15 Shevaṭ, rerun reviews, and church “girliness”

Greetings.

Jewish date:  14 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath BeShallaḥ).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Freethinker’s Day/Thomas Paine Day (probably as close to a genuine atheist holiday as I will ever find).

Worthy cause of the day:  “iPad DRM endangers our rights | DefectiveByDesign.org”.

Topic 1:  Tomorrow’s Jewish holiday will be 15 Shevaṭ (Ṭu biShvaṭ).  It is often called the New Year for Trees.  Jewish agricultural laws (ma‘aser (tithing), terumah (the priestly portion), shemiṭṭah (the seventh, fallow year), yovel (the jubilee year)) may require different actions depending on in which year produce is grown.  15 Shevaṭ is the legal dividing line between years for produce.  See “Tu B’Shevat - New Year for the Trees” for more information.  See also the Dry Bones cartoons “Plant a Tree (2010)” and “Tu B'shvat (1998)”.

Topic 2:  Reviews I have written relevant to this week’s Torah portion:  “There can be miracles when you disbelieve: a review of The Prince of Egypt” and “You cut up the Bible, you bloody baboon!:  A review of The Ten Commandments and The Ten Commandments: The Musical”.  Note that the story in these movies and musical stretches over several Torah portions, so expect to hear mention of these again.

Topic 3:  “Real men find Church too girly”.  There are good reasons to not believe or practice certain religions, but feeling one’s male ego is offended is not one of them.  Religion is supposed to be about what is true and right, not what is comfortable.  The group discussed, Christian Vision for Men, seeks to make church more palatable for men, but what they are trying to do is largely skin-deep.  The message that should be delivered:  real men are secure enough in their maleness to do what is right even if is a bit uncomfortable.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor:  “I need a new minion…”:


Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Orthodox Jewish introspection, religious oppression

Greetings.

Jewish date:  13 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath BeShallaḥ).

Today’s holidays:  Feast Day of Thomas Aquinas (Roman Catholicism and Thelema(!)), Feast Day of Carolus Magnus (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Stop the corporate takeover of our government”, “Take Action | Oceana North America:  Tell Your Senators to Vote NO on the Dirty Air Act”, “Find a Lasting Solution to Medicare Doctor Payments: No More Cuts! - The Petition Site”, “Libel reform campaign petition statement”, and “Free Press: media reform through education, organizing and advocacy:”.

Topic 1:  I am always appreciative of anyone being introspective of their own religion, including when that religion happens to be my own, Judaism; we only can do repentance when we face up to what we are doing wrong.  In that spirit, I recommend “Reversed Wisdom: Daas Torah vs. Daas Baalei Batim” and “Daas Torah Vs. Daas Baalei Batim, Redux”, which tackle several shameful problems in modern Orthodox Jewish society.  People who are not Orthodox Jews may want to ask themselves if their own religious communities have the same or akin problems—and many of the problems are not limited to one religion by any means—and also think about what to do to counteract them.

Topic 2:  More religious oppression (and, no, these are not going to go away any time soon):  “Nigeria: Chilling messages sent before killings”, “Pope decries 'aversion' to Christians”, and “Rights group: Russian religious freedom in danger”.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Concerns of Dyslexic Evangelicals”:


Peace.

Aaron

Have we really learned anything from the Holocaust?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath BeShallaḥ).

Today’s holidays:  Feast Day of Angela Merici (Roman Catholicism), Chaosloth (Discordianism).

Topic 1:  “International Holocaust Remembrance Day”.  Yes, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is what I term a “quasi-holiday”, but a lot of people still have to learn this quasi-holiday’s message:  tolerance.  This article notes that anti-Semitism is still a big problem throughout the West and the Islamic world, including—but by no means limited to—Iran threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth and working on building nuclear weapons in order to make good on this threat.  (See also “Montreal Campus Radio Blames Israel for Abu Ghraib Prisoner Atrocities” and “Israel Prepares to Rebut Goldstone” for more contemporary anti-Semitism.)  While the extent of hate crimes against non-Jews of various belief systems in the United States is mentioned (212 in 2008), intolerance is pervasive over much of the planet.  The Islamic world is intolerant, often violently, of non-Muslims and even Muslims who disagree with those in power; they are busy ridding themselves of Christians and committing genocide in the Sudan.  The governments of the former Soviet Union have the bizarre notion that religions must register with the government, refuse registration of any group they do not like on the most pathetic excuses, and harass, jail, and expel anyone engaging in “illegal” religious activity.  China has an atheistic government which has the absurd notion that it has to control the religions of others and wipe out whatever it cannot control.  And then I periodically hear of smaller scale intolerance, too.  Not to mention that people bent on doing evil or their useful idiots will often invoke the Holocaust in an effort to justify or shield themselves from the consequences of the evil.  So what have we learned in the past 60 years?  Very often, nothing.  I sadly predict that when the Darfur genocide is over, lots of people will moan over the pointless tragedy, pretend that they knew nothing about it or that their governments could have done nothing, and resolve to never let anything like this happen again—only to do nothing the next time genocide occurs.

Topic 2:  “Faith Healing”.  Faith healing does not work and can be fatal, and this article does a good job explaining how people can be misled into believing they have been cured through faith.  Keep in mind:  If YHWH wanted us to be healed by faith, He would not have given us doctors.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “States Satan Failed To Collect Souls”:

Note:  Relevant commentary:  “Thirty-Nine Questions for Charlie Daniels Upon Hearing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" for the First Time in 25 Years.”

Peace.

Aaron

Blogging for Jesus and religious intolerance

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Beshallaḥ).

Today’s holiday:  Feast of Timothy and Titus (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “action.firedoglake.com | Tell House Progressives: Stand Up for Real Reform, Vote Down the Senate Bill” and “Payment Cuts for Medicare Physicians are Bad News for Older Americans - The Petition Site”.  Also:  I got my H1N1 influenza shot this morning.  Please consider getting your H1N1 flu shot and save someone else from getting the disease.

Topic 1:  “Pope to priests: Go forth and blog”.  It may sound a bit odd, but Pope Benedict XVI is being practical.  The mission of Christianity is to evangelize, so it makes perfect sense for the Roman Catholic Church to be pushing social media on the Internet.

Topic 2:  More religious intolerance:  “Horrors of religious violence found in Nigeria” (Muslim versus Christian), “Pakistani Christian Sentenced to Life under ‘Blasphemy’ Law” (Muslim against Christian), “Lahore: 12-year-old Christian domestic worker killed by Muslim employer” (Muslim against Christian), and “For bigots, Israel can do no right” (anti-Semitic against Jewish).  I know these themes are like a broken record, but these problems do not go away quickly or on their own.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, this contribution by Barry:  “Son of Ceiling Cat walks on ice”:


Peace.

Aaron

Anti-Semitism and misapplied technology

Greetings.

Jewish date:  10 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Beshallaḥ.)

Today’s holidays:  Conversion of St. Paul (Roman Catholicism); Feast of Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople (Greek Orthodox Christianity); Feast of Saint Margarita (Greek Orthodox Christianity).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Demand Quality Pre-K Educators - The Petition Site”, “Keep Health Insurance Accessible for Americans Aged 50 and Higher - The Petition Site”, and “action.firedoglake.com | Tell House Progressives: Stand Up for Real Reform, Vote Down the Senate Bill”.

Topic 1:  More on contemporary anti-Semitism:  “Protesting Anti-Semitism is "Hardline"?” and “Middle East Pride”.  The latter references some particularly improbable accusations.

Topic 2:  Two misapplications of technology:  “Solar-powered Bibles sent to Haiti” and “Egypt mufti wants to put prayer ringtone on silent”.  The former, which are machines which can read the Christian Bible to 300 people at a time, are a waste, since we have a technology going back hundreds of years called “paper” which requires no power whatsoever.  For the price of one machine, one can buy many paper Bibles and thus reach more people, especially if these people share their Bibles, read them out-loud to the illiterate, and discuss their contents with each other.  Not to mention that humans are better suited to teach the illiterate to read than mere machines.  The later article discusses Muslim sacred music being used to tell when someone is calling; understandably, the grand mufti of Egypt considers this inappropriate and potentially confusing.

Image of non-dangerous tefillin via Wikipedia

Topic 3:  The patent absurdity of in-flight panic over tefillin still has the attention of Jewish humorists.  Thus today’s religious humor is “Top 10 Signs that the Guy Putting on Teffilin Next to you on your Flight is Really a Terrorist”.

Peace.

Aaron

Of all the things for people to panic over…

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Beshallaḥ).

Today’s holiday:  Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Stop the flood of corporate money into our democracy”.

Image of tefillin via Wikipedia

Today’s topic:  You may have heard about this story already:  “Jewish religious item leads to false bomb scare on U.S. plane”.  This is a case in which someone on an airplane panicked over someone’s tefillin (AKA phylacteries), which are black leather boxes with straps which observant Jewish men wear (mostly) while praying.  This is a sign that some people need a basic religious education, if for no other reason than to know what sort of practices are harmless and not worth panicking over.  “The Comedy of the Teffilin Bomber”, pokes fun at the utter absurdity of the incident—and it really is absurd since tefillin are a horrible design for something meant to be dangerous.  Putting on tefillin involves strapping them on one’s head and weaker arm and is not easily hidden.  Someone who is trying to commit an act of terrorism, on the other hand, is going to try to keep it secret until it is too late; actual terrorists conceal their explosives under their clothes and hope no one finds them.  Furthermore, the vast majority of religious terrorists are Muslim.  Jewish terrorists are rare and have no interest in attacking the United States; their targets have been Muslims.  A word to airline security:  Stop panicking over things which are harmless and assuming anyone doing anything the least bit unusual is dangerous.  Start asking the Israelis how to detect actual terrorists and stop harassing everyone else.

Peace.

Aaron

Lying for Islam and holy rifles

Greetings.

Jewish date:  7 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Bo’).

Today’s holiday:  Feast of Vincent (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Time for Bold Leadership: Pass Real Health Care Reform”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: It's time to fight for working families”, “Finish Reform Right - Full Letter”, “DemocracyForAmerica.com » Democrats Must Lead to Win in 2010”, “American Heart Association - Reinventing Healthcare”, “Take Action: No legitimacy for Bashir | Save Darfur”, “Tell Congress: Don't learn the wrong lesson from losing Kennedy's seat! | Progressive Change Campaign Committee”, and “Take Action: TrueMajority.org:  We Need Liberal Lions ”.

Topic 1:  “How Taqiyya Alters Islam's Rules of War / Defeating Jihadist Terrorism”:  This article deals with the Islamic practice of taqiyya, religiously sanctioned lying.  Islam permits lying in order for Muslims to escape persecution.  But lying has a much more insidious use:  waging war against, subduing, and converting unbelievers.  Plenty of citations, both to primary sources and to how taqiyya is practiced, are given.

Topic 2:  “Michigan defense contractor has God in its sights”.  Thus is it written:

Combat rifle sights used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan carry references to Bible

Image of someone you would never expect to have anything to do with guns via Wikipedia

verses, stoking concerns about whether the inscriptions break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops.

Why references to John 8:12 and 2 Corinthians 4:6 were engraved on military weapons is not stated in this article or any other article I have read on this issue.  If it is supposed to curry favor with Jesus, it seems hardly likely that inscribing verse references (at least alone) would do the trick, especially since Jesus, as depicted in the Gospels, despite being argumentative, was a pacifist.  (He could have easily escaped crucifixion, but allowed himself to be captured and declined to defend himself.  He preached that others do the same, and thus was the Christian concept of martyrdom born.)  Compare a thief praying not to be caught:  what deity hating theft would aid him/her?  What is clear is that is not an attempt at proselytizing.  The verse references are in tiny letters and have been put on guns by the manufacturer for 30 years; apparently only now has anyone noticed or, at any rate, complained.  The company responsible for the verse references has agreed to end the practice.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, submitted by Harold:  “Why I love being an orthodox Jew”.  (What?  You were expecting another LOLcat?)  WARNING:  Some research may be required for the uninitiated to understand certain parts of this article.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Never blindly trust a translation II

Greetings.

Jewish date:  5 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Bo’).

Today’s holidays:  Feast Days of Fabian and Sebastian (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: General Mills Palm Oil Causes Rainforest Destruction”.

Topic 1:  Recently I complained about the inherent flaws of translations.  I gave two examples then showing that a bad translation can give impressions which are wrong.  And now I give another one.  In my reading of the New Testament in Koinē Greek, I am working on the first chapter of Luke, and it so happens that in Luke 1:26 describes Mary as enmnēsteumenēn.  The parallel passage in Mark, verse 1:18, describes her as mnēsteutheisēs.  These words—the same word, expressed a bit differently—is conventionally translated in English as “betrothed”—and this translation is wrong.  From the way the same word is used in the Septuagint versions of Exodus 22:15, Deuteronomy 20:7, Deuteronomy 22:23, Deuteronomy 22:25, Deuteronomy 22:27-28, and Hosea 2:21-22, it clearly means something significantly different.  Judaism recognizes two stages to marriage, ’erusin and nissu’in.  ’Erusin, which is usually contracted by by the groom giving the bride a ring, is not betrothal.  (There is not even a real concept of betrothal in Judaism.)  After ’erusin, the bride is considered a married woman, and if she sleeps with any man other than her husband, she commits adultery.  It is with nissu’in, however, that the husband brings his wife into his domain (symbolically), and the marriage can be consummated.  (It should go without saying that Judaism forbids premarital sex.)  Mary, at the time discussed by these verses, is a me’oreseth and thus already Joseph’s wife, but without the marriage being consummated.  It is for this reason that Joseph in Matthew 1:19 plans to divorce Mary:  she has presumably committed adultery, for which Jewish law requires divorce.  If they had not been actually, then she would not have been forbidden to him, even what she had presumably done is prohibited.  Thus by mistranslation of a single term, the whole incident is given an incorrect interpretation.

Topic 2:  More reports of current anti-Semitism:  “Global National Issues On-Air Clarification After HRC Complaint (January 19, 2010)” and “BBC: Denying Jewish Jerusalem”.  For a twist, “Israel: Bringing Hope Amidst Haiti's Rubble” reports on positive reporting about Israel for a change.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “LOLcat bible book uv Fluffeh, ch 7 v 10 by wonphatcat”:

(Hint:  Matthew 4:18 and Mark 1:17.)

Peace.

Aaron

Banning the veil and the impossibility of peace in our time

Greetings.

Jewish date:  4 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Bo’).

Today’s holidays:  Tuesday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism).

Topic 1:  “Sarkozy party chief: France must ban full Muslim veil”:  France is considering yet another law interfering with freedom of religion.  Just like the religious clothing ban in French public schools, banning the veil for anyone wishing to become a French citizen attacks a symbol, not what the symbol stands for.  And not necessarily what the symbol stands for to the person who wears it, but rather what Sarkozy and company interpret it to mean.  Better that France outright not allow Islamists and anyone else intent on forcing others to conform to their religion to become citizens than to play such games.

Topic 2:  More articles on the Arab-Israeli War:  “Peace blocked by pro-Hamas media and Gaza activists” (by a “Palestinian”!), “Palestinians Need a Generation or Two” (on why a real peace is currently impossible), and “Pilar Rahola is a Spanish politician, journalist and activist” (on European hypocrisy on the Arab-Israeli War).

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “kitekat died 4 ur sins - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats”:


Peace.

Aaron

Jordan is a sore loser, and something fishy happened in the trial of Paul Shanley

Greetings.

Jewish date:  3 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Bo’).

Today’s holiday:  Monday of the Second Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Require Comprehensive Background Checks for All Paid Child Care Providers”.

Topic 1:  “Anything but Jewish”:  This post does a good job covering the recent claim made by Jordan that it owns the Dead Sea Scrolls and severely criticizes an article by Daoud Kuttab rationalizing that the Scrolls are Jordanian/“Palestinian” and as much Christian and Islamic as Jewish.  Who wrote the Scrolls?  Jews.  Were there Christians, Muslims, Jordanians, and “Palestinians” alive when the Scrolls were written?  No.  Where were the Scrolls found?  Qumran, in what is now Israeli territory.  How attached have Muslims and Christians been to the Scrolls?  They wanted to make them into sandals and sold them for profit.  Not to mention there is the persistent issue which Muslim countries always gloss over:  if you attack another country without provocation (and merely existing is not a provocation) and you lose anything, it is no longer yours.  That is the way war works.  The Scrolls are Jewish and in Israeli hands, and if the Jordanians do not like it, then it is their problem.

Topic 2:  I am very confused by this article:  “Mass. court denies ex-priest's bid for new trial”.  The Catholic ex-priest in question, Paul Shanley, was convicted on the basis of “repressed memories” claiming abuse 20 years ago.  This is very disturbing because repressed memory therapy does not actually recover memories not conscious remembered; it creates memories of things that did not happen by building upon or altering existing memories or fabricating them from scratch.  Because “repressed memories” are false, people believing they are true can hurt individuals, families, and communities by making damaging accusations.  Families have been destroyed and innocent people thrown in jail because of “repressed memories”.  I therefore assumed that Shanley is totally innocent of the charges.  But then I noticed this paragraph near the end:

Shanley, now 78, was known in the 1960s and 1970s as a "street priest" who reached out to Boston's troubled youth. Internal records showed that church officials were aware of sexual abuse complaints against him as early as 1967.

More digging turned up this paragraph (including a reference) in the Wikipedia article on him:

According to Leon Podles in his book Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, "In late 1993, Shanley was sent to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut, for evaluation. The Boston archdiocese has refused to release this evaluation, but other released files show that Shanley admitted to nine sexual encounters, of which four involved boys, and that he was diagnosed as 'narcissistic' and 'histrionic'. Shanley admitted that he was 'attracted to adolescents' and on the basis of this confession, the Boston archdiocese secretly settled several lawsuits against Shanley. The archdiocese of Boston in 1993 had to admit to the diocese of San Bernardino part of the truth about Shanley, and the bishop of San Bernardino immediately dismissed him."

So…  If this information is correct, then Shanley is an admitted pedophile.  Presumably there is something more than hearsay and mere accusation going on here since he admitted something happened.  Even if he lied and did not do the crimes (which, strangely enough, people occasionally do), something must have happened to make him do so.  If one is going to convict someone of a crime, one wants to do it on the strongest possible evidence.  So why was Shanley convicted on completely invalid evidence when presumably there is something more substantial out there?  Something fishy is going on here; that’s for sure.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Basement cat pozing fur movie posterz”:


Peace.

Aaron

Bizarre conspiracies and psychologically unrealistic behavior in the Gospels

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Bo’).

Today’s holidays:  Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast of St. Anthony the Great (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Joshmas (Discordianism).

Topic 1:  More religious oppression:  “Two Christians Critically Wounded at Wedding in Pakistan”, “UZBEKISTAN: Illegal Christmas as unregistered religious activity punished”, “Dutch lawmaker fails to avoid hate speech charges” (freedom of speech includes being able to say things others find offensive), and “Copts protest Christmas killings at Cairo cathedral” (they are sick of being treated as second-class citizens).  Meanwhile, Vietnamese Catholics have taken to protesting in a novel way:  “Dong Chiem is becoming a "Mount of Crosses"”

Topic 2:  The more you read something carefully, the more the details stand out.  One of the most controversial questions in the Gospels is who is responsible for the death of Jesus.  The Gospels agree that the Romans did the actual killing, but they shy away from blaming them for it.  If you look in chapters 26-27 of Matthew and chapters 14-15 of Mark, it is the “chief priests” (Sadducees) and “Elders” (= the Sanhedhrin, consisting of Pharisees) who push Pilate to execute Jesus and convince a (presumably Jewish) crowd to cry for the release of the murderous rebel Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus.  This is an unnatural conspiracy.  Under the Roman occupation, the High Priest was a priest (kohen) who got the position by bribing the Romans.  The “chief priests” therefore had every reason to not act against the Romans by pushing for the release of the last person the Romans would have wanted free, Barabbas; if they were ever found out, they would be replaced—if they were very, very lucky.  Furthermore, because the High Priest was corrupt at the time, he and the Sanhedhrin were not on good terms.  They had no reason to cooperate.  Also unnatural is the crowd being so quickly convinced to call for the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus.  Jesus previously is reported as being fawned over by crowds, yet in Matthew 27:25 they take responsibility for the death of Jesus not only on themselves, but for their children as well!  Does any of this seem psychologically credible?  Does any of this not smack of anti-Semitic historical revisionism?

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Apparently, Basement cat felt that 4”:

Hint for the uninitiated:  Revelation 6.

Peace.

Aaron

Pat Robertson has his foot in his mouth again

Greetings.

Jewish date:  29 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wa’era’).

Today’s holiday:  Friday of the First Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Take Action: No legitimacy for Bashir | Save Darfur”.  Furthermore, probably practically everyone by now has heard of the disastrous earthquake in Haiti.  Both the Red Cross and Orthodox Union are taking donations.  If you do not have money and are able (or even if you do have money), please consider donating blood, which they can also use.

Topic 1:  Reviews I have written relevant to this week’s Torah portion:  “There can be miracles when you disbelieve: a review of The Prince of Egypt” and “You cut up the Bible, you bloody baboon!:  A review of The Ten Commandments and The Ten Commandments: The Musical”.  Note that the story in these movies and musical stretches over several Torah portions, so expect to hear mention of these again.

Topic 2:  Televangelist Pat Robertson made a claim recently for which “controversial” would be an understatement:  he claims that the Haitians made a pact with the Devil and this has caused bad things to happen to them ever since.  This is documented here, including this video:

The idea that the Haitians are suffering for having made a pact with Satan does not sit well with a lot of people.  Denny Burk in “What is Pat Robertson talking about?” does the history legwork and identifies the alleged pact with the Bois Caïman Ceremony, an Voodoo ceremony which allegedly took place during a rainstorm on August 14, 1791 to give rebels victory over the French; the ceremony may have never actually happened, and there is no explicit mention of the Devil in the description.  Other articles criticizing Robertson include “Pat Robertson blames Haiti quake on 'pact with the devil'” (finding it hard to swallow people being punished for something their ancestors did or that you judge sinfulness by the extent of disaster), “A message for Pat Robertson” (asking people to not give Robertson’s remarks any attention because they are obviously unworthy of attention), “My Two Words for Pat Robertson: Shut Up!” (dealing with how far Robertson has shoved his foot up his mouth and is hurting others in the process), and “Is Pat Robertson a Prophet?” (which notes that Robertson has his facts wrong and cites the New Testament to show that he gets his theology wrong, too).  Their criticism largely covers the issue, but I myself would like to note the Book of Job, the whole message of which is that bad things happen to people who do not necessarily deserve them.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “I Can Has Credit?”:

To quote the description to make it make any sense:

Ceiling Cat [the god of the LOLcats] is always watching you… even when you’re at the store or gas station. He’s just making sure you’re buying enough catnip and cheezburgers for your kitteh.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Blessing portable electronics and the Iranian government’s insultingly bad lies

Greetings.

Jewish date:  28 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wa’era’).

Today’s holidays:  Thursday of the First Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of the Magi: To Mega Theron (Thelema), Makara Sankranti/Pongal (Hinduism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Help Protect Wilderness!”.

Topic 1:  “Blessed be the mobile phone users and those called the children of iPod”:  An Anglican church in London had a blessing of cell phones and portable computers.  This may sound bizarre, but it is precendented.   The article notes that in the old days they had Plow Monday, a day on which people brought their plows to church to be blessed.  I am also personally aware of someone whose car was blessed by a Greek Orthodox priest.

Topic 2:  More religious persecution:  “Tehran puts 7 Bahais on trial for spying”.  Is there anyone besides the government of Iran who thinks these Bahá’ís are actually spies?  Is there anyone who actually thinks that the cliché Islamic practice of blaming non-Muslims or heretical Muslims (the Bahá’í Faith is an offshoot of Shia, so arguably it is a Muslim heresy) for anything and everything wrong is anything but an attempt to distract people away from the real causes of problems?  Also:  Notice that the Iranian government claims the Bahá’ís were spying for Israel, which clichéd Muslim loudmouths blame for practically everything wrong with the planet.  This reflects the cliché of thinking of “good” and “evil” as two teams fighting only each other, when in reality one’s enemies are sometimes each other’s enemies, too.  Shame on the Iranian government for this pathetic propaganda!  If they are going to lie to us, they should at least come up with something credible or at least creative.  A bad liar is doubly bad, first for committing the moral offense of lying, and second for insulting his/her audience’s intelligence.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “BUT you said I could”:

Somebody please bug me to get my hands on a copy of The Seventh Seal, the movie which created the current image of the Grim Reaper…

Peace.

Aaron

Ancient Hebrew and conservative Christian revisionism

Greetings.

Jewish date:  27 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wa’era’).

Today’s holiday:  Feast of Hilary (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Sign the Petition | UANI:  Support Human Rights in Iran”, “Portect Children From Toxic Pesticide Clouds - The Petition Site”, “Take Action: Don't let polluters strip the Clean Air Act”, and “Repower America | Save our clean air”.

Topic 1:  “Most ancient Hebrew biblical inscription deciphered”.  Thus is it written:

Prof. Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa who deciphered the inscription: "It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research."

And this article goes on to further discuss other violations of common scholarly assumptions which will be pretty much expected by anyone with orthodox Jewish beliefs who knows what he/she is talking about.  I know I still need to do a lot of research on the Documentary Hypothesis and Higher Criticism for the Divine Misconceptions project, but something like this does not assure me that Biblical criticism has much predictive (or in this case, postdictive) power.

Topic 2:  “Revisionaries:  How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids’ textbooks.”  This article deals with the wrong way to get one’s ideas accepted.  The right way is to give people sound, rational reasons to believe that one is right.  The problem is that creationism, pushed by conservative Christians, is implausible.  It has been soundly defeated and is considered false even among scientists who are serious Christians.  Creationists have taken to legal maneuvers to coerce people into accepting their ideas, but this has only met with at best mixed success.  This article deals with efforts by conservative Christian creationists to foist their ideas on the United States at large by using dirty political maneuvering to get their ideas, on creationism as well as history and politics—and regardless of whether or not there is any reason to believe they are correct—into textbooks used in Texas and by extension the rest of the country.  Shame on them!

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Yup”.


Peace.

Aaron

Never blindly trust a translation

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wa’era’).

Today’s holidays:  Tuesday of the First Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Save the Clean Air Act” and “Another bad idea from Alaska”.

Topic 1:  More coverage of anti-Semitism:  “Canadian Muslim Paper Condemned For Blood Libel”.  Some people either do not know how implausible organ theft is (disembodied human organs under the best of conditions have lives measured in mere hours, which make the logistics of such a crime very tight at best) or do not care.  Major rule:  If it sounds implausible, be suspicious.

Topic 2:  “Sikhs strive to keep language alive”.  The gist of this is that Sikhs in the United States are finding they have an urgent need to make sure all their people know the Punjabi language and Gurmukhi script the Guru Granth Sahib, their scripture, is written in.  Now, many out there might ask why knowing Punjabi matters.  The Guru Granth Sahib has been translated into English, and thus American-born Sikhs can always read it in translation.  The problem is that translations are imperfect.  There is the obvious issue that words and constructions in one language do not always correspond exactly to words and constructions in another language, which alone is enough of a reason for Sikhs to learn Punjabi (and the rest of us to learn the language of our own religion).  But there is another, less famous reason:  even given the constraints of the former problem, sometimes the translations get it wrong.  To illustrate, I present here two examples which have been bugging me recently.

1) Thus is it written in the King James Version (KJV) on Exodus 6:2-3:

And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD:  And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

The KJV, while in some aspects a good translation, utterly mangles Divine names.  Anyone who had not read the Hebrew Bible in the original Hebrew and reading the KJV from the start would think this is the first time that the Tetragrammaton (= “YHWH”, rendered here with the wrong vowels as “JEHOVAH”) is mentioned.  And he/she would be wrong.  The Tetragrammaton first appears in chapter 2 of Genesis.  Usually the KJV, following the Septuagint, renders it “the LORD”, but on a few occasions it uses “JEHOVAH” instead, thus creating the illusion of a distinction which does not exist.  Furthermore, the KJV, following the Seputagint, has a tendency to give interpretations of personal Divine names instead of transliterating them.  This erases distinctions between certain names (“’El”, “’Eloahh”, and “’Elohim”; “YHWH” and “Yahh”) and gives the illusion that certain interpretations are the only ones there are.  In this passage, “God” really stands for “’Elohim”, but “God Almighty” stands for “’El Shadday”.  As such, the KJV, by its translation errors, gets the text wrong.

2) Thus is it written in the KJV on Mark 12:35-37:

And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David?  For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.  David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly.

The KJV here reflects the Greek text well, but that is not where the problem is.  The problem is with Jesus’s argument.  Jesus cites Psalms 110:1, claiming it “my Lord” refers to Mashiaḥ (the Messiah/Christ).  Since “Lord” refers to a god, Jesus claims, Mashiaḥ must be a god.  Besides the fact that Jesus does nothing to show this verse actually refers to Mashiaḥ and this interpretation flies in the face of everything taught about Mashiaḥ in the Hebrew Bible, this interpretation is untenable, even completely ignoring the context of Psalms 110:1.  Thus is it written in Psalms 110:1, my translation:

For (or by) Dawidh:

Spoken by YHWH to my lord:  “Sit at my right

Until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet.”

In the original Hebrew, YHWH is talking to a human.  There is no single term used twice, period, and the second term is not a Divine name or a general term for a god.  So why does Jesus think the same term is used twice?  Because in the Greek the same term is used twice.  “YHWH” is conventionally (and wrongly) rendered Kyrios (“Lord”) in Koinē Greek, and Hebrew ’adhon (“lord”) is also rendered kyrios in Koinē Greek.  By relying on a translation, Jesus (or someone putting words into his mouth) makes an inference which is untenable in the original Hebrew.

The moral of all this:  Do not rely blindly on translations, because translators make mistakes and give the impressions of things not found in the original text.  This is why it is important for Sikhs to know Punjabi and for everyone to know the languages of their scriptures.


Topic 3:  Today’s religious humor:  “Little did you know that the freezer…”.

I am really not sure where the idea of a porthole to Hell comes from.  If anyone knows, please tell me.

Peace.

Aaron

A backlog of misbehavior: Muslims, Belarus, and PETA—oh my!

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wa’erah).

Today’s holidays:  Baptism of the Lord (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Save Canada's Woodland Caribou - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  I have a backlog of material on Islamic misbehavior.  (Let’s face it:  no matter how much anyone tries to whitewash Islam, it is still the planet’s most pro-terrorism religion and has practically nothing to do with real peace.)  “America's Terrorism Amnesia” deals with the tendency in the United States (at least in the government) to treat every single incident of Islamic terrorism as if it were an isolated incident and without precedent when in reality the West has been under continuous assault from Islamists hoping to extend Dar al-Islam for decades.  Also noted is that the jihad agains the West is not a conventional war and there is no realistic way of ending it quickly.  On the Arab-Israeli War we have “FAQ: The Peace process with the Palestinians - Dec 2009”, “The Deadly Price of Pursuing Peace”, “The "Mandate for Palestine" is the Best Reply to "Occupation"”, “Israel's Right in the 'Disputed' Territories”, and “Shhh…Mubarak is building a wall”.  And just in case you thought that business in Malaysia complaining about Christians using the term “Allah” to refer to the God of Christianity was over, see “Malaysia appeals 'Allah' for Christians ruling” and “Four Malaysian churches attacked with firebombs in 'Allah' dispute”.  (It is not just in and around Israel that Muslims are sore losers.)

Topic 2:  And, no, it is not just Muslims who misbehave:  “N. Korea, Iran top list of persecutors of Christians”, “BELARUS: "We don't have such persecution here. We're absolutely democratic"” (WRONG), and “BELARUS: Two Catholic parish priests banned from religious activity”.  And on top of all this, even the quasi-religious People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is being bad by using Michelle Obama’s image for one of their advertisements:  “Fur flies over picture of Michelle Obama in ad”.  I think I will stop here before Blogger tells me I have passed the 200-character limit on labels...

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Wen Basement Cat refused to move…”.


Peace.

Aaron

Mark your calendars for the Rapture, but don’t hold your breath

Greetings.

Jewish date:  21 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Shemoth).

Today’s holidays:  Feast of Raymond of Penyafort (Roman Catholicism), Synaxis of John the Holy Glorious Prophet, Baptist, and Forerunner (Eastern Christianity, Gregorian Calendar).

Topic 1:  “Why Science Tells Us Not to Rely on Eyewitness Accounts”.  This is very relevant to the question of judging people.  Humans are not perfect, so even the accounts of people doing their utmost to tell the truth may be imperfect.  We must therefore at least be open to the possibility that reports uncorroborated by other evidence might not be perfectly true and act accordingly.

Topic 2:  “Afro-Cuban priests predict social unrest in 2010” and “Biblical scholar's date for rapture: May 21, 2011”.  Both of these deal with predictions made on a religious basis.  The former article deals with predictions made by Santeria priests in Cuba for 2010, which they have predicted to be “a year of social and political unrest, struggles for power, and treachery.”  This prediction is rather fuzzy, applying to a lot of politics on this planet.  It is also noted that this group has been wrong for the past two years, and another Santeria group predicts “that 2010 would be a year of improving health”, also not very specific.  The latter article deals with Harold Camping, a Protestant preacher who believes based on his own personal numerology that the Rapture will be May 21, 2011.  His specificity is appreciated, but it is noted that his previous predicted date, September 6, 1994, proved wrong.  General rule:  Be wary of the predictions of people with a bad track record or who give vague predictions.  In the meantime, I have to start keeping a list of predictions in order to better test who is reliable.  May 21, 2011 is already marked in iCal on my computer.

Topic 3:  Jews and Christians (and probably a number of other religious groups) are supposed to bless their god before they eat.  Today’s religious humor is in this spirit:  “Tank u, ceilingcat, for our daily nomz « Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats” and “Lord, for what I am about”.  NOTE:  Some people may not appreciate the later LOLanimal.





Peace.

Aaron

What the gezornenblat was Jesus thinking?

Image of Yeḥezqe’l’s tomb via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Shemoth).

Today’s holiday:  Epiphany (Christianity, Gregorian Calendar).

Topic 1:  “Reports: Iraq De-Judaizing Ezekiel's Tomb”:  Hint to the Muslims:  Destroying evidence does not change facts.  There were Jews in what is now Iraq centuries before the rise of Islam, and nothing is going to change that.

Topic 2:  Other religious oppression:  “Algerian Muslims Block Christmas Service” and “Beijing imposes harsh sentences on Tibetan monks and lama”.

Topic 3:  As I have noted previously, I am working my way through the New Testament in the original Koinē Greek, and yesterday I ran across a passage which is totally baffling.  Thus is it written in Mark 12:18-27 (KJV translation with extra punctuation and annotation given here):

Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, “Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.  Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.  And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise.  And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also.  In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.” 

And Jesus answering said unto them, “Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?  For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.  And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ (Exodus 3:6)?  He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.”

To be blunt, Jesus’s answer makes no sense.  The Sadducees’ question deals with levirate marriage and the Resurrection:  which of one’s spouses in life does one have at the Resurrection.  Jesus claims that there is no marriage at the Resurrection.  But his prooftext is irrelevant.  Despite Jesus’s claims, Exodus 3:6 is part of a section dealing with the Exodus from Egypt, not the Resurrection.  Furthermore, Jesus gives no reason to infer that YHWH is the god of the living only, nor does he connect this to the Resurrection, nor does he explain how this passage somehow proves that there will be no marriage at the Resurrection.

While Jesus in general is presented in the Gospels as being such a poor exegete that his opponents’ arguments have to be omitted to make him look good, this passage has gaping holes of logic wide enough to drive a herd of camels through.  The question is how to understand this passage.  The simplest alternative, assuming this event really occurred, is that Jesus had no real answer and bluffed, and anything the Sadducees said back to him was not recorded.  However, I cannot a priori exclude the possibility that Jesus’s answer really was meant as a serious answer.  But if it was, then there are unstated assumptions, perhaps left out by scribal error, to bridge the chasm between Exodus 3:6 and no marriage at the Resurrection.  If anyone has any idea what these unstated assumptions are, please let me know.


Topic 4:  Today’s religious humor:  “Cat Spilleth Over”.

This seems to be a reference to Psalms 23:5.

Peace.

Aaron