Random Rants from a Space Nut

Every once in a while, I come across an article where the author has worked himself into a tizzy about the declining numbers in Evangelical churches.  If this trend continues, they warn, Evanglicalism will be unable to have any kind of voice in the larger society that demands recognition and attention.  These articles all seem to conclude that the Evangelical church is under supernatural attack like never before, with influential opinions and movements eroding the very base, and that the proper response to this crisis is to double down on things, telling the faithful to believe even harder in their own rightness and their own righteousness. But then I read things like this , and I find it easier to believe that if Evangelicalism fails to survive into the 22nd century, it won't be because of any fancy "attacks by Satan" -- it will be because Evangelical Christians decided to be assholes. And when I say "decided to be", I don't necessarily mean that they c...

The Guardian asks this question in a column published yesterday: "Aren't gun lovers just like book lovers -- buying the object of their affection not to use , but to enjoy being around ?  Wouldn't you hate it if the government came after your books?" Meanwhile, in reality... (1) The government comes after books all the freaking time.  Have fun trying to find a public school that doesn't have a list of banned books, judged to be too harmful to developing minds.  Have fun trying to find a single state that allows unrestricted advertising of pornography.  The government regulates what is written, sometimes heavily. (2) Books don't kill people.  People don't go to the trouble of acquiring books with which they can commit mass murder.  To date, there have been precisely zero mass bookings in all of human history.  No one is rushed to a hospital, requiring emergency surgery due to their encounter with a book.  Toddlers and pets don't accidenta...

I wish I lived in a world where we had an actual liberal bias in the media -- where accusations from conservative pundits to that effect were correct , not simply a claim based on being upset that the media still doesn't quite lie enough to support a right-wing narrative. For example, Pelosi and other high-ranking Democrats are being asked (somewhat relentlessly) about the mess in Virginia -- which is odd, because (1) it's not their state, and (2) they don't have the political means to do much about it directly.  The questions, as such, have zero good answers; the only truthful answers will upset people, and there are no answers that have any real, demonstrable influence.  And yet, these questions are coming from the supposed "liberal media". The media is about shock and awe, fear, pain, and violence -- and getting audiences to pay for it (and want to pay for more).  That's not liberal by any stretch.  That's just naked sensationalism overlaid with t...

I have to admit that it's really something to hear the assertion that God chose Trump from people who apparently manage to tie their own shoes and walk upright. But it explains a lot. Consider Sarah Huckabee Sanders' statement .  It explains why she is constantly lying and working to obscure the truth; if you are working for God's Chosen Leader, you can rationalize that away easily enough in service to making things better or easier for some higher purpose, and to do otherwise might put you right in God's crosshairs.  It probably also lets you sleep at night. But let's see where this kind of reasoning goes.  God wanted Trump to be President, and therefore, he is.  Does that mean God wanted Obama to be President for eight years?  That God wanted Bill Clinton to be President for eight years?  That God wanted Nixon to be President?  That God wanted Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker of the House?  That God wanted Democrats to take the majority in the ...