Category: Christianity

Donald Trump and the Art of Victimhood

Christianity / Rightwing claptrap / Talibangelists and pseudo-Christians / US Politics6 Comments

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Persecution. It’s a deeply-ingrained core component of the myth of Christian history, and well-weaponized in modern times by rightwing politicians who depend on the support from both the faithful and the pseudo-Christian Talibangelists. We’re under attack, they claim, justifying their own attacks on other faiths and non-believers. They use the imagined threat of persecution against Christians to justify book banning and book burning, forced prayer in schools, cuts to education, closing libraries, cuts to healthcare, bans on same-sex marriage, and restrictions on women’s reproductive rights. … click below for more ↓

Musings on the Post-Xmas Days

Atheism & Spirituality / Christianity / Culture / Culture wars / Festivals & EventsLeave a comment

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I am glad to have reached the first week in January of 2024 without telling a lot of people to simply fuck off and leave me alone during the past month. The urge is, I’m afraid, great and growing stronger every year. The Xmas season does that to me, beginning as it does in early September, when Canadian Tire and other box stores start putting Xmas lights and decorations on display for sale. The selling season continues through the late fall when suddenly every radio … click below for more ↓

Why Jesus Won’t Answer Your Prayers

Books about books / Christianity / Language & Grammar / Meaning of words / Words & etymology2 Comments

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Christians pray to Jesus, but get no reply. They pray to Jesus for parking spaces closer to the mall, to win the lottery, to make their boss disappear, to lose weight, to restore Donald Trump to his lost presidency, for their kids to win the little league game, for better business sales, and other really important stuff. And yet nothing ever happens. But would you respond if someone called you by another name? If your name was, say, Bob, or Sara, would you respond if … click below for more ↓

That Fake War on Xmas

Atheism & Spirituality / Christianity / Cults / Culture / Culture wars / Faith / Pop CultureOne Comment

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In my part of Canada the “war on Xmas” begins in September when some local box stores start putting Xmas ornaments and decorations out, sometimes just after Labour Day. By mid-October there are whole store sections dedicated to pushing gaudy, offshore-made, increasingly tacky lights and displays. Then the canned Xmas music starts infecting shoppers through tinny ceiling speakers. Xmas tree lots spring up in mall parking lots. It’s a cultural virus being spread among us. The Resistance (aka me) comes forward to bravely ignore these … click below for more ↓

The Talibangelist Conspiracy to Rule America and the West

Books & Reviews / Christianity / Creationism / Critical Thinking / Cults / Evangelicals / International politics / Politics / Pseudoscience & Quackery / Religious intolerance / Theocracy / US Politics3 Comments

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Talibangelists (aka (aka the pseudo-Christian, far right) would love to force everyone believe in and obey their highly-adulterated pseudo-religion, and to punish those who don’t.  Or won’t. Punishment is big on their agenda: unbelievers, those who stray, followers of a real faith, scientists, intellectuals, people of colour, gays, people with an “R” in their name — they love to punish anyone not among their small circle of authoritarian theocrats  (aka theocons, because their pseudo-religious ideology is conservative-far right) and enablers (cue the theme music from … click below for more ↓

Trump plays the god card

Christianity / Cults / Evangelicals / Politics / Religion / Religious intolerance / Theocracy / US PoliticsOne Comment

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For a nation that allegedly separates church and state, Americans sure love to splash religion all over everything, their elections especially. So this week, Donald Trump made headlines by accusing the frontrunner, Joe Biden of being “against god.” Cue the angels with trumpets. Americans make big oompah sounds about their politicians having religion — Christian religion specifically and preferably protestant — although curiously, as Trump has proven, the voters don’t seem to give a rat’s ass whether that same politician has any ethics or morality. … click below for more ↓

Why are American evangelical Christians so cruel?

Christianity / Evangelicals / Faith / Religious intolerance / Theocracy / US Politics4 Comments

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The article in Forbes’ Magazine, March 11, didn’t ask that question I used in my headline. Instead, the headline simply stated the piece would explain, “Why White Evangelicalism Is So Cruel.” (The author later republished this on his own site under the less pointed title, “Why the Religious Right is so cruel.”) In America, where theocracy is a more powerful political force than free speech and where its president has publicly threatened to muzzle journalists and uncomplimentary media like other tinpot dictators do, such a … click below for more ↓

Prayer isn’t stopping the violence

Christianity / Critical Thinking / Faith / New Age Codswallop / Religion2 Comments

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An acerbic piece in Maclean’s Magazine from June had the title “America’s mass delusion.” The subtitle read, “Surprisingly, the strategy of praying to God is not stopping the mass shootings in the U.S.” That piece was recirculated when the news of the latest and largest mass shooting in the USA broke. Fifty nine (so far) people were killed and more than 500 wounded by one homegrown American terrorist with an assault rifle. A terrorist who, police found later, had more than 20 rifles in his … click below for more ↓

TEOTWAWKI, New Year’s Eve

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Christianity / Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / Faith / New Age CodswallopLeave a comment

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Some religious wingnuts aren’t planning to celebrate the ringing in of the New Year, 2017. Nope: they’re going to await the arrival of their zombie deity who, one can only suppose, will be bringing the champagne to his own party when he returns from the dead. The end of the world party, of course. And another day that, for the rest of us, will pass by with nothing happening, end-of-the-world-deity-arising-wise. According to a story in Christian Today (which judging by the click-bait ad content and … click below for more ↓

Godless – The Truth Beyond Belief

Atheism & Spirituality / Christianity / Critical Thinking / Faith / History & Biography / Religious intoleranceOne Comment

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfwuvMpmQJM “Godless – The Truth Beyond Belief” investigates one of the last frontiers in civil liberties and human rights: Atheism. So reads the opening sentence on the website of a new film about atheism and society. It asks, “can you be good without god?” Well, yes, you can. That’s the whole point of secular humanism, philosophy and the entire Buddhist faith. Morality is a choice we make, not a divine command. It also hides another question within its folds: can you be good and still have … click below for more ↓

Fake Ark, Fake Religion

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Christianity / Creationism / Critical Thinking / Cults / Faith / Religious intolerance3 Comments

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Well, it finally opened: the $100 million-dollar Noah’s Ark theme park in Kentucky that features an allegedly life-size model of the mythological boat described in the Bible. It’s 510 feet (155.4m) long, 85 feet (26m) wide, more than three storeys (51 feet) tall, uses 3.1 million board-feet of lumber, steel and other modern materials, on a base of rebar-reinforced concrete.* The only two materials specifically mentioned in the Biblical tale are gopher wood and pitch. But this reconstruction doesn’t use gopher wood or pitch – curiously, both are conspicuous in … click below for more ↓

Type amen, click like and share…

Christianity / Culture / Faith / Memes; Internet & Social / Psychology & Sociology / Social media & cyberbullying / Social Order & Disorder / UncategorizedLeave a comment

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I created what proved an interesting discussion on Facebook recently when I threatened to ‘unfriend’ anyone who continued to out those obnoxious ‘type amen and share’ posts on their timelines. Now if you’re a FB user, you have seen these things endless times. They’re as common as the “50% will get this math question wrong” and “you won’t believe what happened next!” or the “Nine out of ten can’t answer these questions” posts. Most of these are simply trolling posts that lead to pages replete with clickbait, … click below for more ↓

The Myth of Persecution

Books & Reviews / Christianity / Critical Thinking / Faith / Religious intolerance / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

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I just finished reading The Myth of Persecution by theology professor Candida Moss (Harper One, New York, 2013). I picked it up because of my general interest in theology, but also my more specific interest in early church history. I didn’t realize when I started to read it that this book was at the centre of a huge kerfuffle in the Christian community over its message and its accuracy. In short, Ms. Moss argues that while the early Christians in the first four centuries were … click below for more ↓

The Rational Gods of Iceland

Christianity / Creationism / Critical Thinking / FaithOne Comment

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While 61% of Icelanders say they believe in God, according to a recent poll, absolutely none  under the age of 25 believe that their personal hairy thunderer created the world: Less than half of Icelanders claim they are religious and more than 40% of young Icelanders identify as atheist. Remarkably the poll failed to find young Icelanders who accept the creation story of the Bible. 93.9% of Icelanders younger than 25 believed the world was created in the big bang, 6.1% either had no opinion … click below for more ↓

What Would $101 Million Buy?

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Christianity / Creationism / Critical Thinking3 Comments

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The answer to that question could be very long. I’ll bet among all the things you thought of buying with that much, you weren’t even once thinking it could buy a 510-foot replica of the mythological Noah’s ark. But that’s what it is buying the folks who run the Ark Encounter theme park in Williamstown, Kentucky. You can see video “encounters” of it being built. Sort of (they wouldn’t work for me, but I’m an evolutionist, so their god probably stopped me from seeing them…) The park … click below for more ↓

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