January 22th, 2016 Episode 39

Hi and welcome to the brainstorm podcast. This is episode 39 and today is January 22, 2016. I’m Cory and my panel tonight are Destin, Rene, Lana, and Leo with the ever amazing Dave doing sound here in Roman Empire studios in Regina, Saskatchewan. Tonight we have a special guest in studio Dusti Hennenfent, the mom who is trying to get her kids school to stop playing the very Christian Lord’s prayer over the loudspeaker.

Commercial break-patreon, absence of clothing, and The Reality Check promo

Woo Report

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/we-talked-to-a-witch-who-casts-viruses-out-of-computers-with-magic?utm_source=vicefbca

Religious Nuttery

http://churchandstate.org.uk/2016/01/catholic-archbishop-says-domestic-violence-is-caused-by-women-not-obeying-men/

http://www.alternet.org/belief/10-weirdest-fundamentalist-christian-conspiracy-theories

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mcswain/is-the-church-dying_b_8498804.html

music break – David Bowie Suffragette City, I’m Afraid of Americans, and The wretched by Nine Inch Nails -13 or 14 minutes

Skepticism 101 part 7: Breaking down the logical fallacies part one

Appeal to the stone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_lapidem

Argumentum ad lapidem (Latin: "to the stone") is a logical fallacy that consists in dismissing a statement as absurd without giving proof of its absurdity.[1] The form of argument employed by such dismissals is the argumentum ad lapidem, or appeal to the stone.[2][3]

Ad lapidem statements are fallacious because they fail to address the merits of the claim in dispute. The same applies to proof by assertion, where an unproved or disproved claim is asserted as true on no ground other than that of its truth having been asserted.

Related to proof by assertion or proof by repeated assertion

Proof by assertion, sometimes informally referred to as proof by repeated assertion, is an informal fallacy in which a proposition is repeatedly restated regardless of contradiction.[1] Sometimes, this may be repeated until challenges dry up, at which point it is asserted as fact due to its not being contradicted (argumentum ad nauseam).[2] In other cases, its repetition may be cited as evidence of its truth, in a variant of the appeal to authority or appeal to belief fallacies.[citation needed]

This fallacy is sometimes used as a form of rhetoric by politicians, or during a debate as a filibuster. In its extreme form, it can also be a form of brainwashing.[1] Modern politics contains many examples of proof by assertions. This practice can be observed in the use of political slogans, and the distribution of "talking points", which are collections of short phrases that are issued to members of modern political parties for recitation to achieve maximum message repetition. The technique is also sometimes used in advertising.

Atheism For Dummies part 7

Religion for atheists part 1 – Judaism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism

 encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people.[4] Judaism is an ancient monotheistic religion, with the Torah as its foundational text (part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible), and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash and theTalmud. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship that God established with theChildren of Israel.[5]

Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Within Judaism there are a variety of movements, most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism, which holds that God revealed his laws and commandmentsto Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah.[6] Historically, this assertion was challenged by various groups such as the Sadducees and Hellenistic Judaism during the Second Temple period; the Karaites and Sabbateans during the early and later medieval period;[7] and among segments of the modern non-Orthodox denominations. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic.[8] Today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism (Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism), Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between these groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition, and the significance of the State of Israel.[9]Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed. Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more "traditional" interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews.[10][11] Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law; today, these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary.[12] Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, but in the sacred texts andrabbis and scholars who interpret them.[13]

Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a structured religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age.[14] Of the major world religions, Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions.[15][16]The Hebrews / Israelites were already referred to as "Jews" in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title "Children of Israel".[17] Judaism's texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith.[18][19] Many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law.[20]

Jews are an ethnoreligious group[21] and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2012, the world Jewish populationwas estimated at about 14 million, or roughly 0.2% of the total world population.[22] About 42% of all Jews reside in Israel and another 42% reside in North America, with most of the remainder living in Europe, and other minority groups spread throughout South America, Asia, Africa, and Australia.[23]

Misc. topics

Everything Sarah Palin http://time.com/4187437/sarah-palin-track-ptsd-obama-trump/

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/sarah-palin-blames-her-sons-domestic-violence-arrest-on-obama/

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/trump-sarah-palin-would-serve-a-role-in-my-administration-if-she-wanted-to/

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/sarah-palins-son-track-arrested-on-assault-and-weapons-related-charges/

http://news.yahoo.com/watch-what-on-earth-is-1347253632925750.html

and a bit more

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/01/twins-study-finds-no-evidence-marijuana-lowers-iq-teens?

So that’s where we’re going to end the episode. We’ll record a little bit longer for the patreon page but you can join us for the next live broadcast by watching for our events on mixlr.com/the-brainstorm-podcast. That link, along with many other relevant links will be in the show notes. You can find those at either brainstormblog.net or with new episodes at thebrainstormpodcast.com

We appreciate your support and if you want the extra content from after the live show then go and become a patron at patreon.com/brainstormpodcast Thanks to Dave for our intro music, thanks to Alix Capper Murdoch for doing the voice over for the intro and for some of our ads, and thank you to Jason Comeau for our outro music. You can find his stuff at www.aloststateofmind.com. All music played is either with permission or under the SOCAN licence to play. For more information on SOCAN you can find the link on our website.

Remember to check out brainstorm gear at cafepress.ca/brainstormpodcastgear or go to brainstormblog.net and click on the cafépress link. If you didn’t get a chance to contact us through the live chat going on during the episode but think you need to tell us something you can email us at [email protected] or go to the website and click the contact tab. If you have a podcast or website and want a shoutout or have a promo to play let us know. And lastly, remember to give us a rating on your favorite podcatcher. More reviews and ratings give the show more exposure. Thanks for listening and we’ll catch you again in a couple weeks.