Link to original study for curious folks with access to it: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2322399121

I recently discovered this guy. He's very amusing. I recommend his Mr. Birchum reviews too.

Recently we had one of the largest fires in California history called the Park Fire.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Wednesday morning that 277 structures have been destroyed by the fire and 29 structures have been damaged.

On the TV they interviewed a man whose house survived. He said, "I thank god my house was spared".

So, let me get this straight. God destroyed 277 homes but saved yours? If that's god's will then god is an asshole.

My mom has a list of prayers that she claims were answered by God. As I look at that list I noticed that I did most of those things. When I mention that she says, God works through people. If I have to do all the work what do I need God for?

I was just Googling for some tips on an argumentative child, but if all that's coming up are Christian dogma blogs with this kinda crap...maybe I should just let it be lmao

So I recently had a long car ride with a person who had some strong views on absolute truth. I am of the opinion that absolute truth needs an arbitrator or some mechanism for consensus for a truth to be an absolute for a group of people.

They kept saying that the lack of absolute truth is the problem with modern society. That god is the only arbiter of absolute truth, and I couldnt get an answer on how we mortals are able to divine such things.

It was real frustrating when they wouldn't agree that the as a society, we give the justice system the ability to arbitrate truth.

When I told them that I dont think absolute truths exists he told me that was an absolute truth I believed

I have seen a lot of people who claim that an absolute truth exists and I have seen that thought process color their interactions in society. I think this belief system is a cancer on society and that religions are cultivating it.

I think the idea of an absolute truth being able to be uncovered is quite comforting to these people, and for people who do t consider themselves to be religious these religious ideas persist into their life.

Anyway, just thought I would share.

I always strive to see the nuiance in people, believe as little as possible, change my opinions on matters when appropriate, see absolute truth as a mechanism for arbiters to control.

Thoughts?

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

References

• "You Sexy Devil – The Story of the Genie du Maal". Theophanes Avery. Adventures in Gender Fuckery. Published: 2019-05-17. Accessed: 2024-09-09T18:20Z. https://theophanesavery.com/adventures-in-gender-fuckery/2019/05/17/you-sexy-devil-the-story-of-the-genie-du-maal/.

Preferably a Holocene colander?

A consensus view was formally adopted by the IUGS in 2013, placing its start at 11,700 years before 2000 (9701 BC), about 300 years more recent than the epoch of the Holocene calendar.[6]

Some problems with Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar improves the approximation made by the Julian calendar by skipping three Julian leap days in every 400 years, giving an average year of 365.2425 mean solar days long.[82] This approximation has an error of about one day per 3,030 years[s] with respect to the current value of the mean tropical year. However, because of the precession of the equinoxes, which is not constant, and the movement of the perihelion (which affects the Earth's orbital speed) the error with respect to the astronomical vernal equinox is variable; using the average interval between vernal equinoxes near 2000 of 365.24237 days[83] implies an error closer to 1 day every 7,700 years. By any criterion, the Gregorian calendar is substantially more accurate than the 1 day in 128 years error of the Julian calendar (average year 365.25 days).

In the 19th century, Sir John Herschel proposed a modification to the Gregorian calendar with 969 leap days every 4,000 years, instead of 970 leap days that the Gregorian calendar would insert over the same period.[84] This would reduce the average year to 365.24225 days. Herschel's proposal would make the year 4000, and multiples thereof, common instead of leap. While this modification has often been proposed since, it has never been officially adopted.[85]

On time scales of thousands of years, the Gregorian calendar falls behind the astronomical seasons. This is because the Earth's speed of rotation is gradually slowing down, which makes each day slightly longer over time (see tidal acceleration and leap second) while the year maintains a more uniform duration.

Calendar seasonal error Gregorian calendar seasons difference

!

This image shows the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the astronomical seasons.

The y-axis is the date in June and the x-axis is Gregorian calendar years.

Each point is the date and time of the June solstice in that particular year. The error shifts by about a quarter of a day per year. Centurial years are ordinary years, unless they are divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years. This causes a correction in the years 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, and 2300.

For instance, these corrections cause 23 December 1903 to be the latest December solstice, and 20 December 2096 to be the earliest solstice—about 2.35 days of variation compared with the astronomical event.

Proposed reforms The following are proposed reforms of the Gregorian calendar:

Holocene calendar

International Fixed Calendar (also called the International Perpetual calendar)

World Calendar

World Season Calendar

Leap week calendars

Pax Calendar

Symmetry454

Hanke–Henry Permanent Calendar

Imagine a world without organised religion, where it doesn't affect people's lives, but atheism still exists. What purpose would atheism fill in this scenario?

First of all, I have more in common with atheists than religious people, so my intention isn't to come here and attack, I just want to hear your opinions. Maybe I'm wrong, I'd like to hear from you if I am. I'm just expressing here my perception of the movement and not actually what I consider to be facts.

My issue with atheism is that I think it establishes the lack of a God or gods as the truth. I do agree that the concept of a God is hard to believe logically, specially with all the incoherent arguments that religions have had in the past. But saying that there's no god with certainty is something I'm just not comfortable with. Science has taught us that being wrong is part of the process of progress. We're constantly learning things we didn't know about, confirming theories that seemed insane in their time. I feel like being open to the possibilities is a healthier mindset, as we barely understand reality.

In general, atheism feels too close minded, too attached to the current facts, which will probably be obsolete in a few centuries. I do agree with logical and rational thinking, but part of that is accepting how little we really know about reality, how what we considered truth in the past was wrong or more complex than we expected

I usually don't believe there is a god when the argument comes from religious people, because they have no evidence, but they could be right by chance.

I'm sitting here on the holy sabbath reading atheist memes while my mother watches sermons.

My mom and her prayer warriors have been praying to get my car fixed quickly. My car has been in the shop for a month. Apparently the omniscient omnipresent God of the universe can't fix a car.

Cue conservative outrage

Robert Morris, who founded and led Gateway Church for nearly 25 years in the affluent Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, Texas, resigned after the scandal came to light in June. His exit sent thousands of evangelicals into a season of struggle that has lasted months

The church has seen a decrease of 17% to 19% in weekend services attendance, a church spokesperson told CNN.

The turnover at the church could have far-reaching effects. Gateway Church draws an estimated 100,000 people to its weekend services and has more than 560 employees at nine locations in Texas, and two others in Missouri and Wyoming, according to the church.

Ah, yes, the Bible on learning XYZ the right way. But I can only see such titles as suggesting the inner content is antithetical to communicating something clearly, concisely and in a way that doesn't leave the learner with even more questions.

So, my child (nearly 3 years old) is music crazy. As odd as this may be (maybe not), her four favorite things in this world are The Beatles, Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, and Michael Jackson.

It occurred to me that she doesn’t have any experience with religious iconography, but she loves the Heart Shaped Box video.

So I thought, for fun, let’s show her a picture of a cross and ask her what it is.

“NIRVANA! It’s Nirvana!” (Forvana actually).

I’ve been laughing my ass off.

I have raised multiple children from two generations now and none of them have had the burden of religion. Thank…god? :p

On the assignment sheet, students were asked to answer the overall research question about how the world began. Students were also asked to ponder the following questions:

• How did the world start?
• Who started it?
• When did evil start or did it always exist?
• Are people inherently good or evil or neither?
• What is morality?
• What is religion?
• What is Christianity?
• What does it mean to be a Christian?
• Is God real?
• Is Satan real?

“I don't care what anyone says,” Gray said. “If you start out with, ‘How was the world started and then who started it,’ that implies it wasn't science \[and] that it was an entity, a person, a being.”

>Emerging from the Americas and now appearing in Europe, the Philippines, Nigeria and South Africa, today’s narco-evangelists share an increasingly popular strand of Christianity: Pentecostalism. It’s the fastest-growing religion in the world, already with around 650 million followers. A branch of evangelical Protestantism, in recent decades Pentecostalism has become the faith of the world’s poor. In large part, this is because of its particular focus on the Holy Spirit’s role in health and wealth, but there is also the significant lure of the faith’s deep authenticity, rooted in local cultures. Much of this is due to the fact that there is little in the way of authority structures and pastoral oversight. Not only is there no Pentecostal pope, but all you really need to be a preacher is followers.

Channel: Genetically Modified Skeptic

This study is from 2017, but I suspect the numbers are even worse now.

Archive: https://archive.ph/ZKDRK

>Jesus >Hate to make a new channel but @StPeter and I think there might need to be a separate conversation happening around the Rapture and are going to move this to #Rapture > >Jesus has added @StPeter to #Revelation. Jesus has created #Rapture. > >God >Cool cool, totally get it. Excited to see what the team is planning for the reaping of souls. > >Death >I didn’t realize Jesus was heading the #Rapture? Feels like this has been my account for several millennia now? > >Jesus >Oh, I feel like I’m on the Output end and your team is more Input? > >God >Looping in Jesus to lead his first project so more senior members of the team can focus on their main projects. > >Death >Right… like reaping souls? > >Jesus >@palehorse Happy to jump into a huddle on this and see what your team has been working on. > >Death has left #Rapture.