Adult Sabbath School: Faith vs Facts.

The Faith vs Facts concept is a volatile topic and one in which "he convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." But it is a topic worth finding one's balance about. While I have come to my own conclusions about the compatibility between science and religion it is a personal topic in which one size can never fit all because of our needs for somethings to be so based in our own life concerns and fears. I would suggest a good read of the comments section. I am sure one will find those who reflect their own gut level reactions to the concept that Faith and Science are not compatible which is my own view.

I would add that perhaps the concept is better understood by noting that Faith as in Bible Literalism and taking stories never meant to be taken as literally true is part of the problem Westerners have introduced to a Middle Eastern and Bronze/Iron Age text. In the churches one often does not understand the concept of Biblical allegory and hyperbole taking everything far too literally such as the first 11 Chapters of Genesis

Hebrews 11:1  "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things unseen."

In my own view and experience, even the author of Hebrews (Not Paul) is saying, "Now faith is what we hope is true, based on no evidence that it actually is true."

That can be a slippery slope when applied in mistaken and naïve ways in the lives of real people and practices. 

"To prove his theory, Coyne breaks down the central question—“Are science and religion compatible?”—into a series of progressive and easily digested sections. He begins with basic definitions: “What is science?” “What is religion?” “What is incompatible?” Next, he considers conflicts of method, outcome, and philosophy. He examines the varieties of accommodationism and explains why each of them fails. Finally, he demonstrates why the conflict between faith and facts matters, highlighting significant impacts of religiously sourced “knowledge”—from religiously motivated child abuse to the running controversy over human-caused climate change."
https://thehumanist.com/arts_entertainment/books/book-review-faith-vs-fact-why-science-and-religion-are-incompatible

"We are living today in a genuinely frightening scenario: religion and science are engaged in a kind of war: a war for understanding, a war about whether we should have good reasons for what we accept as true. The sheer fact that over half of Americans don't believe in evolution (to say nothing of the number of Congressmen who don't believe in climate change) and the resurgence of religious prejudices and strictures as factors in politics, education, medicine, and social policy make the need for this book urgent.

Religion and science compete in many ways to describe reality - they both make "existence claims" about what is real - but they use different tools to meet this goal. In his elegant, provocative, and direct argument, leading evolutionary biologist and bestselling author Jerry Coyne lays out in clear, patient, dispassionate details why the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion - including faith, dogma and revelation - is unreliable and leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Indeed, by relying on faith, religion renders itself incapable of finding truth."          

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23281637-faith-versus-fact

                                                                                                              

“Faith may be a gift in religion, but in science it’s poison, for faith is no way to find truth.”

― Jerry A. Coyne, Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible 

“I argue that the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion—including faith, dogma, and revelation—is unreliable and leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Indeed, by relying on faith rather than evidence, religion renders itself incapable of finding truth.”
― Jerry A. Coyne, Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible 

“My claim is this: science and religion are incompatible because they have different methods for getting knowledge about reality, have different ways of assessing the reliability of that knowledge, and, in the end, arrive at conflicting conclusions about the universe.”

― Jerry A. Coyne, Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible 

“Harmonizing religion and science makes you seem like an open-minded and reasonable person, while asserting their incompatibility makes enemies and brands you as “militant.” The reason is clear: religion occupies a privileged place in our society. Attacking it is off-limits, although going after other supernatural or paranormal beliefs like ESP, homeopathy, or political worldviews is not. Accommodationism is not meant to defend science, which can stand on its own, but to show that in some way religion can still make credible claims about the world.”
― Jerry A. Coyne, Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible

“We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins—they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of to-day—of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago. These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars—neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience—and for them all, man is indebted to man. —Robert Green Ingersoll”
― Jerry A. Coyne, Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible

Temper Tantrum

Somebody doesn't like us..........

thos blog is infested with a bunch of bigoted, self righteous hypocrites what engage in racist taunts and mockery, censorship of good faith opinionn, all while pointing the finger at they of the cog for their wrong doings... you are just a bunch of stinking hypocrites, and your time to be mocked will be coming eventually......

Windbag Preachers In The COG...Cast your vote

Growing up in the church I had the distinct displeasure of having to sit through 4-hour sermons by Gerald Waterhouse.  Four hours of mindless drivel that made no sense at all, and most certainly was never biblically oriented.

Holy Days the sermons might be 1 1/2 - 2 hours long with services in the morning and afternoon.

Weekly sermons tended to be shorter, usually 1 - 1 1/2 hours on any given Saturday.

How many of these men could have given their sermon in 15 or 20 minutes and actually gotten their point across?  Just how many Bible verses needed to be quoted before peoples eyes glazed over?  Apparently, ministers were trained to use as many as possible in order to impress the sheeple.

Could Herbert Armstrong have gotten his incessant rants about the "two trees" accomplished in 20 minutes or less?

And then there is Bob Thiel who preaches for 1 1/2 hours on 15 -20 different topics.

Take the poll in the right hand column and let your ministers know how long you are willing to listen to them preach!

Please buy my book with your tithe money, "...in that way the books will cost nothing personally"

It is 2019 and these are desperate times for many splinter group Church of God leaders.  With so many of them floundering by the roadside with ineffectual ministries, they are always seeking new ways to con followers into giving them money to fund their exculsive "work".

The latest is from our favorite Church of God Chief Pharisee, official zealot and chief bastardizer of the law, James Malm.

For some time now he has done nothing but park his pharisacial butt at the kitchen table cranking out articles and booklets in order to stir up the zeal that he sees missing in all the COG's.  Never has the church had such a zealot that has turned the law into such a burden that it drags people down into a miserable existence. The few that follow him know they can never measure up to all of his lofty demands.

Because his followers come and go their money does too.  Never one to pass up a free handout due to his unwillingness to work, he has resorted to a novel new way to raise money from gullible followers by claiming if they buy his books with "tithe" money they will  never miss it.  It will be almost like it will be a gift from God to them.

I urge all those who purchase our books to use their tithe to do so, in that way the books will cost nothing personally  because they are coming out of funds earmarked for this work anyway.   

This technique of providing the published works directly from Lulu printers saves this work a considerable amount in processing, mailing and maintaining an inventory.  Please do purchase from our official printer Lulu, as other sources will charge considerably more. 

UCG: To Disagree With Them Is To Disagree with God

The cultic mindset is still alive in the United Church of God.  Remember in days gone by how far too many in the ministry said that if you disagreed with them, you then are disagreeing with God? Well, in 2019 that idiocy is still alive and well.  Apparently, when given the chance to reinvent themselves 20 some years ago they decided it was still important to still act like jerks.

This was on a facebook page, part of a longer post that is not included here.  This was written by a high ranking man in UCG that responded to a UCG member respectfully disagreeing with his comments on immigration.