The Religion Thread

[Vrede too]

They be seeing things

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/202 ... bee75f0000


“The lead surface displays “random scratches, striations, pitting, and indentions,” which are consistent with the nature of lead and the processes or erosion and weathering the artifact may have undergone over the centuries, they add.”

“ But no one is claiming that fishing weights were decorated with letters. The problem is that we might be very well dealing with a case of pareidolia, in which scholars with faith saw patterns that they wanted to see but are not actually there – just like when people see the face of Jesus in the burnt bits of their grilled cheese sandwich.”

The burnt bits of my grilled cheese sandwich look like Christopher Hitchens.

[Vrede too]

Recordings show how the Mormon church protects itself from child sex abuse claims

Spoiler: The Mormon church is more successful at this than the Catholics have been, and a consequence is that vile perps skate away from criminal accountability.

[billy.pilgrim]

There was a coin toss between this thread and starting a new one about the Society our religion created.

Our Society. How did we make this?

https://www.fox13news.com/news/florida- ... office.amp

The headline gives us someone to laugh at

“Florida man fleeing deputies in stolen ambulance ends chase at sheriff’s office”

“By FOX 13 News Staff” yep

queue laugh track 1st paragraph
We see the “suspect” ( probably a druggie or some black guy) “fleeing” in a “stolen” ambulance.
Exciting stuff: read on to see what happened. Maybe there was a shootout; after all, he led deputies on a “chase” and he’s probably black.
Boring: we find out the identified man was being prepared for transport by EMS due to mental issues. He got into the cab and drove away.
Gets better: he was “possibly under the influence of drugs”, but we’re just guessing.
Then there’s tire damage from striking an unidentified curb before he “end up” at the front door of the Sheriff’s Office after jumping the curb there.

Investigators have determined that he drove it across the front lawn, possibly due to having watched it happen and from where it was parked.
Good to know that this person has been taken into custody. As the High Sheriff said, “I’m glad nobody got hurt, and the suspect was not able to pose a greater risk to our community."

Stacked charges of grand theft, fleeing and eluding are pending. Ten to fifteen years ought to fix this guy.

[Vrede too]

How ‘After School Satan Club’ Is Shaking Things Up

Chimneyrock Elementary School in Cordova, Tennessee
California, Ohio, Connecticut
Pennsylvania, Saucon Valley School District


I love seeing christofascists tear their hair out. GoSatanGo!

[bannination]

How ‘After School Satan Club’ Is Shaking Things Up

Chimneyrock Elementary School in Cordova, Tennessee
California, Ohio, Connecticut
Pennsylvania, Saucon Valley School District


I love seeing christofascists tear their hair out. GoSatanGo!

THEY'RE TEACHING THEM SCIENCE!!!! AHHH!!!!!

[Vrede too]

How ‘After School Satan Club’ Is Shaking Things Up

Chimneyrock Elementary School in Cordova, Tennessee
California, Ohio, Connecticut
Pennsylvania, Saucon Valley School District


I love seeing christofascists tear their hair out. GoSatanGo!

https://gallery.blueridgedebate.com/alb ... yPanic.gif

THEY'RE TEACHING THEM SCIENCE!!!! AHHH!!!!!

In a broader sense learning to reason - horrors! - makes one less gullible and less likely to fall for:

Colorado pastor accused of pocketing $1.3M in crypto scheme says 'Lord told us to'

A Colorado-based pastor for an online church accused of pocketing $1.3 million through a cryptocurrency fraud scheme told followers in a video statement that the Lord told him to do it.

Eli Regalado and his wife marketed their cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, to Christian communities in Denver, saying God told him people would become wealthy if they invested, the Colorado Division of Securities said in a statement Thursday.

INDXcoin raised nearly $3.2 million, the Securities Division said. At least $1.3 million of that went directly to the Regalados or was "used for their own personal benefit," said a complaint filed Tuesday in Denver County District Court....

“Out of the $1.3 [million], half a million dollars went to the IRS, and a few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do," he said in the video.

The couple also allegedly spent their investors’ funds on a Range Rover, luxury handbags, jewelry, an au pair, boat rentals and snowmobile adventures, according to the complaint.

The couple were charged with violating anti-fraud provisions under the Colorado Securities Act.

Colorado Securities Commissioner Tung Chan said she filed the civil fraud charges after she was approached by people who invested and lost money through INDXcoin.

“We allege that Mr. Regalado took advantage of the trust and faith of his own Christian community and that he peddled outlandish promises of wealth to them when he sold them essentially worthless cryptocurrencies,” Chan said in a statement.

Funny that their lord didn't protect them and they need secular authorities to do so.

... In reality, INDXcoin was "illiquid and practically worthless," the Securities Division said in its release. The cryptocurrency was available only in Kingdom Wealth Exchange, which the Regalados shut down. It can no longer be sold anywhere.

"We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit," Regalado in his video address Friday. "What we're believing for still is that God is going to do a miracle. God is going to work a miracle in the financial sector."

In the comments on Regalado's video, dozens of people continue to reassure him that God will "turn the situation around." ...

Wow, incapable of learning when shown the undeniable truth, too.

[Whack9]

Maybe all of those times my inner monologue convinced me to do something really fucking stupid it was really God, just like with that preacher.

[GoCubsGo]

Maybe all of those times my inner monologue convinced me to do something really fucking stupid it was really God, just like with that preacher.

Or good weed.

[Vrede too]

Maybe all of those times my inner monologue convinced me to do something really fucking stupid it was really God, just like with that preacher.

God is an asshole. Just say NO.

[Vrede too]

They be seeing things

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/202 ... bee75f0000

“The lead surface displays “random scratches, striations, pitting, and indentions,” which are consistent with the nature of lead and the processes or erosion and weathering the artifact may have undergone over the centuries, they add.”

“ But no one is claiming that fishing weights were decorated with letters. The problem is that we might be very well dealing with a case of pareidolia, in which scholars with faith saw patterns that they wanted to see but are not actually there – just like when people see the face of Jesus in the burnt bits of their grilled cheese sandwich.”

Interesting.

Speaking of seeing things that are not actually there:

RNC’s Bizarre Attack On Biden’s Church Visit Backfires Spectacularly
Critics are mocking the Republican National Committee after a tweet by its “research” account hits the wrong note.


Rep Ted Lieu (D - LA, CA)

The White guy in the front pew notably did not shake Joe's hand, rude whatever his politics are.

News- RNC Research doesn’t understand how things work in the black church with special guest

It is genuinely hilarious that anyone could look at this video and think “we got him!” Brains are broken.

Rapist holds bible upside down outside of church right after ordering national guard to teargas and trample peaceful protestors with horses.

Your turn.

Republicans clearly don't know the order of operations for the Black church. Biden showed up exactly when he was supposed to.

... Meanwhile, presumptive GOP nominee just was held liable for $83 million in defamation damages.

Hey @RNCResearch, show us the video of Trump going to church this month?

Tell us you know nothing about the Black church without telling us you know nothing about the Black church.

First of all, he's not shuffling, as your posted video clearly shows.

Second, pretty sure his coming in after everyone was already seated was due to security concerns.

Third, I don't think the congregation minded his later arrival one bit.

They should add 'shuffle recognition' to the dementia test.

Ron Filipkowski

Trump is rarely less than an hour late for any of his appearances. He also doesn’t go to church - even Christmas & Easter. He has gone twice since leaving WH, and made it a campaign event. He can’t name a Bible verse and has never cracked one open in his life.

Looks like the RNC Research account is making Joe Biden look awesome again. Thanks guys! He’s great.

@POTUS attends mass weekly. How is this a “gotcha”moment? Trump can’t even recall a Bible verse, no comparison.

Trump is 77 years late to church.

for all. More tweets at the link.

[Vrede too]

Maybe all of those times my inner monologue convinced me to do something really fucking stupid it was really God, just like with that preacher.

More god-inspired stupidity:

Alabama Supreme Court Rules That Frozen Embryos Are 'Children'
In a theology-heavy ruling, the Alabama Supreme Court will allow a couple to sue for the "wrongful death" of their frozen embryos obtained through IVF.

... The ruling pointed to the Alabama Constitution Section 36.06, which argues that each person was made in God’s image, meaning each life has an incalculable value that “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”

“Section 36.06 recognizes that this is true of unborn human life no less than it is of all other human life ― that even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” the ruling stated, referring to the Alabama Constitution’s Section 36.06.

... Last month, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) introduced the Access to Family Building Act, a bill that could proactively establish IVF and other fertility treatments as a right for patients and physicians.

By contrast, some Republicans in Florida, which is a notably anti-choice state like Alabama, introduced a bill in January that would threaten the presence of fertility treatments by allowing parents to seek civil damages for the death of a fetus.

Comments:

My hypothesis is the christofacists want to “leave it in god’s hands” while they increase control over women.

"God" is an angry, vindictive fairy that allows untold suffering and abuse while ignoring the fact that humanity is destroying the same planet the religious crazies claim their super fairy created.

If "God" existed the religious crazies among us would be in for a rude awakening as they are held to account by their super fairy.

The Christian Taliban is very prevalent in the Red States. Ambulance chasing lawyers and their greedy clients are taking advantage of this ignorance.

AL and all of the red states have declared women second-class citizens with less control over their bodies than men. Women should sue under the equal protection clause.

Women have less autonomy, equality, freedom, liberty, and reproductive rights than their male counterparts. Flee the red states, refuse to live there and allow the fascist breeders to live without doctors and educated women in their lives.

The unintended consequences are very predictable because there is no law that says medical professionals have to stay where they can't make a living. Idaho passed a super restrictive abortion law that severely endangered the lives of the already small number of OBGYN docs and now most have left the state meaning pregnant people have no access to specialty doctors. The antiabortion folks are feeling pretty smug right now but the backlash that is coming is going to ruin the rest of their lives.

I don't think the consequences are unintended. It's all part of the forced march backward into the glorious past of idealized conservative memory.

Maternal death rates are highest in red states. They couldn’t care less.

Lots more comments at the link.

[billy.pilgrim]

While hardly religious this is happening at a for profit quasi religious sporting institution.

What a bunch of assholes - stuffing 23 kids in one single family house.

https://weartv.com/amp/news/local/conce ... ulf-breeze

Kids from all over the world recruited to play soccer for these “people”

[Vrede too]

While hardly religious this is happening at a for profit quasi religious sporting institution.

What a bunch of assholes - stuffing 23 kids in one single family house.

https://weartv.com/amp/news/local/conce ... ulf-breeze

Kids from all over the world recruited to play soccer for these “people”

Refuge Circle - irony.
Lighthouse Private Christian Academy, is a bilingual school. I'll guess that most of the soccer kids are Brown and/or Africans. Maybe that makes dangerous overcrowding sacred
What do the parents of other Lighthouse students have to say about this?
Why are state officials not involved?

[O Really]

Why are state officials not involved?

Because Florida. And brown people.

[Vrede too]

Why are state officials not involved?

Because Florida. And brown people.

All of the complaining Refuge Circle neighbors are White.
Because RW xtians. And soccer rather than football.
And Florida.

[billy.pilgrim]

Why are state officials not involved?

Because Florida. And brown people.

All of the complaining Refuge Circle neighbors are White. doubtful
Because RW xtians. And soccer rather than football.
And Florida.

one minor correction

[Vrede too]

Why are state officials not involved?

Because Florida. And brown people.

All of the complaining Refuge Circle neighbors are White. doubtful
Because RW xtians. And soccer rather than football.
And Florida.

one minor correction

All of the complaining Refuge Circle neighbors interviewed are White. I thought that was implied since we have the news video, but maybe not.
https://weartv.com/news/local/concerns- ... ulf-breeze

I can't know about other Refuge Circle neighbors who may be complaining or not and may be other races or not.

[Vrede too]

Prosecutors say new video, documents show ‘religious extremism’ motivated parent blogger Ruby Franke’s abuse of children

Blonde
White
European surname
6 kids
Family vlogger
Utah

One might infer that the extreme religion is Mormon, but the article oddly never says so even though that is what it's about I had to go to Wiki to learn that it's not Xtian, Jewish, Muslim, etc, all of which have child-abusing extremists.

[O Really]

"OCEANSIDE: Spring Egg Hunt moved to March 29 and April 2"
https://www.northcoastcurrent.com/regio ... d-april-2/

So - it should be interesting to see if the religious sorts:
(a) howl about the secularization and a "war" against a traditional Easter ritual, or
(b) can find the Biblical basis for kids looking for eggs brought by a rabbit.

[Whack9]

New bible just dropped

https://godblesstheusabible.com/?sld=trump

Also comes with the lyrics to Lee Greenwalds god bless the USA, the declaration of Independence, and the Constitution.

The next, improved, edition will have Jesus's sermon of the mount replaced with the pledge of allegience and quotes from the art of the deal since maga is all about winning and not backing down.