#Christians against dinosaurs

[gaykarstaagforever]

I'm pretty sure Christians Against Dinosaurs is just an elaborate decade-long troll to start shit with people on Facebook.

But Daily Dot (ew) did a "feature" about them back in 2015 that I refuse to link to, where they claimed it was predominantly the work of a special young woman who claims to be a Young Earth Creationist and that she lost her job over being associated with it.

I still think this was at least someone just trying to go "viral" in an extremely pitiful way, regardless of her stated beliefs.

The Facebook page is still regularly updated with nonsense and I think they have merch, so I guess it is a small-time money-making grift, at any rate.

There is also a listed phone number, and one of the offered services is assistance with Christian homeschooling. Which I think you can become qualified to do by virtue of saying you are.

No I'm not calling it. This has already not been a good use of my time.

[forsetti]

On Calls For Pres. Biden To Step Aside: Know The Players And Motives Tossing aside one of the most progressive presidents in fifty years because you are afraid they might not win an election is just plain stupid without a really, really, really solid backup plan. It is even stupider if you look at who is pushing for him to step aside and their motives. Here are the main groups calling for Pres. Biden to step away from running against Trump in November and why:

1-Republicans. Republicans know Biden is the biggest threat to them getting back the White House and enacting their batshit crazy policy agenda. They want nothing more than to not run against Pres. Biden because not only does he have the track record of beating Trump before but has an amazing economic record to run on. If you ever want to understand who Republicans view as their political threat, all you have to do is look at who they are attacking. They were going after Hillary for three years prior to 2016. The entire Benghazi witch hunt had no other purpose than to damage her electorally. Every single hearing about Hunter Biden, the border, the Biden Crime Family,… is nothing more than dog and pony hearings to dampen Democratic and Independent voter enthusiasm.

2-The Media. Trump’s non-stop crazy train administration was a goldmine for media outlets. Every day there was a new outrage, wild-ass rant, something that brought eyes to screens which translates to selling ad time/space. The Biden administration is efficient and boring. No scandals, except the ones Republicans gin up that turn up nothing. No rants. No chaos. No real controversy. Just plain old boring governance which is great for the country but bad for a business model that relies on shock, drama, and negativity. “Dems in disarray,” has been a media cottage industry since Bill Clinton was in office. If you don’t understand the financial motivation for why the media constantly derides Democrats for the slightest misstep while ignoring Republican malfeasance, you are probably likely to fall for their own brand of political propaganda.

It should tell you something that major news outlets have come out demanding Pres. Biden step aside for not looking good on camera during one ninety-minute debate but not a single one has asked the same of the candidate who was found guilty of sexual assault, found guilty of thirty-four felony charges, misspeaks dozens of times at every rally, and goes off on wild, illogical, batshit crazy tangents, and is tied to child sexual abuse via Jeffery Epstein. That they are not treating Trump with the same non-stop demands to step aside as they are Pres. Biden should tell you something about their motives.

3-Bad Foreign Actors. Russia wants nothing more than for Biden to lose the election. He is their biggest threat to taking over Ukraine and pushing their influence farther into Western Europe. NATO is stronger now and has more members than at any time in its history. This is the last thing Putin wants. Russia has been actively pushing propaganda online to influence U.S. elections for some time but really have ramped it up the past few election cycles.

Russia targets Republicans by fueling rage over culture war topics like abortion, immigration, racial violence, and the decline of Western, Christian norms. They also target liberals by trying to divide them over issues they care about Israel/Palestine, LGBTQI rights, Bernie vs Clinton, Bernie v Biden, DNC v “real progressives,”… They want liberals at each other’s throats because, if unified, the left is the largest voting bloc in America. Conservatives are electoral dinosaurs but they maintain power through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and liberals being more invested in their petty arguments than voting Republicans out of office.

4-Sandernistas. There is still a good-sized faction of people on the left who are still upset about Bernie Sanders not being the nominee in 2016 or in 2020. They are especially mad at what they deem as “establishment Dems,” screwing over Sanders in 2020 starting with the South Carolina primary. What they really are upset about is black voters, predominately female black voters, denying their White Progressive Savior his rightful spot at the head of the ticket. Because Pres. Biden was the one who benefited from this minority voting bloc in 2020, tearing him down and taking him out is a passion project for a lot of so-called “progressives.”

These “progressives,” are under the disillusion that if the Democratic Party fails far enough, hard enough, they will be able rebuild it in their own, perfectly progressive image. They never explain how this magical transformation will happen, they just take it as a matter of faith. Of course, anyone who understands American history and basic civics knows if/when conservatives have ultimate power, they will make sure they never lose another election.

These “progressives,” are the worst kind of progressive. They are often white, middle to upper-class liberals who view politics as a game because they are usually shielded from the consequences of the electoral decisions. If you are a middle/upper-class white, male progressive, very few, if any of Trump’s actions when he was in office affected you directly. The same cannot be said about the progressive voters who overwhelmingly supported Hillary in 2016 and Joe in 2020. They have the most skin in the game, have the most to lose and they vote accordingly. For white dudebros to step in and demand Pres. Biden step aside is a direct “fuck you” to the most loyal part of the base which has the most to lose if Trump is reelected.

Never mind this group has NEVER accomplished a damn thing politically other than cost many good Democrats to lose and decades and decades of progressive policy and law wiped out. They are as adamant about their political skills as they are it is always someone else’s fault when the find-out portion of their fuck around actions comes to fruition.

5-Progressives suffering from 2016 PTSD. This is the one group I can actually relate to and sympathize with. Hillary's loss in 2016 was a major shock to a lot of people. This shock was compounded because not only were we denied the first female president, but we got a lying, narcissistic, misogynist man-child in her place who went about rolling back decades of hard-earned progressive policies and turning the Supreme Court into a right-wing arm of the Federalist Society.

For those of us who lived through 2016, there is no election data that will make us feel good or at ease. It also makes us hyper-vigilant about anything and everything that can be seen as a negative towards the nominee. The second anything bad happens, whether factual or not, a lot of people in this group take the flight instead of the fight option which is associated with PTSD.

Being overly anxious and hyper-vigilant are not necessarily bad unless they lead to bad decisions.

There is only one sure way to make sure Trump is not reelected. Vote for the candidate running against him. Period. Full fucking stop.

If you aren’t willing to do this, for whatever reason you tell yourself, then you will be directly responsible for the very thing you claim is a politically existential moment. Stop listening and parroting Republican talking points. Stop allowing the media to determine who you should vote for. Stop listening to butt-hurt progressives who have no record of political success about what those who do should/shouldn’t do. Stop acting like frightened little bunnies whenever someone says something negative about successful Democratic leaders. Stop automatically going into flight mode when something goes wrong or something negative is said. Fight.

If you aren’t willing to fight, and I’m not talking about inter-party fighting (that time came and went,) for women’s rights, minority rights, safe air/water/food, climate policies, democracy… then you really aren’t as progressive as you tell yourself and others. You are a big reason why we are even in this situation. Whether you like Pres. Biden or think he is too old really isn’t the pertinent issue if you really care about the things you say you do. As long as Pres. Biden is willing to fight like hell for progressive policies and prevent Republicans from turning the country into a white supremacist, misogynist, oligarchy, you should be doing the same.

I don’t know what is going to happen between now and election day. Neither does anyone else. The one thing I am 100% positive about is if Trump does win, the people on the left who have spent the majority of their time and energy railing against the Democratic Party and Pres. Biden will blame anyone and everyone other than themselves. If Pres. Biden wins reelection, these same people will claim their childish hissy fits are what led him to “change course,” enabling him to win. Their view of personal responsibility for election outcomes is some fucked up “No True Scotsman,” bullshit. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING ever counts against their political beliefs and views.

I know some people reading this will wonder why I spend so much time and energy railing against the left. The answer is really simple-I fully expect the people on the right to be bad-faith actors who are hell-bent on destroying any and all progressive policies and candidates. I don’t, and shouldn’t expect the same from people who claim to be political allies. You can't claim to be a member of Team Good™ if your behaviors and actions help Team Bad™.

[queenlucythevaliant]

How do you believe Theistic Evolution interacts with other aspects of Christian morality and tradition? I mean, obviously the commands of God are the commands of God - but what new perspective do you think a Theistic Evolutionary viewpoint gives?

Oh my goodness, so many things! Broadly, though, I'd divide the implications into two groups: God's character and the unity of creation.

God's character

Theistic evolution is (I contend) the only framework for understanding creation that has an equally high regard for both Scripture and scientific empiricism; thus, it makes a very profound statement about God's trustworthiness, and about our confidence in him as the arbiter of Truth.

Seeing God's fingerprints in the creative process over the course of millions of years gives us a real sense of his patience and tirelessness. As Chesterton might say, he never gets tired of saying to the replicating cell, "do it again."

We also get a beautiful picture of God's sovereignty over creation: he is the God that knew, from the first time two organic molecules crashed together, that he was creating Man to glorify and enjoy him forever.

In the story of creation through evolution, we see a God who transcends time, but also works within it to bring about his sovereign will; who is endlessly patient, who is clever and inventive, who has an eye for beauty and a love for tangents and (ostensible) dead ends. What does it tell you about God that he spent millions of years creating the platypus? That he created dinosaurs at all? Through theistic evolution, we see a creator who plays across the vast landscape of time, creating endless forms most beautiful. Most importantly, we see a God whose wonderful works are faithfully recounted not just in the pages of Scripture, but in the very substance of the world he created.

Unity of creation

Knowledge of evolutionary history pushes us to think about our own embodied nature, our creatureliness, and our place within creation/the biosphere. We are united in lineage with all other creatures, both living and dead. We are embodied in the same carbon as every other living thing, deliberately, beautifully. This pushes back hard against the strains of "flesh bad" gnostic dualism that have run through our faith for pretty much its whole history. Heaven is not our "real home"; our destiny is the New Earth. God has woven us into its fabric.

Jesus stepped not just into the human lineage, but the lineage of the whole earth! In becoming flesh, he took on our place in the tree of life. Jesus shared DNA with Mary and her family, yes, but also with bacteria and brachiosaurs and banana slugs. While Christ died for the sins of humanity in particular, His stepping into the unity of life points to a future in which all living things are to be redeemed.

We must take the Biblical call to environmental stewardship very seriously then, if the rest of the biosphere is not merely our dominion but something of which we are an inextricable part. Evolutionary theory calls us to reconnect our theology and the created universe. In the same way that Scripture calls us to care for the world God created, evolution tells us of our direct relationship with the rest of creation, which implies a duty of care.

[nicosraf]

Hi! A while ago I messaged you about Angels Before Man and how much I loved it, and I just finished Angels & Man and wanted to gush about your writing again. I think you did an amazing job with balancing the older plot threads of the first novel (ex: Michael and Lucifer, Rosier and Asmodeus) with the new storyline and characters (Azazel, Samyaza, the humans, etc). It's fairly rare for a sequel to do both successfully, so great job!

I was kinda surprised that this book was about the Watcher's Flood; I think I was expecting it to be like Paradise Lost, but this direction was way more interesting (and Cain's ancestral memories definitely filled in the gaps anyway). I don't know very much about Old Testament mythology, but what I could find seemed to indicate that the Book of Enoch is considered noncanonical in most Jewish and Christian sects. Was there any particular reason you chose to draw inspiration from a noncanonical text?

I loved the exploration of the theme of forgiveness in this novel. The lengths the angels went to seek forgiveness from God, and all the devastation that wrought was really compelling. Rosier and Asmodeus in particular were so poignant; Rosier's complex, partial forgiveness of Asmodeus due to the knowledge that their time is finite (as Lucifer said, they will all burn eventually) was absolutely fascinating. It makes me think that maybe we forgive because we know we don't have forever, and also kinda crystallizes the futility of seeking forgiveness from an immortal, everlasting God. I think Azazel and Samyaza seemed to realize this as well near the end. (by the way, the final lines are absolutely devastating. Thank you and how dare you).

I was also surprised to see the theme of parenting explored through the angels and their giant children, and the demons with Cain, contrasted with the love of God the Father. As monstrous as the Nephilim were, the angels still loved them, and even Cain was still loved by the demons even after he had killed. It was a really clever juxtaposition against the very conditional love that God had for the angels. The way the angels loved their children more than God ever loved them was incredibly heartbreaking. Although I do wonder if their indulgence of the giants' appetites to the point of ecological devastation was maybe not the best move. (First you extincted the dinosaurs with Lucifer, and now you've extincted the other megafauna with the giants. Your mind is brilliant and I am so sorry for all those giant sloths and tigers.)

Anyway in conclusion, your writing is fantastic, I love what you're doing, and I can't wait to read the rest of the series! As a fellow queer writer writing queer things, you're such an inspiration and I hope you have a great day :)

Hello!!! Aaaah thank you so much ! I'm so so happy you think I did good balancing all the plot stuff... that's means a lot to me, seriously. Thank you! It was really tough.

I answered something pretty similar on Insta but the reason I chose the Flood (as opposed to moving from Heaven into Adam and Eve in Eden the way Paradise Lost does) was because I became really interested in thinking about Satan's fall as an apocalypse. In my opinion, the devastation that the creation of sin would've brought to previously "pure" angels is sort of... downplayed in most media depictions. It would have been like a rapture for the angels — some damned forever and some allowed to live in Heaven.

And when I started thinking about Lucifer that way, I thought about the other apocalypses in the Bible (the Flood and Revelation) and noticed the angel involvement there too. I decided a trilogy about the different "ends of the world" in the biblical narrative would be interesting. I've said before that I don't really care for non-canon stories, but the interesting thing about Enoch is that the traces of it are still in the canon Bible itself, which you can see in the epigraphs of A&M.

Without the Enoch story, there's very little explanation for the Flood at all (the 2014 Noah movie is notoriously really weird about it — it knows it can't ignore the Watcher story or else the Flood makes no sense, but it also can't commit to Enoch... for some reason (probably religious on the creators' part.))

I'm glad you liked the themes of forgiveness! It was really interesting to write! I think, in my own experience, there's always been pressure to forgive people who've hurt me because of the finite nature of things — like keeping an older abuser in the family because "they're old" and "we should spend the last years we have with them happily." I feel like I can talk about Rosier and Asmodeus forever because there's a central theme in the series about what's forgivable and choosing to accept unforgivable things in life — and Asmodeus and Rosier are that theme taken to the extreme. (Sometimes you don't deserve forgiveness and have to deal with that

In the end, "forgiveness" is just a label though; it's doesn't mean much as long as you can still remember it happened (as the "pure" vs "forgiven" angels at the start of A&M display). Samyaza and Azazel realized this, more so Samyaza, since Azazel had somewhat known it from the start.

Lastly, thank you for liking the parenting thematic things as well! I'm happy you saw the parallel between the Watchers' unconditional love for their monster children vs God's conditional love for angels. It was also really interesting to write! (And the Cain chapter is so important to me, arguably the real reason I wanted to write this book so badly...)

Thank you so so much for the kind words. It means so much to me, seriously. Good luck with writing!! I hope to read and love it some day too :') <3

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Why So Serious? This is a Dinosaur Blog?

So we live in a world that has built its entire mythology off of hierarchies. The idea that the rich are better than the poor. The whites better than people of color. Men better than women. Able-bodied and able-minded better than the disabled and neurodivergent. Straight, cis folk better than queers. christians better than any other people of any other religion. That's the society we in "western" places live in. Another fundamental component of that is that humans are better, more important, more "evolved" or "chosen" than any other living thing.

and that is just as false as all the rest of them.

you can't dismantle it without dismantling the others first, of course. since humano-supremacy is the one the rest is built off of, you won't properly unlearn it unless you unlearn white supremacy first. that's why we see countless vegans being real racist pieces of shit all the time.

but you do have to unlearn anthropocentrism, too. you do. because the biosphere is all fundamentally equal. we are one part of nature, of the ecosystem, connected to all the rest. we are partners in the evolution of life. understanding that is necessary: to combat climate change, to fight against ecofascism, to ensure the survival of our species and the world. we are not uniquely evil or uniquely good. we're just some naked apes that made a bunch of mistakes, but we can fix them, too.

I live with five parrots. every day they remind me that the idea humans are "more evolved" is ridiculous. they understand things I would never expect. and they remind me that they're dinosaurs every damn day. and that's just another type of tetrapod, something so close to us its easy to empathize with them. Now apply it to fungi. It gets harder, right?

But that's why we have to keep working.

And that's why we have to see the history of life not just as an interesting story, but the story of us. The history of all of us. and it explains so much! The quirks of geology lead to the geography of slavery in the united states. Humans wouldn't have even evolved if a rock hadn't randomly hit the planet at the right time. We have hiccups because we descend from fish. The list goes on.

We need to produce a human population that thinks ecologically and evolutionarily, so that we can tackle the real problems and move forward.

And that's why I'm so gd-damned serious about dinosaurs. Because dinosaurs, in that western mythos, are the "lumbering, dumb lizards" that went extinct because they sucked, so the cool mammals could come in and run the show - and we, the coolest mammals of all, took our rightful place as the leaders.

But that's not what happened.

Dinosaurs were well adapted for their environments, intelligent and active animals - and were thriving right until the end-Cretaceous. Nonavian ones only went extinct because of a giant space rock. And dinosaurs are STILL WITH US - as birds - and doing better than ever. There are more species of dinosaur alive today than there are mammals. and humans just kind of, happened, thanks to some lucky accidents. we are as much a product of random chance as the extinction of nonavian dinosaurs was.

All of our anthropocentric myths are just that - myths. frankly, how can we call ourselves "more evolved", when we're destroying the planet - gleefully and rapidly? We have to unlearn this myth.

And, in between crying about my thesis, I will do everything I can to help people unlearn that myth and see the true beauty that is the history of life.

so, yeah. come learn with me. it's the only way to liberate us all.

[tomorrowusa]

Extremist fundamentalists of different religions seem to have more in common with each other than they do with moderates of the same faith. They are invariably intolerant control freaks who feel they have the right to impose their wills on others. MAGA Mike Johnson would fit in well with Iran's theocrats.

Since his fellow Republicans made him their leader, numerous articles have reported Johnson’s religiously motivated, far-right views on abortion, same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights. But that barely scratches the surface. Johnson was a senior lawyer for the extremist Alliance Defending Fund (later the Alliance Defending Freedom) from 2002 to 2010. This is the organization responsible for orchestrating the 303 Creative v Elenis legal arguments to obtain a ruling from the supreme court permitting a wedding website designer to refuse to do business with gay couples. It also played a significant role in annulling Roe v Wade. The ADF has always been opposed to privacy rights, abortion and birth control. Now Roe is gone, the group is laying the groundwork to end protection for birth control. Those who thought Roe would never be overruled should understand that the reasoning in Dobbs v Jackson is not tailored to abortion. Dobbs was explicitly written to be the legal fortress from which the right will launch their attacks against other fundamental rights their extremist Christian beliefs reject. They are passionate about rolling back the right to contraception, the right to same-sex marriage and the right to sexual privacy between consenting adults. Johnson’s inerrant biblical truth leads him to reject science. Johnson was a “young earth creationist”, holding that a literal reading of Genesis means that the earth is only a few thousand years old and humans walked alongside dinosaurs. He has been the attorney for and partner in Kentucky’s Creation Museum and Ark amusement park, which present these beliefs as scientific fact, a familiar sleight of hand where the end (garnering more believers) justifies the means (lying about science). For them, the end always justifies the means. That’s why they don’t even blink when non-believers suffer for their dogma.

There was recently a big experiment in rejecting science with the far right campaigning against COVID-19 vaccinations. That may have cost hundreds of thousands of lives in the US. MAGA Mike would like to apply that to all sectors of life in the US.

Setting aside all of these wildly extreme, religiously motivated policy preferences, there is a more insidious threat to America in Johnson’s embrace of scriptural originalism: his belief that subjective interpretation of the Bible provides the master plan for governance. Religious truth is neither rational nor susceptible to reasoned debate. For Johnson, who sees a Manichean world divided between the saved who are going to heaven and the unsaved going to hell, there is no middle ground. Constitutional politics withers and is replaced with a battle of the faithful against the infidels. Sound familiar? Maybe in Tehran or Kabul or Riyadh. But in America?

By doing anything other than voting Democratic in an election (i.e. voting Republican, wasting a vote on a loser third party, writing in a dead gorilla, not voting at all) people help pave the way for a fascist theocracy in the US.

Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson is already second in line for the presidency. That is WAY too close.

Voting may not always be convenient but theo-fascism is far less convenient.

[mintaikk]

Ya know, I was wondering why there were dinosaurs in Hell. I mean, dinos don't rally mean anything, right?

Then I remembered that the Bible doesn't have evolution, and dinos aren't in the Bible, and how many conservative Christians hate it when dinos are mentioned bcuz it goes against God.

And now it makes so much sense

[homestuckreplay]

"apply loking thign" [sic]

(page 242-245)

TT: I've found no evidence that anyone has successfully created the item.

WELL, THEY DID IT. THEY MADE A WHOLE APPLE. They are definitely not equipped to do this, it feels like they backdoored their way into succeeding through luck, risky storm behavior and narrative convenience, and it feels REALLY good. Obviously the threat isn't over yet, but I love to see John get a win, even when it's small.

When the alchemiter made blocks, they were just blocks. When it makes an apple, it shows us the full life cycle of the apple - sprouting the tree it grows from, then the fruit itself, then dropping the fruit and dying. This has fascinating implications for punch card alchemy. That pre-punched card didn't just store data about the apple at a given moment in time, it stores the apple's entire past leading up to the moment it takes this form. This could be connected to the elixir of life, which has historically been one of the things alchemists have tried to discover.

I really want to know if the items on the pre-punched card are random per game session, or if not, what determines them and what possibilities there are. We only know the apple and the eggy loking thign, both of which are living things, so could that be the link? Also, is this a real, actual apple that is/was alive and provides sustenance and nutrients (and was the egg a real egg that could hatch a bird/snake/dinosaur etc?) That's an insane amount of power for a video game to have, and it feels like every time we learn something else about what Sburb can do it only increases its world-altering potential, and its possibilities to go horrifically wrong.

Of course, the tree and the apple are also reminiscent of the tree of knowledge - the religious themes have been here throughout the comic, and I've made the Garden of Eden link with gardenGnostic as well. In Christianity, Eve giving into temptation and eating the fruit is the original sin and leads to exile, while in Gnosticism, eating the fruit is necessary and the only way to save humanity, seeing through the bullshit of people who tried to hold Eve back from achieving her potential.

Assuming that John will eat it - because what else is he gonna do, throw it at the meteor? - I don't know which of these outcomes will turn out to be true, or if they can coexist, or what kind of knowledge John will gain. The original sin, defying a god and seeking power theme fits really well with Rose's character as somebody seeking control and with Sburb as a game giving godlike powers to regular people. The Gnostic interpretation of saving humanity works with stopping a meteor strike, John having the ability to save himself, and possibly links to the conflict of TG being somewhat against Sburb. One big factor in which interpretation is more true is the ethics and intent behind Sburb itself - is the knowledge and power it can give somebody really something that a human should have?

Finally, an unrelated design note - I'm glad that on p.244-245, we see the sprite as a stamp in the corner of the page, not the obnoxious and jittery flashing. I like the idea of it flashing and it makes sense in-game (it wants something from the players and is trying to get their attention), but it's definitely bad to look at and becomes the main focus of any page. On p.245, it almost looks like a wax seal, which is so much better aesthetically.

[midwestmade29]

Revenge 😈

I am loving the way the story between Adam Copeland and The House of Black has played out! Thanks @houseofcopeland for trusting me with another story request. I hope you like it 🖤 Word count: 1.2k Divider by: @firefly-graphics GIF by me 🙂 Original Request: Request! Christian has been getting attacked by the House of Black for weeks now and has turned to Adam for help only to learn that Adam is not only now a member of the House but the attacks were his idea as revenge for the nightmare Christian and the Patriarchy put him through. What happens next is up to you. Also please end with Adam and the House saying "The House Always Wins" in unison.

Disclaimers: Intimidation, wrestlers being attacked.

This story is written from the POV of Adam Copeland 🙂

In Christian's moment of need, he calls on his childhood best friend for help. Little does he know that The House has a new member...

Joining the House of Black was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. While it had taken quite a bit of persuasion, in the end it was simply meant to be. My allegiance to them has remained a secret, so I stay in the shadows until the timing is right. In the meantime, I was orchestrating some sweet revenge against the leader of The Patriarchy and my ex-childhood best friend for all the hell he put me through.

Little did the prick know that I was the reason for his beat downs! Watching him writhe in pain at the hands of the House and knowing he has his head on a constant swivel in fear that a member of the House might be around the corner brought me great joy. Every kick, every stomp, every mind game and sleepless night the Patriarch suffered was well deserved.

Taking out the rest of Christian’s little family was incredibly easy. His pet dinosaur Killswitch was a non-issue for Brody as he Gonzo Bombed him practically straight to hell! His precious little Prodigy son Nick Wayne was perhaps the sweetest one to watch. Malakai’s Black Mass left the kid flat on his back seeing stars!

For the last 2 weeks, Christian had only been accompanied to the ring by Shayna. We let the two of them think they were safe and sound until Julia surprised the Matriarch during one of Christian’s matches. The tall blonde was out like a light in mere seconds when Julia locked her in Hartless. The Patriarchy was crumbling, and it was beautiful.

Perhaps the most pathetic moment out of all this was last night when Christian requested time on the microphone. There he stood in the middle of the ring with bags under his eyes and worry written all over his face as he practically begged me to help him.

 “I know the things I’ve done in the past haven’t exactly been friendly, Adam. But I’m coming to you tonight in front of everyone in the arena and everyone watching at home and asking for your help. You’re all the family I have left Adam. The rest of the Patriarchy have fallen at the hands of The House of Black and now it’s just me. Please, Adam. Please say you’ll help your best friend, your brother,” Christian pleaded into the hard cam. To add to his suffering, I ignored him and left him all by his lonesome as Dynamite went to a commercial break. I really hope someone got a picture of his pathetic face so I can frame it!

It was now the night before Collision, and I was deep in conversation with Malakai. I was chomping at the bit after Christian begged me to help him on Dynamite to make my official House of Black debut! “I think now is the time, Malakai. Christian has no idea about the attacks and for some reason, he still thinks he can trust me. Think of the devastation he’ll feel once he finds out!” I said exuberantly. Malakai placed his hand on my shoulder while giving me a nod. “I think you’re right, Adam. It's time the House enjoys the fruits of our labor. It’s settled then! Tomorrow on Collision, our newest member will step out of the darkness and into the light to lay an old friendship to rest,”

Collision was running smoothly with everything falling into place as the night went on. Malakai had informed me that Christian would be making one final plea for my help after the women’s match and that would be when we would strike. I’ve never been more ready for something in my entire life! “Let’s let bygones be bygones and join forces again. Please, Adam. I need you,” Christian petitioned into the camera backstage. The dumbass tried his best to appeal to a side of me that no longer existed. He still tried to use our extensive history as a ploy to get me on his side. While I might’ve fallen for his shit in the past, the House has made me see clearer than I have in years! Christian is a tyrant and must pay for his crimes. Seconds after he stopped speaking, Buddy came out of nowhere and began to attack Christian backstage! The cameras didn’t dare turn off or pan away from the action, capturing every punch and kick Buddy was giving. Just when Christian thought things couldn’t get any worse, Brody decided to join in on the fun! He was now trying to fend off two members of the House and was failing miserably.

Suddenly, the lights in the arena went off, leaving everyone in darkness and the sound of gasps filling the air. They remained that way for several moments before turning back on and showing Buddy, Brody, Julia, and Malakai inside the ring with Christian laying on the mat in front of them.

The 4 of them stood there triumphantly with pleased grins on their faces until my music hit and I ran down the ramp. The cheers in the arena were deafening as I slid into the ring and stared down the House of Black. The audience had no idea of my true intentions of coming out here! My eyes darted back and forth between each member of the House and Christian while it appeared I was trying to plan out my next move and save my best friend. When I lunged in the direction of Malakai, the lights went out once more! This was the moment I had been waiting on for weeks. Everything was about to change. The shocked gasps and “Oohs” from everyone when the lights shined bright again made it hard not to smile as I now stood in the center of the ring with my hands in Christian’s hair, holding him up for the whole world to see. The rest of the House stood around me just as satisfied as I was, soaking in every boo and every shocked expression. “What the hell is going on here?!” Tony Shiavone said astounded on commentary. “Adam Copeland teaming up with The House of Black? Surely hell has frozen over guys,”

Julia handed me a microphone as I let go of Christian’s hair and let him fall to the mat with a thud. I bent down to the prick’s level and smirked at how pitiful he looked. “Surprised to see me, old friend?” I asked rhetorically. “You requested my presence, so here I am. Only I’m not here to help you, no no. This is your day of reckoning Christian. You see, I’ve actually been planning this surprise for weeks. Every attack against each of your little misfit family members, every attack against you was my idea. Every sleepless night, every panic induced dream you had was because of me. Well, me and my fellow House members,”

I turned my head in acknowledgement to each member of the House, smirking at the scene playing out around us. Christian’s eyes were the size of silver dollars when the weight of my words threatened to crush him. This was everything I hoped it would be! “Consider this the first of many encounters The House of Black and the Patriarchy will be having, Christian. I’d continue to keep that head of yours on a swivel, especially in the dark. You never know who might be lurking in the shadows,” I threatened before laughing menacingly. I began punching and kicking the little prick and it didn’t take much to knock him out cold! With my foot planted on his chest, Malakai, Brody, Buddy and Julia stood next to me while 5 of us offered one last sentiment to Christian and the rest of the world, “The House Always Wins.”

[tinyowlthoughts]

What the fuck Utah

I have a nephew who lives in Utah (not Mormon, nor conservative). He goes to a charter school. They aren't allowed anything that may be 'disruptive', and the conservative Christian staff use that to their advantage. My nephew wanted one - ONE - rainbow stick to put on his water bottle when I came out as gay. I gave him several, and he said he would have to put it on the bottom of the water bottle so none of the teachers saw the rainbow dinosaur (that was in no way exclusively LGBTQIA+ themed) and took it away.

So am I surprised by this development? No.

Am I mad?

People.

I am God. Damned.

FURIOUS.

This bullshit has got to stop. There is NO REASON to censor books a school, beyond reading level. By which I mean, don't have Lord of the Flies in an elementary school library. (The reading/comprehension level is likely too high for a majority of students to fully grasp.)

Books should cover a wide variety of topics for all student interests.

Books should encourage learning and exploring and challenge preconceived notions and ideas.

Books should be available to be used to illustrate complex topics that kids might have a hard time understanding, like death or illness or other upsetting topics.

Books should take kids away to worlds they can only imagine, and encourage them to question everything, from how ants carry so much weight to whether God exists.

Banning books in this manner is not only political over-reach that encourages censorship and is (likely, hopefully) unconstitutional, it is LAZY PARENTING.

You don't want your kid to read 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' because the character is rude? Fine. But you can't force another parent not to let their kid read it.

You don't think teens should have access to books about revolution, magic, exploring budding romance/sexuality, and standing against authority figures? Fine. But you can't force another parent to keep it out of their kids hands.

You think it's your way or the highway?

Try again bitch.

Sarah Maas is one of the most popular YA authors in the world.

Judy Blume is a national treasure who has given so many young people the words to express themselves through puberty and beyond.

Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake takes a crack at a pig-infested future and warns readers against blindly trusting big tech.

What Girls Are Made Of by Elana Arnold is a poignant look at what love means when you're only 16.

Ellen Hopkins approaches addiction and drug use from her own personal experiences with her daughter, offering readers a look into and a warning against drug use.

Rupi Kaur is a poet who's words are twists of silk that illustrate thriving against violence and abuse.

Craig Thompson's Blankets is a beautiful graphic novel that illustrates the way love and religion can clash, and how as one grows, they have to come to their own conclusions about both.

None of these books are dangerous.

None of these books are pornographic or obscene.

None of these books deserve to taken from the hands of readers.

And the only thing you've done, Utah, is piss off a world full of readers and prove that not only do your leaders no understand the dangers of censorship on this scale, but

you haven't even read the books.

[mk-writes-stuff]

Cinnamon, gingerbread, and hair if that's okay!

Ooooh this one’s going to be a long post :). I’m not complaining, I love big asks. Thank you!

(From this ask game here).

Cinnamon: What animals exist in your world?

A strange answer for the Seven Stations - none! The stations don’t have animals of any sort, and all meat is lab-grown. When the stations were supporting the Old World, it didn’t make sense to try to keep animals because meat could just be shipped up if necessary, and the few pets the nobles had that went up with them have long died out in the centuries in between. Stellaris is the only character we meet who knows much about animals. Some of the elves probably had livestock, but I haven’t developed that much - and if they did bring them, they probably had to eat them on the journey.

The Pirates’ Roost has a lot of the animals you’d expect from a mostly tropical setting - rich sea life, lots of birds, and a lot of jungle life. The big difference in wildlife is the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs never went extinct on Ixalan, so they have a wide variety of feathered dinosaurs of various sizes - everywhere from raptors and small pterosaurs to massive titan dinosaurs. The Sun Empire keeps them as pets and various warbeasts and generally treats them with respect, but there are also a lot of wild dinosaurs that are… less friendly.

Gingerbread: What is the most popular holiday? How does the average person celebrate?

I honestly haven’t developed holidays for the Seven Stations, really. I’m not sure the average person gets many holidays. The Church of the Stellar Cross is of vaguely Christian origins, so they likely celebrate some of the major holidays like Christmas and Easter in a modified form, and they celebrate those with church services. Nobles also have a lot of celebrations that aren’t really holidays, like debutante parties.

Different groups in the Pirates’ Roost have different celebrations they focus on. Torrezon celebrates the day that Elenda discovered vampirism. Both the sirens and the Sun Empire celebrate the summer and winter solstice in opposite directions - the summer solstice is a celebration for the Sun Empire and a mourning day for the sirens and vice versa for the winter solstice. The siren celebrations are the primary ones I’ve worked out - the summer solstice is spent in somber clothing and prayer to the waves, and the winter solstice is celebrated with bright colours, stargazing, and gifts to people you want to keep in your life through the new year.

Hair: What kinds of discrimination are there? Are they the same as reality?

The Seven Stations have some of the same discrimination as reality. They don’t have racism and they don’t have sexism (although the elves have sexism against men and masculine people). The nobles are homophobic and transphobic, although the common people don’t really care. The nobles (and the elves) are also highly ableist, specifically against mentally disabled people. Very noticeable in the first book is the way Stellaris is judged for his autism - although the treatment of him does get better :)

And then there’s the clone thing. Clones are legally not considered people on the Seven Stations and are frequently horrifically abused - often killed for magic or organ replacements. At the start of the series, treatment of clones ranges from indentured servitude to straight-up mass murder. Many people will gladly turn in or murder escapee clones, and the Church of the Stellar Cross considers clones to be possessing only a piece of a soul. Clone rights are a major arc of the series, and attempts to help them and improve their lot in life is one of the major goals of the protagonists.

The Pirates’ Roost is a bit different. The two empires have various kinds of racism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia going on. The pirates, on the other hand, are pretty chill for the most part, but there’s a lot of subtler species discrimination. Vampires are often stereotyped as monstrous and predatory and deeply feared. Orcs are stereotyped as brutish and violent, but the primary reason they work as mercenaries is because they have a highly specialist culture and they are primarily pushed into being mercenaries. Goblins are often stereotyped as stupid when they simply have a different linguistic structure and poor hearing. And sirens are stereotyped as seducers and tempters and are sexualized to the point where they’re often harassed in public - Malcolm deals with this multiple times, with strangers asking to touch his feathers and flirting with him when he’s clearly uncomfortable.

Thank you for the ask! I hope you don’t mind the super long answer :). Feel free to ask me any questions you have!

[monstraduplicia]

daddy's little girl he broke in thirty: a dean winchester mix

1. abuse me - silverchair 2. adam raised a cain - bruce springsteen 3. alcohol - sisyphus 4. alibis - marianas trench 5. animals - nickelback 6. anyone who knows what love is (will understand) - irma thomas 7. black-eyed - placebo 8. blown wide open - big wreck 9. blunt force concussion - the dirty nil 10. break me - mcfly 11. burn & shine - the posies 12. call of the playground - shudder to think 13. carry that weight - the beatles 14. christian brothers - heatmiser, elliott smith 15. colossus - idles 16. coward's son - the ballroom thieves 17. daddy - korn 18. daddy's daughter - merricat crellin 19. damage control - the dirty nil 20. degenerate - the jesus and the mary chain 21. the devil you know (god is a man) - face to face 22. discipline - nine inch nails 23. don't let the sun catch you cryin' - jeff buckley 24. the drowners - suede 25. father - the front bottoms 26. father and son - cat stevens 27. father figure - george michael 28. father of mine - everclear 29. feel the pain - dinosaur jr 30. fiddle about - the who 31. forgiven - alanis morissette 32. fortunate son - creedence clearwater revival 33. freak - silverchair 34. friends in the sky - the dirty nil 35. fuckin' up young - the dirty nil 36. ghost - sky ferreira 37. girls - the dare 38. good boy - patriarchy 39. hang yer moon - the dirty nil 40. hard times - ethel cain 41. he needs me - shelley duvall 42. i burn - toadies 43. i know it's over - the smiths 44. i'm with you - avril lavigne 45. i need somebody - the stooges 46. infra-red - placebo 47. i woke up in a strange place - jeff buckley 48. judge yr'self - manic street preachers 49. last night i dreamt that somebody loved me - the smiths 50. life becoming a landslide - manic street preachers 51. lightsabre cocksucking blues - mclusky 52. loverboy - you me at six 53. low self opinion - rollins band 54. monster side - addict 55. moodswing whiskey - jeff buckley 56. mr. self destruct - nine inch nails 57. nancy boy - placebo 58. o death - rhiannon giddens, francesco turris 59. oh comely - neutral milk hotel 60. pain - four star mary 61. papa was a rodeo - the magnetic fields 62. please hurt me - the crystals 63. please please please let me get what i want - the smiths 64. prayer - big wreck 65. pretension//repulsion - manic street preachers 66. renegade - styx 67. runnin' with the devil - van halen 68. samarians - idles 69. send the pain below - chevelle 70. sex and violence - the exploited 71. the shining - badly drawn boy 72. simple man - deftones 73. slab - silverchair 74. song against sex - neutral milk hotel 75. story of isaac - leonard cohen 76. (they long to be) close to you - carpenters 77. thoroughfare - ethel cain 78. a trophy fathers trophy son - sleeping with sirens 79. two-headed boy - neutral milk hotel 80. two-headed boy pt. 2 - neutral milk hotel 81. unloveable - the smiths 82. wanted man - ratt 83. the weight - the band 84. western nights - ethel cain 85. what will you say - jeff buckley 86. whipping post - allman brothers band 87. you are a runner and i am my father's son - wolf parade 88. you can't always get what you want - the rolling stones 89. your flesh is so nice - jeff buckley 90. youth gone wild - skid row

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@the-blue-fairie @princesssarisa @themousefromfantasyland @professorlehnsherr-almashy

So, I would like to share a little about my background as a fan of fantastic fiction trying to reconcile escapism with socio-political analysis:

I grew up with TV, and what I watched was generally a mix of telenovelas and animated movies from Disney and Pixar VHS, and DVDs from Dreamworks, comedy cartoons and live action TV Shows like Spongebob Squarepants, El Chavo del Ocho, The Simpsons and Dinosaurs, educational cartoons such as The Triplets, Madeline and Seven Little Monsters.

My closest family, especially my mother, grandmother and uncle, were readers, and they tried to encourage me to read books, and also to think more deeply about what I watched, beyond simple entertainment.

This was influenced by the fact that they studied at a public university and were involved in discussions of social issues such as quotas and student movements.

When I was growing up, learning to use the internet, I discovered pages and videos of people who delved into this intersection of pop culture and political and social issues, absorbing a lot of things they said, to the point that even my family said: "Take it easy, sometimes it's good to take a break and just enjoy."

After a while, especially in college, I started to filter out what was a comment just to cause controversy, a repetitive joke and what was really an analysis made in good faith, and thus form my own opinions. I used to identify as a centrist and vote white until 2016, when the coup against Dilma and Trump's election took place.

These were the situations in which I realized that being politically neutral was just acting cynical and apathetic while fascism resurfaced. And being a target as a woman, from the Northeast, from a black, poor family and a student at a public school and university, I could no longer afford to press the white button.

"Whoever stays too up the wall falls to the right" as once said the brazilian actor and director Antônio Abujamra.

So I started to identify myself as someone on the left I know that there are problems such as antisemitism and lgtphobia internalized by parts of the left (the brazilian party PCO for example is a joke).

But I live in a different reality than other countries: In Brazil, simply wanting Agrarian Reform and teaching about LGBTs and other religions besides Christianity is considered "Extremist" by the Right.

I can't live in Brazil, which suffered under Bolsonaro, and not be left-wing.

[fallynleaf]

AEW All Out 2024 was so funny. just an absolutely demonic (positive) show. i wanted to post a bit about it because a lot happened that i probably won't reblog gifs of haha.

Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale had a street fight in the ruins of their former friendship, and Willow smashed a light tube over Kris's head and then Kris did the SPLITS onto THUMB TACKS, and of course Kris the betrayer was the one who triumphed in the end.

in the semi-main, Bryan Danielson defended the AEW championship against Jack Perry. Luchasaurus, Christian's current right-hand man, er, dinosaur, came out at the end and had a staredown with Jack (his former partner...), but Christian (who has a right to challenge for that belt anytime he wants) interrupted before THAT could go anywhere, and then Bryan's factionmates, the Blackpool Combat Club, showed up to ward off the Patriarchy (Christian's faction. it's too much to explain here lol).

but then as soon as the Patriarchy left, Jon Moxley hugged Bryan, and then he and Claudio Castagnoli immediately betrayed him, and Mox started literally suffocating Bryan with a plastic bag while Wheeler Yuta, the BCC's other member, sobbed and struggled to try to reach Bryan as Pac restrained him.

on that cheery note, we went into the Hangman Adam Page vs Swerve Strickland grudge cagematch, which follows after Hangman literally burned down Swerve's childhood home a few days ago, driven to the point of absolute obsession toward the man who first took the love of the crowd away from him, and who then invaded Hangman's own house and threatened his newborn child, only to still get cheered by the crowd anyway.

lots happened in that match! there was stuff with a staple gun and also cinderblocks. at one point they fought over a literal wooden stake that Hangman had taken from the burnt remains of Swerve's childhood house, which they proceeded to try to stab each other with like they were trying to slay a vampire (i mean Hangman has already quite literally drunken Swerve's blood so you can't say it's not on theme 💀). right at the end, there was a NEEDLE SPOT that i could not watch at all lol.

a lot of pro wrestling is about these small moments that really stick with you. usually you can't predict what those will be. in this match, the thing that really stuck with me wasn't really any of the spots in the match itself, but the aftermath.

Hangman won by knockout, just an absolutely brutal victory, and he left the ring and headed up the ramp, and then at one point, he paused and turned around and started to walk back toward the ring, and the crowd audibly gasped in horror, like everyone in that room was afraid of what Hangman was going to do to Swerve after he was basically totally unconscious and helpless and already defeated. suddenly, an expression crossed Hangman's face that i'm not sure any of us were expecting.

it looked like remorse.

and it seemed to be the thing that finally broke him.

he'd gotten what he wanted, and he didn't feel any better. he'd become this thing that people hated and feared, and there might not be any way to go back.

the PPV ended on a shot of Hangman in anguish at the top of the ramp. it was easily the darkest show that AEW has ever done, a show of unsettling imagery and nightmares, but boy was it compelling. sometimes the hero loses. sometimes hate triumphs. sometimes the catharsis is in sitting with the darkness instead of vanquishing it.

[glowing-disciple]

Reading List - 2024

Currently Reading:

The Book of Dragons by Edith Nesbit

Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie

Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD by Jonas Jonasson

Books Read:

101 Famous Poems by Various Authors

The Abraham Lincoln Joke Book by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers

The Ancient Aliens Question by Philip Coppens

The Art of Computer Designing by Osamu Sato

The Broken Dice, and Other Mathematical Tales of Chance by Ivar Ekeland

The Cairngorms by Patrick Baker

The Codebreaker's Handbook by Herbie Brennan

The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown

The Complete Book of Kitchen Collecting by Barbera E. Mauzy

Dinosaurs, Beware! A Safety Guide by Marc Brown

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dreaming the Biosphere by Rebecca Reider

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel

Funny Number Tricks by Rose Wyler

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe

Giant Sea Creatures, Real and Fantastic by John Frederick Waters

Great Mysteries of the Ice and Snow by Edward F. Dolan

Hammer of the Gods by Stephen Davis

Hiram's Red Shirt by Mabel Watts

A History of Chess by Jerzy Gizycki

I don't care by JoAnn Nelson

An Introduction to Linguistics by Loreto Todd

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Jungian Archetypes: Jung, Gödel, and the History of Archetypes by Robin Robertson

Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter

MASH: An Army Surgeon in Korea by Otto F. Apel

The Messier Objects Field Guide by Stephen James O'Meara

Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis

Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks

Reflections on Evolution by Fredrick Sproull

Roadie: My Life on the Road with Coldplay by Matt McGinn

Some of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire by Howard Pyle

Strange Creatures of the Ice and Snow by Edward F. Dolan

Time for Bed, Sleepyheads by Normand Chartier

Weird Islands by Jean de Boschère

Future Reading:

A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter

Adventures in Cryptozoology Vol. 1 by Richard Freeman

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez

Ancient Mysteries, Modern Visions by Philip S. Callahan

The Anti-Mary Exposed by Carrie Gress

The Arm of the Starfish by Madeleine L'Engle

The Art Nouveau Style by Stephan Tschudi Madsen

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Champions of the Rosary by Donald H. Calloway

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Complete Works of H. P. Lovecraft

Cubism by Guillaume Apollinaire

Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Evolution by Nowell Stebbing

Expressionism by Ashley Bassie

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods by Hal Johnson

Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

Freaks on the Fells by R. M. Ballantyne

Freckles by Gene Stratton-Porter

Fundamentals of Character Design by Various Authors

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miquel de Cervantes Saavedra

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Humorous Ghost Stories by Various Authors

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Illuminated Manuscripts by Tamara Woronowa

The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells

Joan Miro by Joan Miro

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Light of the Western Stars by Zane Grey

Living by the Sword by Eric Demski

The Longest Cocktail Party by Richard DiLello

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Otis Spofford by Beverly Clearly

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

The Shining by Stephen King

The Silmarillion by J R R Tolkien

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Strange Love by Ann Aguirre

The River by Gary Paulsen

Things My Son Needs to Know About the World by Fredrik Backman

The Third Man Factor by John Geiger

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

We Are Where the Nightmares Go and Other Stories by C. Robert Cargill

The Weiser Field Guide to Cryptozoology by Deena West Budd

The White Mountains by John Christopher

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Rosemary Neill

Published: Dec 2, 2022

In his bestseller The God Delusion, published in 2006, author Richard Dawkins famously wrote that the god of the Old Testament is “a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser” and “a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal … capriciously malevolent bully’’.

Not for nothing has Dawkins been described as “a poster boy for militant atheism”.

The former Oxford University professor and evolutionary biologist is also regarded as a brilliant and passionate science communicator: His 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, reframed our understanding of evolution and has been named by the Royal Society as the most inspiring science book of all time, while his latest volume, Flights of Fancy – a surprisingly lyrical work aimed at the over 12s – looks at how animals and humans have “learned to overcome the pull of gravity and take to the skies’’.

In 2013, Dawkins was voted the world’s top thinker in a Prospect magazine poll. Yet in recent years, his controversial tweets and remarks about everything from aborting Down’s syndrome foetuses to Islamic fundamentalism have provoked sharp criticism and threats of cancellation.

Now aged 81, the career controversialist will conduct a national speaking tour in Australia in February, addressing topics including the wonders of science, the importance of reason and his scepticism about religion. Ahead of his tour, which starts in Melbourne, the British author gave a typically forthright, sometimes combative interview to Review.

During this encounter, conducted over Zoom from his Oxford home, Dawkins oscillates between donnish erudition and a kind of pugnacious rationalism, as he argues that parents should not have the right to “indoctrinate” their children with their chosen religion; that human foetuses are “no more a person” than animal foetuses; that anti-vaxxers are selfish; and that transgenderism has become “a mimetic epidemic” among schoolchildren. He also warns that human beings could one day be obliterated by the same kind of meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs.

You have been called a militant atheist, and you’ve argued that religion causes wars and entrenches bigotry. Yet you use the borrowed phrase “tooth fairy agnostic” to describe yourself. Tooth fairy agnostic – that’s right. We are all actually agnostic about anything you can’t actually disprove. You can’t disprove the tooth fairy; it’s trivial to bother about it, so that’s the way I am about gods.

Why do you oppose faith schools? I am not against education in religion. I think that’s important and that children should be taught about religion because it’s such an important part of history, politics, art and music. I’m against educating in a particular religion – I’m against a child being told, “You are a member of this church and therefore this is what you believe”. I like the child to be told, “There are people who call themselves Catholics and they believe this, and there are people who call themselves Muslims and they believe that” and so on. That’s important, but children should not be told what to believe.

Would banning faith schools amount to erosion of parental choice and authority? I think children have rights, and the right of a child not to be indoctrinated is important.

You get hate mail from evangelical Christians and you are also a trenchant critic of Islamic fundamentalism. As an outspoken public intellectual, what did you think of the recent attack on The Satanic Verses author Sir Salman Rushdie? It’s horrible. It’s irrational. It’s vicious. It was allegedly perpetrated by a very foolish person who doesn’t know what he’s doing. He has been indoctrinated by his Islamic upbringing and that’s one kind of reason why I find indoctrination so bad. (The suspect, Hadi Matar, has said that Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa against Rushdie, is, “a great person”. Matar has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges brought against him in the US.)

Many Christian fundamentalists in the US oppose abortion. What is your view of the US Supreme Court ruling that overturned the historic Roe v Wade decision? I deplore that.

You maintain that pro-choice activists in America are using the wrong tactics. Why? I think the pro-abortion lobby is tactically unsound when they say something like, “A woman’s body is her own to do what she likes with”. I happen to think that’s right, but that’s not going to cut any ice with somebody who thinks that an embryo is a baby, and they think therefore that abortion is murder. They’ll say, “Ah, but she contains another body which is not her own.” I think we should tackle that assumption. We should say, “A foetus is no more a person than, and no more has personal feelings … than the foetus of a cow or a pig, let alone an adult cow or pig.”

You dedicate your latest book, Flights of Fancy, to the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. Why does he impress you? He certainly is a high flyer and he certainly is a hero of our times. I do admire him and I think that he’s an appropriate dedicatee for a book about flight. He’s a man with immense imagination and he is a genius as an engineer, a genius as an entrepreneur.

In Flights of Fancy, you note how, just decades after the Wright brothers’ historic flight, we were in the era of supersonic and space flight. Does this constitute an extraordinary burst of progress within a short time? It is rather remarkable, isn’t it? I think it’s a very good century to have lived in for that reason. In a way it’s rather sad that things (to do with space flight) are only just taking off now after the 1960s, when men first stepped on the moon, and nothing much has happened since then, until quite recently. I’m glad things are getting going again.

In 2021, the American Humanist Society withdrew an award they had given you because of an old tweet. In that tweet, you called for a discussion about the vilification of those who deny transgender people “literally are what they identify as”. How did you feel about the award being cancelled? To be honest, I had actually forgotten that I ever had that award, but it is upsetting when your own side turn against you, of course. I’d never worried about religious fundamentalists disliking me, but when it’s your own team, it’s upsetting. It’s a remarkably foolish thing for them to do, because all I did was to raise a subject for discussion.

Has academe changed for the worse in terms of restrictions on freedom of speech since you first worked at the University of California, Berkeley, and Oxford University in the 1960s and ’70s? It’s not possible to imagine that we’re going to go on with this nonsense where you can’t even discuss something.

Why is the transgender debate so heated, and such a no-go area for many commentators? You’d have to ask a psychologist or a sociologist about that. It (the debate) seems to me to be utter nonsense. Of course, there are people who suffer from gender dysphoria, and one has to be sympathetic to them. But there clearly is a mimetic epidemic, especially among schoolchildren who get persuaded that somehow the cool thing to do is to be trans, and this is a very disturbing by-product of a very genuine phenomenon, which is gender dysphoria. That is quite a rare thing, but it’s being blown up into a kind of false, common thing.

With the recent closure of the Tavistock child gender clinic, it appears the UK is adopting a more cautious approach to hormonal and surgical treatments for trans-identifying children. How do you view this development? I think we’re seeing the beginnings of a very appropriate reversal of this trend.

You have 2.9 million followers on Twitter. Do your more contentious tweets scare your publishers? Possibly, but I’m not here to talk about Twitter.

Even so, why are you drawn to Twitter, given the nasty pile-ons that are a feature of the platform? I suppose, misguidedly, I thought it was rather a good way of raising discussion. That’s why I put “discuss” at the end of so many tweets, (as) a follow-on of the Oxford tutorials. I am afraid I rather over-estimated the intelligence of the Twitter audience.

You’ve said it would be fun to fly like a bird or go hang-gliding. Does your fear of heights hold you back? I certainly wouldn’t want to jump off a cliff.

No bungy-jumping for Richard Dawkins then? I might run down a hill, maybe.

Why do you believe there is merit in people establishing a colony on another planet? This, I think, is one of the motives of Elon Musk wanting to go to Mars. It’s interesting, by the way, that NASA has just succeeded in diverting or changing the orbit of a small asteroid. They need to do it for a much bigger asteroid in order to save us from the sort of catastrophe that hit the dinosaurs. But (the recent NASA diversion) is a very important first step. It’s a magnificent feat of engineering and science and mathematics.

During the Covid lockdowns, you wrote two nonfiction books and failed to complete a novel about bringing back Homo erectus, our ancient ancestor. Have you given up on writing fiction? I abandoned that, at least temporarily. It turned out to be much more difficult than I thought.

Why do you argue the Covid pandemic has been good for science? As soon as the genetic code sequence of the virus was decoded, which nowadays can be done very swiftly, several different teams of scientists got to work on making a vaccine, and they did it in double quick time; astonishingly quickly. I think that’s a great tribute to the genius of our species.

What about the rise of the anti-vaxxers? Has that surprised you? Tragically, really stupid opposition to vaccination has been whipped up, mostly in America, but it spread to other countries as well. A lot of people don’t understand that vaccination is not just about protecting yourself, it’s about protecting society as a whole, to get herd immunity so the epidemic doesn’t spread.

Is there a selfishness inherent in the anti-vaccination movement? Yes, they just think it’s a matter of individual liberty. They don’t realise that refraining from vaccination for no very good reason is rather like driving on the wrong side of the road …. We do owe a certain curtailment of individual liberty in the interests of society.

You invented the word “meme” (an idea or behaviour that spreads from person to person within a society.) We’ve seen Donald Trump turn memes into a political art form. Were you dismayed by that? He just lies and lies all the time, and unfortunately, I think it was Goebbels who said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Huge numbers of Americans actually believe Trump’s lies and it’s a tragedy.

You live in Oxford and drive a Tesla. Are we all going to be driving electric cars in future? It looks like it, doesn’t it? I think that’s a very good thing.

Some detractors say your reputation as a fierce supporter of atheism is in danger of eclipsing your insights as a visionary evolutionary biologist. I hope not. I’ve only written two books about atheism and about 17 about science, so really science is by far the more important part of my life.

The God Delusion has sold millions of copies, but what do you regard as your most significant book? Probably The Extended Phenotype, which is one book that I wrote for my professional colleagues, although I like to think it’s readable by nonscientists as well. It’s the main book in which I propose something which I suppose is original; something that is all my own.

Scientists don’t know how the universe started. Isn’t that an argument in itself that a god or creator must have kicked things off? That’s a terrible idea! The idea that just because you don’t know what the answer to a question is, therefore god did it. I mean, that’s a ridiculous argument. By all means say we don’t know – that’s true, we don’t know – therefore it’s better to try to find out. We don’t just lie down and say, “Oh, god must have done it”.

Across the globe millions of people, including those without a financial safety net, find comfort in religion. Can you see how rubbishing their spiritual beliefs can be perceived as arrogance? Not arrogance. I mean, if they don’t want to read my books, they don’t have to. My books are about what I believe to be true and what evidence is. I’m not going to refrain from writing books for fear that it might upset people. I write books about what is supported by scientific evidence. That is what I try to do, and if the evidence changes, of course I change my mind. That’s about it, really. I’m a scientist who writes books about science.

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