New Years Eve and Eastwick

Greetings.

Jewish date:  14 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayḥi).

Today’s holidays:  New Years Eve (Western Christianity), Feast of Sylvester (Roman Catholicism), Affeye (Discordianism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Support Clinical Trials: A Vital Lifeline for Cancer Patients! - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  Did not know that New Years Eve is a religious holiday?  Then consider this:  Assume that Jesus of Nazareth was born on December 25.  (The date is questionable, but let us assume it anyway.)  Jewish males are supposed to be circumcised on the eighth day of life.  Therefor, if Jesus was born on December 25, he was circumcised on January 1.  That is what tonight’s celebration is about.

Topic 2:  The latest episode of Eastwick, “Magic Snow and Creep Gene”.  This is the least magical episode so far.  Roxie killed Jamie in self-defense, and Kat and Joanna helped her fake him leaving town.  After that they do not feel inclined to use their powers.  Darryl disappears temporarily, and when he returns he tells Roxie something of his life-story.  Twenty-five years earlier, Eleanor, Bun, and a third woman, Gloria (mother of Jamie), inadvertently summoned Darryl when they started to work magic.  Unfortunately, things went horribly wrong, Gloria had a relationship with Darryl and then about nine months later committed suicide, and Eleanor and Bun tried to kill Darryl.  Darryl left Eastwick and only returned when inadvertently summoned by Roxie, Kat, and Joanna.  While Darryl refuses to say what he is other than a “person”, his purpose in Eastwick is to help people with magic.  Now that his magical protégées have stopped working magic, he has to leave Eastwick again.  This course of action is obviated when Roxie, Kat, and Joanna take up magic again, most graphically in this episode when Kat makes it snow indoors.  I hope we get a bit more info on what Darryl is in the last two episodes.

Also notable:  String-pulling behind the scenes.  Bizarre conspiracies.  The first episode in which Darryl sleeps with one of his protégées (Roxie).

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, noting how far New Years Eve has strayed from its religious roots:  “fred at last new years party”:


Peace.

Aaron

Cardboard Jesus in Gospel films and profiling

Greetings.

Jewish date:  13 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayḥi).

Today’s holiday:  Sixth day in the Octave of Christmas (Roman Catholicism)

Topic 1:  Last night I watched yet another Gospel movie, Color of the Cross.  This is the worst of the bunch I have seen so far, being based on the blatantly wrong premise that Jesus was black and that the color of his skin contributed to his (alleged) persecution.  Racism is not a concept in the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament, and forcing it into the story only made a poorly researched script even worse.  But watching this cinematic disaster, I realized something about the Gospel movies I have seen so far (The Passion of the Christ, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Judas Project, Jesus, and Color of the Cross):  Jesus in the movies is dull.  Cinematic Jesus so far has shown little depth or real emotion.  While the Gospels cast Jesus as perfect, the movies make him an overly serene cardboard character who is easily beaten up.  The real Jesus had a following, and for that one needs personality and charisma.  The Gospels depict him arguing with his opponents, cursing those who do not agree with him, and thinking in terms of “us versus them”.  Jesus even curses a fig tree, of all things.  Godspell gets colorful with Jesus’s parables, but none of these movies produces the feeling that he is someone that real people would follow.  Pay attention, filmmakers:

Topic 2:  “Of Bombs and Underpants”.  This article by Rav Harry Maryles deals with a controversy that has been discussed on and off in the United States since at least 2001:  profiling people for security.  Muslims hate it, and many people think it smacks of prejudice.  Tough.  The fact is that terrorists, especially terrorists interested in attacking Americans, are disproportionately Muslim.  Yes, most Muslims are not terrorists.  But if one is looking for terrorists and has only finite time and resources, it is most efficient to scrutinize people who are more likely to be terrorists than treat everyone equally.  Is this fair?  Maybe not.  But Islam is at war with the West, and it would be stupid not to fight back.

Topic 3:  Recent reports on anti-Semitism in the media:  “"Huge Settlement" = Huge Mess”, “Israel Killing "Activists" Not Terrorists”, and “Israelis "Playing Mini-Mengele"”.  Plenty of evil word games.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor, something appropriate to my complaining about Gospel films, courtesy of Barry:  “Nothing’s A Hundred Percent”.


Peace.

Aaron

Ceiling Cat

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayḥi).

Today’s holidays:  Feast of Thomas Becket (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of Molinos (Thelema).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Save America's Fisheries - The Petition Site”.

Today’s topic:  Not really much is new on the religious news front.  I have watched more religion-related movies recently, but The Passion of the Christ does nothing to excuse itself from my charge of anti-Semitism in the Gospels yesterday (besides having little of interest other than its attempt to use original languages and a lot of violence), and Pirates of the Caribbean:  At World’s End is so incomprehensible that I dare not say anything about its theology until I have a chance to watch it again.  I am therefore going straight to the religious humor and shall discuss the LOLcat god, Ceiling Cat.

“Ceiling Cat on vakashun”:

I am not aware of a god ever reported as going on vacation.  This idea may be borrowed from Bruce Almighty, which has God letting a mortal who thinks he can do a better job run the show in Buffalo and the surrounding area for a while.

“ceiling cat in meeting nao.”:

This does not work well with traditional ideas of deities either.  They are usually depicted as receiving our prayers without need for a visible messenger.  Yes, I am aware of depictions of angels carrying up prayers, but never any of them asking for a message.

Peace.

Aaron

The canonical Gospels are anti-Semitic

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayḥi).

Today’s holidays:  Holy Innocents’ Day (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Tell Obama: Stop the Violence in Sudan - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  “Profiling”.  This is a Dry Bones cartoon on political correctness applied to airport security in the United States.

Topic 2:  I am currently going through the New Testament in the original Koinē Greek—right now in the middle of Mark 9, to be precise—and as such I have been slowing working my way through my collection of Gospel-related movies.  Last Thursday night I watched the musical Jesus Christ Superstar (the 1973 version, which is inferior to the 2000 version), and finishing it with some extra time before bedtime, I also watched an included interview with the man responsible for it, Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Among other things, Webber claimed that Jesus Christ Superstar is not anti-Semitic, noting that there are both good and bad Jewish characters.  I beg to disagree and will attempt to prove that any Gospel-based movie which sticks close enough to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John is anti-Semitic.  To do this, let us examine all of Jesus’s opponents in the Gospels:

1) Herod the Great.  Religion:  Allegedly Judaism, but probably not Jewish according to Jewish law and certainly not practicing Judaism.  He was an Idumean.  The Idumeans were forcibly converted by the Hasmoneans/Maccabees, the only instance of forced conversion to Judaism in Jewish history, and as such the conversion was invalid.  Herod was no friend of anybody, Jewish or non-Jewish, and the Gospels depict him as trying to kill Jesus as a baby.

2) Herod Antipas.  Religion: uncertain.  He is depicted by the Gospels as not really caring if Jesus lives or dies when Pilate sends Jesus to him.  Mention is also made of a group known as “Herodians” who ganged up with the Pharisees against Jesus.

3) Pontius Pilate.  Religion:  ancient Roman religion.  He is infamous for being bloodthirsty, except in the Gospels, in which he is depicted as being reluctant to execute Jesus.  Pilate, of course, has a lot of Roman underlings.

4) Judas Iscariot.  Religion:  Judaism.  The Gospels claim that he is originally a follower of Jesus, but later betrays him to the “chief priests” for 30 pieces of silver.

5) The “chief priests”.  Probably this refers to the High Priest (hakKohen hagGadhol) and those associated with him.  At this point the High Priests got into office by bribing the Romans, and the Gospels depict the High Priest Caiaphas and his cronies as one of the driving forces to have Jesus executed, whether or not there was it was actually legal to do so.  The Jewish priesthood (kohanim) still survives today.

6) The Sadducees (Ṣidduqim).  A Jewish priestly and aristocratic faction.  This faction was very Temple-centered, and they became extinct with the destruction of the Second Temple.

7) The Pharisees.  The Pharisees were a Jewish populist faction, and they dominated in the Sanhedhrin, the Jewish supreme court.  Pharisaism went on to become the formal version of Judaism and is now known as Orthodox Judaism.  (Yes, your humble blogger is a Pharisee.)  The Pharisees are frequently depicted arguing with Jesus over matters of Jewish law, though their side of the argument is incomplete at best and at worst distorted or omitted.  Pharisaic tradition has the Pharisees as being in conflict with the Sadducees, High Priests, and Herod the Great, but the Gospel has them ganging up with pretty much anyone against Jesus.  The scholars of the Pharisees, the Scribes (Soferim), are also explicitly mentioned as being in conflict with Jesus; today they are known as rabbis.

8) “The mob” (hē okhlos).  Religions frequently have both formal versions and folk versions, and Judaism is no exception.  Jews of the time who had not accepted upon themselves to be a member of any of the formal groups would belong here.  “The mob” is depicted as going gaga over Jesus until he is arrested, at which point they suddenly turn against him and demand his execution.

Now, whom do the Gospels blame for the death of Jesus?  At the time of the Crucifixion, Herod the Great is dead, so he cannot be held accountable.  Herod Antipas is sent Jesus by Pontius Pilate, but he refuses to do anything and sends him back.  Pontius Pilate does not want to execute Jesus, but succumbs to the pressure from those around him and washes his hands to absolve himself of culpability.  Though the Romans perform the actual execution, responsibility in cast upon the Jews.  Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus.  The “chief priests” push to have Jesus executed.  “The mob” cries for Jesus to be executed and take upon themselves and their children responsibility for his execution.  Add to this that the Pharisees and Scribes, who represent the formal Judaism that survives past the destruction of the Second Temple, are in constant conflict with Jesus.  The only major Jewish religious faction at the end of the Second Temple Period which is not attacked or blamed in some way in the Gospels is the Essenes, but they lived out in the middle of nowhere, away from the action.  The message is simple:  Judaism is in opposition to the teachings of Jesus, and the Jews are responsible for his death.  Reading it otherwise is at best very, very difficult.  I fully realize that many Christians have turned against the anti-Semitic attitudes of the Gospels as of late—the Gospels not being prophetic books, which allows a good deal of leeway in their interpretation and disagreement with them—but let us not pretend that the story as presented canonically is anything innocuous.

Topic 3:  To end on a lighter note, “ceiling cat?”:

Ceiling Cat is the LOLcat equivalent of God, and this picture reminds me of a naïve interpretation of deities.  Back when I was in kindergarten, I attended a Jewish school, and they taught us a little song about YHWH (AKA HashShem, God of Judaism):

HashShem is here.
HashShem is there.
HashShem is truly everywhere.

HashShem is here.

HashShem is there.

HashShem is truly everywhere.

Up, up, down, down,

Right, left, all around,

Here, there, everywhere,

That’s where He can be found.

Up, up, down, down,

Right, left, all around,

Here, there, everywhere,

That’s where He can be found.

Being only five years old and not very theologically sophisticated at the time, I did not have a clue what the song was about.  I envisioned a man who was around a lot rather than a panentheistic or transcendental deity.  The cat in this picture does not seem much better off, as he/she seems to think that his deity literally lives in the ceiling.

Peace.

Aaron

10 Ṭeveth and selective breeding

Greetings.

Jewish date:  10 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayḥi).

Today’s holidays:  The Fast of Ṭeveth (Judaism), Feast of the Holy Family (Roman Catholicism), Ashurah (Islam).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Don't Let Consumer Electronics Fuel the Congo Conflict - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  “The Fast of the Tenth of Tevet on OU.ORG”, which gives some basic information on today’s Jewish holiday.  10 Ṭeveth is part of a set of holidays commemorating the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem, as well as other sad events.  Noted especially is that the point of fasting is as a means towards repentance; fasting coupled with irrelevant or contradictory activities misses the point.

Topic 2:  “Nice Rats, Nasty Rats: Maybe It’s All in the Genes”.  This article describes experiments in Siberia on domestication started in 1959 by Dmitri K. Belyaev.  Belyaev worked with silver foxes.  In less that 40 years the foxes had been bred into tame, very doglike animals.  This rapid rate of change through selective breeding has also been replicated in rats.  That selective pressure can operate so quickly to produce such dramatic results should be a warning to those who deny the power of evolution.  One of the claims frequently made by creationists is that huge changes are impossible.  But humans have tampered with every animal and plant we have domesticated, sometimes dramatically.  Dogs are domesticated wolves, but one would not recognize many dog breeds as such at first glance; indeed, many dog breeds are so different from each other, e.g, chihuahua and Saint Bernard, that they could easily be mistaken for separate species.  If humans have such power over other creatures through use of selective breeding, imagine what a god could do.

Peace, and have an easy fast.

Aaron

Some people have strange ideas of what Christmas is about

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

Today’s holidays:  Christmas (Western Christianity), Feast of the Greater Mysteries (Thelema).

Topic 1:  “Not again! Giant Swedish Christmas goat statue gets torched”:  I do not really understand this.  There are a lot of practices associated with Christmas, but, of all things, destroying a huge straw statue of a goat?  Is this supposed to be in memory of the Grinch or Scrooge or something?

Topic 2: “From Santa to Sanballat”:  This is an article on Christmas in Israel.  Highlighted are stunts performed by Christian Arabs which miss the whole “peace on Earth, goodwill towards men” aspect and use the holiday as an excuse for anti-Semitism, the latest being a newly released document from Christian Arab clerics called “Kairos Palestine 2009”, which unfairly blames the Israelis for everything bad the so-called “Palestinians” experience.  Emphasized is that a message of universality and love does not support an “us versus them” mentality.

Topic 3:  I have a huge back-store of Christmas-related humor, so you are getting it all now.

“How My Cat Reacts to…”:

“As the humans unexpectedly entered,”:

“imposter ornamint”:

“Santa remeberd”:

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself.”:

“INVISIBLE PREZINT”:

“deer… santa… i… haz…”:

“i preetee shur santa not gonna”:

“He sees you when you’re sleeping.”:

“Yu sed camra wuz”:

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

No, there is no Santa Claus

Greetings.

Jewish date:  7 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

Today’s holidays:  Christmas Eve (Christianity), Thursday of the Fourth Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “action.firedoglake.com | Kill the Senate Bill - Sign our Petition”.  Also:  I gave platelets today.  Please consider donating blood or blood components if you can and save someone’s life.  Thank you.

Today’s topic is the common American practice of lying to children and encouraging them to believe in Santa Claus, which gets taken to elaborate lengths, such as the Official NORAD Santa Tracker, which allegedly lets people know where Santa is during his flight in real time.  To start off the discussion, I would like to present an essay contributed to me under the pseudonym of the Weird thing of the day character Malcolm NC-17:

Is There a Santa Claus?

I take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time my great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Weird Thing of the Day:

“Dear Malcolm:  I am 8 years old.

“Some of my little friends say there is a Santa Claus.

“Papa says ‘If you see it in The Weird Thing of the Day it’s so.’

“Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

“Virginia O’Hanlon.

“115 West Ninety-Fifth Street.”

Virginia, your little friends are wrong.  They have been affected by the gullibility of a gullible age.  They believe whatever they are told, not what they see.  They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.  All minds, Virginia, whether they be grown-ups’ or children’s, are little.  In this great universe of ours humanity is like a mere insect, an ant, in our intellect, as compared with the boundless world about us, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole truth and knowledge.

No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus.  He does not exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion do exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.  Alas! how unchanged would be the world if there was no Santa Claus.  It would be less dreary than if there were no Virginias.  There would still be childlike faith then, poetry, and romance to make tolerable this existence.  We should still have enjoyment, beyond that in sense and sight.  The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would burn as brightly as ever.

Believe in Santa Claus!  You might as well believe in fairies!  You might get your papa to hire people to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even they will not see Santa Claus coming down, and what does that prove?  Nobody sees Santa Claus, and that is reason to think that there is no Santa Claus.  The only real things in the world one can be sure of are those that both children and grown-ups can sense or leave traces that they were there.  Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn?  Of course not, and there is no evidence that they are there.  Anyone can conceive or imagine all the wonders there that are unseen and unseeable in their fantasies.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, and so any veil covering the unseen world the wisest people, or even the united wisdom of all the wisest people that ever lived, can tear it apart.  Only evidence, reason, effort, work, insight, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.  Is it all real?  Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else we can be sure is real and abiding.

Santa Claus!  Thank God! it does not matter if he lives.  A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, it will be love and generosity and devotion which make glad the heart of childhood.

To make a long essay short:  “The story of the guy who lives at the North Pole is false, so don’t believe it.  You won’t lose anything by doing so.”  Truth is widely considered a virtue, including among Christians (e.g., see John 8:32).  Every competent adult familiar with the story of Santa knows that on a literal level it is impossible (or at least requires technology so far beyond what humanity is known to have now so as to be ridiculously improbable).  Malcolm therefore says it straight (and eloquently) that there is no Santa, plain and simple.  And Malcolm is largely right.  There are no extenuating circumstances to justify lying to children and trying to make them believe something false.  No one is going to die horribly or be irreparably damaged if children are told that the stories about Santa are just stories.  Non-Christian children grow up not believing in Santa, and they turn out just fine despite it.

I do remember some claim arguing for telling children that Santa Claus is real in the name of “faith”.  But faith is a rather broad notion, and the sort of faith needed to believe something as fantastic as Santa Claus is blind faith.  Blind faith is belief even in the face of strong contrary evidence, and such faith, because it is worthless to know the truth, is faith not worth having.

Better we just tell children that Santa is a symbol of Christmas and let them enjoy the stories as stories.

Also:  No one is getting to the end of this post without first looking at a bunch of Santa-related LOLcats. (I got myself into this religious humor thing, and now you are all going to have to suffer it.)

“FEAR”:


“Looks like Basement Cat”:


“The lesser known reindeer,”:


“CHRISTMAS NINJA”:


“deer Santuh Klawz:”:


“Goin on Santa’s naughty list”:


“well sinse u ask”:


“pssst… tell santa”:


“oh no!”:


“sshhhh…… Iz hidez here”:


Peace.

Aaron

Folly in the name of religion and anti-Semitism

Greetings.

Jewish date:  6 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

Today’s holidays:  Saint Day of John of Kanty (Roman Catholicism), Founding of Agia Sofia (Greek Orthodox Christianity).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Libel reform campaign petition statement”, “We Need A Hero | Progressive Change Campaign Committee”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: Sign the petition”, and “Stop New Mining Near the Grand Canyon - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1: “Measles kills children of anti-vaccination sect”.  I have said it before, and I say it again (and probably many more times in the future, too):  Whatever god exists or karma does not favor those who act foolishly in the name of religion.  In this case, the Johanne Marange Apostolic Church (probably a Pentecostal group) in Zimbabwe holds that people should not make use of medicine, including vaccination.  Unsurprisingly, this group is suffering from a measles epidemic, and 30 people have died.  Keep in mind, wisdom literature (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) is part of the Canon for a reason.

Topic 2:  “Dishonest Reporter Award 2009” and “Kaddafi Back in My Backyard”.  Both of these articles deal with current anti-Semitism.  The former reviews the worst anti-Semitic incidents in a number of categories in 2009.  The latter, by Rav Shmuely Boteach, vents over a number of recent incidents in the United States (the Libyan embassy setting up shop in Englewood, the settlement freeze), the United Kingdom (various hostile actions against Israel, trying to dictate who is a Jew), and the Vatican (the planned canonization of Pius XII); he pleads for Jews not to be complacent, to stand up for themselves, and to consider running for public office.  Rav Boteach is definitely right that bad things happen politically to those who do not stand up for themselves.  Politicians feel the pressure to do whatever they can to gain and hold on to power, even if it means stepping on people who do not deserve it.  No one should let politicians commit injustice by being a doormat.  The Dry Bones cartoon “Twenty Years Later” is also relevant to this topic.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Can i haz”.


Peace.

Aaron

“Chicago: Supremacist Group Conspires Against Rights”

Greetings.

Jewish date:  5 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

Today’s holiday:  Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Alliance for Climate Protection | Hold big polluters accountable” and “Cut Global Warming Pollution from Big Emitters - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  “Chicago: Supremacist Group Conspires Against Rights”.  This article deals with a conflict of freedom of religion with the limits of freedom of speech.  The Islamist group Ḥizb ut-Taḥrir America has been preaching that any Muslim who leaves Islam should be killed.  And the article notes that Muslims in the United States have actually put this into practice multiple times.  The author of the article is, naturally, outraged, complaining of the failure of the government to do anything about it.  Whether the views Ḥizb ut-Taḥrir America are valid in Islam is a matter for Muslim scholars to decide, but the author of the article does make a valid point about freedom of religion, that Ḥizb ut-Taḥrir America is crossing a line.  We live in a society which has collectively decided to give everyone freedom of religion.  This includes the freedom to believe and practice something other people do not approve of.  This has nothing to do with acceptance or everyone being equally right.  The government is not in the business of being the ultimate arbiter of truth, and we prefer keeping it that way.  As such, we have learned to at least barely tolerate each other and thus make each others’ lives a bit easier.  Ḥizb ut-Taḥrir America is trying to live by an incompatible set of rules, working to impose Islam on everyone, whether they want to live under planetary Islamic dominion or not, and promoting killing people who decided they did not want to be Muslims.  The contradiction is real, and the author of the article is right that the US government should intervene if they want to guarantee freedom of religion.

Topic 2:  For today’s religious humor:  “Hark da”:

Apparently these cats are having a little trouble with the lyrics...

Peace.

Aaron

The relationship between religion and science, religious oppression, and torturing cats

Greetings.

Jewish date:  4 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

Today’s holidays:  Saint Day of Peter Canisius (Roman Catholicism), Winter Solstice/Yule (various).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Put Wall Street to Work Rebuilding Main Street! - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  “Creation, Evolution, and Christian Laypeople”.  This article deals with perceived conflicts between Christianity and science.  Notable is the debunking of the notion that if humans are hardwired for religion, this would prove all religions are wrong; for all we know, a creator deity could have bred this into humanity deliberately.  Much of this article deals with the question of how to interpret the early chapters of Genesis, Romans 5, and 1 Corinthians 15.  The early parts of Genesis are hard enough for Jews to interpret.  For Christians it is worse since the New Testament, which has the notion of Original Sin, seems to take the position that ’Adham and Ḥawwah (Adam and Eve) were historical figures.  The attempt is interesting, even if one does not agree.

Topic 2:  More religious oppression:  “Plot Targeting Turkey’s Religious Minorities Allegedly Discovered” (and the plot does not even make sense), “Turks Threaten to Kill Priest over Swiss Minaret Decision” (misplaced and inappropriate rage), “Minister says burqa-style veils impede citizenship” (focus on symbols rather than substance), and “KYRGYZSTAN: Religious freedom survey, December 2009”.

Topic 3:  For some more or less religious humor:  “Dress ur cat in gay apparel”.


Peace, and please, do not torture your cat.

Aaron

Child abuse as magic, divorce vouchers for Christmas, and Jewsmas

Greetings.

Jewish date:  3 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

Today’s holidays:  Fourth Sunday of Advent (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Block the bill until it's fixed”.

Topic 1: “Brazil police: Needles in boy reportedly a ritual” and “Brazil needle victim recovers, outrage at cruelty”.  I have already been bugged about this story.  Thus is it written what this is about:

A Brazilian toddler is making a good recovery after surgery to remove the first of 31 sewing needles pushed into his body by his stepfather in a cruel act that has enraged locals, the hospital said on Saturday.

The 2 1/2-year-old boy, underwent a nearly five-hour procedure on Friday to remove two rusted needles from near his heart and two more from one of his lungs.

His stepfather, 30-year-old Roberto Carlos Magalhaes, has been arrested and confessed to putting the needles in the boy's body at the behest of his lover who said the act would help the two to stay together, police said.

The pair were guided by a local practitioner of an African-Brazilian religion, candoble, and Magalhaes inserted the needles into the boy at his lover's home.

I frankly do not know much about Candomblé, but I am rather puzzled how this acupuncture gone horribly wrong is supposed to work.  If the stepfather wanted to be together with his lover, he should have divorced his wife, the boy’s mother.  Using the boy as a pincushion did nothing to get rid of the mother and has done rather a lot to enrage large numbers of people who have found out about it.  If anything, the ritual has horribly backfired.  The mother may well now divorce the stepfather, but that does not help him be together with his lover if he ends up in jail.

Topic 2: “Happy Christmas honey - here's a divorce voucher”.  Thus is it written:

Stuck for Christmas gift ideas? Is your marriage or a friend's going through a rocky patch? How about a divorce voucher?

In an unusual take on the season of giving, a London law firm is offering Christmas gift vouchers for divorce advice.

I do not suppose these people have read Matthew 19:3-12, in which Jesus displays a severely anti-divorce attitude.  It is an attitude based on questionable exegesis and nullifying any claims that Jesus might have to being a true prophet, given that he claims that Mosheh falsified the Torah.  But still Jesus’s attitude is dead-set against divorce for anything except perhaps adultery, and thus there is something very odd, if not downright anti-Christian, about pushing divorce vouchers as presents for a holiday celebrating Jesus’s birth.


Topic 3:  Jewsmas.  This site, suggested to me by Erin, complains about any and all attempts to interpret Ḥanukkah as “the Jewish Christmas”.  In this it is correct, because Ḥanukkah and Christmas has little in common other than they both fall at roughly the same time of year.  Ḥanukkah celebrates a Jewish victory over an attempt to impose a Greek way of life on Jews.  Christmas is supposed to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  In an attempt at humor, this site proposes that instead of forcing Ḥanukkah in a role that does not fit (e.g., through giving presents and putting up “Ḥanukkah bushes”), we should institute a true Jewish Christmas.  The proposed holiday, Jewsmas, from its description comes off as rather shallow.  Participants play a dreidl drinking game, refuse to eat ham, mumble carols, and ogle non-Jewish women.  Noticeably none of these practices have anything really to do with each other; three of them are just things people might like to do and one is completely pointless.  (Why bother buying a ham if you are never going to eat it?)  If anything, this is a commentary on the sad state of Christmas in the United States.  On television, in the movies, and in people’s front yards the emphasis is on bright, shiny things, commercialism, presents, Christmas trees, Santa Claus, snow, and carols.  Some people put up Nativity scenes, but the birth of Jesus, what Christmas is really supposed to be about, is easily lost or ignored completely among the glitz.  Even if Judaism did not have any problem borrowing from idolatrous and polytheistic religions (which Christianity is a little of both), a version of Christmas which is all sugar and no substance would be a holiday completely unworthy of borrowing.

Peace, and may whatever holiday you celebrate at any time of year be a meaningful one.

Aaron

Religious oppression and extreme idealism

Greetings.

Jewish date:  1 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath MiqQeṣ).

Today’s holidays:  Day 7 of Ḥanukkah (Judaism), Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), Friday of the Third Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism), Islamic New Year (Islam).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Protect Utah's Red Rock Country”.

Topic 1:  “Study: Religion repressed in third of all nations”.  This is a serious, serious problem, especially when most of the planet at least pays lip service towards freedom of religion.  Pointing a gun at someone’s head (literal or metaphorical) may make him/her claim what you want, but it will never make him/her believe what you want.  Shame on all those repressive governments and the people who support them!  And shame on the US government for being friendly with some of these repressive governments!

Topic 2:  “Indian sect members vow to marry sex workers”.  This idea of Dera Sacha Sauda, a group known mostly for annoying Sikhs, is that men should marry prostitutes in order to get them out of prostitution and associated exploitation as well as reducing the transmission of HIV.  (Having fewer sexual partners means having few people one can catch HIV from or pass it on to.)  I am not sure whether to consider this one of the most idealistic things I have ever heard of or one of the craziest.  The crazy part is that a lot of these women have HIV and probably other sexually transmitted diseases, so there is a lot of risk to the men who volunteer for this project.  I hope there is some medical screening and treatment being performed...

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, I present (darkly) “Annoying” and (more silly) “Basement Kitteh…”

This is sort of confusing.  Basement Cat is the LOLcat version of the Devil.  The Devil is not known for eating brains, which is more of a zombie thing.

Peace, happy Ḥanukkah, happy new month, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Someone please tell the atheists to knock off trying to steal holidays

Greetings.

Jewish date:  30 Kislew 5770 (Parashath MiqQeṣ).

Today’s holidays:  Day 6 of Ḥanukkah (Judaism), Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), Thursday of the Third Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism), Saturnalia (ancient Roman).

Worthy causes of the day:  “School Lunch Meat Gets an 'F'”, “Obama: Don't Waver in Your Demand for a Public Option - The Petition Site”, and “Save BioGems: Take Action: Save Polar Bears”.

Topic 1:  “Tea and Psychopathy”, the latest episode of Eastwick.  A couple of relevant things are going on in this episode.  Kat embraces her magical ability to heal to such an extent that she starts wearing herself out, some of her hair turns gray, and she gets nosebleeds.  Clearly magic in this world is not free; it might be cheap, but enough cheap items together can be very expensive.  Also, her abusive ex-husband Ray starts to think she has magic powers when she drops icicles on him and less than subtly hints she may do worse in the future.  Furthermore, Eleanor’s plot to kill Darryl (again) continues unfold.  Eleanor herself poisons Joanna and her frenemy Max to keep them from interfering with her plan, while her coconspirator Jamie tries to force Roxie into murdering Darryl with an unusual dagger she once saw in a vision.  She resists and stabs Jamie instead, which puts him on track to kill her as per her early visions of him.  Evidently Eleanor and Jamie are playing according to the rule that the ends justify the means.  There also seems to be an element of predestination in the visions; so far none of them has been avert.

Topic 2:  “Judge OKs winter solstice display at Ark. Capitol”.  Once again, atheists are at it again trying to usurp a preexisting holiday, in this case the winter solstice.  (Hint:  The Neopagans claimed it first.)  They thus sued to put up a display featuring Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, and Eleanor Roosevelt.  This alone kills any effect they might hope for, given that Bill Gates is not exactly a paragon of morality or reason.  The text for their display, “As the old year passes and a new year is born, we reflect on that which has passed and hope for a better tomorrow.  May the light of reason be a beacon to a brighter future for us all.” is actually a generic platitude.  Few people of any belief system would say something like “May the light of irrationality be a beacon to a brighter future for us all”, the idea is so obviously bad.  Militant atheism is atheism pushed in ways which may give serious atheists something to rally around, but really annoys everyone else—which is neither bright or rational if they want anyone to listen to them enough to be converted.  My advice again:  Atheists really ought to drop the idea of stealing anyone else’s holiday.  Forever.  And they need to get past this idea of “we’re smart and rational and everyone else isn’t”, because it is false, it is annoying, and no one is buying it.  What they need to do is fire their current PR department and start giving people actual reasons to think they are wonderful, and the only way they can do reliably do that is become wonderful.

Topic 3:  For today’s dose of religious humor:  “The Greatest Christmas Decoration Ever!”  I get the humor, but I really, really do not recommend anyone copy this stunt, as it may make people panic.

Peace and happy Ḥanukkah.

Aaron

The pilot of Caprica: “polytheism good, monotheism bad” and the morality of artificial intelligence

Greetings.

Jewish date:  29 Kislew 5770 (Parashath MiqQeṣ).

Today’s holidays:  Day 5 of Ḥanukkah (Judaism), Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “WakeUpWalMart.com - Hope for the Holidays 2009”.

Image via Wikipedia

Today’s topic:  The pilot for Caprica, the prequel to Battlestar Galactica (new series), has shown up on Hulu, and since it is riddled with religious ideas, it is my job to blog about it.  Where do I start?…

• The show’s page on Hulu features in its header graphics the character Zoe Graystone apparently naked (posed to avoid frontal nudity and not showing anything below the shoulder blade, so please, do not freak out) and holding an apple with a bite out of it.  The symbolism of Ḥawwah (Eve) should be apparent to almost anyone.  (Though this apple business really is not from Genesis.  What sort of tree the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was is not recorded, and considering the passage in question is esoteric, not really meaningful.  But I digress.)
• The teenagers Zoe, Ben Stark, and Lacy Rand frequent a virtual reality club in which people can practice practically anything they want in the way of sex or violence, no matter how perverse.  Arguably this is a direction that any holodeck-like technology almost certainly will be developed, and there is the obvious moral question of whether anything done in virtual reality, especially to a nonsentient virtual character, should be treated the same way as doing the same thing in physical reality.  Breaking the stereotype for teenagers, the trio are disgusted with virtual depravity and interested in fighting it.
• Three theologies are mentioned.  One character, a Tauron, claims to be an atheist.  Society in general seems to be polytheistic, worshipping Greco-Roman deities, such as Athena and Mars.  Zoe, Ben, and Lacy have secretly joined the Soldiers of the One, a group which worships the One True God and using infinity (∞) as their symbol.  Polytheism is claimed to be tolerant and welcoming a variety of theological views.  The Soldiers of the One, however, are portrayed as absolutist, authoritarian, and intolerant.  This ties in with the teenage trio being disgusted by the virtual reality club, but it goes much further than that.  Ben, wearing a vest of explosives, proclaims “The One True God shall drive out the many” and blows himself up, killing Zoe and everyone else on the train in the process; the principal of the Athenian Academy, a crypto-Soldier of the One, considers him a hero.  I am aware this attitude of “polytheism good, monotheism bad” goes back to Battlestar Galactica (the new series), and it is does not reflect the way things work on our planet.  Islam, a form of monotheism, is a popular pro-terrorism religion, but while there are Jewish and Christian terrorists, they and their attacks are extremely rare, as neither religion idealizes, promotes, or condones violence for the sake of politics.  Furthermore, polytheists are not entirely peaceful and tolerant.  E.g., Christians in India have been on the receiving end of Hindu violence lately.  Not to mention that Ḥanukkah exists due to a civil war caused by an attempt to impose the polytheistic ancient Greek religion upon monotheistic Jews.  I sincerely hope that the writers break free from the “polytheism good, monotheism bad” attitude and come up with something better and less insulting by the next episode.
• The Orange Catholic Bible of Frank Herbert’s Dune series demands “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind”, and the writers for Caprica have taken this up as a major theme.  Zoe was killed in the suicide bombing, but luckily for her, she created a duplicate of herself in virtual reality.  Zoe II is not identical to Zoe I; she is not created from a brain scan but rather from an amalgamation of all data on Zoe I available via the Caprican equivalent of Google.  However, Zoe II resembles Zoe I to such a degree that her father, Daniel Graystone, ignores the distinction, arguing that Zoe II is Zoe, even having a copy of the original’s soul, and shrugging off the notion that what Zoe I has created is an “abomination”.  Daniel also correctly notes that the unnaturalness of what Zoe I has done does not necessarily make it immoral.  Daniel thus sets out to bring Zoe II into the physical world and succeeds at the very end of the pilot, with Zoe II becoming a robotic Cylon.  I am looking forward to see how the artificial intelligence theme is developed further, including moral questions as to how to treat artificial people.
• Minor items:  Sacrifices are brought in temples to the polytheistic gods.  Taurons wear gloves during mourning to symbolize separation from the world.

Peace and happy Ḥanukkah.

Aaron

Was Jesus a European?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  28 Kislew 5770 (Parashath MiqQeṣ).

Today’s holidays:  Day 4 of Ḥanukkah (Judaism), Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Stop Birth Defects and Cancer From Environmental Pollution - The Petition Site”, “Action at Oil Change”, “action.firedoglake.com | We've found a worm in the apple...”, and “Reform America's Broken Immigration System - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  “Guardian Ed: "In Israel They Murder Each Other a Great Deal"”.  This deals with more anti-Semitism in the British press, in this case an outrageous fantastic claim about the Israel Defense Forces.

Topic 2:  “Black nativity angers Italy's "White Xmas" party”.  This is on a weird sort of pickiness about the depiction of Jesus.  Christianity has sought to be a universal religion.  To symbolize that Christianity is relevant to everyone, historically Christians have depicted people in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament as if they lived in present conditions, i.e., Jesus in Europe has been depicted as if he were European.  This is despite Jesus not being really European.  There is therefore no reason for anyone to get angry over a black Jesus, as he is just as relevant to blacks as whites.

Topic 3:  To end on some humor, I present “The Maccabee Song” and “Eight Days of Fire”.

Peace and happy Ḥanukkah.

Aaron