Wendell Berry taught me “Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.” Science says, “I can’t hear you.”
Wendell Berry also taught me that “good intentions can have unintended consequences.” Watching the machinations of humankind has shown me that we know this, but ignore it anyway.
My favorite David Foster Wallace quote is as follows: “Don’t let the truth get in the way of telling a good story.”
Famed IFB preacher Tom Malone said in a sermon “I’m not preaching now, I’m telling the truth.” Remember this the next time you hear a sermon.
I am tired of atheist podcasts and talk shows. I wonder if my atheism is evolving?
Best pop ever: Suncrest Cream Soda (childhood). Runner up: Jones Cream Soda (today).
I am an agnostic atheist, not an anti-theist. This pisses anti-theists off, but I live in a corner of the world where most people at least profess to be Christians. I choose a kinder, gentler path of progress.
Hummingbirds are draining our backyard feeder every day, Soon they will migrate south. I feel sad, yet grateful they graced us with their presence.
Ten days of daily cannabis use has proved one thing to me: every IFB preacher from my teen years who said “Pot is a gateway drug that leads to hard drug use” is a liar. I wonder if they were lying about premarital sex too? 🤣
Democrats who think indicting Trump will put an end to MAGA don’t understand the movement and its religious and cultural underpinnings.
Bonus: Dear Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati Reds): Most wheelchairs require up to 36-inch openings to pass. Setting your security scanner openings and elevator access gates at less than 36 inches means I couldn’t pass through them. You accommodated me. However, it made me feel singled out — the crippled guy spectacle. Buy a tape measure and get it right the first time.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I burned out on the atheist blogs, etc. a long time ago. Just like with church, after a while, everyone is repeating the same points, and nobody is learning anything new. Anti-theism is just as obnoxious as religious fundamentalism. I like your blog because you discuss different subjects Too much of anything isn’t healthy or productive.
I still watch the odd atheist show but yes they’re getting to be boring and repetitive. Having said which there are occasionally discussions, or more likely throw away comments, that cause me to rethink some fundamental point. Ten years ago I thought William Lane Craig was a debating genius, that the fine tuning argument was really hard to counter, and had no response to the ‘you can’t get something from nothing’ “argument “. I now see Craig retreating into a hole more and more frequently as his arguments have been totally debunked (though he remains a formidable debater, just one with little to debate!), and I can counter any of these arguments with confidence, especially knowing that there are no new ones coming along. Maybe that’s the point. Theists have run out of arguments, so countering them appears boring!
Your comment about MAGA is one of the most perceptive I’ve seen. The movement has religious underpinnings—intertwined with a nationalist mythology.
The truth can motivate people to do what’s good and right. Mythologies, on the other hand, can whip people into a frenzy of violence against the most vulnerable targets.
Oh, and the atheist blogs and podcasts are boring, in part because, for too many public atheists (or more precisely, anti-theists), their atheism has become an ideology rather than a tool for interrogating accepted knowledge and beliefs—or even a moral humanistic principle.
Finally—I’ll admit that if I had to make a facility accessible, I’d probably get something wrong. That said, I am astounded at how many “accessible” doorways, ramps and other facilities are too narrow or have other obstacles. And I’m still peeved that when the stations of my local subway line were renovated a few years ago, nothing was done to make them more accessible.
I burned out on most atheist podcasts and blogs long ago. Seth Andrews’ “The Thinking Atheist” still has some interesting content sometimes, but I’ve learned about logical fallacies and debunking of religious talking points, and I am not anti-theist, just anti-fundamentalist. Podcasts and blogs recounting personal deconversion stories are enjoyable to me still.
These hot takes are spot on. Pushing my mother-in-law around in her wheelchair has really opened my eyes to some of the issues that people face. Damn, we need to do better.
I agree never had much use for atheist podcasts. It was always beating a dead horse for me. It’s a bit like the flat earth debate. Until it is threatened to be taught in schools I’m indifferent.
You’re correct. MAGA will always be with us. Essentially it’ll take 3 successful Presidential election cycles before they are marginalized. #1 2020 #2 2024 #3 2028. One problem is the electoral college and the rules if the election is thrown to the House. Both favor Republicans, because it violates the rule that allows land to vote.
As for anti-theism, that’s a tricky one for me. I don’t mind if people could keep their religion as a private affair…but they don’t! It is almost necessary to take religion to task to have a secular country. I have trouble understanding those who are MAGA from my childhood town. How can they be pleased with Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court and Betsy DeVos as the secretary of education? This is all from giving religion a seat at the secular supper table.
I got a couple good chuckles out of “I’m not preaching now, I’m telling the truth.” Isn’t that what they call irony? Inadvertent truth telling.
In the Catholic church of my youth (’60s and ’70s), there were one or two readings that were not from the gospels, and then a reading from a gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). The priest would then give a sermon, tying the readings together, connecting them with our everyday lives, and how to live those lives as God wanted. But it was pounded into me, from an early age, that what really mattered was Jesus’ opinion on a subject. Gospels were sacrosanct, and the rest of the Bible was merely guidance. (This is undoubtedly not orthodox Catholic theology, but how I was indoctrinated by my Social Justice Warrior nuns.)
And so, I remember attending an Evangelical service celebrating my husband’s niece’s high school graduation from the school associated with the church, and hearing the pastor, in his preaching, use an illustrative example that astounded me. What astounded me much more was when my husband, who’d been raised in that tradition, grumbled that he’d heard that example before, and it was urban myth, not the experience of any pastor. The sermons of my youth might not have caught the attention of a kid or teenager, but there was never anything astounding, that might have been a lie.
All of which is not a bid for Catholicism–I’m a secular humanist, and I’ve seen that church damage many people, including my mother–but I do think that Jesuit priests, in particular, tell the truth until it gets too close to non-truth things they personally hold dear. Sermon topics aren’t those non-truth things, in their world. They’re academics at heart, though that academia has a big elephant in the room, the reliability of the Bible and other church writings.
Also, MAGA will survive Trump.
I still mostly live in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, which is fairly liberal. The local MAGA supporters engage with fellows online, and most of the other conservative-leaning folks are gasp, people who came, or whose ancestors came from ELSEWHERE! Their skin might be brown, or their eyes might be “funny”, and they might speak English with a non-US accent! (I write this with apologies to my wonderful neighbors who hail, or whose ancestors hailed, from East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Russia, or parts of the Americas south of the US. My experience of MAGA folks is that they are racist and xenophobic.)
BUT…I will retire in a few years to a place in far eastern California that is near the border with Nevada, and in fact, Nevada is where we get groceries, will see docs, etc. People are casually kind, friendly, pleasant, and some of them fly Confederate flags beneath US flags. During the last presidential election, signs for Trump were everywhere. I will join the local Democratic Club, but otherwise simply not engage with anyone on politics. Gah.
You are 100% dead on about the MAGA movement. My husband is thrilled to think Trump might end up in prison. Well, I don’t even have that hope. But knowing that he has followers that have turned into a personification of hatred towards the modern world and equality? It’s alive and only going to continue to dominate, especially with craven Republicans bowing down to their power.
PS–which dispensary did you use? I’m toying with overhauling my pain meds, as I am still in too much pain to have any kind of consistency without the pain and exhaustion downing me for days at time.
I agree with you some parts of a group like atheists can have “group identity” and write boring ideas.
You are completely right about MAGAs.
They have turned their group into a pseudo-religion. They are like the republicans in the 1950s trying to drive out anyone who was not just like them or had “communist” ideas. They threw Dashiel Hammet the author in prison for not turning on anyone in his group who was a “communist”.
My brother is not quite as bad as the MAGAs but still ask me if I BELIEVE in capitalism. When I try to explain any history to him he refuses to listen.
Take care of yourself.
Regarding the cannabis, my friend has back pain and he swears by the Rick Simpson oil, it’s supposed to be the most potent cannabis you can get for pain relief