The early days of Christianity were not especially pleasant for its participants, apparently.  The Roman authorities were not pleased that Christians were touting a new god that was alleged to override those they had invented, and the Jews who didn’t recognize this alleged Messiah weren’t having any that this new cult was selling, either.  It was Rome, though, that got particularly exercised over this emerging religion, though.  Consequences ranging from forced participation in gladiatorial…

The following is an old blog from Atheist Nexus, around October of 2015.  I think the topic material is still very relevant to the here and now, though.



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How many times have we heard it?  “I’m not religious, but I am spiritual.”  To this day, while the intent if not the meaning of that phrase is at least vaguely understood, there should be another way to express it.  I suspect that a goodly number of the people on this planet have…

     The simple reason is because it's not my fight. Acceptance of evolution is the mainstream Christian view. At least for Christianity, a literal view of Genesis is only held by some weird cults, mainly just in the USA. If a Christian wants to debate evolution they can discuss it among themselves. There are more Christians who accept evolution than there are atheists.

     But more than that, the creationists have an ulterior motive trying to bait atheists into debating evolution.…

...they [the Roman Catholic Church] for example thought that slavery was perfectly fine... absolutely okay, and then they didn't, and what is the point of the Catholic Church if it says, “oh well we couldn't know better because nobody else did”? [To the affirmative team] Then what are you for?!

-- Stephen Fry, answering a question during the 2009 Intelligence Squared debate, “Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world?”



Of course, slavery was okay…

Quiz: Name the 3 U.S. vice presidents that were from Indiana.

You might have guessed two fairly recent ones. The third is rather obscure: Schuyler Colfax from South Bend, VP to U.S. Grant (1869-1873).

I just completed reading a biography of Colfax, written by Willard H. Smith in 1951 (no relation to me). Before becoming vice president, he was Speaker of the House of Representatives. Here's an interesting tidbit from the book (and reason for the blog title).

"When…

I don't know why this point isn't raised more. So Christianity presents the resurrection of Jesus as a key detail. However, that never actually happens in the Bible. Reread those gospels if you want, but the only one who gets a resurrection in the Bible is Lazarus (unless there are a few more I'm not aware of).

TLDR before I get into it, but we can agree resurrection means coming back to life after dying, and by life we mean this life not the afterlife. Jesus dies, then goes to hell…

Words are subtle and powerful things.  Ten billion different things can be said with words, from rage to romance, with a multidimensional gradient of meanings and emotions in between those two markers.  There are big words and small words out there: tiny little one- and two- and three- and four-letter words which will be a first-grader’s initial exposure to language learning, then two- and three- and four- and five-syllable verbal jaw breakers which will be the attention-getters, that mark…

For a while, there, it was an absolute truism that among the single most frustrating activities one could indulge in was the pursuit of an appointment to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination.  Starting roughly at the beginning of February, I got myself registered with three different pharmacies, plus two hospital chains (University Hospitals and Cleveland Clinic).  Add to that, I was checking regularly with at least two other drug stores which didn’t have automated registration or informational…

Freelancing is becoming a good source of earning income where you can earn without investing money. Freelancers are the people who are not employed by anybody or you can say like they are their bosses. These are the people who have some skills and the business and clients give them tasks and pay them in exchange for that…

JOMO KENYATTA (1892-1978), first prime minister of independent Kenya:

“When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the Land and the Missionaries had the Bible.
They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed.
When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.”

[From Walker, John Frederick. A Certain Curve of Horn: The Hundred-Year Quest for the Giant Sable Antelope of Angola, 2004. Page 144. This has also been attributed to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.]

Written by Malcolm Hutton: National Secular Society 9 January 2009.

One could take action when a bible is presented in hotel or hospital. First of all, go

prepared with a yellow highlight pen and ask if the bible is yours to keep.

Then

highlight some of the most damaging verses, such as:

Luke 14:26 – hate your mother and father

Matthew 10:34/36 – he came not for peace but with a sword

Psalm 137:9 – it will make you happy to dash your little ones…

The scene is set in the Rotunda of the US Capitol building.  Hardly a few weeks earlier, that had been the site of a riotous attempt at raucous, lawless insurrection.  This moment could not be more different.  The lighting is subdued.  There is little to no conversation from the observers scattered about, their attention focused on the rectangular pedestal, located at the center of the Rotunda.  Said pedestal holds but two items.  The first of these is a flag, folded to a triangle shape in…

What are the chances there’s a god out there, somewhere in or beyond the Universe and responsible for it and us?

It is fitting to bring Bertrand Russell's concept of a sun-orbiting china teapot into this deliberation—or the Flying Spaghetti Monster—and let’s try judging similarly. Think up something new, whatever you like that is implausible and untestable, much like the teapot or spaghetti monster, and then consider the chances of its actually existing anyway. The answer is…

HOLY BOOK BLUNDERS

According to biblical morality and authority the following are fine and natural:

Slavery (Exodus 21:7); 1 Peter 1:18; Ephesians 6: 5-9.

Rape (Deuteronomy 22: 28-29);

Child Abuse (Proverbs 22:15);

Misogyny (1 Timothy 2:12);

Incest (Genesis 19: 32-35);

Prejudice (2 John 1:10).

According to biblical morality and authority the following are evil, wrong, and unnatural:

Eating Pork (Leviticus 11:7);

Eating shellfish (Leviticus…

HOLY BOOK BLUNDERS

According to biblical morality and authority the following are fine and natural:

Slavery (Exodus 21:7); 1 Peter 1:18; Ephesians 6: 5-9.

Rape (Deuteronomy 22: 28-29);

Child Abuse (Proverbs 22:15);

Misogyny (1 Timothy 2:12);

Incest (Genesis 19: 32-35);

Prejudice (2 John 1:10).

According to biblical morality and authority the following are evil, wrong, and unnatural:

Eating Pork (Leviticus 11:7);

Eating shellfish (Leviticus…

I have no doubt but that Joe Biden is one busy new president at the moment, and I tend to suspect that he may never actually READ the following (do they ever?), but considering the events of two weeks ago, Wednesday and our gang's concern regarding just who may have made up that mob, I found myself moved to write.



And so I did:



==============================



President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW…

“You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect.”[1]



While the Merovingian was a snotty, self-important dweeb within the Matrix’s scheme of things, I couldn’t be more in agreement with him as to the issue and the necessity of cause and effect.  Cause and effect is and indeed must be the central operator to the coherent function of…

This blog on miracles is from Chapter 13 of the new atheist book “Q—is for quare, queries and quotes”. 

Anyone may offer additions to this chapter in the course of the next two weeks. terencemeaden01@gmail.com

Miracle, noun: “A marvellous event exceeding the known powers of nature, and therefore supposed to be due to the special intervention of the Deity or some supernatural agency.” Oxford English Dictionary.

Miracle, noun: “An event which could not or…

Well, it finally happened.



One way or the other, Donald Trump has been building up his backers and his base to this moment from before the 2016 election.  Trump talked virtually non-stop about elections being rigged, about being cheated out of a popular vote victory, arguments regarding the numbers at his inauguration speech, and every complaint regarding the power he has wanted to exercise, whether legally or not, as Commander in Chief.  That same language continued into the 2020…

The 2015 movie Spotlight didn’t win the Best Picture Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences purely on the strength of its production values or the performances of its A-list cast, led by Michael Keaton as Boston Globe Spotlight editor Walter “Robbie” Robinson and Mark Ruffalo as reporter Mike Rezendes. Personally, I believe it also earned that honor by representing in dramatic form their investigation into one of the most egregious stains on human society: the…