Chamblee54

Facebook and twitter (FAT) are always trying to get you to read something. The other day two links combined to create a “top ten” list. The two stories were Debunking 5 Phony Statistics Liberals Love To Toss Around and 5 Reasons to Suspect Jesus Never Existed. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The Townhall five: “1) One in five college-age women have been raped. 2) Spousal abuse skyrockets on Super Bowl Sunday. 3) Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. 4) Ten percent of the population is gay. 5) Ninety seven percent of scientists agree that global warming is manmade and dangerous.”
PG had never heard of number 2. Numbers 1 and 3 sound like something a preacher would say on Sunday morning. Numbers 1, 3, 4, and 5 rely of the dodgy use of statistics. And who are these “liberals” that “love to toss around” these factoids?
Alternet seems to be taking marketing tips from conservatives. When you go to their post, you are greeted with a popup ad. “These are dark times. They may get worse. We are up against a dangerous combination of intolerance and a new style of authoritarianism. Many alienated people are susceptible to demagogic appeals.” The popup is next to an ad on the main page for a mail order razor company called “Harry’s,” with a promotion for “Five German Blades Zero Upcharging.”
Five thoughts about Jesus: “1. No first century secular evidence whatsoever exists to support the actuality of Yeshua ben Yosef. 2. The earliest New Testament writers seem ignorant of the details of Jesus’ life, which become more crystalized in later texts. 3. Even the New Testament stories don’t claim to be first-hand accounts. 4. The gospels, our only accounts of a historical Jesus, contradict each other. 5. Modern scholars who claim to have uncovered the real historical Jesus depict wildly different persons.” None of these ideas are new. The Jesus worshiper response is out there. These five ideas do not affect the sales plan, for life after death, at the heart of Christianity.