Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

As an ordained minister in the Church of the FSM I would like to let you know that His Noodly Appendages is the star of a documentary called I, Pastafari. Ramen to all. Twitter.

The complex picture of religion and atheism today.

How do atheists and Christians justify morality?

Doug Wilson, Christianity Today, and the White Supremacist in the Room.

The White House and the superior blood of Jesus.

35 random atheists whose atheism is no big deal.

Can you find anything wrong with the devastating arguments of this apologetic? (Hint, bring a hot flask and sandwiches).

The President of a school board wonders why Evolution, that unproven theory from mid-1800’s, is still being taught in schools.

What draws Atheists, Jews and Catholics to a Presbyterian Church?

A look at the work of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Missouri to charge 12 ex-priests for the usual crimes.

This weeks’ Woo: America’s measles-free status is under threat and it is not alone.

Climate Crisis: The climate apocalypse is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it. The World is just not ready for Climate Refugees.

The 2019 Ig Nobel winners.

A new method for measuring the rate of expansion of the Universe can help cosmology.

Richard Feynman once said that nobody understands quantum mechanics and that includes Physicists.

A famous argument against Free Will has been debunked.

We can’t dismiss Darwin simply because he was not a biologist.

The oldest DNA ever studied.

New clues to understanding Near-Death Experiences.

Long Read: White man Jesus.

Podcast: A believer’s guide to atheism.

This week I am reading this book: What It Means to Be Moral without religion.

Some photographs taken last week.

While you are waiting for the kettle to boil…..

Coffee Break Video:  Bertrand Russell: Why I am not a Christian. Abiogenesis and the Origin of Life. What was the ancestor of everything? CRISPR explained.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Have a great week everyone!!

Some verses from God’s Funeral by Thomas Hardy.

‘And, tricked by our own early dream
And need of solace, we grew self-deceived,
Our making soon our maker did we deem,
And what we had imagined we believed,

‘Till, in Time’s stayless stealthy swing,
Uncompromising rude reality
Mangled the Monarch of our fashioning,
Who quavered, sank; and now has ceased to be.

‘So, toward our myth’s oblivion,
Darkling, and languid-lipped, we creep and grope
Sadlier than those who wept in Babylon,
Whose Zion was a still abiding hope.

Full poem here.

[Jody Lee]

Morning, Reg!

Interesting read on justifying morality.  I want to dig deeper.

Reading about Doug Wilson makes my eye twitch.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Hi Jody,

Here is Hitchens debating Wilson. Maybe too long to watch in one go but plenty of excerpts on Youtube.

[Strega]

Thanks, Reg!

[_Robert_]

Is this you Reg?

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

No, but I am happy to buy him a beer afterwards 🙂

This is me:

I will almost always stop to talk with street preachers. I have gotten a few of them so rattled and confused that they just shut up shop and went home scratching their heads.

I used to help man a table for Atheist Ireland on the main street in Dublin. It was good fun. Occasionally I got to tell people that the gods I did not believe in included all the gods the other tables were proselytizing for.

My favorite was the Saturday morning when a middle-aged woman ran up to the table to tell me I was the offspring of Satan and the whore of Babylon. She wanted to sprinkle “holy water” on me but could not unscrew the lid of her little plastic bottle. She then started ranting about Jesus so I asked her if Jesus would be proud of what she had just called me. She stopped spluttering long enough to take a breath and then just stared at me. I asked her if she was a famous actress because she looked so familiar to me. This made her brain wobble for a second and she asked me if I was crazy. This was going so well I almost smiled but I managed to keep my “hurt and offended” persona going.

She then started citing scripture to me so I joined in and we had a battle rap of Bible quotes. She only knew a few Gospel lines and that is no match for 2 Timothy 2:15

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”

I won!!

You think you are better than me so, she spluttered?

No, as it says in Proverbs 16:19, as I am sure you know, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling”.

Well then you must know the Bible also says that “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose”.

Sorry but that is a line from the Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare, not the Bible.

Silence. A look of pure hatred on her face and me with a benign, almost saintly smile on my face 🙂 She said she had to go but would leave me the bottle of holy water to wash out my mouth with. I told her I am able to make my own.

What!! Only the priests are allowed to make it!!!!

No, I do too. It’s much cheaper that way. All you need is regular water and then you just have to boil all Hell out of it. Once it is made holy you can bottle it. Just make sure it is cold first or the lid won’t unscrew.

That is blasphemy. You are a vile heretic…yada yada yada……

It’s OK, I said. There is no need to apologize for your profanity. I forgive you and I am prepared to turn the other cheek. I get worse abuse from Catholics.

I am a FUCKING CATHOLIC!!!

She looked like she was having a panic attack. She prepared to move off, huffing and puffing and again ranting about Jesus.

Oh, now I think I know where I recognize you from. Did you star in a movie called Misery??

They’re selling Jesus again.

[Belle Rose]

LMFAO!

[Simon Paynton]

The article by Michael Nugent “How do atheists and Christians justify morality?” is interesting, and the objection is interesting too.

David rejects cooperation as a reason because it suggests that the reason is survival value, which is a variation of utilitarianism, and that nonhuman animals cooperate to kill each other for utilitarian reasons.

So how, he asks, can we call one form of cooperation moral and another immoral?

Human animals cooperate to kill other groups too.  Within those groups, they have morality of helping and fairness.  Cooperation is the selection pressure that plausibly caused our moral sense to evolve.  When we don’t kill other groups, it’s because we want to extend our morality of fairness and helping towards them.

[Jody Lee]

“She then started citing scripture to me so I joined in and we had a battle rap of Bible quotes. She only know a few Gospel lines and that is no match for 2 Timothy 2:15”

😂😂😂

I got the most awesome scene in my head reading that.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Here is Hitchens with WL Craig to his left and Doug Wilson on is right and 3 other apologists there.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

@Simon, The debate between David Quinn, the Catholic apologist and Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland continues here.

[Jody Lee]

Thanks for the vids, Reg. I’ve listened as I’ve dosed in and out of a nap on the front porch. Hitchens might be my new man crush.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

Hitchens might be my new man crush.

Good to know that. He will make you think differently and you will be the better for it 🙂

He spoke with an eloquence and command of the English language that few possess while delivering his cogent arguments that left most of his opponents stupefied.

Here is a good one. Enjoy.

 

[Jody Lee]

“A celestial North Korea” !🤣🤣

[Author]

Posts