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Troublesh00ter's avatar

… 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘴𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘮𝘴.

This is supposed to be a "scientific fact," eh, Glenn? If so, I have a simple question for you:

𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗜𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗣𝗨𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 “𝗚𝗢𝗗???”

Further, I want you to show precisely HOW this deity of yours is directly responsible for the creation of bacteria and viruses which are the demonstrable origin of many of the sicknesses and diseases and subsequent pain, suffering, and sometimes death that living beings, both human and others, are subjected to. You seem to have lost sight of the fact that science deals with demonstrable phenomena, which it studies, experiments on, analyzes, and hypothesizes explanations to further advance our understanding of this reality.

Your god is NOT demonstrable, not in any real, objective sense, and until it is, I see no reason to attempt to incorporate your pet deity in any serious discussion regarding science, research, or any investigation into the physical laws which give no sign of having any relation to any form of god.

Put up or shut up.

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Joan the Dork's avatar

𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝: argue, 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺, that your deity actually deserves to be worshiped after having deliberately inflicted all of that horror on its creations.

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cdbunch's avatar

Any being, Deity or mortal, that desires worship is not worthy of it.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Hear-hear! If you're gonna lay on the theodicy argument, lay it on HARD!

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cdbunch's avatar

"But,but... I prayed and I got a parking spot right up front with a little blue sign in front of it."

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Straw's avatar

You stole my comment and improved it. What am I going to do now?

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Ummm ... improvise? 😁

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Straw's avatar

Can't do that. It's too obvious.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

This article was up for 2 hours before I logged on. You basically said everything I wanted to say, damn your eyes. ;)

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

What can I say? I got up at 6:30 this AM and this was published around 9, EST. So I'm an oily boyd!

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XJC's avatar

Cue up endless bogus counter-arguments from the soft Christians. "Oh, it gives people comfort."

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

It may give comfort, it’s still doesn’t rise to the level of “scientific fact”. Which means it isn’t worthy of teaching in science class.

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StochasticTerrorist's avatar

Opium and purpose-made substitutes like Heroin give people comfort, but even the soft Christians will sputter and deny those any sacred status.

The study of Theodicy is unfortunately (and amazingly) still A Thing, regardless of the fact you can get rid of the God-i-ness involved and nothing else in Reality changes. Well, nothing changes except the absence of all the whining from people who need Invisible Sky Daddies to keep them from wetting their pants while also furnishing their lives with off-the-shelf, "Accept No Substitutes" "Terms & Conditions Apply", Capital-M, Meaning.

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Hey everyone, gruenhagen just admitted that his god is a sadistic asshole 😉

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Not news. Richard Dawkins laid that out in T̲h̲e̲ ̲G̲o̲d̲ ̲D̲e̲l̲u̲s̲i̲o̲n̲ 15 years ago!

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StochasticTerrorist's avatar

To quote "The End of a Symphony",

"On this farm he had a hen,

Uh-oh, here they come, again."

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

Ahhhh, Allan Sherman! I have that, both on vinyl and CD and it is GREAT fun!

“And we all have heard the saying that is true as well as witty / That a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee!”

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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Atheists doesn't count since they know it.

*Yawn*

Back to sleeping.

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Feb 15, 2023
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Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Read the post or ask NOGODZPEDIA :)

I am going back to sleep away my allergy.

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larry parker's avatar

You must have been taking a piss when the Super Bowl ads ran.

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cdbunch's avatar

Which one? The "Clueless" flashback, the "Grease" rip-off, or the "Jesus doesn't want us to be adults" BS?

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Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

I didn't watch the SB.

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StochasticTerrorist's avatar

If an Advert airs in the Super Bowl, is it still assumed to be nothing but lies IF ...

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ericc's avatar

...𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠.

Nah. Sounds like mere constituent fodder/optics to me. A Republican legislatie priority would be treated a lot differently by the rest of the Republicans in the State Senate.

Off-topic but related, that Montana "teach science facts not theories" bill died in committee, with the vote being 11-0 to table it. Though the sponsor whined about it, so he was probably sincere.

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StochasticTerrorist's avatar

Nice followup on the related story.

Wonder if the Small Government, Money Grubbing GOP has ever thought of requiring a DEPOSIT on every bill submitted to the legislative process, and which gets confiscated if bill doesn't get sent on to the body for a vote by at least a party-line margin?

You know, a deposit that cannot be claimed on expenses and comes directly out of the pay of the legislators, themselves, or any benefits of their constituents, like money for a new futball field or 10 Commandments Statue?

You know a deposit large enough to cover the Overhead in the process, outside the in-duh-vidual legislator's office of patronage appointees?

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ericc's avatar

That would just be used for more bigotry. "Gee Montana school board, I really would like to honor your African American Teacher of the Year, but I just don't have the funds for it right now. Staffer, see these good constituents out, and get me that Bible Appreciation Day bill for review while you're at it."

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StochasticTerrorist's avatar

Thought about that.

Get another, less-grandstanding person to offer the bill.

After all, inspiring bills EVERYONE can consider seriously is the WHOLE POINT, so someone else, even from across the aisle, is gonna be able to offer it up?

Or, is that too aspirational?

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ericc's avatar

Pretty sure 'the whole point' is reelection. Good governance occurs only insofar as it tends, a bit more than a coin flip, to lead to reelection.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

One would hope that Minnesota would have as much common sense as Montana, but in this day and age, I'm not so sanguine about that.

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Val Uptuous NotAgain's avatar

Well that bill is certainly contradictory, you can’t have scientific facts confirming God’s wrath on individuals. There’s no scientific anything that comes close to living up to the very idea of scientific fact of disease being a consequence imposed by god or creator.

Disease is a consequence of simply living on earth with the variety of life that resides on it, people, viruses, germs, plants, animals and so forth. If all disease was caused by being punished for sinning, why did Mother Theresa (the ghoul) get ill despite being a saint? Why would a newborn baby deserve whooping cough? My cat be punished with a sinus infection? It doesn’t even make sense within the claim.

I wish people would just once look beyond the R at the end of a politician’s name and see them for the fucking corrupt morons they are.

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cdbunch's avatar

I think millions do. They *like* that they're fucking corrupt morons. 75 million voted for the Orange Liar. The stupidity is almost as much the point as the cruelty.

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Richard Wade's avatar

Where this idiocy would go:

"...exploring the contrast between the scientific facts on how...

...lightning is caused by strong electric charges moving between clouds and the ground, and how lightning bolts are spears thrown by God."

...the sun and stars are large spheroids of hydrogen and helium creating heat and radiation through nuclear fusion in their cores, and how they are lanterns hung by God on crystal spheres surrounding the Earth."

...nature is governed by observable and testable laws of physics, and how everything is done by God's magic."

__________

The Constitution is the only thing protecting us from living in a nightmare theocratic lunatic asylum.

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Guerillasurgeon's avatar

The constitution is not doing such a brilliant job since Trump managed to stack the Supreme Court with lunatics though is it?

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cdbunch's avatar

They treat the Constitution like the bible. Cherry-pick and tie themselves in knots that it doesn't mean what it says.

Not to mention a couple of more red states and they'll rewrite it anyway. Article 6 is gone, the First Amendment will be unrecognizable and the minimum voting age will be at least 50.

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cdbunch's avatar

The Constitution is a collection of words, soon to be worth less than the paper they're written on.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Creator? I have TWO creators. I called them mom and dad.

Creator, Googy? You do know that there is more than just your own creation myth, right? No? Let me enlighten you on just how many different creation myths there are:

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

All are no more or less valid then your own. What's that, you say? Yours is the only correct one? Sorry, that's "special pleading," a logical fallacy. Fail.

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Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

I'm a fan of the creation myths where the universe is masturbated into creation. I'm working on becoming a god myself.

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StochasticTerrorist's avatar

Just now reading "The Myths of the Popol Vuh in Cosmology, Art & Ritual".

A nice break from the normal Abrahamic twaddle and the stupendously over-thought Vedas.

Also, implicitly eviscerates a lot of the von Daniken mind-wank in image interpretation.

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jomicur's avatar

" … and how sickness, disease, pain, suffering, and death are a consequence imposed by the Creator of complex living organisms."

If that is a scientific fact, then it follows that it must also be a demonstrable fact that "the Creator" is a willful, arbitrary, vicious monster, nothing like the "loving God" the christers promote. I can't honestly say I regard it as a scientific fact that "God" is vicious; that would be skipping several crucial steps (i.e. the scientific and factual bits). But it is certainly a fact that the god portrayed in the bible is a capricious fiend.

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cdbunch's avatar

Anyone else suspect he meant HIV, but thought that was too "on-the-nose" to try to pass this off as a critical thinking bill?

Or is he just a disciple of "Mother" Teresa?

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NOGODZ20's avatar

"Importance of Morality and Religion in Government."

Ummmm, no. The founders made it very clear that our secular government was to remain strictly neutral on the matter of religion. And as far as morality goes? We've seen just how very amoral religion is, time and time and time again.

Keep your religion confined to the walls of your homes and places of worship.

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Troublesh00ter's avatar

The brand of "morality" that the bible promotes is at the point of a gun ... and as it comes to that:

𝘐𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴.

-- Leo Wolf

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jomicur's avatar

Yeah, but ever since 2016 the founders have been foundering.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Franklin tried to warn us when he was asked what kind of government we would have (monarchy or republic).

"A republic...if you can keep it."

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cdbunch's avatar

Unfortunately, there will always be people who prey on teenagers. And they will always seek positions of authority to facilitate their hunt. I don't know if they just get off on the power or are too feckless to handle relationships with peers, but I fear they will always be with us.

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Guerillasurgeon's avatar

Yes but we need to do a better job of keeping them away from teens, and giving them proper treatment.

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larry parker's avatar

Scientific fact vs god. Not a fair fight. Gods have never won.

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StochasticTerrorist's avatar

Ever heard of the Great Lisbon Earthquake and ensuing auto-da-fa?

Sounds like God won that one.

Voltaire and Bernstein seem to have thought so.

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StochasticTerrorist's avatar

Weeellll, I could have a FIELD DAY on that course description, and I don't think he'd like it.

"Plagues and Peoples" as a timeline, along with some desultory "Religion for Idiots" texts, would be a great core AFTER an opening, grab their attention, case study of how the Russo-Japanese War was one of the first where deaths from fighting exceeded deaths from disease. Gotta keep the boys interested with some gore.

Then, onto the series "Microbes and Men", with updates to modern sensibilities; prolly pretty cheap to get a license because of the age.

The bill, itself, somewhat specifically but assuredly implicitly, says 'Compare and contrast' the documented, demonstrable Science with assertions about Invisible Sky Daddies. In my opinion, the meaningless, anecdotal, personal-opinion-based assertions.

It all turns into a tacit "WhereTF IS your God?!" class.

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XJC's avatar

Just another standard, useless Republican legislation that denies reality. "He Gets Us?"

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jomicur's avatar

Every time I see that He Gets Us tagline, I envision a Far Side-style cartoon of syphilis bacteria swarming in the Beloved Disciple's body, watching Jesus approach and telling each other "He Gets Us." Guess I'm going to hell, huh?

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NOGODZ20's avatar

The Christian religion has certainly been "getting" people for 2 millennia.

Its record is soaked in blood.

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xenubarb's avatar

"Jesus loves who we hate."

Yeah, that's some good christianing they got there.

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StochasticTerrorist's avatar

"It's the best there is!"

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Joan the Dork's avatar

...and if he actually succeeded in getting that pants-on-head stupidity passed into law, I'm 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 that 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 would 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 try to use that law as a basis for eliminating things like paid sick leave (or any sick leave at all), sick days for schoolchildren, medicaid, and all manner of other health-related benefits, on the grounds that if you're sick, then you must've made the Goddything angry, so you deserve to be miserable and get back to work, you freeloader. Right? 𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵?

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Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz's avatar

Much better. The only loss is that he wasn't a Duke.

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NOGODZ20's avatar

Projection. It is religion that is a sickness, a plague upon humanity.

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