Link round-up for 21 April 2019
o o o o o
The tinfoil-hat contest has a winner!
There are reasons why we don't use seeing-eye cats.
Harold is gonna be a rebel.
Don't miss the alligator and the pumpkin.
Yes, your cat is the boss, but.....
Now this is how you quit a job.
Appearances can be deceiving.
Does natural selection still work on a technological species? Does stupid behavior still reduce an organism's chances of reproducing? You be the judge.
Let's discuss the hard questions about Frankenstein's monster.
Ranch Chimp celebrates the Mueller report in his own style.
If you liked my previous post, here's another horrid animal.
The Captain America character has a history.
How did "420" get its modern meaning?
There exists a semen-obsessed cult of magical orgasm avoidance (yes, really).
If Trump sends migrants to the sanctuary cities, housing is available.
Fiction sites on the internet are not a "safe space", nor should they be.
Here's an important reminder for racists.
This church is offering a miracle cure for 95% of all illnesses (found via Nan's Notebook).
"No, he doesn't want that."
Unseen, they listen.
Here's the origin of the expression "riding shotgun".
Avoid being useful, and maybe they'll leave you alone.
How is it possible for Christians to be unaware of contradictions in the Bible? These things are blindingly obvious. Don't they read it?
The internet is drowning in ads.
How much of a sacrifice was it?
This school needs to do some educating.
Even kids' watches can be a threat to privacy these days.
Church membership in the US is plummeting, especially among Hispanics.
The ban-abortion crowd's newest heroine may not be quite what she seems.
New York authorities crack down on the religious institutions fueling the city's measles outbreak.
Congress has a sexual harassment problem.
Wingnut laws will make terrible situations even worse.
Evangelicals insist that their 2,000-year-old book about goat sacrifice and talking snakes is the best guide to how artificial intelligence should be used.
Don't count on the media to report anything worthwhile about the Green New Deal.
There is a more profound pathology lurking behind Trump.
Lo Imprescindible looks at banned and challenged books, inspired by Karen Pence and a gay rabbit. Found thereby, these lists of most-challenged library books year-by-year.
Republicans, the party of disease.
Arizona finally repeals a backward law.
This kind of thing is ruining American education.
Across America, fundies are trying to force their doctrines on the whole society.
Bluzdude debunks some right-wing internet propaganda.
Reality-denial eventually turns totalitarian to sustain itself (found via Aunt Polly).
Students walk out to protest Pence -- at a Christian university.
Republicans think Americans are stupid and don't deserve what other nations have.
No, science and religion aren't reconcilable.
Joanne Chory has a new approach to fighting global warming.
This is how far robotics has come in ten years.
Anti-science ideology does exist on the left, though it's not as bad as rejecting evolution and global warming.
Over half the chicken meat at supermarkets is tainted with antibiotic-resistant bacteria (and this is in Germany -- just imagine what it's like in the under-regulated US).
Violent bigotry is on the rise in France.
Here's some perspective on the Notre Dame fire. Stop it with the whataboutism. Don't fall prey to superstition, or conspiracy paranoia, or to nonsense about all the fake kitsch that was stored in the cathedral.
Gangster regimes fear the free flow of information.
Arab Israelis are more progressive than you might think.
Iranian atheist blogger Kaveh Mousavi explains why declaring the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization is a bad idea.
Have you chosen a candidate yet? Here are five obstacles Buttigieg will need to overcome, and watch how the story of the Darryl Boykins tapes plays out. Remember, he once wore something very different from that white shirt and tie. Bryan Fischer joins in the religious hysteria over him. Oh, and this person exists.
Trump actually showed some human decency here, but he still shouldn't be President.
Guard against purity tests and rigidity from all sides.
Ocasio-Cortez isn't kowtowing to the oligarchy.
Roy Mo[lest]ore is back.
Warren is the candidate of ideas, so why isn't she polling better?
Maybe it's a good idea for our candidates to go on Fox News.
Forget about Swalwell. He doesn't get it.
Kiko's House has 22 takeaways from the Mueller report.
Shower Cap looks at Notre Dame and the Mueller report, with tons more insanity in each post.
More links here.
posted by Infidel753 at 4:20 AM
8 Comments:
Wow! Chock full of interesting information. This will take two cups of coffee.😊😊
If I ever see a tarantula hawk wasp, I would probably have a heart attack so I wouldn't have to know what to do if I'm bitten by one. Why do things like this even exist. It doesn't surprise me about kids watches or other electronics. Anything can be hacked so why are people surprised.
The discussion of Frankenstein's monster's dick was VERY enlightening! And great discussion on the Jewish anti-fascism origins of Captain America too. But Semen Retention Movement? Sheesh!
I had to click in at least six of those!
Now, Ranch Chimp cracked me up and so did the Frankenstein monster dick!
And people really need to chill with Notre Dame and all the theories. STAT.
xoxo
The "No, he doesn't want that." link. I thought it was wonderful that the little boy wanted a butterfly painted on his face. How sad that his parents chip away at that spirit.
And yes, trust woman and their doctors. Why is that so difficult for some people?
Thanks for the links. It's very flattering.
Re: "How is it possible for Christians to be unaware of contradictions in the Bible? These things are blindingly obvious. Don't they read it?"
The short answer to this is: "No, they don't read it."
The long answer is: Christianity has, for virtually all of its history, had a dual-class membership. One class is literate; the people who wrote and read. The other is illiterate, those who depend on the literate class to tell them stuff.
Initially, as in the religion's first 100-150 years, the literate Christians were leaders merely by default. There wasn't, at that time, much of a functional structure. "Clergy" as we know it pretty much didn't exist then. It was simply a case of the illiterate Christians looking to the literate, for guidance.
Sometime during the 2nd century this arrangement congealed more formally, with the literate Christians becoming clergy and illiterate ones becoming laity. These lines weren't precise; there were literates here and there who weren't clergy and some clergy who weren't literate, but this is mostly how it broke down. As the centuries went by, and literacy expanded a bit, with some nobility and the emerging middle class becoming literate, the Church (as we know) policed scripture, and even access to it. Part of what drove some reform movements (e.g. the Waldenses) were objections to walling off laity from scripture.
The rest, as they say, is history. Literacy has grown since then, becoming ubiquitous in the wake of the Enlightenment. But the dual-class nature of Christianity (i.e. the laity being guided by clergy and/or knowledgeable Christians) remains in place.
The result is just what you've noticed: There are obvious aspects to scripture, which nearly all Christians are now capable of seeing for themselves, but who're unaware of them because the leaders they look to don't mention them and keep reassuring them they don't have to know. Secondarily there are fundie mantras (e.g. "The Bible contains no contradictions!") which are untrue but which are repeated so often that people actually buy into them, and don't see the contradictions even if they do happen to read them.
Another reason for this goes beyond just contradictions. Scripture contains many difficult teachings Christians would just prefer not to have to follow. So they don't! They've left it up to the literates to rationalize not having to obey those teachings. Quite obviously, that's a convenient arrangement ... so it bolsters the divide between Christian classes and further discourages laity from actually digesting their own scripture.
That's very plausible historically, of course. Given how important they claim to believe the Bible is, you'd think that nowadays they'd read it thoroughly, since they can. I guess it's just too boring. Easier, as you say, to just leave it to the preists and pastors to tell them what it says.
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