Messy Scripture on Display

The thanksgiving ritual at my table

begins with my announcement that those who wish to may bow their heads and say their prayer. My husband and I bow ours, too, in order (as they know) to mock them in silence. It works for us, but I realize that I have a very open-minded clan. And that may be one of the things I'm most thankful for, this year and every year. Fortunately, we sll lean VERY left, politically, so once the creepy religious stuff is over, there's lots of unanimous moaning and groaning.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

More from the You Can't Make this Shit Up Department

except, in this case, somebody did. Here you will learn why orgasms are "spiritually" harmful and other fascinating tidbits to test the limits of credulity.


https://highestquest.org/2012/04/17/why-orgasms-are-so-harmful-spiritually/

Discussion of "spirituality"

my meet-up group (Atheists, Skeptics, Humanists) had a Deep Dive: Serious Thinking on Serious Subjects discussion on spirituality this Tuesday. As moderator, I did a lot of prep, but there were so many surprises. The first was that there was not ONE person in this group of 16 who, ultimately, believed in any type of soul, or after-life or "other life" or genuine connection to a over-arching intelligence, or ANY of the common understandings of "spirit." A few conceded that spirituality, in the Sam Harris sense, could be defined as extraordinary mental states induced by meditation, chanting, mind-altering drugs, self-hypnosis, what have you. But nobody claimed this to be a supernatural experience. A few said that they had identified as "spiritual but not religious" but only as a COVER, in social situations or on Match.com. So funny! And we got into some New Age woo stuff a bit. But basically there was almost unanimous agreement that "spirituality" is a bullshit, vacuous concept.

I expected a lot more push back, and a lot more equivocation. What say ye, had you been there? And I wish you had!

In the You Can't Make this Shit Up Department

Alabama auditor invokes (adult) Joseph and (very young virgin) Mary to defend Roy Moore against allegations of molesting a teen.

Link here: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/alabama-state-auditor-defends-roy-moore-against-sexual-allegations-invokes-mary-and-joseph/article/2640217


But tell me if you don't think there were better defenses. I mean David was a rapist and God made him a king. Abraham pimped his own wife and fathered a great nation. Lot did it with his daughters, possibly becoming his own father-in-law. Examples abound. Why didn't he just say, God is perfectly OK with all manner of sick hanky panky.