Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

An Evangelical Pastor Helps In Getting Democratic Party Votes

"Our guest this week recently traveled down to the border to confront the so-called “Army of God” as part of a larger project of providing alternative ideologies to Christian nationalism. Doug Pagitt is a pastor, author and the executive director of Vote Common Good, an organization aimed at influencing evangelical Christians. His group has been on a nationwide tour focused on directly engaging evangelicals in key swing states with the hope of swaying a critical percentage of them against former President Donald Trump. Pagitt believes a small portion of these voters are swayable and that if they are engaged, election outcomes can be flipped. He joins WITHpod to discuss the trajectory of evangelical politics, what he’s learned on tour, and what’s at stake in this year’s election."

Click on the link below for an hour podcast that delves into what one evangelical pastor is doing in an attempt to get fellow evangelicals who are wavering over Trump/MAGA to see enough reality regarding the 2024 vote to do the right thing:


Saturday, February 24, 2024

Cults: A Hard Nut To Crack

"A few years ago, I did a video about cults and predicted that we live in conditions that make cults thrive. Today, a few years later, that seems to be the case, with cult activity skyrocketing not just in the US but worldwide. Today we look at what’s causing this problem, and what you can do if a friend or loved one goes a little too far down the rabbit hole."

Click on the links below for some advice against this major problem that notoriously is difficult to attack:



Thursday, February 22, 2024

Religious Indoctrination Is Child Abuse: The Research

"Gone are the days of the unyielding God-fearing mother as the archetype of good parenting, suggests a recent article from the Los Angeles Times. According to multiple reports, research has shown that a secular upbringing may be healthier for children. According to a 2010 Duke University study, kids raised this way display less susceptibility to racism and peer pressure, and are 'less vengeful, less nationalistic, less militaristic, less authoritarian, and more tolerant, on average, than religious adults.' But the list of benefits doesn’t stop there."

Click on the link below for more:

Is Raising Your Kids Without Religion Better?

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

"You" Are Not What The Religious Say You Are

Click on the link below for a 15-minute video that shatters the concept of a supernatural soul as the base of our consciousness:

Another Failed Refutation of Atheism

The experiments and treatments splitting the brain's corpus callosum
falsify the supernatural human soul.

Monday, February 5, 2024

Sex & Christian History: What You Don't Know

"Was Adam androgynous? What did the apostle Paul say about sex? What does Christianity say about gender roles? Was sex allowed in early Christianity? Here I discuss all of these issues, citing the writings of Paul, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, Polemon the Stoic, Acts of Thecla, and more."

Click on the link below for the bizarre history of sexual attitudes in the history of Christianity:


Tuesday, January 30, 2024

And You Thought The Catholic Church Was Bad

"For most of us, it is clear not just beyond reasonable doubt, but ALL doubt, that Donald Trump is manifestly unfit for office. And yet, he’s making a third tilt at the presidency. The biggest reason is that the religious right is still bowing and praying to an orange god it helped make—and is attempting to bully the nation into doing so. We shouldn’t have been surprised when the nation’s so-called moral guardians told us that Trump’s debauched comments didn’t matter nearly as much as his promises to give them everything they wanted and then some on policy–and above all else, stack the courts with conservative judges.

"Granted, we already knew why the nation’s so-called moral guardians prostrated themselves before Trump. But how they were able to do so remained far less clear. How could the prospect of rolling back abortion and marriage equality be so important to them that they were willing to condone this man?

"A large part of the answer to that question can be found in the way a number of evangelical leaders have responded to sexual assault in their own ranks. In recent years, we have heard stories of survivors turning to their churches or other faith communities for support, only to be greeted with indifference or even outright hostility. If these leaders are willing to take such a cavalier and unsupportive attitude toward their own, it should come as no surprise that many of them were willing to dismiss Trump’s depravities with women.

"For example, when Guidepost Solutions delved into the extent of a years-long cover-up of sexual assault in the Southern Baptist Convention, it revealed that one of the SBC’s longtime titans, Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, willfully and recklessly disregarded his legal and moral duty to protect children. According to the report, when Graham learned his youth pastor, John Langworthy, had molested a number of boys, Graham simply hustled him out of town rather than report him to the police. Langworthy would remain at large for 20 more years, during which he molested boys at his new church in Mississippi."

Click on the link below for more sordid details of the bastards:


Sunday, December 31, 2023

The Universe Is Probably Eternal, No God Necessary

"- - - there was no when there was no Universe. There was never a time when the universe did not exist. The Universe is the SpaceTime Continuum so whenever there is time there is a universe, even if there was nothing but time. Time isn't an extension of the universe. The reason I don't believe that the Universe could have a cause is because to cause something to exist means to do something that results in a change from a time when that thing does not exist to a time when it does exist. Since there never was, or even coherently could be, a time when the SpaceTime Continuum didn't exist, the universe could not have had a cause."

Click on the link below for a strong rejection of the Cosmological Argument for a God. Actually, ALL arguments for a God are generated from the intuitive parts of the brain, which are unreliable for determining what is real. Also, they have NO way to test their validity/justification because they don't come from science:


Thursday, December 28, 2023

An Excellent Tool For Teaching Critical Thinking To Children

Don't be put off by the title:

"The Sunday school teacher is out. Good thing a substitute is available: Satan! 

"SATAN'S GUIDE TO THE BIBLE is an animated documentary. Join Satan as he shares Bible secrets, secrets the students' pastor learned at Christian seminary but is afraid to share. Thankfully, Satan's not afraid of losing his job. 

"Satan has amassed an impressive list of biblical scholars ready to reveal the 'standard stuff' taught in Christian seminaries: Bart Ehrman (UNC Chapel Hill), John J. Collins (Yale), Dale Allison (Princeton Seminary), Susan Niditch (Amherst), Ron Hendel (UC Berkeley), and Hector Avalos (Iowa State). This is an established seminary curriculum about biblical history, biblical morals, authorship claims, and early Christianity — a curriculum never shared with the congregation. 

"Darkly comedic, but thoroughly researched, SATAN'S GUIDE TO THE BIBLE is a fascinating journey into the secrets of the world's best-selling book.

Directed by documentary filmmaker Zeke Piestrup (APOCALYPSE LATER: HAROLD CAMPING VS THE END OF THE WORLD) and produced by animation filmmaker Tim Johnson (ANTZ, OVER THE HEDGE, HOME)"


Friday, December 15, 2023

Intellectualism Is A 4-Letter Word To Republicans

  • Ignorance, or an aversion to reason, has allowed things like gun violence and racism to define American culture.
  • Anti-intellectual societies fall prey to tribalism and simplistic explanations, are emotionally immature, and often seek violent solutions.
  • Corporate interests encourage anti-intellectualism, conditioning Americans into conformity and passive acceptance of institutional dominance.
Click on the link below for more. Oh, this was published BEFORE Trump was elected. It's only gotten worse:

The exaltation of ignorance in America

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

There Is NO Equivalency Between The Two Major US Political Parties

Anyone who watches Rachel Maddow knows her political views. The same can be said about Lis Cheney. There is no better example of polar opposites in political views. However, they agree 100% on ONE important matter: DONALD TRUMP MUST NEVER RETURN AS POTUS!!

Click on the link below for one of the best exposes of the dangers of Trump and his cult to the future of US representative democracy:

He is not the lesser of two evils’: Cheney emphasizes the severity of Trump threat

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Islam: A "Religion Of Peace?"

Many sources have stated that Islam has never gone through its Reformation like Christianity has (link). However, how successful have so-called "Reformations" been? Every major religion seems to have factions on the conservative-liberal spectrum. That said, there seems to be a particular problem with Islam regarding peacefully existing in nations with secular governments (link). This article from the Friendly Atheist Blog seems to sum up the problem:

However,

Based on the above, it is my opinion that there will never be peace where Islam is the majority religion until the present "Revelations" are over-written OR the majority of Islam just truly "Reforms" to the point of being secular in culture.

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Oil And Vinegar

"If you pour oil and vinegar into the same vessel, you would call them not friends but opponents." - Aeschylus

The recent history of the Palestinians and Israelis is essentially one of cultural and religious friction because of three main factors:
  • Islam has never had an "Enlightenment" like Christianity and Judaism have gone through. (link)
  • Christianity has had a violent and oppressive history against Jews essentially since its history blaming them for killing Jesus and calling them "God/Christ Killers". (link)
  • Far Right Jews gaining control of Israel. (link

Thursday, November 16, 2023

A Deep and Wide Look At Foreign Affairs By A True Expert

"Fareed Zakaria is the host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and a foreign affairs columnist at the Washington Post. He joins Preet to discuss the regional and global dynamics of the Israel-Hamas War, the appropriate role for the United States in the Middle East, the state of play in Ukraine, and the politics of the Southern border."

Click on the link below for an important podcast presenting a global down-to-a-local perspective on foreign affairs. Yes, it begins analyzing the Middle East problems but then expands into virtually all the main international issues affecting humanity:


Thursday, November 9, 2023

The Republican War On Critical Thinking

"History has shown us repeatedly what happens when tyrants take education away from the public. Can the Republican led war on public schools turn generation Z, from Doomers to dumber? OR, will we learn from history so as not to repeat it?"

Click on the link below for the details of the Republican effort to end public education so that ignorance, unsupported ideology, and autocracy reigns in the USA:


Monday, October 30, 2023

Deism And Pantheism Are Not "Get Out Of Jail Free" Cards

"Let’s shatter some illusions. For years, I've been the executioner of traditional gods, using the guillotine of logic and the noose of empiricism to make quick work of these divine phantasms. But today, we're breaking into the high-security vaults of "rational theism"—Deism and Pantheism—often heralded as unassailable by even the most erudite skeptics. Not even Einstein or Spinoza are safe from the crucifying lens of critical thinking. What we're about to expose could topple the very pillars of your intellectual sanctuary." 

Click on the link below for an article that destroys these two ideas that many use to avoid labeling themselves atheists:

The Death of Reasonable Gods: Einstein and Spinoza's Failure
How Pantheism and Deism Fail, The Gods of Last Resort

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Why Jews Have Been Hated For 2,000 Years

The conflict in the Middle East between the State of Israel and the Palestinians is relatively new in the history of the Jewish people. After the beginning of Christianity, there was a movement called the Jewish deicide:

- - - - - - -

"Jewish deicide is the notion that the Jews as a people will always be collectively responsible for the killing of Jesus, even through the successive generations following his death.[1][2] A Biblical justification for the charge of Jewish deicide is derived from Matthew 27:24–25. Some rabbinical authorities, such as 12th-century scholar Maimonides and, more recently, ultranationalist Israeli rabbi, Zvi Yehuda Kook (1891–1982), have asserted that Jesus was indeed stoned and hanged after being sentenced to death in a rabbinical court.

"The notion arose in early Christianity, the charge was made by Justin Martyr and Melito of Sardis as early as the 2nd century.[3] The accusation that the Jews were Christ-killers fed Christian antisemitism[4] and spurred on acts of violence against Jews such as pogroms, massacres of Jews during the Crusades, expulsions of the Jews from England, France, Spain, Portugal, and other places, and torture during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions."

"In the catechism that was produced by the Council of Trent in the mid-16th century, the Catholic Church taught the belief that the collectivity of sinful humanity was responsible for the death of Jesus, not only the Jews.[5] If one were to claim that only the Jews were responsible for Jesus’ death, the logical corollary to this would be that Jesus’ redemptive suffering, death and resurrection was for the sins of Jews alone and not all of humanity, as is taught by the Church. In the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the Catholic Church under Pope Paul VI issued the declaration Nostra aetate that repudiated the idea of a collective, multigenerational Jewish guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus. It declared that the accusation could not be made 'against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today'.[1]

"Most other churches do not have any binding position on the matter, but some Christian denominations[which?] have issued declarations against the accusation.[6][7][8]"


- - - - - - -

"CHRISTIANITY’S UNDERSTANDING OF ITS ORIGINS centers on the New Testament, particularly the poetic rendering in the gospels of the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus, which is traditionally known as the Passion.5 In the gospels’ rendition and as interpreted for centuries, the Jews are perceived as 'the Christ killers,' a people condemned forever to suffer exile and degradation. This archcrime of 'deicide,' of murdering God, turned the Jews into the embodiment of evil, a 'criminal people' cursed by God and doomed to wander and suffer tribulation to the end of time. No other religious tradition has condemned a people as the murderers of its god, a unique accusation that has resulted in a unique history of hatred, fear, and persecution. When it came to Jews, the central doctrine of Christianity, that Jesus was providentially sent into the world to atone by his death for mankind’s sins, was obscured."


- - - - - - -

"After a few centuries of freedom from harassment during the Carolingian period (800-1000), the Jews of western Europe began to suffer new indignities as the crusades came on. The Muslims were the 'infidel' targets in the attempted recapture of the holy places in Palestine. However, the pillage and slaughter committed by Christian mobs against Jews on the way linger long in Jewish memory."

" - - - Martin Luther in his early days naively imagined that the Jews, to whom he was attracted by his studies, would flock to the Church in his reformed version. When nothing of the sort happened, he denounced them in a set of pamphlets written in vituperative fury. He had produced the early, favorable "That Christ Was Born a Jew" in 1523, but after he turned on this so-called "damned, rejected race," he wrote Against the Sabbatarians (1538) and On the Jews and Their Lies (1543)."

"Germany was populated with more Jews than any country in Western Europe when Hitler came to power. It also had the same ugly heritage of anti-Jewish sentiment as all Christian Europe. The short-lived Weimar Republic could not deliver Germany from the severe economic hardships it experienced after World War I. Jews had been the Republic’s strong supporters and a few of them were the architects of its constitution, a fact that Hitler capitalized upon. Huge inflation in 1923 and the depression of 1929 increased Germany’s problems. Some leading capitalist families, gentile and Jewish, managed to escape these problems, but the eyes of the angry populace were trained on the Jews rather than the gentiles."


- - - - - -

My comment on the above:

It is clear to me that, without Christianity, the Jews would not have been subjected to the horrors of the last two centuries. Ah, religion. Isn't it wonderful?

It is also clear to me the irony of the strongest supporters of the State of Israel, besides conservative Jews, are conservative Christians. Could it be because of how they interpret Scripture regarding "The End Times?"

Friday, October 27, 2023

No, Religion Does NOT Make Society Better

Numerous studies have debunked the notion that a society must have religion to be good. Click on the link below for a particularly good science-based video presentation by Social Scientist Phil Zuckerman explaining the results of Secularization in free democratic countries:

What Happens When Societies Stop Worshipping God?

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

The US Supreme Court: It's Worse Than You Thought

"The U.S. Supreme Court — that over sixty years ago ruled against state-led prayer in public schools — has swung back the other way with a vengeance. The ultra-conservative majority on the current court has reversed 60 years of progress and put the rights of non-believers in jeopardy.

"In this episode, Jim Underdown speaks to Nick Little, former Director of CFI’s Legal department, and Eddie Tabash, Chair of the CFI Board of Directors. The two lawyers talk about the state of the court, recent decisions, and the problematic future for secular Americans."

Click on the link below for a podcast exposing, not just its destruction of the separation of religion and government, but essentially the foundation of the entire US Constitution:


Saturday, October 21, 2023

Religious Apologists: Your Services Are Useless

Religious apologists, you depend on philosophy and theology to support your claims. However, opinions from such cannot be verified/justified. They have reached the end of usefulness to humanity, especially since modern science is able to verify/justify its findings. They are dead academic disciplines.
 
All religious claims have been evaluated by branches of science with the strong probability that there is nothing new that will change the findings that religion is a construct of the human brain for comforting and controlling.

You instead need to adopt the state of the art regarding knowledge/information encased within the scientific disciplines of modern science. Since religion takes advantage of the weakness of the unassisted brain to understand reality, the understanding of the basic science of psychology is necessary to change the brains of you folks.

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Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.

Choose how you look at reality wisely. Yes, it is a binary choice.
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