Experimental Christianity

[Minimalist]

This whole idea is not to respect or disrespect theology and religion.

The most important adage in war is "Know your enemy."  Fuckheads like Dripshit are not swayed by facts and reasons.  He's a delusional twat who thinks he has a special invisible friend in the sky who gives a shit about him.

Waste your breath if you like.

[Cheerful Charlie]

I respect bad theology just enough to demonstrate at least to my satisfaction why it is utter nonsense. Sure we can be lazy and dismiss it with a curse and middle finger salute. And yes, some people do not seem willing to think rationally even when one rubs their snouts in hard evidence theology is utter bullshit. But then again, some people have left theology after years of being true believers. Some people do catch on, at length.

Maybe this forum needs an Atheists vs Christians sub-forum to confine these little exercises in religious battle of wits. Those who don't care can then just ignore it all. Maybe we need a Grumpy Atheist sub-forum.

[SYZ]

Experimental Christianity in Action!

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020...gods-name/
...
Cindy Jacobs, co-founder of Generals International and a self-described faith healer who can turn metal into bone, make a grown woman grow taller, and control the weather, has a new way to stop the spread of coronavirus.
She just declared it illegal...

Ms Jacobs is evidently well qualified academically to prognosticate about the COVID-19 virus.

After all, she has a B.A. in Music from Pepperdine Christian University in California.  She also
holds honorary doctorates from the  Christian International Ministry in Florida, and the Asian
Theological Association in the Philippines.

—She's obviously far better equipped to figure out COVID-19 than any virologists worldwide.

[SYZ]

Maybe this forum needs an Atheists vs Christians sub-forum to confine these little exercises in religious battle of wits.  Those who don't care can then just ignore it all.  Maybe we need a Grumpy Atheist sub-forum.

Maybe people like Drich could take their bullshit religious platform to The Colosseum and
let somebody interested enough to take them on?

That would avoid Drich and his loony tunes mates from posting endless religious diatribes
across too many massively long and unnecessary threads.

[Minimalist]

Dripshit gets thrown off of xtian websites.  He is too much of an asshole even for them.

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/republi...-almighty/
...
As President Donald Trump’s response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic continues to be criticized for America’s failure to widely test for the virus, one southern Republican suggested divine intervention might be necessary.

On Friday, Trump declared a National Day of Prayer and suggested looking to God for “protection.”

Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) thought prayer was a great response to a public health crisis.

“We need the aid of the Almighty in combating this outbreak!” Hice argued.
...

So if there is not a ten million American die-off, these Xians will claim their prayers saved us. But if we have a massive death toll over the next two years, another failed experiment in Experimental Christianity. Let the great experiment begin.

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/christi...rom-virus/
...
One of the first deaths in Virginia from coronavirus was a 66-year-old Christian “musical evangelist” who fell ill while on a trip to New Orleans with his wife. As the Friendly Atheist’s Bo Gardiner points out, Landon Spradlin had previously shared opinions that the pandemic was the result of “mass hysteria” from the media.

On March 13, Spradlin shared a misleading meme that compared coronavirus deaths to swine flu deaths and suggested the media is using the pandemic to hurt Trump. In the comments, Spradlin acknowledged that the outbreak is a “real issue,” but added that he believes “the media is pumping out fear and doing more harm than good”
...

-----

Father Darwin calls another one home. Baby Jesus don't help no fools.

[trdsf]

I think the experiment has already been done, and the results are in: there is no god, Christian or otherwise. In all of recorded history, there isn't one single solitary confirmed observation that indicates the presence of any deity, much less the Judeo-Christo-Islamic one.

Unfortunately, this fact appears lost on the bulk of humanity so far. Nothin' to do but educate, educate, educate.

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020...-covid-19/

....
Jerry Falwell, Jr. reopened Liberty University this week despite the obvious risk that posed to students and faculty members. He lied about who defended his decision. And now we’re finding out the consequences of his negligence and recklessness.
According to Dr. Thomas W. Eppes Jr., the doctor in charge of Liberty’s student health service, “nearly a dozen” students have symptoms of COVID-19. And of the 1,900 students said to have returned to campus, more than 800 have returned home… or to off-campus housing, where they are once again in cramped quarters. All of that is a recipe for disaster considering all the traveling and lack of distance those students must have had.
....
-----

Way to go, Fuckhead! You sure is smart, Foolwell. I hope you get sued good and hard.

[Bucky Ball]

Of course many theologians will not like Experimental Theology - Experimental Christianity.  But if they peddle the idea that science and theology are reconcilable, they would have to accept the challenge or be noted to not be able or willing to do so.

As Experimental Theologians of the skeptical variety suggest tests, easily carried out, if the so called "accomodationists" balk at doing honest science to support their theologies, they can be called on just that.

And for those theologians that will tell us Science has nothing to say about theology, And there will be those who do so, then we can then say for a fact, that theology is in fact, not according to them, scientific and demonstrable as a scientific fact or truth.   It is all argument by assertion and special pleading.  Russelll's teapot.

If we are then down to logical examination of assertions, atheism can easily win that argument.

Check out Suscipe Domine (Dummy-knee)
They call Theology and Philosophy "The Sacred Sciences". 
I asked them once what their null hypothesis is. 
Got banned in about a nanosecond. 

[SYZ]

In a Friday appearance a couple of weeks ago on FOX (who else!) Liberty University President and Trump
ally Jerry Falwell Jr said that Liberty will continue holding in-person classes.  In the same segment, Falwell
falsely claimed that the media is over-hyping the threat of COVID-19 specifically to hurt Trump, and suggested
that the virus is a bioweapon concocted by North Korea.

He also said "I had the owner of a restaurant ask me, remember when the North Korean leader promised a
Christmas present for America back in December, could it be that they got together with China and this is
that present? I don’t know, but this is something strange going on".



A 2019 Politico article described the University as a "dictatorship" in which Falwell ruled through fear; it also
reported that the University sold merchandise promoting Donald Trump's presidential campaign; that Falwell
had crude discussions about his sex life at work; and that he showed other Liberty employees provocative
photos of his wife.

I can't understand how a lying slime-bag like Falwell can be licensed as a lawyer.  All US jurisdictions require
applicants to pass a moral character evaluation, and also pass an ethics examination.  Who did Falwell pay off?

[Minimalist]

I can't understand how a lying slime-bag like Falwell can be licensed as a lawyer.

I can't understand how he'd be licensed as anything else.....except a preacher and he has that base covered too.

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020...19-threat/

...
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister has now arrested Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne for holding church services despite an order to avoid large gatherings during the pandemic.
Howard-Browne ignored those warnings and held services at The River in Tampa Bay anyway, putting countless lives in danger.

The Daily Beast reports that Howard-Browne “turned himself in to a neighboring sheriff’s office, was booked and released within 40 minutes.”

Keep in mind this wasn’t a surprise. Howard-Browne knew this would happen and proudly insisted on holding services anyway, claiming he wasn’t “raising up… pansies” in his church. It’s ironic that a man who first became a national mockery for his “holy laughter” revivals is now a poster-boy for faith-based idiocy in the wake of a global disaster. He even told members of his congregation to shake each other’s hands long after social distancing guidelines were established because he claimed his church was safe by default.
...

Snort! Guffaw! I wonder how many of those attending his services will come down with covid-19?

[Cheerful Charlie]

Well, it isn't just the Christians who are deciding the virus won't affect them.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-s...00375.html

...
In Israel, the coronavirus is spreading in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities up to eight times faster than anywhere else in the country.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews account for 12 percent of Israel's population, but they make up 40 to 60 percent of coronavirus patients at four of the country's largest hospitals, officials told Israeli media. Health experts said the virus is moving so quickly in these communities because the ultra-Orthodox have large families, don't trust the government, and pay little to no attention to secular media. Many are also still gathering for prayers and funerals, despite all Israelis being ordered to stay home.

Bnei Brak is a suburb of Tel Aviv, and 95 percent of the population is ultra-Orthodox. On Friday, there were 267 confirmed coronavirus cases, and by Monday, that number climbed to 508. Several hundred mourners gathered in Bnei Brak on Saturday night for the funeral of a rabbi, prompting furious secular Israelis to call on the government to place Bnei Brak under curfew. On Monday, a New York Times journalist and photographer were told to leave a synagogue in the suburb where morning services were being held, and they walked past several groups meeting furtively for prayers.
...

JERUSALEM, March 30 (Reuters) - Israeli police have used a drone, helicopter and stun grenades in recent days to prevent people gathering in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Jerusalem in defiance of Health Ministry measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

On Monday, police, some in riot gear and surgical masks, encountered occasional resistance and verbal abuse while enforcing the measures in a part of the city whose residents have long chafed against the state.

"Nazis!" shouted a group of boys, as police pulled men off the narrow streets of Mea Shearim.

As well as broadcasting the message "Stay Home" from the helicopter and drone, police have issued offenders with fines.

Israeli officials describe the ultra-Orthodox as especially prone to contagion because their districts tend to be poor and congested, and in normal times they are accustomed to holding thrice-daily prayers with often large congregations.
....

[mordant]

Well, it isn't just the Christians who are deciding the virus won't affect them.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-s...00375.html

...
In Israel, the coronavirus is spreading in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities up to eight times faster than anywhere else in the country.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews account for 12 percent of Israel's population, but they make up 40 to 60 percent of coronavirus patients at four of the country's largest hospitals, officials told Israeli media. Health experts said the virus is moving so quickly in these communities because the ultra-Orthodox have large families, don't trust the government, and pay little to no attention to secular media. Many are also still gathering for prayers and funerals, despite all Israelis being ordered to stay home.

Bnei Brak is a suburb of Tel Aviv, and 95 percent of the population is ultra-Orthodox. On Friday, there were 267 confirmed coronavirus cases, and by Monday, that number climbed to 508. Several hundred mourners gathered in Bnei Brak on Saturday night for the funeral of a rabbi, prompting furious secular Israelis to call on the government to place Bnei Brak under curfew. On Monday, a New York Times journalist and photographer were told to leave a synagogue in the suburb where morning services were being held, and they walked past several groups meeting furtively for prayers.
...

JERUSALEM, March 30 (Reuters) - Israeli police have used a drone, helicopter and stun grenades in recent days to prevent people gathering in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Jerusalem in defiance of Health Ministry measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

On Monday, police, some in riot gear and surgical masks, encountered occasional resistance and verbal abuse while enforcing the measures in a part of the city whose residents have long chafed against the state.

"Nazis!" shouted a group of boys, as police pulled men off the narrow streets of Mea Shearim.

As well as broadcasting the message "Stay Home" from the helicopter and drone, police have issued offenders with fines.

Israeli officials describe the ultra-Orthodox as especially prone to contagion because their districts tend to be poor and congested, and in normal times they are accustomed to holding thrice-daily prayers with often large congregations.
....

This does not surprise. That community is so ultra-insular that they mostly live on public assistance, lacking, as they do, any marketable skills or knowledge. Though some pursue software development and other work-at-home possibilities, even then, they have so many children that they still qualify for public assistance, even on a six figure income. They would hardly be aware of the facts of the situation, much less receptive to doing anything about it.

[trdsf]

Also, intercessory prayer has been put to clinical tests.  In one study -- run by the religious Templeton Foundation no less -- patients being prayed for did worse by a small margin.

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/death-i...ills-them/

...
Pastor Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge spoke to TMZ this Wednesday, saying that if his church members die from coronavirus, they’ve done so in the name of religious freedom.

Spell was charged with violating an executive order that bans churches from holding large gatherings, but showed his defiance last Tuesday by holding a service that was attended by over 1,000 people. Speaking to TMZ, Spell said that true Christians would be willing to die from coronavirus, adding that those who “prefer tyranny over freedom do not deserve freedom.”
...

Yes, religious freedom is so much more important than staying alive. Toxic Christianity marches on!