ClericThomas

I attack peoples belief ideas off site all the time, I'm happy calling out stupid ideas for what they are and no idea should be off limits from criticism but on here I abide by the site rules which is why I avoid faith debates and arguing religious texts here.

Well I'm a Militant Atheist, Pragmatic Atheism specific wise and a Skepticist (I deny all deities and don't believe Jesus even existed) so when I park near a church, temple or street ministry folks and preach the beauty of Atheism and denounce their faith I can do it as an ordained minister sticking the freedom of religion up their respective a**es being as ordained as they are under the law. I have my ID badge, clergy clip on, Skeptics Annotated Bible or other books and signs and voice amplifier and I give as good as I get. They don't like me but religious critics and such love me, and I at least find the ULC amusing I just wish they had more fun titles like God, Pope, Supreme Authority, Atheist Minister and such.

I'm an Atheist ULC clergyperson and don't believe in supernatural powers but consider my ministry work as valid as any other members ministry work who may be religious in nature. So this is good news for me also.

No I'm a ULC Minister there is nothing barring an Atheist also being a minister here at all, I just focus on reason over faith which I consider a dubious way to find out the truth. And the credentials here were tested in court so have a certain layer of protection when I shove the 1st Amendment Protections up the tush of main stream religious people "street preaching" reason in front of churches and such on holy days and holding an ordination so its religious speech. At least unless the ULC pulls my authority and I never heard of that happening for sincere belief even if not per se religious. But since no one can give me an answer I think I will use D.U. after my name it seems to fit.

That's nice but I've "enrolled" in the Doctor of the Universe degree so I can study some of the teachings of the founder. So is it a D.U. or D.Un. or U.D. or Un.D. or something else in common use by members of the faith. And its more to stick it to those with other religious degrees like Ken Ham showing one did not need to spend thousands of dollars for a religious doctorate.

I should have said harm. But for example who is harmed if two men or two women love each other and get wed, by harm I mean tangible harm not hurt feelings or moral objections based on religious bias but harmed. You murder someone you harm many people the murdered victim, their family who may have depended on their labor, society loses the productive person and even the murders family is impacted.

Just for my clerical ID officially it will read Preacher Thomas Kolter, (degree abbreviated). And I really do like the degree I chose to go after even if its half curiosity at the founders beliefs and a bit of brevity since I find the idea of a religious degree as in non-secular laughable so why not prod at them with my just as legal to use in the USA church degree and a doctoral level at that for under $30. Now get a proper degree in a real area of study I respect those. But it was a simple question what to put down other people must also have them.

1. Does it hurt anyone else. 2. Does it hurt me. 3. Does it hurt society. 4. Will the action do the opposite of #1, #2 and #3 these would be moral acts. Morality is an evolutionary advance of our community focused society as the dominate animal species on the planet. Examples: If two women are adults and want to marry it doesn't hurt anyone else or themselves, it doesn't harm society and in contrast supporting them is the opposite of them marriage being stabilizing is good, they forming a household and adopting would help society and therefore be good to support. If a man murders a woman it harms the woman and hurts society by removing the woman as a productive unit working, making and raising children possibly and hurts the woman's circle of loved ones including removing a social support in that circle. And it hurts the murderer removing them to a prison where they lose freedom, might get abused by other inmates and wouldn't be working and supporting their circle of loved ones. So its pretty impacting if one looks at that from both the murderer and victims perspectives. (They should be locked up and punished but it has a clear impact as well which I would call secondary to the superior impact of the innocent victim. Its generally how morality that works seems to work from my experience and freed of religious prohibitions which make no sense to me but seems to be there anyway.

I have a question I sent for the Doctor of the Universe Degree so I can study the teachings of the founder and it sounded interesting. But you know how people use degrees after their name examples would be Ph.D for a Doctor of Philosophy or a MA for a Master of Arts so how do you do that for the Doctor of the Universe. I can think of some D.U. or D.Un. or U.D. or Uni.D. that would work but is there a common use already in place for this and other degrees offered other than the obvious ones like DBS for a Doctor of Biblical Studies? I'm just curious since on my church ID card I plan to have a new one with my religious title, name and then note the degree.

I'm not sure I joined as an Atheist member and mostly to abuse the same rules others use in mainstream and fringe religions to "preach against faith" and "for the advancement of the Truth through reason and the tools of science". But in the spirit of that I was considering giving fancy printed Indulgences forgiving their sins now, in the future and into eternity for the low price of $5 US off my own web site those dedicated to God.

The free cell phone is a PHONE, what do you expect, can you make calls with it if so its working. I have a basic Tracphone now and its acceptable and I only receive and make calls, text and have voice mail that is more than enough. In my case my main skills is Busking, I might work 40 hours and get $100 on most weeks. $400 a month. A couple days a year better. So for me the $721 a month on SSI, Medicaid, food stamps, a cell phone is very attractive to me. What is said when I Busked in Europe I was treated as an Artist and tipped well I made in todays dollars around $2000 a month and got free meals, housing and other things as I traveled around here in this area I'm a bit better than a panhandler and well it shows. I even had people throw hot coffee, beer bottles and other things at me.

I would work however there are three issues I have no references from an employer when I did work it was self-employment, and largely for tops Busking or doing a street craft and getting some money so no references or work record on paper for the last fifteen years puts me outside the system and when I did work I never popped the poverty line by any margin in fact I get more on SSI. Add in Medicaid which I need and the State refused to expand and other benefits I'm better off on SSI and working at Busking and such for cash to supplement off the books. That nets me something extra but not enough to survive on. And lets see this is the case my lawyer made before the judge would you hire me if: I use a wheelchair, can't type more than 1 wpm due to hand nerve damage, can't handle stress of complex work and have some issues with remembering things and this proven over a decade and backed by doctors and the State vocational rehab office. Likely not. The last straight job I held was fronting for a telemarketing room a long time ago and that was repeating the same script over and over sending people to sales people for the minimum wage and a small bonus and work like that is gone. But as a dedicated Idler and Slacker this is an ideal situation I can sit on my butt and get support, the way I live that money is more than enough as a base. And personally why work if the government will give me a check, SNAP, Medicaid, a free cell phone and charities are happy to toss in aid if I really would rather not?

The government says I'm too disabled to work and I was born with cerebral palsy and have diabetes type two all I had to do was build on these and with a good lawyer a judge said I couldn't work backed by doctors. Fortunately pain and difficulties with complex situations mentally are kind of nebulous and adding those in as problems was easy. It was all done perfectly legal they never went into self-employment skills like my Busking or making jewelry or doing astrological charts as areas of work and I never offered this information since it wasn't asked for. And even my few former employers backed up my difficulty at doing assigned tasks as a reason for my being fired. I for one just did what corporations would do exploit the rules for their benefit, I did for mine. Blame the government for having standard for disability so broad you can drive a truck through it if you stick to the rules and I didn't need to lie I have foot and hand issues, and pain all I did was write it down and say I need pain management for it which my primary care provider does. No one delved into that much and I never offered voluntary add-on points at the advice of council.

I for one HATE working and am on Medicaid, SSI, SNAP and anything else I can get public aid or private and have no issues as long as the government can piss away money on corporate welfare and a bloated military industrial complex. In fact no one should have to work at all or do more than a minimum level since technology should be doing most of the labor farms mechanized, factories all run by robots, medical bots and so forth and robots making robots. Humans should focus then on leisure. We have all the resources needed to house, clothe and feed every human now if we focus on meeting basic needs and limit wants to a reasonable level. We should have been phasing out work well before now, Capitalism is so evil. Yes I'm a proud Atheist and Socialist.

I'm an atheist and a socialist so I don't see the issue why do you need to reconcile anything if you don't like the ULC over its diversity then go somewhere else. If anything my path is void of any belief in a creative power of the universe whatever guise that is focusing on rationalism and in that beauty of science and the fact I can accept - I don't know - as a reasonable answer to a question. How did reality start? I don't know. It just is how it all started likely is well over anything we could prove as simple human animals. But that doesn't mean acting unethically or not trying to make the world better.