Subjective Validation is also sometimes called the 'personal validation effect' because it refers to a process by which people accept some claim or phenomenon as valid based solely upon a few personal experiences and/or subjective perception. This subjective validation is generally at the heart of people’s reports of the experience of paranormal phenomena. For example, when it comes to readings by astrologers or psychics, a person will quickly focus on and remember the “hits” or accurate statements, but forget and ignore the “misses,” or inaccurate statements. In this manner, the person has subjectively validated their preconception that there exists some sort of astrological or psychic connection between things in the universe.

 

Read Article: Subjective Validation: Seeing Patterns & Connections That Aren't There

Some people might tend to think that atheists are such a minority that they have never heard of any famous atheists who have contributed to society. As a matter of fact, many famous philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and more have been atheists.

 

Read Article: Are There Any Famous Atheists?

People who challenge Christian privileges and the abuse of government power to promote Christianity are almost invariably subjected to harassment, threats, and even violence by their "good Christian" neighbors. This holds true if the complaints come from atheists, Jews, pagans, or even Christians themselves. This is why the identities of challengers are often kept anonymous, especially in court cases — otherwise the bullying and harassment may force people to withdraw.

What this means is that efforts to expose the identity of people making complaints is almost certainly done with the full knowledge and intention of subjecting them to the harassment, threats, and even violence that they are being protected from. People who want to reveal these identities are arguably trying to aid and abet the use of intimidation to force minorities to cease challenging unjust privileges. That's what I fear has occurred in the case of John Freshwater. Read more...

If it's not bizarre enough that traditional, religious patriarchy reduces to little more than "God gave me a penis, so God wants me in charge," there have been some who have argued that in order to find more favor with God, it's necessary to cut off some of those dangling bits. A eunuch still has their penis and thus retains their sign of divine favor, but castration removes the bits which make the penis more useful. So God prefers the penis, but God likes a useless penis even more. Huh?

 

Read Article: Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven: Let He Who Can Accept This, Accept It