worker escapes from Ken Ham’s fake museum.

A look at Karl Popper’s falsification of scientific theory.

To be creative, Chinese philosophy teaches us to abandon ‘originality’.

I am binge-watching “Humans” on Netflix. The idea of transferring our consciousness to an A.I. machine is interesting. We could continue to communicate as we are doing now!

Humans aren’t inherently selfish – we’re hardwired to cooperate.

Long Reads:  Rio de Janeiro’s never-ending ‘Drug War’. Facts v feelings: how to stop our emotions misleading us. On waiting to be sent to Auschwitz.

This week I am reading this book: Origin Story – A Big History of Everything.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil……

Coffee Break Video:  The moral roots of liberals and conservatives – Jonathan Haidt. How people fall prey to QAnon online. How Holy Is Donald Trump? -The Daily Show.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Humans aren’t inherently selfish – we’re hardwired to cooperate.

I think this is a good article.  It’s by your friend, Steve Taylor, the “panspiritist guy”.  I disagree with him that racism, for example, is somehow unnatural and maladaptive.  It makes good sense to be suspicious of other groups when my group is competing with other groups.  But like Professor Taylor says, this kind of competition likely only arose in the past 10,000 years with the advent of settled farming, increased group size, competition for resources etc.

But that’s a bit vague.  It remains an open question to me, what were the exact mechanisms that started off the inter-group rivalry that persists to this day.  For example, this is when the accumulation of wealth started.  Before that, it was considered bad form to accumulate wealth.  So maybe people were accumulating at the expense of other groups.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

The accumulation of wealth is just an indicator of the amount of resources someone or some group has. If everyone has access to the same share of the resources to satisfy their basic needs – food, security, group co-operation,  etc. then the need to compete is diminished. Rivalry is not a problem.  It is only when an elitist element emerges within the society and threatens the status quo that rebellion is considered. (4 legs good, 2 legs bad).

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Cheers Strega, you are very welcome.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

The moral roots of liberals and conservatives – Jonathan Haidt.

I love listening to Jonathan Haidt, he’s a brilliant speaker and I agree with his ideas.  Right now I’m trying to figure out the Authority / Subversion foundation in a succinct and useful way.  It’s not that complicated.  It’s interesting to note that the group-level foundations of in-group loyalty and authority help to enable the existence of large groups.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

In Nigeria, a 13 year old boy is jailed for 10 years for blasphemy. Their god must be piss weak to require that. Oh wait, he does not exist. Only more delusional humans.

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