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This week Mikey joins us and Erin officially joins the team. We talk about the plagues, a Saudi girl getting a new life in Canada, China continuing to go after Islam, Trump’s cabinet preaching, anti-porn fighter videos, and India vs Science.
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ANOUNCEMENTS
- Erin is our new Co-Host!
- Episode 285’s goof
- Humanists of Idaho’s Potluck with the Atheist Nomads – January 27 in Boise
Dustin’ off the Degree – Plagues
The Bible and Quran have lots of stories of plagues, but the most famous are the plagues in the book of Exodus.
God called Moses to leave the desert he was hiding in and command Pharaoh to free the Hebrew slaves, not all the slaves, just the ones defended from Jacob. God also hardens Pharaoh’s heart, not to be confused with coronary artery disease, this just made sure that Pharaoh would be stubborn. To punish Pharaoh for his God caused obstinance God took it out on the Egyptian people with plagues they were:
- He turned all of the water into blood
- Frogs
- Lice
- Wild animals, probably of a venomous variety
- Diseases for the livestock
- Boils
- Hail storm
- Locust
- Three days of darkness
- Death if the firstborn humans and livestock
The frogs and lice seem strange and really just annoying, but the rest of these are really serious. Contaminated water would make everyone sick. An invasion of venomous creatures could injure or kill everyone. Diseased livestock will reduce productivity in the case of horses and oxen, cut into food supply, and if the disease crosses to humans it could kill everyone. Boils are painful and can get infected. Hail and locust will destroy crops. Prolonged darkness is evidence of volcanic activity and could threaten crops. I think venomous creatures and dead babies obvious, but any if these plagues could cause the collapse of a civilization.
More recent examples are the bubonic plague killing ⅓ of Europe’s pollution, the diseases brought to the new world killing 90% of the population of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Potato Famine, and pioneer stories of locusts blacking out the sky and striping fields bare.
NEWS
Mecca’s Grand Mosque under attack by locusts
The holiest site in Islam is being plagued by swarms of locusts, an estimated 30,000 black grasshoppers to be precise. I predict that Christian’s will call this God’s judgement on Islam, Iran will call it God’s judgement on Saudi Arabia, and Sunni Muslims it call it insect migration.
Rahaf al-Qunun has made it to Canada
Rahaf al-Qunun is the 18 year old daughter of a Saudi Arabian government official and while visiting Kuwait with family she escaped hoping on a plane to Australia with a stop in Bangkok. The reason for the escape was that she wanted to be free to work and study as she wants, which is not possible in Saudi Arabia since her father would be her guardian until she gets married. She’s endured physical and emotional abuse from her parents, including being locked in her room for six months because she cut her hair. And she has renounced Islam which is punishable by death.
When she reached Bangkok a Saudi diplomat met her at the gate and took her passport which then left her stuck in the international terminal of an airport without any papers. The Thai authorities wanted to send her back to her family, but she was able to barricade herself in a hotel room. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees became aware of the situation because of her pleas for help on Twitter.
In the end she was granted asylum in Canada by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and was greeted at the Toronto airport by Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister.
China passes law to make Islam ‘compatible with socialism’
We’ve been tracking for several months now China’s actions against the county’s Uighur Muslims. In the latest move the Chinese government has passed a new law outlining a five year plan to Sinicize the region and make Islam compatible with socialism. While almost no details have been released, what we do know is that eight Islamic associations have agreed to this.
Mike Pompeo used a trip to Egypt to push Evangelical Christian BS
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used his trip to Egypt, basically the launch of the Trump Administration, to give a speech at the American University in Cairo that was more of a sermon than anything else. He included such lines as “I keep a Bible open on my desk to remind me of God and his word, and the truth” and called the new cathedral in Cairo “a stunning testament to the Lord’s hand”. As far as policy? It doesn’t matter if you are a theocracy or a brutal dictator as long as you hate Iran.
Shutdown kept Carson from speaking at prayer breakfast
Ben Carson was supposed to be the keynote speaker at a prayer breakfast in Missouri, but he had to miss it because the government shutdown meant there were no public funds to pay for his trip to a prayer breakfast.
AFA released fighter jet and military themed antiporn video series
The American Family Association thinks that videos of fighter jets and other machines of war will cure men of porn “addiction”.
Indian Science Congress pushes pseudoscience and Hindu mythology
- New Patron – Nathan P
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