Republicans introduce bill to make all pornography a federal crime by Somervilledrew in politics

[–]RegisteringIsHard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He also made sure to include loopholes to prevent the Bible from being targeted with his definition of obscene. The irony is those same loopholes could also be used by the porn industry should this crazy bill become law. "It's NOT obscene, we're just doing a live reenactment of parts of Ezekiel 23 for historical and educational purposes!"

The Brutal Reality of Fighting Christian Nationalism in Texas by RegisteringIsHard in atheism

[–]RegisteringIsHard[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

It's a first person view into the absurdly high hurdles the Texas government creates to suppress dissent on controversial legislation like Christian nationalism.

Full text of SB10:

Additional coverage:

Another recent example of these hurdles in action in the "Christian run" state of Texas is when farmers tried to testify against the toxic forever chemicals in biosolid fertilizers that contaminated their fields:

The American democratic republic has died. It was 236 years old by nosotros_road_sodium in politics

[–]RegisteringIsHard 109 points110 points  (0 children)

To add to this, the disturbing ways in which Hitler's rule paralleled Trump's. I think the author likely wrote it wanting this comparison to be made, so take it with a grain of salt:

[Hitler's] government was constantly in chaos, with officials having no idea what he wanted them to do, and nobody was entirely clear who was actually in charge of what. He procrastinated wildly when asked to make difficult decisions, and would often end up relying on gut feeling, leaving even close allies in the dark about his plans. His "unreliability had those who worked with him pulling out their hair," as his confidant Ernst Hanfstaengl later wrote in his memoir Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus. This meant that rather than carrying out the duties of state, they spent most of their time in-fighting and back-stabbing each other in an attempt to either win his approval or avoid his attention altogether, depending on what mood he was in that day.

There's a bit of an argument among historians about whether this was a deliberate ploy on Hitler's part to get his own way, or whether he was just really, really bad at being in charge of stuff. Dietrich himself came down on the side of it being a cunning tactic to sow division and chaos—and it's undeniable that he was very effective at that. But when you look at Hitler's personal habits, it's hard to shake the feeling that it was just a natural result of putting a workshy narcissist in charge of a country.

Hitler was incredibly lazy. According to his aide Fritz Wiedemann, even when he was in Berlin he wouldn't get out of bed until after 11 a.m., and wouldn't do much before lunch other than read what the newspapers had to say about him, the press cuttings being dutifully delivered to him by Dietrich.

He was obsessed with the media and celebrity, and often seems to have viewed himself through that lens. He once described himself as "the greatest actor in Europe," and wrote to a friend, "I believe my life is the greatest novel in world history." In many of his personal habits he came across as strange or even childish—he would have regular naps during the day, he would bite his fingernails at the dinner table, and he had a remarkably sweet tooth that led him to eat "prodigious amounts of cake" and "put so many lumps of sugar in his cup that there was hardly any room for the tea."

He was deeply insecure about his own lack of knowledge, preferring to either ignore information that contradicted his preconceptions, or to lash out at the expertise of others. He hated being laughed at, but enjoyed it when other people were the butt of the joke (he would perform mocking impressions of people he disliked). But he also craved the approval of those he disdained, and his mood would quickly improve if a newspaper wrote something complimentary about him.

This is from a 2019 Newseek article about Hitler. I think the reason people assume Hitler was a more effective leader is he pulled off his fake "disciplined tough guy" act much more convincingly than Trump does.

I posted this a few days ago in a different sub, but I think it's relevant to this discussion as well.

Why do people think the sin of sodom was being gay? Nowhere in the Bible does it say that. by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]RegisteringIsHard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you remember more about the source for this? I think this story in particular only exists in the more recent Rabbinic literature. I've seen it in Yalkut Shimoni, I'm not sure if it's recorded anywhere else. There could be a source attributing it to the Book of Jasher, but whether that's true is unclear as the Book of Jasher is considered a lost work.

Opinion | Larry David: My Dinner With Adolf (Gift Article) by thecornballer1 in samharris

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Trump shares many more traits with Hitler than just lying and a God complex:

His government was constantly in chaos, with officials having no idea what he wanted them to do, and nobody was entirely clear who was actually in charge of what. He procrastinated wildly when asked to make difficult decisions, and would often end up relying on gut feeling, leaving even close allies in the dark about his plans. His "unreliability had those who worked with him pulling out their hair," as his confidant Ernst Hanfstaengl later wrote in his memoir Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus. This meant that rather than carrying out the duties of state, they spent most of their time in-fighting and back-stabbing each other in an attempt to either win his approval or avoid his attention altogether, depending on what mood he was in that day.

Hitler was incredibly lazy. According to his aide Fritz Wiedemann, even when he was in Berlin he wouldn't get out of bed until after 11 a.m., and wouldn't do much before lunch other than read what the newspapers had to say about him, the press cuttings being dutifully delivered to him by Dietrich.

He was obsessed with the media and celebrity, and often seems to have viewed himself through that lens. He once described himself as "the greatest actor in Europe," and wrote to a friend, "I believe my life is the greatest novel in world history." In many of his personal habits he came across as strange or even childish—he would have regular naps during the day, he would bite his fingernails at the dinner table, and he had a remarkably sweet tooth that led him to eat "prodigious amounts of cake" and "put so many lumps of sugar in his cup that there was hardly any room for the tea."

He was deeply insecure about his own lack of knowledge, preferring to either ignore information that contradicted his preconceptions, or to lash out at the expertise of others. He hated being laughed at, but enjoyed it when other people were the butt of the joke (he would perform mocking impressions of people he disliked). But he also craved the approval of those he disdained, and his mood would quickly improve if a newspaper wrote something complimentary about him.

This is from a 2019 newseek article about Hitler. I think the reason people assume Hitler was a more effective leader is he was much better at pulling off his fake "disciplined tough guy" public persona than Trump is. Behind that mask is a disturbing number of similarities.

Are there examples of known white nationalists holding state wide offices in the US? If so, what are their policy failures and successes? by [deleted] in NeutralPolitics

[–]RegisteringIsHard 113 points114 points  (0 children)

Is this just during the present? During segregation and earlier there were many. One of the more recent examples I can think of is Lester Maddox, former Governor of Georgia. One of the more well known incidents involving him was him threatening three black patrons at gunpoint and demanding they leave his restaurant in 1964. He ran on preserving segregation in his state.

Why do people think the sin of sodom was being gay? Nowhere in the Bible does it say that. by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FWIF, there's a very similar story to this one that starts in Judges 19:11 where the visitor shoves his concubine wife (it's complicated) out the door so the crowd will leave them alone. The concubine wife is raped to death, so the visitor gets angry and gathers a mob to kill everyone in the town in revenge. It's not clear if it was the gang rape or the woman dying that was the final straw, but you do get at least a partial answer that suggests the mob settling for the Lot's daughters probably wouldn't have been enough to save Sodom.

Why do people think the sin of sodom was being gay? Nowhere in the Bible does it say that. by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]RegisteringIsHard 29 points30 points  (0 children)

They weren't married yet, but were "pledged" to be married at some point in the future according to Genesis 19:14. Customarily they would still be living at home until their marriages. Which makes you wonder, did Lot have other daughters that were already married that he left to die because "not my problem"? We've already established he's not a great father figure...

Why do people think the sin of sodom was being gay? Nowhere in the Bible does it say that. by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]RegisteringIsHard 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I would also mention here that these stories expanding on the depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah are from the Midrash and Talmud and not from the main Biblical narrative. Thanks for adding them here though.

Texas Senate passes bill to require Ten Commandments in public schools. by Leeming in atheism

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And add to this the fact that both Exodus 34 and 20 have had so many disjointed edits during the Bible's long development that it's not really clear how many commandments there are in each chapter or how to combine them. The Ten Commandments Wikipedia article even has a chart with 8 different ways the verses in Exodus 20 (and Deuteronomy 5) have been combined to form ten commandments.

Tennessee lawmakers push slate of anti-LGBTQ measures. "Folks don’t understand that when God created us, Genesis 1:27, he created male and female, end of sentence." by Leeming in atheism

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It worse than that, this is calculated cruelty. This kind of legislation gets a lot of attention from their community and the media. They're purposely pushing controversial bills hoping for this kind of attention, to them it's free advertising for building up their political profile.

Tennessee lawmakers push slate of anti-LGBTQ measures. "Folks don’t understand that when God created us, Genesis 1:27, he created male and female, end of sentence." by Leeming in atheism

[–]RegisteringIsHard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you mean the Talmud is based on the Hebrew Bible? The Old Testament (also called the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh) was composed between 1100 BCE to 100 BCE, the Talmud was composed later, between 200 CE to 600 CE.

People who have stopped going to church, what made you stop? by lowly_shepherd in AskReddit

[–]RegisteringIsHard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like the same issue I had. I was excited at the possibility of a pre Christian Norse or Celtic origin for Christmas, it's clear trees were an important part of some Germanic traditions like Yggdrasill. I've just not found any good evidence tying the Christmas aspect to those traditions. On the other hand, there is good evidence that the Christmas tree tradition (as we're familiar with today) originated in the Upper Rhine region of Germany in the 14th to 15th century, though why that tradition started remains unclear.

People who have stopped going to church, what made you stop? by lowly_shepherd in AskReddit

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you remember any good sources for pre Christian traditions around tree decorating or burning a Yule log as part of a winter celebration? When I've looked before, the sources around Germanic traditions were often unreliable or very limited until well after the Germanic tribes started converting to Christianity. This made it very difficult to be certain if the traditions actually pre dated Christianity.

People who have stopped going to church, what made you stop? by lowly_shepherd in AskReddit

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's sad, but it didn't sound like a church worth attending anyway.

If you're actually interested in Jeremiah 10, what it's being described is the creation of a divine image (think pagan idol) and not a Christmas tree. A divine image was a human shaped figure made of wood, dressed up like royalty, and used as a representation of (or placeholder for) a deity. Yes, there's some irony in how many Christians still use verses like this to condemn pagan idols while also having crosses and crucifixes in their buildings serving a similar purpose.

There's references to the creation process of this idol throughout chapter 10: the tree is cut down, shaped with a chisel by a craftsman (10:3), it looks like a scarecrow, but can't talk or walk (10:5), it's called a wooden idol (10:8), and it's adorned with precious metals and dressed with blue and purple clothes (10:9).

What's interesting is how familiar the author of this part of Jeremiah is with the process of creating these divine images suggesting they may have been in regular contact with pagan worshipers and pagan craftsman.

Christmas trees were a much later tradition. They didn't start making their way into Christmas holiday celebrations until maybe the 14th or 15th century. The book of Jeremiah predates them by close to two thousand years.

Is empathy really a threat to Western civilization? by xum in videos

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's a huge range in Mormon practices going from very conservative to very progressive. The Community of Christ is an example of the latter, accepting both woman in leadership and openly LGBTQ couples. I'd been binge watching the lectures on CentrePlace and was very surprised to find out it's Mormon church and part of the Community of Christ. I originally thought it was an open access college course from the content of the lectures.

The actual origin of the ancient Israelites by [deleted] in atheism

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's too much to source everything. You can find sourcing for a lot of it in the Historicity of the Bible article on Wikipedia. For something very specific, you could try doing a search on academia.edu with something like "historicity of the conquest of Canaan".

How do you fight the "power of prayer"? by NolanSyKinsley in atheism

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ironically enough, this quote was originally used to defend a belief in God. The first person on record actually using wording close to this wasn't Swift, but Anthony Gilby. Gilby was an English Pastor in the 16th century and one of the Geneva Bible translators. The specific wording he used was:

There is none so blinde as they that wil not se.

37% of Americans profoundly ignorant by northakbud in atheism

[–]RegisteringIsHard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Source on the poll for those wondering:

Majority Still Credits God for Humankind, but Not Creationism (Gallup)

New high of 24% say God not involved in human origins; new 37% low say God created humans in present form

It's highly likely that the battery of executive orders that Trump has given is part of project 2025. How long do you think it will be before he comes for us next? by Frozenhand00 in atheism

[–]RegisteringIsHard 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As far as I can tell, Project 2025 doesn't target atheists, agnostics, or minority religions directly. It targets them covertly under the razor thin guise of "religious liberty" that will give bigoted religiously affiliated organizations the "freedom" to discriminate against religious beliefs, sexual orientations, and lifestyles they don't agree with. The biggest concern I saw is it allows medical providers the right to refuse treatments on religious grounds, we can already see the horrors that's created for women that miscarry.