Vocab How faith fails Flashcards
CARD #1: “How faith fails” Vocab
Faith is a folly
Buzz Phrase
It requires belief in a world beyond the senses with no basis in evidence for such a world and no reason to believe in it other than the vain hope that something else is out there.
Trial by ordeal
Buzz Phrase
The accused would be made to suffer horrific pain to see if they were innocent or guilty.
An example was used by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages in the following manner:
The accused had to hold rocks shoveled out of a fire pit. Three days later a priest would see if the hand was starting to heal. If innocent, the priest would declare the person was innocent. If the priest saw no evidence of healing, the accused was guilty and normally put to a horrific death!
Witch hunters
They would come into a region and preach against witchcraft. Afterward they would ask people to come forward with promises of leniency if they willingly confessed to any dabblings they might have had with witchcraft.
Judas Cradle
The Judas Cradle was a tall, thin stool with a pointed wooden or metal pyramid on top. The victim would be stripped and suspended above it, then lowered onto it, making the pyramid enter the vagina or anus, or crush the scrotum. Victims could be dropped onto it, and weights could be hung from their legs.
Witch’s Chair
The Witch’s Chair had hundreds of sharp spikes lining the back, seat, and arm and leg rests. The victim would be strapped tightly into it. Usually the chair was heated by a fire below.
Subjugation
Bring under control by conquest.
Legal fiction. N.
A construct made up for business or government purposes, such as a corporation or a religion.
“A smart lawyer would define religion as a legal fiction.”
Ghost Dancers
An American Indian religion started up by the Indian, “Big foot”.
They were resentful that the white man had stolen their land and killed their Buffalo which was their food. They believed that if they did this ghost dance and wore their ghost shirts into battle that they would be impervious to the bullets of the white man and that all the Buffalo would come back to the plains and the white man would go back away and not bother them anymore.
When they united in faith and tried this new religion out, they were mowed down like grass under a lawn mower!
It had a widespread following, but after the slaughters of battles, they quickly abandoned this religion of faith.
Antebellum. Adj.
Means existing before a war. Or like things were before a war.
“… the importance of the cotton to the antebellum economy.”
Gerrymandering V.
Manipulate boundaries to favor a certain party. Like in a disaster, say God knows “best”.
“They cannot continue this type of intellectual gerrymandering if they want to be taken seriously. “
Mainly used to help incumbents to remain in office by dividing up districts to get favorable votes where he needs them.
It also is used to change demographics, say like when Atlanta held the olympics, the mayor removed massive criminal reports from the files so he could claim that Atlanta had a very low crime rate and was a very safe city to visit and watch the olympics.
It mainly means a way to manipulate anything to achieve a more favorable outcome. Could even be used in golf when the player cheats on his score card or moves his ball to get a better score!
The Constitutiion
The founding Fathers wanted to defang Christian power entirely, so Christians could never again use the power of the state to oppress, murder, or maim. The Constitution was written specifically to stop Christian sectarian war and Christian political oppression. P. 180.
Christianity inspired the Constitution in only one terrible sense: by being so horrific something had to be done to stop it. Not by abolishing it, but by taking away its power, and giving people the liberty to follow any sect or religion, or none, without fear or interference. For the first time in history, nearly 1,500 years, Christendom had to compete on a level playing field, and could no longer threaten people with force to get its way or compel their allegiance. p. 180.
Treaty of Tripoli.
The treaty secured commercial shipping rights and protected American ships in the Mediterranean Sea from local Barbary pirates.
George Washington requested the English text be written. The treaty was signed by John Adams in 1797, said right out, “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
This English text was read on the Senate floor and passed unanimously.
“That pretty much kills the notion that the Constitution establishes the United States as a Christian nation.” p. 180.
Disingenuous. Adj.
Not being sincere. Like Trump “Oh he is a great person” then behind his back Trump stabs him!
Pretending you know less about somethng than you actually know.
Hermaphrodite. N. ( Herm afro dite)
Possessing both male and female reproductive organs. Humans are this way at the onset of conception. Later the Hormones in the husband’s sperm decides if it is a male or female, because for the first days, weeks and perhaps even months, the fetus is both sexes at once! This is why men have nipples!
The 23rd Chromosome is XX from the woman and either XX or XY from the male. If both Mother and Father have XX on the 23rd Chromosome, then it will be born a girl. If the male has XY on his 23rd Chromosome, it will be born a male. ref. p. 244.
The hormones in the sperm have an acid that will dissolve the male or female features of the fetus that will not be needed. Abeit, it does not dissolve the nipples on the male. See, life is not perfect. If nature was perfect like the Bible implies, the males in the world would not have nipples.
P. 282. This is where I stopped reading this book. Will have to continue when I finish the book.
