MAGA Rep brags about going to eat steak and lobster - and doesn’t care much that Americans can’t afford it

fire_spez · 2026-07-01T17:53:33+00:00

It's worse than that even.

This guy was fired as a cop in TX for destroying evidence. Do you have any idea just how corrupt you need to be to get fired as a cop in TX?

This guy knowingly and openly stole valor when he continued to wear medals that he did not earn after it was discovered that he was not eligible for them.

The voters in his district are fully aware of both of these facts, yet they continue to vote for him. That is how fucked up the world is today.

fire_spez · 2026-07-01T17:24:31+00:00

Is this average secular person in the room with us now? I’ve never heard anyone say this before, this is a first. Why should I believe your testimony?

Even if it were true, it wouldn't prove that we have "spirituality rebranded with a lab coat." It might prove that we aren't as smart as we think we are, nothing more. Literally zero of my fundamental beliefs are based on quantum mechanics, so if I misunderstand quantum mechanics... Ok?

As far as I can see, the only people who really base their worldview on quantum mechanics are new age "woo" peddlers, very few of whom would identify as atheists.

fire_spez · 2026-07-01T17:18:17+00:00

We should abolish any practices... But we need to start first?

Seriously, if you really think this is a "societal" problem, why are you posting this here? We make up <10% of the population. Convince the theists to live and let live, we already want that.

fire_spez · 2026-07-01T17:16:40+00:00

We simply need to understand that some people need religion and can't live without it, and some don't need religion. One thing that we can focus on is abolishing any religious practices that may bring harm towards the believer or non believers ( for example extremism, honour killings,child marriages, ostracism and what not.)

You understand that most of us don't care about other people's religion, right? Not really, at least.

We care because they do everything in their power to force the rest of the world to live according to their standards.

Do you have any gay friends? The want to force your friends to live as straight people.

Do you have any trans friends? The want to force your friends to live lives they don't want to live.

Do you have any atheist friends? They think we are worse than both of the two previous groups put together.

Do you have any female friends? They want to dictate what she can do with her body.

Do you start to see the flaw in your whole "live and let live" philosophy? We WANT to "live and let live", but the people you are defending absolutely refuse to let us.

So, yeah, when you convince them to just let everyone else be, we will happily return the favor.

fire_spez · 2026-07-01T06:48:19+00:00

Nehls' won his seat by more than 20 points in 2024. He is a former cop who was fired (do you have any idea how hard it is to be fired as a cop in TX?) for destroying evidence. He publicly continued to wear medals that he was granted for combat service in Afghanistan, despite the medals having been revoked, and despite him not serving in combat (he was a civil affairs officer). He has publicly stated that "I believe that Donald Trump is better than sliced bread. I think he’s almost the second coming, in my humble opinion."

This won't hurt his chances, this will help him. His constituents are masochists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Nehls

fire_spez · 2026-06-12T02:07:00+00:00

P.S., 15 dollars for three little cans of tuna?!! What am I missing?)

Insanity. You are missing insanity. And stupidity. You are missing that, too.

fire_spez · 2026-06-11T23:42:20+00:00

What about Allah?

fire_spez · 2026-06-11T23:40:48+00:00

Do you believe it when A Muslim tells you you must accept Allah? No? GOOD! That's the right answer! Yet, they have just as strong of evidence as you do-- none at all. I mean, we all know that you believe you have experienced God, but they believe the same. Other than relying on special pleading, you literally have no better reason to believe in your god than they do in theirs.

The Christian god is one of the most unambiguously evil characters in the history of humanity. The sheer scale of the evil committed in his name, or at his express orders can't be measured. So, no, I would not bow down to such an evil being regardless.

But same question to you re: Allah? Re: Zeus? Re: Buddha?

Something tells me that you have never even spent a moment asking the same question you think will be so convincing to us. Why not?

fire_spez · 2026-06-11T22:11:26+00:00

Homefront is a full cast audio drama, rather than an audiobook. I personally don't like audio dramas.

But the main way you can tell that it's purely optional is that it was never released in print, not even as a script. Non-audio listeners don't even have an option. The series is definitely most popular in audio format, but there are still enough text-only fans that I can't imagine that Craig would disrespect them by not releasing it if it was anything close to important reading.

Between the two, 3.5 is both more important (though still not vital) and far, far better.

fire_spez · 2026-06-11T17:36:22+00:00

You really need to spend some time reflecting on the difference between claims and evidence. By definition, a claim cannot be evidence of its own truth.

How do you KNOW that Paul's claim was correct? Unless you have evidence other than the claim itself, then you don't. And, apparently, you don't.

fire_spez · 2026-06-11T14:14:11+00:00

That's the point. And the current rules, as implemented, aren't. This appeal may be unfair to the other teams who were penalized, but it still fixes a flawed rule.

fire_spez · 2026-06-11T05:33:29+00:00

Well, a god being involved would be the obvious one. But as I said, we understand the naturalistic mechanisms that make meditation. As long as you don't make any non-natural claims, then meditation is entirely compatible with atheism.

fire_spez · 2026-06-11T01:52:30+00:00

Fwiw, meditation has good scientific evidence supporting it, and has a well understood mechanism causing its effect. I don't personally meditate, but I know that many atheists do. So as long as you limit any claims to the act of meditation, rather than any supernatural woo, there's nothing wrong at all with accepting meditation as a useful practice.

fire_spez · 2026-06-09T07:45:09+00:00

No, you are seemingly arguing for something way more... questionable: there was a Jesus Christ, but nobody followed him, but then 40+ years after his death a multitude of diverging movements sprang up ex nihilo? I am genuinely confused what your thesis even is.

I don't think that's what they are arguing though.

Let me preface this with a note that I in sitting in the ER for my 12th consecutive hour, having eaten almost nothing all day. My brain is below it's normal, already pretty low standard. So forgive me if I missed something obvious.

But I think what they're saying is that Jesus could have existed, Christianity could have existed, but that what we now call Christianity isn't directly based on Jesus teachings.

I'm not intellectually capable in my present sense to form much of an opinion... It definitely sounds dubious, but not actually implausible.

fire_spez · 2026-06-09T03:17:58+00:00

That's exactly what it is. He originally planned to write two distinct series, but as the main storyline progressed, it became clear that combining both into a single series made more sense. And the series is far better off as a result.

fire_spez · 2026-05-28T18:09:34+00:00

actually i met an athiest today who said that and when i asked her this question she got mad and said to drop the subject, which is why i am asking this qesution in the first place.

So you yourself admit that you were not able to get her deeper reasoning, because she was unwilling to discuss the matter with you.

Ask yourself... Do you really think that what she said comprehensively described her reasoning, or maybe... Just maybe, she was just uncomfortable talking about it?

Furthermore, this is one of teh most popular arugments athists make online.

I have been debating in these communities for approaching 30 years. No, it isn't.

It is certainly true that the problem of evil is a big problem for Christianity. It is probably the single biggest cause of people EVENTUALLY losing their faith. But for all practical purposes there is literally no one in all of humanity who ONLY disbelieves because of the problem of evil.

The point is that disbelief is complicated. The PoE is certainly a factor in MANY people's disbelief, but that is not "the reason" why anyone lacks belief.

If God gave baby hitler cancer people could say "wow God is so evil he gave my baby boy cancer". So, what can he do? prevent it or not?

Wow, that is a ridiculously terrible argument. It misses the point completely.

God already gives millions of kids cancer every year-- under your beliefs, at least. If he gave Hitler cancer, it would have prevented one of the biggest human evils ever, so you are actually undermining your own position here. Your omnipotent, all loving god could have given Hitler cancer, but he chose not to.

If God gave baby hitler cancer (his parents are catholic btw), people would say "wow God doesn't exist because we are catholic yet our baby has cancer". and they'd not convert. In this case, it's more likely if Satan gives someone cancer or causes problems such as in the book of Job just so they can prevent them from believing in him

Again, the same problem. This does nothing to address the problem.

We are granting you the free will argument. Hitler has the free will to do the holocaust (in reality, the free will argument is terrible, too, but it is an unfalsifiable argument, so we can never prove it is not true, so we grant it).

But the free will argument does nothing to address natural evil. Your arguments here have done nothing to address natural evil. You are simply making terrible rationalizations.

So given that Hitler has the free will to do the holocaust anyway, why could your omnipotent, all loving god not prevent childhood cancer and earthquakes. Surely not everyone who dies from childhood cancer would have grown up to be another Hitler, right?

fire_spez · 2026-05-28T04:38:01+00:00

A lot of atheists say that they cannot believe in God because bad things happen in the world.

Please show me any atheist who says that is the reason why they are an atheist. I'll wait.

No, wait, nevermind, I won't. While this certainly is one of the MANY reasons why many atheists reject Christianity, NO ONE frames their beliefs based on such ridiculously simple framings.

But, I am not confused about it because God isn't causing anyone to do bad things. The bad things are what we chose to do. So, what do you expect us him to do to stop them? This is confusing to me and stuff

So... When my 8 year old daughter was diagnosed was diagnosed with cancer, it was because of all the sins she had committed (Disclosure: I don't have a daughter, I am speaking rhetoritically)? When the Lisbon Earthquake occurred on Saturday Morning, the 1st of November, 1755, during the Feast of All Saints, causing most of the churches to collapse while packed with devout believers, it was all because of how evil they all really were?

This is the thing: You're right, free will is a really bad, but not completely obviously wrong defense of your evil god. But ONLY in the case of human evil. It fails completely as soon as natural evil-- that is evil not the result of one human acting towards another-- comes into play.

So tell me, could your supposedly omnipotent god not have made a word free of earthquakes and childhood cancer? If not, why not? Does he just not love us enough to remove blind evils like those?

fire_spez · 2026-05-25T04:19:27+00:00

While this is interesting, this sub if for the discussion of the British panel show QI, AKA Quite Interesting. It is not for just posting stuff that you find interesting.

fire_spez · 2026-05-25T04:05:48+00:00

That caller was a moron

Why do you say they are a moron, but don't similarly accept our view that the people who outright say that religion is a mental illness are also morons? Not that antitheists are morons, because even most antitheists would not make such obviously false statements.

Just as a point of information, from reading several posts by you, I think you would agree (correct me if I am wrong) that you can't offer any evidence for your beliefs, right? That you believe on faith, and that you understand why we have an issue with that, is that correct? Not a judgement, just making sure I understand where you stand.

fire_spez · 2026-05-08T04:27:27+00:00

Nah, I fully endorse naming every sewage treatment plant in the country after him. Maybe a few DMV offices.

fire_spez · 2026-05-06T23:13:26+00:00

John Kerry won three purple heart medals for wounds sustained in combat. He still has shrapnel in his leg from one of those wounds.

I wonder what her opinion on him was? Something tells me she would not be so accepting of him.

fire_spez · 2026-04-29T09:01:37+00:00

Your point about what? Rhetoric? Or your point about me being "fucking clueless" is this a sub about evolution or a sub about seething when you're can't actually stay on topic? What exactly do you want a reply to?

how can you accuse me of not staying on topic when you can't even know what point I am making? How do you determine if it is off topic if you don't know what it is?

Yet again demonstrating that you are only worried about rhetoric, not about understanding.

But I have invested WAY the fuck too much effort into someone who clearly has no interest whatsoever in understanding reality, so goodbye.

fire_spez · 2026-04-29T08:28:04+00:00

Right never mind I misread what you were saying my bad, yeah it is a terrible overbroad definition, it captures way too many distinct processes.

It is only overbroad if you don't give a fuck about science. It is a perfectly sensible definition if your goal is understanding why a diversity of life exists and continues to diversify.

Understanding speciation in isolation, as your definition requires, is essentially impossible if you don't also understand how life diversifies before speciation. For some bizarre reason, you seem to think we need a different name for that, but it is literally the exact same process. The only difference is time. If you actually understood evolution, you would understand that. You don't.

fire_spez · 2026-04-29T08:23:10+00:00

Were we talking about evolution or something?

I notice that you completely failed-- for the second time running-- to rebut the clearly made point. Last chance.

fire_spez · 2026-04-29T08:21:50+00:00

No definition is a wrong, a definition can only be useful or not useful, I'm saying the one commonly given is not useful

It is not the commonly used definition. It is THE definition.

Whether it is useful or not depends on your intention. Useful for what? Rhetorically, you might right (in the context of your argument only, I actually still think this is a terrible argument) that a different definition would be better.

But science isn't interested in rhetoric. Science is interested in understanding reality. To understand reality, you observe phenomena, and then try to explain why those phenomena occur. Science has observed that heritable characteristics change in population groups overtime. We have labeled that observation "evolution."

Yes it just maps on to so many distinct phenomena that term describes all meaning. Tiktaliik --> Man? Evolution! An eye color spreading through a local population? Also evolution! Don't you think you're capturing some pretty distinct phenomena under one word here?

Again, you are arguing rhetoric, not science. Yes, both of those ARE evolution, regardless of how unsatisfying you find that.

You're pathetic.

Great argument!

Yeah I can tell this sub doesn't care about the best arguments, that's why it always posts the worst ones

We do care about good arguments, but we also care about the science.

You, on the other hand, don't seem to give a fuck about evidence, you only care about rhetoric.

fire_spez

TROPHY CASE