Lewis Black’s the best!

Or just don’t want to.

My thoughts.

@CuddyCruiser And also my thinking

@Beowulfsfriend Once indoctrinated its virtually impossible to reverse…….and it requires willpower, in the same manner as drug rehab.

A very good quotation, well applied to religion. As I was not aware of it I thank you. I just think perhaps your last sentence should be "No religion or state encourages thinking or scientific enquiry." We can teach science enquiry to everyone (my mantra) PLUS let them get its benefits pretty soon, but philosophy of the top 10 philosophers is out of reach of an extremely large body of people. Science will destroy religion.

@Mcflewster The Doctrine of DNA (biology as ideology) by Richard Lewontin gives a good insight into scientific enterprises. It would be foolish to think that science is simply in service of something called the public good.

We are all capable of asking questions and are therefore philosophers to some extent with the exception of those who believe whatever they are told to believe.

@ASTRALMAX “It would be foolish to think that science is simply in service of something called the public good.”

Foolish indeed! After all, science is not an enterprise or a federation of practitioners. With their biases, camps and schools of thought, are scientists and science synonymous? Perish the thought!

Science, it seems to me, is at least two distinct things: an incomplete and evolving body of human knowledge and the process by which this knowledge is added to. The application of this knowledge, or service, is not science, per se, but engineering.

Modern day politicians? . You need to read a book or two. It's always been this way. Which is why people haven't caught on.

Nope. It's not people who don't believe it shining other people on. It's people who already believe this dipshittery running for office and winning.

TOO MANY theocrats you are absolutely correct

And I admire the UU for its work in the areas of social justice and social equality.

Just another one size fits all bullshit ideology. You’re a fine example of why we will never be rid of these fairy tale belief systems.
Unless people ditch the superstitious nonsebse, humanity doesn’t have a chance, fact.

Still time to get out. You can still do all the good stuff you're doing, but you can do it without all the bullshit.

Eliminate the middle-man.

You mean you focus on your idea of Social Justice.

Contemporary UU principles are close to Humanist principles. Many UUs in the congregation I used to go to (First Unitarian Society, Madison WI) were atheists or agnostics or Humanists or Buddhists.

[uua.org]

I have no problem with believers. She has the right per our Constitution to believe as she chooses. It is not the UU I have a problem with as they do not try to stuff it down anyone's throat as a soul saving foix gras. Its the proselytizers & bible bangers, extremists, Scientologist scammers, door bell ringing evangelizers.

@Buck You assume I believe in superstition. I’m a humanist, not a theist.

@Buck, @Toonman What bull shit? Community? Music? Progressive ideas? Independent thinking?

@Buck, @Toonman, @Alienbeing Sure. Anti-racism, reproductive freedom, voting rights….all that nasty stuff

@UUNJ As if you really know where voting rights are violated.

UU is more like a social club than a religion far as I can tell-I always figured it was for people who couldn't get a tee time on Sunday morning. Not saying it doesn't stand for good things, but kind of weak on the whole god thing.

@UUNJ

For the second time in as many comments, neither a church nor a deity is necessary to engage with those issues. There are tons of secular organizations doing so.

You talk as if churches are the only ones that do.

You know religion is bullshit when you can accomplish something important without it.

And you know as well as anybody here that churches are an obstacle to independent thinking.

You are quite wrong to go against Thomas Paine who published the best repudiation EVER of KingJames bible "impostiture" .....the less money dropped in collection plates = the more money corrupt theocrats steal from treasury into clergy deep pockets.... Paine was consistent with 1700s deism/creationism.... had Darwin been born 1709 not 1809 both Paine and Darwin would ENCOURAGE not "prevent Atheism"

@GreenAtheist I’m not sure how you were able to interpret my remarks on religion as going against my avatar and hero… that’s something I would never wish to do!

Probably why they fight like crazy for us to not create economic security for people ?

@twill Great point! Yes, the churches want themselves and their religions to be the "solutions" to people's problems. That's why many of them oppose secular solutions.

@Krish55 Almost certainly

Truth is people who believe in an afterlife are just being hopeful. They want it to be so…as if that is enough to make it true.

And the odd thing is, they fear death even though they believe they are going to heaven when they die. I fear death much less as an atheist than I did as a Christian.

North Korea isn't socialism. North Korea is actually a fascist state as every political expert such as yourself, knows. It is the embodiment of the state as everyone's dreams (even at gunpoint), the fascist wet dram. Hitler said One country, one people, one leader. So does Kim and Putin.
Communism's endpoint is the end of the state and its apparatus.
Only rightwing moonbats consider everything left of Reaganism as "socialism" Canada is more like socialism. Europe is more like socialism.

I know why they call you CourtJester.

Because you're a fucking joke.

Americans embrace socialism all the time. Social Security, public services like fire departments, and the interstate highway system are good examples.

Books, man. Libraries lend 'em.

Oh! Public libraries! There's another one!

YOU probably have no use for them, but...

@RonWilliam53 government control. Just what you want.

@CourtJester Yeah- I just hate roads, schools and libraries, not to mention fire departments. Much better to let somebody like Bezos take care of me. And I know corporations always have my best interests in mind when the make things like food.

@RonWilliam53 I hate welfare, government assistance to non-citizens, and paying for abortions.

@CourtJester So, compassion bothers you, then?

Also, YOU DON'T PAY FOR ABORTIONS!

Federal law prohibits federal tax funds from going to abortions. Many states also forbid state tax revenue funding abortions, too.

On the subject of welfare, the average monthly single-person payout is $600.00. Most single people without children don't qualify. Most families on welfare have at least one parent who does work, who is either underscheduled or underpaid. Most of the rest are the elderly or the disabled.

The most a single food stamp recipient gets is about $120 a month. Again, most of these benefits go to the elderly, and the disabled, in addition to children in families who work but don't make enough money. The unemployed usually use the benefit for no more than 6 months before returning to work.

Welfare/food stamp fraud has been reduced to about 3% since the introduction of the EBT card. What remains is fraud by people working within the agencies. It is physically impossible for a cardholder to buy anything but food with a food-stamp card.

Immigrants entering the country legally are entitled to government benefits as long as they reside in the US. If they can afford the legal process that is required to become a legal resident or a citizen, they probably don't need the benefits in question.

Undocumented immigrants can't get benefits because they don't have INS or Social Security numbers. BUYING such a number is so prohibitively expensive as to be out of the means of people entering the country illegally.

Your total yearly tax for both social assistance and food stamps is $72. The total tax you pay for corporate subsidies is about $1100 per year.

Which is the greater burden on you?

You're an atheist. Atheists care about facts. And we can be good without God. It's our duty to be more compassionate than religious people.

But looking at you, it's plain religious people don't corner the market on ignorance and contempt for the least among us.

@CourtJester Yeah, caring for the disabled handicapped sure eats into my casino money and I'll never see that nickel that's my share of abortion funding (is it actually paid by taxpayers, though?) An those damn non-citizens harvesting our food and working in those slaughter houses so we can get our Big macs and McNuggets. How dare they? And those damn Afganis-just because they risked their lives to help our troops is nor eason we should save them.

@Toonman You’re comical

@CourtJester And if you had a cogent argument you'd have given it by now.

@Toonman feel free to relocate to a nation with more government control then.

@CourtJester

Feel free to wipe Trump's goop off your chin.

Again, you offer no cogent argument. If you had one, you'd have given it by now.