Diary 20th June 2018 Evening

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I covered the day time activity in my last post. My evening involved attending a local atheist pub meeting, where we informally discussed a few burning issues of the day. We talked about the nature and meaning of 'Fake News'. The French President is calling for fake news to be be banned from the media but who is really running the Fake News stories? Opinion on news isn't news. Nor is a story or opinion you just don't like or agree with fake news. Fake News is often a label to throw in the faces of commentators we dislike and with the current US President, it is the real news that is often branded fake news in favour of State propaganda, complete with alternative facts (a mixture of spin and outright lies). The unregulated nature of internet commentary makes fake news dangerously hard to regulate. The main thing is to study the news from multiple media and angles and never take any story at face value. Our other main discussion topic was the claim by Britain's Bishop of Gloucester that atheists are incapable of true unconditional loving relationships because they don't have God in their lives. THis has generated quite a Twitter storm of backlash to the Bishop's assertion. We found the claim nonsensical, and irresponsible. Secular love (not necessarily sexual) is not dependent on religion. If half of your mind is on what God might think, you are not giving your love 100% Also, God's demands for love are conditional, and the penalties, including purgatary and Hell for not loving him right, are obviously very condition driven. The implication of the claim is that if your partner doesn't love God at all, or enough, or as much as you do, then your partner doesn't love you enough either. If anything, the lover not expecting God to be the third partner in a Menage for three probably loves you more. Youtube - All You Need Is Love - The Beatles Arthur Chappell