Mighty AC

I find the condoned slavery, rape, genocide, homophobia, misogyny and ritual human sacrifice to be immoral and disgusting. Moses ordered the rape of innocent virgins, the biblical god finds the aroma of burning animal and human flesh to be pleasing, Jesus described how to punish slaves. Sure there are some positive messages but the negatives are plentiful. My point is that you (and most of us) have chosen to behave morally despite the many immoral teachings in the Bible. If it was left up to us humans to parse the Bible and ignore the evils in scripture on our own, what use is the religion itself? I'm more familiar with Christianity than any other religion and it has some clearly immoral lessons. I have heard Jainism actually does have an extremely positive message. In the scriptures the Jesus character also contradicts that line by saying that all of the old testament laws apply. That poster is great and very positive, but it doesn't accurately represent the central message of all of the religions included. It's another example of human morals surpassing those in religion. I have had many discussions on this topic in the past but ignored here to stay on topic. Studies have shown positives gained from religious belief. However, studies have also shown those benefits actually stem from positive group interaction, rather than religious belief itself. I'm simply saying that we humans are moral and charitable and can benefit from group interaction all without religion.

If an auditor finds a problem and bureaucrats then fix the problem does the system work?

Great question.

With all of the hate, genocide, rage, jealousy, slavery, misogyny, homophobia and petty revenge in the Bible, why would you consider Matthew 7:12 to be the focus? Despite the fact that, overall, the Bible conveys a pretty immoral and disgusting message you have chosen to cherry pick a very positive nugget to abide by. So congrats and good for you, but who should get credit for that choice? The god of the Bible or an ethical human such as yourself? I say if it takes secular human ethics to correct for the scriptural immorality of the biblical god then the religion itself serves no purpose. The positives achieved by people of faith are kind of like my neighbour's Honda Civic with a bolt on spoiler so big that the rear suspension is noticeably compressed. There are certainly benefits to positive group interaction and charitable organizations, but those are better achieved without the dead weight of mythology. Ask yourself if religion is useful in teaching, do unto others, if it also means that you have to explain away the fact that your god hates gays, condones slavery and considers fear of torture to be the preeminent motivational technique. Maybe you are completely capable, nay more capable, of teaching that lesson yourself.

I like it! It's a very cool and modern logo that still pays homage to the centennial symbol. There is a fountain in my town built in the shape of the centennial logo that works about fifty percent of the time. Hopefully we'll replace it with the new one.

In your opinion, if I happen to be gay or black or the conservative nightmare, a gay, black, feminist, atheist; should Augusta National have to let me play because I can afford the green fees?

So as long as I can afford the green fees I should be able to play at Augusta National?

I know an ex-jehova as well. She was forced to marry her JW boyfriend at a young age because she had let him round third base out of wedlock. The marriage was a miserable experience, he was mean and verbally abusive, but the church and her family demanded they stay together. Eventually the husband's job forced them to move to Canada and away from their church congregation. She met new friends that encouraged her to leave the a-hole behind. She did, along with the Watchtower, her former friends and a good chunk of her family. Shunning is the price of leaving the church. Anyway, it took awhile, but she is now a nonbeliever, confident and in control, with a new husband and a great young family. All's well that ends well I suppose. Though maybe one day we can skip the indoctrination process altogether.

"George Washington, man, he was in a cult, and that cult was into aliens man." Religion is just supernatural or fantastical thinking so, I guess if your social group was all into some form of woo and leaving that group led to a lack of acceptance then it would be similar. Though, I suspect the experience isn't as widespread, complete or intense. It must be hard to fear being yourself, regardless of the situation.

Good point. I could probably riot and act like a dangerous, angry ass and end up with a fine or misdemeanor. However, a black man has an increased chance of being shot. That mother not only has to deal with the anger of seeing her son behaving badly, but also the fear of losing him to a police bullet.

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend an atheism/skepticism/reason conference in the Southern US. I attend many work related conferences as both an exhibitor and delegate, so I expected a similar experience. However, this event felt more like a family reunion than a meeting of strangers. The most diverse group of people I have ever witnessed in one place, (in terms of age, race, sexual orientation, employment and gender) freely mingled and chatted openly, honestly and in an incredibly congenial manner on all topics both personal and public. The conference was full of outstanding speakers on a wide range of topics but that aspect almost paled in comparison to the countless conversations I had. From these talks I learned how easy it is for me to be an atheist and how painfully hard it can be for those from strong religious families or in the US South in general. I spoke with countless Americans that have lost their jobs solely because they were not Christian. I listened to other heart wrenching stories of people that were ostracized by their family and social groups for simply stating that something is wrong with their belief system. Being an open atheist can be such a painful process for so many, especially in the South, that hotlines and groups of trained listeners exist to help provide support, prevent suicides and really just let people know they are not alone. http://recoveringfromreligion.org/It's amazing how many atheists are posing as believers just to avoid the pain of starting over socially. The biggest opposition I have ever experienced as an atheist was the fact that my wife didn't want her parents' hardcore Baptist friends to know the nature of the conference I was attending. Coming out as an atheist is often more contentious than any other declaration. Though it can be far more difficult to proclaim one's homosexuality, nobody considers that to be a value judgement on heterosexuals. However, stating that I am an atheist is an automatic, unspoken declaration that I think theistic beliefs are fake and ridiculous. Has anyone had or known someone that has had a noteworthy experience when leaving religion behind? Or would anyone have a problem if a son, daughter, spouse or any other family member or friend decided to tell you that they have lost faith in faith?

There are politicians actively creating apathy and making harder for certain classes of voters to show up and vote. Those on the right tend to be happy with low turnouts.

Male and female washrooms and change rooms are acceptable for reasons of modesty and I think female only gyms are similar. It's amazing how many men ogle and hit on women at the gym. The Catholic school board should be merged and erased. Not only will it end an unethical use of public money, but it will also save $1.5 billion tax dollars.

Should a business be able to deny services to blacks or Hispanics? This isn't the answer: Nobody is asking business owners to engage in gay sex or marry someone of their own gender, they were just asked to bake a cake. Not even a cake shaped like a giant penis or with a message like "Jesus is on the other side of the glory hole", just a regular cake. Let's consider other services for a moment. Would it be acceptable for a garage to deny fixing your car because you had a Jesus fish on the back? Maybe an ambulance should be able pass you by based on your gender or skin colour. Should a doctor be able to refuse treatment because the identification number tattooed on their wrist proved them to be a Jew? If it's not acceptable for emergency services to discriminate nor should it be for others. The end game of a system like this is pockets of segregated little, antagonistic communities and I don't think anyone sees that as a good idea.

Kind of like our federal government does for fossil fuel companies...

True. The show has already started repurposing popular characters and cutting tiny side threads. A great move! After the first 3 books Martin lost his focus and just start adding an endless stream of characters. From what I understand he had only intended to write a trilogy, but was persuaded to continue after the success of the first few books.

The show is starting to finally drift from the books in a significant way. The Bronn and Kingslayer bromance is a great idea; far better than Jamie's story line in the books. Mance was burned at the stake though his death was faked in the books. Brienne spends countless pages wandering in the books, thus her new arc is shaping up to be much better in the show. The show has Arya find a new purpose much faster and we get to see the very interesting Jaqen H'ghar character again. In short, it seems that George lost his way in the books by introducing an endless list of new characters and story threads that are hard to care about, but the show is staying more streamlined and engaging. Boges is right, even when it seems like little is happening this series is still extremely entertaining.

Education, like most public services, always has more need than money. Since we are now entering a time when our tax base is in decline but our health costs are facing increases, thanks to the Boomer bubble, money saving ideas have to be part of the discussion. Money should have been put into a fund for the last 30 years, but it wasn't and now we have to deal it. I think most people understand that public services, no matter how important, will have to be cut when tax revenues decrease. However, cuts to some public services become harder to swallow when others are seeing raises and politicians won't even consider massive money saving ideas. Any politician that refuses to discuss merging and erasing the Catholic system, an idea that could save $1.5 billion dollars, is not a leader.

Negotiations are directly with the government this time. A government should have a mandate prior to axing the Catholic board....but sometimes the right thing has to be done regardless of the situation. Like the adding the GST for instance. However, since the boomer bubble will leave us with many years of declining government revenue coupled with rising health costs, I think merging the boards will not only get done, but soon be considered a semi-popular move.

Many are...but in reality it's an issue beyond teacher pay scale. It would be like Bob McCown demanding Rogers sell off the Blue Jays during his contract negotiations.

Duplicating boards, offices, admin staff and all the infrastructure, plus maintenance and equipment costs all add up. Ontarians would save $1.5 billion by merging the Catholic system into the mainstream public system. It's a big issue and the obvious right thing to do, both financially and morally, but it's also politically toxic. We need Frank Underwood to get this done!

My favourite line from that episode was when Tyrion complained about a bug in his wine and Varys says something like "Best be careful, you might actually consume some solid food."

I love this sentence...definitely going to steal that phrase at some point: In the end, it doesn’t matter if anyone outside of Chip Kelly thinks Tebow is capable. Kelly sees the beauty in fourth chances and has an almost euphoric disregard for logic. The decision to sign Tebow doesn’t come from a place of need. There are plenty of younger options with far less baggage and a much higher potential Kelly could sign as his third-string quarterback.