Atheism
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- invidious.privacyredirect.com After censoring atheists, TX Gov. Greg Abbott finally pays $358,000+ in legal fees (Livestream)
Gov. Greg Abbott took down a "Secular Nativity" display in 2015. After fighting a lengthy legal battle, he's finally paying the price for it. This is a clip from my recent livestream: https://youtube.com/live/rf01MCb2p0I The article this is based on is here: https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/t...
There are a lot of good overviews of Project 2025 and the threat it poses to everyone who lives in America as well as beyond our borders. Here's a look at the Christian Nationalist intent behind it.
- • 97%www.salon.com The man who set the stage for an imperial presidency if Trump wins
A look at Leonard Leo’s American theocracy
...pay attention to Leonard Leo. He is the judicial kingmaker responsible for the list from which Trump selected Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Leo has shaped this Court and acted effectively to keep its Republican justices from abandoning his – and their – sectarian-right vision of America.
- archive.org Atheism Pamphlet : Jason Happoja : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
A pamphlet answering questions about how the world view of an atheist works.
Found this pamphlet in my mailbox this morning. I pretty much agree with it and I think I'll keep it for the next time Jehovah's Witnesses decide to show up way too early in the morning.
Edit: I linked the digital mirror that was printed on the back of the pamphlet. Also, it's CC0 which I think is cool
The phrase "under God" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, 70 years ago today.
- • 94%apnews.com Trump backers say he shares their Christian faith and values
Donald Trump's support from white evangelicals and other conservative Christians is as strong as ever.
We're not going to be able to fix these people. The only hope we have is to outlast them.
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3662089
> DarkMatter2525: I don't support Palestine. I support the innocent children who are being killed there. > > http://archive.today/9TLDR
- https:// www.wwltv.com /article/news/investigations/losing-faith/new-orleans-archdiocese-church-sex-abuse-lawrence-hecker-deposition-testimony/289-df0b8a8c-62b4-47f4-af37-56e2822502f6
Just when you thought it was safe to back into the pew.
- www.friendlyatheist.com A high school artist called out Christian bigotry. Her school board is furious.
After senior Abby Driscoll created art highlighting how Christians can make LGBTQ students feel, the Augusta County School Board vowed to take action.
- • 100%www.salon.com “An army of Jesus”: Inside Mike Johnson’s come-to-Jesus moment ahead of Ukraine reversal
Johnson met evangelical leader of Ukraine’s National Prayer Breakfast before last week's press conference.
It should surprise no one that Dominionist Mike Johnson's change of heart on Ukraine was bought by suggesting to him that it could serve his religious agenda.
- www.friendlyatheist.com Wisconsin official blames homelessness on "sin," then votes against aid for the poor
Jeff Weigand, a conservative Christian, said before his vote that sin was the "root cause" of homelessness
- whyevolutionistrue.com Dan Dennett died today
Well, this is unexpected, and details will be forthcoming. He was 82. I have lots of stories about Dan, and found him amiable and charitable, though sometimes he could be domineering, especially wh…
Daniel Dennett, philosopher, atheist, and one of the tongue-in-cheek "Horsemen" of atheism, died today. He was 82.
- • 100%apnews.com Oklahoma man arrested after authorities say he threw a pipe bomb at Satanic Temple in Massachusetts
An Oklahoma man has been arrested after authorities accused him of throwing a pipe bomb at the headquarters of a group in Salem, Massachusetts, called The Satanic Temple.
Surveillance cameras showed a man walk up to the building soon after 4 a.m. on April 8 wearing a face covering, tactical vest and gloves, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI. The man then ignited an improvised explosive device, threw it at the main entrance then ran away. The bomb partially detonated, resulting in some minor fire damage, authorities said.
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- • 100%talkingpointsmemo.com The Christian Nationalist Hydra: In Era of Trump, Christian Nationalism Has Many Faces
I am a journalist who has covered the Christian right for two...
FTA:
> The bottom line is that Christian nationalism takes on different forms, and despite organizational or even ideological differences, ideas can penetrate the often porous borders between different camps. Someone who receives the daily email blast from the Family Research Council might also be drawn to Wolfe’s book, for example. On a more unnerving, macro level, major right-wing and GOP figures, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and the CEO of the Daily Wire, the podcast consortium run by conservative influencer Ben Shapiro, have embraced the rabidly antisemitic, Hitler-admiring antagonist Nick Fuentes, who is Catholic but also is accurately described as a Christian nationalist. The increasingly influential Catholic integralist movement, which seeks a Catholic-inflected replacement for the “liberal order,” is yet another unique form of Christian nationalism.
- • 100%talkingpointsmemo.com What Exactly Do the Christian Nationalists Want?
Over the past month, I’ve been speaking with people who describe themselves...
...In 2022, Stephen Wolfe (no relation to William) published a book called “The Case for Christian Nationalism.” The book was published by Canon Press, a publishing house that began as a ministry of Wilson’s church. Stephen K. Bannon, the Trump adviser, reportedly had a copy of the book stacked on his table.
In the book, Wolfe lays out a vision that veers very far into the fantastic — he rails against the advancement of women over the past several decades by using the term “gynocracy,” and describes both the Obergefell decision and the 1965 immigration reform which abolished quotas on national origin as an “imperial imposition.” One chapter, called “The Christian Prince,” advocates for a “measured and theocratic caesarism.” Wolfe has suggested that he’s playing a somewhat coy game here, using “prince” to refer not necessarily to a monarch, but possibly to the aggregate form of American governmental power. Whatever it is, in his version of Christian nationalism the prince would promote “national self-love and a manly, moral liberty.”
- • 96%nymag.com No, America Doesn’t Need a MAGA ‘Day of Christian Visibility’
Trump’s efforts to conflate Christianity with his cause, and to mobilize both on behalf of transphobic hate, are offensive to both church and state.
Pity the poor unseen majority who shove their religion in our faces every day. Won't someone think of them?
- www.friendlyatheist.com Richard Dawkins says Christianity is "fundamentally decent," but Islam "is not"
The atheist's comments continue an irresponsible pattern of demonizing one religion while celebrating the one he grew up with
cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/10663972 >> The atheist's comments continue an irresponsible pattern of demonizing one religion while celebrating the one he grew up with
- • 96%www.salon.com Trump and GOP use a fake panic about a "trans" Easter to justify their Christian nationalism
Phony claims that Democrats “mock your faith” are a cynical excuse to strip Americans of religious freedom
> It's easy to roll one's eyes as the self-serving dramatics of MAGA voters using false claims of victimhood as cover for their ugly views. But, as the threatening language in Greene's tweet shows, this "woe is us" act is deeply dangerous. The hyperbolic conspiracy theories and dehumanizing language serve to convince Republican voters that religious liberty and democracy are simply values they can no longer afford to hold. The message is Christians are so "under siege" that the only way to fight back is by stripping everyone else of basic rights.
- • 81%www.motherjones.com Meet the viral gun influencers pushing a hardline Christian beliefs
T.Rex Arms sells gun accessories. According to one expert, "The product is ideology, too.”
They have money, they have influence, they have charisma, and they have technical expertise. And they're using to pursue a theocratic America, even if they have to kill anyone who gets in their way.
- • 96%www.mediaite.com View Hosts Taken Aback By Trump Selling Bibles: ‘It’s Blasphemous!’
Hosts of The View were gobsmacked at news that Donald Trump is now selling bibles, with Sunny Hostin declaring it "blasphemous."
Could Trump's attempt to pander to evangelicals backfire? We can only hope.
- • 96%www.joemygod.com Trump Compares Himself To Jesus Christ In Post Citing Scriptural Prayer Calling On God To Kill One's Enemies - Joe.My.God.
Posted to Truth Social while Trump is in court: Received this morning—Beautiful, thank you! “It’s ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week they are trying to steal your property from you. But have you seen this verse…?” Psalm 109:3–8 (NKJV): They have also surrounded ...
- • 98%www.motherjones.com It's time to start worrying about Christian nationalism.
One tweet illustrates the threat.
Minor nitpick: it was time to start worrying about Christian nationalism over twenty years ago. They've been trying to legitimize Christian nationalism since at least the founding of the "Moral Majority" when I was a boy. I've been trying to sound the alarm about Dominionism and Christian nationalism since the second Bush administration.
But if you're late to the game, fine. The second best time to start worrying about Christian nationalism is now.
- • 92%www.salon.com Decoding Project 2025’s Christian Nationalist language
Evangelicalese allows Trump’s MAGA supporters to hide their extreme positions in plain sight
A deep dive into the policies proposed in Project 2025 reveal the theocratic intent of its framers. Using language that evangelicals will recognize to hide its authoritarian intent demonstrates they recognize how unpopular these policies will be once implemented. But then it'll be too late.
- • 93%talkingpointsmemo.com Trump II Architect Russ Vought Embraces A Christian Nationalist Vision For America
One of the key architects of Donald Trump’s plans for a second...
These are the people tasked with developing policy for a second Trump administration. If you're not deeply scared of what they're proposing, you are not paying attention.
- • 96%www.thenation.com The Terrifying Christian Nationalist Crusade to Conquer America
An extremist evangelical movement has set itself up to formulate the governing priorities of a second Trump administration.
The worst part isn't even that they're trying to do this. Of course they've been wanting to do this ever since they started losing power during the Enlightenment. The worst part is that the average American either doesn't know about this, or has somehow talked themselves into believing it's not a real threat. We're watching the scene play out in which the man says, "of course the leopards won't eat my face!"
- talkingpointsmemo.com Experts Place New Secret Society Squarely In The Christian Nationalist Revival
A men-only, Christian-only, right-wing secret society with the aim of installing certain...
Because clearly, what we need is yet another Christian Nationalist secret society that only offers membership to men. Right.
Dammit, The Handmaid's Tale is not supposed to be a guidebook!
- • 95%slate.com It Sure Seems Like the Courts Have Placed Christianity Above Other Faiths
“Religious freedom” is having a moment in federal courts.
FTA:
> > > Since the installation of the current conservative supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court, RFRA has been used several times to advance Christian, conservative interests. In Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the Supreme Court held that Philadelphia’s nondiscrimination policies violated RFRA by precluding a Catholic adoption agency from contracting with the city because it refused to place children with LGBTQ+ families. The court also used the free exercise clause and RFRA to invalidate the mandate for employers to provide contraceptive coverage in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. The Ninth Circuit itself relied on the free exercise clause to overturn a public school’s decision not to recognize a Christian student group that required students to hold Christian beliefs to join in Fellowship of Christian Athletes v. San Jose Unified School District. > >
- • 69%www.counterpunch.org The New Atheism at 20: How an Intellectual Movement Exploited Rationalism to Promote War
Inspired by the attacks of September 11th, the New Atheism appeared on the scene shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It became immediately clear that the Four Horsemen were exploiting Enlightenment principles to justify the bombing of women and children in third world nations. Muslim terror...
>As Western bombs rain on Gaza’s starving civilians, the New Atheism turns 20. The philosophical genre, which argues for secularism over organized religion, was kick-started by Sam Harris. His 2004 book, The End of Faith, promoted neuroscience-based spirituality in place of irrational groupthink. The philosopher, Daniel Dennett, soon followed with Breaking the Spell (2006), as did the evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, with his 2 million unit-selling, The God Delusion. The late essayist, Christopher Hitchens, completed the quartet, known as the Four Horsemen, publishing God Is Not Great (2007). > >Inspired by the attacks of September 11th, the genre appeared on the scene shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It became immediately clear that the Four Horsemen were exploiting Enlightenment principles to justify the bombing of women and children in third world nations. Muslim terrorists are not aggrieved by Western foreign policy, the authors claim, but rather by their fanatical devotion to their faith. The decimation of Iraq was not motivated by elite US strategies to control oil markets, but because “god” told Bush to invade. The state does not exploit religious differences for cynical realpolitik; but rather, hateful mobs randomly attack each other because of their different belief systems. > >As I document in my latest book, The New Atheism Hoax, the authors concocted a major fraud. In case after case, their own sources say the opposite of what they claim. This doesn’t happen a few times. It happens almost every time.
>With the exception of Hitchens whom, in his final years, became a right-winger, the attention of liberals was diverted by the seductive, anti-religiosity of the New Atheists. Instead of analyzing the world through the only lens that matters—realpolitik—progressives were invited to divide the world into the simple dialectics promoted by George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden’s speechwriters: that of a “clash of civilizations,” to use a phrase popularized by Samuel P. Huntington.
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"I dare you to pass this bill and allow me to send chaplains to your schools." -not a verbatim quote.
- https:// www.beliefnet.com /news/2003/09/the-gospel-of-supply-side-jesus.aspx
Reprinted from Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them-A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken by permission of Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright c Al Franken, Inc., 2003. "Supply Side Jesus" illustrations c Don Simpson. All rights reserved. This excerpt, or any parts thereof, may not be reproduced without permission.
- • 90%www.catholicworldreport.com Rediscovered book by Cardinal Fernández features graphic erotic passages on ‘spirituality and sensuality’
null / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA Rome Newsroom, Jan 8, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA). A 1998 book by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández featuring provocative, sexually-charged themes has resurfaced, likely adding further scrutiny to the already embattled...
>A 1998 book by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández featuring provocative, sexually-charged themes has resurfaced, likely adding further scrutiny to the already embattled prefect of the Vatican’s doctrine office. > >Titled “Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality,” the 26-year-old work includes graphic descriptions of human sexual relations and discussion of what the Argentinian theologian describes as “mystical orgasm.” > >The nearly 100-page-long book also depicts in detail an imaginary erotic encounter with Jesus Christ on the shores of Galilee, which Fernández said was based on a spiritual experience disclosed to him by a 16-year-old girl.
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Trevor reviews the state of evangelical attempts to trash science in favor of their beliefs.
- www.conspirituality.net 187: Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy — Conspirituality
With 54 conservative and religious organizations signing on and over 450 contributors, as well as untold millions in dark money, The Heritage Foundation is leading the charge with Project 2025, an anti-abortion, anti-LBGTQ+, anti-DEI, anti-civil liberties game plan.
(podcast)