The IRS, the FDA, and the APA, are taking what it calls a “historic first step” toward eliminating religions’ addictive properties and concerns of mental health longevity by seeking comments on the impact of lowering non provable belief levels, how lowering of these levels might be accomplished, and whether doing so might have unintended consequences. Non-Profit status of churches and the ongoing mental health threats have forced the IRS and the FDA to combine efforts with the APA in combatting addictive, propagandized religious benefits.
The agencies said that they would eventually propose faith reduction as part of a comprehensive overhaul regulating religions’ unfounded claims. Today’s announcement came in the form of an advance notice of proposed rule making — essentially, a document designed to elicit comments and show what direction the agencies might take if it were to require higher provability levels, and setting a “burden of proof” standard of passed-on and written information. Given the combination of toxicity, divisiveness, addictiveness, prevalence, and the effects on nonusers, religions are in the category of damaging belief that causes the greatest of public health harm,” said James Zell, Director of the APA.
“Religion is the only legal entity that when used as intended will reduce the intelligence and mental wellness of the lives of all long-term members prematurely,” he said, adding, “We’ve known for decades that religion is highly engineered and designed to get users addicted, and euphoria at these levels are regulated in every other industry”. The FDA said it envisions “the potential circumstance where piety levels in faith do not spur or sustain addiction for potential converts. This could give addicted believers the choice and ability to quit faith more easily, and it could help to prevent experimenters (mainly youth) from initiating regular attendance and becoming regular attendees.”
Agenda as follows:
1. Harmful short and long term effects of early indoctrination.
2. Mental illness stemming from guilt, peer pressures, and counter-intuitive learning.
3. Contradictory learning. How giving the obviousness of credulity stunts academic reasoning.
4. How resources and time could be focused on actual fact-based scholarship.
5. Recommendations on faith based non factual learning materials. Fiction/Nonfiction advisory labels and age restriction guidelines.
6. Possible taxes or fines to be levied against churches for compensation to deconverts to assist in recovery efforts and long term psychological therapy.
in a joint meeting next Friday, leaders from all three camps will implement an emergency discussion called “cessation session” to create formal documents to present to Congress. (Hey I can dream, Right?)
TCA Newsflash 3-16-2018
Washington State
TheCommonAtheist
the disparity between feelings and fact are a unique christian problem, where truth rarely comes into play in their belief system, as this Box of bible facts illustrates.
I was commenting on
Exactly who, and what can you trust? I was a senior in high school in Issaquah, Wa in 1980. My teacher had us take a test to decide if we were liberal or conservative, democratic or republican. 
He told us to be very observant of his behavior during the semester, and at the end we would take a short survey. At the end of term, he asked us each to write what we thought his political views were. We each cast our votes and Mr Johnson revealed that he was a lifelong democrat and was politically active. Here’s where it got interesting. Every student in the class thought he was the same party as them and their family. Virtually split down the middle. Students of republican families thought he was a conservative, while the others thought he was a democrat. We have to be very careful to see life without strict confirmation bias. While nearly impossible to separate yourself from your upbringing, self awareness and acceptance of other viewpoints, and seeing past stereotypes is a good start to finding balance. Only then can we maybe see the world as it really is, or how it could be.
Recent accusations from Club founder and leader Pat Robertson, has sent chills down the veritable spine of the Vatican library prefect, Monsignor Cesare Pasini, after Robertson publicly accused the prefect of hiding important scripture from public view. “Scienant enim quod esset dies veniunt” said Monsignor Pasini in his Latin tongue. (We knew this day would come). Pressure from Robertson has been ongoing, and according to a spokesman for the College of Bishops, “we have had enough! We are conceding to the powerful American based 700 club”.
God kills, tortures, exterminates, shames, oppresses, mutilates, enslaves, and decimates. Those that preach the loudest are usually the most guilty. “God is love” is a ploy to distract the evidence and cover the truth. Giving him credit for a saving one person from a tsunami that kills 300,000 people is just so spiritual, Isn’t it? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. If it kills like a genocidal maniac, starves out populations, causes death plagues on a fifth of the worlds populations, it is an evil god, not a good god. “If” there was one.
And studies outside the Bible regarding evidence is nearly non existent. However, the evidence that it claims itself to be true apparently is good enough.
Each generation is changing, and right before our eyes each new crop presses into an unknown firestorm of change. Do you realize in 2100, that virtually every person 10 years or older with few exception, at this very moment will be dead and gone and the world of people will be an entirely new stock of homo sapient ascent? Or descent, depending on your flavor of mind. Think about that! A new 11.8 billion people will be replacing every contestant in the current population. Will we be smarter, stronger, or faster than the current population? A few, maybe, but not by much. Each new birth starts anew, and the old ways make their way into textbooks so thick a lifetime of learning is dumped in a pile to sift through and decipher. That is, if you want to. The growing and vast archives of world knowledge will be even trickier to navigate, and a subspecies of specialists will emerge, making room for more certification with less education. I hardly see more incentive for more really smart people reaching for the bar of excellence with one hand on their device, and muddled with so many mediocre choices. If our evolution is going to be an improvement on the past, something new in education needs to be done. Getting 80% of the population on board to substance learning instead of superstitious, religious folk lore is going to help. The problem with evolution is it’s unstoppable and unpredictable directions. Perhaps with a little unity, we could guide our direction to a better world, and not just more of it. 
I once had the difficult decision of selecting the right faith. I really like the Seventh Day Adventists. Nice people, eat right, and family values. But worship on Saturdays is just a big red flag right from the start. Bama Football is on Saturday, so I looked for a Sunday church. Plus the fact that Saturday worship is so important that sinning against it meant going to hell. I thought it was a little early for that!
For those of you that live in the warm countries, a little video for you enjoyment after the new snow. (11 seconds)
I could tell you how many times we’ve heard this week that atheists have faith too, but I’d have to re-sift through a mile of apologetic comments to make a count. Contrary to what continues to be parroted, most of science is based on reproducible fact that is no longer theory. Although some of the more advanced ideas are currently in developing phases, most science is provable on a daily basis. Water boils at 212f or 100c at sea level. Every time. Objects fall at 9.8 m/s squared. Every time with wind resistance calculated for mass. If I jump off the 325 foot bridge by my house I will fall 4.49 seconds and travel 81.4 MPH at impact releasing 77,616 joules, since I weigh 75 kilos. Every time. If I want to have my buddy in Norway cast a bronze statue, I can send the alloy formula to him based on a variety of aluminium bronzes of differing compositions and he will make the exact alloy I could make here in Washington. All lab testable for density and purity. Human life requires a tightly controlled pH level in the blood of about 7.4 and during illnesses we can regulate it pretty well with interventions. We also know how the body maintains this homeostasis in great detail. I could go on, but the point is almost everything in our lives today is explainable by science. Pretty good odds someone is getting it mostly right. Except one point. So now it’s your turn. Let’s show some proof on prayer and some proof it works. Ready…..go! If that’s too hard pick another topic. Revelation, faith healing, authenticate your creation story, find some evidence of the Exodus. Ok …go again. Just one. Why is it so hard for religiosos to admit prayer doesn’t work? They all know it doesn’t work! (Except when casting tornados into adjacent neighborhoods) Also, as a side note, religion is also testable for density
Adding burdens to an already busy life is the Christian way. They can’t help but share, but are we better off not knowing? Without the law we cannot come under condemnation from their god?. “Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.”
I, Having been indoctrinated and guided carefully into belief and faith most of my life, and having studies most lengthy and focused in one particular area of religion I have come to the point where the things I believe, even though preposterous, I believe are true. They will stand the test of time and scrutiny, for my knowledge of these beliefs is vast and as solid as the very foundation of reason and right. I cannot be swayed in my faith, for god has shown me through revelation and feelings and the persuasion of his servants the truth, and now it is my obligation to share that truth with you. To push and persuade you to believe as I believe because I am right! My singular disciplinary approach has not given me the “well rounded” preposterous man made knowledge base to blend experience of the world and science causing a man made “common sense”, but my knowledge is directly linked to god through his prophets by his holy word. How can you doubt the truth when it is the most useful thing in the world to maintain order and peace? Through fantastic miracle, god has used regular men to convey his word in a most uncanny and unlikely fashion. He has used deplorable sinners, forgery, and money grubbing lying preachers to pass his truths and to preserve his words for all the world. Who could do this but a god? Who could circumvent the physical world and the learning of men in such a way as to bind their very tongues with his absolute truth and authority and perfection? My presuppositional truth will dare to challenge your very existence with an ambiguous, morally elastic, fraudulent piece of imperfect, infallible literature that causes the entire world to endless conjecture and debate. You will believe this “one” all perfect god has revealed himself, not to all his subjects, but to only those few that believe in him without any proof of existence. Neither spiritual nor physical evidence is needed. You will believe based on my word and the confusion the words create. You will believe in spite of doubt because of fear and persuasion of the most loving kind. This is the blindness of faith in gods. This is where a person stays without careful scrutiny of the facts and an ounce of self awareness. This is the prison of fear to peek outside the lens if faith and see the world is not as they said, and the courage to see inside the faith is not what they said either. This is the nonsense of being raised in faith. Professing wisdom they remain fools.
Trichoglyphs, or hair whorls in horses and cows and the direction of the whorl can predict certain behaviors such as left and right handedness and temperament. The higher the hair whorl in a horse, the more flighty and unpredictable the horses behavior. Dressage and jumping horses tend to be highly athletic and ambidextrous and double hair whorls are common in the sport. The clockwise or counterclockwise rotation of the whorl can also determine handedness in horses, and in K9’s making dog selection for guide and service dogs an important predictor in success. 
Right eye dominant dogs are less distractible when being led, and choosing the correct dog for such purposes can save time and training costs. “Dogs are both left- and right-handed, he explained, and this has an influence on their selection as guide dogs for the blind because the dogs are trained to work on a person’s left side. He cited a 2012 
Dmitri K. Belyaev, a Russian scientist, may be the man most responsible for our understanding of the process by which wolves were domesticated into our canine companions. Article 
Recently discovered clues in Bible codes apparently transcend one language translation to the next, proving god works in mysterious ways including in Japanese. Using a new supercomputer Tokyo biblical scholars have cracked a code in Genesis 3:24 from the New Interconfessional Version translated from the KJVe specifically to align with Japanese culture. The English text clearly shows an accurate description of what actually happened at the end of Adam and Eves tumultuous departure from the garden. It reads as follows.
Images of myself sitting at someone’s feet in continuous homage while they express their love to me as I obey their every desire. Prostrating routinely as they enter my presence so I can give sips of wine and hand feed grapes placing one at a time in the mouth of a superior being while softly singing songs of praise and greatness. Blessed be thy name oh holy god. All the while being very conscious not to mention any of the other gods, for my sweet everlasting is a jealous god and vengeance is looming. Eternal reverence and adoration. How heavenly as we look down at all the suffering fools that didn’t believe while coddling the majesty. Anyone want to join me in worship? 6:00 Tuesday PST. BYOB.
I read where John Lennox “wiped the floor ” with Dawkins. With what? Make-believe? The 
North Korea is the current leader several Muslim countries all tied for 2nd place. Keep moving and agree. It’s safe there. But nowhere on earth can beat the USA in pluralistic ignorance about biblical histories that have been debunked years ago. Accepting fraudulence is a way of life for make-believers. Remember the story that broke about gold plated chariot wheels found in the Red Sea. “What they found strewn across the bottom of the reed sea has shaken the religious and scientific community,” says Rood. “Cameras mounted on remote-controlled submarines revealed coral-encrusted chariot parts, horse and human remains strewn like battlefield wreckage on the bottom of the reed sea.” Years later they are still working the story which was fake news. 
I know some of you are animal lovers. For 3507 years now my family has been keeping a pretty big flock of a mixture of special animals. We saved them as kind of a hobby. When the book of Job came out, Behemoths became the rage. My dad bought one at an auction and he’s had it ever since. He said it may be a collectible some day. Man he got that right. I don’t think it will ever die. The thing is cursed or something. Our hay bill is outrageous, but since we feed it instead of tithing it’s probably cheaper in the long run. 
I did some sketches since they don’t like being photoed. Ever since dads daguerreotype caught on fire they hide from the camera.
He also bought a Leviathan as a baby. We kept it in a small pool so it didn’t get big. They’re like goldfish and stay small if you hold back the food and keep the pool small. It’s a nasty little thing but dad likes it since it talks a lot. I’m pretty sure this would be the beast from revelation, so keeping it small is probably the best thing.
When dad was just a kid he picked up a serpent looking thing in the garden. He says it used to talk to him, but sometimes I just think dad talked to it a lot when he was little. It’s about as smooth as a used car salesman though.
His pet dragon is the coolest of them all. Frickin thing is ancient and still lays eggs. I was raised on them. We never need matches or anything. I tried to get dad to convert its stall to a thermal breathing heater but he never did. All that energy wasted all these years. He says he bought it from a guy on Patmos Island? Where is that any way?
The humanist morals compared to the morals of the nomadic tribe? Hmm
It happened again. A 5.7 quake in Los Santos Province of Panama near my home there. The world is ending and god is coming to wipe out the sinners and wrap the believers in his arms for eternal hugs and stuff like that. My evangelical neighbors down there are hoping to be alive to see it all play out. And they hope its soon and they will be lifted up in rapture to god while massive bloodshed and revenge and vengeance for all those wicked homosexuals and atheists unfolds. Not sure why they want to be around to see all the carnage other than the mind of a blood-cult, pious, holier-than-thou baptist saint shouting out SEE, SEE. We told you so!
What distinguishes Abrahamic Religion from the apes? The apes could not write their ideas of territory, food, male dominance, and sex into law. It was all about protecting what they had and staying at the top of the clan.
I read this tonight, and knowing very little about Islam it was fascinating to read some of his posts to see an inside view of a different than Christianity twist from an Iranian Atheist. Very interesting read. 
I used to write a lot of songs and they just kept getting more and more complex, when finally my buddy said, “why do hard when simple is hard enough”? Musicians have made great music with two and three chord songs. Simple is beautiful. Perfecting simple is outstanding.
I’m a little upset with 
I came across these while rummaging through some old papyrus I found in the basement.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone talk about a movie and say “there are no sex scenes, only violence”. Viewing killing has just become a way of life I guess, and what comes natural to all species is sinful to lay eyes on. Studies show most people have to be trained to kill. The military uses simulations and repetitive virtual killing of humans to condition soldiers to “hit” enemy combatants. In WWI and WWII trigger pulls per soldier were quite low, along with soldiers not aiming at the enemy. Essentially having to be trained to kill. “S.L.A Marshall did a study on the firing rates of soldiers in World War II. He found that the ratio of rounds fired vs. hits was low; he also noted that the majority of soldiers were not aiming to hit their targets. This was a problem for the US military and its allies during World War II. Soldiers were reluctant to kill another human even while under attack. New training implements were developed and hit rates improved. The changes were small, but effective. First, instead of shooting at bulls-eye type targets, the U.S. Army switched to silhouette targets that mimic an average human and killing increased dramatically. After implementing virtual reality simulation, and research shows that the more virtual people you kill, the easier it is to devalue other human life. A high percentage of soldiers today have killed thousands of people before ever enlisting in the military. Kids today are a shoe-in for high trigger pull ratios as they are desensitized to the reality of how horrific killing naturally is. They’ve already done it. Is war like a video game? Prince Harry of Wales thinks so. The Telegraph reported that Prince Harry compared piloting an Apache to playing a video game. He said,
I think it would be nice to share one cool memory from your life.
After 88 years my old high school friend’s dad finally accepted Christ in his life. They are ecstatic and praising god. Although cumbered with terminal illness and a morphing pain pump, the hospice nurses at the facility were gracious enough to let the family sing to him and pray for him and read scriptures to him. He was reborn!! He accepted Jesus. Praise god! Finally at the end of his life he saw the light. Can one be saved in this altered condition? The poor guy finally caved in. They posted pics of kids and grandkids reading verses and singing to their bedridden captive audience. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. But I did see it plastered on FB 2 days. Thoughts? Am I a sacrilegious bastard?
Which of the ten commandments has been most effective at preventing crime? Which one has stopped the most carnage, adultery, lying, and so forth? Do you have a personal experience where in a heat of passion and you were just about to kill someone, and you thought, wait! That’s against the rules?
“Investigations into the beginnings of religion have accumulated steadily throughout the past half century. It is only by great efforts of censorship, by sectarian education of an elaborately protected sort, and the like, that ignorance about them is maintained.”
I’ve heard this one before, but I just want to know who gets to determine what I can comprehend? I think we’re ready now. Go ahead. Explain it.
I don’t know a lot about butterflies, but observing these in Panama I was touched by how aware they are of me, and also others in their color. They play with each other so much, and I don’t recall seeing that much in the states, although not a lot of them in Washington.
Reading Victor Hugo’s “Hunchback of Notre Dame” published in 1831, and he breaks away on a sideline narrative to explain how the priests were afraid the printing press was going to replace the pulpit. Priests were in fear that everyone else could read their own Bible. Why? Wonder how they feel now, almighty 
2. They don’t answer the specific question that has been asked. A person who is lying will avoid answering the question and will instead make a convincing statement. The statement may be true but it is not an answer to the question. For example, when you ask your child if they skipped school and they answer by saying “I would never do that. I am a good student.” In another example, say you are missing money at work and ask your coworker, “Did you take the money that was here?” and they answer by saying, “I have been working here for years and am a good person.” These statements might be true, but they are not answering the specific question that has been asked. The person is trying to convince instead of convey the truth. Convincing statements are a strong indicator of lying. You might need to ask more questions to get to the truth”. But that doesn’t mean you’ll ever get a straight answer.
“After the revolution in Russia, Lenin was quick to see the potential of applying Pavlov’s research to his own ends”. See article 
First the ringing bells get everyone’s attention and they line up to do 
“There are no atheists in fox holes”. Truth –“there are no foxholes without theism”.
I married young in the church. It was a mistake from the get go (should’ve listened to my atheist brother) but three kids and 6 years later we divorced. She left for me an old boyfriend and she went party crazy for the next 30 years. At 26 I married again in the church. I was very active and dedicated to the lord. He ran my life. But she was a “raging-bitch-lunatic- foam-at–the-mouth-kinda gal and I just couldn’t take another year. 17 years of mortal hell. I was done. Against the clergies council I filed for divorce. (I helped un-answer many prayers during my departure). Two Mormon women. Sealed to me for time and all eternity. I married a 3rd woman 10 years ago who I love and will be with til the end. She gave being Mormon a try, but since then the two ex-wives have gotten active and have strayed back into the church. I walked away from religion a few years ago with my wife and today we are atheists. Problem is the other two still think I’m going to be their husband in the next life if they stay faithful. They both have even told my current wife “we’re going to be Jim’s trio” in heaven. (Me NOT pictured below) 
Mom died a few years back, and at 80 years old my dad remarried. His new wife is a very devout Mormon and her testimony is so powerful. She said, “I just know what I know. I don’t know why, but I just know this church is the true church, and when I know something I just know it”. Let me tell you something else this big, bright, child of god knows because she learned it at church. She knows that “gay men are closet arsonists”. That’s right. Arsonists! “They may not always start fires, but they want to, and that’s why they’re called “flamers”. LDS 
I have laid low these past few years since my deconversion. My mind works like a good stew, and then it’s ready to go. I generally take my time with things, especially after being controlled by those I thought I could trust for so long. Essentially duped by the duped. Funny now, but wow! Having just finished a couple of good 
So without giving too much away, here is one point I have milled in my mind to a chiseled point. Every element from hydrogen to uranium, every molecule and atom, every cell and creature is in a naturally constant state of anxiety. Each one is desperately trying to stay together, to hang on for another day. It is this drive and desire that pushes to new boundaries. Defenses continue to mount and stretch the elements ability to cope and survive. To grow. To evolve. Every bit if matter has this inherent drive to hang on. Hope is the card that religion plays. And they play it well. Hope for eternal life after death. Hope to continue on. Hope things get better. But hope is something we already have. It is in us already. So why do we need to buy it? Fear. Abrahamic religions attach fear to something that is natural and unavoidable. Then they offer the solution. Meanwhile everything in this state of panic is dying and death, struggle and change, and anxiety. Pure, perfect evil if you would. And when you are done with this struggle for existence you die. Miserably decomposing and holding on till another day, but the final outcome is without question. When we observe this creation it is fair to assume the mind and disposition of this perfect creator. If there is a god and this is his doing, then he is enjoying the suffering and delights himself in the misery of all of the elements. Including man. I choose not to believe in deities. The evidence is compelling that no good god would have done this. He is either incompetent or he is malicious. There is much, much more to be taken from Mr. Zande in these two books, and I highly recommend these for every avid learner that wants to challenge what he thinks he knows. It is a fresh look that flies in the face of “god is good”, and has compelling evidence and good supportive reasoning and science. But the conclusions will be left to you.
My area is pretty heavy with SDA, JW, Mennonite and a sprinkling of evangelicals, but SDA has the market cornered on truth because they do Saturday worship. (I heard the sermon many times). One particular family we’ve gotten to know pretty well is SDA. All of their problems come from god because “he tests the most faithful”. He really said that! He has also personalized his brand of SDA for, according to him, “they don’t quite have it right”. He was the wayward son of a preacher but now he’s back with a porn addiction (his wife confided this to my wife) and desperately seeking the respect of his father. He poses deep religious questions on Facebook then his friends spend hours enlightening each other as he sits and watches, but not responding. They have their 3 kiddos on a tight leash and rule over them with godlike love and a wooden spoon, and have absolutely nothing in the house that is not SDA related. The kids are all under 8 and they’ve never seen a video or story book that is secular or scientific of any kind. They homeschool, which in their case revolves around watching church videos. I think you’re getting the picture. 
None of them can read a word. It is pathetically hard to watch them cripple these kids to the theistical beliefs and growing up to think that without Jesus they are nothing but sinners laden with guilt and shame. Total indoctrination. Total rule. Physical discipline, and withholding valuable necessities to help them cope in the world. Total dependency. It’s disgusting. What happened to free will? What happened to trusting god? Where is the faith? They are so insecure in their faith they have to force the kids single line theology to protect them from the evil in the world while at the same time dispensing ignorance and evil. He’s determined his kids will never sew their wild oats and obsesses that they never do what daddy did. He talks openly about the enormities of his youth like a serial killer revisiting his dead bodies, but forbids the kids any leeway to make decisions or mistakes that would help them grow into human beings. It’s part of the Christian way. It’s disgusting. but who am I to judge?His family and friends commend him for his godlike parenting. I think he should just go away. Go away my wayward son. There was peace but now there’s none.
R is religion, P is porn, guilt is represented here by the infinity symbol, 0 squared = overcome and overcompensate. the answer = BAD PARENTING
When I saw this 
Most of you are familiar with the double slit experiment in physics where photons change their behavior and properties merely because they are being observed. It’s just barely more detailed than that, but if you’re not up to speed in armchair physics click 
So physicists are right after all. What can be discovered in the quantum world is a predictor of what we already find in the macro world. We just had to look in plain sight. This is why they say—
To be is to live
NASA has released some interesting data about Scott Kelly and his year-long stint at the ISS. Although more data will be forthcoming, early statements seem to chalk one up for the good guys. A drastic change of environment seems to accelerate some evolutionary processes. Here is a quote from NASA
The west coast will disappear and the east coast will have just a handful of people left. They said this 4.5 earthquake off the coast of Panama last week was proof all the upheaval is starting. They are not worried. In their smugness they believe they’ll be taken up in rapture, but they do fear for their non-christian friends. I poured through a days worth of ambiguity with the eye of the sceptic and to my surprise I found nothing to suggest what the devout followers of these prognosticators predict. If you read the actual prophecies… Nothing. Could be’s and if’s is all you need with a devotee. My life has been filled with warnings and predictions that never happened. If the modern day Glen Becks of the world were correct, the whole thing would’ve been over years ago. If you’re looking for the end you might find it sifting though miles of ambiguity, you could listen to your favorite summarizer in the hope that jesus will come and save the world. Just like preachers preaching. Read it on your own and you find a lot of nothing but fallacy. They actually believe this crap. To be reasonable we need to rid the world of soothsayer religious alarmism and get to work. It’s all up to us. Jesus ain’t coming to fix it.
So we walk with our Jeep coupon and the next day go to the counter. With tax and other fees it was $50. $50 for a free Jeep. Hey! This reminds me of church! We had to pay for something you’re supposed to get free. Being an exmo, going to long boring meetings and was a way of life, and getting pressured to do things you don’t want to do is really the way of life. In the end, what was supposed to be free from jesus cost 10% of your income or no blessings. No exaltation, no temple marriage, no important callings. Nada. It’s the equivalent of buying free tap water. Pretty good scheme.
As soon as I was old enough to safely go to church my parents brought me before the congregation and I was given an official name and a blessing. A name which would be recorded in the records and make me an official unbaptized member of the LDS. I was about a month old! Hey, thanks for that. Of course I don’t remember this, but those blessings take place the first Sunday of each month just before Fast and Testimony Meeting, where the members share their beliefs with the audience. This was the beginning of the indoctrination of Jim, as for the next hour I would listen to many testimonies that day about how true the church was, and how god played a role in various members lives that week. “I know this church is true” was proclaimed from the pulpit and into every rooms intercom. Even while I was in the mothers lounge, i could hear the testimonies of those who would soon be raising me in the church. Hey! No second opinions allowed either. Whenever a stray Mormon would stand up to bear his soul, and offer how he really felt about the church he would be escorted out. No second opinions needed! This is the true church!
Misapplied evidence of god. An old friend from school was in an accident a couple of days ago. I have to share this thread and comments.
I commented in Latin “SanctaeTrinitatus ad Avem“. (The Bird Trinity). She replies “oh Jim, that’s beautiful”. Hehe.
We are the stagecoach people. We can show the obvious, but the tales are memorized from childhood, and they should have never left it. Why does this matter? This codependent behavior with god hamstrings the faithful and stunts their progress. She has the power to take control of her life. Her situation has not changed, but her attitude has. How much time wasted, waiting, hoping, that god will come fix this mess, when we have the power to do it ourselves?
I guess appearing to be perfect is taking its toll in Utah. Mormons are prescribed antidepressants at twice the national rate, and teen suicide is on another record pace this year and 5th highest in the country, climbing each year. Why so sad when you have all this truth and worthiness? I can tell you the pressure in the community is always in the judgment seat. There is a conflict in the mind about reality and what you’re told you believe, and sexuality is governed to a very unhealthy level using guilt and shame as a tool to exact clean living. Also they apply high expectations that are infrequently met regarding teen love and masterbation, declaring those as sins next to murder in severity. Grow up with that guilt trip! I’m surprised any of those kids make it into their 20’s.
(Jesus is Coming) According to a coworker of mine, almost every local, national, or world event is opening another seal, or relates to 1 of 4 horseman or a prophetic fulfillment. I believe him a lot because of the TBN podcasts he listens to all the time. And I mean all the time. So he really knows. He’s actually super smart, and he wrote a letter to president Obama, and now Trump. Still waiting to hear back but his warning about the coming apocalypse needs to be heard by the higher ups. Why does he do this? Two reasons. God spoke to him. The train blared its horn right when he said amen to a prayer he was offering. That was a sign. And 2, he’s worried about us. He’s not worried for himself because he is going to he taken up. Miss the whole thing. But really, what a nice guy.
(Billy the kid 2nd left in a rare photo with Pat Garret on right)
As a fairly new deconvert, I found this a compelling and contrary view of good and evil, and it presented itself very plausible and convincing. A work that is very hard to counter without interjecting words like “belief” and “faith”. Another reviewer on Amazon put it well–“The research and supporting argumentation is frighteningly persuasive and would pass any Doctorate board of review.” Thank you John for the excellent work. Much appreciated! You can find the book here. On the Problem of Good (The Owner of All Infernal Names) 
(not sure who to credit here. Got it from Bill’s site at badatheist)
TheCommonAtheist 