Religion

Give Your Stimulus to Those That Haven’t Had an Offering in a Month

/ Jim / 1 Comment

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When I first saw this on Twitter earlier, my only response, as I retweeted it with comment was, good grief. Think about it, this pastor wants people to donate their $1,200 stimulus checks to donate it to evangelists, North American evangelists who haven’t had an offering in a month; missionaries, who haven’t had an offering in a month; music ministers, who haven’t had an offering in a month. I’m trying to remember, how many people have lost their jobs in the last month due to the government guidelines to avoid contact, basically to stay home as much as possible? Oh, yeah – 20 million.

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Should Police Be Preventing Religious Gatherings?

/ Jim / 5 Comments

 

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It may sound strange for many readers here, but I’m about to side with Christians. There’s been a case recently, where a mayor has prevented Christians from holding drive up services. These are services where the congregants remain in their cars while tuning into an FM station to hear the service, or maybe lower their windows a bit. In each case the attendees remain in their own vehicles, at least attempting to perform social distancing. My opinion is that although these gatherings, these drive-in services may still prevent a threat to not only those in attendance but ultimately to the community, I can’t see that a mayor, any mayor, has the authority to prohibit these gatherings. It must come from the Governor of the state.

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Cancelling In Person Religious Services

/ Jim / 2 Comments

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What comes to mind when you think of the COVID-19 pandemic? Certainly the infection rate, and of course, the number of deaths in our country, if not around the world. The thought, at least for me, that comes to mind is how contagious this virus is. Some reports say it’s three times as contagious as influenza, and we’re aware of how many people, in the US alone, the flu kills every season. So most states have some sort of lockdown in place, where people are ordered to stay home, except to receive essential services, or those that provide those same services. Indications seem to be that this is working, at least a little for now and anything we as individuals can do  to mitigate the spread of this virus, however disagreeable in the short term.

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Are Atheists Better than Non-Atheists?

/ Jim / 8 Comments

 

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Does being atheist make any of us  better human beings? If, let’’s just say in America, if we were majority atheist over any religion, would we be a better country to our neighbors than we are today? I don’t think so and I have no but I also have no reason to think that it might. Atheism is just a non-belief in god(s) and doesn’t inform us in any other way. Every political or social belief a person may have  who is an atheist, is in addition to their atheism, not because of it.

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Religion and Skepticism: A Dissent.

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In a recent post by my good friend Gretchen, she utilizes John Loftus’ book, An Outsiders Test for Faith as an example of how we should apply skepticism, to faith, which is one of several definitions proposed in an earlier post. I’ve read the book, the video she embedded I’ve also viewed before. What I want to ask here is what constitutes an outsider? Is it that a person was once a believer, and is now an non-believer that they are an outsider and are therefore qualified to make a determination as to what is true or not true to any religious belief? Is it possible to have any objectivity having been a believer in the past and now questions the beliefs of others?

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