Creationism's Abiogenesis God-Shaped Gap Just Got Smaller

From the mixture of all four nucleobases, A:T pairs emerged at about 100 degrees Celsius and G:C pairs formed at 200 degrees Celsius.

Credit: Ruđer Bošković Institute, Ivan Halasz

DESY News: Searching for the chemistry of life - Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY

It's been one of those awful weeks for Creationists again.

Not only did we have those lovely wasps embedded in 25-million-year-old amber, and then their beloved Covidiot In Chief, Donald Trump being laid low with the virus he had pronounced to be a hoax and a mild illness that would all be over by April, but now we have another shovel-full thrown into their favourite god-shaped hole, abiogenesis. Abiogenesis is the current fall-back of every creationist who runs out of arguments against evolution, and to which they cling like a fool to a deck-chair in the face of an on-rushing tsunami.

This time we have news that a team led by Ivan Halasz from the Ruđer Bošković Institute and Ernest Meštrović from the pharmaceutical company Xellia have shown just how easy it must have been to create DNA by perfectly natural processes in conditions which would have been found on the early Earth. Their findings were published a few days ago in the journal Chemical Communications, regrettably behind a paywall. However, the news release from the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), A Research Centre of the Helmholtz Association, explains the problem and the team's findings:

Parasitic Wasp Fossils Sting Creationists

Ensign wasp embedded in fossilised amber

Salute the venerable ensign wasp, killing cockroaches for 25 million years | Oregon State University

It is finds like this that makes observing Creationists so much fun.

On the one hand, they grasp at fossils such as these, which are strikingly similar to the modern-day species, and proclaim them as evidence that there has been no evolution for 25 million years. On the other hand, they have to explain a 25-millionyear-old fossil on an Earth that they believe is less than ten thousand years old.

It's enough to make even the most swivel-eyed, science denying Creation pray for guidance (or more likely wait for one or other Creationist disinformation sites to come up with a cobbled rationalisation - which may well be some time coming).

UK Faiths Can't Resist Discriminating Despite the Equality Act 2010

Equality law ‘failing to protect people from faith-based discrimination’, says report - National Secular Society

A report by the National Secular society into the working of the Equality Act - Faith-shaped holes: how religiously privilege undermines equality law, which was intended to end discrimination in the UK, shows how religious organisations are exploiting in-built loopholes in the law to continue to discriminate against people with the 'wrong' religion (or none) and, because of the link between some faiths and ethnicity, on the basis of race or ethnic origin.

These loopholes were intended as allow discrimination in matters of employment in situations where religion was an important part of the job, for example, not to provide holes through which religious bigots, who want to continue to discriminate and victimise minorities, could drive a coach and horses, so rendering the law unenforceable and ineffective. In the matter of education particularly, religions are exploiting privileges granted to them by the Education Act to discriminate against minorities and those from the 'wrong' faith or none and so to circumvent the provisions of the Equalities Act.

In her forward to the report, the former Equalities Minister, Rt Hon Baroness Featherstone said:

The Equality Act is something that, as a country, we should be extremely proud of. It has contributed to the UK becoming, on the whole, a more tolerant nation and has been vital in tackling discrimination against minorities and safeguarding individuals’ rights.

...the continued existence of exemptions for religious privilege is completely at odds with ambitions to create a fair society. Whilst the aspirations of the Equality Act were – and remain – laudable, this should not blind us to the fact that provisions within the Act itself have created stark areas of on-going discrimination and gaps in the guarantees of equality. Until exemptions that create religious privilege are tackled and ended, we cannot claim to have created a just and fair society.

In the Executive Summary to the report, the National Secular Society say:

Equality is an essential principle not merely for its own sake. It underpins community cohesion, democratic participation, and personal liberty.

Freedom of religion or belief is an indispensable component of personal liberty. It also pertains to an area of UK society that has undergone dramatic change within the past ten years since the Equality Act became law.

Firstly, diversity of different religions has increased. Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism are amongst the religions on the rise.

Secondly, the UK is now more irreligious than ever, with more than 50% of British adults saying they have no religion. This rise coincides with a dramatic fall in adherents of the established church, the Church of England. Only 2% of young adults identify as belonging to the C of E.¹

But according to Humanist International’s Freedom of Thought Report 2018, this non-religious majority in the UK suffer from systemic discrimination in all areas monitored: government, education, society, and free expression. This is in stark contrast to some of our surrounding European neighbours – France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland – where the non-religious enjoy ‘free and equal’ treatment in all or most of these areas.²

The report identifies three key areas in which there is still discrimination on religious grounds:

KEY FINDINGS

Education

• The religious ‘gaps’ in the Equality Act take their heaviest toll on our children. Although our nation’s schools should be beacons of tolerance and equality, the entrenchment of religion in British education systems shatters these aspirations. This report finds that exceptions to accommodate faith schools, faith-based admissions and religious practice in schools are leading to a level of religious discrimination that would not be tolerated in any other area of society.

Caste-based discrimination

• Migration into the UK from Asia has meant caste-based discrimination and harassment has become a feature of British life. Although tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people belonging to oppressed castes live in the UK, they still have no genuine protection from discrimination.

Employment

• There is evidence that some organisations might be using the ‘genuine occupational requirement’ exceptions in the Equality Act as ‘loopholes’ to avoid employing people who don’t belong to the ‘right’ religion in seemingly secular roles. This shuts off job opportunities for talented people who do not share the same beliefs.

It is perhaps in the area of education where religions, especially Anglicanism and Catholicism, the two largest providers of publicly-funded 'faith schools', can't resist the opportunity to discriminate both in their selection and treatment of children and in their employment of teachers. The National Secular society cite several examples of children being bullied and victimised for not sharing the religious views of the schools 'ethos' - public humiliation for not preying correctly, being coerced into attending a Catholic mass even though not a Catholic, valuable hours of study being lost to attend compulsory religious ceremonies, being excluded from the class for not saying the school prayer, etc.

The report listed several examples of discrimination, bullying and victimisation in faith schools, including:

• A child placed in a Catholic faith school in Medway which was not the parents' first choice but no other schools were available, and being made to attend all Catholic services, including Mass.
• An Atheist girl from Preston being chastised in front of the whole school for not praying properly.
• A sixth form girl from Gloucester made to miss crucial A-level lessons to attend compulsory religious ceremonies such as mass, and being threatened and punished for non-attendance.
• A student from Sheffield forbidden to participate in the class and being made to sit at the back and not speak or ask questions, because he wouldn't say the school prayer.

The report outlines a case study of Burford Primary School. Burford is of interest to me because I have ancestral family connections with this lovely Cotswold town and it was against the wall of the church on May 17, 1649, that three Levellers (early English socialists who had sided with Cromwell in the civil war but whom he then suppressed) who had taken refuge in the church along with about 150 others, were dragged from the church and summarily executed by firing squad, by Puritan soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army. The bullet holes can be seen in the wall. May 17 is now commemorated as Levellers Day.

But that event, relevant only in that it shows how draconium, discriminatory and blood-thirsty a fundamentalist theocratic government would be if it got the power fundamentalists crave, is not germane to this case study:

CASE STUDY: BURFORD PRIMARY SCHOOL

This is a summary of casework handled by the NSS. The full versions can be read at:

www.secularism.org.uk/opinion/2018/12/my-childrens-school-has-become-christian-by-default
www.secularism.org.uk/news/2019/11/coe-trust-to-introduce-alternative-to-worship-after-legal-challenge

Burford Primary School is a community ethos school in Oxfordshire. Lee and Lizanne Harris enrolled their children there “primarily because it was a non-faith-based community”, one of a minority of non-faith schools within four miles. The parents were both active contributors to the school, with Lizanne taking a leading role in the Parent-Teacher Association.

In 2015, the school joined the Church of England’s Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust (ODST) under the condition that its community school ethos would be protected. But the Harrises discovered through conversations with their children that regular assemblies were being held by the church in the school. The children said they were encouraged to participate in active prayer, Christianity was positioned as truth, and Bible stories were 'acted out' including beatings and crucifixion.

When the Harrises raised concerns, the head explained that she was legally entitled to run daily worship and was simply operating within the law.

The Harrises decided to withdraw their children from collective worship. This led to the children feeling “increasingly excluded” from assemblies and school activities, left to sit in side-rooms for long periods of time with a teaching assistant. “More and more it felt like our children were being discriminated against”, Lee said. “Daily activities that could help to provide an inclusive environment were seemingly being ignored.”

In July 2019, the Harrises launched a judicial review against Burford Primary School, arguing that the school must provide an inclusive assembly as a meaningful alternative for pupils withdrawn from Christian worship.

In response, ODST agreed to provide an inclusive alternative assembly for pupils withdrawn from Christian collective worship.

This case represents a rare win for the parents, but it shows the damage caused to inclusion and cohesion in school life, and the relationship and trust between school and parents, when religious worship is imposed. No parents should have to threaten legal action in order to ensure their children are treated equally to others. No school should impose collective worship.

When given the opportunity and excuse, the Anglicans who took over the running of Burford Primary School, clearly wasted no time in exploiting the provisions of the Education Act to avoid their obligations under the Equalities Act and seeking to impose an intolerant Christianity on non-believers and the children of non-believers, and to isolate and discriminate against non-believers. Not surprisingly, the Anglican Church is very much in favour of faith schools and the requirement in the Education Act that all schools should have a 'Christian ethos', including a daily act of worship.

The report lists instances of discrimination in their selection process by faith schools. These include:

• An autistic child from Sheffield unlikely to be accepted by any of the smaller-intake schools which are all faith schools, because his parents are not church-goers.
• Children in Guildford, Surrey being unable to get into their local school while the school bussed 60% of its intake in from surrounding counties.
• A girl in a London borough unable to get into a local school because of discrimination on religious grounds.
• A girl in Liverpool unable to get into the school of her parents' choice because of religious discrimination. As her parents point out, it would not be tolerated if secular schools refused to take children of religious families.
• A Girl in Warrington unable to get into high school because she was not baptised, her parents believing she had the right to chose her religion, or none, when she reached adulthood.
• A girl in Romford refused admission to her closest school because the family were Atheists.
• A school governor in Cambridge who reported that middle-class parents had succeeded in turning the local faith-schools into state-funded independent schools by selection criteria that excluded under-privileged children, resulting in segregated education on socioeconomic status.
• A parent from Bath who admitted lying to get his children into what was considered a better school than the alternative on a local sink estate where bullying and drugs were endemic.
• Atheist parents from Preston going to church regularly to get their children into a local school.

As can be seen, selection criteria are not only being abused by faith schools but are also being used to artificially boost church attendance figures. Religious bigots seem unable to resist abusing the little bit of power and privilege the Education Act affords them.

There is also considerable evidence of active discrimination on religious grounds in faith schools: There are from the Secular Society report:

TESTIMONIALS:

DISCRIMINATION WITHIN FAITH SCHOOLS

The following quotes are from parents, pupils and teachers who have experienced or witnessed discrimination and alienation due to the religious curriculum at faith schools. All quotes come from signatures of the No More Faith Schools campaign petition at www.nomorefaithschools.org.

“My children were always under pressure to believe in God in their C of E primary. It was seen as naughty/ disrespectful to question or disagree with the school ethos.” – AMANDA, BIRMINGHAM

“My son is currently being forced by his C of E secondary school (an academy) to take a GCSE in RE which means he will have to drop either history (his preferred choice of humanity) or triple science. This is a ridiculously stressful and unnecessary thing to put a young person through. This is the only secondary school in our town and we had no choice but to send him there.” – JENNY, BATH

“The overwhelming emphasis on religion at my children’s Church of England school is affecting my son’s mental health. He is constantly being reprimanded for questioning Christianity.” – NANCY, READING

“As someone who is about to finish their time at a Catholic school, I have seen first-hand over the last 13 years the toxic environments they can be. I hold no ill will towards religion, that’s not what this is about. This is about a more equal and inclusive society where people aren’t indoctrinated. Since finding out about my atheist beliefs, I have been singled out, berated and humiliated by more than one teacher, even though my personal religious beliefs are none of their business. Despite my respect for them, they evidently show a lack of respect for me.” – FRANKIE, GLASGOW

“My daughter was discriminated against repeatedly at age 4 for coming from a nonreligious family. First she wasn’t able to attend our local state school because we had to prove we attended Catholic mass for her to be admitted. Then she was repeatedly discriminated against at the Church of England school she attended. Despite not being voluntary aided, the local vicar and people from his congregation who did not have children or grandchildren at the school had taken up all the school’s governor positions. This resulted in the school holding mass rather than assembly every morning, making the children pray four times a day and overall an inordinate religious influence. Although we had officially requested that she not have to attend RE – as this was taken as an opportunity for indoctrination rather than teaching tolerance and understanding of different beliefs – we were told this would be too difficult for the school to implement so she was forced to attend. Following repeated night terrors after being told by the vicar that nails were put into Jesus’s hands and feet due to YOUR sins, she asked please not to go into assembly again and was punished by the school for making this request.” – EUGENIA, YORK

“My son has to go to a Roman Catholic school because of SENS needs - his timetable includes five periods of RE every two weeks. This is more than any other subject and is straight up evangelising. Educational should be secular, faith schools severely limit the choice of pupils especially in areas like mine which is a grammar area.” – SALLY, CANTERBURY

“As a non-Catholic who has worked as a supply teacher in a Catholic school for two years, I have seen first-hand religious discrimination and horrible attitudes. This has no place in our society and would be illegal in any other work place.” – HAYLEY, GLASGOW

“I come from Slovenia where religion has no place in the educational system. I am now facing a tremendous problem finding a school for my child that will teach her to think for herself instead of valuing faith as a virtue. She has been given a place at a Church of England school because all non-religious schools in the area are full. I am an atheist, a scientist, an engineer. I suffer from anxiety knowing my kid is at risk of being indoctrinated into a religion… The only alternative the UK government is giving me is to have her home-schooled and deprive her of the social aspects of going to school.” – ELIZABETH, READING

“We have taken the very hard decision to remove our children from our local C of E school. The attempted indoctrination and divisive nature of the school became too much.” – CHRISTINA, PETERBOROUGH

“Our children’s infant and primary schools were both C of E, which caused them a great deal of confusion - their teachers telling one thing, when they knew we didn’t believe. Our son in particular became very upset about it. I find it almost beyond belief that in 2018, when only a minority of people in the UK still believe in a god, our local schools can still exclude on the basis of faith.” – CHRISTOPHER, GUILDFORD

“My great grandchildren attend a village faith school and are raised as free thinkers by their family which causes conflict and confusion for the children.” – MARK, COLCHESTER

Once again we see religious authorities unable and unwilling to resist abusing the power over others that the Education Act allows them, to abuse, bully and victimise those who disagree with them or who come from the 'wrong' background. Faiths are fulfilling their historical role of spreading division, disharmony and suspicion within society, made worse in a multicultural, multi-faith, multi-ethnic society such as the UK. The National Secular Society report makes recommendations which would close these loopholes and pivileges in the Education Act which are enabling religious leaders to circumvent the intention and spirit of the Equalities Act and continue to bully, victimise and alienate minorities of their choice.

In the days when non-believers are now in a very clear majority at 53%, totalling more than all other faiths together in the UK, and where believers make up only 3% of the key 'parent' age-group of 25-34, there is now no excuse for continuing these privileges for faiths in the UK. Because they have now shown themselves incapable of resisting the temptation to abuse what privileges they might have, it is time to remove these privileges and put an end to faith schools altogether. Anglicans and Catholics comprise only 12% and 7% of the UK population yet are given an enormous and privileged status in the education of our children!

Religion should have no place in the education of children, other than as part of a curriculum which looks objectively at world religions and compares the value of faith over an objective assessment of the evidence in forming opinions - prospect which would no doubt terrify religious leaders and have them foaming at the mouth and screaming about discrimination and not being privileged enough.

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Brits Becoming Less Religious and More Scientific

British Social Attitudes | NatCen Social Research

The British Social Attitudes Survey 36, published by the National Centre for Social Research towards the end of last year, has some worrying figures for organised religions in the UK and some reassuring figures for rational humanists.

Brits are still rapidly becoming less religious and more tolerant with now well over 50% having no religion, and are much more trusting in science, with just 11% agreeing that science does more harm than good, compared to 24% in 1983. Trust that science does more good than harm is now at 55%, up from 46% in 1983.

On the subject of religious belief (a term which includes no religion and Atheism) The report states (pdf):

God Delusion Caused by Subconscious Pattern-Recognition

Sun over Lake Hāwea, Otago, New Zealand

Credit: Michal Klajban (CC BY-SA 4.0) Source

Study Suggests Unconscious Learning Underlies Belief in God | Georgetown University Medical Center | Georgetown University

A study by researchers from Georgetown University Medical Centre, a Jesuit University based in Washington DC, USA, has found that religious people who learn to recognise patters in the natural world are more likely to ascribe those patterns to supernatural agency and therefore to believe in a god. The god in question is, of course, normally the locally popular god.

This holds true even when the pattern-recognition is a subconsciously learned ability.

Icelandic Church in a Tizzy

The ad shows Jesus with a beard, breasts and make-up.

Drawing: P Jóðkirkjan

Icelandic Church Under Fire for Depicting Jesus With Beard and Breasts | Val Wilde | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

In its eagerness to claw back some of its dwindling support amongst the increasingly secular, liberal and Atheist Icelandic population, a Christian church there had made a right fool of itself and ended up offending just about everyone in the process.

Firstly, it launched this ad showing a prancing 'Jesus' figure in front of a 'gay' rainbow with lots of children of different ethnicities looking on. Jesus had a beard and wore a long white dress and sandals, as usual, but sported a fine pair of breasts and had rosy cheeks suggestive of make-up. Presumably this was supposed to be trans-Jesus (or maybe a cis-Mary?).

Evolution News - Homo Sapiens May Have Saved Early Neanderthals From Extinction

Upper molar of a male Neandertal (Spy 94a) from Spy, Belgium.

© I. Crevecoeur

Y chromosomes of Neandertals and Denisovans now sequenced | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

An international team led by Martin Petr and Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, has succeeded in sequencing the Y chromosomes of two Denisovans and three Neanderthals.

The surprising finding is that the Neanderthal Y chromosome appears to be closer to the Y chromosome of modern Homo sapiens than to Denisovans, although analysis of the autosomal DNA had shown Neanderthals and Denisovans were closer than either were to H. sapiens.

Crooked Catholic News - Cardinal Becciu Resigns Amidst Financial Scandals

Cardinal Becciu, former Prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes and Chief of Staff for Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis and dodgey dealer, now stripped of his cardinals' priviledges.

Credit: Paul Haring/CNS.

Vatican cardinal linked to financial scandal resigns and loses rights.

The financial 'irregularities' that have long been a feature of Vatican life are continuing, it would seem, and have involved yet another senior cardinal who appears to have been unable to resist dipping his hand in the open, and largely unregulated coffers.

This time it is a former chief of staff under both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who has 'resigned his rights as a cardinal', a euphemism for 'been sacked from his position but allowed to retain his title in name only'.

This sacking, which was announced in a terse statement that gave no reason, yesterday evening, follows a raid on the offices of the Vatican's banking regulator as part of an ongoing investigation into the $225 million purchase of the former Harrods store site in Chelsea, London, for conversion into luxury apartments.

Covidiots - Losing the Arguments, Mostly

New Study: Face-Covering Use Up, More People Are Taking COVID-19 Threats Seriously | University of Central Florida News.

Slightly reassuring news today that, in the USA at least, the covidiots appear to be losing the argument - well most of them, anyway.

The Risk and Policy Group of the University of Central Florida has published the second in their ongoing series of surveys into public attitudes towards the Covid-19 pandemic which shows an increase in mask-wearing and an increased perception of risk from the virus.

This survey, of the opinions of more than 2000 people across six states was conducted in August this year, as America was in the middle of a second spike of cases, much more severe than the initial peak in March and April.

And the Good News is - Germany is Closing 90% of its Catholic Churches

The Bonn Münster

German Catholic Church is losing priests and parishes | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 22.09.2020

Like the Anglican Church in Britain, the German Catholic Church is facing the problem of empty and redundant churches and not enough priests to hold services in them anyway.

So toxic has the Catholic Christian brand become that young men are not coming forward to be trained for a role that includes being viewed as a potential paedophile child rapist and someone who you wouldn't dream of allowing to be alone with your children or vulnerable adult relatives, all for a life-long abstention from sex.

Creationism News - 120,000 Year-Old Footprint Blunder

Researchers surveying the Alathar lake, situated within an interdunal depression in the western Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia

© Palaeodeserts Project

Ancient Human Footprints in Saudi Arabia Provide Snapshot of Arabian Ecology 120,000 Years Ago | Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

One of the way in which Creationist frauds explain the precise ordering of fossils in the sedimentary geological column - which they claim was all deposited during the biblical flood, is by the mysterious, magical process of 'hydrological sorting'.

In this magical process, global flood water somehow sorted all the fossils so they just looked like there has been an evolutionary progression even though they had all been created as is during a single week a few thousand years earlier, and before which nothing ever died.

The other way is with the, if anything, even more desperate and preposterous 'explanation', that the precise ordering was achieved by the more advanced animals running to higher ground to avoid the flood. None of them were ever sick, injured or lame in any way that would impede them and make them appear out of place un this advancing silt layer, apparently. How that translates to moving up the geological column and the fact of fossil shellfish being found at the top of mountains is never explained because the dupes never ask, and if they do, they are speedily condemned to Hell as blasphemers and removed from the website on which they asked it.

Loony Trumpanzees Get More Loopy as Defeat Looms

Mark Taylor: “Patriots” Will Revolt if Trump Doesn’t Arrest Some Democrats Soon | Beth Stoneburner | Friendly Atheist | Patheos.

A couple of news items today show how extreme and hysterical the loopy political right is becoming as the prospects for a Biden win in November increase due mostly to Trump's increasing incompetence and clear unfitness for office.

The first is a news item about how a swivel-eyed, full blown QAnon conspiracy nutjob, Mark Taylor, the self-styled "firefighterprophet", is demanding that Trump arrests thousands of leading Democrat and puts them on trial for being "high-level cannibalistic satanic pedophiles", including allegedly, Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton.

American Christians Becoming More Uncaring About Racism

No race problem here: Despite the summer of protests, many practicing Christians remain ambivalent.

Further confirmation today, if any were needed, of how low down their list of priorities the welfare of others is for American Christians.

After a summer of protests over the killing of black Americans by white police and increasing demands for social justice, equal treatment before the law for minorities and an end to institutionalized racism in the police, few people can be left thinking there is nothing wrong with American society and no grievances that need to be addressed; no wrongs needing to be righted and no evidence of the oppression of minority groups by the majority.

And yet the Christian polling organisation, Barna Group, has found that many more self-identified white Christians now say they are not motivated to address matters of racial injustice in American society than there were last year:

Thirty percent of practicing Christians — people who identify themselves as Christians, have attended worship in the past month and claim to strongly prioritize their faith — say they are not motivated to engage in matters of racial injustice (12% unmotivated, 18% not at all motivated). That's an increase from 2019, when 17% said they were not motivated (9% unmotivated, 8% not at all motivated).

Covidiots - India's BJP Leaders

Covid-19 cases (18 Sep 2020)

Source: Johns Hopkins University

Sitting in mud with conch shell: BJP leader says tactic will boost immunity against Covid-19 | IndiaToday

India is leading the world in the number of new SARS-CoV-2 infections a day, having overtaken Brazil in early August and USA a few days later. Yesterday, a total of 173,932 new cases were recorded, bringing the total to 5,020,359 with 82,066 deaths since the pandemic began.

India is a deeply religious society, like the USA, so it is not surprising that the population is easily duped by frauds who offer magical cures and preventions, especially when linked to religious nationalism.

Indias equivalent to the magic spells cast by America's Kenneth Copeland, is that of BJP MP Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria. According to this report in India Today:

Lying to Win. How Trump is Fooling Americans

Figure 3. Republicans are far more easily fooled than Democrats

Observatory on Social Media (OSoMe): Reports: Research: The Media School: Indiana University Bloomington

The results of an Indiana University poll, published today, show how successful the disinformation and fake news campaigns by the Trump camp have been in fooling Americans into believing falsehoods.

Indiana University have set up a media monitoring team to fact-check narratives widely-circulating in the social media. This report is Wave 1 conducted between 20th Aug- 7th Sep 2020.

Figure 2. A significan number of Americans believe the false stories

Narratives

For the first wave, we selected five narratives through a deliberative process of monitoring issues that were becoming relevant in the weeks leading up to data collection and using tools developed by OSoMe to look at the diffusion of narratives across social media.

We showed respondents a screenshot from social media that represented a trending narrative. We asked: “Have you encountered this, or similar stories about this issue, on social media or the internet?” In addition to asking whether respondents had seen the story, we asked, about each story: “To what extent do you believe the following statement is true?”

The statements were:
Joe Biden is not mentally fit to be President.¹
Kamala Harris is not a natural-born US citizen.²
Dr. Anthony Fauci funded a lab in Wuhan to develop the coronavirus.³
Joe Biden’s family has illegal business ties with China.⁴
Mail-in ballots cause election fraud.⁵

Results

Our results show that large segments of the population have encountered these narratives through media exposure, and find them plausible. For example, 78.9% of participants in our survey were aware of at least one of these five stories, whereas only 21.1% had not heard about any of them. It is also worth noting that a majority (61.1%) believe at least one of the five narratives; 38.9% do not believe any of them

[...]

The five stories were not equally known or believed among the participants. Figure 2 shows that the Kamala Harris birther narrative was one of the two most widely known (54.7% aware), having been frequently covered during the survey period, but also the least believed (27.7%). Mail-in votes causing voter fraud was the most believed narrative (46.4%), and was as widely known as the Harris narrative. In two of the five narratives, the number of participants who believed the stories was more than the number who reported to have encountered them online. For example, 46.1% of participants believed that Joe Biden is cognitively compromised, whereas 43.1% reported that they had seen the story.

The report includes the following links to fact-checking sources which debunked these claims.

1. Joe Biden's mental fitness:
   
   • Fact check: Biden says he hasn't taken a cognitive test. Is he flip-flopping?
   • Biden Video Deceptively Edited to Make Him Appear ‘Lost’.
   • ABC News: DHS withheld intelligence bulletin warning about Russian misinformation attack on Biden's mental health.
2. Kamala Haris' elegibility for VP/POTUS:
   
   • Kamala Harris Is Eligible to Serve as President
   • AP FACT CHECK: Kamala Harris meets constitutional requirements to serve as VP.
   • Fact check: Kamala Harris is a natural-born U.S. citizen and eligible to serve as president.
3. Fouci funded the lab in Wuhan to make the virus:
   
   • Old Photo Shows Obama, Fauci at U.S. Facility — Not ‘Wuhan Lab’
   • President Trump just announced that the ‘biological’ lab in Wuhan where the COVID-19 virus was created was ‘funded’ by President Barak (sp) Hussein Obama in 2015 to the tune of $3,800,000 American dollars!
4. Joe Biden's family and "illegal business ties" with China
   
   • Hunter Biden and China: Sorting through a murky business deal
   • Trump’s Claims About Hunter Biden in China
5. Mail-in ballots and election fraud.
   
   • Trump Campaign Exaggerates Potential for Mail-In Voting Fraud After Election
   • With voting by mail, “you get thousands and thousands of people sitting in somebody's living room, signing ballots all over the place.” - Donald Trump.

Having lied his way to power and lied about almost everything while in office, is it any surprise that this most dishonest of people will try the same again to get re-elected? With a large nunmber of predominantly white, evangelical Christians now unable to admit they backed a failure last time, there is a high probability that they will do all they can to spread Trump's lies and disinformation as widely and forcefully as possible this time.

The question is, will enough Americans be fooled by it this time?

Alliance with Trump Has Made 'Evangelical' a Toxic Brand

Jorge Alfonso waits to get into the El Rey Jesus church in Miami, where President Donald Trump held a rally for evangelical supporters on Jan. 3, 2020. The Trump campaign has been trying to woo Latino and Black Evangelicals to expand his base of support among religious conservatives.

Credit: Lynne Sladky/AP

Evangelicals for Social Action Leaves Behind ‘Evangelical’...... | News & Reporting | Christianity Today.

Their craven whoring of basic principles for the sniff of political influence that support for Donald Trump promised, is beginning to backfire on the Evangelical Christian right.

The 'Evangelical' brand name has become toxic - and deservedly so. Now the 50 year-old Christian organization, "Evangelicals for Social Action' a moderate, apolitical organisation that advocates for social justice, has changed its name to "Christians for Social Action" in order to distance themselves from Donald Trump and those 'Christians' who associate with him.

Covitiots - How the Far Right Fruitloops Think

Selfish anti-mask protesters harangue a counter-protester for advocating compassion

Insane Anti-Mask Protester’s Defense: “Most Child Molesters Love ‘Em!” | Beth Stoneburner | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

A far-right bunch of paranoid ftuitloop American conspiracy nuts, calling themselves the “Liberty Action Coalition”, put their ignorant, self-centred covidiocy on display in the town of St. George, Utah for all to see the other day, and I am more than happy to help them in this endeavour.

Amongst the more insane reasons for allowing people to die rather than them be be slightly inconvenience, in true white evangelical Christian style, were:

Terrible News for Creationists - Signs of Life on Another Planet

Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images.

Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus | Nature Astronomy

Creationists have been putting all their eggs in one basket and telling their credulous dupes that the possibility of living organisms arising by natural processes on Earth are so low as to be impossible - so they should conclude that it must have been created by the Christian god exactly as the Bible says.

Now it seems their egg basket may have been kicked over by science. Leaving aside the false dichotomy fallacy in their non sequitur of an argument, the discovery that there may be life in the atmosphere of Venus blows their big scary number tactic out of the water. If it could have happened on Venus it could happen on Earth.

And they still face the prospect of signs of life, either now or in the past, in the soil of Mars and maybe in the waters on some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn!

Covidiots - Missouri GOP Fruitloop Candidate

Sandra McDowell, Covidiot Christian fundamentalist and GOP candidate for governorship of Missouri.

Missouri GOP Candidate Rejects “Demonic Ritual” of Wearing Masks During Pandemic | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

Hemant Mehta (if you're not following his Friendly Atheist blog, you should be!) brings us news of a fundamentalist Christian Covidiot GOP candidate from Missouri who is standing for the State governorship and is now campaigning against the wearing of facemasks as an anti-Covid-19 measure on the grounds that they are part of a "demonic ritual"!

She is Sandra McDowell, who actually posted this on her Facebook page and which Facebook have not yet taken down:

I’m not afraid to take a stand!! Are you?? I walked in Walmart tonight without a mask ... and I refuse to wear a mask anywhere I go from NOW ON unless I choose to! That’s my right... as it is yours!! But really.... this is not about masks... masks are just a symbol of deception and oppression. Its compliance training for what’s to come. It’s about control and instilling fear in America. Fear is not of the Lord, but of the enemy. Despair is the absence of faith! This is all part of a demonic ritual to get rid of our individual God-given rights. BLM just said it... it’s a spiritual battle... they are chanting to dead spirits practicing witchcraft. Our bodies... our faces... are created in the image of God. We shall not veil our faces spiritually or practically. 2 Corinthians 3:13-16 Our country was founded on freedom and liberty for all... and God was the author of our nation and that freedom and liberty. Not people! God! Their faith in God!! Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty!! 2 Corinthians 3:17 #takeastand #spiritualbattle #warriorforchrist #unmaskmo #mogov #bibleverse #missouri #moreformissouri — at Walmart O Fallon - Highway K.

Silly Cults, Trumpanzees and Abdication Syndrome

Donald Trump, Big Daddy cult leader for childish people.

The Abdication Syndrome | Psychology Today

The reason so many people are attracted to cults, and not just wackadoodle religious cults but also political cults like neo-Fascist white supremacist cults and fanatical supporters of Donald Trump, is explained by psychologist Steve Taylor, Ph.D., writing in Psychology Today.

It all comes from a desire to return to the 'safe' authoritarianism of childhood, where decisions were made for you by authority figures who provided you with a safe and secure environment and catered for all your needs. It's for these reasons that we remember our childhood with affection. As Steve Taylor puts it: