That is how I learned about them. They need donations. They have an extremely low operating budget and one former clergy told them if they had the funds to offer job training, they would have a lot more leaving the pulpit that don't believe.
If I ever win the lottery I would definitely fund them, guess I had better start buying tickets!

@misstuffy I'll consider that myself !

@twill I would love to see them do well. I have a second home on the place but I need to get the renovations done and get it rented, I need the cash flow. However, I have considered adding a cabin and providing that for a place to live for displaced clergy, just until they can find a place to land with a job. Unfortunately I am low income and can't afford to do this.

@misstuffy Anything is possible without god ! These men of conscience were probably not going to leave the church and land on their feet. Hard times for sure
I will definitely have to look into this further.

@twill Yes, I believe if we can help them, we should. When they leave they lose just about everything, including their homes if they live in the retcory house.

Yes, in other words, maybe the text was never meant to be taken literally. Maybe there is some value in non-literal interpretations. Which, in the case of the Bible, I think there are. However, as Chris Hitchens aptly pointed out, religion poisons everything in great part because of inappropriate literal interpretations of scripture.

@Flyingsaucesir

Yes. The only thing I would add is that, in that case, it isn’t “religion” that’s doing the poisoning, but its misinterpretation.

@skado When the church officials are the ones who are pushing the false interpretation, how do you separate the chicken from the gumbo?

@Flyingsaucesir

It’s not easy. I use biology as a guide.
The church leaders are as susceptible to misunderstanding as the followers. But SOMEbody involved in the origination of these religions understood the difference, because that difference is even cautioned against in the Bible for example.

An in-depth study of evolutionary principles illuminates the two human tendencies pretty well. Check out my new post on Spinoza.

@Flyingsaucesir If you read the Bible and then the translated Sumerian tablets by Sitchen, you realize the Bible is a plagiarized dumbed down version of the Ancient Sumerian texts. Maybe we were genetically altered by aliens after all. Far more plausible than to be whipped up out of mere dust IMO.

I have always been a huge fan of George Carlin, this is his routine regarding God.

@misstuffy Oh yeah! George rocks! And I'm speaking as geologist and an agnostic!

I will rewatch the video and do just that, I did not think of it and it is an excellent idea. Thank you!

Start at 44.41 in. the first part is related to the next part which is where they talk about the priests mocking worshipers in Latin.

@misstuffy

Ok thanks I'll take a listen to that part.

@kmaz Back up a bit further, as there is an audience member who asks, Dont the clergy know it is all bull shit? Its pretty good.

@misstuffy

Hi -

On the one thing you had mentioned at the top of the thread, and then starting around minute 44/45, about the priests speaking in Latin and getting away with insulting the people who were taking the mass, that was an interesting story. I would summarize what I just heard to say it was apparently in reference to Martin Luther visiting Rome his one and only visit, and realizing that the Priests speaking the service for the tourists were mis-speaking and insulting them and saying something like "You are bread and always will remain bread", .... the people couldn't understand the Latin being spoken to them. I guess the Priests were being paid for these services? The way I understood this story, Martin Luther was impacted by this.

I do agree that what little I heard of the video, it is quite engaging. I liked that he was asked a bit about some of the popular preachers and then he talked about continuing to listen to them sometimes even after he had got to the place he was, and hearing a lot of the nonsense in what they were saying.

I think if one looks around, there are many thought-provoking episodes here and there, of humanists/atheists having podcasts and making speeches and so-on. While I generally agree with a lot of the points made, and do get a sense of camaraderie and shared experience from these sorts of productions, I haven't listened in years, it's just not my focus. The last time I did look around, I think the one I was trying to listen to was out of Austin, TX, so this speech being out of Houston seemed somehow in-keeping. [That last time I looked around, it was because I was frustrated because even from the earlier days of the Roku devices, someone was trying to do an atheist channel, but there was some sort of nasty bureaucracy causing them to get in their own way on posting good podcasts, and such, and I was trying to understand better why it wasn't getting solved. I did even once speak with one of the capable content issuers in Texas, but I was never able to figure out how to watch more of this sort of thing on Roku. Maybe, these days, it could be accessed through the youtube channel, as with so many things.

I will say since I was raised Jewish and not Christian, I think there are some differences in the shared atheist experiences, though certainly some similarities as well.

@kmaz I am glad you enjoyed the video and encourage you to watch the video from the beginning. My description was designed to be succinct. Your description is wonderful but very long. hence my shorter synopsis.