if there were no need for 'engineers from the quantum plenum' then we should not have any unanswered scientific questions.
Quote from: zorkan on March 21, 2024, 10:47:31 AMQuote from: Me_Be on March 19, 2024, 02:51:08 PMOf course it's a belief. It's a stories based on a character named Jesus who claims to be the son of God.
If I say David Icke is the son of god, would that be a belief, or would it be bullshit?
https://news.sky.com/story/who-is-david-icke-the-conspiracy-theorist-who-claims-he-is-the-son-of-god-11982406
Quote from: Skeptik on March 22, 2024, 03:31:31 AMI was speaking of having a better life after this one. We don't look forward to that.Indeed. I like to think that "this being it" makes this more precious, even when it hurts.
Quote from: Asmodean on March 13, 2024, 08:35:11 AMNothing wrong with a speck of constructive necromancy.
I must disagree with you that "we" have nothing to die for - we absolutely may have causes to both live, die and kill for, just like everyone else. Not having one's priorities codified by scripture does not remove the priorities themselves.
For example, many a parent would die for their child if the circumstances so dictated - atheist or no. If the upside of [the action that leads to] you no longer existing is greater than the downside... Therein lies the mental calculus.
Quote from: billy rubin on March 13, 2024, 12:01:06 PMwhy cant atheists believe in an afterlife?
QuoteIn George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, characters engage in doublespeak, a way of distorting language to obscure its true meaning. Christian Nationalists have mastered their own doublespeak. Nowhere is this more apparent than when reading Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation's manifesto for transforming our government into a Christo-fascist regime.
Christian Nationalists are taught to be "in the world but not of it." This means they are called to live alongside the world's non-Christians, but they are called to remain separate and apart from secular behavior and influence. One way they attempt to remain apart is with language. They speak in a language I call Evangelicalese. I grew up in the world of Christian Nationalism. Evangelicalese was my second language.
By studying Project 2025 and the specific language Christian Nationalist politicians use, we can translate the words they say into what those words really mean to them. A Christian Nationalist's use of a word or phrase may mean something very different to someone outside their community. It is vital to grasp what Christian Nationalists mean when they say things. because they deploy Evangelicalese to hide extreme positions in plain sight.
Nowhere is this more apparent than when reading Project 2025.
On pornographyQuotePornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.
- Project 2025, [page 5 of PDF]
To many media outlets, this was a throwaway paragraph. Why would anyone make more of it? The average American understands pornography generally includes mediums like adult websites, adult films, fetish sites and similar.
To a Christian Nationalist, pornography means those things, but it also means a lot more.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has called homosexuality pornography. Oklahoma state representative Tom Woods has deemed transgenderism to be filth, a stand-in word for pornography. A Florida school pulled images of Michelangelo's David because parents considered it to be pornographic.
Is an artist who paints a nude artwork a pornographer? What about a romance author who writes racy love scenes? Or a columnist like Dan Savage who pens sex advice? A Christian Nationalist's definition of pornography goes far beyond what the rest of the country considers to be porn. This difference matters because they intend to imprison creators and consumers of anything they consider to be pornography.
[. . .]
Orwell understood that the manipulation of language is an insidious tool of autocracies. Christian Nationalists have been working for decades to pollute the discourse as a means to power and control. The future of American democracy depends upon understanding what Christian Nationalists mean when they say things. It is vital to drill down into their doublespeak, or we may find ourselves living in a dystopian reality created in the image of their Christian Nationalist faith.
[Link to full article.]
Quote from: hermes2015 on March 21, 2024, 12:29:22 PMWelcome, Adey67. You will find this a pleasant and supportive community.Thanks mate that's much appreciated.