I grew up reading these. So fucked up. One of them was pulled from print for advocating that CSA victims stay at home with their abusers and forgive them (or else), so long as their abuser believes in Jesus.

As doctors continue to flee the state

From a biological perspective, your dreams are part of the process of moving short term memories from the hippocampus to the neocortex. This will involve perceiving symbolic representations of your experiences, feelings, memories, predictions, etc. As far as being “meaningful,” that’s relative to the implications you’re interested in. If you’re looking for meaning, look for the common psychological underpinnings of certain symbols (e.g. teeth falling out, not wearing pants, etc.) and see what that might expose about the things your brain is processing. Just remember that specific archetypes are often offered by people based on tradition and superstition; Make sure you’re looking at reliable sources, especially considering that your brain is going to process a lot more than people have worked out, and not every archetype is likely to carry information you find meaningful.

If I remember correctly, there’s a group of scholars that translate it as “appropriate.”

I didn’t see this comment until after I made the same one lol

Lie to Me

I love the idea of reforestation through memorial trees

It’s illegal to have your remains decomposed naturally (or one of those cool new methods like composting or alkaline hydrolysis). You’re legally required to be stuffed full of embalming chemicals and buried in a box, or cremated, polluting the air and wasting bioavailable nutrients, to be turned into high pH, high sodium ashes.

I think this is because the laws were mainly created by Catholics (this is Louisiana, where we have parishes instead of counties), and people are still too superstitious to make sense.

Well LLMs are about to get a lot less reasonable.

*diaspora had something like this, but only in the sense you could easily migrate your identity with a few clicks. Not the same as a SSO, which would be great, imo.

What is Project Gateway? Looks like lots of projects call themselves that.

Yes, because controlling a group’s behavior, information access, thoughts, and emotions is completely acceptable. Autonomy be damned.

This place would 100% meet the BITE standard of cult classification.

If some of the pastors there had their way, that’s exactly what power would control this country.

To them, it means if you’re depressed, schizophrenic, or otherwise incapable of controlling your emotions or perceptions, you’re being either possessed or “oppressed” by demon spirits.

I worked as a pastor and professor for a global, evangelical television ministry/college. They knowingly conceal scholarship on the Bible and punish their pastors for asking any questions that undermine their most closely held traditions (including anti-evolution, mental illness is supernatural, etc.). They tell their US viewers that they can’t call themselves Christians if they don’t vote Republican, while still enjoying tax-exempt status. They use pseudohistorians to inspire Christian Nationalism over their network, and are one of the largest propaganda networks for the Religious Right. A U.S. Capitol police commander told me his men were fighting people who were wearing the network’s brand.

I was saying the hypothetical quote would be fine. I wasn’t applying that to myself.

By “I’m a scholar,” I mean I have an MA and 12 years of experience studying the historical contexts and literary history of the textual witnesses, and the history of conversation on cosmology and it’s influence on the history of interpretation. I know just enough to know I know very little, which is why you’ll never, ever hear me say something as ridiculous as “The Bible Teaches <insert dogmatic statement>.” Overconfidence in one’s own interpretation without all context (which none of us have) is a red flag in ANY field, let alone one so close to our limbic needs.

I’m a Bible scholar. “What the Bible teaches” eludes most Christians. “What I think the Bible teaches based on my own historical-traditional interpretation” is fine. “How I approach the Bible, taking all known context into consideration” is even better. Whenever someone says, “the Bible teaches,” it’s a major red flag to me.

Great answer!

hateful = considered hateful by the immediate society. The speaker doesn’t have to agree that it’s hateful.