Jonathan H. B. Lobl

Islam is also expanding.

You're still quoting Scripture -- at me? What ever, Dude. Have fun. Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations 2 Peter 2:22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.” In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations

HOME ABOUT MY ATHEISM NEWS OPINION REVIEWS ARCHIVES FREE NEWSLETTER NONRELIGIOUS BLM co-founder: Supporting gay rights is not ‘destroying religion’ SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 BY BARRY DUKE 21 COMMENTS US TELEVANGELIST Pat Robertson, 90, has been slapped down hard by a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors, for his recent rant in which he accused the organisation of leading ‘a lesbian, anti-family, anti-capitalist Marxist revolution.’ Cullors, above, said the words of the mad old fool, inset, were: And, for good measure, Robertson was described as “garbage” on the Damage Report. Her reaction, according to The Christian Post, came after Robertson said during last Thursday’s episode of The 700 Club on the Christian Broadcasting Network that BLM was seeking the “destruction of the nuclear family.” Cullors, who is gay and an organiser and educator who co-founded the organsuation in 2013 with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, acknowledges that while the organisation’s vision, which includes support for the LGBTQ community, may not be shared by everyone, it should not be interpreted as “destroying a religion.” Cullors contends that Black Lives Matter seeks to: She said BLM also seeks to eliminate the “constant betrayal of our poor and oppressed communities” and “foster a united country that works for everyone despite their actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, disability, immigration status, or intergenerational way of life.” And an ABC News report in June this year pointed out that: The Christian Post commented: • Please report any typos/errors to barry@freethinker.co.uk If you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee – and boy, do I get through a LOT of coffee keeping this site active – please click the link below.

Yes, so there is an interaction between gullibility and self interest then...? These "self interest" issues tend to be religious agenda. For instance, the "right" to restrict the human rights of gay people. Or the "right" to insert Creationism, into the Science program of secular schools. A key feature of these "self interests" is the "right" to damage the lives of others. So, there is hope...? There is always hope. In my own lifetime, I have seen changes, that I never thought I would live to see. 1. Homosexuality used to be a mental illness, according to the official diagnostic manuals. Now, we have marriage equality. Religion seems to be the only source of opposition. 2. Smoking used to be cool. Now, it is considered disgusting. A major cultural shift. I think this is likely the future of authoritarian religion. It won't be outlawed. The majority, will simply come to think of it as silly. Like Flat Earthers, the religious will be disdained as lunatic fringe.

HOME ABOUT MY ATHEISM NEWS OPINION REVIEWS ARCHIVES FREE NEWSLETTER NONRELIGIOUS Good news: Religion is fast going down the tubes in America SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 BY BARRY DUKE 11 COMMENTS Image via YouTube ONE of the world’s leading social scientists – Ronald Inglehart, above, of the University of Michigan – claims in a book soon to be published that the United States is experiencing a more dramatic shift away from religion than any other nation. Religion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing It and What Comes Next is to be released in January by Oxford University Press. Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine – in an advance summary titled “Giving Up on God: The Global Decline of Religion” – Dr Inglehart said: He points points out that: Trump and the Republican Party are driving people away from religion Inglehart says that other factors beyond rising levels of economic and technological development help explain the waning of religion. A typical Trump supporter. Renowned writer H L Mencken coined a phrase for people like him: Boobus americanus. Image via YouTube. Commenting on Inglehart’s finding, James Haught, editor emeritus of West Virginia’s largest newspaper, The Charleston Gazette-Mail and author of 12 books, said: “The Happiness Researcher”, as Inglehart is known, celebrated his 80th birthday in 2014. In a piece published to mark the occasion, he was quoted as saying: A 2018 United Nations study showed that Finland had overtaken Norway to become the happiest nation on earth, according to Christian Today that said it was “striking” that: The ten happiest countries from the 2018 report are below, with the percentage of the population who say religion is important to them in brackets, if the data is available. • Finland (28 per cent) • Norway (21 per cent) • Denmark (19 per cent) • Iceland (N/A) • Switzerland (41 per cent) • Netherlands (33 per cent) • Canada (42 per cent) • New Zealand (33 per cent) • Sweden (17 per cent) • Australia (55 per cent) When compared with the world’s unhappiest countries it is clear they tend to come from poorer nations with lower average incomes and less access to social support and a lower life expectancy. They also tend to say religion is more important in their daily life. • Please report any typos/errors to barry@freethinker.co.uk If you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee – and boy, do I get through a LOT of coffee keeping this site active – please click the link below.

To my understanding, it comes down to conditioning. People are trained, from early childhood, to believe. To disregard evidence and facts and simply believe impossible nonsense. When these reality impaired children become adults -- they are conditioned to believe falsehoods. They lack critical thinking skills. They can be lied to by politicians and they have no defense. People who are conditioned, to accept the Bible as true and literal, are ready to believe a liar like President Trump. Because facts don't matter. Only belief is important -- and they are free to choose what they believe.

NONRELIGIOUS Watching Religion Die SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 BY ADAM LEE 4 COMMENTS By James A. Haught Religion is fading more quickly in the United States than in any other nation, according to a forthcoming research book. Religion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing It and What Comes Next, by University of Michigan scholar Ronald Inglehart, is to be released in January by Oxford University Press. Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine – in an advance summary titled “Giving Up on God: The Global Decline of Religion” – Dr. Inglehart said: A profound cultural transformation is in progress – mostly happening quietly out of sight, little-noticed in daily life. Old supernatural beliefs are vanishing among intelligent, educated, science-minded western people, especially the young. Religion is shriveling into the realm of myth and fantasy. Here are some indicators: Almost two-thirds of teens who grow up in a church drop out of religion in their twenties, according to both Barna and LifeWay surveys. The number of Americans who say their religion is “none” began to explode in the 1990s – rising to one-tenth of the population, then climbing relentlessly to one-fourth. Among those under thirty, “nones” now are forty percent. American church membership fell twenty percent in the past two decades, according to Gallup research. Southern Baptists dropped two million members since 2005. Tall-steeple Protestant “mainline” denominations have suffered worst. United Methodists fell from 11 million in 1969 to below 7 million today – while America’s population almost doubled. Evangelical Lutherans dropped from 5.3 million in 1987 to 3.4 million now. The Presbyterian Church USA had 3.2 million in 1982 but now is around 1.3 million. The Episcopal Church went from 3.4 million in the 1960s to 1.7 million now. These highbrow mainline faiths with seminary-educated ministers once drew public respect. But religion is shifting to lowbrow, emotional worship that is less admirable. One-fourth of the world’s Christians now “speak in tongues,” researchers say. Christianity is moving from advanced, prosperous, northern nations to the less-developed tropics. It’s going from respected to pathetic. Retreat of churchgoing in America may undercut the Republican Party, which depends on white evangelicals as the heart of its base. In contrast, godless Americans tend to be compassionate progressives who have become the largest faith segment in the Democratic Party. The loss of religion may shift national political values to the left. Personally, I hope the Secular Age continues snowballing until supernatural religion becomes only an embarrassing fringe. After all, belief in gods, devils, heavens, hells, miracles, visions, prophecies and the rest of dogma is extremely questionable. It’s all a fantasy, a bunch of falsehoods, as far as any science-minded person can tell. It lacks factual evidence. The more religion declines, the more integrity is gained by society. Come to think of it, maybe there’s a correlation: White evangelicals swallow the falsehoods of faith – and they swallow the notorious falsehoods of President Trump. Psychology researchers should study this gullibility pattern. (Haught is editor emeritus of West Virginia’s largest newspaper, The Charleston Gazette-Mail, and a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine. He has written 12 books and 150 magazine essays. As a blogger at a dozen websites, he has 1,200 essays online.) Image credit: Pasquale Paolo Cardo, released under CC BY 2.0 license