Sunday School

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

The world Map of Atheism and a new typology of religious identity from Pew Research.

Parents who are religious hypocrites can make their children atheists at any early age.

A federal judge upholds the law by removing religious privilege from the PA. House of Representatives.

Apologist Frank Turek says that Reason alone proves God is real and atheists are wrong.

A GOP nominee explains why a woman submitting to her husband is good for society.

When it comes to religion China’s abuse of its citizens human rights is despicable.

I would not normally issue a warning but this long article deals with abuse at a Catholic orphanage and may not be easy to read for some.

The FFRF is urging people to quit the Catholic Church. Good advice that.

This weeks’ Woo: The Oregon Health Authority looks to increase the chronic pain of suffers.

Climate Change: Local efforts won’t be enough to undo Trump’s inaction. ExxonMobil continues to fund climate denier platforms.

You can read about absolutely nothing here.

Ever wonder why we experience wonder and why it can make us emotional?

Why do civilizations end and could it have anything do with cheese?

The universal patterns that pop up in math, physics and biology.

Can our capacity for moral reasoning be strengthened?

Listen to an atheist speaking from Heaven.

Some photographs taken last week

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

Coffee Break Video:  Seth Andrews speaks about religious trauma. Dan Dennett and Breaking the Spell. A rare galaxy that is challenging our understanding of the Universe.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Have a great week everyone!!

Religion, comprises a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find in an isolated form nowhere else but in amentia, in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion.

Sigmund Freud.

[StregaModerator]

Thanks, Reg!

[JadeBlackOliveParticipant]

Religious privilege has to stop.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

@Jade – I am sure people are tired of me saying that religious freedom is often seen as the right to be legally allowed to discriminate.  A judge in Boston has the right approach. Trump’s Evangelical Advisory Board, which usually meets in secret, probably violates the law.

In Ireland things have gotten a lot better as most people and most politicians are non-religious. We have some way to go to prevent our school polices being dictated by a foreign State (the Vatican) but we are starting to win that too. I hope we don’t lose what it means to be an Irish Catholic!!

I wrote a comment with a better definitions of atheism and secularism to this letter which had several “likes” including one by the author but has now disappeared….it is a regular occurrence and I just know it is usually done by Liars for Jesus.

[Gary BergeronParticipant]

The article on St. Joseph Orphanage was a tough read, given that I went through a small but terrifying incedent myself. ( A nun slapped me ). Everytime I think about that witch, I thank her. That slap opened my eyes and mind. I’m taking info from FFRF and I’m going to strip my name from the membership list of the RCC. Free at last, free at last, thank the mighty stars I am free at last! ( Apologies to MLK ). 🙂

 

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Hi Gary, We use this in Atheist Ireland to “defect” from the Church. I am looking to expand on it by lodging GDPR complaints (illegal data storage) against them for keeping records on people without having their explicit permissions to hold them. I should be able to get an “American”or non-EU versions compiled. We work with the FFRF and will pass it on to them.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“Apologist Frank Turek says that Reason alone proves God is real and atheists are wrong.”

– “How to prove God’s existence to an unbeliever”

– good luck with that.  This isn’t going to end well.

Circular “reasoning”.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

“Can our capacity for moral reasoning be strengthened?”

– this is a very interesting question.  There are two main ways that I do moral reasoning.  1) rules of thumb, including Perfect Compassion and fairness; 2) the examples of others whom I trust to make good decisions in this regard.  So, role models of good character.  These are both very accessible ways for everyone to do moral reasoning.  For example, I think Judge Judy is a good role model in most ways.  Also, Bob Marley.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Yes, our moral reasoning can be improved but only by making an effort to learn more about the subject – like having active debates about it (like we do on this site), reading up on the subject and giving new ideas proper consideration. It also helps to be honest with ourselves or as Bob Marley said:

“When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.”

If you don’t lie to yourself you probably won’t lie to others.

So the moral of the story is – If you want to be a moral person you need to some weed 🙂 (click the smiley face).

 

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I will be visiting the MLK center in Atlanta later this year.

[physeterParticipant]

Ow my brain! That Turek anti-reason one. He wrote a whole book about CS Lewis’s example of the spilled milk that makes a map??? Ug. How do you stand it?

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Yes, he and his ilk can make your face contort with their stupidity. Worse, they actually think that what they present is intellectually valid. They are still retarding the human race.

[ClearskyParticipant]

The C.S Lewis quote & how Richard Dawkins explains his misunderstanding.

Here is the original quote. Below it is why its a misunderstanding.

Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe,no creative mind.
In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It’s like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can’t trust my own thinking, of course I can’t trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God.
c s lewis

Evolution —Random variation Combined

• With

Non-Random

Cumulative-Selection

(through hereditarily encoded memory DNA)—is different from pure chance.

CS lewis misunderstands this especially the Non random cumulative selection part.

Variation is random ( mutations, gene flow, sexual reproduction Meiosis etc..again based on DNA)

But Cumulative selection over billions of years is not random.
The combination of these 2 processes explains complexity of life on earth.
For example the eye has evolved independently in different creatures many times. ( compare spider’s eye’s with humans). Example of Convergent cumulative selection pressure for sight.

Brains evolved the same way! Even the one in CS Lewis’s skull!.

It’s all  explained in Richard Dawkins book The Blind watchmaker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_program
The biologist are not saying that Evolution is a purely random process. As suggested by C.S Lewis. If your interested in Logic this is called the  “straw man” fallacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

 

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Clearsky wrote:

a misunderstanding

The creationists (primate change deniers lol) are fighting a losing battle, but they keep on fighting just the same.

[Author]

Posts