The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is under fire this week after it censored a leading scientist, atheist, and board member, Jerry Coyne, a professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Chicago. The FFRF took down a Coyne column titled “Biology is not bigotry,” a critique of an earlier transgender column. The move followed objections from transgender activists and led to the resignation of biologist Richard Dawkins and Harvard University Professor Steven Pinker in support of Dr. Coyne and free speech. The FFRF board has decided to ring in the New Year by reinventing itself as a freedom from free speech foundation.
In my recent book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage”, I discuss cancel campaigns directed against figures like Dr. Pinker, who has also been the subject of this blog in his own fight for free speech.
In this controversy, Coyne published a column on Dec. 26th arguing that human sex is “binary” and seeking to separate the science from the politics in the transgender debate. The article critiqued the prior piece by Kat Grant, a fellow at the FFRF, titled “What is a Woman,” which concluded, “A woman is whoever she says she is.”
Coyne offered a view shared by many that “[i]n biology … a woman can be simply defined in four words: ‘An adult human female.’…Because some nonbinary people — or men who identify as women (‘transwomen’) — feel that their identity is not adequately recognized by biology, they choose to impose ideology onto biology and concoct a new definition of ‘woman.’” While Coyne supports equal rights for transgender people, he argued that, as a scientist, “feelings don’t create reality.”
Notably, the posting noted that the FFRF was sharing Coyne’s view as a courtesy to an honorary board member and that the views do not necessarily reflect the organization.
That was not good enough. The transgender community and others on the left responded with an all-too-familiar cancel campaign and demanded that Coyne be censored. Figures like Evan Clark, Executive Director of Atheists United, said, “If you still support FFRF, I’d encourage you to pull your donations and talk to their leadership about the importance of trans rights in the battle against white Christian nationalism.”
The FFRF caved into the pressure, removed Coyne’s publication, and called its posting a “mistake.”
According to his later account, despite being an honorary board member, Coyne did not receive a response to inquiries from co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor.
FFRF did make a major mistake but it was not in allowing a diversity of opinion on its site. Coyne’s essay has now been republished on Reality’s Last Stand.
Coyne also ran a response to the FFRF co-Presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker in which he stated that he resigned due to “the censorious behavior I cannot abide” in the removal of his article. He noted that he and others had previously objected to the “mission creep” at the FFRF “to adhere to ‘progressive’ political or ideological positions.”
He then added a haymaker that said that this is all strikingly familiar to FFRF members. It is the very orthodoxy that the organization was created to combat:
“The gender ideology which caused you to take down my article is itself quasi-religious, having many aspects of religions and cults, including dogma, blasphemy, belief in what is palpably untrue (“a woman is whoever she says she is”), apostasy, and a tendency to ignore science when it contradicts a preferred ideology.”
The action taken against Dr. Coyne is reminiscent of the campaigns targeting writer “Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling. We have been discussing this campaign against Rowling, a feminist who has opposed transgender policies that she views as inimical to the rights of women.
To their credit, Pinker and Dawkins also submitted their resignations in solidarity with Coyne and free speech. Pinker wrote “With this action, the Foundation is no longer a defender of freedom from religion but the imposer of a new religion, complete with dogma, blasphemy, and heretics.”
Dawkins also wrote a resignation letter objecting to the “unseemly panic” in response to “hysterical squeals from predictable quarters.”
The resignations from the FFRF raised some of the same points made by “old guard” figures who have left the ACLU over its own abandonment of neutrality and effort “to adhere to ‘progressive’ political or ideological positions.”
There is a worthy debate over transgender issues in science. Dr. Coyne was attempting to contribute to that debate. Yet, many prefer to work to silence others rather than respond to opposing views. Indeed, I was hoping that Kat Grant would come out to support Dr. Coyne in his effort to offer such a critique of her work.
Liberals have come out in support of the censorship, dismissing Coyne as someone who simply “rehashes the right-wing talking point” and “promot[es] this kind of hate.” (This commentator noted that his views were published on BlueSky, a site that has become a safe space for liberals who do not want to be triggered by opposing views).
The intolerance for opposing views is so great that the FFRF is willing to engage in atheist orthodoxy, which not long ago would have been viewed as a contradiction in terms. It is a disgraceful position for a group that once defended those banned or canceled for their views. It is a moment that reminds one of what Robert Oppenheimer said about physicists, but it is particularly poignant for these atheists who have joined a mob to silence: they “have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.”
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
The trans are loosing the argument and are becoming even more hysterical and and unreasonable, if that’s even possible. Why do they so depend on my opinion of them?
There’s money in them thar pronouns! It’s a himhaw, no it’s a hoohaw, no it’s a lawsuit…
https://nypost.com/2025/01/04/us-news/ohio-teacher-vivian-geraghty-who-refused-students-preferred-pronouns-wins-450k/
You’re not born with opinions.
Anon: “You’re not born with opinions.”
+++
That’s what Hume said and I once believed it but then a brushing acquaintance with Kant made me wonder.
More recently Pinker’s BLANK SLATE swung me completely around. We are born with features that channel the formation of opinions. We most certainly are not born with blank slates on which anything can be written and that fact can be demonstrated by experiment and observation.
Has anyone here ever been on Jerry Coyne’s blog, Why Evolution Is True? I and many others were banned by Coyne ten years ago for starting to question Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. That’s a big blasphemy in Coyne’s view, so he cleaned house. He does this with other topics too. So how come everyone is all upset about “free speech” in this case. Jerry censors freely on his blog. FFRF has the same right to do so. This whole thing is NOT a free speech issue, or an issue of censorship. It’s IRONY in action on Coyne’s part at the very least.
It drives me nuts that people like JT use the term “trans”. There is no such thing so stop using this made up word that tries to sway people to believe trans is true. Call them what they are, gender confused, physiologically messed up, opposite sex impersonators or Women, Men faced (same a as black faced).
* yeah, Jim 22, I don’t use the language either. It’s irrational. It’s an example of minorities in public offices and what that looks like. It looks like crime and abuse.
* It’s BDD, BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER.
It’s coupled with other things, anorexia is one, OCD, depression, etc. The argument brought before the SCOTUS was a worry that hormones would be taken away from adults and the high dosing of cross gender hormones is the prize. The second part was for minors.
The FDA has no approval of cross gender hormones so the case is DOA. Unfortunately some centers are getting parents to sign waivers for trials using children as subjects to gather evidence for approval from FDA.
That’s the ballgame so the Coyne response by FFR is hysteria. Centers might change to trials with people 18 years +.
Maimed children are bringing civil suits as waivers for criminal cases avoided. It’s not a christian idea. It’s a neurobiological idea.
Michael Jackson among others suffered from BDD.
Impersonator works
Jim22: it drives ME nuts when people use the term “lawfare” and “TDS”. There is no such thing as either, so stop using these designations made up by billionaire-owned MAGA media that try to sway people to believe that Trump didn’t really steal classified documents, lie about returning them, start an insurrection by lying about a nonexistent victory being stolen by fraud, sexually assault E. Jean Carroll, steal from his charitable foundation, defraud people who fell for “Trump University”, falsify business records to cover up liaisons with a porn actress and nude model, and falsify loan applications and financial documents to misrepresent the value of assets to be used as collateral. Also, he brags about assaulting women, and is a chronic, habitual liar, xenophobe, misogynist, racist and islamophobe–saying so is not signs of a derangement–but denying them is. Call those who believe these terms have actual meaning as “gullibles” who believe the lies put out by the billionaire-owned MAGA media, who actually believe the lie that on January 20, 2025 the price of groceries will magically drop precipitiously, that tariffs won’t drive up the cost of things from appliances, cars, electronic equipment, food and other items that are imported or use imported parts and that 20 million migrants will somehow all get deported–(it won’t happen).
So, TDS isn’t real?
But here you are, saying you suffer chronic TDS without saying so.
It drives me nuts that people like JT use the term “trans”.
Ironically when I started seeing the word “trans” in the MSM, I immediately thought of Organic Chemistry. The Left have usurped a scientific term to apply to their fantasy identities. The Left can’t deal with reality so they have to make up their own surreal existence
Trans came from geography before chemistry: cisalpine and transalpine.
Q: What’s the difference between a Gun and Liberals?
A: Guns only have one Trigger.
Professor Turley: You say: “There is a worthy debate over transgender issues in science.” Really? In science? Please tell us why this debate is worthy from the perspective of science. You are apparently confused about what science is.
These are the narcissistic people who’ll clone themselves. These are the people who think they can change genetics without a trade off that’ll show up in 20 generations.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Mankind needs to protect its Plankton and take a new approach to sewage. Some can look in a mirror all day everyday.
Look up one of the most tragic lives ever lived, Robert rayfird. May he rest in peace.
**Rayford
* does each person seeking medical care for a delusional state of mind have access to complete gene mapping, endocrine tests, fungal tests, biopsies etc? LSD comes to mind or the delusional stories of people with fetal alcohol syndrome. drug ingestion of any kind? The demand to mutilate and amputate and alter chemically the body is pathological. Extreme disorder and falls within very serious disorders. It should not be thrown around casually by such groups.
You are apparently confused about what science is.
To be fair, Professor Turley has yet to notice that the major players in Woke issues like this are pretty much without exception his fellow Democrats in politics or NGOs.
No Republicans engaged in this cultural Marxism.
@Anon
“Professor Turley: You say: “There is a worthy debate over transgender issues in science.” Really? In science?”
+++
Yes, in science. How a person develops with a normal sexual attraction and identity is not known, but it is a biological development and I doubt it can be changed. If you are heterosexual try to make yourself have a self sex attraction. I doubt you can. Similarly, if gay I doubt you can force yourself to be hetero. The mold has solidified during development.
There is scarcely any process in development that can’t go astray. People are born without arms and even without brains. There is no reason to suppose that sexual attraction or identity will always develop normally when nothing else does.
A few people have this anomaly even in macho cultures such as among the primitive American Indians. Herodotus reports the same phenomenon among the warlike Scythians more than 2,000 years ago.
That does not mean that someone male who identifies as a woman truly is physically, but the identification will be genuine and uncomfortable. Imagine yourself living as a member of the opposite sex. However, I suspect that many of the reported trans cases are not genuine.
Nonetheless, the phenomenon raises genuine scientific issues.
Yes, I suppose that Abnormal Psychology is a “science” thing. Homosexuality should definitely be studied. I recommend Sexuality and Homosexuality, by Arno Karlen, as a starting point. You can still buy the book used, sometimes for less than $10 or $15.
Floyd,
I don’t need your book. Observation and logic have been around for a very long time.
Seeing abnormal development such as absence of limbs, absence of a brain, microcephaly, or hare lip, it isn’t a very big leap to see the possibility of similar developmental issues behind unusual human behaviors such as, for example, sociopathy or psycopathy or any of the variants in sexual behavior. I assumed it would be obvious.
Some things may be developmental, but some things are just simply what a person wants to do. For example, BDSM. That’s a choice. Or drug use – that’s a choice.
For another example, a belief in Wokeism – that is a choice. Or, is it? I have observed that, as a historical matter, delusional beliefs teamed with control freakery seem to be quite common among humans. The same mindset can be manifested in different ways. Today’s “wokester” is yesterdays Temperance-League’er is yester-yesterday’s Spanish Inquisitioner, or Millerite, or Nazi, or rabid Communist, or Jacobin, etc.
As far as the book I recommended, you don’t “need” it, but I assure you that you would find it fascinating and full of things you never knew about. I say that as a proud homophobe. But, the book is not homophobic, far from it. You can find the book and some reviews on Amazon.
Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out.
~ David Horowitz
Cleft palate…hare lip? Seriously . ..
Wood Eye!
Experiments with rats with wires in the pleasure center of the brain hooked to pressing a button, the rats did nothing else but press the button. Not even food and water dissuaded them thecrats died.
Pretty much it. It’s an addiction.
Behaviors and predilections are not the same as physical attributes and underlying biology. You’re stretching with an analogy that at best is grasping at straws.
Dare we say, hormonal imbalance during development…
@Traveler
A hormonal balance sounds a likely cause. If you are in the early stages of pregnancy and
continue to take birth control pills can they alter the course of fetal development? Maybe other things as well, such as bacterial or viral infections, medications taken at the time of pregnancy, or some vaccinations. Probably other things. One needs only to recall the horrific damage thalidomide did when taken by pregnant women to see that the path of fetal development can be interrupted for better or worse. We are not devoid of any sexual identity and we are not attracted sexually to just anything. Fairly hard choices are wired in by some mechanisms during development and if those mechanisms are interrupted or corrupted the result will not be what is expected. As usual, Turley is right; there are scientific issues here. The trans issues are a subgroup of the larger question of what things can interrupt normal fetal development and what things can protect it. For example, on closer examination, given what tragedies thalidomide caused is it really prudent to give pregnant women or neonates an experimental and inadequately tested Covid vaccination?
Not to mention alcohol… it’s a perversion of reproduction. That means the reproductive instinct is linked with something non reproductive.
^ does that mean a man with a man has no possibility of reproduction? It’s a perversion? Reproduction linked with non reproduction? Gosh, I learned something. The perversion becomes the attraction and deletes reproduction? Oh gosh, eliminating the possibility of attraction to a woman? Golly..
Wear the right shoes.
Did you know that armadillo’s only have one sex of litter, male or female. Crocodile sex is based upon temperature during embryonic development in the egg. Im reading micro plastics and other chemical compounds found in our food and water contain esters that are a component of estrogens. This could be a giant cause of what’s happening, cocaine, alcohol and THC abuse aren’t helping either. Se Pues’ y buenas Suerte!
Traveler,,
Yup. Find out what is going on by observation and experiment without preconceptions. Science.
When I was young I never heard of autism or ADHD. Maybe it existed but was broadly diagnosed as stupid or crazy. I don’t know. Something may be causing an increase.
But there are advantages to having a diagnosis like that and I expect part of the increase is due to opportunists angling for that diagnosis. Same is almost certainly true with the celebrities who find it fashionable to have a transgender kid as an accessory like a new purse. But the clearly bs cases don’t rule out a few genuine ones because of bad luck in development.
It’s all environmental parameters, chemistry and biology during development Young. Observation is one of the key ingredients of scientific hypothesis.
Succinct and true.
DARE we say pedophile in childhood.
The transwomen I have personally known all started their transition in their 50s, at a time when testosterone has naturally dropped.
” You are apparently confused about what science is.”
That confusion is endemic today. “Science” refers to the “scientific method”. That method requires formulating a refutable hypothesis, and conducting, or at least facilitating, honest and knowledgeable efforts to refute it. What fraction of what is currently branded “science” meets that criteria? 10%? Or is that too generous?
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” – Richard Feynman
OT
“WE’RE SENDING YOU BACK TO EUROPE”
And you ——- milquetoasts will probably let them.
_________________________________________________________
“There is only one solution: Intifada revolution.”
“New Year, Same Struggle” [to] “globalize the intifada” “by any means necessary.”
“We’re sending you back to Europe, you white b*tches!”
“Go back to Europe! Go back to Europe!”
“2024 was a year of struggle against the crime of Zionism.”
“We will be here every single year for generation after generation until total liberation and return.”
“We will honor all our martyrs!”
“We are proud to be in this struggle! We know who our enemies are!”
– Anti-Israel Agitators/Hamas Supporters/Jihadists on New Year’s Day in Times Square
Jonathan: It seems one of your jobs is to be a “culture warrior”. It started during Covid-19 when you fought against face masks, social distancing and even the vaccines. Then you endorsed the great “Barrington Declaration” that claimed “herd immunity” would protect most people from the virus. That theory was debunked by most world scientists. Now you have joined the anti-transgender crowd and retired biologist Jerry Coyne who thinks gender is binary and there is no room for anything in between.
Coyne is a retired old man living in the 19th century when science held gender is immutable–“boys are boys and girls are girls”. Back then gays were thought to suffer from some mental “disorder” and were sent to insane asylums for treatment. The so-called “scientific” theories then were driven by religious dogma that held homosexuality was a “sin” against God. That theory held sway through much of the last century until science proved being gay is not an aberration but a regular variation in the human species. So if you are a present day “culture warrior” where do you turn your sights? You attack the transgender community.
I read Coyne’s essay. In it he says: ‘Transgender people should enjoy all the moral and legal rights of everyone else. . But moral and legal rights do not extend to areas in which the ‘indelible stamp’ of sex results in compromising the legal and moral rights of others. Transgender women, for example, should not compete athletically against biological women; should not serve as rape counselors and workers in battered women’s shelters; or, if convicted of a crime, should not be placed in a women’s prison”. Notice Coyne gives with one hand and takes away with the other. He WOULD deprive transgenders of some pretty fundamental rights.
The “Rainbow Flag” stands for the proposition that, like a rainbow, the human species comes in a variety of colors–including transgenders. Coyne only sees two colors. And his essay provides fodder for those on the right, including MAGA Republicans, who think transgender people don’t deserve the same rights as anyone else. The transgender community has now replaced the Chinese, the Jews and Blacks as the targets of discrimination. And the fight for equal rights for transgenders is playing out in real time.
Sarah McBride, from Delaware, will be the first transgender woman to be sworn into the 119th Congress tomorrow. But the MAGA right doesn’t like that prospect. So MAGA Nancy Mace has sponsored a bill to prevent McBride from using House women’s bathrooms. Pretty petty and vindictive. And McBride had an answer for Mace: “This is a blatant attempt from the far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing. We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars. Delawarians sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on”.
Amen. Because continuing to stoke the “culture wars” and “anti-wokeness” does not serve the real interests of the American people. It’s a distraction. You should know that but apparently you don’t!
Dennis: You will be glad to hear that those 3.3 inch lids fit my S’Well 15 ounce tumblers! I am sooo happy! I have six of them that I bought off Chewy, with cats on them, They are blue, and rather heavy stainless steel or maybe aluminum. These new lids can also be closed all the way, whereas the old lids had a hole in them, which was always open.
It was a nice day today, and I got to use my $60 benefit card from my new Medicare Advantage plan. I bought bacon, eggs, pork chops, stew meat and cheap hamburger patties! I tried to buy two 18 packs of eggs, from uncaged chickens, but WalMart was out of them. I also bought an eggplant! And, a pack of 8 meatloaf patties by Banquet. I will get 3 or 4 meals out that! And, four big cans of stewed tomatoes. They had some Mainstays 50inch by 60inch fleece throws on for $2.50 each. I bought four of those, and two are already out in the heated dog/cat house on my porch, and in one of the cat hutches.
I put out some leftover mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes with gravy on bread, for the raccoons. Earlier, this afternoon, I sat outside with Peanut, the dog, and Bob, Sarge and Stuart, the outside strays. I think Bob stays in the heated dog/cat house at night. I need to buy two more heating pads for them.
I witnessed a peculiar form of atheist orthodoxy while waiting to speak to a professor in a medical school.
Several atheist students were objecting to the Hippocratic Oath saying that as atheists they found it objectionable to say, ” i swear by by Apollo healer, by Asclepius…by all the gods and goddesses…”
I laughed and interjected “What? You think that by swearing to ancient gods you will offend the God you don’t believe in? I think it would be fun to engage in an ancient rite.”
They looked uncomfortable and gave no answer. Yes, I was rude, but I didn’t care. Apparently stupid people can become doctors too and I didn’t conceal my suspicion that they were stupid.
An objection would have made sense to a fastidious Christian or Jew, but it was nuts for an atheist to complain. It should have been pure fun to them. But their atheism was a religion as demanding as any of the People of the Book but without the rationale.
Censorship by this cultish organization does not surprise me. Kudos for luminant minds like Hitchens and Pinker for stepping away.
“but it was nuts for an atheist to complain. ”
Yes, it appears that they were looking for a fight. They should have comported themselves with the attitude evinced by Swinburne’s “whatever gods may be” attribution in his take on immortality:
“From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no man lives for ever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.”
(The Garden of Proserpine – A. C. Swinburne)
Left wing insurrectionists plan on disrupting election certification.
January 3-5
Washington, D.C.
https://nowmarch.org/
Donald J. Trump, an adjudicated insurrectionist, remains constitutionally DISQUALIFIED from assuming the presidency under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress must honor their oaths by objecting to his electoral votes on January 6.
Peacefully, WE THE PEOPLE demand that they do.
#14thNOW
nowmarch.org
14th Amendment. Section 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Shocked!!!
/ s
🖕🏾
Certifiable…
The weather’s been nice.
So while I was at work today at a clients property I had the opportunity to chat for 10 or 15 minutes with her and we were discussing Robert Kennedy. She was a supporter of RFK when we when he was in the running for the Presidential race and had the yard signs, etc so we’d talked about him when they had first hired me last year to take down some trees on their property back when I supported him too.
We talked about how we both had no problem throwing our support to Trump at the end there though, when RFK endorsed Trump and how we both took a second look at Trump in light of the alternative. And one thing we could not get away from was it was actually the absolute insanity of the liberal party right now with its insane ability to lie openly even when contradicting facts are evident, like their sudden professed “awareness” of Biden’s obvious dementia. Their ability to deny it was insane, yet they did and some even still do!
We discussed how obvious the vaccine was causing serious health issues, how I felt my own sister had died from it back in 2023 when she got it then less than a year later suddenly and mysteriously developed stage 4 lung cancer. Problem was, she’d never smoked a day in her life. She didn’t smoke. Yet suddenly she had stage 4 lung cancer. She’d gotten the vaccine, then got sick, got intubated, then recovered but had all sorts of health issues, fell and broke her hip in Jan 2023 then 3 weeks later suddenly had stage FOUR lung cancer, and 72 hours after receiving her diagnosis, she tragically passed away. At 64. Same age I am now. I smoked for 30 years. I’m fine. I never got the vaccine.
She was my only remaining living relative from my immediate family. And just like that she was gone. I of course have no solid proof and can only share my suspicions, but I feel strongly her death was tied to that damned vaccine. Which I think basically, WAS the virus.
We talked about that, and how the left refused to hear any evidence of issues with the vaccine, or questions about the origin of the virus and just called us stupid, racist, etc for not letting them stick it in our arms too.
It was a refreshing conversation, I don’t get them often in my line of work. But then I come home and see this.
A WUSA9 article apparently shared out by AP where Biden is clearly trying to ramp up the division between the left and right before Trump takes office by giving awards to the Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson for their unconstitutional prosecution of the Jan 6 defendants. The article is from an author named “Colleen Long” in which she literally calls President Trumps statements on the 2020 election “LIES”.
Clearly Biden and the powers that be on the left are trying to stoke the hatred and division between the people before Trump takes office, and this is unconscionable and untenable. All they are doing is trying to tear down the country and stoke the fires of division before President Trump can take office and even try to accomplish anything.
Look, you don’t have to agree with the other side. This is America. We have two major parties and they take turns winning elections. So when one side wins, it doesn’t help anyone or the country in any way when the losing side becomes an insurgency, trying to usurp the winning side.
All you get then, is anarchy and a dysfunctional nation.
You have to learn to lose with a degree of integrity, honoring the nation over your own political viewpoints.
In America we believe in “Lead, follow or get out of the way”. Or at least we used to.
Liberals have been leading for 4 years, and drove us to the brink of World War III along with crippling inflation destroying the middle and lower class. Your 4 years are up.
Time for the liberals to either follow, or get the hell out of the way.
You don’t get to lead. You lost.
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/nation-world/biden-presidential-citizens-medal-leaders-of-january-6-congressional-panel/507-8ce23575-8edd-43a2-9b4a-32deaa451754?fbclid=IwY2xjawHj-u9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHbuTPURvynRTyfzL4cuVuKHkku8mnRuPBiYQC3jkQs3IzJkgIIi_yxk6cQ_aem_EJ9dKZLGCaO5DzuTjkL6mQ
I find it rather amusing when the atheists and the anti-religion types come out on the side of Transgenderism. They get their panties in a wad when some Christian says that God/Jesus speaks to them, and presumably when some Indian goes on about how the Great Spirit says whatever Great Spirits say, but let some mentally ill dude, who gets off on dressing up like a woman, rant about how there is a split between his physical body and his “inner female spirit” and they go all gaga.
They actually put their “faith” into Gorlock, The Destroyer! And Dylan Malarkey! Laughable!!!
https://vidmax.com/video/230820-abc-and-liberals-learned-nothing-in-november-as-they-featured-gorlock-the-destroyer-during-the-new-years-show
* it’s known from ancient religions that Gods and demigods can take any form. Lida and the Swan literally is a true story.
The genderless spirit NO DOUBT exists. These are spirits. The problem with it for humans is the mutilation and amputations. It’s destructive. There appears to be a destructive portion of these spirits and the disorder understanding that only humans see it that way.
For the humble human reproduction includes 2 sexes. It’s biology.
I don’t believe in atheism.
😐
Chris,
I wasnt going to respond to your comment about your sister because COVID, vaccines, et al are complex topics. I recently wrote on this forum
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/12/30/silence-of-the-labs-how-a-censorship-campaign-failed-to-kill-a-covid-origin-theory/comment-page-2/#comment-2474546
about COVID and most here likely did not understand it. No one commented on the science I shared which was presented at the most basic that I could make it.
Suffice to say, whether it be God, the immune system, viruses, cancer, epigenetics vs genetic rearrangement and clonal expansion, there are few subjects people can understand. Atheists pretend the Problem of God is the greatest myth of all time. Ask them to explain molecular mechanisms of common pathologies, and not one of them would know where to begin. Just because humans lack answers or understanding to complex topics does not mean the topic is unprovable. It just means people are dim. Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas agreed
My condolences about your sister. I lost two aunts to COVID mitigating strategies so I understand your anguish
Re: how to embed a Youtube link in the comments section, it depends on the browser you use and operating system. I use Apple devices with OS and iOS and use Safari, Duckduckgo, and Firefox browsers. Chrome does not work, Microsoft Windows OS is hit and miss.
Keep the faith.
I read this in college and re-read it recently. Highly recommend
The Problem of God Yesterday and Today
– John Courtney Murray, S.J.
https://library.georgetown.edu/woodstock/murray/1964c
God gives good advice. People via reason must be able to see it. There are mysterious blind spots.
I copied and pasted the book to my word processor!
It is a good read. However anything by Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray SJ is a good read and guaranteed to stimulate new neuronal circuits and synapses. People with a history of reading complex scientific and philosophical content have a lower prevalence of cognitive decline. So read intellectually stimulating material by scientists and philosophers like St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, René Descartes and others to keep the Alzheimer’s away.
“cogito, ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”) has wide applications to brain health, as does going to the gym….like now! 💪🏾🏋🏾♂️
Oooorraahhh!!!
It is odd that these single strand mRNA can hook onto human cells like a key and use the DNA to replicate itself. What is this tiny piece of refuse from? It’s like cancer. Why does it have a key? Surely it’s possible to find its origin.
What do you imagine cells are built out of? Chained organic molecules like DNA, RNA and peptides HAD TO COME BEFORE the first cellular organisms — because they are one of the key raw materials.
You can think of a virus as unused raw materials (sensors and motors) lying around enormous robotics factories (cells), but in a weightless environment where they can move about randomly. Some of these spare components are lucky enough to plug themselves into use in the factory, and some even more lucky ones can do this in a way they end up commadeering the factory to begin manufacturing replicates of themselves!
This past year has produced two good books dealing with the complexities of informatics, both taking a deep historical perspective and applying it to the navigating the near future. The first is Jonathan Turley’s “The Indispensable Right”. The second is Yuval Noah Harari’s “Nexus”.
Both books deserve a high “gravitas” rating. The issues confronted are as old as humanity. Who deserves to be listened to? How are communication channels allotted? What is information? What is useful information? What is manipulative information? What is trustworthy information? Who decides the value of information?…and on what basis?
How does a free society’s informatics operate differently from an authoritarian dictatorship? How do informatics have to work in order for free society to make good consensus decisions (ones not later regretted)? What is the role of civility? Is it necessary or optional? How are standards of civility best upheld? How are the skills of civility and dispassionate argumentation best transmitted to youth? How are emotionally-charged militant tactics in the public square, ones laced with “us vs. them” tribalism, language redefinitions, ad hominem denunciations and sneaky-underhanded attacks threatening to personal and career security — how is these extreme forms of political “scotched earth” competition best discouraged?
What is authenticity? Should impostering be allowed during political dialog? Should anonymity be allowed? Does the right to raise one’s voice in the public square come with responsibilities?…..for fact-checking?…..for correct attribution and honest self-identification?…for civility? Should intentional misdirection and deceit be tolerated? If not, how best to cleanse the public square of untrustworthy-manipulative messaging? Who has the means to impose standards of civility and authenticity? How do you keep that power decentralized?
Where do children (from toddler to late teens) fit into an infospace populated by and designed for adults? What rights do parents have to limit what their children are exposed to? How are those rights to be secured against the defiant adult infowarrior who acts as if parents do not have any such rights?
How are national security concerns to be protected in an “open global media” environment? How are laws to be enforced?…in a borderless internet? What is loyalty? What is national cohesion? How does a nation maintain its esprit and cohesion in the midst of foreign actors utilizing information warfare to destroy it? Does purpose need to be divulged when speaking in the public square? Are hidden agendas to be tolerated?….smoked out?
I won’t comment on the differences between Turley’s and Harari’s approaches, other than to say they are both grounded in 18th-century Western enlightenment and humanism, yet take fairly different perspectives on the future regulation of infospaces needed to maintain a free, well-functioning society.
This has been a bountiful year for books on this pivotal topic.
I have been an atheist all of my adult life. I washed my hands of those nuts years ago.
What’s “nuts” about not believing in god (which is all that atheism is)? Wouldn’t it be nuts to believe in gods when there is no evidence for their existence?
You missed my point. What’s nuts are the increasingly intolerant and left leaning positions they, and many other atheist advocacy groups have taken. I didn’t trade in one set of beliefs for an irrational faith in government or a set of insane social beliefs that reads like something out of the DSM.
Just because I say I have no religious belies does not mean I revere each and every loon and crazy who comes along and demands anyone who stands up to them be silenced.
The evidence is obvious…
Wouldn’t it be nuts to believe in gods when there is no evidence for their existence?
As nuts as not being able to offer a lucid explanation of how it all began, nor a irrefutable argument that there is no deity or higher power – but be committed to telling those who believe in that that while you can’t prove it, they are wrong and you are right.
Yeah, that’s at least as nuts if not more.
Your prerogative, if you’re right you lose nothing, but if you’re wrong you lose all. I believe in a higher power, if I am wrong, I lose nothing. If I am right 😇
But did you wash your nuts with those hands?
There is no logic or sanity remaining on the left, and there is nothing remaining in the modern American democratic party *but* the far left. These people are no longer sane, possibly no longer even human, at least mentally. I did not used to ascribe to the notion that ‘liberalism is a mental disorder’; in 2024, that is precisely what it is. Unpacking this post is, as is often said, madness. These people must never be in power again, there is no salvaging the party. May globalism die the same death across the planet the dems did here in November, because nothing they espouse is good, not for anyone. Stop kidding yourselves.
Ahh yes, the despicable left is “censoring” free speech.
Thanks JT, no mention yet of how Musk censors on his X platform. I’m sure that is coming next week. You’re working on it. Just like the Biden impeachment, next week right? Time is running out on that one.
If you cry babies on the left couldn’t say, “but whatabout” you would have nothing to say. I’m still waiting for a liberal to admit JT is right and that what FFRF did was fundamentally religious in nature, hence the irony leading to today’s article. Although that is self-evidently true, I doubt any of you will admit it because you’re too juvenile and insecure.
I disagree with what FFRF did (in taking down Coyne’s piece, especially without warning), so there will be no crying from this guy on the left.
Thank you.
The free from religion people needed to inform members of the belief that rejection of a homosexual culture is due to Christianity and not reason and anyone not believing that should resign.