83 studies spanning over 90 years of research. all pointing in the same direction. Religious people are less intelligent. The evidence is concrete.

Florida evangelist Whitney Lynn uses most of her flights as an opportunity to share her faith, a trend that was featured in a recent Washington Post article. On Thursday, she said, her sermon got her kicked off a San Diego-bound jet before it even took off from Orlando International Airport. She documented the removal in a series of videos she posted on social media, one of which had racked up 3 million views on Instagram by Friday afternoon.

cross-posted from: https://crazypeople.online/post/22932502

Yanqui go home

Disclaimer: I'm staunch atheist (naturalist), but every once in a while I'll dip a toe into mythology. And sometimes this includes the Christian Cinematic Universe. Or as the case may be, the larger Abrahamic Cinematic Universe

David and Goliath is already a part of biblical mythology. In the myth, David of the Israelites (in the story, a clever young lad skilled with a sling) defeats Goliath of the Philistines (a giant warrior). Implied in the story is the protocol that gods can duel each other by proxy, by having their champions fight on the field and seeing who wins.

Cut to modern day. The US attacks Iran.

But the US isn't acting as a secular nation as it has in prior theaters of war. The Trump administration is actively trying to turn the US into a theocratic state under the patronage of white Christian nationalism, a movement that intersects with a number of different Christian institutions.

Before the initial strikes on Iran, Hegseth made it very clear to the US armed forces and the US public that the United States is engaging in a holy war against Iran. Preaching and rituals happened. Blessings were administered. Troopers had to sit through uncomfortable hours of preaching.

And note that Iran is, itself, a far-right-wing theocratic government under Shia Islam.

And Iran has been holding its own under siege by the US' superior force. Early on they were able to close the Hormuz Strait to commercial shipping, decimating the global economy.

Months into the war, the US is depleted of munitions and Iran stands firm. The Hormuz strait is still closed to commerce. Moreover, hostilities are expanding as the Houthi–Saudi Arabian conflict reignites. The Bab-el-Mandeb strait is now in play. And all that Trump and Hegseth can think to do is attack Iran some more, specifically, to attack civilian infrastructure (That's a war crime and, according to Sun Tzu, an act of desperation.)

The US is getting shellacked. Brought down like Goliath.

Can this be interpreted to mean that American Christianity is a false or lesser religious power than Persian Islam? More importantly, can the risk of this narrative playing out be used to sway US leadership to act sensibly (e.g. end the war or replace the command)?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50041395

There’s now, apparently, an epidemic of Christians who get on planes and begin preaching when they know they finally have a captive audience. Evangelist Whitney Lynn, one of the more notorious culprits of this, even said as much in a recent TikTok post: “I just love a captive audience.”

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The fact that the sermons are unwanted doesn’t bother the evangelists at all because, for once, they have an audience that can’t walk away. And the hope that strangers might convert outweighs any concern that they’ll conclude Christians are lunatics.

There’s unfortunately very little airline staff can do to stop this. While there are rules regarding passengers who are disobedient or belligerent, preaching doesn’t necessarily cross a line. Flight attendants can politely ask them to stop, but I have yet to see any examples of plane preachers getting kicked off flights because they wouldn’t shut up.

Which means we’re just stuck with the possibility Christians may hijack a flight with their voices.

How is this not being belligerent? What if this was a MAGAt doing this (probably already is)?

If anything, this seems like a quick way for a fellow passenger to get annoyed and punch out the disruptive preacher. If this happened on a plane I was on, I'd clap for the person who decked the preacher. It really says something about how this "religion" is dying off if thos is a tactic they're resorting to.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/68752761 which was cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/64103917

I thought about saying "you know it's a grift when they collect personal information and leak it." According to their Bible, you don't need an app to pray. They say church (or a covenant, I forget, it's been 30+ years since I read the KJV) is when any two people come together to talk about Jesus (sorry!). So, where does an app fit in? And why does that app need your personally identifiable information (referred to as PII in industry). Wouldn't an all-knowing God already have it?

But you don't have to know it's a grift... I feel like this is proof the Vatican (or whoever made this app on their behalf, and thus speak on their behalf... and the Pope allegedly speaks on God's behalf) themselves know it's a grift. Because why would they need your PII?

I know, fools and their money are soon parted... just saw this on /all and figured the Fediverse's top Atheism comm should have it.

These were on one technician's station at the auto repair shop, and at a receptionist's desk at the associated dealership. I've seen them individually at other places in the past, but this is the first time I've seen a nest of them.

And before you ask, they don't at all taste like the body of christ...

Any one else think of this?

The pastor in Florida has said that ChatGPT failed to catch on the symptoms of a deadly condition. This is the first case where a person is holding the AI tech responsible for bad medical advice. “I had serious symptoms of a pulmonary embolism for six weeks that ChatGPT had wrongly attributed to something else,” Scott Winters, a 55-year-old pastor, said in a statement. “ChatGPT manipulated my own language and beliefs because it knew I was a pastor. Not only did I nearly die, but I also lost my job, my career, my ministry, my home, everything," he added.