Category Archives: Religion

Trump and MAGA’s War on California

Posted on Saturday 14 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

News today: Trump’s parade, No Kings demonstrations, and a dress-up cop shoots Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota; Charlie Warzel on the surfeit of information and how the right can invent via AI narratives to its advantage; Similar gaslighting about Alex Padilla; … Continue reading →

Posted in authoritarianism, Politics, Religion, Tribalism | Leave a comment

They Said It Wouldn’t Last, and It Hasn’t

Posted on Thursday 5 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

The Trump/Musk bromance implodes; Hannity lies about the impact of the “big beautiful bill”; Republicans try to discredit experts warning about the cost of tax cuts; David French on Joni Ernst, and how Christianity has become a vertical, not horizontal, … Continue reading →

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Harvey Milk, DEI, Lysenko, Jesus

Posted on Wednesday 4 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Pete Hegseth orders removal of Harvey Milk’s name from an oil tanker as part of reestablishing “the warrior culture”; Trump fires head of the National Portrait Gallery, because ridding the government of DEI is about “the mere presence of nonwhites … Continue reading →

Posted in Lunacy, Politics, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Harvey Milk, DEI, Lysenko, Jesus

Rubber-Stamps, Clones, Conformity, and Fate

Posted on Sunday 1 June 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How Republicans loyal to Trump want Congress to rubber-stamp his every proposal, never mind America’s system of government; Trump thinks Biden was executed in 2020 and was replaced by a robotic clone; Trump has great ambitions to carve up the … Continue reading →

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America, increasingly anti-science and anti-intellectual, was founded by religious fanatics, as perhaps most Americans do not realize

Posted on Tuesday 27 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

How America is becoming anti-science and anti-intellectual, with a comment by David Brin; Adam Serwer on Trump’s attack on knowledge itself, with my comments about how most people won’t notice, but the world and history will; How Americans venerate ancestors … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Progress, Lunacy, Religion | Comments Off on America, increasingly anti-science and anti-intellectual, was founded by religious fanatics, as perhaps most Americans do not realize

Education, Religion, Policies that Don’t Work, the Revolt Against Expertise

Posted on Sunday 25 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Heather Cox Richard on the history of government suppression of education, especially as inspired by religion; The GOP keeps promoting policies that history has shown don’t work; The revolt against expertise, yet again. – – – Heather Cox Richardson reviews … Continue reading →

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Nicholas Humphrey, LEAPS OF FAITH

Posted on Saturday 24 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitle: “Science, Miracles, and the Search for Supernatural Consolation” (Basic Books, Jan. 1996, 244pp, including 20pp notes and index) (Chatto & Windus, 1995, as Soul Searching: Human Nature and Supernatural Belief) Here’s a book I read when it came out, … Continue reading →

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Crime, Hypocrisy, Fraud & Abuse, Doing Your Own Research, Cafeteria Religion, and Christian Presumption

Posted on Saturday 24 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Crime rates are falling; crime is not a national emergency; Why do people think otherwise? Republicans criticize Democrats for what they are doing now; Why do Republicans think there is so much fraud and abuse everywhere? Why “doing your own … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Human Nature, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Crime, Hypocrisy, Fraud & Abuse, Doing Your Own Research, Cafeteria Religion, and Christian Presumption

86 Hypocrisy, Our Puritan Legacy, and Belief in God

Posted on Saturday 17 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

86 47, and 86 46; The GOP’s new anti-porn bill, and the US’s puritan legacy; Richard Dawkins on belief in god. – – – I almost thought this would be too trivial to mention, except that Heather leads last night’s … Continue reading →

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Supreme Court, Christian Nationalists, Afrikaners

Posted on Friday 16 May 2025 by Mark R. Kelly

Amanda Marcotte on how the Supreme Court has been captured by far-right conspiracy theories; How the simplest explanation for what’s going on, on several fronts, is basic white supremacy; About Russell Vought; Trump’s morality and his rationale for accepting Afrikaner … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Morality, Politics, Religion | Comments Off on Supreme Court, Christian Nationalists, Afrikaners