Clive Johnson

🚨 Church leader faces 32 sex crime charges involving children under 13 Gary Thomas Keesee Jr., a former leader at Faith Life Church in New Albany, Ohio, has been charged with 32 sex crimes, including rape, gross sexual imposition, and sexual conduct with a minor. All of the victims were under the age of 13 at the time of the alleged abuse. The victims were connected to the church, and Keesee is the son of the church’s lead pastors. His trial has been delayed multiple times. He is currently out on a $1 million bond. A man in a position of spiritual leadership allegedly preyed on multiple children under 13 and is still free while his case keeps getting pushed back. This is exactly why people lose faith in these institutions. When predators hide behind the pulpit, the damage runs deep.

@ICRscience They do no such thing. Nothing, literally nothing stands in the way between where you are right now and achieving some minimal literacy about astronomy. What are you waiting for?

These comets confirm the universe is young...

@David_Kicinski Oh my typos… Not “standards” but parents.

@David_Kicinski The ideal would be a course in comparative religious studies, critical thinking about religion and the scientific study of religion. If this were taught according to academic standards, many xtian standards would be up in arms.

If reading the Bible supposedly makes people atheists ... Then all atheists should support mandating Bible reading in schools.

@ChrisB43691584 @oliverburdick Too bad Jesus is never going to show up.

@oliverburdick Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.

We who believe the Bible are called conspiracy theorists today, but one day everyone will realize that Christ is King.

@sola_chad This then contradicts the customary practice of worship.

Reports have surfaced exposing Israeli soldiers for looting money and gold from homes in Gaza after their owners were killed or forced into displacement. Expose them. Refuse silence.

@NotEvolution1 It’s clear from cherrypicked quotes like this that your aim is not knowledge and understanding but scoring cheap evangelical debates points.

One chance in 10^50 is an impossibility.

@allegiantfaith @DeeWaynee94 Since nature is largely hostile to life, we can assume on your definition that this is reflective of god’s nature. That’s hardly a nature that merits worship and respect. It’s then incumbent upon humanity to find purpose over and against this god’s purposes.

@DeeWaynee94 If that Designer is the eternal ground of everything that exists, who transcends it all and defines reality based upon his eternal character, then reality is rooted in his objective nature and therefore filled with objective purpose and meaning. So, no, I have not just moved it.

Nihilism is the end result of atheism. Without design from a Designer, there is no purpose and no meaning beyond human subjective preference. Yucky Tom is right: “who cares” and “so what?”

@darwintojesus What’s your argument for that bold assertion?

God is the reason we can understand anything in the first place.

@BasicBaptistGuy Humans being humans, they are not all the same in the details of their lives - the whole point that you’re missing.

@CliveJ76433 You are struggling to understand that humans are humans, they function and operate just as any other, being an atheist does not change their nature.

Your personal story may be true. The general claim doesn’t follow. Atheism isn’t, by definition, an indoctrinated worldview. It’s the absence of belief in gods. People arrive there through upbringing, philosophy, science, bad religion, good reasoning, or lazy cultural osmosis. Same with theism. Christianity, Islam, Mormonism, Marxism, nationalism, secular humanism, every worldview can be inherited before someone knows how to think. That’s a fact about human development, not a fact about which one is true. The question isn’t “were you raised with it?” The question is: what method corrected it, tested it, and made it accountable to reality? Being raised atheist doesn’t make atheism false. Being raised Christian doesn’t make Christianity true. Biography is not epistemology:

@BasicBaptistGuy You’re struggling to understand that the mere label atheist doesn’t imply uniformity among parents and their educational values for their children.

@CliveJ76433 So you are assuming then that atheist children are free thinkers who can chose on their own to become Christians, or Muslims or any other religion? Have you seen Richard Dawkins reaction to the former Muslim woman, turned atheist when she made a profession of faith?

@BasicBaptistGuy The question concerns statistical evidence, not your anecdotes.

@CliveJ76433 The testimony of the atheist themselves. John Lennox discussion with Peter Hitchens, Hitchens said that Lennox was only a Christian because his parents were, and Lennox counter, and your parents were believers Peter? Hitchens, no of course not. Oh, so I guess that works both ways

@BasicBaptistGuy How do you know that this is what atheist parents do? Presumably you have a research study you can point to?

@CliveJ76433 Well most do not, they just tell them, questioning for most does not start until the later teen years, and by that time the indoctrination is established. To pretend that atheist are teaching their kids to be free thinkers is laughable.

Fuck you an infinite number of times.

@AleMartnezR1 For what it’s worth, the percentage of god believers among the National Academy members is less than 10%. Also notable is that as you get closer to the present time, xtian beliefs declines.

What convinces me that God exists, from an evidential point of view. 1. Order and purpose in the universe 2. Laws of nature that regulate physics, chemistry, and biology 3. The beginning of the universe 4. Beauty 5. Irreducible complexity in biology 6. The existence of genetic information 7. The regularities of the movement of the planets 8. The fine-tuning of the parameters in the universe, life in our solar system, and on the Earth.

@BasicBaptistGuy Of course, anything else is morally questionable parenting. Naturally, children are developmentally immature and therefore won’t possess reasoning skills equal to those of older children or adults. But, the key is to start early.

@CliveJ76433 So a child from the ages of 4 to 12 are allowed freethought and critical inquiry?

@BasicBaptistGuy No, indoctrination has the connotation of restricting freethought and critical inquiry. It’s possible to educate someone w/out indoctrinating them.

@CliveJ76433 The passing on of information from a person of authority to a person of lesser authority is by definition indoctrination, because it is not a one and done event, it is a lifetime exposer to those views of the parent to the child. Most will do it without even thinking about it.

@BasicBaptistGuy That’s inevitable it seems, but that wasn’t your claim, which included two components: indoctrination and and atheism..

@CliveJ76433 So they are not going to pass on their thoughts and opinions to their children?

In Norway humanism is just normal. Nobody has to explain it, fight for it, or justify it. Christian Lomsdalen, president of the Norwegian Humanist Association, is here to make the rest of us very jealous. New episode of How to Humanist out now.