Several announcements in this show!!! One you may already have noticed, and another has something to do with this page here. I’m very excited!
In this episode I’ve got a ton of Tommenting for you guys. I start with some Easter apologetics and then move onto a terrible flier some church put on my door. It would be funny if it weren’t so horrifying! Then I talk about the terrorist attacks a little bit, and a new rule for Twitter discourse that will never happen but I’m going to say anyway.
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Right of you to call out Greta Christina on the Harris thing. It’s hard to take her seriously when she throws labels around like that. And I want to take her seriously.
Everyone is a “sexist douche” these days it seems.
You’re right about all the possible explanations for Paul. And just look at all the recent cases of people being convinced, or claiming to have been convinced by miracle claims. Joseph Smith, and his followers, or all the people who claim to have seen Sathya Sai Baba perform miracles. Unless you really want to believe there’s far less reason to believe Paul’s claim.
Yeah I agree, I think Cruz would be as bad as his rhetoric, while much of what Trump has to say is to get votes.
I think what you said has some truth to it about Fox News, and Trump feeding on anti-government sentiments, but also there’s the anti-news media sentiment, so when Trump is attacked by the media people think they are lying about him. Also, and I think this is a big party of it. As I’ve mentioned before, 85% or so of republicans, and 60% of democrats this political correctness is a serious problem. So every time Trump says something offensive even those who may disagree with what he says appreciate the fact that it appears he’s not afraid to say what he thinks. I don’t think he really means a lot of it, but it looks to people like he’s the only truly honest person in the race. You hear people all the time say that they like Trump because of his honesty.
*big part, and think… don’t understand why I have so many typos :p
What Greta Christina said, and did is almost textbook SJW behavior. Just question something like the 1 in 4 rapes on campus number, and you’re a misogynist rape apologist. Just suggest that some form of profiling might work, and you’re a racist.
Remember Sam’s exchange with Noam Chomsky on the Palestinian conflict where Chomsky was unwilling to make a distinction between Hamas intentionally, and indiscriminately lobbing bombs into Israel, and Israel’s measured response, and efforts to limit collateral damage? I don’t think regressives believe the distinction matters. If you suggest profiling it doesn’t matter how honestly you come by that opinion you’re a racist, perhaps because you’re tacitly supporting racists. It doesn’t matter if you identify as a feminist, if you question the wage gap you’re a sexist because in their minds you’re tacitly supporting people who oppose women’s rights.
I remember PZ Meyers once saying “intent isn’t magic”. His point being it doesn’t matter what your intent is, only the consequences matter. So if the consequences of what you say adds to the net amount of racism, sexism, then what you said is racist, or sexist, and that makes you one.
The Christian flyer thing reminded me of something I came across last week. I spent the past week visiting my parents, and one of the things I did was start to clean out all my childhood junk. During the process I came across was a binder with old school assignments (I went to a Christian school), and in it was a 2-page “journal entry” where our history teacher had us write about our thoughts and feelings on September 11, 2001, the day of the attacks. I wrote about feeling scared and shocked, but I also wrote that I was relieved none of my extended family was on the east coast because they weren’t Christians and would go to hell if they died.
Growing up, I absolutely believed in a literal hell – eternal separation from god and everything that was good in the world, and eternal torture – and to this day (I’m 28 and have been an atheist since I was 22) I still feel a visceral panic and fear when I hear hell mentioned. It is hard for me to overstate the psychological damage that being brainwashed by all the authority figures in my life (parents, teachers, and even Christian authors and musicians) to believe that hell was real has done to me. I spent most of my childhood terrified that I wasn’t really saved enough, and I spent many sleepless nights agonizing over the implications of Hebrews 6:4-6. Even now, I sometimes fear that maybe the Christians had it right after all and I’m destined for an infinitely painful and eternal torture. (Of course, if it turns out they are right, I sure as hell wouldn’t worship that horrible god!)
As someone who will probably spend the rest of her life trying to undo the damage that belief in a literal hell did to me, I would be absolutely LIVID if someone tried to introduce my (future) children to it without my knowledge or guidance. My children will not grow up with the belief that they are sinners who deserve eternal torture. I am positive the people who put the brochures on Thomas’s door thought they were doing a good thing, too, which just goes to show how absolutely warped fundamentalist religion can be.