In the past I have often hypothesized that religion, with its emphasis on unquestioned belief and ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 28, 2019:

You seem to have it backwards. It is the gullible, by definition, that fall for the untruth, either in religion or politics.

Off to church I go.

Larry-new comments on Sep 28, 2019:

Wow...good for you!

This came up on another post, but your opinions please ?

Larry-new comments on Sep 28, 2019:

This question makes no sense. Science is not philosophy, obviously. Religion is not philosophy. Philosophy is neither.

This happened at the private "Christian" school where Mike Pence's wife teaches.

Larry-new comments on Sep 28, 2019:

aha.Hate crime.

NC Republicans making their case that laws should be based on the Bible, in this case to ignore the...

Larry-new comments on Sep 28, 2019:

Too damn silly to be real....I pity rational North Carolinians.

Sam Harris podcast discussing if we are living in an Ancestor simulation.

Larry-new comments on Sep 28, 2019:

Sounds like bullshit to me.

So much this!

Larry-new comments on Sep 27, 2019:

Consider the source.

I asked my sister how her Philosophy class in college is going when she visited today.

Larry-new comments on Sep 27, 2019:

The scam of religion is brilliant, highly successful, and self replicating, as well as any virus. See a talk by Daniel Dennett, here elsewhere. https://agnostic.com/post/407119/is-religion-man-made-evolution-or-biology-of-belief-by-daniel-dennett-https-youtu-be-kf5ms However, it did not take very long for a brilliant mind to destroy the god concept. Epicurus, in ca. 300 B.C.E.: Is god willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then be is not omnipotent. Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him god? ---------

Hi, I'm new.

Larry-new comments on Sep 27, 2019:

A little reading might help....I'd suggest a very little book, **Letter to a Christian Nation** by Sam Harris which does not need very many pages to get its points across. Logic cannot correspond with the illogical, and and comfort you may gain may not be able to be transmitted. But, we are here.

When asked if child abuse and sexual assault are good bad or neutral actions it seems that most ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 27, 2019:

This post is more about the nature of god than the clickbait of abuse, and is posted in Philosophy rather than Family/ Societal Values. As inquiry, it is clumsily stated as evidenced by the virulent responses. Far better would be to separate the good/evil questions from the disquieting examples.

This is a link to my local middle school.

Larry-new comments on Sep 27, 2019:

Send to FFRF. I support them because they actually sue violators.

Is this the situation with the majority of Agnostics.

Larry-new comments on Sep 27, 2019:

My ex said that I just want to be liked. I dumped her for someone who liked me better.

Is Ricky contradicting himself in the below vid (marker 10:17, but I think it should be cued up ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 26, 2019:

Agnostics are asking to be disrespected because they use the same unprovability mechanism that has made religion so successful. The Santa, faerie, and ceramic teapot observations make fun of both. Although Robert Ingersoll called himself The Great Agnostic and was hugely acclaimed for it, it might be taken in the context of his time, for atheists are saddled, quite incorrectly I might say, with proclaiming that there is no god, in the main because they incorporate the unprovable concept "theism" in their descriptor. The believer's hatred for the unbeliever is reduced somewhat in the undecided agnostic. The atheist has no belief in a deity. That's it, and is irrespective to whether a deity exists or not. Deities might be parading daily down the boulevard, yet it means nothing to the unbeliever.

Al Franken to make return on weekly SiriusXM radio show This will be a good start to Al coming ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 26, 2019:

Good....he's brilliant.

What we know and do not know about Greta Thunberg?

Larry-new comments on Sep 25, 2019:

Horseshit. Anything to keep from acknowledging the message.

Greta Thunberg .

Larry-new comments on Sep 25, 2019:

They always say that about kids, because they can't believe that a young person can have more brains than their cookie-cutter education gave them.

Christian pastor: Greta Thunberg should read the bible and stop worrying about this ‘imaginary ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 24, 2019:

The ostrich approach has worked so well....opiods, climate. We are helpless to curtail our greed.

Who was the nicest Christian you have met?

Larry-new comments on Sep 24, 2019:

The best people I've known were fundamentalists who lived their faith and did not proselytize...but if you broke down at 3am across the border, they'd come and get you without complaint.

What’s your type?

Larry-new comments on Sep 24, 2019:

director/builder

I had a spectacular trip for an old women from Oklahoma when I flew to Egypt from London on a ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 24, 2019:

A shame.

I buy a Veggie Delite sandwich at the local Subway most lunchtimes.

Larry-new comments on Sep 24, 2019:

Atheists in foxholes then? Yes, stepping out of one's door is entry to the budding theocracy we've all been fighting since 1776. I don't feel it necessary to educate the ignorant, and point out their hopeless position, as I'm reminded that they burned us when they could. No** A **tshirt in their faces, and I expect the same in return.

DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD TURN TO THE COMFORT OF THE CONCEPT OF GOD WHEN YOU'RE DYING?

Larry-new comments on Sep 24, 2019:

And he famously said, in his raw **Mortality**, his last book, that he might well convert before dying, as it was far better that a Christian die than an atheist.

Who’s your favorite scientist and why?

Larry-new comments on Sep 24, 2019:

Carl Sagan, for his unwavering commitment to battle pseudoscience and religion. As I open his **The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark**, I'm struck with a quote by Thomas Hobbes(1651): *Fear of things invisible is the natural seed of that which every one in himself calleth religion.*

Why why why do religious people think they can make a believer out of an atheist?

Larry-new comments on Sep 24, 2019:

Because the atheist couldn't possibly be right, else their house of cards tumbles.

Here's the thing: All IMAGINARY things are the same.

Larry-new comments on Sep 23, 2019:

You forgot gravity.

My family cannot seem to accept that I no longer believe in god.

Larry-new comments on Sep 23, 2019:

It's a tough place... by telling them this you have raised the possibility, although unspoken, that everything they hold dear is wrong. Was your coming out worth it? Only for you to decide.

I joined Agnostic.

Larry-new comments on Sep 23, 2019:

So browse already...

She is my Badass heroine of the year.

Larry-new comments on Sep 23, 2019:

Little savior of the planet.

Stigma of Working in the Gig Economy. Your thoughts?

Larry-new comments on Sep 23, 2019:

Turn on, tune in, drop out. So said Timothy Leary, wbom I met in SF, who did it all correctly and one day decided to do it differently. Translated for today, I'd say......start your own business. Only one asshole to deal with...a huge advantage, whether travelling or working. Work for whom you want, as long as you want. As the country song goes.....Some girls don't like boys like me, but some girls do. Working a certain way for the status it brings is self destroying, imo. My sense recoils at gigs...a good way to get screwed, it's telling me. But, hey, I'm just a humble snowplow driver who owns his own business....try it, it's not permanent.

Elizabeth Warren is surging ahead of Joe Biden in Iowa.

Larry-new comments on Sep 23, 2019:

Yawn...wake me when it gets interesting. After Bernie's flameout last cycle, I'm studiously uninterested.

I do not always make the most interesting posts but I have to say this is a great community.

Larry-new comments on Sep 22, 2019:

Well, you ain't so bad yourself...

Federal Judge Says Christian Hate Group Can Legally Be Called a “Hate Group” ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 22, 2019:

No, no....you get to do loathsome shit, then your skydaddy forgives you. At least that's what they said...

Why why why do religious people think they can make a believer out of an atheist?

Larry-new comments on Sep 22, 2019:

Thank you, goddess....'bout time someone shooed them away.

If all religion ended tomorrow, what do you think would happen to all the churches,etc.?

Larry-new comments on Sep 22, 2019:

As empty churches are today. Repurposed as life enrichment centers.

this "new" christianity is rather offensive

Larry-new comments on Sep 22, 2019:

They mess with snakes too.

For all you astronomy buffs.

Larry-new comments on Sep 22, 2019:

Amazing shot!

Day 4 after the shingles vaccination: I am still weak like a newborn kitten, but the flu symptoms...

Larry-new comments on Sep 22, 2019:

No reaction to mine...glad you're still able to get the vaccine after having shingles.

FB page of insanity.

Larry-new comments on Sep 22, 2019:

That's just how a good chunk of the world runs...whether in the North or South...just waiting for a NYC hustler to pander to them. Their world is not mine. When I leave my house I know I'm passing through theirs, unless I choose to live in the few remaining liberal enclaves. The ability to interface with those in the crazy camp is dependent on steering the conversation to safe areas. If we ever all start wearing red and blue hats, we're doomed.

The Christian Right Is Helping Drive Liberals Away From Religion | FiveThirtyEight

Larry-new comments on Sep 20, 2019:

Good ol' Reductio ad absurdum in action. And do you think that unto such as you A ragged, maggot-minded fanatic crew God gave the secret and denied it me? Well, well - what matters it? believe that too Rubaitat, R. Le Gallienne, transl.

My partner says that my labeling religious people "delusional" (which has mental health ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 20, 2019:

When one lists the abilities of humans, a good deal of which have insured our survival, one must also include the tendency towards self-delusion.

Some weird stuff I remember about being raised a Catholic: seeing my first statue of St.

Larry-new comments on Sep 20, 2019:

There's bones on display in Spanish cathedrals...holy relics. At Eastertime, all over the Spanish TV, is the lucky guy who gets to be crucified (for real) blood, nails and all. Quite an honor, I'm given to understand.

One of my Evangelical classmates calls himself "a justified sinner" to excuse his homophobia, self ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 20, 2019:

Evangelical Lutheran. As the LED sign on the lawn next to my house proclaims...We are not a perfect church, We are a **forgiven** church. They've managed to excuse any and all behavior with that one. My Pink Unicorn Goddess says she'll forgive me for mentioning this, bless her holy hooves...

I wonder if there are any Christian neuroscientists?

Larry-new comments on Sep 20, 2019:

Logic never followed the believer, dude.

"The president asked a foreign power to help him win an election.

Larry-new comments on Sep 20, 2019:

It's so easy to get away with things, as most were unthinkable until yesterday...the opposition is the one stuck in the past, still clutching their pearls in horror. We didn't elect them for shocked inaction. The young would impeach him today, and the televised hearings would bring everything out to the American people....everything that would then fall squarely on the shoulders of the Senate....let them be accountable for their support of this monster.

Go Christian Right!!!! [fivethirtyeight.com]

Larry-new comments on Sep 19, 2019:

Rather by definition, wouldn't you say?

HAVE YOU HEARD OF ROBERT INGERSOLL?

Larry-new comments on Sep 17, 2019:

And the highest paid lecturer of his time. I have all his speeches.

Abortion clinics report record-high violence "For one of the last abortion doctors in Missouri, ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 17, 2019:

Dr. Barnard Sleppian, killed at home...worked at Buffalo Womenservices where my wife was a counsellor.

What's your favorite atheist/skeptic YouTuber?

Larry-new comments on Sep 17, 2019:

Phil Hellenes https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r6w2M50_Xdk

Drop the Old testament?

Larry-new comments on Sep 17, 2019:

Never...make Xians responsible for every bloody bit.

Do we need religion to provide a sense of justice?

Larry-new comments on Sep 17, 2019:

Morality does not derive from religion, it preceeds it. Christopher Hitchens

There could be worse things than Hell: 🤔

Larry-new comments on Sep 17, 2019:

Well, you could be a writer...lots of precedent there...

My first home is now completely gone.

Larry-new comments on Sep 17, 2019:

As bio, it is a view into something that most of us have barely heard of. At least I don't know any refugees, former or present. Kids know how to survive, knowing nothing else. As writing, it's quite good. As story, how fascinating!

What is the price of gas in your area right now?

Larry-new comments on Sep 17, 2019:

$2.69 Prices nationwide: https://www.gasbuddy.com/GasPrices/Oklahoma

Cokie Roberts dies at 75 [abcnews.go.com]

Larry-new comments on Sep 17, 2019:

Sad...she will be missed. She was a staple in my NPR listening.

AI will transform religion with robot priests like this one - Vox

Larry-new comments on Sep 16, 2019:

As many insights as a human, but if tied to logic....wonder who'll go over the wall first?

56 years ago today four young African-American girls were killed in a Church bombing in Birmingham, ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 16, 2019:

In Memphis circa 1966 as a late teen recently recruited into the Navy, and sent to school after an 18 month stint in Florida, my waning innocence was forever shattered by the simple act of seeing, for the first time, *colored only* drinking fountains and bathrooms. What was in the newspapers was made clear, as I took my thirst elsewhere.

Indiana T-Shirt Drama Hits Home BY SARAH HENRY • SEPTEMBER 2019 “When you’re accustomed to...

Larry-new comments on Sep 15, 2019:

The school is quite correctly showing itself to be what society demands and supports, the constrictive and oppressive funnel, rather than the liberal education opportunity that produced our freedoms.

New Apple Watch Automatically Deletes Trump Tweets Moment They're Sent

Larry-new comments on Sep 15, 2019:

America would be a lot happier if this were functional. Until then, manipulate the onoff control to the off position. Works rather well.

How would you respond to "You can't have true love without God"?

Larry-new comments on Sep 15, 2019:

What a scam, claiming all morality, offering life after death, and telling the gullible they can't love! How do you respond to nonsense? Stop going to church?

This is an extraordinary admission by a Christian minister. [facebook.com]

Larry-new comments on Sep 15, 2019:

Ivan Turgenev: Every prayer reduces itself to this: ** Great God, grant that twice two be not four.**

He thinks his desire is a powerful magnet. On what planet?

Larry-new comments on Sep 14, 2019:

Hmmm...sadly you'll never know. Bet you can live with it, tho.

I have been an atheist since my very early childhood.

Larry-new comments on Sep 14, 2019:

Yes.I do not push my non belief on believers, and expect the same in return. The Praise Jesus outbursts I just ignore, as with the cries of children and teens.

Its a known fact that history is written by only the winners.

Larry-new comments on Sep 14, 2019:

The closest I've seen to the loser's side was the excellent BBC doc, *The Dark Charisma of Adolph Hitler*,which took ten years to find and interview Germans who were there with Hitler's rise. There were also interviews with North Vietnamese who fought in a doc that included meetings between both sides...visits of US soldiers to meet their former enemies. Overall, I'd have to disagree with your premise....where it was no doubt true in the past, the availability of counter narratives has exploded, coincidentally with the number of atheist writings gone popular in the past few years, since 2005, say. Look as example at the anti Trump books. Religion works in deeper ways, shunning the light where possible and pulling dissenters slowly into irrevelancy without direct confrontation...as if they were correct all along, and allowing the few bad apples that naturally float to the surface, to be discarded. Moral low ground, if you will.

Here we go again. Flash floods and mudslides.

Larry-new comments on Sep 13, 2019:

Be safe. And as it says in the bible, the rain falls upon the just and the unjust alike.

I suffer from intermittent explosive disorder.

Larry-new comments on Sep 13, 2019:

You don't have either time nor energy to deal with all the misguided out there..let them learn, or not, as they will.

Unhealthy food. How could I have been more tactful?

Larry-new comments on Sep 13, 2019:

Enjoy your tea and let others enjoy their meal. Noone wants a lecture before food.

I been an Atheist for under 2 years and still learning about our way of looking at things.

Larry-new comments on Sep 13, 2019:

Read a bit.

Why does the beauty of the world, the order (and chaos) we discovered that underlies the universe, ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 13, 2019:

Unable to cope with just being chanced to exist for a few years. Not an easy concept to embrace.

Today was a very painful day.

Larry-new comments on Sep 13, 2019:

Sip and enjoy.

"I thought you were a Republican because you have confidence."

Larry-new comments on Sep 13, 2019:

I'm sure any friends of mine make allowances for me from time to time, so I just don't go there with people I know are Trump supporters...I don't expect them to be at my level.

I've always been fascinated by Christians who say they believe in heaven, then scramble in a panic ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 13, 2019:

And there'd be dancing at funerals...

CONFESSIONS OF AN OVER THE WALL GRATEFUL RECOVERING CATHOLIC First Communion, Confirmation, ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 12, 2019:

Altar boy here, mass in Latin. Went behind the altar and saw that it was a hollow facade...oops.

At the risk of sounding unpatriotic,.

Larry-new comments on Sep 12, 2019:

Yes, it's sad so many died. I am from NY, and knew someone killed in the tower. I'm sickened by the false patriotism ever since. Remember the Maine. We bombed civilians in Japan, Europe, North Korea, North Vietnam, and bombarded cities in our own breakaway southern states. That's moms and kids and elderly, folks. Dogs, cats, and mynah birds. Fish and cosy homes. Schools and hospitals. We only stopped bombing North Korea after aerial reconnaissance could not find a single standing structure to bomb. Us, not the bad guys. Yet how piteous is the 9/11 whining! Easy to drop bombs on someone else, isn't it? We finally get wartime-like casualties visited upon us, and the flag waving and the hand wringing is sickening....Europeans must see us as especially vulnerable...if we went through a fraction of what they did, perhaps religion would be less entrenched here. Only one plane flew on 9/12....from the US, bringing the Saudi visitors home. Thanks for saying what you did.

We so often learn far too late than the heroes of history were actually horrible people, and the ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 12, 2019:

Even the green witch...see **Wicked**

America's sweeping tide of diversity

Larry-new comments on Sep 12, 2019:

We think we're diverse until we slip over the border to Canada....*that's* what a diverse society looks like. We try, whilst some fight to have brown skinned peoples stopped at the borders....Bahamanians only the latest.

I'm troubled when I hear people say that we need to "respect" people's religious beliefs.

Larry-new comments on Sep 12, 2019:

Tolerant...respect leads to having the Ten Commandments in a public space, and a bad message to kids...here's the official religion!

How do you deal with muscle cramps?

Larry-new comments on Sep 11, 2019:

From bicycle racing.....Leg cramps only: Accupressure points, one on web of fingers betw. little and ring, 1" down, either hand, the other, directly on the back of head, on a line drawn between the tops of both ears. Both allow a rider to keep riding while applying a decent amount of pressure for approx. 30 sec. Cramps go away. Applying pressure takes a pincer of two fingers if using the hand point, but only one finger if applying to the back of the head.

Just heard a great quote from Dan Barker, one that I wish I had thought of myself.

Larry-new comments on Sep 11, 2019:

Dan's book, *Godless* is a great read, especially the chapter on whether Jesus even existed.

I see lots of comments here about not ‘coming out’ as an atheist.

Larry-new comments on Sep 10, 2019:

Don't feel it's necessary to be out, and expect the same from believers....to keep their beliefs to themselves.

I find it amazing how much so many of us have in common on this site, much of it due to our lack of ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 10, 2019:

More cowbell! (more education, actually)

Hahaha.... aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh....

Larry-new comments on Sep 10, 2019:

Defenestrators for God!

As is the custom now on receipt, on reaching level 8.

Larry-new comments on Sep 10, 2019:

Hip Hip....

ISN’T THE BIGGEST THREAT TO THE CREDIBILITY OF CHRIST, HIS EMBRACING OLD TESTAMENT TEACHINGS?

Larry-new comments on Sep 10, 2019:

The fact that he may never have existed has to be up there, along with missives to goatherders. (white jesus)

List: Every abusive Catholic church priest, clergy member named in every state in past year ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 9, 2019:

Too big to fail might well be applied here.

How would you reply to a theist who says, "You send yourself to hell"?

Larry-new comments on Sep 9, 2019:

Heaven for the atmosphere, hell for the company.

Can all 'why' questions be translated into 'how' questions?

Larry-new comments on Sep 9, 2019:

As again, Lawrence Krauss addresses this very point in *A Universe From Nothing*.

Does anyone have a favorite book that helped you in your transition out of your religion?

Larry-new comments on Sep 8, 2019:

Sam Harris' *The End of Faith* was my first specific book on nonbelief, and the start of a three foot long bookshelf on atheist writings. My mind was certain decades before that deities were fiction, but it was instructive to read good arguments as writers became freer to express their opinions and reference existing writings that date back to Empedocles, Epicurus, Lucretius, from 450 B.C.E.to present. It rather amazes me that the painfully obvious hasn't been more widely understood.

Risk rescuers' lives for people who refused mandatory evacuation?

Larry-new comments on Sep 8, 2019:

Ok, I've agreed with this for as long as I can remember....stupid people doing stupid things. But this morning, over my breakfast coffee, I want to dust off my contrarian hat, that faded, tricornered old thing hanging in the mud room. This morning talking about **them** reminds me of why I don't issue pronouncements on those whom I am not...women, or persons of colour. Because I ain't one, and therefore don't know squat about their lives from my privileged old white guy throne. Why, I've even heard tell they don't view the Authorities as I do! Hmph. Sadly, would this mean I'd even have to shut up about my political enemies? I wonder how ol' Hitch managed to pull it off....oh yeah, by not caring who and whom he pissed off....there may be atheist salvation yet! That's why I list "aspiring contrarian" as an attribute in my bio. I suppose it takes a certain level.of privilege to do what a factory owner once told me when I asked what he'd do if, while out on the lake in his boat (read Yacht), a big storm came up....he replied he'd just run it up on the shore and call the insurance company. Why didn't I think of that? No boat, for one. Yes, I don't know the reasons people didn't evacuate. But *damn* they be stupid!

"Science is limitless in its scope.

Larry-new comments on Sep 8, 2019:

Turns out to be a perfectly legitimate question, answered by Lawrence Krauss in his * A Universe From Nothing: why there is something rather than nothing.* You may want to read it.

Organized religion

Larry-new comments on Sep 8, 2019:

Those on top of the house of cards, perhaps.

Hidden History, Remember -- That Time American Women Lost Their Citizenship Because They Married ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 8, 2019:

wow.

If someone changes everything about them (interests/style/beliefs), does that mean he/she is no ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 7, 2019:

If you're alive, you change and grow.

Neil deGrasse Tyson back on Joe Rogan. [youtu.be] Engaging and fascinating

Larry-new comments on Sep 7, 2019:

Fascinating. Forensic astronomy.

If you GOP'ers thought you'd have options other than the Orange Menace.

Larry-new comments on Sep 7, 2019:

Joe Walsh on Bill Maher last night.....the dictatorship.

Now at last I can have the vicar to tea, because finally I have something really suitable to wear.

Larry-new comments on Sep 7, 2019:

Tasteful.

The nature of our present physical form

Larry-new comments on Sep 7, 2019:

And that little more makes all the difference, else we'd not bother talking about it.

Indian Constitution : Grants right to say there is no God.

Larry-new comments on Sep 6, 2019:

Big of them...

“Why is it that when the world’s richest ‘spiritual’ leaders need money, they turn to you ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 6, 2019:

They became rich off the backs of the sheep they expertly herded.

Mark of the beast???

Larry-new comments on Sep 6, 2019:

Woo, not worthy of discussion.

Does anyone else think Boris Johnson is now out of his depth, floundering and making one blunder ...

Larry-new comments on Sep 6, 2019:

One gets the feeling that parliament, if abandoned to its own petard, might never agree to any solution. Best to let it play out to an exit, then pick up the pieces. Britian was intact before the EU, and left to its own devices, will be again Boris is uniquely suited to make this happen, as a jester royale. No one can seriously expect to please anyone in this mess..