This weekend I think I may have finally managed to reach the end goal of my time in the Eastern Lightning (Church of Almighty God) group in New Zealand. Having been asking for months now if I could get my hands on one of the many books that the church prints, I finally have a copy.
On Saturday I was invited along to my second in-person fellowship meeting - in the end I was the only attendee other than the host, but that didn't stop us watching Eastern Lightning music videos, Tik Tok dance videos and a movie together. And, praise the Lord, this group finally delivered on their promise - there, in the middle of the table, was a stack of copies of “Christ of the Last Days Has Appeared”. It's not their seminal text, “The Word Appears in The Flesh”, but it's at least something. Given that I've endured having to pretend to want to become preacher in the church (in order to get my hands on the church's teaching materials), being told that I'm just a corrupted, filthy human being, and being constantly reminded that there's no point trying to change anything in my life because God has ordained it just as it is, I think I've earned my book!
Getting my hands on this book is not the only way I've been blessed this weekend. I've found myself editing another issue of our newsletter where I don't need to write anything other than this editorial, because some amazing skeptics have done the work for me!
First up, we have an illuminating article from James Kerr. I've been bugging James, a regular at our Skeptics in the Pub meeting (who many will know as the impeccably-dressed MC for our Wellington conferences), for an article on and off ever since we started this newsletter. Finally, a few months ago, I was at a monthly Humanist Society meeting where one of the society's council members, Iain Middleton, gave a talk on the logistics of a potential Universal Basic Income (UBI plan he had been working on. I'm also a council member of the Humanists, and for years I've admired the passion and hard work both Iain and his partner, Gaylene, have for both our shared cause of Humanism, and the other major cause in their life, a UBI.
Now, I'm not an expert on UBIs, although I've come round to the idea that eventually it might be a necessary tool to ensure a more equitable society. But, at the talk given by Iain, it felt like there was something off about the simplicity of his UBI plan. There were several red flags that I brought up in question time, but I figured that, as I'm not an economist, I'm unlikely to be able to have an informed opinion about Iain's numbers. However, James at Skeptics in the Pub is another matter altogether! He's a qualified professional, and he's a skeptic to boot. So I found a paper online that Iain had written about his UBI plan, and dangled it in front of James enticingly, hoping he'd bite. And, what do you know? He delivered a great article that explains, in layman's terms, why there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Secondly we have an article from Katrina, one of our new committee members who will be filling in for Craig on the podcast for the next couple of episodes. She's looked into Elon Musk's Neuralink, and what it means that he's just received FDA approval for a brain/machine interface study.
Then we have an article from Dan Ryan, who has had enough of some horribly racist nonsense he's been seeing online, all prompted by Disney's casting decisions for one of their movies. He looks at the trash he's seen, and tries to find out if there's really a conspiracy to manipulate movie reviews.
Finally, Bronwyn has waded deep into the beginnings of Scientology in New Zealand, and uncovered some fascinating information about our links to L. Ron Hubbard's silly self-help nonsense. And not only has she done this, but she also promises to look into a local off-shoot of Scientology, Zenith Applied Philosophy (ZAP) next week. Given that I've known of the existence of ZAP for 10 years or more now, but still know next to nothing about them, I'm really looking forward to next week's article.