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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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Story time...

Even before the earliest cave paintings...and later hieroglyphics...and then written texts in various ancient languages...the general population has always been fascinated with the documentation of stories.

Throughout history, very few people could actually read these stories for themselves, so needed someone to convert the squiggles into audible stories.

Many fundamentalist religious leaders convince their members that they could never understand what they read in the bible for themselves, despite numerous original language word studies being available for anyone to refer to. What they are doing, is grooming the gullible for manipulation and exploitation...

Even today, the religious will spend their lives weekly attending the reading of bible stories, like an infant wanting a bedtime story read out to them...before drifting off to an unconscious imagination filled sleep...yet they never bother to read the bible through, from cover to cover, for themselves*.

Very few believers actually understand the history of bible fabrication and manipulation...

Consider...10 Changes Made to the Bible (Part 1 of 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKp4yWGTfXo “...an in-depth examination of how our modern Bible was created and written and how it differs from the ancient texts of thousands of years ago. You will learn how the Bible has been "changed" or "altered" over time and what these changes mean and why they were made - everything from Goliath's Height to Jesus's sayings...” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKp4yWGTfXo

And, Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX62bRIG-OI

Also consider, How Did the New Testament Form? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCy7NuujCLc&feature=youtu.be

* Similar..."Read the transcript!" versus "No, I haven't read the transcript...but you must!!" followed with, "I just believe what I'm told...!!" https://youtu.be/X-ZFoco_1gQ?t=239

Course... https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/the-historical-jesus

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity #bible fabrication

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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“...author of "Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America" and several other books, to discuss civil unrest in the United States following the death of George Floyd at the hand of police officers in Minneapolis. And Dr. Dyson discusses some ways white Americans can learn and engage to help those who face systemic injustice, including how we can educate our children on these issues...

Ponder... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbo1RYyhP_Q

Also, It’s time for change in the US...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZIzYwmEDE

“In the midst of civil unrest following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, James Corden offers a message of support and love for those fighting for justice. After, bandleader Reggie Watts shares his perspective and experience of growing up black in America. And James shares British rapper Dave's moving performance of "Black" from this year's BRIT Awards..”

Case in point.... a mixed-race couple being confronted by a white woman during their baby’s birthday photo shoot in an upscale neighborhood... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wutl6OP04jU

#systemic racism #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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Despite that sectarian religious superstition being institutionalized, enshrined and forced on others, particularly children...is considered acceptable behavior in societies and homes around the world...(instead of being recognized as abusive practice)...there is a better way of thinking...that encourages reason and ethical behavior...

AC Grayling explains...

Ponder...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LyTc7Vh8zo

Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y2O-ul59vg

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #relig #christ #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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“The Bible Clearly Says…” !

All scripture is viewed through the cultural, chronological, or cognitive lens of the reader. Which reduces the chance of objectivity to near zero...

“There are 31,102 verses in the King James bible. So, if we assume just 3 interpretations for any given passage of scripture, that means we have at least 93,306 potential individual interpretations. Now imagine the combinations and permutations when you begin to “exegete” (ie concoct an interpretation of a text) scripture!

...this variation of the logical fallacy of “appeal to authority” is trotted out in an attempt to silence or discredit a plethora of opinions and positions. The bible is also a go-to to support “confirmation bias,” which is the offspring of “cognitive dissonance.”

The truth is, the bible doesn’t clearly say anything. (And what it says at one point is contradicted at another point, or deemed irrelevant/out of date, or simply ignored by believers, in practice!)

The bible is not a single, authoritative tome; it is a collection of loosely federated, subjective, and culturally biased books and letters.

...when these books and letters were canonized into a single volume, the biases and opinions of the editors were introduced.

There are entire institutions of higher learning dedicated to specific interpretations of the bible. Moreover, it is very common to find only highly-degreed graduates of these institutions leading local bodies (“churches”) of their denominational bent.

(For example...) When Jesus said, “And I, and if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me,” what was he talking about?

One camp will say that if we persistently preach and praise (lift up) Jesus, that will draw all men unto him (to be proselytized and converted and, therefore, “saved”).

Another camp will say that Jesus, in context, was speaking of the judgment of the world, therefore, he couldn’t have been speaking of people. Indeed, that word, “men” is italicized because it was added by the translators for readability. This camp concludes that the judgment of the world was absorbed by Jesus.

Still another will say that if his “lifting up” pertained to his crucifixion, then all men have been drawn unto him — this is an essential point for those who subscribe to universal salvation.

I will neither draw a conclusion nor give my opinion on this passage of scripture; I merely cite it to prove a point.

There are groups that believe that baptism is essential to salvation and there are those who see it as non-essential. There are those who believe humanity still remains under part of the law and others who believe we are under grace. All told, this variation of interpretation has resulted in over 40,000 christian denominations.

Here’s the problem, most people do not study for themselves. Humanity, loving the path of least resistance, prefers to be spoon-fed. Critical and analytical thinking, on one hand, seems to be reserved for academicians; on the other hand, some purported scholars eschew thought in favor of whatever they’ve been taught to hang their doctrinal hats upon.

When folks cite scripture to prove a point, a modicum of intellectual honesty would cite this as their own personal opinion, not an empirical truth.

I think the vast majority simply resorts to rote regurgitation of what they’ve been taught, reducing themselves to spiritual parrots.

Bottom line — there is no such thing as doctrinal purity or flawless hermeneutics; it’s all situational. And true exegesis is a myth...

You shouldn’t need a ThD to interpret what (a theoretical) God has to say to humanity. I don’t believe (a hypothetical) God will hold us accountable to the contents of book that few can agree upon (and which no one can prove was authored by an unprovable god!!).”

From...https://www.patheos.com/blogs/loveminusreligion/2020/04/the-bible-clearly-says-not/

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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Michael Moore Presents: Planet of the Humans | Full Documentary

Watch...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE

#green energy fallacy #unsustainability #biomassdestruction

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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“ Seventy-one of the members who tested positive live in Sacramento county, and members who live in other counties may also be infected. One parishioner has died, officials said, and a pastor indicated in an online sermon the church’s senior pastor has been hospitalized and two others are critically ill.

Places of worship across the county have in recent weeks found themselves in the spotlight after resisting or being slow to enforce social distancing norms. Hugs, handshakes, or passing a common donation basket can easily pass the virus from one person to the next.

Faith Presbyterian church, also in Sacramento, has had two parishioners die from the virus and a total of five people test positive for the virus, the Sacramento Bee reported.

“The reason that we’re disclosing this is not to cause pariahs or cast aspersions at anybody, but to really hammer home the importance of congregating, not only in church, but also in prayer meetings in people’s homes,” said Beilenson.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/03/california-church-coronvirus-outbreak-sacramento

#coronamemes #nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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“...although there are individual people irresponsibly flouting social-distancing rules, it’s almost exclusively right-wing churches that are arguing they have a right to keep congregating in large groups.

On the conservative Christian side, Jerry Falwell Jr. is refusing to close Liberty University as students return from spring break. Falwell previously derided the pandemic as an “overreaction” and a liberal plot to damage Donald Trump. At least a dozen Liberty students are already sick with flu-like symptoms. Similarly, Rodney Howard-Browne, the Florida pastor who sneered at those staying at home as “pansies”, was just arrested for holding large church services in defiance of a stay-home order.

NYC is the epicenter of the epidemic, but that’s not going to be true forever. You can glimpse what’s coming in an article from FiveThirtyEight, The Coronavirus Isn’t Just A Blue State Problem:

Overall, although the number of detected cases is higher in blue states, the number is increasing at a more rapid rate in red states. Moreover, blue states have conducted more tests per capita than red states, so — given that the large majority of coronavirus cases remain undetected — the lower rate of cases in red states may partially be an artifact of less testing.

Nine of the 10 states that have seen the most rapid increase in coronavirus from Monday to Thursday are states that voted for Trump in 2016, led by Texas, where the number of reported cases increased by 297 percent.

The nature of exponential growth is that cases double every few days. As the world saw in Italy and is now seeing in New York, this means that a tiny trickle becomes a deluge almost overnight. It should give other states no comfort that their absolute number of COVID-19 cases is small. That number is going to grow very quickly – especially since most of them have run hardly any tests, so the number detected so far is the tip of an iceberg.

The only way to interrupt this grim math is with social distancing and stay-at-home orders, choking the spread of the virus and denying it chances to jump to new hosts. In many blue states, governors have already taken these steps. But:

Republican governors in several states have downplayed the virus, either refusing to enforce social-distancing measures or even overruling local officials who attempt to do so. A new study finds that the single factor that best explains the speed of state-level reaction is its governor’s partisan identity. “States with Republican governors and Republican electorates delayed each social distancing measure by an average of 2.70 days,” the authors find, “a far larger effect than any other factor, including state income per capita, the percentage of neighboring states with mandates, or even confirmed cases in state.”

It’s not just the Republican leadership, but the Republican rank-and-file. In conservative enclaves,

social distancing is the new culture-war issue, and they’re agin’ it

– some because they’re libertarians who reject the idea of government telling anyone to do anything, and some out of a knee-jerk reflex to do the opposite of anything liberals are doing. You might notice a familiar name in this excerpt:

Polling data suggest that Republicans throughout the U.S. are much less concerned about the coronavirus than Democrats are. According to a recent analysis by The New York Times, Trump won 23 of the 25 states where people have reduced personal travel the least.

…Katherine Vincent-Crowson, a 35-year-old self-defense instructor from Slidell, Louisiana, has watched in horror this month as businesses around her city were forced to close by state decree. A devotee of Ayn Rand, Vincent-Crowson told me Louisiana’s shelter-in-place order was a frightening example of government overreach… [She says,] “I’m a libertarian… I don’t really like being told what to do.”

Since these red states have scorned the advice of public-health experts, there’s every reason to believe that they’ll be hit harder by the coronavirus than New York. How are they going to cope?

Here’s a fact that would give Donald Trump a chill of fear, if he had the capacity to think of anyone or anything but himself: 1 in 8 Trump voters lives in a county with zero ICU beds.

About 8.3 million people who voted for Trump in 2016 live in counties where there are no ICU beds or no hospitals. That amounts to about 13 percent of the total votes Trump earned in that election, or one out of every eight votes.

…More importantly, those counties which voted for Trump are home to about 6.5 million people over the age of 60, people in a particularly high-risk group for contracting covid-19.

New York is dealing with a tsunami of coronavirus cases that hospitals are straining to absorb, but they were starting from a higher baseline. Many red states’ health care systems were already underfunded and stretched to the breaking point. If they’re hit with the same deluge of cases, they’re going to collapse completely.

For logistical reasons, hospitals are more likely to be located in dense metropolitan areas rather than thinly populated rural counties. This means that voters in rural areas, who are overwhelmingly Republican, are poorly positioned to face a public-health crisis – especially since Republicans are also disproportionately elderly, and the virus is much deadlier in that age group.

But what makes this already bad situation even worse is that dozens of rural hospitals have closed in the last few years, and many more are on the brink. Why? Because the red states where most of these hospitals are found have refused to expand Medicaid under Obamacare:

The states that have experienced the most rural hospital closures over the last 10 years (Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, and Missouri) have all refused to expand Medicaid through the 2010 health care law. It seems their rural hospitals are paying the price. Of the 216 hospitals that Chartis says are most vulnerable to closure, 75 percent are in non-expansion states. Those 216 hospitals have an operating margin of negative 8.6 percent.

Research has consistently shown Medicaid expansion improves hospitals’ financial performance by reducing the amount of uncompensated care.

Again, as I said last time, I don’t describe this as karma or poetic justice – that would be unconscionably cruel – but I don’t hesitate to call it cause and effect. Republican voters in these states and counties have chosen over and over again to elect politicians who kick them in the teeth. They’ve voted to shred their own safety nets, and now that a crisis has arrived where that safety net would have helped, they’re on their own.

It’s the ultimate rejection of John Rawls’ veil of ignorance, which posits that you should design a society you wouldn’t be afraid to live in without knowing your place in advance. Republican voters, in a perverse way, are doing the exact opposite: they’re crafting a society that’s intentionally cruel to its poor and its disadvantaged, even knowing that they’re among that group. Now that decision is about to rebound on them, with catastrophic consequences.”

by Adam Lee

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2020/04/the-coming-red-state-coronavirus-catastrophe/

#coronavirus #nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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The Covid-19 outbreak is giving humanity the best chance to survive into the future...by reducing global warming:

1. by making the world need to work together to survive...scientifically, not religiously/superstitiously...across borders and cultures...

2. by teaching people that they don’t need to constantly congregate into mindless mobs...whether religious/superstitious mobs (spreading fantasy over reality)...blood-lust/competitive mobs (sports)...raging/excessive inebriation and consumption mobs (mass partying)...and demonstrating the importance to learn science...and how to think/reason rationally for themselves...

3. by stopping the affluent be so wasteful of the world’s natural resources...through incessant/polluting air travel...multiple cars and houses around the country and the world...excessive consumption (watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECkLgq2W9RU regarding fashion)...etc

4. teaching the willfully ignorant/superstitious/religious how evolution (of viruses for example) works...and why it is important for their and their families survival...that they understand and follow science...

5. teaching fundamentalists that the bible/religion is fantasy and has no answers to real-life problems...that anointing the sick with olive oil is nonsense...praying is futile...and the only proven way forward is to understand and combat diseases with verifiable science...

Watch Where Do New Viruses Come From...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJLXdsO1GBI

Q&A... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDM-DaK3rD0

How to See Germs Spread...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5-dI74zxPg

Update: The Coronavirus Explained & What You Should Do https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtN-goy9VOY

#nonreligious #atheists #agnostic #Secular Humanists #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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There is a fundamental reason...that the world is not desperately waiting for the church...to develop a cure for the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak...

Science develops cures...and advises on provable prevention strategies...!

Religion uses god make-believe stories...to fleece the gullible...!

#nionreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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Well, the Pope got that one biblically correct*! Now he just needs to put all his religion’s money...where his mouth is...!

Also, and even more importantly...Thou shalt not indoctrinate children...with religious make believe...!!

Meanwhile, throughout religion...

“Even so, demand ever more money from followers...to spend on self-aggrandizement, jets and mansions, expensive cars and clothes...then boast that god gave it all to you...and blame those that have not...because you stole what little they had, using empty and false promises...so that others may see your hypocrisy and greed, and come to disregard your Father-who-is-in-heaven beliefs...” Megachurch/Televangelist 24:7

“Even so, bribe politicians, and hijack political parties, and disregard your political oath of office...so that everyone will see your grasp for power...and your dishonesty and lack of morality...and your desire to force your unverifiable religious beliefs down everyone’s throats...and rise up to oppose your evil ways, and your Father-who-is-in-heaven beliefs...” Christian Right 24:7

“Even so, tell everyone that only those that belong to your religious group...and believe whatever unsubstantiated rubbish you believe...is going to unverifiable heaven...so that everyone may see your hypocrisy and insanity...and disregard for others...and mock you and your Father-who-is-in-heaven beliefs...” Sectarian Religious Cultist 24:7

“Even so, force your unverifiable religious beliefs down everyone’s throats...especially children...and claim that religious fantasy fables “are true!!”...then scream and cry and pout and throw a tantrum when others disagree with you...so that the nonreligious may expose your verifiable ignorance of reality and insanity...and disparage your Father-who-is-in-heaven beliefs...” Religious Fundamentalist 24:7

“Even so, proclaim you have much faith in your unverifiable god...and say you follow your fabricated bible...while doing the opposite of what it says...lusting after earthly power, status and money...seeking to forcefully dominate others...especially those who are weaker, and minorities...as you disregard their free will...and remove their abilities to exercise free choice...so that everyone may see your hypocrisy and insanity...and abuse of others...and completely discredit you and your Father-who-is-in-heaven beliefs...” Religious Hypocrisy 24:7

Read...https://disrn.com/news/pope-says-christians-should-never-try-to-convert-unbelievers-anyone-who-proselytizes-is-not-a-disciple-of-jesus

“Even so, let your light shine before people; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven...” Jesus, bible god, Matt 5:16

“‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ ...“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’...“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life...” Jesus, bible god, Matt 25:41-46

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ ...” Jesus, bible god, Matt 7:21-23

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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The religious base their views and actions on their own interpretations of their particular sectarian version of religious make believe. They hate it when people point out how reality is popping their religious fantasy bubble...and how blatantly hypocritical they are acting. It is hard to stay deluded when people point out their actions demonstrate a lack of faith in the god they are claiming to have faith in...

“We’re living through a time when conservative Christians have a lot of political power, and we see how they’re using it. They’re shoving fellow conservatives, even unqualified ones, to lifetime appointments on the federal bench. They’re discriminating against LGBTQ people however they can; the government is kicking people out of the military and writing Supreme Court briefs in defense of discrimination at Christian-owned businesses. They’re making sure the White House is teeming with as many right-wing Christian leaders as can fit at all times.

For all their talk of “religious freedom,” given more power than they ever dreamed of, they’re using it to instill Christian supremacy.

If you watch FOX News and live in a conservative media bubble, you might think all this is necessary. After all, if atheists were in charge, we’d be doing the exact same thing. We’d shut down churches, and block people from saying “Merry Christmas,” and put pastors in jail for speaking out against homosexuality. Right? Right?!We know that’s wrong. They don’t. And now a study has shown just how ignorant they are.

Writing for the Washington Post, Denison University Professor Paul A. Djupe says he recently conducted a study with Eastern Illinois University Professor Ryan P. Burge that showed how a majority of white evangelical Christians sincerely believe atheists would strip away their rights if given the chance.

Of those white evangelical Protestants, we found that 60 percent believed that atheists would not allow them First Amendment rights and liberties. More specifically, we asked whether they believed atheists would prevent them from being able to “hold rallies, teach, speak freely, and run for public office.” Similarly, 58 percent believed “Democrats in Congress” would not allow them to exercise these liberties if they were in power. By contrast, 23 percent think “Republicans in Congress” would not respect their rights; those were primarily the views of a small contingent of white evangelical Democrats in the sample.

But in a separate poll Djupe conducted a few years ago, he can say with authority that those fears are completely unfounded. Atheists aren’t trying to take away the civil rights of religious people. We might have passionate disdain for conservatives but that’s a far cry from saying we would use any power we have to hurt them.

Then respondents were asked whether their selected group should be allowed to give speeches in the community, teach in public schools, run for public office and other liberties. Americans are not particularly tolerant of groups they dislike. Only 30 percent are willing to allow their disliked group three or more such activities.

What did white evangelicals say about atheists when asked the same question?

They would totally strip away our rights.

Thirteen percent of white evangelical Protestants selected atheists as their least-liked group. Of those, 32 percent are willing to extend three or more of these rights to atheists. In fact, when we looked at all religious groups, atheists and agnostics were the most likely to extend rights to the groups they least liked.

To summarize, among atheists who said they loathed Christian fundamentalists more than any other religious group, 65% still said they would be perfectly fine with those Christians having the same rights as everyone else. But among white evangelicals who hated atheists the most — even more than “white supremacists” — only 32% would say the same.

This is a core difference between the two groups and it illustrates why the “both sides are the same” argument is ridiculous. We’re not equally dogmatic but on opposite sides of the spectrum. In fact, these results just emphasize a point I’ve made repeatedly on this site: Atheists fight for religious neutrality, while white evangelicals fight for Christian supremacy.

When white evangelicals are in power, as they are now, everyone outside that particular bubble is screwed. We see that in action now. We hear them say it all the time. And all the fear-mongering that occurs in conservative media and at evangelical churches has made it so those Christians believe they have to keep others down.

That’s not the case when damn near anyone else is in power.

White evangelicals have long believed they’re persecuted. That’s why they overreach when given the opportunity. And yet the irony is that there’s no way they would swap power with any other group. If they truly believe Christians are under attack, I’m happy to trade the number of open atheists in Congress with the number of evangelicals.

No Christian would ever take that bet because it would shatter the myth that they’re persecuted when, in reality, they’re the persecutors. The bullies want you to think they’re the real victims. Don’t fall for it...”

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/12/23/study-shows-white-evangelicals-want-christian-supremacy-not-religious-freedom/

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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“It stood by as the core Gospel message—concern for the poor and the oppressed—was perverted into a magical world where God and Jesus showered believers with material wealth and power. The white race, especially in the United States, became God’s chosen agent.

Imperialism and war became divine instruments for purging the world of infidels and barbarians, evil itself. Capitalism, because God blessed the righteous with wealth and power and condemned the immoral to poverty and suffering, became shorn of its inherent cruelty and exploitation.

The iconography and symbols of American nationalism became intertwined with the iconography and symbols of the Christian faith. The mega-pastors, narcissists who rule despotic, cult-like fiefdoms, make millions of dollars by using this heretical belief system to prey on the mounting despair and desperation of their congregations, victims of neoliberalism and deindustrialization.

These believers find in Donald Trump a reflection of themselves, a champion of the unfettered greed, cult of masculinity, lust for violence, white supremacy, bigotry, American chauvinism, religious intolerance, anger, racism and conspiracy theories that define the central beliefs of the Christian right.

Trump has filled his own ideological void with Christian fascism. He has elevated members of the Christian right to prominent positions, including Mike Pence to the vice presidency, Mike Pompeo to secretary of state, Betsy DeVos to secretary of education, Ben Carson to secretary of housing and urban development, William Barr to attorney general, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and the televangelist Paula White to his Faith and Opportunities Initiative. More importantly, Trump has handed the Christian right veto and appointment power over key positions in government, especially in the federal courts. He has installed 133 district court judges out of 677 total, 50 appeals court judges out of 179 total, and two U.S. Supreme Court justices out of nine. Almost all of these judges were, in effect, selected by the Federalist Society and the Christian right. Many of the extremists who make up the judicial appointees have been rated as unqualified by the American Bar Association, the country’s largest nonpartisan coalition of lawyers.

Trump has moved to ban Muslim immigrants and rolled back civil rights legislation. He has made war on reproductive rights by restricting abortion and defunding Planned Parenthood. He has stripped away LGBTQ rights. He has ripped down the firewall between church and state by revoking the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches, which are tax-exempt, from endorsing political candidates. His appointees throughout the government routinely use biblical strictures to justify an array of policy decisions including environmental deregulation, war, tax cuts and the replacement of public schools with charter schools, an action that permits the transfer of federal education funds to private “Christian” schools.

I studied ethics at Harvard Divinity School with James Luther Adams, who had been in Germany in 1935 and 1936. Adams witnessed the rise there of the so-called Christian Church, which was pro-Nazi. He warned us about the disturbing parallels between the German Christian Church and the Christian right. Adolf Hitler was in the eyes of the German Christian Church a volk messiah and an instrument of God—a view similar to the one held today about Trump by many of his white evangelical supporters. Those demonized for Germany’s economic collapse, especially Jews and communists, were agents of Satan. Fascism, Adams told us, always cloaked itself in a nation’s most cherished symbols and rhetoric. Fascism would come to America not in the guise of stiff-armed, marching brownshirts and Nazi swastikas but in mass recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance, the biblical sanctification of the state and the sacralization of American militarism. Adams was the first person I heard label the extremists of the Christian right as fascists. Liberals, he warned, as in Nazi Germany, were blind to the tragic dimension of history and radical evil. They would not react until it was too late.

Trump’s legacy will be the empowerment of the Christian fascists. They are what comes next. For decades they have been organizing to take power. They have built infrastructures and organizations, including lobbying groups, schools and universities as well as media platforms, to prepare. They have seeded their cadre into the political system. We on the left, meanwhile, have seen our institutions and organizations destroyed or corrupted by corporate power.

The Christian fascists, as in all totalitarian movements, need a crisis, manufactured or real, in order to seize power. This crisis may be financial. It could be triggered by a catastrophic terrorist attack. Or it could be the result of a societal breakdown from our climate emergency. The Christian fascists are poised to take advantage of the chaos, or perceived chaos. They have their own version of the brownshirts, the for-hire mercenary armies and private contractors amassed by Christian fascists such as Erik Prince, the brother of Betsy DeVos. The Christian fascists have seized control of significant portions of the judiciary and legislative branches of government. FRC Action, the legislative affiliate of the Family Research Council, gives 245 members of Congress a perfect 100% for votes that support the agenda of the Christian right. The Family Research Council, which has called on its followers to pray that God will vanquish the “demonic forces” behind Trump’s impeachment, is identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group because of its campaigns to discriminate against the LGBTQ community.

The ideology of the Christian fascists panders in our decline to the primitive yearnings for the vengeance, new glory and moral renewal that are found among those pushed aside by deindustrialization and austerity. Reason, facts and verifiable truth are impotent weapons against this belief system. The Christian right is a “crisis cult.” Crisis cults arise in most collapsing societies. They promise, through magic, to recover the lost grandeur and power of a mythologized past. This magical thinking banishes doubt, anxiety and feelings of disempowerment. Traditional social hierarchies and rules, including an unapologetic white, male supremacy, will be restored. Rituals and behaviors including an unquestioning submission to authority and acts of violence to cleanse the society of evil will vanquish malevolent forces.

The Christian fascists propagate their magical thinking through a selective literalism in addressing the Bible. They hold up as sacrosanct biblical passages that buttress their ideology and ignore, or grossly misinterpret, the ones that do not. They live in a binary universe. They see themselves as eternal victims, oppressed by dark and sinister groups seeking their annihilation. They alone know the will of God. They alone can fulfill God’s will. They seek total cultural and political domination. The secular, reality-based world, one where Satan, miracles, destiny, angels and magic do not exist, destroyed their lives and communities. That world took away their jobs and their futures. It ripped apart the social bonds that once gave them purpose, dignity and hope. In their despair they often struggled with alcohol, drug and gambling addictions. They endured familial breakdown, divorce, evictions, unemployment and domestic and sexual violence. The only thing that saved them was their conversion, the realization that God had a plan for them and would protect them. These believers were pushed by a callous, heartless corporate society and rapacious oligarchy into the arms of charlatans. All who speak to them in the calm, rational language of fact and evidence are hated and ultimately feared, for they seek to force believers back into “the culture of death” that nearly destroyed them.

We can blunt the rise of this Christian fascism only by reintegrating exploited and abused Americans into society, giving them jobs with stable, sustainable incomes, relieving their crushing personal debts, rebuilding their communities and transforming our failed democracy into one in which everyone has agency and a voice. We must impart to them hope, not only for themselves but for their children.

Christian fascism is an emotional life raft for tens of millions. It is impervious to the education, dialogue and discourse the liberal class naively believes can blunt or domesticate the movement. The Christian fascists, by choice, have severed themselves from rational thought. We will not placate or disarm this movement, bent on our destruction, by attempting to claim that we too have Christian “values.” This appeal only strengthens the legitimacy of the Christian fascists and weakens our own. We will transform American society to a socialist* system that provides meaning, dignity and hope to all citizens, that cares and nurtures the most vulnerable among us, or we will become the victims of the Christian fascists we created.”

Chris Hedges is a Truthdig columnist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a New York Times best-selling author, a professor in the college degree program offered to New Jersey state prisoners by Rutgers…

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/onward-christian-fascists/

* “There are many varieties of socialism and there is no single definition encapsulating all of them...” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

..."democratic socialism" is really social democracy, as found in much of Europe and especially in the Nordic countries.[19] In 2018, The Week suggested that there was a trend towards social democracy in the United States and highlighted elements of its implementation in the Nordic countries, suggesting that Sanders’ popularity was an element in favor of its possible growth in acceptance.”... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Bernie_Sanders

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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“The findings suggest that damage to particular areas of the prefrontal cortex indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by diminishing cognitive flexibility and openness—a psychology term that describes a personality trait which involves dimensions like curiosity, creativity, and open-mindedness.

Religious beliefs can be thought of as socially transmitted mental representations that consist of supernatural events and entities assumed to be real. Religious beliefs differ from empirical beliefs, which are based on how the world appears to be and are updated as new evidence accumulates or when new theories with better predictive power emerge. On the other hand, religious beliefs are not usually updated in response to new evidence or scientific explanations, and are therefore strongly associated with conservatism. They are fixed and rigid, which helps promote predictability and coherence to the rules of society among individuals within the group.

Religious fundamentalism refers to an ideology that emphasizes traditional religious texts and rituals and discourages progressive thinking about religion and social issues. Fundamentalist groups generally oppose anything that questions or challenges their beliefs or way of life. For this reason, they are often aggressive towards anyone who does not share their specific set of supernatural beliefs, and towards science, as these things are seen as existential threats to their entire worldview.

Since religious beliefs play a massive role in driving and influencing human behavior throughout the world, it is important to understand the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism from a psychological and neurological perspective.

To investigate the cognitive and neural systems involved in religious fundamentalism, a team of researchers—led by Jordan Grafman of Northwestern University—conducted a study that utilized data from Vietnam War veterans that had been gathered previously. The vets were specifically chosen because a large number of them had damage to brain areas suspected of playing a critical role in functions related to religious fundamentalism. CT scans were analyzed comparing 119 vets with brain trauma to 30 healthy vets with no damage, and a survey that assessed religious fundamentalism was administered. While the majority of participants were Christians of some kind, 32.5% did not specify a particular religion.

Based on previous research, the experimenters predicted that the prefrontal cortex would play a role in religious fundamentalism, since this region is known to be associated with something called ‘cognitive flexibility’. This term refers to the brain’s ability to easily switch from thinking about one concept to another, and to think about multiple things simultaneously. Cognitive flexibility allows organisms to update beliefs in light of new evidence, and this trait likely emerged because of the obvious survival advantage such a skill provides. It is a crucial mental characteristic for adapting to new environments because it allows individuals to make more accurate predictions about the world under new and changing conditions.

Brain imaging research has shown that a major neural region associated with cognitive flexibility is the prefrontal cortex—specifically two areas known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Additionally, the vmPFC was of interest to the researchers because past studies have revealed its connection to fundamentalist-type beliefs. For example, one study showed individuals with vmPFC lesions rated radical political statements as more moderate than people with normal brains, while another showed a direct connection between vmPFC damage and religious fundamentalism. For these reasons, in the present study, researchers looked at patients with lesions in both the vmPFC and the dlPFC, and searched for correlations between damage in these areas and responses to religious fundamentalism questionnaires.

According to Dr. Grafman and his team, since religious fundamentalism involves a strict adherence to a rigid set of beliefs, cognitive flexibility and open-mindedness present a challenge for fundamentalists. As such, they predicted that participants with lesions to either the vmPFC or the dlPFC would score low on measures of cognitive flexibility and trait openness and high on measures of religious fundamentalism.The results showed that, as expected, damage to the vmPFC and dlPFC was associated with religious fundamentalism. Further tests revealed that this increase in religious fundamentalism was caused by a reduction in cognitive flexibility and openness resulting from the prefrontal cortex impairment. Cognitive flexibility was assessed using a standard psychological card sorting test that involved categorizing cards with words and images according to rules. Openness was measured using a widely-used personality survey known as the NEO Personality Inventory. The data suggests that damage to the vmPFC indirectly promotes religious fundamentalism by suppressing both cognitive flexibility and openness.These findings are important because they suggest that impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex—whether from brain trauma, a psychological disorder, a drug or alcohol addiction, or simply a particular genetic profile—can make an individual susceptible to religious fundamentalism. And perhaps in other cases, extreme religious indoctrination harms the development or proper functioning of the prefrontal regions in a way that hinders cognitive flexibility and openness.

The authors emphasize that cognitive flexibility and openness aren’t the only things that make brains vulnerable to religious fundamentalism. In fact, their analyses showed that these factors only accounted for a fifth of the variation in fundamentalism scores. Uncovering those additional causes, which could be anything from genetic predispositions to social influences, is a future research project that the researchers believe will occupy investigators for many decades to come, given how complex and widespread religious fundamentalism is and will likely continue to be for some time.

By investigating the cognitive and neural underpinnings of religious fundamentalism, we can better understand how the phenomenon is represented in the connectivity of the brain, which could allow us to someday inoculate against rigid or radical belief systems through various kinds of mental and cognitive exercises.

Bobby Azarian is a neuroscientist affiliated with George Mason University and a freelance journalist. His research has been published in journals such as Cognition & Emotion and Human Brain Mapping, and he has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Psychology Today, and Scientific American.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/link-between-religious-fundamentalism-and-brain-damage-established-by-scientists/

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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How can you leave your religion...when it's so heavily ingrained in you...?

“This is my deconversion story - how I became an atheist and left my faith...traveling from religion to reason...” Holy Koolaid https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvoUDoDu-cKIb11rg4ODDQ and https://holykoolaid.com/

Enjoy ...My Journey out of Religion...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t8MhsE4vW4

As well as...

My Story (The Extent of my Religious Upbringing): https://youtu.be/BhIxB_S3A9Q

The Thinking Atheist - Top 10 Creationist Arguments: https://youtu.be/SSxgnu3Hww8

Thunderf00t - Why do People Laugh at Creationists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS5vi...

The Story of Life series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_lGi...

DarkMatter2525’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/DarkMatt...

Christina Rad’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ZOMGitsC...

Jaclyn Glenn’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JaclynGlenn

James Randi - Nova: The Secrets of the Psychics: https://youtu.be/2MFAvH8m8aI

NonStampCollector - Quiz Show (Bible Contradictions): https://youtu.be/RB3g6mXLEKk

William Lane Craig Getting Hitchslapped: https://youtu.be/0tYm41hb48o

My Sleep Paralysis Video: https://youtu.be/skRXt3YRGOo

My Faith Healing Video: https://youtu.be/vdrjvmk_-1M

Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham: https://youtu.be/z6kgvhG3AkI

My Pascal’s Wager Video: https://youtu.be/PfKDyHHUauM

How to Get Over the Fear of Hell: https://youtu.be/A0PNvs0LkCw

43Alley - Realizing Hell Does Not Exist: https://youtu.be/Wgj65-EfmoA

The You Are Not So Smart Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/user/YouAreNo...

My Radio Interview (starts at 28:40): https://soundcloud.com/cjad-viewpoint...

My Skeptical Inquirer Interview: https://www.csicop.org/specialarticle...

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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Did the Exodus really happen? Was Moses real, and were the Jews ever slaves in Egypt? Is there any proof of the Exodus or is it all myth?

Enjoy...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iep4gnmJeRE&feature=youtu.be

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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confrontingbabble-on · 4 years

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“To test this, participants were asked whether or not they believed in a series of statements while their brain activity was being imaged by an fMRI scanner.

Some sentences were simple and fact-based (California is larger than Rhode Island), while others were more abstract and subjective (God probably does not exist).

The results showed the activation of distinct but often overlapping brain areas in the belief and disbelief conditions...Overall, there was greater brain activation that persisted for longer during states of disbelief. Greater brain activation requires more cognitive resources, of which there is a limited supply. What these findings show is that the mental process of believing is simply less work for the brain, and therefore often favored. The default state of the human brain is to accept what we are told, because doubt takes effort. Belief, on the other hand, comes easily.

This troubling finding makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. If children questioned every single fact they were being taught, learning would occur at a rate so slow that it would be a hindrance.

But this fact could be just as easily applied to both the political left and right. So how does it explain why conservatives, specifically evangelicals, are so easily duped by Donald Trump?

For Christian fundamentalists, being taught to suppress critical thinking begins at a very early age. It is the combination of the brain’s vulnerability to believing unsupported facts and aggressive indoctrination that create the perfect storm for gullibility. Due to the brain’s neuroplasticity, or ability to be sculpted by lived experiences, evangelicals literally become hardwired to believe far-fetched statements.

This wiring begins when they are first taught to accept Biblical stories not as metaphors for living life practically and purposefully, but as objective truth.

Mystical explanations for natural events train young minds to not demand evidence for beliefs.

As a result, the neural pathways that promote healthy skepticism and rational thought are not properly developed. This inevitably leads to a greater susceptibility to lying and gaslighting by manipulative politicians (and religions!), and greater suggestibility in general.

If we want to combat the brain’s habit of taking the path of least resistance, which has destructive downstream consequences for critical thinking, as a society we must place more value on empirical evidence, and this must be reflected in how we educate our youth.

Additionally, we must create an awareness of the fact that for the human mind, believing is more of a reflex than a careful and methodical action.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/a-neuroscientist-explains-why-christian-evangelicals-are-wired-to-believe-donald-trumps-gaslighting-lies/

Also, https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/this-psychological-analysis-of-trump-supporters-has-exposed-5-alarming-traits-about-them/

And, https://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/a-neuroscientist-explains-what-may-be-wrong-with-trump-supporters-brains/

Watch... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_svYhKcmlc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfEUjoRsNYw

* “Religion abuses their followers by "systematically withholding factual information from, and/or providing false information to, the(ir) victim(s) - having the gradual effect of making them anxious, confused, and less able to trust their own memory and perception (of reality)...” https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Gaslighting

Also, https://www.psychologytoday.com/nz/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201701/11-warning-signs-gaslighting

#nonreligious #atheist #agnostic #secular humanist #skeptic #Religion #Christianity #religious insanity

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