It's happening. Slowly but surely, it's happening. Atheists are becoming more and more acceptable and accepted in general society. Perhaps not quite associated with the fact that Republicans are LOSING their acceptability, at least in the same venue. I ascribe that latter mostly to the advent of Trump and his idiocy, but I also wonder if Republicans' near-constant connection with evangelical religion isn't hurting them in polls like the ones cited here. Their retrogressive views on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and other related issues are NOT a good look, and I suspect more and more people are cluing in to that.
Stipulated, too, that in this case, we're just talking about Washington state here. Had the pollsters used Mississippi as a basis, we'd likely be looking at VERY different data. Still, I wonder if there is a shift, even in Red states.
What was it that Bob Dylan sang, over a half-century ago? "Oh, the times, they are a changin'." Yup, they sure are.
I think you hit on something here - the rethugs rose to ever more power because the talibangelicals were/are preaching politics. Their goal of course is to take over all aspects of society and impose their toxic stew of ideas,,, This kind of worked when it was only in their churches and a few xtian TV stations. Now that the internet's put it out 'in front of god and everybody' (if you will), just how off-putting their real message is is widely apparent to a lot of people. I think a lot of people who are basically apolitical are starting to wake up and say to themselves 'gee. I don't want to live in the country they are trying to produce'. tRump is a tool to them - a means to an end.
It's taken a while for the news media to catch on to the toxic relationship between politics and religion, though the founding fathers clearly were well aware of that correlation in how they structured the US Constitution.
Some lessons come hard learned. Let's hope this one sinks in.
Trump and his influence will be with Right-Wing America long after he vanishes from the public scene, which I see as problematic for both the Republican party and for American politics in general. Trump gave a certain segment of Americans permission to allow their worst selves to come out, and this has been more than evident over the past nine years. That Republicans embraced that aberration only made matters worse.
It may take the complete dissolution of the GOP and creation of a new, as yet unnamed political party, to purge that noise from our public discourse.
Republicans embraced that aberration because to them, it was no aberration. It is their norm. The only thing Trump did was make it acceptable to be openly garbage instead of hiding it under a thin veneer of respectability.
Which is precisely why the MAGA ownership will continue over the GOP. The disease may go by a different label or some other acronym, but the underlying base of racism, hatred and ignorance will remain, as will the leadership that enjoys a fabulous lifestyle grifting that base.
Both the old GOP and Democrats crapped on the working class and are bleeding the middle class dry. Manufacturing jobs have been out sourced to other governments to take advantage of cheap labor and when their wages increase and workers demand better working conditions the capitalist Junta will turn to the ultimate slave labor: AI. The U.S. political parties foster the rich screwing the working class up the wazoo instead of pushing for a living minimum wage and affordable post high school education that confers marketable skills. In the 60s and 70s college was affordable and people prospered from their education. Now the seed rots and the fields bear a harvest only for the meritocratic 1%. Atheist and people of faith are in the same leaky lifeboat and when that sinks we will readily reach for and grasp the extended straight razor offered by either party.
Those vaguely rational enough to finally realize they bet on the wrong ass* maybe too deerply entrenched to get out without being labelled a traitor by both tbe magas and the never drumpster.
* Slightly adaptation from a French saying "parier sur le mauvais cheval".
I was having fun with you because you misspelled "deeply." Unless I can turn it into some kind of joke I usually ignore them. I hope you are not offended. 🙏
derp
interjection
Also derp, derp, herp derp . (used as an inarticulate response to a foolish or awkward comment, action, person, etc.):
I'm afraid that Trump's malinfluence will affect too many of our young people. Reagan did in a negative way. Trump is likely to have an even greater impact & much more negatively.
The resultant shitshow of the fight over the MAGATS fealty among DeNazi, Haley and the rest of the truly deplorable republicans as they eat their own will be magnificent.
The difference between Reagan and The Orange A**hole is that Reagan was friendly and likable, someone who you disagreed with but also someone you could talk to over a beer. The Orange A**hole is none of those things and that makes him infinitely more disagreeable.
From a tweet I just saw: "WITHOUT CHILDHOOD INDOCTRINATION, RELIGION WOULD COMPLETELY DISAPPEAR. It's CONTRARY to everything we know and have learned with our own eyes, ears, brains, and senses. It was created to EXPLAIN things that SCIENCE has now answered. "
I was very religious as a child, even into my teens. When I was a college student, studying English Lit, I took a course called The Bible as Literature. One of the stories we dissected was the story of Job. The “happy ending” was obviously tacked on which made me look more critically at all the stories in the Bible. As a 21st century woman, I really do not want for any persons to be ruled by the beliefs patriarchal goat herders. We’ve learned a lot since then.
Didn’t you read it? God gave him new wives and children. As someone else commented, they were possessions and he was recompensed for his original loss.
Exactly. I never could understand that. Omnipotent God couldn't restore his family to life and health? That was the least he could have done for his "beloved servant."
Instead, Yaw-way gives him a new wife and new children. There was just so much wrong there:
1) A new family? That's not the same. These will not be the spouse and children you knew and loved before. They will be virtual strangers.
2) People are not interchangeable objects. You can't replace people like you replace livestock and furniture.
3) When Job finally breaks down and asks why, God, instead of feeling remorse over what He has done, thunders angrily about His Greatness and Job's audacity in questioning HIM, the Almighty.
Point 3 was particularly rankling. That Almighty tone never sat well with me. A faithful servant who had just been through grief and hell was entitled to a boatload of compassion, comfort, kindness, and above all A FREAKING APOLOGY. Instead God rips him a new one for asking a question?
Every time this story came up in a Sunday School lesson or church sermon, it left me cold. I tried to reconcile that ending with what we were supposed to believe about God, and finally just ended up telling myself that I just didn't fully understand the dynamics of the situation; obviously there was some nuance that I was missing.
That explanation held for a few more years - but there was the internet; there were other people; there were books; there were unfolding scandals in the religious realm, and more.
It shouldn't have taken me that long to realize the whole thing was crap.
I took that course as a seminar when I was a senior in college (only because the Shakespeare seminar was full...). Looking at the bible as a work of literature and realizing that the literary techniques it includes are the same ones used in telling a story (repetition, conflict, moral lessons, etc.) reinforced my belief about it--that it's a book of stories, actually folktales, meant to impact the reader's behavior. That's not a criticism per se; it just is what it is, and I wish more (religious) people would look at it that way. It still has some valid lessons to teach, but it's not anyone's word except those who sat down and wrote it.
It is definitely a book of folk stories and oral history and about as accurate as the end result of children playing “telephone” where something is whispered from one to another until the message is completely lost. The New Testament, not that Christians follow it, isn’t much better. The gospels weren’t even written until many years after the deaths of the “authors.”
I view the stories in religious texts as myths advocating a truth. Exodus: don’t enslave or be a slave. Creation: a catechism using a mnemonic device using a cadence of three to explain the world was created. Poetry and metaphors convey an adaptive truth that can be felt nor understood.
The Jewish tradition is different, though; it requires questioning our holy books and not requiring slavish obedience. There's a reason why the idiom "Two Jews, three opinions" is a thing…
It is not just that... there seem to be a lot more personality disorders I've noticed, in people who grew up in families practicing fundamentalist religions. And you are right, kids are more susceptible to indoctrination. I think it is a form of hypnosis. Bart Ehrman gives a good account of the process in the first chapter of 'Misquoting Jesus'.
their fundamentalist indoctrination inclydes obeying the "Stern Father." Girls are taught that their so called elders have a right to them, I always remember Roy Moore
Living in lies like that ... it's just GOT to distort other elements of one's personality, I would think. Yeah, I was brought up religious, but Congregationalism the way I was exposed to it was about as white-bread as you could get. It sure as hell wasn't the fire-and-brimstone too often seen with the evangelicals.
Our space time interface, aka senses, is tuned to perceive fitness not truth. The Shakers and Antinatalism movements either died out, but their (Shakers) exquisite staircases and furniture live on, or the emphasis on ending sentient suffering by not birthing sentience is not popular. So unpopular in fact the Thomas Logoti recommends that a person having such a world view should tell no one and throw their writting into their neighbor’s trash.
Knew I made the right decision being born in Washington. ;)
Mentioned it before, but we here are blessed (so to speak) with having the trifeta. Democrats control the governorship and both Houses. Also mentioned that Seattle is the largest least-religious metro area in the entire country.
We have our problems, but overall? I coudn't imagine living anywhere else.
Having lived in the more rural areas of the state, there’s still more to do. Of course, I know all about the urban/rural divide and why it exists (talk radio is a cancer). But to get the trifecta, the rural areas, at least a few, need to be a bit more progressive than most. UW might have something to do with it being spread about the rural landscape, also perhaps the wine country boom helps as well.
The wind may not blow hard that often in Oklahoma, but it blows constantly. (I still remember recess being cancelled once due to the wind picking up the grit on the playground and sandblasting people walking around outside.)
Did any of them say "The mountain's out?" That's what we say whenever Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) is visible due to the quirky atmospherics of the Cascades. :)
Just heard an interview on radio NZ where somebody said that with the number of church closures, there is going to be very little religious activity in the countryside, is it going to be concentrated in the larger towns. A few churches are apparently being retained for historical reasons, but the rest are going down like ninepins. I didn't realise – excellent news.
Here is why I will never vote for a Republican: Ever since the party switch in the sixties they have been against bodily autonomy, women's rights, civil rights, economic policies that benefit the majority, education, reason, decency and compassion. I couldn't care less about these "reasonable, ethical" Republican like Cheney or Garcia. They are still against all good things and for themselves.
Dad was a WWII vet, and an Eisenhower republican, which means solid Democrat today. Tody they are all Rockefeller repugs, meaning "Favor the rich and fuck the needy disadvantaged suckers."
You put a convictd felon at the top of your ticket. What did you think the reaction of rational people was going to be? His philandering while pretending to be a pious believer certainly didn't help your cause. His couch humping tag team partner is doing everything in his power to put a millstone around Trump and the party's collective neck. Can you possibly be all that surprised that atheists are now being seen in a far-better light because of all that you stand for?
Are you masochists getting off on repeatedly shooting yourselves in the foot? No wonder all your footwear look like Crocs.
It's taken the GOP faithful a while, but I wonder if the light is at least beginning to dawn on them. Particularly since Trump has really jumped the shark with some of his more recent statements regarding abortion and IVF, never mind that scurrilous incident at Arlington. Makes me wonder if it has finally seeped into their minds that Trump will do ANYTHING, virtually without limit, to gain attention and notoriety, that he simply doesn't care, so long as someone is paying attention to HIM.
Oh, his 33% of the vote will never abandon him ... but those who at least had something of a brain in their heads maybe rethinking this whole magilla.
I always told my daughter when she was growing up that, while I might disapprove of some of her lifestyle choices, e.g. serial killer, personal tester of street drugs, or collector of house-raised poisonous reptiles, I would always be there for her and support her decisions... unless it was to become a Republican. Then, she was on her own, and I would never speak to her again for bring shame on the family name!
One way to manipulate society is to continually repeat the same crap over and over until it becomes "truth." ("Archeology is the search for fact, not truth. If it's truth you're interested in, Dr. Tyree's Philosophy class is right down the hall." - Professor Jones)
Conversely, when you continually sh*t on people, society eventually come to realize that you are, in fact, sh*tting on them. And people don't like that.
Hollande was between sarkonzy (our drumpster) and micron, our actual president who will be replaced in 2027 (he is already on his second consecutive term, he would be able to be a candidate again in 2032).
Just so you know, I'm not an Atheist; I'm Jewish. That being said, I see common ground with the Friendly Atheist, and that is getting the Christo-Fascists off our respective backs.
Nick and I went to a wymmin's full moon drumming circle. We were the only males in a group of women. It left us more aware of us as 1, rather than separate entities. Entrancing is probably the best description.
Bi, trans wannabe atheist. By the time surgery was available I was too old for it to matter anymore. Pushing 80, still wanting to carry a man's baby. I am living proof of the mind/body dichotomy.
Click on Mars, then in the new tab you can click once to embiggen, and then again for an even larger embiggen. You can move your cursor around like in a video game to explore.
I just cackled out loud with glee reading this! As the co-founder and former president of a Washington state non-profit freethought atheist organization and a 3-time legislative candidate who ran as an open atheist, this warms my heart to hear so much! I didn't ever win, I guess I ran a few years too soon, but I like to think that I made a difference for others in me home state.
I wish there were more freethought organizations around. I’m irreligious and have a significant other who is UU. The UU community has advantages, but it doesn’t scratch me where I itch. As a recovered fundamentalist (I consider myself cured, since I will never go back), I feel lucky to have learned the playbook well enough to know that the movement is inherently unsustainable where knowledge, self-awareness and community all exist.
It will be a good day when people are respected for who they are full stop. Whether they're black, white, brown or red, gay, trans, or cishet. Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or atheist. Dr. King wasn't the only one with that dream.
It's happening. Slowly but surely, it's happening. Atheists are becoming more and more acceptable and accepted in general society. Perhaps not quite associated with the fact that Republicans are LOSING their acceptability, at least in the same venue. I ascribe that latter mostly to the advent of Trump and his idiocy, but I also wonder if Republicans' near-constant connection with evangelical religion isn't hurting them in polls like the ones cited here. Their retrogressive views on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and other related issues are NOT a good look, and I suspect more and more people are cluing in to that.
Stipulated, too, that in this case, we're just talking about Washington state here. Had the pollsters used Mississippi as a basis, we'd likely be looking at VERY different data. Still, I wonder if there is a shift, even in Red states.
What was it that Bob Dylan sang, over a half-century ago? "Oh, the times, they are a changin'." Yup, they sure are.
Well, in my little red state outpost, Wicca and NEA Freethinkers pick up litter on Highway 49.
Times are changing even here in the belly of the bible belt.
Small changes can become BIG changes, if they're nurtured and encouraged. Keep on rockin'!
“There’s colors on the street
Red, white, and blue
People shuffling their feet
People sleeping in their shoes
There’s a warning sign on the road ahead
There’s a lot of people saying we’d be better off dead
Don’t feel like Satan, but I am to them
So I try to forget it any way I can
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world
Keep on rockin' in the free world” - Neil Young, “Rockin’ In The Free World’
So mote it be.
I think you hit on something here - the rethugs rose to ever more power because the talibangelicals were/are preaching politics. Their goal of course is to take over all aspects of society and impose their toxic stew of ideas,,, This kind of worked when it was only in their churches and a few xtian TV stations. Now that the internet's put it out 'in front of god and everybody' (if you will), just how off-putting their real message is is widely apparent to a lot of people. I think a lot of people who are basically apolitical are starting to wake up and say to themselves 'gee. I don't want to live in the country they are trying to produce'. tRump is a tool to them - a means to an end.
It's taken a while for the news media to catch on to the toxic relationship between politics and religion, though the founding fathers clearly were well aware of that correlation in how they structured the US Constitution.
Some lessons come hard learned. Let's hope this one sinks in.
Trump and his ilk have done more to hasten the end of religiosity and rise of secularism in this country than anyone else.
“But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord” - Bob Dylan, ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’
Too many Republicans have chosen to serve Trump & Putin.
...[𝐼]𝑡’𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑐𝑘 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑔𝑟𝑖𝑝 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑦.
That moment will happen when he is dead. And even then, he will maintain some hold, just like Reagan.
Trump and his influence will be with Right-Wing America long after he vanishes from the public scene, which I see as problematic for both the Republican party and for American politics in general. Trump gave a certain segment of Americans permission to allow their worst selves to come out, and this has been more than evident over the past nine years. That Republicans embraced that aberration only made matters worse.
It may take the complete dissolution of the GOP and creation of a new, as yet unnamed political party, to purge that noise from our public discourse.
Republicans embraced that aberration because to them, it was no aberration. It is their norm. The only thing Trump did was make it acceptable to be openly garbage instead of hiding it under a thin veneer of respectability.
Which is precisely why the MAGA ownership will continue over the GOP. The disease may go by a different label or some other acronym, but the underlying base of racism, hatred and ignorance will remain, as will the leadership that enjoys a fabulous lifestyle grifting that base.
Both the old GOP and Democrats crapped on the working class and are bleeding the middle class dry. Manufacturing jobs have been out sourced to other governments to take advantage of cheap labor and when their wages increase and workers demand better working conditions the capitalist Junta will turn to the ultimate slave labor: AI. The U.S. political parties foster the rich screwing the working class up the wazoo instead of pushing for a living minimum wage and affordable post high school education that confers marketable skills. In the 60s and 70s college was affordable and people prospered from their education. Now the seed rots and the fields bear a harvest only for the meritocratic 1%. Atheist and people of faith are in the same leaky lifeboat and when that sinks we will readily reach for and grasp the extended straight razor offered by either party.
Those vaguely rational enough to finally realize they bet on the wrong ass* maybe too deerply entrenched to get out without being labelled a traitor by both tbe magas and the never drumpster.
* Slightly adaptation from a French saying "parier sur le mauvais cheval".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0stb5sgCk78
Derp man.
J'capte rin.
I was having fun with you because you misspelled "deeply." Unless I can turn it into some kind of joke I usually ignore them. I hope you are not offended. 🙏
derp
interjection
Also derp, derp, herp derp . (used as an inarticulate response to a foolish or awkward comment, action, person, etc.):
I can’t believe he just said that. Derp.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/derp
I was confused. I didn't know this word 🤣
I'm afraid that Trump's malinfluence will affect too many of our young people. Reagan did in a negative way. Trump is likely to have an even greater impact & much more negatively.
Given what happened at Arlington, even the dead don't want him.
Regarding Reagan, I'm tempted to get this shirt:
https://leejamillermerch.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=product_shelf
The resultant shitshow of the fight over the MAGATS fealty among DeNazi, Haley and the rest of the truly deplorable republicans as they eat their own will be magnificent.
Maybe it will result in multiple Republican parties, the same way several other religions split after the death of their founder...
What a wonderful dream.
If it could only be wet.
He will by mythologized with the nasty traits whitewashed out. Although what that would leave is a bit of a mystery.
The difference between Reagan and The Orange A**hole is that Reagan was friendly and likable, someone who you disagreed with but also someone you could talk to over a beer. The Orange A**hole is none of those things and that makes him infinitely more disagreeable.
From a tweet I just saw: "WITHOUT CHILDHOOD INDOCTRINATION, RELIGION WOULD COMPLETELY DISAPPEAR. It's CONTRARY to everything we know and have learned with our own eyes, ears, brains, and senses. It was created to EXPLAIN things that SCIENCE has now answered. "
I was very religious as a child, even into my teens. When I was a college student, studying English Lit, I took a course called The Bible as Literature. One of the stories we dissected was the story of Job. The “happy ending” was obviously tacked on which made me look more critically at all the stories in the Bible. As a 21st century woman, I really do not want for any persons to be ruled by the beliefs patriarchal goat herders. We’ve learned a lot since then.
What happy ending, his wife and children are still dead?
That mattered as much to the writers as the cattle.
Ever so much this^^Happy, because he gets to go pick out a new wife and breed some more kids Blech! "Good Omens" second season, handled it way better.
As is Francisco Franco. And in a hundred years we are old bones pounding on our descendant’s homes via passed down stories and social media.
Didn’t you read it? God gave him new wives and children. As someone else commented, they were possessions and he was recompensed for his original loss.
True, but still not the same thing.
Probably BETTER wives and children!!!
Younger wife, for sure...
Exactly. I never could understand that. Omnipotent God couldn't restore his family to life and health? That was the least he could have done for his "beloved servant."
Instead, Yaw-way gives him a new wife and new children. There was just so much wrong there:
1) A new family? That's not the same. These will not be the spouse and children you knew and loved before. They will be virtual strangers.
2) People are not interchangeable objects. You can't replace people like you replace livestock and furniture.
3) When Job finally breaks down and asks why, God, instead of feeling remorse over what He has done, thunders angrily about His Greatness and Job's audacity in questioning HIM, the Almighty.
Point 3 was particularly rankling. That Almighty tone never sat well with me. A faithful servant who had just been through grief and hell was entitled to a boatload of compassion, comfort, kindness, and above all A FREAKING APOLOGY. Instead God rips him a new one for asking a question?
Every time this story came up in a Sunday School lesson or church sermon, it left me cold. I tried to reconcile that ending with what we were supposed to believe about God, and finally just ended up telling myself that I just didn't fully understand the dynamics of the situation; obviously there was some nuance that I was missing.
That explanation held for a few more years - but there was the internet; there were other people; there were books; there were unfolding scandals in the religious realm, and more.
It shouldn't have taken me that long to realize the whole thing was crap.
I took that course as a seminar when I was a senior in college (only because the Shakespeare seminar was full...). Looking at the bible as a work of literature and realizing that the literary techniques it includes are the same ones used in telling a story (repetition, conflict, moral lessons, etc.) reinforced my belief about it--that it's a book of stories, actually folktales, meant to impact the reader's behavior. That's not a criticism per se; it just is what it is, and I wish more (religious) people would look at it that way. It still has some valid lessons to teach, but it's not anyone's word except those who sat down and wrote it.
It is definitely a book of folk stories and oral history and about as accurate as the end result of children playing “telephone” where something is whispered from one to another until the message is completely lost. The New Testament, not that Christians follow it, isn’t much better. The gospels weren’t even written until many years after the deaths of the “authors.”
I view the stories in religious texts as myths advocating a truth. Exodus: don’t enslave or be a slave. Creation: a catechism using a mnemonic device using a cadence of three to explain the world was created. Poetry and metaphors convey an adaptive truth that can be felt nor understood.
🎯
The Jewish tradition is different, though; it requires questioning our holy books and not requiring slavish obedience. There's a reason why the idiom "Two Jews, three opinions" is a thing…
Word.
It is not just that... there seem to be a lot more personality disorders I've noticed, in people who grew up in families practicing fundamentalist religions. And you are right, kids are more susceptible to indoctrination. I think it is a form of hypnosis. Bart Ehrman gives a good account of the process in the first chapter of 'Misquoting Jesus'.
their fundamentalist indoctrination inclydes obeying the "Stern Father." Girls are taught that their so called elders have a right to them, I always remember Roy Moore
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Moore_sexual_misconduct_allegations
Yes, nearly all fundy sects pull that "obey the older males" shit on them. Even the Mennonites. The escapees have a support group.
Typo, or intentional?
Roy Moore enjoying his access to power: https://youtu.be/yjjxQcyWwaU?si=VlRwlMK-1pGcbiph
Living in lies like that ... it's just GOT to distort other elements of one's personality, I would think. Yeah, I was brought up religious, but Congregationalism the way I was exposed to it was about as white-bread as you could get. It sure as hell wasn't the fire-and-brimstone too often seen with the evangelicals.
Just lightly toasted.
And one whole fried chicken.
Don't you mean FOUR whole fried chickens ... and a Coke? 😁
😳
Because a child's brain is more plastique than an adult's.
It is the 𝔶𝔢 𝔬𝔩𝔡 4 to 14 window.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/930cd09e67c2c9c9b9830733867542f76e7e5fa424b7653952b5d1b558afe810.jpg
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟒-𝟏𝟒 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐔𝐬 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲'𝐬 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞
https://onlysky.media/ccassidy/what-the-4-14-window-tells-us-about-christianitys-future/
https://youtu.be/8-C1PxARlxo?si=YgBfb8PqY-pQojGh
The one-time head of the Muslim Brotherhood says something similar regarding Islam's death-for-apostasy doctrine:
𝐼𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑔𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑟𝑖𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑦 𝑝𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝐼𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑚 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦 ... 𝑂𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐾𝑒𝑝𝑡 𝐼𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑚 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑎𝑦.
-- Yusuf al_Qaradawi
And the Cosa Nostra.
As a wise composer once wrote, you have to be carefully taught.
Our space time interface, aka senses, is tuned to perceive fitness not truth. The Shakers and Antinatalism movements either died out, but their (Shakers) exquisite staircases and furniture live on, or the emphasis on ending sentient suffering by not birthing sentience is not popular. So unpopular in fact the Thomas Logoti recommends that a person having such a world view should tell no one and throw their writting into their neighbor’s trash.
Knew I made the right decision being born in Washington. ;)
Mentioned it before, but we here are blessed (so to speak) with having the trifeta. Democrats control the governorship and both Houses. Also mentioned that Seattle is the largest least-religious metro area in the entire country.
We have our problems, but overall? I coudn't imagine living anywhere else.
congrats on your Mom accommodating your wishes 😄
Hee Hee! She was one sharp cookie. :D
The hilarious scene in Borat 2 where Borat sings on stage at a Trump rally takes place in Olympia, WA.
I thought SBC should've pulled that act in Eastern Washington.
Then again, he may not have made it out alive if he had. :)
Having lived in the more rural areas of the state, there’s still more to do. Of course, I know all about the urban/rural divide and why it exists (talk radio is a cancer). But to get the trifecta, the rural areas, at least a few, need to be a bit more progressive than most. UW might have something to do with it being spread about the rural landscape, also perhaps the wine country boom helps as well.
loved Seattle when I visited (twice)💙
Seattle, I believe is the city to host next years WorldCon SFF. I am not going, we are having visitors from US coming to us then.
Hopefully you came during a good weather period when the city shows how pretty she really is. :)
I've been out at least a half dozen times and I don't think I've been rained on at all.
Similarly, my parents have visited us several times and it's never been windy when they come.
Maybe it's like Bretagne where it rains only on idiots.
I didn't know WY had a rep for being windy.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/ea9wmd/united_states_mean_annual_wind_speed_200m/#lightbox
The wind may not blow hard that often in Oklahoma, but it blows constantly. (I still remember recess being cancelled once due to the wind picking up the grit on the playground and sandblasting people walking around outside.)
We did, clear slies & sun! The locals kept pointing to Mt Rainier saying they don't usually see it...
That's good. Glad to hear.
Did any of them say "The mountain's out?" That's what we say whenever Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) is visible due to the quirky atmospherics of the Cascades. :)
clear skies obv 🙂
Plus Utilikilts!
In Pioneer Square. Once got outfitted myself there. :)
Regimental?
These guys
utilikilts.com
Scroll doon, laddie.
I noticed something that I'm surprised no one commented on. Transgender people also scored higher than Republicans.
Edit: Double-checking they scored higher than atheists as well.
Hmmm ... funny thing, that! 😉
Just heard an interview on radio NZ where somebody said that with the number of church closures, there is going to be very little religious activity in the countryside, is it going to be concentrated in the larger towns. A few churches are apparently being retained for historical reasons, but the rest are going down like ninepins. I didn't realise – excellent news.
Someone recently posted about churches for sale in Scotland, IIRC.
Heard that too... the fewer the better!
Here is why I will never vote for a Republican: Ever since the party switch in the sixties they have been against bodily autonomy, women's rights, civil rights, economic policies that benefit the majority, education, reason, decency and compassion. I couldn't care less about these "reasonable, ethical" Republican like Cheney or Garcia. They are still against all good things and for themselves.
And people are waking up to that.
Dad was a WWII vet, and an Eisenhower republican, which means solid Democrat today. Tody they are all Rockefeller repugs, meaning "Favor the rich and fuck the needy disadvantaged suckers."
To the GQP:
You put a convictd felon at the top of your ticket. What did you think the reaction of rational people was going to be? His philandering while pretending to be a pious believer certainly didn't help your cause. His couch humping tag team partner is doing everything in his power to put a millstone around Trump and the party's collective neck. Can you possibly be all that surprised that atheists are now being seen in a far-better light because of all that you stand for?
Are you masochists getting off on repeatedly shooting yourselves in the foot? No wonder all your footwear look like Crocs.
It's taken the GOP faithful a while, but I wonder if the light is at least beginning to dawn on them. Particularly since Trump has really jumped the shark with some of his more recent statements regarding abortion and IVF, never mind that scurrilous incident at Arlington. Makes me wonder if it has finally seeped into their minds that Trump will do ANYTHING, virtually without limit, to gain attention and notoriety, that he simply doesn't care, so long as someone is paying attention to HIM.
Oh, his 33% of the vote will never abandon him ... but those who at least had something of a brain in their heads maybe rethinking this whole magilla.
We can but only hope.
Farron and others have reported on the republicans for Harris phenomenon.
If I may. Have you think about using drag team ? :D
You've now coined it. Make sure you get it copyrighted. :)
I am for free circulation of knowledge :)
I always told my daughter when she was growing up that, while I might disapprove of some of her lifestyle choices, e.g. serial killer, personal tester of street drugs, or collector of house-raised poisonous reptiles, I would always be there for her and support her decisions... unless it was to become a Republican. Then, she was on her own, and I would never speak to her again for bring shame on the family name!
One way to manipulate society is to continually repeat the same crap over and over until it becomes "truth." ("Archeology is the search for fact, not truth. If it's truth you're interested in, Dr. Tyree's Philosophy class is right down the hall." - Professor Jones)
Conversely, when you continually sh*t on people, society eventually come to realize that you are, in fact, sh*tting on them. And people don't like that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1jPUB7gRyg
Claus really doesn't get enough screen time.
I vote for the best Democratic candidate and if she or he happens to be Aetheist(my spelling)even better.
The other day, I checked if we elected one atheist president, turns out we did. François Hollande even succeeded our version of drumpster.
I am so sorry to hear this. How much longer with President francois hasbeen hollande?
I thought Macron was the French President…
Hollande was between sarkonzy (our drumpster) and micron, our actual president who will be replaced in 2027 (he is already on his second consecutive term, he would be able to be a candidate again in 2032).
A dumpster fire beats a burning bush every time.
Really pleased that Washingtonians would vote more for a 🏳️⚧️ candidate than a 🐘 candidate!
(I'm trans; pronouns are any/all)
Welcome, we have two transwomen in our community :)
Just so you know, I'm not an Atheist; I'm Jewish. That being said, I see common ground with the Friendly Atheist, and that is getting the Christo-Fascists off our respective backs.
I am a Pagan, and I am not the only one here who is not an Atheist. Humanism is what we share :)
Nick and I went to a wymmin's full moon drumming circle. We were the only males in a group of women. It left us more aware of us as 1, rather than separate entities. Entrancing is probably the best description.
Bi, trans wannabe atheist. By the time surgery was available I was too old for it to matter anymore. Pushing 80, still wanting to carry a man's baby. I am living proof of the mind/body dichotomy.
OT - 𝐀 𝐣𝐚𝐰-𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬
https://badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/jawdropping-view-mars
Click on Mars, then in the new tab you can click once to embiggen, and then again for an even larger embiggen. You can move your cursor around like in a video game to explore.
Deimos wants its picture taken too.
Amazing shot of Mars and Phobos!
I just cackled out loud with glee reading this! As the co-founder and former president of a Washington state non-profit freethought atheist organization and a 3-time legislative candidate who ran as an open atheist, this warms my heart to hear so much! I didn't ever win, I guess I ran a few years too soon, but I like to think that I made a difference for others in me home state.
I wish there were more freethought organizations around. I’m irreligious and have a significant other who is UU. The UU community has advantages, but it doesn’t scratch me where I itch. As a recovered fundamentalist (I consider myself cured, since I will never go back), I feel lucky to have learned the playbook well enough to know that the movement is inherently unsustainable where knowledge, self-awareness and community all exist.
Long time no see. Did your problems to be able to stay where you are got fixed ?
I'm very happily living in Portugal still. Ty!
Good to know, southern neighbor's neighbor.
Oh god, don't tell NoGodz, we'll never hear the end of it.
Too late. :)
I'm sure he will chime in shortly...
And he has answered the bell.
It will be a good day when people are respected for who they are and not just on the basis of being religious or not.
It will be a good day when people are respected for who they are full stop. Whether they're black, white, brown or red, gay, trans, or cishet. Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or atheist. Dr. King wasn't the only one with that dream.
It will be a good day when religion is no longer seen as unquestionably meritorious.
If we're not there already then we're fast approaching that time with the ongoing series of scandals among prominent relgious groups and individuals.