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Encouraging News.
#1

Encouraging News.
Maybe 'Murricans are waking up?  Probably not....a lot of them replaced this jesus character with Fuckface!


https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/chur...-time.aspx


Quote:U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time

  • In 2020, 47% of U.S. adults belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque
  • Down more than 20 points from turn of the century
  • Change primarily due to rise in Americans with no religious preference
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
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#2

Encouraging News.
If your census form question on religion is as loaded as ours then the numbers of none believers is likely much higher.

Quote:The legal regulations required to hold the next Census in England and Wales on 21 March 2021 have been passed into law, confirming that the leading question ‘What is your religion?’, which appeared in the 2011 and 2001 surveys, will again feature.

Humanists UK

Which gives us the census form Christians who I hold in greater contempt than the creationists.

'What is your religion?' 'Hmm lets see, me mam was married in a church, so I must be a Christian.'

'Hay babe what's our religion?' 'Err, just put C of E.'

Quote:A new poll commissioned by the British Humanist Association (BHA) has provided fresh evidence that the census question is fatally flawed for its intended purpose of planning public services. When asked the census question ‘What is your religion?’, 61% of people in England and Wales ticked a religious box (53.48% Christian and 7.22% other) while 39% ticked ‘No religion’.
But when asked ‘Are you religious?’ only 29% of the same people said ‘Yes’ while 65% said ‘No’, meaning over half of those whom the census would count as having a religion said they were not religious. 

Why hasn't more of a fuss been made over this?
The Office For National Statistics are clearly dodgy as fuck on the question of religious belief so how can they be trusted?
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#3

Encouraging News.
(03-29-2021, 06:53 PM)Minimalist Wrote: Maybe 'Murricans are waking up?  Probably not....a lot of them replaced this jesus character with Fuckface!


https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/chur...-time.aspx


Quote:U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time

  • In 2020, 47% of U.S. adults belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque
  • Down more than 20 points from turn of the century
  • Change primarily due to rise in Americans with no religious preference
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.
Had a phone convo with my fundagelical brother the other day and he was grousing that within a few more years "nobody" would be attending church anymore. His church has a seating capacity of hundreds, but only around 60 people were attending regularly even before Covid.

He's pushing 80 and doesn't like that he's not going out on a high note in that regard.

But then he was playing a tiny little violin for Trump too, talking about how he has been denied a platform now that the social media platforms have conspired against him. I pointed out that those platforms are run by smart capitalists who know what side their bread is buttered on, and at some point Trump simply became a liability to them. Not being accustomed to contrary views, especially with arguments that play to his pro-business sentiments, he paused and said, yeah, you're probably right. But I'm sure that within 10 minutes of hanging up he wandered right back to this original point of view.
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#4

Encouraging News.
Conspired?

So he doesn't know what the word means.

Quote:In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future.

It is not a crime for a private enterprise to refuse to provide a platform for a racist shitbag like Fuckface.
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
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#5

Encouraging News.
(03-30-2021, 12:52 AM)Minimalist Wrote: Conspired?

So he doesn't know what the word means.

Quote:In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future.

It is not a crime for a private enterprise to refuse to provide a platform for a racist shitbag like Fuckface.
Yeah, and no one outside of federal, state or local government is legally obligated to protect freedom of speech, either.

But fundagelicals and whoever they support are always aggrieved and put upon and persecuted, and hence conspiracy theories abound.
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#6

Encouraging News.
A lot of the "nones" are still "spiritual" in some way or another. Still, if the US is becoming less Christian and more spiritual, I'll take it. Spiritual people get a lot less uppity about LGBTQ people and science.
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#7

Encouraging News.
I wonder WTF "spiritual" means?
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
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#8

Encouraging News.
(03-31-2021, 01:14 AM)Minimalist Wrote: I wonder WTF "spiritual" means?

Positive vibes, yo. I sage my house to clear the negative energy. My chakras are out of balance, Mercury is in retrograde. You will manifest your desires with your thoughts. I drink water from my rose quartz gem bottle to encourage love to flow through my veins. Tap into the spirit of the universe, it wants you to be happy and successful, you just have to allow it.  Dodgy

I do think it’d be kinda fun to sage my house, though, not because I think it would do anything other than snell like burnt sage, but the experience of it and how anything close to witchcraft was suuuuuch a big nono growing up. And the water bottles with the quartz stones are pretty. Aaand, I’m an Aries sun, Aries moon, and Gemini rising  Panic
"If there's a single thing that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so." - Lev Grossman
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#9

Encouraging News.
IOW, it means nothing.
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
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#10

Encouraging News.
(03-31-2021, 04:07 AM)Minimalist Wrote: IOW, it means nothing.

Not nothing, wishful or magical thinking. Facepalm
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. 
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte
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#11

Encouraging News.
(03-29-2021, 06:53 PM)Minimalist Wrote: Maybe 'Murricans are waking up?  Probably not....a lot of them replaced this jesus character with Fuckface!


https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/chur...-time.aspx


Quote:U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time

  • In 2020, 47% of U.S. adults belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque
  • Down more than 20 points from turn of the century
  • Change primarily due to rise in Americans with no religious preference
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.

I heard this on the BBC over-night news last night ... it's making headlines.
Test
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#12

Encouraging News.
(03-30-2021, 12:52 AM)Minimalist Wrote: Conspired?

So he doesn't know what the word means.

Quote:In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future.

It is not a crime for a private enterprise to refuse to provide a platform for a racist shitbag like Fuckface.

That's only one meaning.  "Conspired" also means seem to be working together
to bring about a particular negative result.    Which means that social media sites
such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram etc could in fact conspire to shut
Trump (or anybody else) down.  There's not necessarily any crime committed by
doing so.

So the claim made by Mordant's brother that Trump has "been denied a platform
now that the social media platforms have conspired against him doing so" is perfectly
true.    Which is, of course, an extremely desirable thing LOL.

EG:

"High winds, heavy rain and poor visibility conspired to curtail the air search for the lost mountain climber".
I'm a creationist;   I believe that man created God.
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#13

Encouraging News.
(03-31-2021, 01:14 AM)Minimalist Wrote: I wonder WTF "spiritual" means?

From the Skeptic Magazine:

"The use of the term “spirituality” is a staple of our everyday vernacular, whereby many
have friends who will identify as spiritual, but not religious. The ubiquity of the “spiritual”
label is curious given that a definition of spirituality is rarely discussed. Granted, people
are often not required to precisely define concepts that they are discussing, so the fact
that spirituality means different things to different people is largely irrelevant in everyday
conversation. However, this definitional ambiguity is problematic for researchers who seek
to explore the relationship between spirituality and other constructs. In other words, while
the average citizen can communicate in imprecise ways and get away with it, scientists and
researchers do not have that luxury."

What is Spirituality, Anyway?.

The common dictionary definition:

spiritual, adjective:  —relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

So spiritual is defined largely by humans being spiritual?   Is this a classic circular argument or what?      Facepalm



This is like Christians who cite 2 Timothy 3:16 as proof that the Bible is the inerrant word of God.
This text indicates that all scripture is inspired by God—or “God-breathed”.  That is, every writing
in the Bible is a revelation from God that can be trusted as factually true. Clearly then, if the Bible
is given by revelation of the God of truth, then it can be trusted at every point as an accurate depiction.

—Seriously?
I'm a creationist;   I believe that man created God.
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#14

Encouraging News.
I don't get the meaning of spiritual either. Never have. I think it's some sort of feeling, I guess it's just not a feeling I have.
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#15

Encouraging News.
(03-31-2021, 10:37 AM)SYZ Wrote:
(03-30-2021, 12:52 AM)Minimalist Wrote: Conspired?

So he doesn't know what the word means.

Quote:In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future.

It is not a crime for a private enterprise to refuse to provide a platform for a racist shitbag like Fuckface.

That's only one meaning.  "Conspired" also means seem to be working together
to bring about a particular negative result.    Which means that social media sites
such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram etc could in fact conspire to shut
Trump (or anybody else) down.  There's not necessarily any crime committed by
doing so.

So the claim made by Mordant's brother that Trump has "been denied a platform
now that the social media platforms have conspired against him doing so" is perfectly
true.    Which is, of course, an extremely desirable thing LOL.

I agree with everything you said except the last sentence.  They have the right to do it blah blah blah but I don't think it's healthy for the nation overall.  Get everything, warts and all, out in the public square so it can be battled out in the sunlight without going through nanny filters pwotecting us fwom the bad words.
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#16

Encouraging News.
Except there's no evidence that these big tech companies worked together to silence Trump.
Mountain-high though the difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem, they are but Mâyâ.
Fear not — it is banished. Crush it, and it vanishes. Stamp upon it, and it dies.


Vivekananda
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#17

Encouraging News.
If I can refuse to bake a cake for a gay couple, I can refuse to have people post stuff I don't want on my platform. You can't have it both ways.
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#18

Encouraging News.
(03-31-2021, 11:23 AM)SYZ Wrote: This is like Christians who cite 2 Timothy 3:16 as proof that the Bible is the inerrant word of God.
This text indicates that all scripture is inspired by God—or “God-breathed”.  That is, every writing
in the Bible is a revelation from God that can be trusted as factually true. Clearly then, if the Bible
is given by revelation of the God of truth, then it can be trusted at every point as an accurate depiction.

—Seriously?

It's also factually wrong.
When whoever wrote Timothy said that, there was no canon in either the NT or OT (firmly) established as acceptable for Christians.
So it really just means "all written shit is god breathed".

Right.
Test
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#19

Encouraging News.
2 Timothy is a forgery.  Xhristards hate to hear that.
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
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#20

Encouraging News.
(03-31-2021, 01:14 AM)Minimalist Wrote: I wonder WTF "spiritual" means?

It’s intentionally vague, so as to ward off scrutiny and criticism.
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#21

Encouraging News.
I figured it was the Collection Plate variant of "I gave at the office."
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
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#22

Encouraging News.
(03-31-2021, 05:08 PM)Dānu Wrote: Except there's no evidence that these big tech companies worked together to silence Trump.

I'm sure the intrepid investigators of our steely-eyed press corp will find some in no time.
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#23

Encouraging News.
The big losers in this declining of traditional American religiosity are the established churches. Clientele getting older and older and the youngsters either not going to church at all or choosing independent "Holy Rock of Feelin' Good" type joints. My guess, anyway.
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#24

Encouraging News.
(04-01-2021, 12:05 AM)jerry mcmasters Wrote: The big losers in this declining of traditional American religiosity are the established churches.  Clientele getting older and older and the youngsters either not going to church at all or choosing independent "Holy Rock of Feelin' Good" type joints.  My guess, anyway.
That is basically correct, it is the mainline, traditional denominations that are hurting the worst, although, as my brother points out, the happy-clappy ones are feeling the winds of change, too. They are perhaps just better at putting on a game face about it.

It is always tempting to assume the an aging demographic spells the end of an organization, but sometimes a staid environment like that stabilizes because it's appealing to an older and/or more affluent demographic, and as the oldest die off, younger ones "age in" to it to take their place.

But what seems indisputable is that organized religion has declined substantially due primarily to the culture evolving away from it. A hundred years ago it was scandalous to be openly, much less privately thinking, atheistic or agnostic -- that is, to fail to exhibit certainty that god exists and has claims on people, and to think that at least indirect favor from god based largely on adherence to traditionally observant, organized religion, was crucial to the survival, much less thriving, of society. Church is no longer the sole mechanism by which one pays one's dues to god, even if you still think a monotheistic deity is instrumental in sustaining it.
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#25

Encouraging News.
(03-31-2021, 01:14 AM)Minimalist Wrote: I wonder WTF "spiritual" means?
It means people are getting embarrassed to say they believe in a god thought up by a bunch of camel jockeys back before iron was a thing. Half-stepping away from that primitive shit.
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