What are /r/atheism's favorite Products & Services?

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He wants to exploit a major disaster as an opportunity to remold a community into a form that he prefers, and it's not a new idea. It's called The Shock Doctrine.

My deepest sympathies; miscarrying is one of the hardest struggles of life.

I want you to know that miscarriages are common. Nearly 20 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. It is a deeply shit feeling, but know that many others around you have felt this way, too.

"LDS tools" is the app. Log in and everyone in your ward shows up, you know where they live, how to text them, who they are married to, who their children are, etc.

If they ever lose track of you for some reason, say you move out of the ward, they will track you down. Here's how they do it.

https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/wiki/Locating_members

Creepy as fuck

Edit: here's the app in the app store

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.lds.ldstools

No. Discussion != debate.

There are plenty of possible fruitful discussions to be had where neither side is trying to argue a point. A discussion is just an exchange of ideas, not necessarily a battle of arguments.

The first box is a fail for two reasons. First, one needn't necessarily be open to changing ones own position to be curious as to how other people think about things. Second, not being able to envision reasons to change one's mind may be due to a lack of imagination rather than a lack of openness to different ideas.

I can see the logic behind this flowchart, but it is incomplete and highly condescending.

Edit--Clarification: I take issue to the given definition of a discussion. >Discussions are a dialog between people in which the participants are willing to alter their position if it makes sense to do so. Sometimes, people confuse "discussion" with "sermon" or "lecture".

Where did you come up with this? According to Oxford, discussion

• is the action or process of talking about something in order to reach a decision or to exchange ideas
• a conversation or debate about a specific topic
• a detailed treatment of a topic in speech or writing

Clearly, a debate is a type of discussion, but is by no means the only sort of discussion.

lol i just looked up what you were talking about, and it's even worse than I thought. just look at who he's replacing:

"Mr. Perry, who once called for the elimination of the Energy Department, will begin the confirmation process Thursday with a hearing before the Senate Energy Committee. If approved by the Senate, he will take over from a secretary, Ernest J. Moniz, who was chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics department and directed the linear accelerator at M.I.T.’s Laboratory for Nuclear Science. Before Mr. Moniz, the job belonged to Steven Chu, a physicist who won a Nobel Prize.

For Mr. Moniz, the future of nuclear science has been a lifelong obsession; he spent his early years working at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Mr. Perry studied animal husbandry and led cheers at Texas A&M University."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/us/politics/rick-perry-energy-secretary-donald-trump.html

It's a great quote in spirit, but there's no evidence that Einstein actually said it, despite the fact that people commonly attribute it to him.

I was doing a presentation once and was trying to source this quote, which is how I ended up figuring out that there was no real clear tie to Einstein.

Here's a link that touches on this quote's ambiguous history, as it relates to Einstien: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Albert_Einstein

Beer-themed web sites, brewing organizations and even "beer writers" are fond of quoting Franklin and his supposed love of beer — "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." But after recently hearing a lecture by Chicago-based brewing historian, Bob Skilnik, that convincingly asserts that Franklin was writing about rain, its nourishment of grapes, and ultimately, its conversion into wine, Stevens decided to do his part in correcting this historical inaccuracy. "I hope that we can set the record straight about this little white lie that has been repeated for years," Stevens said in a press release. "I have no doubt that ole Ben enjoyed a tankard or two of beer with friends and associates, but this beer quote, while well-meaning, is inaccurate."

The aforementioned Skilnik, author of Beer & Food - An American History, has issued a challenge to promulgators of the quote to come forward with proof, my colleague (and fellow beer drinker) Bryce Eddings reported over a year ago. There have been no takers so far.

For the record, here, in a letter addressed to André Morellet in 1779, is what Benjamin Franklin actually did say:

Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy. (Source: Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003. p.374.)

FOR ALL THOSE WANTING TEMPLATES AND INSTRUCTIONS.

This is my template. Print this on standard photo paper and cut it out to the correct size

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mqdthibwz2ptdzy/Saints%20of%20Science%20Template.jpeg

Purchase a saints bracelet and either flip it over or remove the saints and then super glue these onto the saints bracelet. TIP: Put the bracelet around a soup can (or something around the same circumference) so that you're not gluing anything but the photo

Purchase clear lacquer (i used clear marine wood lacquer) for waterproofing and apply several THIN layers on top of the faces. Let them dry outside to avoid fumes and be sure that the layers are COMPLETELY dry or they will get goopy.

Now you have your bracelet

It is Christian libertarianism.

Bought and paid for by corporates. Pete is the alternate CL. Its apostles to billionaires. ^[1]

>The members of the First Congregational Church were mostly among the wealthy, giving Fifield the nickname "The Apostle to Millionaires". The Church from 1937 to 1942 paid substantial money to Spiritual Mobilization.

Syrian atheist living in Turkey,

As a NETSEC guy, and fellow atheist, PLEASE TAKE MY ADVICE. Follow the preceding tips on online anonymity, even in Turkey. Atheism can get you killed.

IF YOU USE ANDROID, download Orbot/Orfox from "The Tor Project" on the Play Store.

After installing, add the add-ons "HTTPS Everywhere", "uBlock Origins", and "noscript".

IF YOU USE WINDOWS, don't. Download the OS Tails from "https://tails.boum.org/" and create a bootdrive with a USB thumb drive (instructions on site). Boot the machine into Tails, and use the preconfigured Tor Browser. (PS, if you are IT literate, Tails is good to run in a VM)

IF YOU USE iOS, OR INSIST ON WINDOWS, be aware of the risks. You are not protected. I'm tired of seeing freethinkers die.

This will provide you a reasonable level of privacy while discussing atheism.

WHEN ON TOR/ORFOX:

Visit "https://www.propub3r6espa33w.onion/" to anonymously report any human rights abuses where you are. Especially regarding your atheism.

His book, "The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber" is on the torrents so you can read it and see if there's more Jesus crap in there.

He seems to have written about 20 of these which I find dubious. Dental practices that don't work? Seriously?

I'm convinced Herman Cain was a huge troll and was only in the primary for the lulz and the exposure. I mean, his economic plan was straight out of Sim City, and he used lyrics from a fucking pokemon song in a speech.

You may also want to quote Frederick Douglass (from the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass):

"I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of the land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of 'stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.' I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. . . . The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies and souls of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other—devils dressed in angels’ robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise."

A list of over 700 inconsistencies.

Skeptics annotated bible is your friend. As is the user Evid3nc3 on youtube, who has documented his conversion from Christianity to atheism (please don't capitalise) wonderfully!

That's the best part. She lives in a world where ghosts exist and magic is real, but that doesn't mean she still doesn't require evidence and reason in order to accept new claims.

Obligatory link to Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which probably many have read, but if not, do it. Harry and Hermione engage in scientific research as to magic and so much more. The debate between an atheistic Harry and religious Dumbledore in Chapter 39 is great and completely relevant to real world atheism.

> E Pluribus Unum

The history of E Pluribus Unum might be more of a pop culture reference. At the time of the American Revolution in 1776, it was the tagline of a popular periodical, "The Gentleman's Magazine" which sourced dozens of articles from other periodicals into one. It's tagline "E Plubribus Unum" was on every front page.

A modern day equivalent may be using buzzfeed's tagline "Media Company for the Social Age" in a way like "A Democracy for the Social Age"

I personally find this makes the slogan neater, since it brings a more personal connection to the people who founded the revolution- they also liked pop culture references and, if they had the capabilities, they would have put memes on town bulletin boards

Edits: Did some grammar editing, also here's a source: http://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Gentlemans-Magazine I first learned about it while watching "The Revolution" on History Channel. Great documentary series.

"With or without religion you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

source.

He would have, yes. Here's what he had to say:

> It is simple, direct, gracefully phrased. It always sounds well -- In God We Trust. I don't believe it would sound any better if it were true.

> If this nation has ever trusted in God, that time has gone by ... for nearly half a century its entire trust has been in the Republican Party and the dollar -- mainly the dollar.

You can find a bit more context for the quote in the forward to When in Doubt, Tell the Truth: And Other Quotations from Mark Twain.

On a side note, as a Freemason, I'd like to point out that Clemens, also a Freemason, would have been very comfortable with the sentiment. Placing it on the same coin as he would not be a mischaracterization of his views, only of his views with respect to the nation.

"American political opportunities are heavily loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest." - Richard Dawkins

Yup, see Cavanaugh v Bartelt for one such decision:

>The Court finds that FSMism is not a "religion" within the meaning of the relevant federal statutes and constitutional jurisprudence. It is, rather, a parody, intended to advance an argument about science, the evolution of life, and the place of religion in public education. Those are important issues, and FSMism contains a serious argument — but that does not mean that the trappings of the satire used to make that argument are entitled to protection as a "religion." Nor, the Court finds, has Cavanaugh sufficiently alleged how the exercise of his "religion" has been substantially burdened. The Court will grant the defendants' motion to dismiss.

The book "The Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan is a less aggressive introduction to the type of thinking that leads to atheism.

Link to her amazon reviews, some of them are pretty hilarious

• About 100 billion people lived on earth ever.
• 46 billion were born before 0 AD and can be considered not christian.
• About 2 billion Christians today, rough assertion would be 1/3 of the population from 0 AD to today (54 billion)
• So 18 billion Christians ever, or 18% of all people who ever lived
• 4 out of 5 would be roasting in hell.

sources:

• http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_Christians_are_there_worldwide
• http://www.prb.org/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx

Can anyone find the larger context of this quote? Wikiquote says it's dubious, most sources seem to trace it back to The Letters and Speeches of Theodore Roosevelt by Wills, and I cannot find this book online or sold from an online bookseller (i.e., it appears to be out of print). I am surprised that such an interesting quote from such a famous person does not have its context online.

that's what temp email accounts are for. I don't even think they send an email after you respond to the survey, but I also don't want to be apart of some mailing list down the line.

Link to the book's amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BK2B91S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1521502114&sr=1-1&keywords=last+week+tonight

Seriously, children need early exposure to homosexual love.

Why do I hate religion?
Not just because it allows for ignorance- allows people to accept the 'easy answer' and not push onwards.
Not just because it allows for stagnation, not trying to better oneself because of the promise of 'pie in the sky'.
Not just because it keeps people down, for fear of being 'smitten'.
But because it normalises hate. It allows for such vitriol.
8+ children, dead- and these are not only responses posted, but 'liked' by so many people?
What kind of world is this. No product of heavenly design for sure- it's often in the religious that I see the best evidence that we've all evolved from squabbling, bitter, angry apes, with barely enough braincells to rub together.
Source

She is no longer a state senator. This story is from 2001. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=20010929&id=DJJXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=evIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6914,6186106

But yes, that's crazy.

See a movie called Magdalene Sisters. The Irish Catholic Church actually sold the babies of unwed mothers.

Yup. They're doing away with marriages so clerks won't catch da gay cooties.

That in addition to their abortion ban and jailing people who seek/perform them.

Atheist Herb Silverman ran for South Carolina governor in order to get standing to challenge the state prohibition against atheists holding office. The court ruled that he didn't have standing to sue because he hadn't been harmed, because they had allowed him to run. To get standing, he'd have to actually win the election, and then be barred from taking office due the prohibition. He got about 1% of the vote so he didn't have standing.

After that, he realized the prohibition applied to any office, so he looked for the lowest office he could try for. He applied to become a notary public, which would require him to swear an oath saying he believe in god. He refused to do that, and was denied becoming a notary, which gave him standing to sue.

There's a very funny and entertaining book about it called Candidate Without a Prayer. I don't want to spoil the ending, but let's just say >!I have a notarized copy of the book!<.

please show this next time so it does not start another talk and such because new people will think that it isn't BS and think it is an actual controversy. http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/undergod.asp

If you are not already, please use TOR to post to any forums in the future. This service anonymizes and hides your traffic from surveillance. Saudi Arabia is a big user of web monitoring and filtering devices - they could easily pick keywords out of this post that could get you in real trouble.

Edit: please be aware that they are still likely to know you're using TOR, just not what you're saying/doing while you use it.

Nice strawman,

Everyone I know who goes on Reddit is an atheist and we all hate /r/atheism. It's not particularly funny and it's all stuff we already know. I understand what it's here for, certain nations are more religious than mine. I applaud the fact that it provides support for so many 'despairing men, women and children: victims of a system that make men torture' (Chaplin, 1940) but I find it to be insufferable due to the fact it merely repeats beliefs I'm already quite comfortable in, that there is no God.

You atheists, from what I've seen on here, are great fans of logic and reason. Also atheists I've met, on here and in real life, tend to be among the most intelligent and kind people I know - but then again I know mostly atheists. Atheists, in my experience, also tend to accept that others have beliefs they do not share. But it's shit like this atheists. Shit like this.

I'm not a fan of the increasingly anti-theist view on here, it reeks of there being some kind of 'universal truth' - and smacks of a sort of religion in itself. This particularly meme is in exceedingly poor taste, do you really need to make strawmen to win arguments? - I should think not, what with you guys being so clever. You're better than this.

Further explication in defense on receiving downvotes by so brave people

Another Angle

/u/discojohnson gets the credit, but I am going to post the full info.

Red Cross gave out free donuts/coffee during WWII to Americans.
British soldiers weren't getting any free stuff.
DoD forced Red Cross to charge HIGH PRICES for donuts/coffee.
To this day, WWII vets hate Red Cross for suddenly charging for donuts/coffee.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/07/13/156737801/the-cost-of-free-doughnuts-70-years-of-regret

We have nothing to gain removing what is perhaps these people one remaining vestige of their previous life.

The Art of War suggests you leave your enemy something to retreat to. If we attack their prayers when they have nothing left, they will not listen, and we will become more 'bad' in their eyes than we already are.

Same thing with funerals.

Let them have their god when in despair. Let us chat later

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tragicle

> Whenever an unexplainable or extremely improbable positive event occurs, it is called a miracle and credited to God. A tragicle is an unexplainable or extremely improbable negative event, also to be credited to God.

Keeping the cross standing while killing a bunch of people around it is just God saying fuck you.

Ever since I installed AdBlock Plus, whenever I see a screen cap of this kind of thing, I wonder how I could have ever used the internet before.

The link I posted is for Firefox.

If you're still interesting in self-teaching, this may be of assistance. Realistically in the internet age there's no reason a determined individual cannot learn anything about any subject they like.

I sent a complaint to the national ACLU, but I'll also send one to the LA ACLU. This is insane. Absolutely insane. Our public school system has completely and utterly failed if not a single one of these students (other than Damon) can understand why this is unconstitutional. You would think that "tyranny of the majority" would have come up during the history of slavery in the United States.

EDIT: I would also urge those of us with Facebooks to comment on the LA ACLU's wall urging them to support Damon.

"abortion solves nothing", really pope, really?

And just where do you get that from, god? Did the big man in the sky tell you that? Because I don't think his information comes from experts who actually study the issue.

Because they have long concluded ".. that legalized abortion is a primary explanation for the large drops in murder, property crime, and violent crime that our nation has experienced over the last decade. Indeed, legalized abortion may account for as much as one-half of the overall crime reduction".

But facts aside, if you take a logical and moral approach it's not hard to realize that forcing people into difficult long term situations that they, and perhaps their families, aren't ready for, will never yield the most positive result. Morally speaking it's abhorrent to put the rights of a non-sentient blastocyst ahead of a woman. Especially as it's counter productive to a healthy society, life is hard enough without being forced into it.

> Be prepared for rain of lizards, bring sturdy umbrella.

And a good towel. You should never travel without a towel. Hyperspace bypasses, leopards, etc. And my personal addition, a charged up Olight H1R. (Fucking tiny, but bright as hell)

OP could add God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything for a little light reading as well.

She might get the message that a 5th Bible next year is a wasted effort.

I'm not sure if you can buy this in bulk. But, at least it's a much quicker read than the Bible.

The Hard Evidence for God's Existence: A Comprehensive Guide

SPOILIER ALERT: It's 200 blank pages and isn't missing a single piece of hard evidence for the existence of any god.

> evangelicals

i'm always confused about the meaning of this word in (american) english. in europe, we have "catholics" and "evangelics" - both are christians. "evangelicals" - in our region - are the moderate and much more modern christians.

is this the same for the u.s.? i have the feeling it's meaning something different over there.

edit:

https://www.dict.cc/?s=evangelical says [fundamentalist Christian conservative, particularly US] - this explains it. so it really has a different meaning in the u.s.

edit2:

thanks to everyone for the eye-opening answers so far! that's crazy. evangelicalism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangelicalism) means the reformation thanks to martin luther and others where i come from. so this is the opposite... really, really crazy.

I was a christian dominionist when I was in my 20's. In their books they say clearly that democracy is an evil form of government because right and wrong is decided by majority vote. The bible tells us what is right and wrong, not whatever gets the most votes. Ask the evangelical Christians you know if we should build prison camps for undocumented workers or if atheists should be allowed to vote. They don’t respect people who are different from them but demand it for themselves.

Comfort is the guy who claimed that a banana proves God's existence, because of its obvious design. http://hubpages.com/hub/the-atheists-nightmare

Ray didn't bother researching this point at all; if he had, he would have known that the modern banana is man-made through selective breeding.

This guy is a clown, but unfortunately millions of people listen to him.

And this is why the Kahn Academy model is so sorely needed to educate the future.

I hated school because I was bored, and also one of the reasons why I did not do well. The main one being I was lazy.

&quot;...the Florida Appeals court claimed that the FCC policy against falsification of the news does not rise to the level of a “law, rule, or regulation,” it was simply a “policy.” Therefore, it is up to the station whether or not it wants to report honestly. During their appeal, FOX asserted that there are no written rules against distorting news in the media. They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves.&quot;

EDIT: NEW WORLD COMMUNICATION OF TAMPA, INC. v. Akre, 866 So. 2d 1231 - Fla: Dist. Court of Appeals, 2nd Dist. 2003

A lot of the details of the case are disputed (see comments below) and much of the case was over whether the two journalists qualified as whistleblowers and therefore entitled to legal protection, but the decision does make this statement:

We agree with WTVT that the FCC's policy against the intentional falsification of the news—which the FCC has called its "news distortion policy"—does not qualify as the required "law, rule, or regulation" under section 448.102.

This is me.

If you have Prime, this documentary does a great job of exploring the history of Christianity in Black culture and the modern day effects. It make so much more sense now.

Look up the Khan Academy. Its a free online college level education with hundreds of videos on many subjects. There are 63 biology videos, each is about 20-30 minutes and explained very well. I homeschool but everyone in my family is an atheist. I take many Khan academy courses as a part of my education and I recommend you do to.

Heres a link http://www.khanacademy.org/

I relate to this. I was like 99% sure it was all BS when I was a teenager but that fear of hell stayed with me for a long time. I ran from religion for years but couldn't get away. It was only when I ran back towards it and studied it that I finally was able to break free. It was only after reading 'Who Write the Bible' and 'How Jesus Became God' did my fear of hell finally go away.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/19/chechens-protest-cartoons-prophet-muhammad-charlie-hebdo

800,000 Chechen muslims protesting NOT THE MURDERS OF THOSE ARTISTS BUT MUHAMMED CARTOONS SHORTLY AFTER THE SLAUGHTER!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslims-protest-against-cartoons-of-prophet-mohamed-in-face-of-britain-first-counter-demo-10032912.html

Here the same thing in UK.

Ridiculous. Controversial or "unproven" topics are absolutely fair game for research essays. It appears the teacher was grasping for an excuse to cover for his or her anti-science beliefs.

Since it's an English class and the teacher isn't overtly promoting religion, I doubt there's any official recourse. English teachers are within their rights to make topics off-limits; abortion and the death penalty were banned in the public speaking class I took, for example, just because the teacher was sick of hearing about them.

Which isn't to say you and your classmates have no way to voice your dissent. Pro-science stickers and t-shirts express your support for scientific skepticism. And they won't get you beat up if a) you're a girl, b) you're already shaving and lift weights, or c) you get an enthusiastic "I know which two common household chemicals explode when combined" grin on your face whenever someone talks about science.

No points for guessing which of those three I was.

Another idea: If your classmate is willing to risk it, he or she can sneak evolution into the paper by declaring a topic on anything related to modern biology. Forensic DNA analysis. GMOs. Vaccines. Modern biology is evolutionary biology, so evolution is guaranteed to come up somewhere in the paper.

It is being drained, not of corruption in the technical sense but of corruption of the idea about what a president or an all-American individual should be.

This is why your average republican saw Hillary as deeply corrupted, but they are unfazed by allegations of Trump secretly paying porn stars to fuck them. It’s all about the strong white man image and what it represents to these people.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fascism-Works-Politics-Them/dp/0525511830

If you're describing the system I think you're describing it's basically "a thing" for teaching grammar.

It's been ~20 years so I'm a little fuzzy on the details but I distinctly remember having a teacher use the same system and the numbers were straight from a required book for the course "xxxx guide to style?" or something to that effect.

EDIT: "The Elements of Style" -- Strunk & White

"This book is intended for use in English courses in which the practice of composition is combined with the study of literature. It aims to give in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style. It aims to lighten the task of instructor and student by concentrating attention (in Chapters II and III) on a few essentials, the rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated. The numbers of the sections may be used as references in correcting manuscript."

Modify Headers Firefox Add-on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/967

Add "X-Forwarded-For" and the IP address "12.13.14.15"

Click 'Start' in the control panel or in the Add-on bar.

goto http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/403958/december-08-2011/rick-perry-s-pro-christmas-ad

Fucking WOW. As if I didn't already dislike the fat bastard enough for being an unapologetic rapist...

This dude is descending to Steve Harvey levels of douchery.

Have a read of this paper, the TL;DR is essentially that people tend to equate "female circumcision" with the most barbaric kind and equate "male circumcision" with the most clinical kind -- The reality is quite different and calls into question much of the reasoning behind why female genital mutilation is a "special case".

https://www.academia.edu/8817976/Female_genital_mutilation_FGM_and_male_circumcision_Should_there_be_a_separate_ethical_discourse

Not really! I was quite surprised to learn from a recent episode of the Code Switch podcast, that abortion is a smoke screen issue for racism. While 75% of evangelicals say abortion is an important issue to them, only about 30% of them say that they will not even consider a candidate who is pro-choice. The podcast takes you through the whole history of Evangelical racism, and it becomes quite obvious that race is a bigger driving factor than abortion and further, that they intentionally use abortion as a shield because they know racism is not in step with modern society. It's super fucked. In fact, this episode was so revelatory, I think I will go listen to it again myself.

Code Switch - The White Elephant In the Room Here's a link: https://castbox.fm/vb/328720748

This was not sent from Forest Whitaker's already VERIFIED account. This appears to be a hoax account (not verified).

Jesuit High School ("College Prep" even though "prep" isn't exactly a standard word...) religion curriculum:

Freshman year - 1 semester: Basically, no, God isn't an old white guy with a beard in a throne (seemed like basics of Christian theology, but I barely remember the class)

Sophomore year - 1 semester: World/Historic Religions: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam (textbook had a chapter on Christianity, but it seems we'd already covered it elsewhere, so that was skipped.)

Junior Year - full year: de facto intro to Western Philosphy. Text: "Seven Theories of Human Nature" by Leslie Stevenson: Plato (thus Socrates and a little Aristotle), skip Christianity, Freud's theories of psychology, Jean-Paul Sartre, B. F. Skinner (and a little Konrad Lorenz - can't remember his deal), and of course, Karl Marx. (So lots of atheism - the teacher did a good job with the material but you could tell from the discussions that he personally was more conservative Catholic and was a bit uncomfortable with some aspects of the material.)

Senior year - full year - based around "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl - basically a year of mild existentialism. (Maybe it's my own bias, but it seemed the key message was that if you're waiting around for God to tell you what to do with your life, you're fucked. Get your shit together and make something of yourself.)

So, all in all, maybe 15% Christianity, 25% non-Christian religions and 40% atheistic philosophy, with the remainder philosophy/science that didn't really address religion directly.

They weren't trying to make some theological or religious point, rather they were just preparing us to go to Harvard, Stanford, Oxford or any other "real" university.

>The clergy in our church are not paid a salary or any other financial compensation for their ministry work. They are expected to support themselves through secular employment.

Fair enough. Then Google's exclusion of your church is unfair.

>there is nothing bigoted about the Boy Scouts

They admit gays and atheists now? Did I miss something? (Serious question, although Google -- boo Google! -- says no.)

>But your accusation makes you a progressive bigot

Do elaborate, bearing in mind the actual definitions of words, please. I'm not even a political progressive.

Actually, the newest research suggests otherwise.

>Uhlenhaut et al. (2009) now report that deletion of a single gene, Foxl2, is sufficient to induce transdifferentiation of ovary into testis in adult mice, suggesting that testicular development is actively repressed throughout the life of females.

BAM.

Since no one can know when the rapture will happen, and there are nearly 7 Billion people in the world, if each of them would pick a day that no one has previously picked we could postpone the rapture for 19.18 Million years.

A little more age appropriate

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/mobile/w/the-illustrated-magic-of-reality-richard-dawkins/1110912243?ean=9781451690217&amp;st=PLA&amp;sid=BNB_DRS_Core+Shopping+Books_00000000&amp;2sid=Google_&amp;sourceId=PLGoP67429

Murdoch blocked

Non-Murdoch link

You should read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. If you haven't already.

The best piece of fanfic I ever read.

Apparently the number of 22.5 divisions per minute came from the rate at which cells divide in the human skin... http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_fastest_dividing_human_cells but thats neither here nor there. The person didn't consider what people really use to model populations, especially logistic growth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_function, which is a pretty classical differential equation to solve. (This is essentially exponential growth with a limiting population.)

I've been reading this book called Fantasyland : How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History.

It posits that America is so messed up because Americans have been self-selecting gullible idiots since the days of Columbus.

Many many people came to this continent in the early days because of promises of easy gold and riches. After a year or two of struggling and not finding any easy riches, the smart ones packed up and went home. The dumb ones stayed and reproduced with other stupid people and bad stupid gullible children.

And this same kind thing repeats over and over for centuries until we reach the point where we are today. Not everybody is here is stupid. But the stupid tend to put down roots and reproduce and the smart people tend to see through the bullshit and go home when they have the chance.

Actually, in a lot of cases (including many in New York and California, as well as other states), non-profits also don't pay property taxes. Its not just churches: https://www.google.com/search?aq=0&amp;oq=non-profit+property+tax&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;q=non-profit+property+tax+exemption

"With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg

Looks like someone who was there is breaking the news... so still unconfirmed. But if it's true, It's on!

EDIT: If you have'nt joined the Support Damon FB page... you can find it here

2nd EDIT: Confirmed. They are saying it was the Lord's Prayer over the PA system.

an amazon review:

" "I had planned on reading this book with an open mind, but only made it as far as page 10, when my mouth literally dropped open with this quote: "We believe that the widespread acceptance and legal recognition of homosexual behavior will lead to the exploitation of children by adults. As homosexuality is integrated into our society, adult-child sex will become more common." The authors then spend 2 or 3 more pages defending this outdated and horribly disrespectful and homophobic opinion. The rest of the book is filled with similar outdated ideas, such as that homosexuality is caused by a distant father and an overbearing mother. If you're a parent looking to help your child, what you will learn from this book is that it's mostly your fault your child is gay and that he is likely to grow up to be a sex offender"

https://www.amazon.com/Encouraging-Heterosexuality-Douglas-Abbott-Dean/dp/1932597662

Turns out nothing has changed.

Almost all Christian martyrdom stories from early Christianity are false. Read all about it in this book book by Candida Moss.

doesn't matter, it was done in spain and it wasnt a protest.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110610175219/http://www.laverdad.es/murcia/multimedia/fotos/region-murcia/51258-grande-carnaval-cabezo-torres-0.html

>hundreds of people took to the streets in Cabeza de Torres for watching the carnival show full of light and sound that greeted the streets of the town despite the cold .

Fun fact:

> Beginning in 2010, the song has been performed live; first by Taio Cruz, then in 2011 by Cee Lo Green and in 2012 by Train. However, Green received criticism for changing the lyric "and no religion too" to "and all religion's true", resulting in an immediate backlash from fans who believed that he had disrespected Lennon's legacy by changing the lyrics of his most iconic song.[63] Green defended the change by saying it meant to represent "a world [where you] could believe what [you] wanted".[63]

https://web.archive.org/web/20120429003450/http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/01/9875746-fans-angry-that-cee-lo-changed-imagine-lyrics

Way to fuck up a nice song..

This: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/atheists.asp

They make the comment that while it is indeed batshit insane, the sentiments are frequently parroted in other letters, meaning there are either a lot of retarded people that read this newspaper, or a ton of trolls. Knowing this is from Palinland, which do you think is more probable? :P

We who understand that religion is sometimes to blame and not just used as an excuse, should also understand that sometimes it isn't. We should reserve judgment until we know more, but from reading what he's written on document.no (English, very slow host), it seems that this was much more politically than religiously motivated.

We also have to remember that religion and the way it's expressed here in Norway is very different from how it's expressed in the US.

Abby Hafer. Awesome book: The Not-So-Intelligent Designer: Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not

She's very informative and very funny.

acid attacks are becoming increasingly common in the UK too.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/26/europe/london-acid-attacks-2017-intl/index.html

465 in 2017!

The difference is that here its mainly male on male violence. 70%ish attacker and victim.

It might be a stupid idea but if you want your window back and for it to be clean you can just tint them so you can see out and no one can see in. I have tint on my back windows, not for that, but because the sun rises from that direction and I live in Florida so it cuts down on A/C expenses.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077P6BL29/ref=psdc_404459011_t3_B000H5XTKG

Something like that.. It doesn't help at night BTW, if you turn your lights on they'll still be able to see you at night time.

Not to mention that lower classes tend to be more religious on average than the middle and upper echelons of society. Poorer families also tend to have more kids than the well off and well educated leading to the rather ironic situation of natural selection now buttfucking the smart in favour of the stupid and the religious.

OOOHHH! Their not the only ones. My wife and I were recently up in Amish country just to do something. While visiting one of the shops, I came across this in the bargain bin. I litterally LOL'ed which drew a couple looks. I then flip open to a random page and I shit you not, it was the "Darwinism" let to Nazi's trope including the "survival of the fittest so why not be cruel" line. SMFH.

Here's another view

NSFW (Should be kind of obvious since this whole thread is NSFW)

Considering the reputation of /r/atheism as being one big, giant circle jerk,^† this is probably a sarcastic question in the form of a joke because practically all scientists' understanding of the theory of evolution would posit that monkeys and humans evolved from a common ancestor; not that humans evolved from monkeys. The latter has been a common misinterpretation of the theory among the religious community and that is the joke.

†: see definition 1, sub-definition 3

I will say something positive about her:

> According to Yoko Ono, who controls the rights to John Lennon's music, the most frequent request she gets comes from musicians who want to record this song but change the "No religion, too" lyrics - a request she has always denied. (source)

Religion probably served a really important evolutionary function, as well, by ensuring social cohesion around a shared set of beliefs and identities, allowing for tight group bonding which gave some groups a selective advantage. Of course, in today's world this can actually become harmful- particularly when the shared beliefs require a suspension of the sort of objective and reasoned thinking necessary to function in this modern society, or when they inform or motivate antisocial economic or political activities- but I'm not sure it's fair to say that humanity would be better off without it. Maybe on net today, but it's also possible that we may have relied on it in our evolutionary past.

Source, a wonderful book which can really aid in understanding those with whom our worldviews disagree.

His profile on ratemyprofessors.com makes him sound like an awesome prof.

Not that I would expect anything else from a creationist, but how dense do you have to be to expect a recommendation from a biology professor when you deny the most important theory in biology with no evidence? Honestly why would you expect a recommendation from any science prof as a creationist. You think these people should just gladly sacrifice their intellectual integrity and reputations over you?

"Irreducible Complexity" has a solution from computer science. We can use algorithms, like evolutionary algorithms to try many different possibilities. Many of them will fail miserably and won't work at all, others will work better. It's why some people are blind. Here is a simple example of the phenomena.

I'm a gay male Finn, and I never knew that the tower of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium was a functional gaydar! Or that it turned into all those colors! Thank you! This solves so many of my problems!

Possibly not coincidentally, Madonna is giving a concert in the stadium as I write this. (You may, indeed, ask why I'm not in the audience, but the better question is, why I'm not in the audience of the Björk concert that is on at the same time in the city. My excuse is that the last time I had Björk tickets, she cancelled, and I haven't forgiven her yet.)

Nice rebuttal, very well put. Another thing to bring up about this is that a simple snopes lookup would have showed she was wrong about everything else too.

Ooh! I know the answer to this! I'm reading about this in my latest chapter in Robert Sapolsky's book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst. This chapter is about the "us/them" dynamics and how we naturally assign unrelated things to identify whether or not a person is one of us or one of them. The unsettling part is that we do this instinctively and without knowledge. We all do. The human brain simply evolved for such a task, among many, many many others. The hopeful part is that we can easily modify who we understand to be one of us and one of them. Today it's Christmas, yesterday it was women voting, tomorrow it may be diets with or without animal products. These Christmas war-faring accusations are just the most recent unrelated items assigned to knowing who is "safe" on a scale of us to them.

It is not easy but is worth it. I feel like there is a very sizable percentage of LDS members who do not believe but cannot make that very difficult leap out their culture and lives as they know it. Im not trying to be too hard on the church but, the Church wraps itself around you as much as any religion I have ever read about. It only takes a few wikipedia page reads to realize the churches methods, teachings and social pressures are not far off of what others would call a cult. Still there is a way out, it takes time, reflection and some difficult dialogue with family members. For me talking to others that had already gotten out of the church and reading philosophy and positive psychology really helped, especially when I got to a very dark place of depression. For me leaving the Church really left a void in my life, maybe it's cheesey but some Existentialism and "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl were particularly helpful. Eventually you climb out of it and feel more free and alive than you ever thought imaginable, almost like coming off of a drug. It's like you are afraid of the infinite at first but then find comfort and inspiration. You are the same moral good person you always knew you were and as an added bonus you are a good moral person without any promise of lavish heavenly reward. Really long story short, it gets better.

Well, it's worth noting that when you're 18 you can leave the house without needing their permission. Of course they may not let you back in again. But essentially you're going to be an adult fully in control of your life if you choose to be so.

For your education, I'd strongly recommend checking out both Khan Academy and the MOOC list. No reason to have your mind stagnate just because your parents don't care about your education.

I'm not personally familiar with any of the UK support groups for young women who are looking to escape their religion, but if you ask in /r/exmuslim they may be able to help you.

Read Gods Secretaries. Prior to the 1611 King James version, there were about a dozen "different" bibles including: The Bishops, The Geneva, The Tyndale and The Catholic Bible. Each Bible has its own warring faction and the 1611 version was an attempt by King James to quell all the bickering.

Editorially, the 1611 version is considered one of the worst Biblical redactions.

Hey Guys! I'm in UGAtheists, and we are really cool, relaxed people. You should at least check us out on Fb and get involved in the conversation (it is a VERY active community). For the record, she is in the Pagan group at UGA, but I forgot their official name.

You have to request to join, but the admins will add you SUPER fast. We have to beware the trolls, obviously. Here you go

No, he's right. check out 2 and 3 on this list of the 6 craziest things said about pregnancy and rape

Also, he said SOME. Not all.