118 Comments

This is why fundies in the US try to sneak creationism into biology. They have ALWAYS had the ability to create bible-as-literature and even ID-as-philosophy electives. But they know nobody (except maybe some of their own kids) will voluntarily take such an elective, so they rarely ever actually do that. To indoctrinate kids like they want, they have to put that religion in a college prep course that that parents and students both think is important.

Alice: "Bob, I'm unhappy. Nobody will buy my shitburger."

Bob: "You could improve the ingredient list."

Alice: "Nope. That is not an option I'm willing to consider."

Bob: "Okay. So instead let's force restaurants to include a shitburger with every order."

Alice: "Brilliant!"

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They never stop trying to shoehorn the universe into their Bronze Age creation myth.

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Best example of how creationists push their own [crud]burgers in schools.

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HOWEVER, if I had been given the option of taking a Religion Survey Course in high school, one that had an actually qualified teacher, instead of crap like gym class I'd have jumped on it in a second, along with a lot of other students, I'd think. I'd have also taken it instead of other non-mandatory electives that filled slack space in my schedule.

Now, not having gym class may affect the employment of otherwise useless gym teachers, and have a knock-on effect in the quality of state college futball and other sports teams, but even back then, that was a sacrifice I was willing to make. Actual Health classes taught me all I really needed to know in this area, and taught me things I have carried through my ENTIRE life.

This would actually be an irregular course in that it taught/sharpened CRITICAL thinking skills instead of just trying to cram facts and methods into student minds.

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I find it fascinating that religion really does need some sort of pressure for folks to choose it. Right now it’s governmental policy pressure, but it has been governmental violence pressure and church violence pressure, as well as fear mongering and simply preying on vulnerabilities to convince folks to believe. The problem is that once they do, they can be pretty pushy about it as well and difficult to convince otherwise.

But thankfully, given a chance to step back, most folks are able to break free.

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Shoot, they've known from the beginning that intimidation was part of the recipe. Why else would they invent hell?

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They didn't quite *invent* hell, they stole the idea from Tartarus of classical mythology. (or maybe they have a common root, I was still struggling with Christianity when I did any actual study of Greek Mythology)

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And as for the devil:

𝐻𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑠, 𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝐽𝑒𝑤𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑠.

-- Aron Ra

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Satan is a Christian god.

He is immortal.

He has miraculous/magical powers.

He controls the lives of the majority of humans.

He is thus more powerful than many of the classical gods of Greece or Northern Europe.

Christianity is NOT monotheistic.

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You remember better than you think, you said "Tartarus" and not "Hades" :)

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I thought Tartarus was that restaurant chain that specializes in steak tartare.

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No, that's Tartarin de Tarascon 😁

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Tampa celebrates an imaginary pirate invasion every January. 🏴‍☠☠🏴‍☠️🦜

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasparilla_Pirate_Festival

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I've had some refreshment from the stories of Rick Riordan, but it's been a loong time since I *studied* Greek Mythology.

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DM bought me my first Greek mythology book when I was around 7 or 8 :)

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OT: I ask you about making those googly eye dice every once in a while, I came across this. Not the same thing, but still pretty cool.

https://www.maha-fairytale.com/products/lifelike-green-dragon-eye-dice-set?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=Facebook_Desktop_Feed&utm_campaign=23853385859760671&utm_term=23853385859730671&utm_content=23853385859750671

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Those are cool.

I have a few excuses of why I haven’t tried making them yet. I’ll do something soon. I’m wanting to get back to the epoxy resin crafts and this will be my first project. But it might have to wait till summer.

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My antivirus software is blocking this page as a dangerous scam page.

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It's roll playing dice with Sauron (dragon) like eyes in the center.

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Could you give me the name? Or a link to another website? I think my son would probably like them – he and his friends have bags of dice for some strange gaming reason.

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You know you can cut everything to the right of (and including) the question mark? That's just the facebook tracking tag.

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I figured I could cut something, I wasn't sure what.

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Cat's eye marbles of my early 1950's chidhood are back

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Apparently this is why Dumb Idiot Ham moved to the US years ago. He knows he's going to have a much better time finding and winning gullible, idiotic converts to grift in the US than in Australia.

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And Australians are not at all sorry. NZ sent them one of their worst Conservative politicians ever – Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and we're not sorry either. 😁

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Not sure I'm surprised that Australia is ahead of us in rejecting religion, never mind the brand of blatant indoctrination that STILL goes on in the US and which Hemant has documented more than once and indeed, recently.

I just hope that the US has the will to catch up ... because I'm sick to death of the brand of Christian crap that I continue to see, nearly on a daily basis.

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Optimist.

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Mar 2, 2023·edited Mar 2, 2023

I think the deal is that Victoria, not ALL of Australia, STATE schools actually caught up with US public schools by removing mandatory religious education about 10 years ago?

Right now, the overall demographics show Victoria ahead in the None category vs. US, but both have overall downward trends. But, again, this is for Victoria, only.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Australia

Best comparison would be against a US 'heathen' state, because the overall Australia demographics are not the same as Victoria.

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Quelle surprise! Students don't want to be bored on their own time. 😁

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I have maintained for some time that the evangelicals desire to impose their religion on others is doomed to failure because people don't like having religion imposed on them. They are attempting to accomplish through the courts and legislatures what they have failed to do from their pulpits. If anything, trying to coerce religion will only hasten its demise.

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We can hope, anyway

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O/T: Fundied will gloat over this:

Gay Maryland Mayor Arrested On Child Porn Charges

https://www.joemygod.com/2023/03/gay-maryland-mayor-arrested-on-child-porn-charges/

While looking away from news like this:

Cops: Florida Pastor Secretly Sold Church For Drugs

https://www.joemygod.com/2023/03/cops-florida-pastor-secretly-sold-church-for-drugs/

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JMG has pages of the sex crimes of the "pious."

https://www.joemygod.com/?s=pastor+sex

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Without god groomers forcing their sky daddy nonsense on others their numbers keep dropping. This is why they are so dangerous and rabid here in the US, a dwindling cult of crazy.

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https://twitter.com/AtheistRepublic/status/1631304624194871298 this made me chuckle a little bit.

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This atheist usually gets a tuna, or maybe a meatball.

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Not even baby corn or carrot ?

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I'm not a vegetarian..... not that there's anything wrong with that. : )

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Even Aria ate vegetables (cauliflower) 😁

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Mar 2, 2023·edited Mar 2, 2023

OT, but a number of conservatives on my local political blog are desperately trying to show that large companies are lefty – because you know they're willing to sacrifice making money for being "woke". Christ you've never seen such a load of bollocks in all your life. Apparently Gutfeld is the most watched late-night "comedian" on TV in the US, and apparently the other networks should be copying him and competing in that market. But of course Gutfeld is followed very closely by Colbert, and there are what – three or four more progressive comedians in that market. So it's doubtful if there's room for any more conservatives. Plus of course punching down isn't funny. But God help us it's so funny watching them squirm.

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Mar 2, 2023·edited Mar 2, 2023

Ah yes, Gutfeld, the man who dared to court that elusive "schoolyard bully who peaked in the fifth grade" target audience, showing the rest of us conclusive proof that millions of Americans have never realized they were supposed to empathize with the kid on the 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 end of the swirly.

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Gutfeld who?

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For once it's not only me 😁

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I had to bing him. He does a late-night show on the Flatulent Noise Channel, aka Fox.

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Mar 3, 2023·edited Mar 3, 2023

When they first started the show, I remember seeing commercials for it and thinking, who the fuck is he? And then I promptly forgot about him until now.

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Real Americans have four to five choices of late-night talk shows to watch, while the neo nazis have only one. It's easy to be the biggest fish in a tiny pond.

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Hum. It's past 1am here. Does that count at late-night ?

*Pick up a book*

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Mar 3, 2023·edited Mar 3, 2023

Yes.

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*Go back to her book and start a playlist*

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Mar 3, 2023·edited Mar 3, 2023

He served some time in the Troll Mines of The American Spectator.

Flushed those chronically unfunny 'satirists' at least 30 years ago when I realized just about all the 'breaking stories' they published were probably trash/propaganda after reading too many of them I actually knew something about.

The fact he's in that time slot with an audience tells you a LOT. Just Basement Suite Trogs or people who work swing shift to avoid having any real management around to keep tabs on them.

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OT but typical trumpistani. "Stiff the contractors" is coming back to bite him as venues turn him down. Cops are especially hard hit.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-stiffed-local-cops-now-094222820.html.

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My heart bleeds for those poor boys in blue. Anyone who doesn't get Trump's money in advance deserves everything they get. After all, he has history.

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Get paid in advance, insist on cash, have an expert on hand to make sure it isn't counterfeit, have a bank agent verify that none of the bills were reported stolen, make sure to have everything sanitized before handling, get all the details in writing, notarized in triplicate, and don't forget to check your pockets if you shake anyone's hand. Am I forgetting anything?

Oh, right...

Don't ever, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 work for a Trump.

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Mike Bloomberg, among others, warned about Trump as a Con Man. Stupid 'murica didn't listen. Anybody in New Jersey with a pulse in the 1990s saw how he BK'd 3 casinos. If you can't make money in legal gambling, some-ting-wong.

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Read that as "sniff the contractors"

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He probably did, too. Especially if they were female.

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As long as religion reigns, the human species is doomed to self-extinction. The God delusion will be the downfall of homo sapiens.

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Mar 2, 2023·edited Mar 2, 2023

Because of its fundamentally flawed and completely unprovable or unobservable basis--"God"-- religion as practiced divides instead of unifying. It creates an unsustainable belief of entitlement that obscures the physical constraints of reality. The delusion is notably but not exclusively Christianity. Exactly as Agent Smith described in The Matrix: humans--deluded in "God's plan" and "his protection"-- will proceed to eat, drive, and fuck themselves like a virus, overpopulating, overconsuming, and polluting the planet to the point of unsustainability. And no, the solution is not Elon Musk's delusional dystopian fantasy to colonize Mars, put chips in brains, or increase the population while robots do "the work."

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Although one way to save our planet would be to put all the Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders on the first one-way flight to Mars. Jesus, Allah and Yahweh should be able to transfer their magical powers there, right?

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Mar 2, 2023·edited Mar 2, 2023

Venus, not Mars. 😈

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I would think that would be hard to enforce outside Florida's borders.

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I would think that would be hard to enforce outside Afghanistan's borders.

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Mar 2, 2023·edited Mar 2, 2023

Is Carl Hiaasen still alive? He should make mincemeat of this guy right?

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He is and is 70 years-old. I would like to see the TBT's retired columnist Daniel Ruth's* take on this.

* Did I mention he won a Pulitzer?

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doubt they could even enforce that in Floridaaaaa

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Unfortunately it reads like a lot of business dress codes.

Up until COVID (We had also gotten a new CEO in the prior year) mine did the casual Friday BS and forbid Jeans except on Friday (Do you know how much easier it is to rip out a pair of dockers in the crotch when it hangs three inches lower than yours compared to a pair of jeans?) Apollo forbid, they allow you to wear shorts when it's 98+ degrees.

At least since the death of the suit and tie (unless you're in sales), dress codes mostly focus on women. (Never trust a man in a tie, he's almost certainly lying or trying to sell you something, probably both)

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"This content is not available in your country/region."

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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary) wants bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and other members of the Florida executive cabinet or legislature to register with the state or face fines.

Brodeur’s proposal, Senate Bill 1316: Information Dissemination, would require any blogger writing about government officials to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics.

In the bill, Brodeur wrote that those who write “an article, a story, or a series of stories,” about “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature,” and receives or will receive payment for doing so, must register with state offices within five days after the publication of an article that mentions an elected state official.

If another blog post is added to a blog, the blogger would then be required to submit monthly reports on the 10th of each month with the appropriate state office. They would not have to submit a report on months when no content is published.

For blog posts that “concern an elected member of the legislature” or “an officer of the executive branch,” monthly reports must disclose the amount of compensation received for the coverage, rounded to the nearest $10 value.

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Isn't this a violation of the First Amendment?

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It won't be once Emperor Ronald the First, Protector of Republicans and Destroyer of Wokeness, does away with that whole pesky "Constitution" thing!

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I am not a lawyer, but it should be.

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It seems they never heard about VPNs or foreign countries 🤔

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Thanks for your reply. A friend of mine left his church when they said to him, "You're not giving enough." Yikes.

Ideally, a church should meet people where they are, walk alongside them through life's storms and try to help them love and forgive the people in their lives, as we tend to hurt the people closest to us.

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repugs want kkkrister parents to have the right to tell YOU how YOUR children must be raised because their jeezygod says so, https://www.yahoo.com/gma/house-republicans-introduce-parents-bill-232810696.html

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All goes back to the insane idea of local control of schools. Parents have no training in education, often have narrow understanding of the subjects being taught and there are some who don't really want their kids hearing any facts or opinions that don't match their own.

And the bit about parents being informed about any kind of physical or mental health exams will severely cripple attempts to help children abused or neglected by their parents.

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When I teach the heredity and adaptation unit in my science class, I often have students who want to bring Jesus into our discussions of evolution. I tell them to ask their parents; their parents don't want ME teaching them about Jesus! (As much as I'd like to....)

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Ask them what they think Jesus DNA would look like. Half human half???

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In case you missed it, this article is "via Barry Duke". Barry has a new website, https://the-angry-atheist.com/

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Good! Looks like I have a new site to frequent. :)

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Is he also a refugee from OS?

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Yes. Made the jump from Patheos. He left OS a few months after it started. Not enough traffic.

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He stopped posting there long before Hemant.

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