Posts: 17,082
Threads: 10,686
Joined: Oct 2014
C C
Oct 20, 2017 01:29 AM
The Mythicist Milwaukee Debacle
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightath...e-debacle/
EXCERPT: I haven’t been on the atheist conference circuit in the past year or so, but news reached me about a secular group called Mythicist Milwaukee. I’d normally be a big supporter of their mission, since they were apparently formed to defend the mythical-Jesus theory of Christian origins and that’s something I also advocate.
However, I’ve heard disturbing reports about their annual Mythinformation conference. It seems that this year, it had less to do with advancing Jesus mythicism and more to do with giving a platform to some of the worst atheists out there...
MORE: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightath...e-debacle/
New Website Clarifies Where Various Christian Churches Stand On Homosexuality
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyath...sexuality/
EXCERPT: [...] But now, a new website called Church Clarity aims to settle those questions so that anyone visiting the churches aren’t surprised by the answer, one way or the other, later on down the road. It’s tempting to think this is an attempt by the progressive Christians who run it to shame anti-LGBTQ churches — and there would be nothing wrong with that — but that’s not the case. Their goal is to go public with information that every church presumably has a private answer to....
MORE: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyath...sexuality/
Posts: 8,459
Threads: 176
Joined: Aug 2016
Syne
Oct 20, 2017 04:10 AM
(Oct 20, 2017 01:29 AM)C C Wrote: The Mythicist Milwaukee Debacle
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightath...e-debacle/
Obviously a heavy partisan bias there. Saying a guy who preferred Sanders over both Trump and Clinton is a "Donald Trump supporter" or that a joke from an unabashed provocateur was intended as threat is ridiculous. I would have thought that supposedly rational-minded atheists could at least avoid the appearance of eating themselves over a simple lack of ideological/political inhomogeneity. Nope. Just like black people aren't really black unless they're democrats, seemingly atheists must hew the party line to remain in good standing. Apparently even on par with an atheist child porn apologist.
Posts: 5,822
Threads: 747
Joined: Oct 2014
Yazata
Nov 2, 2017 03:25 PM
(This post was last modified: Nov 2, 2017 04:00 PM by Yazata.)
Neither of the things that CC posted about in this thread have anything but tangential relevance to religion.
They are both LEFT-POLITICAL. Atheist anger that a supposed Trump-supporter spoke at a mythology conference, and news that some activist group is trying to compile a list of where various religious groups stand on gay marriage or something.
Reading about this supposedly "worst atheist" who spoke at the Milwaukee meeting, somebody who I'd never heard of, I find that I like him. All the controversy surrounding him seem to concern his political views, many (not all) of which I find that I strongly agree with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Benjamin
It's kind of interesting that our wonderful enlightened lefties hate the so-called "right" for being morally judgmental, then turn around and condemn, condemn, condemn. Always, incessantly, non-stop.
We live in a Neo-Puritan Age, filled with dressed-in-black moralists shaking their fingers at others, denouncing them as SINNERS!.
Presumably the rest of us are just supposed to accept these people's own personal moral intuitions as more authoritative than our own, more authoritative than age old tradition and even more authoritative than divine revelation from God himself. (Assuming one believes in that kind of thing.)
I'd like to hear them try to provide a persuasive intellectual justification for their conviction of their own moral superiority, beyond that it just feels right to them or feigned incredulity that anyone (except Muslims) would believe anything else.
Posts: 4,517
Threads: 242
Joined: Sep 2016
Zinjanthropos
Nov 2, 2017 04:13 PM
Personally I don't care for organized atheism. For me it's just a lack of a belief in a god. I've never sought out any organized rallies or anything else associated with atheism. I remember Madalyn Murray O'hair as being some kind of atheist leader but I couldn't have cared less, although it got exciting when she and cohort were murdered out of greed, which I think this whole atheist speaking rallies are all about. As an atheist I can't picture myself as a devotee to some atheist culture or even staying in touch with others of my ilk.
Posts: 17,082
Threads: 10,686
Joined: Oct 2014
C C
Nov 2, 2017 06:46 PM
(This post was last modified: Nov 2, 2017 06:46 PM by C C.)
(Nov 2, 2017 04:13 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: As an atheist I can't picture myself as a devotee to some atheist culture or even staying in touch with others of my ilk.
I'd not care much about hanging out with many that I've superficially encountered in offline, everyday life. But they might more distinctly be classified as irreligious rather than lackadaisical atheists. Kind of actively undutiful, mood swinging and quasi-violent, exhibitionist folk in a gambling, drugs, sex-crimes, and occasional trailer-trash / gutter context who feel they've been relentlessly persecuted by a god meme. Rather than, say, a self-disciplined "not hung up about loss of God" citizen or publicly subdued wonk in the intellectual set.
- - -
Posts: 3,295
Threads: 165
Joined: Aug 2015
Secular Sanity
Nov 2, 2017 11:17 PM
(This post was last modified: Nov 2, 2017 11:44 PM by Secular Sanity.)
(Nov 2, 2017 06:46 PM)C C Wrote: I'd not care much about hanging out with many that I've superficially encountered in offline, everyday life. But they might more distinctly be classified as irreligious rather than lackadaisical atheists. Kind of actively undutiful, mood swinging and quasi-violent, exhibitionist folk in a gambling, drugs, sex-crimes, and occasional trailer-trash / gutter context who feel they've been relentlessly persecuted by a god meme. Rather than, say, a self-disciplined "not hung up about loss of God" citizen or publicly subdued wonk in the intellectual set.
- - -
Yikes! Hopefully, I fall somewhere in the latter content, but I’ll admit, losing him was a little sad. We had a good relationship, my imaginary, omniscient, all powerful, supreme friend and I.
(Nov 2, 2017 03:25 PM)Yazata Wrote: Reading about this supposedly "worst atheist" who spoke at the Milwaukee meeting, somebody who I'd never heard of, I find that I like him. All the controversy surrounding him seem to concern his political views, many (not all) of which I find that I strongly agree with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Benjamin
I’ve never heard of him before either. Nor did I hear anything about the "I wouldn’t even rape you" tweet until just now. I don’t see anything wrong with his response to it in this video, do you?
https://youtu.be/mTFL0wKmsC0?t=47m43s
Posts: 17,082
Threads: 10,686
Joined: Oct 2014
C C
Nov 3, 2017 05:01 AM
(This post was last modified: Nov 3, 2017 05:01 AM by C C.)
(Nov 2, 2017 11:17 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: Yikes! Hopefully, I fall somewhere in the latter content, but I’ll admit, losing him was a little sad. We had a good relationship, my imaginary, omniscient, all powerful, supreme friend and I.
Normal to have a period of ordeal or weaning, unless the transition was so slow and gradual that there was no distinct day, week, month, or year where it crystalized. The head-cases I was referring to have probably always been sphincters rather than it actually resulting from the trauma of excessively prolonged god-withdraw or untreated disillusionment.
- - -
|