tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2804743784265502122024-03-05T09:00:39.134+02:00Divine Misconceptions • הַגֹּרֶןCOMPLAINING ABOUT BAD THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS FALLACIES AND MISINFORMATION SINCE 2009<br>© 2012 Aaron Solomon AdelmanRupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.comBlogger323125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-85119642731532698992018-08-21T22:14:00.002+03:002018-08-21T22:14:35.428+03:00The police on the Temple Mount suck slightly lessJewish date: 11 ’Elul 5778 (evening).<br />
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Hello.</div>
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Wednesday last week I went up on the Temple Mount for the first time in around four or five years.</div>
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What has changed?</div>
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1. These days there are record numbers of Jews going up on the Temple Mount. Muslim attempts at intimidation do not work.</div>
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2. The entry area for Jews has been renovated.</div>
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3. Apparently there is a police record on me. Please remember that the police seek to prevent violence between Jews and Muslims by harassing Jews and preventing them from doing anything religious on the Temple Mount, even though it is the Muslims who are violent and actually break the law—short-sighted thinking which gives the Muslims the message that they can do whatever they want, including be violent. Such rules are also a gross violation of freedom of religion. </div>
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Note: I am not the only one (still) noting or complaining about this problem. Around the time of writing this post, there were two relevant articles posted: “<a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/250730"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Jews barred from Temple Mount for Islamic holiday</span></a>” and “<a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/250797"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Will Supreme Court petition end discrimination on Temple Mount?</span></a>”.</div>
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Back to what happened to me: I was accused by the police of not following their (illegal) rules the last time I had ascended. I refused to admit or deny this (despite it being true). I also refused to say I would follow the police’s rules this time (as I intended, as always, to violate the rules). These rules have been expanded to include not only prayer, but also taking olives or stones from the Temple Mount. Despite my giving the police every reason to believe that I was going to be noncooperative—including arguing with them and denying that Jews actually follow their rules—they let me ascend anyway. (The fact that I am merely annoying and not interested in actually hurting anyone may have something to do with this.)</div>
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4. To the best of my knowledge, the police have never prohibited singing on the Temple Mount. However, one of the police officers felt annoyed that I kept humming “<i>Ṣame’ah Nafshi</i>”, a Jewish song with a verse which poetically denies Islam, and threatened to kick me off the Mount if I didn’t stop. He showed no sign of having any clue what the song is about.</div>
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5. As usual, I violated the (illegal) prohibition on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, specifically that I prayed that the music-hating police officer should collect unemployment benefits. I also took a small stone from the Temple Mount.</div>
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6. Paradoxically, the police did nothing to stop some of the other Jewish visitors from discussing visiting the Temple Mount in Jewish law.</div>
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7. I have previously documented Arabic graffiti on the Temple Mount. By now most of it has been erased, but not all of it.</div>
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8. The police regularly check the identity cards of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. They thoughtlessly did not give mine back to me before I ascended, so after I left the Temple Mount, I had to go back to get it. (One would think they would have the sense to avoid doing something pointless which gives me a good reason to complain.)</div>
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9. This tree:</div>
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I have no idea who put rocks in this tree or why.</div>
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In short, the police still suck at their jobs, though maybe a bit less than previously. If they knew what they were doing, they would be following the Muslims around everywhere on the Temple Mount and stop treating Jews with suspicion. The police can’t even get people to follow their illegal rules.</div>
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Other places visited in Yerushalyim with my girlfriend:</div>
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1. The tunnels under the <a href="http://www.cityofdavid.org.il/en"><span style="color: #0433ff;">City of Dawidh</span></a>, to the south of the Old City. We went through the (relatively) dry tunnel, not the filled waist-deep with water.</div>
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(My pictures underground mostly came out looking oddly discolored.)</div>
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The Shiloaḥ, which was at the other end, currently is disappointingly dry.</div>
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2. The tomb of King Dawidh in the Old City. This actually struck me as being fairly small and hidden for a royal tomb, which is probably for the better.</div>
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3. The <a href="https://www.rova-yehudi.org.il/sites/the-hurva-synagogue/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Ḥurevah Synagogue</span></a> in the Old City. It has been destroyed and rebuilt a few times. It was rebuilt relatively recently, and they did an excellent job.</div>
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I might have gone crazy taking pictures if I had not been worried about draining my iPhone’s battery. The view from the roof is also fairly nice.</div>
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4. The Menorah for the Third Temple. This Menorah was created by the <a href="http://templeinstitute.org/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Temple Institute</span></a>, an organization dedicated to getting everything ready for the Third Temple. The Menorah is currently on public display outside the Ḥurevah Synagogue.</div>
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5. The <a href="https://www.martefhashoah.org/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">Chamber of the Holocaust</span></a> in the Old City, near the Ḥurevah Synagogue. This place is disturbing. The place is filled with symbolic tombstones for Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust; the huge number, despite every tombstone representing a whole town or city, gives a sense of how huge the genocide really was. There is something very unsettling when places connected with one’s family and intellectual history are represented. </div>
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There were also a number of relevant artifacts, including partially destroyed ritual items. Several years ago, I heard a story about a concentration camp prisoner who found a pair of shoes, the soles of which were made from a Torah scroll. I hoped that might just be a legend. I do not think so any more.</div>
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Peace. <br />
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’Aharon/AaronRupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-58728968715360252172018-06-17T22:09:00.001+03:002018-06-17T22:09:41.752+03:00Jeff Sessions fails Biblical exegesis<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Jewish date: 5 Tammuz (evening).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Greetings. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I am working on a theological review of <i><a data-jsb_prepared="0z1c83ax35" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale" rel="noreferrer">The Handmaid’s Tale</a></i>. In the meantime, I feel the need to note a bit of theological criticism in the news. Those of you who have been paying attention to the news from the United States and who have actually bothered to read a decent fraction of the Hebrew Bible or New Testament (and have the sense to understand any of it) should easily realize that Trump and company are in serious violation of the basic moral ideas of Judaism and Christianity. However, Shakespeare noted in <i>The Merchant of Venice</i> “<span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818;">The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.</span><span style="color: #181818;">” And though Attorney General Jeff Sessions is not Satan, <a data-jsb_prepared="j9em8z2uyv" href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/attorney-general-sessions-cites-same-bible-passage-used-to-justify-slavery-to-defend-immigrant-family-separations.html" rel="noreferrer">he certainly follows in spirit and has cited Romans 13 as a source for separating undocumented immigrants from their children.</a> Romans 13 supports following the law, but <a data-jsb_prepared="nzwmstfvbl" href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-trump-immigration-family-separation-border_us_5b23ff24e4b0783ae128f90d" rel="noreferrer">Christian leaders and Bible scholars disagree with the Trump administration policy, accusing Sessions of essentially ignoring the rest of the Bible.</a> I’m glad that there are other people out there trying to be honest about what their scriptures actually say and wish them much success in fighting injustice done allegedly in the name of law.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">’Aharon/Aaron</span>Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-48094431701884626322018-05-28T22:25:00.000+03:002018-05-28T22:26:19.547+03:00The religious dystopia of Dune: a theological reviewJewish date: 15 Siwan 5778 (evening).<br />
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<b>The religious dystopia of <i>Dune</i>: a theological review</b></div>
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by Aaron Solomon Adelman</div>
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<b>Description of the series:</b> Soft science-fiction depicting an interstellar human civilization thousands of years in the future. Emphasis is placed on development of humanity rather than technological improvement. Six original novels by Frank Herbert (Herbert 1975, Herbert 1981, Herbert 1983, Herbert 1987, Herbert 1987, Herbert 1987). Authorized fan-fiction published during the original run of the series (McNelly and Herbert 1984). Various minor works (Herbert, Herbert et al. 2006). The series is currently being expanded by Brian Herbert (son of Frank Herbert) and Kevin J. Anderson (Herbert and Anderson 2000, Herbert and Anderson 2001, Herbert and Anderson 2002, Herbert and Anderson 2003, Herbert and Anderson 2003, Herbert and Anderson 2005, Herbert and Anderson 2006, Herbert and Anderson 2008, Herbert and Anderson 2009, Herbert and Anderson 2010, Herbert and Anderson 2011, Herbert and Anderson 2015, Herbert and Anderson 2016).</div>
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Note: The <i>Dune</i> series is long and freakishly complicated. Any description is necessarily abbreviated. It will be assumed here that the reader is more or less familiar with Frank Herbert’s novels. (The other material does not add much theologically.)</div>
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<b>Significance of the series:</b> The series is popular enough that it is still being expanded. It has also spawned a movie, two miniseries, and some video games. There currently is a threat of there being a new movie. Very relevant to these reviews, the series has inspired at least one Web-site of religious texts (Hare) specifically inspired by <i>The Orange Catholic Bible</i> (though the result is actually more like <i>The Azhar Book</i>), and there have been people trying to defictionalize things from the series. There have been at least two attempts to create a real-life version of <i>The Orange Catholic Bible</i>, one which actually got far enough to be published (Religion 2015). Furthermore, there are manuals for real-life Bene Gesserit and Mentats (cheerioh 2017), and there used to be a site promoting real-life Zensufism.</div>
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Science-fiction frequently ignores religion or treats it as a peripheral issue. Consider, for instance, the famous <i>Star Trek</i> franchise. The series depicts the future of humanity as one in which religion seems to play little role and indeed is at best rarely depicted on-screen. The <i>Dune</i> franchise, on the other hand, appears much different. Religion (among humans) appears on-screen constantly, and without it the plot would be radically different.</div>
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Before proceeding, two core truths must be stated which explain much of what happens the <i>Dune</i> universe.</div>
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1. <b>The <i>Dune</i> universe is a dystopia.</b> The <i>Dune</i> universe is not even the sort of dystopia in <i>Brave New World</i>, in which the inhabitants find pleasant, but an outsider would find horrific. Life in the <i>Dune</i> universe is terrifying, filled with violence and political intrigue. Whole institutions in the <i>Dune</i> are nightmares, e.g., the Bene Gesserit are an anti-feminist nightmare, and the Tleilaxu are a biotechnological nightmare. The reader should expect all sorts of evil from human history and a few more kinds as well to make an appearance and be considered completely normal and part of the <i>status quo</i>. Dark aspects of religion are presented—along with dark aspects of much of human existence.</div>
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2. <b>Religion in the <i>Dune</i> universe is written from the point of view of an atheist. </b> This matters, because people frequently do not think about their own religion the way that people of other religions (including atheism) think about it. The way religion in the <i>Dune</i> universe is depicted concentrates largely on the externally visible. (Bear with me. We <i>will</i> get to examples.)</div>
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To the credit of the authors, they get some things right:</div>
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1. <i>Humans are generally religious.</i> In real life, most humans subscribe to a religion, even if their subscription is merely nominal. In the <i>Dune </i>franchise, religious people are everywhere.</div>
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2. <i>Religion is intertwined with politics.</i> On much of real-life Earth, people take this for granted. Political parties and even whole countries frequently have religious affiliations, and sometimes the affiliation is anything but nominal. Religion is invoked to get people to act—something which frequently happens in the <i>Dune</i> series. </div>
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In extreme, and all too frequent cases, wars in real-life have been fought—and are still fought—over overtly religious issues, with warriors sometimes even acting suicidally. Most prominently this is in the form of jihad—Islamic holy war. Yes, violence in the name of religion happens in many religions, but there is no question that Frank Herbert was thinking specifically about jihad in the name of Islam, currently a religion in the name of which much war today is waged. The Fremen, the most prominent jihadists in the <i>Dune</i> series, are descended from Egyptians (indicated by their name for themselves, <i>Misr</i>), speak a language descended from Arabic, and practice a religion descended from Islam—not to mention that <i>jihad</i> is the term used for Muad’dib’s wars and the earlier war by humans against thinking machines.</div>
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3. <i>Some religions are personality cults.</i> Many new religious movements form around a single, charismatic person. This one person may hold disproportionate or even absolute power over the group. The new religious movement’s ideology may well be whatever the leader says. For an extreme example, Nuwaubianism was whatever Dwight York said it was, even though he shifted the alleged basis for his religion among Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and ancient Egyptian religion. Personality cults in the <i>Dune</i> universe exist around Pardot Kynes, Paul Atreides and his sister Alia, and Leto II. There is also a threat that such a cult will form around Sheeana.</div>
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4. <i>Religions are not static</i>. Religions in real life change. Though many religious people aim to stick to some traditional form of their religion, religions do evolve over time. Some end up very different from how they started out. New religions can even sprout out of old ones. The <i>Dune</i> series has its own religious history in which many new religions come into being, develop, and even get replaced by new religions. Much of this development takes place off-screen, but the Zensunni religion changes its authorities and deities over the course of the series; at the start of the original novel and even that of the prequel novels, Zensunnism has already moved far from Islam or Buddhism. It even has a backstory in the form of the Second and Third Islamic Movements which preceded it.</div>
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Sadly, many things in the depiction of religion in the <i>Dune</i> universe are difficult or outright wrong.</div>
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1. <i>Secularized versions of ideas from real religions.</i> Frank Herbert incorporated non-religious versions of prophecy, afterlife, and resurrection of the dead into the <i>Dune</i> universe. Even a casual student of religion should know that all of these are mediated by gods or karma, not natural or technological phenomena. To make things worse, they are done wrong. Paul may see the future, but he has no communication with any god and no moral message. The Bene Gesserit may be advised by the dead, but we never hear of a Heaven or Hell. Resurrection is not supposed to be without memories which have to be recovered by trauma. To make things worse, the authors do not attempt to provide an explanation for any of these, even a totally lame one.</div>
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2. <i>Lack of any realistic idea how religious people think</i>. A religious writer’s idea of dystopian religion might be to explore a theology gone horribly wrong, perhaps a mystical nihilism or a personality cult which rationalizes everything the leader does, no matter what. This is <i>not</i> what happens in the <i>Dune</i> series. As mentioned above, the <i>Dune</i> universe reads like it was written by an atheist with little exposure to religious thought. Most of the emphasis on religious people is on how they behave in front of others. Very little attention is given to religious epistemology or thinking. Consider Zensunnism, for instance. Zensunnis get a lot of screen-time, but there are big holes in their theology. At the time of <i>Dune</i>, they worship Shai-Hulud, the sandworms of Arrakis as an incarnate god. The Zensunni also consider the sandworms to be Shaitan, the devil, as well. We are not given any clear idea why they take this theological position. We are not told how this theology relates to any sort of scripture. Likewise, the reasons for religious practices or moral behavior are not given, not such much as “Thus is it written in the Book of Laws”. No one talks of a revelation or prophecy from Shai-Hulud. There is no Zensunni mysticism, and despite “Zen” being part of their name, there is no Zensunni meditation.</div>
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It is not just religious thought at a specific time which is lacking in the <i>Dune</i> universe; the authors fail at explaining how religions develop. E.g., the Tleilaxu come to accept Leto II as “the Prophet”. Why? We are never told. Neither are we told realistically how humans shift to worship a goddess or a three-part god with male, female, and neuter parts. We are never told how Buddislamics came to identify with Zen Buddhism, Sunni Islam, Shiite Islam, or Sufism—something akin to Christians identifying themselves with pre-Christian Jewish groups yet still maintaining their Christian identity. We are also not realistically told why the Zensunni accept Pardot Kynes as a holy man whose commands go unquestioned, why they accept Paul Atreides as their Madhi, why they accept Paul and sister virtually as deities, why they accept Leto II as a god, or why they eventually start praying to Sheeana. And these are just the beginning. The reasons given are weak at best. (E.g., Pardot Kynes told someone “Remove yourself”, and the man immediately committed suicide—a story which sounds fake, even for a miracle story.) For the most part, the reader has to accept that they simply <i>are</i> and get on with reading the story.</div>
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Please note: the question here is <i>not</i> whether anyone trying to be reasonably self-consistent or honest having the views of a Zensunni, Tleilaxu, Orange Catholic Bible believer, or anyone else in the <i>Dune</i> universe could exist; people in real life hold a wide variety of theological beliefs, some of them every bit as unusual as anything in the <i>Dune</i> series. <i>How</i> people in the <i>Dune</i> series reach their theological positions and satisfy themselves is mostly absent. Your humble blogger could speculate on how Zensunnism got started or what is in the gaping holes in theology, but that would be fan “theories” or fan-fiction, not a theological review.</div>
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Also: The Bene Gesserit deliberately manipulate religions and even create them from scratch to manipulate “primitive” people. How they manage to get said people to accept foreign ideas is never really explained.</div>
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Also: In the Butlerian Jihad, humans of all religions band together to fight a holy war against artificial intelligence. Afterwards, they agree that computers are religiously prohibited. Considering that there can be large disagreements even within religions (e.g., “two Jews, three opinions”), getting such high levels of agreement between different religions is hard to believe. That humans in general would so readily accept a new, clearly <i>not</i> divinely demanded duty upon themselves in complete disregard to all religious tradition is downright impossible.</div>
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3. <i>Lack of value of humans.</i> In the real world, humans generally at least pay lip service to some version of the Golden Rule or human rights (e.g., “You will love your neighbor as yourself”). Such values are frequently cited when discussing the values of many religions. In the <i>Dune</i> universe, humans frequently have little concern for their fellow humans other than their loved ones, friends, or tribe—if even these. There are a few characters which have some sense of human decency, but most are jerks, if not downright psychotic. As such, violence, murder, rape, manipulation, war, slavery, torture, and even deliberately tailoring humans for various purposes are common. Religious people in the <i>Dune</i> universe are no exception. The Zensunni are violent and xenophobic. The Zensufi Tleilaxu aristocracy use Tleilaxu women for growing custom human beings, and their lower classes are treated as disposable. The Butlerians are technophobes and hypocrites who are prone at any moment to explode into senseless violence. While there are real-life religious people who fail to live up to their own religions’ calls to love their neighbors, in real life there are also other religious people who decry the hypocrites. (E.g., Stephen Colbert does a marvelous job on <i>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert</i> poking fun of Christians who act in ways blatantly contrary to what Jesus did in the Gospels.) In the <i>Dune</i> universe, those who decry the hypocrites are conspicuously absent. And at no point is this fundamental shift in human attitudes for the worse ever explained, even badly.</div>
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Also: one might think that religious people were being stereotyped as being horrible people, but adamant secularists in the <i>Dune</i> universe, such as the Corrinos, Harkonnens, and Honored Matres, are also frequently horrible people. A few religious people, such as Jews and Buddislamic monks, are depicted as decent people. These decent people are as subject to persecution as anyone else in the <i>Dune</i> universe.</div>
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4. <i>Syncretism</i>. Many people in real life <i>do</i> mix two or more religions. E.g., in China there has commonly been blending of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Chinese Traditional Religion. Much less common is for anyone to establish a blend as a religion in its own right; the only example your humble blogger is aware of is the recent phenomenon of “Chrislam” (Christianity + Islam) in Africa. Established blends in the <i>Dune</i> universe can be from two or more religions which are even more different than Christianity is from Islam. Take Zensunnism, for example. Buddhism is nontheistic; any gods which exist are themselves caught up in the cycle of reincarnation. Islam, on the other hand, is monotheistic, with Allah never being incarnate and an essentially different being from mortals. Logic demands that one cannot believe both religions without compromising at least one of them: Allah must be Himself caught up in the cycle of reincarnation, or Allah must be an exception. Frank Herbert never explained how—or even if—he solved this or any other contradiction between Buddhism and Islam. Such blends are the religious equivalent of transporters in the <i>Star Trek</i> universe: they may be useful for telling stories, but once one tries to dissect them, major difficulties in the concept show up.</div>
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5. <i>The Orange Catholic Bible (OCB)</i>. This is the mother of all syncretisms, a condensed, harmonized version of a number of major religious texts. The <i>OCB</i> is the product of representatives of all major religions who took it upon themselves to remove conflict between different religions and thus prevent future religious wars. See Appendix 1 for a summary of what books any of the authors claim are in <i>The Orange Catholic Bible</i>. Composite religious texts do exist, but none quite like the <i>OCB</i>. In some cases, a single redactor commits plagiarism (<i>The</i> <i>Holy Koran of the Moorish Science Temple of America</i> , the works of Anton Szandor LaVey (Smith 2001), the works of Helena Blavatsky (Coleman 2004), <i>The Urantia Book</i> ). In others (the Bahá’í scriptures), the authors are building on preexisting material which they view themselves as the legitimate heirs to. In others (Neopaganism), objective truth is not much of a concern, so the authors borrow whatever they like with impunity. Group efforts to patch together texts from multiple religions like the <i>OCB</i> into a coherent whole, on the other hand, are at best rare; if such efforts happen, the results do not garner the attention the <i>OCB</i> does. </div>
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If Frank Herbert was trying to model the <i>OCB</i> on something not obscure, it would likely be the Documentary Hypothesis. According to the Documentary Hypothesis, the Torah was patched together from four separate texts (J, E, P, and D). But even the Documentary Hypothesis is a poor precedent. The Torah was purportedly assembled and harmonized over hundreds of years, not quickly, not by a committee, and not from the texts of unrelated religions.</div>
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For a closer fit to the <i>OCB</i> origin story, <i>God’s Book of Eskra</i> 48 in <i>Oahspe</i> (Newbrough 1912) has something similar to the composition of <i>The Orange Catholic Bible</i>: a council of religious scholars condenses and harmonizes a number of preexisting religious texts; the most notable difference is that this council has divine sanction for their actions. Earlier chapters also deal with condensed, composite, edited religious texts. However, your humble blogger is unaware of even a hint that Frank Herbert was aware of <i>Oahspe</i>, a channeled text of which most people would probably never hear if it were not for the <i>Internet Sacred Text Archive</i> or this review.</div>
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Granted, the publication of a syncretic religious text by prominent religious leaders would be seen by many as heretical, perhaps meriting the death penalty. (The publication of the <i>OCB</i> caused riots and lynchings.) But the eventual widespread adoption of the <i>OCB</i> starting with widespread rejection and condemnation is unprecedented and left unexplained.</div>
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<b>Conclusion: </b>The <i>Dune</i> series is an imaginative set of stories which correctly recognizes that religion is important in human life and history. However, the authors failed to learn how religious people think. They are often murky about their characters’ religious beliefs and reasoning. The authors well may have not considered the question of religious thought seriously or decided it was simply not what they wanted to examine in their stories. Many find the books interesting reading, but their relationship to real-life religion is limited.</div>
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Theological rating: C-.</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>Appendix 1: </b></span><span style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed;"><b>Books of </b></span><b><i>The Orange Catholic Bible</i></b></div>
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<b></b><br /></div>
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<b>Jewish books (derived from the Hebrew Bible)</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Genesis</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 406, 412)</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(“harmonized with the Quran”)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Exodus</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 406) </div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(“harmonized with the Quran”)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Laws</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 406, 414) </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 32 chapters. Derived from Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, “supplemented by the Tawrah, Quran, Confucian traditions”—indicating that the writers of <i>The Dune Encyclopedia</i> probably were not clear that the “Tawrah” is none other than the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible—and “harmonized with the Quran”.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Promises</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 406) </div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Derived from Joshua, Judges, Ruth; “harmonized with the Quran”)</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>Kings</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 406) </div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Derived from Samuel, Kings, Chronicles; “harmonized with the Quran”)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Refugees</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 406) </div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Derived from Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther; “harmonized with the Quran”)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Job</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 406, 413, 414, 415, 456)</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 19 chapters. Little changed.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Psalms</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 406, 414, Herbert and Anderson 2006, p. 281)</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 105 chapters. Psalm 29 is “bastardized”.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Proverbs</b> </div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(“assimilated to Taoist and Socratic dicta, at least”) (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 406)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Preacher</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 406, 413) </div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Derived from Ecclesiastes.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Prophets</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 406, 414, 415) </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 113 chapters. Derived from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, The Twelve; “harmonized with the Quran”)</div>
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<b>Note:</b> Song of Songs was deliberately omitted. (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 406) Also note that the ordering used is Christian, not Jewish.</div>
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<b></b><br /></div>
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<b>Christian books (derived from the New Testament)</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Gospel</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 406, 413, 414, 415) </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 36 chapters. Derived from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Jesus has been reduced to just another prophet under Islamic influence, “harmonized with the Quran”.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Apostles</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 406) </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Derived from Acts, “harmonized with the Quran”)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Epistles</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 406, 412) </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Derived from Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude; “harmonized with the Quran”)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Revelation</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 406, 414, 415)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 17 chapters. Little changed.)</div>
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<b></b><br /></div>
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<b>Islamic books</b></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Saari</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407) </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Derived from the Qur'an, influenced by Song of Songs. Is this a version of the Maometh Saari of Third Islam?)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Kalima</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 407, 457, Herbert 1987) </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 467 verses. Derived from the Qur'an. If Saari is really based on the Maometh Saari, poetic intuition suggests Kalima is a version of the Muadh Quran.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Sura</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 457)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Siret</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 407, 411-412) </div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Masnavi</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Traditions</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
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<b>Hindu books</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Upanishads</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Vedas</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Puranas</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Gita</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
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<div style="color: #454545; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Buddhist books</b></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Sutra</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407, 413)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 124 verses.)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Bodhisatvara</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 407, 412)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 73 chapters.)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Navachristian books (derived from the <i>Navachristian Bible</i>)</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Avatara</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 407, 411)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 1,181 verses.)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>Unnamed Navachristian text </b>(McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 407)</div>
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<b>Zensunni books (probably derived from the <i>Zensunni Codex</i>)</b></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Koan Answers</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Ohashi</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, pp. 407, 411, 412, 414)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 65 chapters.)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Hui-Neng</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Tao</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Eisai</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 413)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 2 chapters.)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>`</b></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Confucian books</b></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Analects</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
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<b></b><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Zoroastrian books</b></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Pahlavi</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 18px;">
<b></b><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Recent books</b></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Arran</b> (Herbert 1981, McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407) </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 11 chapters. Contains material from Revelation (from the original New Testament). This is the <i>only</i> book of <i>The Orange Catholic Bible</i> mentioned in Frank Herbert’s books.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Blake Skul Visions</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407) </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 99 verses. Influenced by Song of Songs.)</div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Revelations</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407, Herbert 1987)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 61 verses.)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Hymns</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Composite origin.)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Holy Lives </b>(McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Testimonies</b> (McNelly and Herbert 1984, p. 407)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Other books</b></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><b>Kimla Septima</b> (Herbert and Anderson 2001, p. 11)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(≥ 5 chapters.)</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Note: </b>We have no guarantee that this list is exhaustive; the article on <i>The Orange Catholic Bible</i> in <i>The Dune Encyclopedia</i> makes no mention of Eisai, Sura, or Kimla Septima. There may well be other, yet unknown books. Also, there is very little overlap in material between the fictional <i>OCB</i> and the published defictionalized one.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<b>Bibliography:</b> </div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
. "Moorish Science Temple of America." <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Wikipedia</span>. Retrieved 2018-05-15, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorish_Science_Temple_of_America.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
. "The Urantia Book." <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Wikipedia</span>. Retrieved 2018-05-15, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Urantia_Book.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
cheerioh (2017). "The Bene Gesserit Manual and the Mentat Handbook: awesome, in-depth (fanmade) documents +download links! ." from <a data-jsb_prepared="nss3nhfyzd" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/comments/4icr0r/the_bene_gesserit_manual_and_the_mentat_handbook/s" rel="noreferrer">https://www.reddit.com/r/dune/comments/4icr0r/the_bene_gesserit_manual_and_the_mentat_handbook/s</a>.</div>
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Coleman, W. E. (2004). "The Sources of Madame Blavatsky's Writings." from <a data-jsb_prepared="jjx75si35j" href="http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/colemansources1895.htm" rel="noreferrer">http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/colemansources1895.htm</a>.</div>
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Hare, J. B. "Internet Sacred Text Archive." from <a data-jsb_prepared="2ti22e4ms2" href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/" rel="noreferrer">http://www.sacred-texts.com</a>.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2000). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dune: House Atreides</span>. New York, Bantam Books.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2001). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dune: House Harkonnen</span>. New York, Bantam Books.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2002). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dune: House Corrino</span>. New York, Bantam Books.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The triumphant conclusion to the blockbuster trilogy that made science fiction history!</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2003). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dune: The machine crusade</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2005). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dune: The Battle of Corrin</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2006). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Hunters of Dune</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2008). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Sandworms of Dune</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2009). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Paul of Dune</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2010). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The winds of Dune</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2011). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Sisterhood of Dune</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2015). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Mentats of Dune</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, B. and K. J. Anderson (2016). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Navigators of Dune</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, F. (1975). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dune messiah</span>. New York, Berkeley.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, F. (1981). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Children of Dune</span>. New York, Berkley Publishing Corporation.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, F. (1983). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">God emperor of Dune</span>. New York, Berkeley Books.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, F. (1987). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Chapterhouse: Dune</span>. New York, Ace Books.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, F. (1987). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dune</span>. New York, Ace Books.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, F. (1987). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Heretics of Dune</span>. New York, Ace Books.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Herbert, F., et al. (2006). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The road to Dune</span>. New York, Tor.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
McNelly, W. E. and F. Herbert (1984). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Dune encyclopedia</span>. New York.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Newbrough, J. B. (1912). "Oahspe: A Kosmon Bible in the Words of Jehovih and his Angel Embassadors." 3rd ed. from <a data-jsb_prepared="rteppms136" href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/oah/oah/index.htm" rel="noreferrer">http://www.sacred-texts.com/oah/oah/index.htm</a>.</div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-left: 36px; min-height: 16px; text-indent: -36px;">
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Religion, I. C. o. I. (2015). <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The orange catholic bible: in the future the OCB will unfold reality</span>.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
Smith, J. (2001). "Hypocrisy, Plagiarism and LaVey." from <a data-jsb_prepared="6wgwj45a96" href="http://www.dpjs.co.uk/criticism/smith.html" rel="noreferrer">http://www.dpjs.co.uk/criticism/smith.html</a>.</div>
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Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-20994741196536368662017-12-17T21:52:00.001+02:002017-12-17T21:52:17.973+02:00The Good Place and the Galactic EmpireJewish date: 30 Kislew 5778 (after Sunset) (Parashath Wayyiggash).<br />
<br />
Today’s holidays: Ḥanukkah and Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), Saturnalia (Paganism), Feast of St. Sacco/St. Vanzetti (Church of the SubGenius).<br />
<br />
Greetings. <br />
<br />
It has been <i>way</i> too long since I posted on this blog. During this time I have been reading through the <i>Dune</i> series, and this will take more time to result in a review, due mostly to the efforts of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson to extend the series and make money off of it. In the meantime, I would like to point out some other people’s efforts to explore religion-related issues in popular culture. (I should do this more often.)<br />
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1. “<a data-jsb_prepared="ms42ohkl71" href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-complicated-morality-of-the-good-place-1788591741" rel="noreferrer">The Complicated Morality of <i>The Good Place</i></a>” and “<a data-jsb_prepared="dvd5fygbfd" href="https://lifehacker.com/what-the-good-place-can-teach-you-about-morality-1820184155?utm_campaign=socialflow_lifehacker_facebook&utm_source=lifehacker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow" rel="noreferrer">What <i>The Good Place</i> Can Teach You About Morality</a>”. Background: <i><a data-jsb_prepared="a03z4f5vqa" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Place" rel="noreferrer">The Good Place</a></i> is a comedy show which presents a version of the afterlife in which some characters seem to have gone to a variation on Heaven by accident. Said characters then have to do sneaky things to avoid getting caught, including quietly working on morally improving themselves to keep their world from destabilizing. As such, moral concepts and philosophy are dealt with rather more explicitly than in most TV shows. (Bonus: <i>The Good Place</i> is fun to watch.)<br />
<br />
2. Your humble blogger does not plan on releasing another <i>Star Wars</i> review until after the release of <i>Episode IX</i> two years from now, but in the meantime please note “<a data-jsb_prepared="a2ki9s9eiv" href="https://forward.com/culture/film-tv/389632/star-wars-nazi-influence-leni-riefenstahl-triumph-of-will/" rel="noreferrer">‘Star Wars’ Nazi Influence Is Complicated In A Bad Way</a>”. This article correctly notes something I missed when I wrote <a data-jsb_prepared="uftxz9vllq" href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.co.il/2014/07/jewish-date-tammuz-5774-parashath-balaq.html?m=1" rel="noreferrer">my own <i>Star Wars</i> review three</a> years ago. The Galactic Empire draws a lot on the Nazis, but Lucas and company have missed something critical about Nazis: Nazis were not simply a bunch of horrible people. They were <i>principled</i> evil, oppressing and murdering people because they believed something. As noted in <a data-jsb_prepared="cs78zc0pfk" href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.co.il/search/label/Expelled%3A%20%20No%20Intelligence%20Allowed" rel="noreferrer">my review of <i>Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed</i></a>, Adolf Hitler in <i>Mein Kampf</i> rationalizes his moral perversion in the name of preserving the purity of the (purported) superior race. Hitler also tapped into widespread Christian anti-Semitism viewing Jews as diabolical, an evil for society to fight against. The Galacic Empire, on the other hand, does not seem to have any moral ideology (perverse or otherwise). For that matter, the Rebels do not seem to have a moral ideology either. (Maybe we should not be surprised. Lucas is concerned more with “the hero’s journey” than with the nature of morality.) Enjoy the movies, but do keep in mind that no movie, no matter how good, is good at everything.<br />
<br />
Peace. <br />
<br />
’Aharon/Aaron<br />
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Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-29911686720610350172016-07-15T15:40:00.000+03:002016-07-15T15:42:56.723+03:00The Gospel according to C. S. Lewis: a theological review of The Chronicles of Narnia<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Jewish date: 9 Tammuz 5776 (Parashath Balaq).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Today’s holidays: Bonaventure (Catholicism), Confuflux (Discordianism), Feast Day of St. Neil Gaiman (Church of the SubGenius).</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Gospel according to <a data-jsb_prepared="64r08ln5ba" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis" rel="noreferrer">C. S. Lewis</a>: a theological review of <i><a data-jsb_prepared="tz44hligmg" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia" rel="noreferrer">The Chronicles of Narnia</a></i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">by Aaron Solomon Adelman</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">NOTE: <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i> deals with many interrelated topics that do not readily lend themselves to a linear order. As such, the order of the topics below is somewhat meandering.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Your humble blogger comes not to bash <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i> (consisting of the seven books <i>The Magician’s Nephew</i>; <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i>; <i>The Horse and His Boy</i>; <i>Prince Caspian</i>; <i>The Voyage of the </i>Dawn Treader; <i>The Silver Chair</i>; and <i>The Last Battle</i>). First of all, the series qualifies as readable literature in its own right. The author, C. S. Lewis, worked out a lot of the details of his fictional multiverse, bringing together talking animals with elements of English chivalry and ancient Greco-Roman religious stories. Lewis populated his stories with actual personalities and furnished them with plots and character development. A number of the characters screw up and turn themselves around, sometimes even switching sides—like people in the real world. While these books do not suit everyone’s tastes, many—including your humble blogger—have found them enjoyable even without realizing that they are Christian fiction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But what sort of Christianity are we talking about? C. S. Lewis was a serious convert to Anglicanism, and he had his own bent on Christianity which he laid out in his book <i><a data-jsb_prepared="nksu32hybh" href="http://samizdat.qc.ca/vc/pdfs/MereChristianity_CSL.pdf" rel="noreferrer">Mere Christianity</a></i>. All the familiar basics of Christianity are explained there, including the Trinity, Jesus as the Messiah, the crucifixion as atonement for humanity, and various virtues. <i>Mere Christianity</i> especially emphasizes morality: God has a universal moral law which humans know instinctively; practice of this moral law is common among the saintly, and the morality of the seriously religious of whatever religion converges on it. God wants all humanity to follow it. God also rewards and punishes all humans—regardless of their religion—for their actions with respect to how well they follow this universal moral law. Being a just god, God is strict but fair. As such, Christianity for Lewis is not an exercise in mere belief or showing up to church once a week; putting ideals into practice is required. Furthermore, just as the moral law is binding upon all humanity, salvation through moral behavior is available to all, including non-Christians.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">These beliefs are reflected in <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i>. The characters do not simply sit around believing or having faith, even though belief and faith are dealt with in the series. They help each other, go on adventures, face moral challenges, and often end up improving themselves. And the God of Narnia expects nothing less.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Aslan:</b> There are works of theological fiction which depict God as something other than all-powerful and invulnerable. Forget anything like this in Narnia. Aslan is a real-deal god. Despite having the form of a lion (most of the time He is on-screen), Aslan is Jesus incarnate with His godhood evident. He is the son of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea (= God the Father). Whenever He appears, He is consistently described in glowing terms evoking awe. He sings Narnia’s world into existence in <i>The Magician’s Nephew</i>, and He presides over its end in <i>The Last Battle</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Anything resembling death or injury happens to Aslan only with His consent. Most prominently, in <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i>, in order to save Edmund Pevensie from Jadis the White Witch, He allows Himself to be sacrificed; since He is a god, He comes back to life afterwards, as a real god (at least in general Christian conception) is immortal and cannot actually be killed. This directly reflects the Gospel narratives of the crucifixion, in which Jesus is killed so that humanity may gain forgiveness, only for Him to rise from the dead three days later. A drop of blood from Aslan’s paw heralds Caspian X transitioning to the afterlife in <i>The Silver Chair</i>. Being invulnerable, Aslan never shows the least bit of fear or worry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Aslan is an involved god, playing a pivotal role in every book. He cares about mortals. He periodically appears to guide the inhabitants of Narnia’s world and visitors from our world and to reward and punish them. In <i>The Magician’s Nephew</i>, He tasks Digory Kirke with planting an apple; He then makes a cab driver and his wife the first King and Queen of Narnia. In <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i>, Aslan charges the Pevensie children with their roles in the battle against the forces of Jadis the White Witch and makes them kings and queens of Narnia. In <i>The Horse and His Boy</i>, Aslan repeatedly acts to help Bree, Shasta/Cor, Aravis, and Hwin out of Calormen and to prevent an invasion of Archenland, as well as punish Aravis and Rabadash, king of Calormen. In <i>Prince Caspian</i>, Aslan guides the Pevensie children on their mission to save Narnia from King Miraz, establishes the reign of Caspian X, and gives the Telmarines, who were on the wrong side of the war, the option of going to Earth. In <i>The Voyage of the </i>Dawn Treader, Aslan repeatedly appears to guide Caspian X and his companions on their voyage to the edge of Narnia’s world. In <i>The Silver Chair</i>, Aslan gives four commands to Jill Pole around which almost the entire plot is centered; he also grants an afterlife to Caspian X and gives Jill, her friend Eustace Scrubb, and Caspian X an opportunity to scare bullies. And in <i>The Last Battle</i>, Aslan sends warning to Shift and Puzzle, lest they carry out Shift’s diabolical plan. As Narnia comes to an end, Aslan sends the worthy to His own country (= Heaven) and the unworthy to darkness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Noticeable is that Aslan is the only member of the Trinity to make an appearance in Narnia’s world. While Aslan is the son of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea, God the Father Himself never appears in the story. The Holy Spirit is never mentioned at all. <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i> may thus be viewed as a “what if” scenario in which Jesus alone creates and is involved with a world. Without the Father, there is no Torah and nothing resembling Judaism. The only law that matters is Lewis’s universal moral law. While there is prayer to Aslan, His image takes the place of the cross, and there are a few prophetic traditions, Aslanism is not an organized religion. There is no church, no mass, no baptism, no sacraments, no Bible, and no clergy. If this is a form of Christianity, it truly is mere Christianity, stripped of most of its externals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Evil: </b>Also lacking is the Fall of Adam, so arguably there should be no original sin. Thankfully for the plot, there is evil in Narnia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">At the very beginning of Narnia in <i>The Magician’s Nephew</i> is Jadis, a half-giant, half-jinn descendant of Lilith. Jadis had already destroyed her own world, Charn, and escapes through trickery. In Narnia, she achieves immortality by eating an apple from a magic tree and essentially sets herself up as Aslan’s archenemy. By <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i>, she has become the White Witch, ruler of Narnia and cause of a century-long winter. In both books, she acts as a temptress. She is eventually killed by Aslan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In <i>The Silver Chair</i> is another supernatural figure of evil, the Lady of the Green Kirtle. Her form of evil is magically brain-washing others into submission. Her species is unknown, but right before her death, she takes the form of a giant snake. (Compare the snake in the Garden of ‘Edhen.) It is never revealed whether or not she originated in Narnia’s world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Other evil is performed by mortals. In five out of the seven books, humans perform actions of evil. (This is unsurprising, considering that humans perform rather a lot of evil in the real world, too.) Nonhumans, such as dwarves and talking animals, side with the forces of evil or (in the case of the ape Shift) initiate it in<i> The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i> and <i>The Last Battle</i>. While humans, who originated on Earth, are subject to original sin, that nonhumans can be evil, too, suggests Lewis does not believe original sin is necessary to be evil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Racism:</b> Your humble blogger was asked to discuss racism in <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i>, and it is in the discussion of evil that this seems most appropriate. Narnia’s great rival is Calormen, a country to the south whose inhabitants are not Aslanists. They are polytheists, their chief god being the monstrous Tash. Their rites include human sacrifice. While the Narnians can fight quite well, the Calormenes are more given to war and conquest. Calormenes keep slaves. Calormenes have prominent roles as villains in <i>The Horse and His Boy</i> and <i>The Last Battle</i>. And—relevant to the question of racism—they are dark-skinned, while the Narnians are light-skinned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Given this situation, one may easily jump to the conclusion that Calormenes are inherently evil and thus <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i> is racist. But the situation is not so simple. One obvious problem is that Narnian humans are not inherently good; their villains are prominent in <i>Prince Caspian</i> and <i>The Voyage of the </i>Dawn Treader. The other problem is that despite the morally uninspiring environment they grow up in, Calormenes can still turn out to be good people. In <i>The Horse and His Boy</i>, Aravis is the central heroine. And in <i>The Last Battle</i>, the noble Emeth seeks to get to the bottom of Shift’s fraud and is counted among the righteous. Having dark skin does not make one evil.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There is a more solid claim of racism in <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i>: by order of Aslan, all kings and queens of Narnia have to be human (“sons of Adam and daughters of Eve”). Talking animals and entities out of legend and Greco-Roman religion are not eligible. No reason is ever given why humans are necessarily the best rulers; your humble blogger sees no reason for this either. Strangely enough, no one ever objects to this, despite some dwarfs showing a lack of community spirit with other species.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Fractional Christians and potentially universal salvation:</b> As noted previously, Lewis makes clear in <i>Mere Christianity</i> that he does not believe that non-Christians are necessarily evil or damned to Hell. He thinks of them as being fractionally Christian, as they may agree with parts of Christian doctrine and practice parts of the universal moral law. As such, they may also receive salvation. This doctrine of Lewis unambiguously appears in <i>The Last Battle</i>, in which Narnia’s world comes to an end and all the mortal characters go to Lewis’s version of Heaven or into darkness. The Calormenes Aravis and Emeth both go to Heaven, despite the latter being a devout Tashist and never meeting Aslan while he is still alive. Aslan Himself explains that those who serve Tash with good intent and good action are accounted as if they served Aslan; those who serve Aslan with intention to do evil are accounted as if they served Tash. Aslan is not so small a god as to condemn mortals simply for not knowing Him or justify mortals simply because they pay Him lip service.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Sexism:</b> One of the other issues your humble blogger was asked to discuss is sexism. (This will get tied into the question of salvation. Please be patient.) Lewis was not a 21st-century feminist/egalitarian. In <i>Mere Christianity</i>, he does hold that the husband is supposed to be in charge, not the wife. Considering the era he lived in, this was probably not unusual. E.g., <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i> was published 1950-1956, while at practically the same time (1951-1957) was the original run of the famous and popular television show <i>I Love Lucy</i>. <i>I Love Lucy</i> is anything but feminist, with Ricky Ricardo dominating his wife Lucy and this being portrayed as normal and healthy in a loving relationship.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">On the other hand, Lewis has enough respect for females to depict them in <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i> as fully competent, unlike Lucy Ricardo. In every single adventure, at least one girl is a central character, be she Polly Plummer, Lucy (Pevensie), Susan, Aravis, or Jill. These characters do not stand around and look pretty. Neither are they damsels in distress. They take part in the decision-making and the action of their stories. They handle and use weapons, including in battle. They face their own trials and are proven worthy. And just like the boys, they also screw up and develop as characters. For that matter, there are two female villains, Jadis the White Witch and the Lady of the Green Kirtle. While Lewis may not be as forward-thinking as L. Frank Baum (author of the more feminist <i>Oz</i> books), he is not a chauvinist idiot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If a serious charge of sexism—at least with respect to the standards of his time—is going to be laid on Lewis, then it might be on account of Susan Pevensie. All the protagonists of all seven Narnia books go to Heaven—except for Susan. By <i>The Last Battle</i>, Susan has grown up in such a way that she is mostly interested in “nylons and lipstick and invitations.” Unlike her siblings, Susan no longer believes that Narnia is a real place; she thinks it is a fictional world that she and her siblings imagined as when they were younger. Some interpret that Susan does not go to Heaven, because she grew up, in thinking as well as in age. But from the way the other Friends of Narnia describe her, they seem think she has become shallow and has abandoned the ideals of Narnia. As such, she would not have gone on that last adventure even if she had known about it, and so she misses an opportunity to participate in events which would have resulted in her going to Heaven. Is this a satisfying outcome for Susan? No, it is not. But it is a realistic one. People who are good do not always remain good. And it could have just as easily have been Peter or Edward who turned away from Narnia; at no point is it claimed that Susan went astray because she is female.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This also is not necessarily the end of Susan’s story. While everyone who is in Narnia when it ends necessarily dies (and some of the characters arguably actually die in a train accident right before their final journey to Narnia), Susan is almost certainly alive at the end of the series. And as long as she is alive, she may yet repent. Aslan at no point claims that Susan is condemned to Hell. Throughout the series, Aslan is forgiving even of characters who do worse than Susan, should they repent, e.g., Edward in <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i>. As such, Susan may well join her siblings in Heaven. (If someone in charge of the estate of C. S. Lewis should read this review, please commission someone to write this story!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Other gods than Aslan:</b> Surprisingly, Aslan is not the only god to show up in Narnia’s world. The least surprising is Tash, the bird-headed, four-armed god of Calormen, worshipped with unspeakable rites. Tash shows up in <i>The Last Battle</i>, withering whatever ground he passes over—he floats rather than walks—and grabbing away doers of evil. One may argue that Tash is not a real god, but actually a character straight out of standard Christianity: Satan. However, Tash, unlike Satan, shows no interest in tempting anyone to do evil, only in claiming those who have (metaphorically) already sold their souls to Satan. Tash shows no sign of being on the same level as Aslan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Harder to understand is the presence of characters out ancient Greek and Roman religion (fauns, nymphs, satyrs, centaurs, the Maenads, etc.), including some of their gods: river gods, Silenus, and Bacchus. None of the Greco-Roman gods appears to be anywhere as powerful as Aslan. They are also present in a fairly benign form. The internal logic of these anomalous presences is never explained; so far as your humble blogger knows, Lewis did not believe they exist in the real world. Their inclusion does reflect that Lewis was very interested in European religious stories (mythology), and he came to Christianity through it; to Lewis, Christianity was a myth which happened to be true. A possible solution is that Lewis is continuing an earlier tradition of syncretizing Christianity with Greco-Roman religion, e.g., as in John Milton’s <i><a data-jsb_prepared="irbma5pqkq" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26" rel="noreferrer">Paradise Lost</a></i>, which identifies God with Phoebus and Satan with Hades. While Milton may have been using poetic metaphor, Lewis does not make such an interpretation easy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Faith and trust:</b> Faith and belief, as previously mentioned, also play a role in <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i>. Indeed, much of the plot of <i>The Silver Chair</i> depends on faith in Aslan. The commands that Jill receives from Him and Eustace and Puddleglum have to deal with (e.g., having to release a possibly psychotic man who happens to invoke the name of Aslan) might be suicidal if followed otherwise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But there are other sorts of trust than trust in a god. One kind which plays a role in the plots is trust in other people who are worthy of trust, even if they make unusual claims. In <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i>, Lucy Pevensie reports having traveled to another world via a wardrobe. Though the claim seems ridiculous, Digory argues that since she has a history of honesty, she should be believed; it turns out she is right. Lack of trust in Lucy’s claim of having seen Aslan makes things harder for the Pevensie children in their quest to help Caspian X in <i>Prince Caspian</i>; disregarding her claim leads them to practically walk into an enemy army.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Summary:</b> <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i> is a reflection of C. S. Lewis’s Christian beliefs. Jesus is included as a central character in the form of Aslan, depicting Him as a just, but loving, god. Emphasis is placed on morality and action rather than ritual and law. Despite the fantasy setting, characters face moral and theological challenges and respond credibly. Salvation is depicted as attainable by anyone, even those who do not believe in Jesus. Despite the anomalous appearance of entities out of Greco-Roman religion, this series is generally theologically sound and enjoyable literature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Classification: Enjoyable family-friendly Christian fantasy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Theological rating: A-.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">See also:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><a data-jsb_prepared="m0i2vt30i2" href="http://www.narniaweb.com/resources-links/are-the-chronicles-of-narnia-sexist-and-racist/" rel="noreferrer"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Are The Chronicles of Narnia Sexist and Racist? | NarniaWeb</span></a></li>
<li><a data-jsb_prepared="qr634la2sl" href="http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/hebrew-bible/lilith-in-the-bible-and-mythology/" rel="noreferrer"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Lilith in the Bible and Mythology - Biblical Archaeology Society</span></a></li>
</ul>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-25336613863920242202016-03-15T12:46:00.000+02:002016-03-15T12:46:44.299+02:00Quantico should be cancelledJewish date: 5 ’Adhar Sheni 5776 (Parashath Wayyiqra’).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Bahá’í Month of Fasting, Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Edward G. Wood (Church of the SubGenius), Bacchanalia (Roman Religion).<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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When I first saw promos for <i>Quantico</i>, I thought the show was nothing worthy of attention. However, since then, accusations have been made of the show being anti-Semitic, e.g., “<a data-jsb_prepared="j64dm8ygky" href="http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/03/07/major-jewish-group-demands-abc-cancel-quantico-for-vicious-defamation-of-jews-israel-and-the-idf/" rel="noreferrer">Major Jewish Group Demands ABC Cancel ‘Quantico’ for ‘Vicious Defamation of Jews, Israel and the IDF’</a>”. <a data-jsb_prepared="e549avfoz1" href="http://zoa.org/2016/03/10316493-zoa-abcs-anti-semitic-terrorism-soap-opera-quantico-defames-jews-israel-should-be-canceled/" rel="noreferrer">The Zionist Organization of America even compiled a long list of anti-Semitism and apologetics for Islamic terrorism in the show, ending it with urging readers to complain to the network responsible, ABC</a>. In the name of fairness, I have watched <i>Quantico</i> (all 12 episodes which as of this writing can be viewed by someone who is not currently paying on Hulu), and the accusations are completely true. As I do not believe I can reasonably write a better review than the Zionist Organization of America’s, I refer my readers to their “<a data-jsb_prepared="trzee3t3s0" href="http://zoa.org/2016/03/10316493-zoa-abcs-anti-semitic-terrorism-soap-opera-quantico-defames-jews-israel-should-be-canceled/" rel="noreferrer">ZOA: ABC’s Anti-Semitic Terrorism Soap-Opera “Quantico” Defames Jews & Israel, Should Be Cancelled</a>” and urge them to follow their instructions to complain to ABC.<br />
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To the people at ABC, who are going to get a copy of this: <i>Quantico</i> deserves to be cancelled. I realize it is a piece of fiction, but in this fiction lies are presented as if they are fact. Lies are not harmless. These lies condemn the innocent and exculpate the guilty. Sadly, people do believe things from fiction, even fiction as blatantly unrealistic as <i>The X-Files</i>. And when people believe lies like those presented in <i>Quantico</i>, the result is unfair prejudice against Jews and a blindness towards Islamic terrorism. Please do the right thing, cancel the show, and make the public apology you owe to Israel and the Jewish people. Thanks in advance for your attention.<br />
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Peace. <br />
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’Aharon/AaronRupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-7017671745026165982015-12-04T12:54:00.000+02:002015-12-04T12:54:48.499+02:00Everybody sucks: a theological review of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon<div style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">
Jewish date: 22 Kislev 5776 (Parashath Wayeshev).</div>
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Today’s holidays: Feast Day of John Damascene (Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Mechagodzilla (Church of the Subgenius), Bona Dea (ancient Roman religion).</div>
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<b>Everybody sucks: a theological review of <a data-jsb_prepared="2vzgorep73" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Zimmer_Bradley" rel="noreferrer">Marion Zimmer Bradley</a>’s <i><a data-jsb_prepared="4i5gzq9vs8" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mists_of_Avalon" rel="noreferrer">The Mists of Avalon</a></i></b></div>
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<b>by Aaron Solomon Adelman</b></div>
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One of the most persistent stories in the English-speaking world is the legend of <a data-jsb_prepared="s5w8o5dnhv" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Arthur" rel="noreferrer">King Arthur</a>. The most famous telling is <i><a data-jsb_prepared="n8wbtsrgac" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Le_Morte_d%27Arthur&redirect=no" rel="noreferrer">Le Morte d’Arthur</a></i> by Sir Thomas Malory (published in 1485). Since then the legend and select parts of it have been retold many times, including: <i><a data-jsb_prepared="6iz1sgnwha" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight" rel="noreferrer">Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</a></i>, <i><a data-jsb_prepared="b3prfjr4lv" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idylls_of_the_King" rel="noreferrer">Idylls of the King</a></i>, <i><a data-jsb_prepared="9vm4ktn6di" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur%27s_Court" rel="noreferrer">A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court</a></i> (itself made into movies), <i><a data-jsb_prepared="ge8qmwp7or" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Merlin" rel="noreferrer">Mr. Merlin</a></i>, <i><a data-jsb_prepared="k9otd637w1" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(miniseries)" rel="noreferrer">Merlin</a></i> (the miniseries), <i><a data-jsb_prepared="n8ijtu7rif" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(2008_TV_series)" rel="noreferrer">Merlin</a></i> (the TV series), <i><a data-jsb_prepared="983ow8a57t" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Valiant" rel="noreferrer">Prince Valiant</a></i>, <i><a data-jsb_prepared="f1q7zz028o" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Once_and_Future_King" rel="noreferrer">The Once and Future King</a></i>, and <i><a data-jsb_prepared="6ba8nbvr6g" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_in_the_Stone_(film)" rel="noreferrer">The Sword in the Stone</a></i>. (This list is nowhere near complete. <a data-jsb_prepared="kw9gmro28d" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography_of_King_Arthur" rel="noreferrer">The lists</a> <a data-jsb_prepared="7rudhdb04k" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_media_based_on_Arthurian_legend" rel="noreferrer">on Wikipedia</a> are huge.)</div>
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An aspect of the legend of King Arthur which is often not explicitly stated—and yet is relevant to this blog—is that it is a Christian story. Arthur is a Christian king supported by Christian knights. One thread of the story is the quest to find the Holy Grail (the cup which Jesus drank from in at the Last Supper), humorously depicted in <i><a data-jsb_prepared="tt2hdc74io" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grail" rel="noreferrer">Monty Python and the Holy Grail</a></i>. Even if someone interprets the legend in such a way to downplay the religious aspect—and many interpreters do that—the Christian nature of Arthur and his court remains as a subtext.</div>
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Every interpretation the legend gives it a new spin, and eventually a Neopagan interpretation was produced in the form of <i>The Mists of Avalon</i> by Marion Zimmer Bradley, a rewriting according to Neopagan matriarchal pseudo-history. The spin was novel enough that <a data-jsb_prepared="mvzg1p4dxz" href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/29/books/marion-zimmer-bradley-69-writer-of-darkover-fantasies.html" rel="noreferrer">the book was on <i>The New York Times</i> bestseller list</a>, and a <a data-jsb_prepared="ow5nd6ikta" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mists_of_Avalon_(miniseries)" rel="noreferrer">miniseries</a> was made based on the book. All the well-known elements of the story (and even some lesser-known elements) remain intact, just reworked to fit a different set of assumptions. Rather than putting Arthur in some idealized British past age, the story is set in Britain not long after the Romans have left. At the start of the story, the island is a patchwork of small kingdoms and tribes. There is no overall unity, and there is constant threat of invasion and war. Avalon is recast as a pagan religious site, populated mostly by priestesses and their acolytes studying to be priestesses. The Lady of the Lake becomes the high priestess, and the Merlin the high priest. (The definite article is not a typo. Two Merlins, Taliesin and his successor, Kevin, appear in the story.) The whole plot deals with the struggle between paganism and Christianity in Britain. Christianity has already become the favored religion in many courts, and it continues to spread. As paganism is abandoned, Avalon slowly slips into the mists and away from the rest of the world; it may only be reached deliberately by magic. In this religiously divided world, all the major characters belong to one religion or another, a few being pagans pretending to be Christians or religiously confused. (Other religions are somehow absent.)</div>
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Morgaine (as in Morgaine le Fey) is promoted to central character and becomes a pagan priestess of Avalon, eventually becoming the high priestess. Arthur becomes king by “sacred marriage”; he sleeps with his half-sister Morgaine as a proxy for the Goddess and marries the land. (That business about him marrying the land is not a typo.) Arthur has the problem of trying to satisfy both a Christian aristocracy and pagan peasants. (Or so we are told. Much is written about the aristocracy, but peasants receive little screen time.) When Arthur gets too Christian under the influence of his wife Gwenhwyfar and thus fails to live up to the pagan priestesses’ hopes, Morgaine plots his downfall according the cycle that sacred kings are supposed to undergo: they reign for a time under the consent of the real, female ruler, and when they falter, they are ritually killed and replaced. (See <i><a data-jsb_prepared="xgqbtuhrtg" href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.co.il/2012/07/review-of-golden-bough.html" rel="noreferrer">The Golden Bough</a></i>.)</div>
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The writer displays a consistent hatred for Christianity. The pagans repeatedly claim that all gods are the same god—a typical Neopagan claim—but this claim runs afoul of the fact that Christians for the most part do not believe this, both in the book and real life. It should go without saying that the Neopagan claim of the existence of a goddess who is all goddesses has even less Christian acceptance. There is a little lip service towards ecumenicism (e.g., Taliesin claims to have attended mass and taken communion), but Christians get depicted badly, and the more dedicated they are to Christianity, the worse they are depicted. Thus Christian priests and nuns are depicted as mean, rigid, life-hating, patriarchal people. Christians are intolerant, obsessed with sin, and hypocritical, especially about sex. One cannot even finish reading a sentence about one of these people without feeling revulsion. Only by embracing Neopagan ideals can a Christian gain favor in the eyes of the author. Very prominently, Gwenhwyfar is so seriously Christian that she pushes Arthur to Christianize himself, his court, and by extension Britain—and she is treated for the most part as <i>the enemy</i>. However, when she slips up and commits adultery or at least emotional intimacy with Lancelet—behavior which is acceptable to Neopagans but not Christians—and maybe feels a bit ecumenical is she treated sympathetically. Symmetrically, Kevin starts off as a good (though secret) pagan, completely approved by the author, but then he decides that the way to deal with the Christianization of Britain is to use pagan religious articles in Christian ceremonies—which is treated as unconscionably evil.</div>
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Bradley also goes out of her way to make Christians look like a bunch of idiots. Morgaine steps in when Kevin tries to use pagan religious articles in a Christian ceremony and turns the experience into a full-blown ecstatic pagan ceremony. The Christians are unable to comprehend what has really happened, so they interpret it as a Christian revelatory experience involving the Holy Grail. Many of the knights then set out on a fruitless quest to find the Grail. If this makes no sense to you, do not be surprised. It makes no sense in context either.</div>
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If this negative treatment of Christians sounds familiar, I have written reviews of books betraying such attitudes before. Philip Pullman created his own deliberately perverse version of Christianity for <i><a data-jsb_prepared="2gq0n7430b" href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.co.il/search/label/His%20Dark%20Materials" rel="noreferrer">His Dark Materials</a></i>, and <a data-jsb_prepared="c57on9mioi" href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.co.il/2012/02/faking-reality-moral-review-of-ayn.html" rel="noreferrer">Ayn Rand</a> depicted everyone who is not selfish as contemptible. The technique is simple: portray the hated group in a negative light at all times, thus making the favored group look good. The technique is purely rhetorical, not rational or logical. A fictional story is not constrained to be realistic. There are some Christians who are jerks in real life, but when Christians are consistently jerks without a good reason for all the Christians in the setting to be jerks, the story comes off as biased.</div>
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To be fair, Bradley is under no delusion that being a pagan automatically makes someone good and pure. (Contrast Pullman and Rand, who are that delusional.) But Bradley goes overboard in depicting pagans as something other than idealized saints. The central pagan character, Morgaine, wavers a good deal in her devotion to the Goddess and spends a number of years completely derelict in her duties. She sleeps regularly with Kevin without the benefit of marriage, and then later has an affair with her stepson Accolon; the latter is rationalized by him being a pagan and them claiming to do so for religious reasons. She sends Accolon to kill Arthur for abandoning paganism, but Arthur wins the battle and kills Accolon. For Kevin’s treason, Morgaine orders the young priestess Nimue to seduce Kevin to return him to Avalon for execution. While Nimue is successful, she falls in love with Kevin in the process; overcome by guilt, she commits suicide. (What? Was sending an assassin with a sword too hard?) As a heroine, Morgaine leaves a lot to be desired—and she is arguably the best portrayed pagan in the entire book. The others are no better morally. (Do not get me started on Morgause, who abandons all principle and practices blatantly black magic.)</div>
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Even bizarre jumps of logic are not limited to Christians. Morgaine has her own episode at the end of the story in which she looks upon the Christians around her and finally sees something positive. Her beloved Lancelet, at the end of his life, has retired to a monastery and was ordained as a priest shortly before his death. And Morgaine herself sees enough of paganism among nuns—the only time nuns are portrayed positively—with their communal living and their veneration of Mary and <a data-jsb_prepared="qzwuju13x3" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigit_of_Kildare" rel="noreferrer">Bridget</a>. Why this suffices her is never stated; anyone with a basic knowledge of Christianity knows that even Mary, despite her high status, is not considered a goddess, while God is most certainly considered a god. Thus it takes great intellectual dishonesty to see pagan duotheism in Roman Catholicism. </div>
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Perhaps the most bizarre jump of logic is the one that <i>isn’t</i> made. The way to keep a religion going is to encourage people to believe in it and practice it. But Morgaine and her fellow priestesses barely do so. Morgaine on a number of occasions warns Arthur to keep his pagan coronation oaths, and when he fails to do so, Morgaine plays politics and seeks his downfall—as if killing Arthur would show that paganism is <i>the truth</i>. Never do the pagan priestesses even discuss trying to spread paganism. There are no pagan missionaries trying to show the people that paganism is <i>the truth</i> in any way, shape or form. Since the Christians, unlike the pagans, evangelize, it is little wonder that they win out in the end.</div>
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Where <i>The Mists of Avalon</i> fails miserably as a polemic is that it never shows what is so great about paganism or how it is better than Christianity. The focus on paganism in this book is whether or not it is going to survive. <i>Why</i> it should survive is not really dealt with. Demonstrating the truth of paganism is not considered at all. Even as a moral system, no attempt is ever made to show that paganism is better (according to any criteria) than Christianity. Hence, as accordance with the title of this review, everybody sucks.</div>
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Overall classification: Pretentious, dreary fantasy novel.</div>
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Theological rating: D.</div>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-33908708042297800502015-10-16T14:55:00.000+03:002015-10-16T14:55:20.807+03:00A theological review of M*A*S*HJewish date: 3 Marḥeshwan 5776.<br />
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Today’s holidays: Feast of Ida Craddock (Thelema), Feast Day of St. Mrs. Emma Peel/St. Lynne England (Church of the Subgenius).<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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Sorry I have not posted in over a year. I got a full-time job, and do not have a lot of free time for writing these days. Other things going on in my life have also reduced my available writing time. One of these things has been my mother’s untimely departure from this world a year ago. As part of the mourning process, I felt the need to write a theological review relevant to her. And so I spent a lot of time reviewing the relevant material and (even harder) writing the review included below.<br />
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Peace. <br />
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’Aharon/Aaron
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<b>A theological review of <i>M*A*S*H</i></b></div>
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by Aaron Solomon Adelman</div>
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This review is dedicated to the memory of my late mother, Carol Jeanne Adelman, whose favorite show was <i>M*A*S*H</i>.</div>
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The original incarnation of <i>M*A*S*H</i> was a novel by Richard Hooker which came out in 1968. A movie version was released in 1970. The movie was adapted into a TV series which ran for 11 seasons from 1972 to 1983. There are also a number of sequels to the original books and a TV series sequel to the movie (<i>Trapper John, M.D.</i>). The TV series spawned two sequels: <i>AfterM*A*S*H</i>, which lasted a season and a half, and <i>W*A*L*T*E*R</i>, which never made in past the pilot. All three versions of <i>M*A*S*H</i> (but not their sequels) are set during the Korean War (1950 to 1953) and deal primarily with the lives of doctors, nurses, and other personnel at the 4077th MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital). The book, the movie, and the earliest seasons of the original series were released during the Vietnam War (1955 to 1975), and the anti-war attitudes that many Americans had at the time are reflected in the writing, especial for the TV show.</div>
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No version of <i>M*A*S*H</i> is primarily theological fiction. The book and the movie are essentially comedies focusing on the crazy things done by the doctors and the nurses at MASH 4077, but at a relatively shallow level. As such, in the movie religion is treated as something to laugh at (along with pretty much everything else in the film). Hence Captain Frank Burns’s prayers are mocked by his tent-mates; only later do we find out that he is morally reprehensible and worthy of our hatred. And Father Mulcahy is depicted as weak and fairly insignificant. There really is not much to analyze.</div>
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The TV series, however, delves a lot more into the backgrounds and thinking of the characters and explores why they do crazy things. War is presented as horrifically ugly. War wrecks people’s lives and often ends them. It is brutal for those whose country the war occurs in <i>and</i> those who serve in the armies fighting the war. The situation is so bad that it is frequently referred to metaphorically as “Hell”. Indeed, in “The General’s Practitioner”, Captain Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce argues that war is worse than Hell; only sinners go to Hell, while war is full of innocent bystanders.</div>
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Faced with everything from primitive living conditions to unpalatable food to bureaucracy to forced separation from their loved ones to the real possibility of being killed, the personnel of the 4077th, paradoxically, deal with the insanity around them by acting in an insane manner. It is the insanity of the situation and the insane things which the characters do which are the focus of the humor of the show; the war itself and explorations into the thinking of the characters—even the reasons for insanity as a psychological self-defense mechanism—are <i>never</i> treated as funny.</div>
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Given the TV series’ tendency to delve into the thinking of the characters, it is no surprise that their thoughts on religion get discussed over the span of 11 seasons. In fact, the majority of episodes have some sort of religious reference. There are so many religious references—your humble blogger’s notes on the subject run to <i>21 pages</i>—that detailing them all is not compatible with keeping this review to a reasonable length. (I apologize for not analyzing all the religiously themed jokes.) However, in all this data, there is a very consistent pattern on how religion is depicted: Religion is presented very positively. Or to be more precise, religion <i>done correctly</i> is presented very positively. Abuses of religion—the sorts of things which seriously religious people in real life often complain about—on the other hand, are depicted negatively. To illustrate, let us examine two central characters, Father Mulcahy and Major Burns.</div>
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<b>Father Mulcahy: </b>The most obvious manifestation of religion—and example of religion done correctly—is Father Francis John Patrick Mulcahy, a Catholic priest and the camp chaplain. At times he seems naïve, but the writers had a lot of fun expanding on his character to the extent that this review cannot truly do him justice, though the general idea seems to be that he should be a holy, yet human, character. In the episode “Heroes”, he relates the following origin story to the dying boxer “Gentleman” Joe Cavanaugh:</div>
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<i>I’m sure people tell you this all the time, but you’ve always been quite a hero to me. Actually, when I was growing up I had two heroes, no offense: you and Plato. I know that sounds strange. I loved Plato’s notion of an ideal plane. I could even picture it: rambling fields and trees, sort of like the suburbs, but in the sky. I wished I could live there myself. I suppose that’s because my real life was less than ideal. I was small and wore thick glasses, probably from reading too much Plato. And I was an easy target for the neighborhood kids. I didn’t even try to fight back. I didn’t think fisticuffs were very, oh, Platonic. Well, when I was 12, my father dragged me to see my first fight. It was you versus Tony Giovanetti. By the ninth round, you were punching him at will. The crowd was yelling, “Put him away! Put him away!” My father was one of the loudest. All of a sudden, you stopped punching. You stepped back, and you told the ref to stop the fight, because the man had been hurt enough. And I realized for the first time that it was possible to defend myself and still maintain my principles. If Plato had been a boxer, I suspect he’d have fought like you. That was when I made up my mind to keep one foot in the ideal plane and the other foot in the real world.</i></div>
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Father Mulcahy at MASH 4077 works hard to live up to his ideals. He takes his duty as a priest and the teachings of the Gospels and church seriously, with an emphasis on the most compassionate teachings of Jesus. Besides holding services, he hears confessions, performs last rites, and prays for his comrades. He is compassionate to almost everyone. He is quite tolerant of followers of other religions (“38 Across”, “Ping Pong”, “Exorcism”). Father Mulcahy helps out at a local orphanage, and eagerly volunteers to help out at camp as necessary. For an extreme example, in “The Yalu Brick Road” most of the camp is sick with salmonella, and Father Mulcahy—one of the few who are unaffected—happily performs even the most menial chores. He is also quite willing to stand up for his principles, despite the costs and risks. He refuses to compromise the sanctity of the confessional, even though it means he has to retrieve stolen sodium pentathol hidden under a bell himself (with the help of Corporal Maxwell Klinger) at risk to his life. The sanctity of the confessional reappears in “Identity Crisis”, in which Father Mulcahy has to coerce a soldier to abandon a plan to go back to the United States by stealing the identity of a dead comrade—again without publicizing the contents of a confession. In “A Holy Mess”, Father Mulcahy defends a fugitive soldier’s right to sanctuary in the mess tent—then being used for services—and when appeals to higher-ups deny this right, he has the guts to rebuke the fugitive for attempting to use a loaded gun to get sent back home and grabs the weapon away from him. </div>
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It would have been easy for the writers to write Father Mulcahy as a cliché of a religious character, either making him blandly faultless or hypocritical. But in the TV series, as previously noted, the writers put a lot of effort into making Father Mulcahy a human character. So while he is an excellent priest, he is more than just a priest. For example, he took after “Gentleman” Joe and took up boxing and even taught it in seminary (“Requiem for a Lightweight”). Appropriately for a comedy show, Father Mulcahy has a sense of humor and regularly trades jokes with Hawkeye—both often referencing religious ideas in the jokes. (He also has the humility to be amused and not really offended by the Father Mulcahy sound-alike contest in “Movie Night”.) He plays the piano. And like many of the characters at the 4077th, he drinks, bets, and plays poker. (In “Our Finest Hour” he claims he finds the latter relaxing.)</div>
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Father Mulcahy is human enough to occasionally show some flaws in his character. He is disappointed about not being promoted from second lieutenant to captain and makes a fuss about it (“An Eye for a Tooth”, “Captains Outrageous”). (He is eventually successful.) On a number of occasions, he gets angry and sometimes even shows it when rebuking sinners. (Arguably anger is not the best thing for a religious paragon to show, but it is still a natural thing for a human to do.) In one episode (“Dear Sis”), a wounded soldier insists on being examined by a doctor immediately during triage, and when Father Mulcahy tries to convince him to be patient, the soldier hits the priest. Instinctively, Father Mulcahy hits back, and he is so upset by what he has done that he spends the rest of the episode trying to atone.</div>
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In short, while Father Mulcahy is a holy man, he nevertheless remains a man.</div>
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<b>Major Burns:</b> Just as <i>M*A*S*H</i> has a realistic religious person, it also has an example of a religious hypocrite in Major Frank Burns. Major Burns portrays himself as an upstanding Christian. He reads his Bible regularly. He speaks constantly about morality and the sanctity of marriage. These do not make up for the fact that what he practices is anything but what Jesus actually preached. He lies, he cheats, and he steals. (E.g., in “The Gun”, Frank steals a colonel’s antique gun, passes it off as his own to Margaret, denies it, lets Corporal Walter “Radar” O’Reilly take the blame, and only reluctantly returns the gun back under threat of being exposed.) He treats almost every other character in the series with contempt and lacks sympathy for anyone. He is greedy (“Major Fred C. Dobbs”, “Movie Tonight”). He is ill-tempered, with him insulting someone in probably every episode in which he appears. He hates non-Christians (including atheists) and even tries to stop the practice of religions other than Christianity (“Life with Father”, “The Abduction of Margaret Houlihan”, “The Korean Surgeon”, “Exorcism”, “38 Across”, “Ping Pong”, “Love Story”, “Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde”). He is also ignorant that Greek Orthodoxy is a form of Christianity (“Private Charles Lamb”). Most infamously, for much of his time at the 4077th he has an affair with Major Margaret Houlihan and tries to hide it from his wife Louise.</div>
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To be fair, real-life humans (including this review’s author) are generally a bit hypocritical. It is very easy for one to have high ideals. Living up to those ideals is another matter entirely. Many of us recognize that we do not truly live up to our ideals. Many of us who recognize our shortcomings make some attempt to do better. What makes Frank particularly hypocritical is that he <i>never</i> gets very far in trying to do better. He always remains rotten to the core. He has a few moments where he shows a more human, sympathetic side, but his gains are always wiped out by the next episode. He shows little in the way of guilt and only admits wrongdoing if he is caught. “Repentance” is not in his vocabulary. </div>
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<b>Other characters:</b> This bifurcated depiction of religion is carried over to other characters as well. No other regular character is as visibly religious as Father Mulcahy or consistently evil as Frank Burns, but while religion-related jokes are abundant (e.g., Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake claiming “I avoid church religiously” in “Operation Noselift”), making fun of religion is conspicuously absent; making fun of hypocrisy and evil is constant. No one makes fun of Captain B.J. Hunnicutt for being a Presbyterian or Radar for being a Methodist. No one even makes fun of Klinger for wavering between atheism and Catholicism. (In “The Kids” he is caught praying and claims he gave up atheism for Lent.) Even the bomber who cracks and believes himself to be Jesus is treated sympathetically (“Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?”).</div>
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Treated less sympathetically is Margaret, Frank’s partner in faithlessness. She starts off as co-antagonist along with Frank and is likewise treated unsympathetically by the writers. However, once she dumps Frank and gets friendlier, the writers make her a more sympathetic character. (She is not alone in such treatment. Major Charles Emerson Winchester III starts off as a selfish jerk, but he becomes more friendly and compassionate as the series progresses. Accordingly, the writers are more inclined to depict him positively as time goes on.)</div>
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The positive depiction of Father Mulcahy as a good religious figure extends to how the other characters view him. The vast majority of characters treat him with at least deference—including the black market (“Out of Gas”)—regardless of their religion or lack thereof. Father Mulcahy is generally well liked and respected. Some characters (such as Radar and Colonel Sherman T. Potter) are on their best behavior around him or apologize if they are not. Whenever Father Mulcahy feels that he does not make enough of a difference at the 4077th, Hawkeye—a secularist by all appearances—steps up and praises him for being an inspiration for his “decency” and “humanity”.</div>
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Frank Burns, on the other hand, is the regular character most hated by everyone else at the 4077th, with even Margaret periodically getting angry at him and eventually dumping him for Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscot. When Frank is eventually transferred back to the USA, no one is sorry to see him go.</div>
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The style of humor presented in <i>M*A*S*H</i> is arguably socially functional. People’s religious beliefs and practices are frequently serious business—whether or not we agree with said beliefs and practices. Many people’s religion has deep emotional and even rational roots, letting them make some sense of the World. Religion also helps many people live more moral lives (according to many common views of what constitutes “moral”). Religion helps many people connect with others or find some sense of purpose or meaning. Whether or not one agrees with other people’s religions, they are not jokes. Laughing at religion, especially religion which brings out the best in people, is thus mean-spirited and a slap in the face of people trying to do good—something to avoid.</div>
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Laughing at evil people, on the other hand, is a time-honored tradition. Many of those reading this will recall cartoons from childhood in which bad things happened to characters who deserve them. Frank Burns is the live-action equivalent of Elmer Fudd or Sylvester. As an unwavering evil (and a mediocre doctor), he is constantly on the receiving end of insults, practical jokes, and undisguised contempt from all sides—and we are meant to side against him and find what happens to him funny. Little wonder also that Frank did not last the entire series; without the ability to grow, there was only so much they could do with his character. He is the example of what is generally agreed how we should <i>not</i> behave.</div>
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Hopefully one can learn from <i>M*A*S*H</i> something about what deserves and does not deserve to be treated as funny.</div>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-85156548447148231222014-07-04T13:16:00.004+03:002014-07-05T21:46:44.421+03:00I find George Lucas’s lack of faith disturbing: a theological review of the Star Wars moviesJewish date: 6 Tammuz 5774 (Parashath Balaq).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Feast Day of St. Elizabeth Montgomery (Church of the SubGenius), Founder’s Day (some form of Neopaganism).<br />
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<b style="font-size: 14px;">I find George Lucas’s lack of faith disturbing: a theological review of the <i>Star Wars</i> movies</b><br />
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by Aaron Solomon Adelman</div>
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WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! THE FOLLOWING REVIEW ASSUMES A DECENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE <i>STAR WARS</i> MOVIES. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THEM, YOU SHOULD RUSH TO SEE THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY AS SOON AS REALISTICALLY POSSIBLE; YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.</div>
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NOTE: This review <i>only</i> covers the prequel and original trilogies (Episodes I-VI). There is a lot more <i>Star Wars</i> material, but 1) none of it has the same level of canonicity, 2) that which your humble blogger has copies of does not substantially change the conclusions of this review, 3) a sequel trilogy (Episodes VII-IX) is in the works, and preexisting materials set after the original trilogy have been relegated to an alternate, non-canon timeline, and 4) the <i>Star Wars</i> Extended Universe is not sufficiently significant to be of great importance to the <i>Divine Misconceptions</i> project, and 5) obtaining and reading everything in the <i>Star Wars</i> Extended Universe would put off this review by several years.</div>
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One could have easily foreseen a theological review of the <i>Star Wars</i> Universe coming, even without the prescient powers of Palpatine/Darth Sidious; <i>Star Wars</i> is too big a cultural phenomenon and too fun for me to ignore. (And, yes, there is a <i>Star Trek</i> review, or maybe a set of reviews, in the works, too.) Before I start nitpicking on specifically religious issues, I think it fair to say that the original trilogy of <i>Star Wars</i> movies (<i>A New Hope</i>, <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i>, and <i>Return of the Jedi</i>) got so much right in terms of plot, characters, dialog, acting, excitement, and effects (even before computer-generated images) to make them a real pleasure to watch and to make it easy to forgive anything done wrong in them. (There are good reasons why there are dedicated <i>Star Wars</i> fans.) The prequel trilogy (<i>The Phantom Menace</i>, <i>Attack of the Clones</i>, and <i>Revenge of the Sith</i>), on the other hand, while having largely good effects, suffers from obviously bad writing and acting (e.g., Jar Jar Binks, practically everything said in the romance of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, and how Anakin turned to the Dark Side). All of this is well-known to any <i>Star Wars</i> fan.</div>
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Religion—the general topic of this blog—is not a major concern in the <i>Star Wars</i> saga. Most of the characters, major and minor, are not religious in thought, beliefs, or behavior. With few exceptions—the biggest one being a rather strange exception at that—they do not reference religion directly at all. This is extremely surprising. Consider these facts:</div>
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1) The population of the galaxy is about 10<sup>17</sup> beings (<a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_galaxy"><span style="color: #0433ff;">according to Wookieepedia</span></a>). Even if we disregard this source, real galaxies have on the order of 10<sup>11</sup> stars, so even if the average population of a star system is very small (say, 1), that still makes for a huge number of people.</div>
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2) Humans make up a large proportion of the population (also <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_galaxy"><span style="color: #0433ff;">according to Wookieepedia</span></a>, but, yes, a whole lot of the characters in all six films are humans). So expect even with a very low estimate of the population of the galaxy (10<sup>11</sup>), there should still be a huge number of specifically human people.</div>
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3) Humans being overwhelmingly secular in science-fiction is a cliché. Humans in real life tend to pay at least lip service to a religion. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism"><span style="color: #0433ff;">According to Wikipedia</span></a>—yes, I am being lazy on my research here—2.01% of real-life humans are “atheists” and 16% more are “non-religious”. To the credit of the people who wrote the relevant article, it discusses the difficulties of counting atheists, e.g., being an “atheist” is not the same thing as dissociating oneself from a religious group or abstaining from all religious activity. But even assuming every single “atheist” and “non-religious” person is completely non-religious, that would leave almost 82% of humanity as more or less religious.</div>
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One would reasonably expect with all these humans populating the galaxy, there should be a huge amount of religious activity. Yet there is very little to show of all this. Maybe there is something about the sorts of characters which get screen time which tends to make them not religious. Bounty hunters, gangsters, gamblers, smugglers, and anyone living in Mos Eisley (the “wretched hive of scum and villainy”) might not be good candidates for religiousness, but what would be implausible about people joining the Rebellion out of religious feelings of the need to fight oppression and injustice? Of all the central characters, only C3PO—a character who is more comic relief than anything else—shows <i>any</i> religious sentiment: he exclaims “Thank the Maker!” in <i>A New Hope</i>, but that is the full extent of his religiosity. The only overtly religious characters are the Ewoks in <i>Return of the Jedi</i>, and then not for long. When they first see C3PO, they mistake him for a god. They bow and chant to him, and they wish to sacrifice Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca to him. Luke then uses his Jedi powers to fake a miracle to convince the Ewoks that such a sacrifice is offensive to their new deity, so they release their captives. After this, any visible religious activity by the Ewoks ceases. That the Ewoks practice a religion at all may be due to the cliché that low-technology cultures are more religious and superstitious that high-technology cultures. George Lucas largely follows the common science-fiction cliché that people in high-technology cultures have no need for religion.</div>
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The only thing actually identified as a “religion” in the movies is the belief system/philosophy/praxis of the Jedi. The Jedi do have some of the trappings of a religion: a temple, mental discipline, and a code of behavior. What passes for Jedi theology, on the other hand, will strike those who subscribe to an Abrahamic religion as strange. No god—or even karma—is ever mentioned, but instead the Jedi believe in the Force, an “energy field” generated by life which permeates the Universe. The Force behaves rather like modern magic: by properly directing one’s feelings and beliefs, one can use it to accomplish superhuman feats. The most visually obvious of these—besides being able to fight with lightsabers—is telekinesis (moving objects at a distance). Also featured are the ability to control the minds of others (as in “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”), clairvoyance (seeing things at a distance), prescience (seeing the future), and telepathy. Note that while prescience in the <i>Star Wars</i> saga is often labeled “prophecy”, no mention is ever made of Divine communication (which is characteristic of prophecy in Abrahamic religions). The Jedi can survive death in the form of a ghost, but this is not a Divine or karmic reward for living a good life; it is the result of a long-term project of Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi.</div>
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Membership in the Jedi Order is not open to everyone. All life in the galaxy has obligate symbiotic microbes known as “midi-chlorians”. The more midi-chlorians one has in one’s body, the more one is able to use the Force. As using the Force is what the Jedi are all about, only those with high midi-chlorian levels are eligible to become Jedi—and even then, maybe not. Objection is made to training Anakin Skywalker and later his son Luke for them being too old. Clearly the Jedi want to recruit only those who will be able to complete the training and perform their duties. Issues such as belief or having the right lineage are never mentioned and seem to be irrelevant.</div>
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The Force has two “sides”, the Light Side and the Dark Side. These two sides do not differ merely in qualities, unlike yin and yang or the ancient Greek elements. It is the morality of the two sides of the Force which is constantly emphasized. Thus morality in the <i>Star Wars</i> universe is presented in dualistic terms: there are two—and <i>only</i> two—sides. The Light Side of the Force is good, and the Dark Side is evil. Likewise, those who ally themselves with the Light Side, such as the Jedi and later the Rebels, are good, while those who ally themselves with the Dark Side are evil. For the sake of this moral symmetry, the Jedi have a dark equivalent, the Sith. The Sith have all the same powers as the Jedi, the difference in their technique being that the Jedi try to maintain emotional self-control, while the Sith channel their negative emotions into Force effects. For no apparent reason, the Sith are limited to two at any time, a master (in this case Palpatine/Darth Sidious) and a pupil (successively Darth Maul, Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus, and Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader); the Jedi, on the other hand, can exist in any number.</div>
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The upshot of this built-in morality is that characters who are somehow morally “gray” are forced to choose a side (as do Han Solo and Lando Calrissian), be minor characters, or die. There is, in fact, only one important character who manages to maintain any substantial degree of moral grayness: Anakin Skywalker, later known as Darth Vader. He merits such an exception, because he is the central character of the series and thus needs to undergo character development. Anakin undergoes a two-part moral transformation:</div>
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1) In the prequel trilogy, Anakin starts off as an innocent slave child thrust into the world of the Jedi. Once he is freed, he lives under an increasingly large amount of stress. He is traumatized by war, terrified by prescient and clairvoyant visions of tragedy, and trying to keep his forbidden marriage a secret. To make it worse, he is too emotionally immature and unstable to properly deal with all this, so he eventually breaks and embraces the Dark Side under the influence of Palpatine/Darth Sidious. This is handled with all the grace and beauty of a novice swimmer doing a bellyflop (like so much in the prequel trilogy). The sane and psychologically realistic way of handling this transition would have been to have Anakin gradually rationalize increasingly worse behaviors as he fights in the Clone Wars, only formally embracing the Dark Side after doing something abominable for the sake of the Republic. What he actually does is irrationally panic over a vision that his wife Padmé will die in childbirth and stupidly turn to Palpatine/Darth Sidious on the unsubstantiated claim that he has the power to save her—which he fails to do. There are people who convert irrationally <i>or</i> quickly in real life, but few who do it as irrationally <i>and</i> quickly as Anakin.</div>
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2) In the original trilogy, the conversion of Darth Vader is handled much more credibly. I call him “Darth Vader” at this point, because at the start of the original trilogy he has given himself completely to the Dark Side and no longer identifies himself as Anakin Skywalker. Indeed, Obi Wan Kenobi even tells Luke that Vader <i>murdered</i> Anakin, later insisting this to be true “from a certain point of view.” Vader is a paragon of principled evil, efficient and merciless to anyone who stands between him and completion of his goals. This includes a number of minions he kills for failure by using the Force to choke them. He even blows up the inhabited planet of Alderaan as part of his efforts to crush the Rebellion. And yet this monster is not irredeemably evil. He has a weakness: his son Luke Skywalker, who is studying to become a Jedi. Palpatine’s reaction to discovering that Vader has a son is to wish the son dead. Vader, on the other hand, is pleased to learn of Luke’s existence and rationalizes that he wishes to turn him to the Dark Side. Vader makes this intention clear to Luke, even when fighting him; he even wishes that they rule the galaxy together. Even though that encounter is a failure (which is to be expected, since Vader cuts off Luke’s hand), Vader tries again at their next encounter, not putting in the effort needed to strike Luke down, instead losing a hand in the fight and being prepared to let Luke strike him down and take his place as the Sith apprentice. When Luke remains steadfast with the Light Side, Palpatine tries killing Luke by zapping him with electricity. Unable to bear the sight of Luke screaming in pain, Vader kills Palpatine, thus saving Luke, even though he mortally wounds himself in the process. Vader dies redeemed and reconciled to his son. This is the way real-life conversion frequently works: small stirrings which could initially be overlooked build until the conversion manifests itself openly. Kudos to George Lucas for getting this right.</div>
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Many religions have a concept that there is a war between the forces of good and evil, and the war may be to some degree predestined. This naturally leads to the possibility of foreseeing some aspect of the battles that lie ahead. In the prequel trilogy, this takes the form of the prediction that Anakin Skywalker is the chosen one who will bring “balance” to the Force. None of the Jedi foresee what really happens, but Palpatine/Darth Sidious might. Somewhat more useful foresight occurs in the original trilogy. Darth Vader may foresee a showdown coming in <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i>, but the second half of <i>Return of the Jedi</i> is filled with foresight of the final showdown between Luke, Vader, and Palpatine. Not only all three of them know it is coming, but so do Yoda and Obi Wan. Vader sets things up so the meeting can occur, and Luke, Jesus-like, walks willingly into the trap, believing that there is still good in Vader and hoping that he will come to embrace it. The only thing no one really seems to know reliably is what the outcome will be. Palpatine is genuinely shocked that Vader betrays him.</div>
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Less common in religions (if it exists at all) is the idea that good and evil exist in balance. The way things normally work is that the forces of good are ultimately more powerful that the powers of evil—the opposite of balance. A true balance between good and evil would require them to be equally powerful—an idea which is downright heretical in any mainstream Abrahamic religion, but a situation akin to the moral theory of <i>The Dark Crystal</i>, where good + evil = perfection. Obi Wan in <i>Revenge of the Sith</i> bemoans to Anakin that he was supposed to bring balance to the Force by eliminating the Sith, only for Anakin to instead become a Sith. But arguably Anakin actually fulfilled his destiny in the prequel trilogy. At the start of <i>The Phantom Menace</i>, there were a large number of Jedi, but only two Sith (Sidious and Maul). The balance was tilted severely towards the Light Side. By the end of <i>Revenge of the Sith</i>, the two remaining Sith, Sidious and Vader, had destroyed all of the Jedi except two: Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi. With equal numbers of Jedis and Sith, the balance in the Force was restored.</div>
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This makes for an inconvenient implication for the original trilogy. Near the end of <i>Return of the Jedi</i>, Vader kills Palpatine and turns to the Light Side, dying soon afterwards himself. This leaves one Jedi and zero Sith left alive. This situation is as lop-sided as possible. The prequel trilogy made evil a <i>necessity</i>, completely on-par with good. Lop-sidedness is intolerable, so Vader is guilty of abandoning his duty. And George Lucas is guilty of not properly figuring out the “balance” issue before he made the prequel trilogy.</div>
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WARNING: SPECULATION AHEAD.</div>
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By this point, everyone knows that Disney, which bought the <i>Star Wars</i> franchise from George Lucas, is working on continuing the movie series with Episodes VII-IX. This brings us a new hope (however small) for a fuller picture of religion in the galaxy, especially after the fall of the Empire.</div>
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At the very least, I hope that the problem of the “balance” of the Force will be addressed. The easiest way would be to reveal that the original prediction was simply wrong or even fake. Perhaps it was all part of Palpatine’s machinations, based on his own prescience, to make sure that the unstable Anakin Skywalker would be in place to turn to the Dark Side. Palpatine was evil and skilled enough to create a civil war to manipulate the entire galaxy and seize control; faking a prophecy would not be beyond him.</div>
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A deeper alternative, however, would be to explore what the “Light Side” and “Dark Side” really are. Are they really good and evil, respectively? Or do they perhaps represent qualities which often, but do not necessarily, lead to good and evil? Could there be evil Jedi who despite emotional serenity nevertheless deliberately commit acts of evil? Could there be good Sith who take all their anger and rage and use it to fight injustice? If so, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader as a ghost may return to fulfill his destiny in a way that no one foresaw, to bring balance to the Force, not by balancing good against evil, but by training a new generation of Sith who use their powers for good, thus balancing out the new generation of Jedi which everyone Luke Skywalker to train. Besides taking the <i>Star Wars</i> Universe in an interesting direction, this would have the advantage of allowing Anakin to continue appearing as the central character <i>and</i> continue his moral development.</div>
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Overall classification: Light science-fiction/fantasy/adventure movies.</div>
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Theological rating: D, as the religious situation as depicted is difficult to believe and clichéd, plus Jediism does not reflect real-life religions well. <i>However</i>, this series of movies is scheduled for expansion. Disney is advised to fix the “balance” problem and fill in the holes left by Lucas. It is entirely feasible to redeem the series theologically.</div>
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Note: Credit goes to Darth Vader for inspiring the title of this review.</div>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-77031505320016223342014-05-07T22:15:00.003+03:002014-05-07T22:17:34.381+03:00What does the Creator want?: a review of Noah (2014 film)Jewish date: 8 ’Iyyar 5774 (evening) (Parashath BeHar Sinay).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Day 23 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Feast Day of St. Peter Lorre (Church of the SubGenius).<br />
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<b>What does the Creator want?: a review of <a data-jsb_prepared="7ghmtaakl9" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_(2014_film)" rel="noreferrer"><i>Noah</i> (2014 film)</a></b></h2>
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by Aaron Solomon Adelman</h3>
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The story of Noaḥ (Noah) is one of the most familiar stories in the Hebrew Bible. This is probably because it is in the early chapters of the first book, Genesis, so it is one of the most likely to be read, especially by people who fail to read very far in the Hebrew Scriptures. Due its familiarity, it is periodically dramatized and adapted. Already on this blog I have reviewed <a data-jsb_prepared="7b151j6i24" href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.co.il/2008/01/24-sheva-5768-escape-daynational.html" rel="noreferrer"><i>Noah’s Ark</i> (1999 miniseries)</a> and the quasi-adaptation <i><a data-jsb_prepared="5kpbtnj5xx" href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.co.il/2007/07/17-tammuz-5767-fast-of-tammuz.html" rel="noreferrer">Evan Almighty</a></i>. Considering the publicity and number of reviews of the recent <i>Noah</i> movie (titled <i>המבול</i>, “The Flood” here in Israel), I could not ignore it. As with previous reviews, the story of Noaḥ will be treated as a literal story, even though it is arguably esoteric.</div>
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The makers of the film clearly apparently read the original text (Genesis 6-10) and tried to get some things right. The general outlines of the story are all there—Noaḥ, his wife, his three sons Shem, Ḥam (Ham), and Yefeth (Japheth), building the ark, the flood, the sending forth of the raven and the dove, and the restarting of human society. The genealogical context of where Noaḥ comes from is correct, including his grandfather Methushelaḥ (Methuselah) and his father Lamekh (Lamech) and there being two competing lines of humanity from Qayin (Cain) and Sheth (Seth). The ark is correctly depicted as an ark in the literal sense: a box. (Think about it. The term used in the original text, תֵּבָה (<i>tevah</i>) means “box”, and there is no mention of anything one would expect specifically on a boat, such as oars, a sail, or a rudder.) There was also a lot of work put into the visual effects and some thought about the logistics of life on the ark.</div>
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But when one goes into the behavior and reasoning of the characters that the film goes horribly wrong, as the writers violate a cardinal unwritten rule of good religious thought:</div>
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And the tampering is not for the better, dramatically or religiously, and the worst of it lies at the very heart of the story.</div>
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The writers of the film botched the theology of the original text. The Hebrew Bible consistently depicts YHWH as clear about what He wants. Yes, there are some mysterious prophecies about what will happen in the future, but He is explicit about what He wants humans to do in the present. And when He is angry at humans, it is because humans are disobeying the commands He has given them—and in the age of prophecy, He sent periodic messages about what people were doing wrong. Being a god, YHWH is quite capable of communicating, so humans do not have to guess what He wants. (I am well aware of the inherent problems of interpretation. But when YHWH is ready to smite someone, it is always over “big picture” issues, such as murder, idolatry, sexual immorality, theft, abuse of the sacrificial system, and violation of Shabbath, not minutiae.) Thus YHWH tells Noaḥ in Genesis 6:13-21 why humanity is doomed, how the doom is going to happen, and what He wants Noaḥ to do about it. Noaḥ is to build an ark according to a specific plan, stock it with two or seven of each species of animal (the number depending on species), and he, his wife, his sons, and his sons’ wives are to ride out the flood in the ark. Humanity is meant to survive.</div>
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The film, in contrast, depicts the Creator—His name is never mentioned—as having abominable communication skills; He never says anything. In the film, the Creator sends Noah a vision of drowned people. He has to go to his grandfather Methuselah to make any sense of what he saw and discover that a flood is coming. There is no explicit message of why the Creator is sending a flood, what Noah is supposed to do, or what the Creator plans for the future. Noah has to fill in the gaps with inference, gut feelings, and sheer guesswork—with the emphasis on gut feelings and guesswork. This leads humanity to the brink of disaster. Noah <i>guesses</i> that the Creator intends for those on the ark to be the last humans. Because of this, he refuses to find wives for Ham and Japheth—or even let Ham bring a girl with him onto the ark. When Shem’s (presumedly) barren wife Ila gets miraculously pregnant, Noah is determined to kill the child, should it prove to be a girl, lest humanity have a chance of continuing. This idea is unpopular among the rest of the humans on the ark. Shem builds an escape craft for himself and Ila, but Noah destroys it. When Ila gives birth to twin girls, Noah only relents at the last second. He initially feels unbearably guilty for <i>not</i> killing the babies and lives apart from the rest of his family; he has a cave to himself and indulges in wine until Ila argues to him that the Creator really meant for humanity to continue, thus choosing Noah for his being sufficiently moral to show mercy on his granddaughters. At that point the Creator shows the rainbow, and the movie ends. This change in the relationship between the Creator and humans makes some sense dramatically, as it creates serious problems to be overcome. But the problems it creates only serve to make the Creator and Noah look worse: the Creator due to His inability to plainly say what he wants, rather than forcing Noah to guess what He wants him to do, and Noah due to him making desperate, misanthropic guesses which could easily be wrong. For this change alone the writers deserve condemnation.</div>
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The lack of clear Divine communication is also evident in the question of why the flood is brought. In Genesis 6:11, the answer is explicit: destruction (or corruption) of the Earth and violence; Noaḥ is told exactly that soon afterwards, so he has no reason to express doubt. But in the film the Creator leaves Noah to figure out what He is thinking. And the solution that Noah comes up with is environmental destruction. The Cainites have created a civilization advanced enough to produce iron weapons, and in the process they have wrecked much of the environment. Part of this is due to mining for a flammable mineral known as “zohar”. Another part of this is due to the extensive consumption of meat; they are <i>never</i> shown eating anything else on their own initiative. The Cainites are shown as cruel, enslaving each other to trade for meat, and waging war, but Noah puts the emphasis on their disregard for the environment. Noah views his mission as an environmentalist one: once the flood is over, he is to restock the Earth with animals and plants—and humans are to go extinct so that they can never wreck the environment again. Noah sees evil as inherent in humanity—essentially the Christian doctrine of original sin—thus his insistence on human extinction. </div>
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Moving the emphasis for the flood to environmental destruction, rather than immorality, is not an improvement. The Hebrew Bible is overwhelmingly filled with laws about and preaching on human behavior, but almost all of it deals with how humans treat each other and YHWH; very little is said on animal welfare, and one has to read between the lines to see any concern for the environment. The paucity of environmental material is demonstrated by the book <i>Ecology in the Bible</i> by Nogah Hareuveni and Helen Frenkley, which is a mere 52 pages, 30 of which consist of photographs; the actual text consists of material on animals and plants as part of the world of the Hebrew Bible, but not really environmentalism <i>per se</i>. Environmentalism, to someone steeped in the Hebrew Bible is a matter of <i>human</i> welfare, as we humans have to live on this planet; acting stupidly about our home is something we should not need a deity to tell us to not do, and we are not allowed to act in ways that hurt other people. The film, on the other hand, inverts the priorities. Environmentalism is changed from a means to an overriding goal; Noah considers animal “innocent”, unlike humans, so their existence must be assured. In contrast, human existence, much less welfare, is precariously threatened, rather than assumed. Furthermore, the flood is <i>not</i> a good way to help the environment. Yes, the environment sucks, but parts of it are still there. After the flood there is <i>nothing</i>, and “sucks” is still better than “nothing”. While all terrestrial animal species are saved on the ark (except those that, according to the film, went extinct there), the populations preserved are very small. In real life, this is recipe for extinction. The loss of one member of a species can mean the loss of the whole species, and those which survive end up severely inbred. And if the animals are truly innocent, as Noah thinks, why do only a tiny number of them survive? Would it not be fairer for the Creator to instead send a plague to kill off humanity and spare everything else? Without a doubt, the writers failed to think things through when introducing the theme of environmentalism into the film, and the result is morally perverse.</div>
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Arguably the reason for warping the story is to make it more suitable for action and drama. Noaḥ in the original text is not an action hero. He does not fight with other humans or struggle with the commands of YHWH. To transform him into the Noah of the film, he has to have problems which cannot be dealt with quietly and gently. Hence the writers made the messages of the Creator hard to understand, leading to drama which should not be there. The Cainites are co-opted as villains, and their leader, Tuval-Qayin (Tubal-Cain, Genesis 4:22), preaches everything which is abominable to Noah, actively fights against Noah, stows aboard the ark, proves a bad influence on Ham, eats animals on the ark, and has a final showdown fight scene with Noah, all for the sake of extra drama and action. The mysterious Children of ’Elohim (Genesis 6:2) are metamorphosed into the Watchers, rock monsters who are really fallen angels who find forgiveness from the Creator for daring to help humanity by helping build the ark and dying spectacularly fighting the Cainites. And, of course, the flood itself is depicted horrifically, with the Cainites screaming as they seek higher ground to escape the rising waters and ultimately drown. The film does succeed in creating an adrenaline rush—but only at the cost of wrecking the letter and spirit of the original story.</div>
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Overall classification: CGI-heavy action movie.</div>
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Theological rating: F. Darren Aronofsky is hereby banned from making religion-rated films for life.</div>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-77159801987873592042014-02-19T12:09:00.001+02:002014-02-19T12:09:40.196+02:00A theological review of The Mummy Returns and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon EmperorJewish date: 19 ’Adhar Ri’shon 5774 (Parashath Wayyaqhel).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Chaoflux (Discordianism), Feast Day of St. Señor Wenches (Church of the SubGenius), Narconon Day (Scientology).<br />
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Given how bad <i><a data-jsb_prepared="maltv5a80g" href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.co.il/2014/02/a-theological-review-of-mummy-1999.html" rel="noreferrer">The Mummy</a></i> was—theologically and otherwise—I considered not reviewing its two sequels. (Seriously. That movie would have been noticeably more theologically accurate had they had the Egyptian priests pray “Hail to the Sun God! / He really is a fun god! / Ra! Ra! Ra! / Ra! Ra! Ra!”, which is silly, but at least contains some authentic Egyptian theology.) I watched them anyway. The people who made them seem to have tried to make them less obviously stupid and more entertaining in the style of the Indiana Jones movies, but both sequels still have stupidity problems. </div>
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WARNING: MERCILESS SPOILER ALERT! </div>
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The problem is not merely that people who accidentally revived a mummy and had to deal with killing it again would be well advised to keep away from Egypt and everything even remotely Egyptian for life. These sequels both share the original’s serious flaw that rising of dead rulers who might bring about the end of the World as we know it could have easily been prevented.</div>
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<i><a data-jsb_prepared="gdwev1ncaq" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mummy_Returns" rel="noreferrer">The Mummy Returns</a></i> makes an attempt at constructing a theology for this series. Long ago, a defeated warrior, the Scorpion King, pledged his soul to the Egyptian god <a data-jsb_prepared="hh4x57bgpi" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis" rel="noreferrer">Anubis</a> in exchange for victory and revenge against his enemies. Anubis accepted his bargain, and when the Scorpion King was victorious, He took the Scorpion King and his army. And now the threat is that the a cult led by Meela Nais, the reincarnation of Anck-su-namun (the love interest of the bad guy from the last film), will resurrect Imhotep (the bad guy from the last film), and Imhotep will defeat the awakened Scorpion King and gain the latter’s powers, thus letting him bring about the end of the World as we know it.</div>
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Authenticity check: I am not an expert on ancient Egyptian religion by any means, but this sounded wrong, so I looked up Anubis. It turns out that Anubis was the god of the afterlife, not the counterpart of Satan. A <a data-jsb_prepared="7rf134zwrs" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust" rel="noreferrer">Faustian bargain</a> with Anubis makes no sense, as the Scorpion King’s soul was destined to be delivered to the care of Anubis no matter what. And since all mortals must eventually go to Anubis, unless he turns into a pathological over-worker, He has no real motivation to drum up business by getting more humans killed in the short term. A better choice for an evil god would have been <a data-jsb_prepared="7l8gfrdx2c" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(mythology)" rel="noreferrer">Set</a>, who, if memory serves correctly, came to be identified as evil. As for Anubis or any other god making it possible for any mortal to gain end-of-the-World powers of destruction, I cannot recall anything like that happening in the stories of any religion. (If anyone has an example of this, please let me know.) Such power belongs to gods and beings operating on the level of gods alone, and for them to make in attainable by mortals is to confer godhood. As Imhotep and the Scorpion King, unlike the Pharaohs, have no claim to godhood, such power is inappropriate for them.</div>
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I would also like to note that reincarnation is not something I have ever heard about the ancient Egyptians believing in. I am aware they seriously believed in the afterlife and made preparations for it. If anyone is aware of the ancient Egyptians believing that we come back, please let me know. The form presented, in which Anck-su-namun somehow requires her original soul being restored to her despite being reincarnated, makes no sense.</div>
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In obvious symmetry, it was not just Anck-su-namun who was reincarnated. Evelyn O’Connell, the female lead, is the reincarnation of Nefertiri, daughter of Seti I, and she spends a nice chunk of the film regaining memories from that previous life. Anck-sun-namun and Nefertiri did not like each other at all, to the extent that they fought in some sort of combat for entertainment of Seti I’s court (or more likely, given how they were dressed, the entertainment of emotionally immature male viewers) and took what they were doing as something more serious than a friendly match. Likewise, Meela/Anck-sun-namun and Evelyn fight extremely seriously and try to kill each other.</div>
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If the name “Nefertiri” sounds familiar, you probably have seen <i><a data-jsb_prepared="2lp4sjkfq3" href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.co.il/2007/09/24-elul-5767-national-thylacine.html" rel="noreferrer">The Ten Commandments</a></i>, where she is wife of Pharaoh Raameses II. Pharaoh Seti I is mentioned by name in <i><a data-jsb_prepared="pf85t2vw5v" href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.co.il/2007/07/3-av-5767-national-ice-cream-day.html" rel="noreferrer">The Prince of Egypt</a></i>, where he is the father of Raameses II. <a data-jsb_prepared="dy8cqssd5o" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nefertari" rel="noreferrer">Nefertari</a> (correct spelling), <a data-jsb_prepared="i9gu4wv2mj" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_II" rel="noreferrer">Raameses II</a>, and <a data-jsb_prepared="i389sq8bgq" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seti_I" rel="noreferrer">Seti I</a> were all real people, though I cannot confirm at this time who Nefertari’s father was. As the writers of this film show no theological or historical sophistication, Nefertari was most likely co-opted as someone convenient and preexisting to oppose Anck-su-namun rather than for deeper reasons. There was also a real <a data-jsb_prepared="gayp3kmi45" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imhotep" rel="noreferrer">Imhotep</a>, but he lived much earlier than Seti I and company.</div>
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Pretty much everything else religious in <i>The Mummy Returns</i> is minor, such as small prayers asking for protection.</div>
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<i><a data-jsb_prepared="ta0xoaf8ki" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mummy:_Tomb_of_the_Dragon_Emperor" rel="noreferrer">The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor</a></i>, while retaining many of the same characters as <i>The Mummy Returns</i>, changes the setting to China, thus throwing out alleged theological connections to Egypt. The only real connections to religion in this film are some Buddha sculptures. I would like to mention, however, that <a data-jsb_prepared="o77di9oinf" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-La" rel="noreferrer">Shangri-La</a> appears prominently in this film. From popular culture, one might think that Shangri-La is a place from Buddhism or Chinese traditional religion. It is not. Shangri-La is a purely fictional place from James Hilton’s novel <i>Lost Horizon</i>, published in 1933. Shangri-La may be inspired by Shambhala, a place from Tibetan Buddhist tradition, but that is a topic for me to research another time.</div>
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Oh, I would like to note that <a data-jsb_prepared="tg8pvwezh0" href="http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2217/were-ancient-tombs-really-booby-trapped" rel="noreferrer">ancient booby-trapped tombs, such as those portrayed in this series and the Indiana Jones series, do not exist. I looked it up.</a> Over time they would break down and stop working, and the ancients never mentioned creating such things Instead, ancient Egyptian tombs were frequently broken into soon after they were sealed. One can argue that booby-trapped tombs make for a good action sequences, which is fine if they are backed up with a story good enough to counterbalance historical inaccuracies—just so long as one does not take such things seriously.</div>
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Overall classification: Action movies with Indiana Jones envy.</div>
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Theological rating: D- for <i>The Mummy Returns</i> (for recognizing that the ancient Egyptians had gods who interacted with humans, but still screwing up massively) and I for <i>The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor</i> (for lack of theological content and failing to deal with the wretched lack of theology in its predecessors).</div>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-71252300875558319652014-02-17T21:27:00.000+02:002014-02-19T11:43:17.023+02:00A theological review of The Mummy (1999)Jewish date: 18 ’Adhar Ri’shon 5774 (evening) (Parashath Wayyaqhel).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Feast Day of St. Isaac Asimov (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Giordano Bruno the Martyr (Thelema), Quirinalia (Celtic Neopaganism).<br />
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It has been pointed out to me that I often give negative reviews. This being <i>Divine Misconceptions</i>, the blog in which I look at religious fallacies and misinformation, that is to be expected regularly. However, the other day a friend of mine lent me a disk-on-key which had <i>The Mummy</i> Trilogy on it (among other things), and I watched <i><a data-jsb_prepared="u3y2rhn86x" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mummy_(1999_film)" rel="noreferrer">The Mummy</a></i> this morning, at it is of such quality that I must apologize to the reader (but not the people who made it) for the tone of what I am about to write.</div>
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WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.</div>
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To put it bluntly, <i>The Mummy</i> is a stupid movie. Now, there is material which, despite being stupid in some aspect, nevertheless is very enjoyable. For example, <i>Gilligan’s Island</i> is considered a stupid show, but the humor holds up well enough that it is still enjoyable, especially when humorous. Or consider <i>Galaxy Quest</i>, which has obvious holes in the plausibility large enough to fly a starship through, but nevertheless is a hilarious parody of <i>Star Trek</i> and related material. </div>
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Unlike such material, <i>The Mummy</i> is stupid to the core, starting with the basic premise. Yes, it is conceivable that the high priest of Egypt Imhotep might have an affair with the mistress of the Pharaoh Seti I, Anck-su-Namun, but that is dangerously stupid, especially since they do not have the sense to carry on their meetings somewhere no one would see them together. And it would stupid of them to murder Seti I when he confronts them; that is asking for retribution. And it would be stupid for Anck-su-Namun to commit suicide, expecting Imhotep to resurrect her, as he might fail. And it would be stupid for Seti’s guards, once they catch Imhotep and stop him from resurrecting Anck-su-Namun, to put a horrible curse on him which there is even the slightest possibility that he might escape and cause the end of the World as we know it. And even more stupid, the guards did not even have the sense to destroy the book that could be used to free Imhotep, the key to open the book, and the map to find him. And because of all this stupidity, Imhotep gets accidentally freed, people get mutilated and killed, and there is the very real threat of disaster. This is made even worse by the characters sometime in the 1920s, seeking Imhotep’s treasure, also acting stupidly. Such a huge mass of stupidity, untempered by anything which could mitigate it (such as making it a parody of monster-of-the-week films or imbuing it with dead-on psychological fidelity), utterly wrecks suspension of disbelief and wrecks the entire film.</div>
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This weapons-of-mass-destruction-grade stupidity is clearly reflected in <i>The Mummy</i>’s approach to religion: complete incompetence. There is no attempt whatsoever at theology or plausible depiction of religion. Despite Imhotep being a high priest of the ancient Egyptian religion, one would never know it from his speech and behavior. He does not speak in religious terms, nor does he perform any religious practices; the nearest he comes is to try to resurrect Anck-su-Namun magically. His priests, who were mummified alive for no apparent reason, act no more religiously; they are just so many extras to be controlled by other mortals. To be sure, God and Allah are mentioned by other characters, but only in minor prayers wishing others success. The most religious action in the movie is when Imhotep rises, a total idiot starts praying to the gods of a number of religions (and Buddha, who is not properly a god), hoping that at least one will answer him. The freeing of Imhotep also unleashes the Ten Plagues; this is a bizarre misreading of Exodus, where they are a punishment on the Egyptians (including their priests) from YHWH, <i>not</i> something unleashed by an Egyptian priest. The writers are also unaware that the magi are the priests of Zoroastrianism, not a secret society meant to keep Imhotep from being freed.</div>
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Your humble blogger would also like to note that whoever wrote this film has no idea what a mummy is. Real mummies (at least in Egypt) were meant to let the dead have an afterlife. The internal organs of bodies were removed, and the bodies carefully preserved so that they would not decay. The souls of the dead could then dwell within their bodies indefinitely. The dead were thus provided with all the necessities of life (or afterlife), including food. <i>The Mummy</i>, on the other hand, inverts the original intent and treats mummification as torture. Hence Imhotep’s priests are mummified (incorrectly) alive and Imhotep is sealed away to be tortured by beetles forever. If Seti’s guards really wanted to do something horrible to him, they should have killed him and destroyed his body so his soul would have nowhere to go.</div>
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Overall classification: Stupid horror film with weak attempts at humor.</div>
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Theological rating: F (like the rest of the film, stupid).</div>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-37914360757743590762013-12-22T20:40:00.000+02:002013-12-22T20:40:50.130+02:00Notes on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and ColossiansJewish date: 20 Ṭeveth 5774 (evening) (Parashath Wa’era’).<br />
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Today’s holidays: 4th Advent (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Bootsy Collins (Church of the SubGenius), Yule Feast (Heathenism).<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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I really need to learn to post more often. Below you will find notes on another four epistles from the New Testament. Sadly, Paul’s religious thinking has not gotten any better. (I also feel like I should start looking for <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibleman">Bibleman</a></i> episodes on YouTube. I ran across the source of something I remembered from the three <i>Bibleman</i> episodes I have seen in Ephesians, and since Bibleman periodically quoted the New Testament, I could probably squeeze quite a lot of the show. And for the uninitiated, I am certain the show merits attention; it was popular enough that people made fun of it.)<br />
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I also am now <i>very</i> slowly working may way through <i>The Mists of Avalon</i> by Marion Zimmer Bradley, a Neopagan retelling of the legend of King Arthur. In the introduction, Bradley reports that while she wrote fiction, she used a virtual who’s who of major figures in Neopaganism as sources. So far it really shows in how the fictional setting is structured and how the characters think and behave.<br />
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Peace. <br />
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’Aharon/Aaron<br />
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<b>GALATIANS</b></div>
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Galatians 1:1-5—Paul greets the Christians of Galatia, claiming Jesus died to save them from their sins according to God.</div>
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Galatians 1:6-10—Paul preaches holding by the “accepted” gospel rather than other gospels. (Why any gospel is accepted is not stated.) Paul emphasizes the principle of trying to win God’s approval rather than human approval.</div>
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Galatians 1:11-24—Paul says that he was called by God and notes his conversion on the road to Damascus and subsequent history.</div>
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Galatians 2:1-10—Paul emphasizes his belief that he is the apostle to the gentiles, while Peter and company are supposed to be apostles to the Jews. Paul seems to believe in something of a conspiracy against him.</div>
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Galatians 2:11-21—Paul claims to have publicly clashed with Peter, arguing that Peter is a hypocrite and emphasizing justification through faith alone and the death of Jesus.</div>
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Galatians 3:1-14—Paul argues for justification by faith by citing various verses from the Hebrew Bible out of context. He cites Genesis 15:6 as if YHWH justified ’Avraham by faith, completely ignorning all the deeds ’Avraham did. Some botched form of Genesis 12:3 or 18:18 or 22:18 is taken as a prophecy of justification of non-Jews by faith, even though such justification is mentioned at all. Paul misquotes Deuteronomy 27:26 as if it says that whoever does not do everything in the Torah is cursed, rather than one who fails to uphold the words of Torah, which actually takes into account human failing, repentance, and forgiveness. Paul takes Habakkuk 2:4 as if it means that a righteous person is justified by faith, when in means that he/she lives by his belief—and by implication all the behavioral requirements of that belief. Leviticus 18:5 is misquoted as if it supported justification by faith, when it actually is a strong demand for proper behavior. Deuteronomy 21:23 is mangled and ripped out to context so it can be treated as if it refers to Jesus, when it actually refers to any executed criminal who is hung on a tree after execution.</div>
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Galatians 3:15-25—Paul, while maintaining the involability of covenants (in contradiction with the doctrine of supercessionism), maintains that the promises YHWH gave to ’Avraham (Genesis 13:15 and 24:7) as applicable to Jesus, Jesus being the “seed” spoken of; this is untenable, as Jesus did not inherit the Land of Yisra’el. Paul feels free to rant on about his recurring absurd claim that the Torah was given to make people guilty so that they could be saved through faith.</div>
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Galatians 3:26-4:7—Paul claims there are no distinctions in Jesus and that through him all become the seed of ’Avraham and heirs of the promises to him—clearly not what the original promises claim. But Paul does not have much respect for the simple meaning of the Hebrew Bible in the first place.</div>
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Galatians 4:8-20—Paul is in anguish that the Galatians are too observant and that they do not fully accept his ways.</div>
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Galatians 4:21-31—Paul allegorizes the story of Haghar and Sarah, stripping it completely of its original meaning. Haghar and her descendarts are made symbols of the covenant of Sinay and labeled as slaves, while Sarah and her descendants are made symbols of the “new covenant” and labeled as free. Isaiah 54:1 and Genesis 21:10, both misquoted, are cited in an attempt to give the apperance that this allegory has any support.</div>
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Galatians 5:1-12—Paul again pushes justification by faith. He claims that that the circumcized should keep the Torah, but sees this as an inferior path.</div>
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Galatians 5:13-26—Paul sums up the Torah with Leviticus 19:18. (What? If the Torah demands love and Paul repudiates keeping the Torah, does Paul repudiate love?) Paul promotes living by the Spirit and contrary to one’s sinful nature. This suggests that Paul makes a distinction between not violating the Torah and not acting sinfully, strange as that sounds. Paul may also be thinking in very much emotional rather than rational terms. Paul promotes love, as if it were something the Torah is against. (It is not. He is not particularly logical in this chapter. He seems more interested in proclaiming how great his new ideology is, honesty be damned.)</div>
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Galatians 6:1-10—Paul promotes living by his ideas and the Spirit.</div>
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Galatians 6:11-18—Paul believes that those who promote circumcision are trying to avoid being persecuted and so that they can boast. The idea that Jews may genuinely believe that keeping the Torah and thus circumcision is the correct thing to do escapes Paul completely.</div>
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<b>EPHESIANS</b></div>
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Ephesians 1:1-2—Greetings.</div>
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Ephesians 1:3-14—Paul gives a summary of his Jesus-centered theology of salvation and grace. Notably Paul speaks of the believers as being predestined.</div>
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Ephesians 1:15-23—Paul has prayed for the faithful Ephesians.</div>
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Ephesians 2:1-10—Paul holds that nonbelievers are “dead” in their sins, while the believers are “alive” in Jesus.</div>
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Ephesians 2:11-22—In keeping with his supercessionist theology, Paul holds that non-Jews can become one in Jesus, as if the church were one man.</div>
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Ephesians 3:1-13—Paul admits that the “mystery” of Jesus in his posession was not given to anyone before him, and that he is the one to preach to the non-Jews. I.e., what he is doing is something different from what Christians have been preaching and doing before. It is no wonder that Paul was in conflict with the Apostles.</div>
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Ephesians 3:14-21—Paul prays for the Ephesians.</div>
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Ephesians 4:1-16—Paul again pushes the idea of the believers being one in Jesus, along with other onenesses. He cites Psalms 68:19 in a botched form to implausibly claim support to the idea of grace as apportioned by Jesus.</div>
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Ephesians 4:17-5:30 —Paul urges his followers to behave morally. Despite his general attitude of antinomianism, he does not take it to its logical conclusion. Believers are said to be “children of light”. Paul uses a fabricated quote to support his position.</div>
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Ephesians 5:21-32—Paul holds that just as Jesus is the head of the church and the believers the body, in a couple the husband is the head and the wife the body. The wife must submit to the husband, and the husband must love his wife. This may not be modern equality (or even something really approaching it anywhere people these days would like), but it is not the most extreme sexism either. Paul cites Genesis 2:24 to support that a man should love his wife (not <i>quite </i>correctly), though he has no support for the inequality. </div>
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Ephesians 6:1-4—Paul exhorts children to obey their parents, citing Deuteronomy 5:15. He also wants parents to train their children.</div>
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Ephesians 6:5-9—Paul commands slaves to obey their masters like God. He also commands masters to treat their slaves well.</div>
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Ephesians 6:10-20—Paul exhorts his followers to put on metaphorical “armor of God”. This is given a twist in <i>Bibleman</i>, in which the superhero Bibleman wears <i>literal </i>armor of God.</div>
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Ephesians 6:21-24—Paul wraps up his letter.</div>
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<b>PHILIPPIANS</b></div>
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1:1-11—Paul greets the Philipians, thanks God for them, and prays for them.</div>
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1:12-30—Paul strongly identifies with his mission and his longing for Jesus. He wants the Philipians to be so dedicated, too.</div>
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2:1-11—Paul promotes imitation of Jesus, emphasizing humility.</div>
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2:12-18—Paul wants his followers to be pure, in contrast with the rest of that generation, which he characterizes as evil.</div>
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2:19-30—Paul plans to send to the Philippians two men he considers comendable.</div>
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3:1-11—Paul denigrates circumcision and following the Torah in favor of believing in Jesus and seeking to imitate him. Do note that Jesus according to the Gospels, while heretical, is not antinomian. Paul’s idea of Jesus, on the other hand, is clearly antinomian.</div>
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3:12-21—Paul encourages his followers. He characterizes his opponents as materialists interested only in their own pleasure and his followers as anything but.</div>
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4:1-9—Paul encourages his followers to behave themselves.</div>
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4:10-23—Paul thanks God and the Philippians.</div>
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<b>COLOSSIANS</b></div>
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1:1-14—Paul gives thanks and prays for the Colossians.</div>
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1:15-23—Paul gives a summary of his views of Jesus as extremely important and supreme over every other being—except God. Jesus is God’s “image” and “firstborn”. Paul does not seem to hold by trinitarianism.</div>
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1:24-2:5—Paul believes he is on a Divine mission to bring the mystery of Jesus to others. He admits this mystery was previously unknown.</div>
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2:6-23—Paul pushes dedication to Jesus. Paul becomes explicitly antinomian, even denying Divine origin of the rules.</div>
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3:1-17—The problem with antinomianism is that if there are no rules, then <i>anything </i>goes—a potential disaster for society. Paul therefore promotes his own idea of morality, a split between body and soul and an explicit aversion to undesirable emotions. Contrast with the Torah, which promotes good behavior but does not emphasize emotions.</div>
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3:18-4:1—Paul lays out rules for households. Wives are to be submissive to their husbands, children to their parents, and slaves to their masters. Note that these relationships are <i>not </i>meant to be one-way. Husbands are supposed to care for their wives, parents for their children, and masters for their slaves.</div>
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4:2-6—Paul asks for prayer and care in conversation.</div>
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4:7-18—Paul concludes with greetings to specific people.</div>
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Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-75370785314019878052013-09-27T11:19:00.000+03:002013-09-27T11:19:01.968+03:00מכתב פתוח לממשלת ישראל • An open letter to the government of IsraelJewish date: 23 Tishri 5774 (Parashath Bere’shith).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Vincent de Paul (Roman Catholicism), Feast of Cosmus & Damianus (Thelema), Feast Day of St. Hieronymous Bosch (Church of the SubGenius).<br />
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Note: The following letter has been sent to the office of the Prime Minister of Israel and (I hope) every member of the Keneseth. The English version follows the Hebrew version.<br />
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פקידי ציבור נכבדים:</div>
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ביום הרביעי של חול מועד סוכות ניסיתי לבקר בהר הבית, וסירבו אותי משתי סיבות.</div>
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הסיבה הראשונה היא שאני יהודי דתי בעליל. והנה ידוע שהמשטרה מפלה ביהודים שומרי מצוות בהר הבית. כל יהודי מנסה לבקר כפוף לביקורת הרבה יותר מכל נכרי, גם לפני וגם בהר הבית. השעות שבהן עליה מותרת מוגבלות. את מי שהמשטרה מאפשרת בהר הבית אחריו הולכים שוטרים ואנשי וקף במאמץ כדי לוודא שלא יבצע כל פעילות דתית. זוהי הפרה ברורה של חופש הדת וכבר נקבעה שוב ושוב לא־חוקית.</div>
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הסיבה השנייה היא שכאשר מוטי גבאי, קצין המשטרה האחראי, ואמר אלי ואל יהודים אחרים המנסים לבקר בהר הבית, שאסור ליהודים להתפלל בהר הבית, ציינתי במאמר (http:// lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2013/09/police-chief-says-jewish-prayer-is.html) המצטט את מפכ״ל המשטרה יוחנן דנינו טוען כי תפילת יהודים בהר הבית מותר באופן מפורש. במקום לאשר או להכחיש כי דנינו או הכתב שיקר, גבאי צעק עליי לעזוב. התנהגות כזאת היא מגונה לקצין של החוק, כאילו קצין המשטרה עובר על החוק במקום הראשון היה הגון לסלוח.</div>
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הסיבה תמיד ניתנה לאפליה אי־חוקית נגד יהודים בהר הבית היא שהמוסלמים הם כל כך לא־סובלניים של דתות אחרות שהחשיפה הקטנה לפעילות יהודית דתית עלולה לגרום למהומות. זה הוא מטבעו נגד הדין. אם המוסלמים הם תמיד אלה שמשתגעים ומתנהגים באלימות, מדוע היהודים נענשים? למה אין המוסלמים שעוקבים אחריהם למאן אותם מעשיית כל דבר אי־חוקי? למה אין למוסלמים שעות מוגבלות על הר הבית? למה אין אוסרים את המוסלמים מעלות אל הר הבית? הפרקטיקה של הגבלת יהודים למען שהמוסלמים יהיו בשליטה היא גם מוטעה מהיסוד: מוסלמים מעת לעת משתוללים בכל מקרה, בפעם האחרונה ביום רביעי שעבר, במקרה שבו הם תקפו את המשטרה.</div>
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אין שום סיבה כשרה למשטרה לפעול באופן בלתי־חוקי ובלתי־מוסרי; כל מטרתם היא לאכוף את החוק ואת הסובלנות, לא משנה כמה קשה המשימה. אם המשטרה לא יכולה לעשות את התפקיד שלהם, אתם חייבים לפטר אותם ולשים במקומם מי שיכולים.</div>
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תודה על תשומת הלב שלך.</div>
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אהרן שלמה אדלמן</div>
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אזרח ישראל</div>
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On the fourth day of Ḥol hamMo‘edh Sukkoth I attempted to visit the Temple Mount, and I was refused for two reasons.</div>
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The first reason is that I am a visibly Orthodox Jew, and it is well-known that the police blatantly discriminate against observant Jews on the Temple Mount. Those who attempt to visit are subject to much more scrutiny than any non-Jew, both before and on the Temple Mount, and the hours during which ascents are allowed are limited. Those whom the police allow on the Temple Mount are followed around by police officers and Waqf officials in an effort to make sure they perform no religious activities. This is an obvious violation of freedom of religion and has been repeatedly ruled illegal.</div>
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The second reason is that when Moṭi Gabba’y, the police officer in charge, told me and a number of other Jews attempting to visit the Temple Mount that praying on the Temple Mount is forbidden, I pointed out an article (http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.com/2013/09/police-chief-says-jewish-prayer-is.html) which quotes police commissioner Yoḥanan Danino as claiming that Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount is explicitly permitted. Rather than confirm or deny that Danino or the reporter lied, Gabba’y yelled at me to leave. Such behavior is indecent for an officer of the law, as if a police officer violating the law in the first place was excusable.</div>
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The reason always given for illegal discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount is that Muslims are so intolerant of other religions that the least exposure to Jewish religious activity may cause a riot. This is inherently unjust. If the Muslims are always the ones going crazy and acting violently, why is it the Jews who are punished? Why is it never the Muslims who are followed around and constantly monitored? Why is it never the Muslims who have their hours on the Temple Mount limited? Why is never the Muslims who are wholly banned from the Temple Mount? The practice of restricting Jews to keep Muslims under control is also fatally flawed: the Muslims periodically riot anyway, the last time being last Wednesday, in which case they attacked the police.</div>
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There is no valid reason for the police to act illegally and immorally; their whole purpose is to enforce the law and tolerance, no matter how difficult the task. If the police cannot do their duty, they should be fired and replaced with those who can.</div>
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Thank you for your attention.</div>
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Aaron Solomon Adelman</div>
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Israeli citizen</div>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-44681520721927858042013-08-09T15:23:00.002+03:002013-08-09T15:23:39.872+03:00Women of the Wall and a Temple Mount protestJewish date: 3 ’Elul 5773 (Parashath Shofeṭim).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Teresiae Benedicta of the Cross (Roman Catholicism), Day of Rey Radbod (Germanic Neopaganism), Feast Day of St. Rozencranz/St. Gildenstern (Church of the SubGenius).<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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I would like to note what happened on Wednesday, or rather what did not happen. Two events were scheduled:<br />
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<li>Wednesday was Ro’sh Ḥodhesh, the start of a new month on the Jewish calendar, in this case ’Elul. Ro’sh Ḥodhesh is traditionally an extra day off for women. As such, it has been chosen as the day for a Reform “feminist” group, <a href="http://womenofthewall.org.il/">Women of the Wall</a>, to descend on the Western Wall and to hold services according to Reform norms (women leading services, wearing <i>ṭallithoth</i> and <i>tefillin</i>). Now, I have witnessed people praying at the Western Wall who were clearly not Orthodox Jews, but always with respect for the other people there and the holiness of the site; in such cases, no one, even Ḥaredhim, complained. The Women of the Wall are different. On Ro’sh Ḥodhesh Tammuz (two month ago), the police (in their tradition of sucking when it comes to freedom of religion) evicted many Orthodox Jewish women doing nothing offensive from the women’s section so the Women of the Wall could enter and hold a service, very loudly and trying to get the attention of reporters and promote imposing Reform norms at the Western Wall. Needless to say, there were a lot of complaints about this. They also did not have much local support, as nonreligious Israeli Jews tend to be honest about their not being religious rather than try to dress it up as being “Reform”. A new group was formed of Orthodox Jewish women in opposition to the Women of the Wall: <a href="http://womenforthewall.org/">Women for the Wall</a>. On Ro’sh Ḥodhesh ’Av (one month ago), the Women for the Wall collectively got up early and got to the Western Wall first, filling up the women’s section. This time the police actually respected the few thousand women who were already there, and the 150-200 Women of the Wall were forced to be ostentatious and complain in the back of the Western Wall plaza. I thus wanted to see what would happen in the next round.</li>
<li>The police closed the Temple Mount to Jews for the second half of Ramāḍan, the closure lasting until this coming Sunday. This was simple caving into Muslims getting violent over Jews on the Temple Mount again, something which I have complained about frequently in the past, both on <a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/search/label/Temple%20Mount">this blog</a> and on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/aaron.solomon.adelman">Facebook</a>. Thus there was a protest scheduled at the (locked) entrance for Jews to the Temple Mount at 7:30 AM.</li>
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So what did I see?<br />
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<li>I got to the Western Wall around 8:30 AM. The women’s section was filled with women praying respectfully. There was no sign of Women of the Wall. Reportedly pretty much what had happened on Ro’sh Ḥodhesh ’Av had happened this month, too: Women for the Wall got to the Wall first, and the Women of the Wall had to pray in the back and grumbled about lack of support from other women.</li>
<li>The protest at the entrance to the Temple Mount was going strong at the time and continued for about another hour. Several dozen Orthodox Jews were there. Many were praying. Others had protest signs. There were a over a dozen police officers there, but they did little but stand around, remove a Torah scroll which had been brought in to read, and ask the protesters not to block foot traffic. Why there were so many police officers was not explained. See “<a href="http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Jews-protest-visitation-restrictions-at-Temple-Mount-during-Ramadan-322393">Jews protest visitation restrictions at Temple Mount during Ramadan</a>” and “<a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170679#.UgS5UBYhEhu">Activists Protest Closure of Temple Mount - Inside Israel</a>” for more details.</li>
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In short: Not much happened.<br />
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Peace and <i>Shabbath shalom</i>. <br />
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’Aharon/AaronRupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-77013212035143710252013-07-31T00:47:00.001+03:002013-12-10T14:10:08.797+02:00Star Trek Into Darkness, The Key of Solomon the King, and Save MeJewish date: 24 ’Av 5773 (Parashath Re’eh).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Ignatius of Loyola (Roman Catholicism), Lughnasadh Eve in Northern Hemisphere/Imbolc Eve in Southern Hemisphere (Neopaganism), Feast Day of St. Bill Gates (Church of the SubGenius).<br />
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Greetings.</div>
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I know posting on this blog has gotten irregular. Sorry about this. Life is busy.</div>
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I would like to comment on a number of different things relevant to this blog:</div>
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<b>1) <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Into_Darkness">Star Trek Into Darkness</a></i></b>: Preemptively, your humble blogger would like to note that he eventually wants to write a great grand review of religion in <i>Star Trek</i>, all series and movies, but as he saw it recently, he would like to jot down some thoughts on it now so they do not get forgotten.</div>
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Much ink (or rather the electronic equivalent thereof) has already been spilled on what is right and wrong with this film. Considering the focus of this blog, I will note that what Harrison did with the photon torpedoes is such an obviously bad idea that he should never even considered it (duh!) and proceed to discussing religion. This is not an especially religious film, but like <i>Star Trek</i> in general, it touches on it. The movie starts out on the planet Nibiru, which is inhabited by humanoids who have not yet developed warp technology and thus, according to the Federation’s Prime Directive, must not be contacted at any cost. Spock gets quickly trapped in an active volcano with a device meant to freeze the molten lava so the volcano does not erupt and kill the natives. Due to the <i>Enterprise</i> being hidden under water—something which everyone says makes no sense—Kirk faces the dilemma of whether he uphold the Prime Directive, in which case Spock dies, or get the <i>Enterprise</i> out of hiding and where the transporter will work properly to save Spock, in which case the natives will probably see the ship—a clear violation of the Prime Directive. Kirk being Kirk, the natives see the <i>Enterprise</i> rising out of the ocean. The natives’ behavior soon afterwards suggests they believe they have seen a divine being or have had a prophetic vision. To say the least, Admiral Pike is not happy. </div>
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Religious misinterpretation of Federation activity actually has been done at least once before in the <i>Star Trek</i> universe. The <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i> episode “Who Watches the Watchers” revolves around someone on a technologically primitive planet inhabited by Vulcanoids mistaking Captain Jean-Luc Picard for a god known as the Overseer. That episode deals with the consequences of such a mistake and how to deal with it—not to mention religious epistemology—in far greater length and detail than <i>Star Trek Into Darkness</i>, which says nothing about what, if anything, Starfleet does to clean up the mess on Nibiru.</div>
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Your humble blogger is not aware of anything quite like either of these fictional incidents happening in reality, though cargo cults approximate them to some degree.</div>
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Also noted is a little peek into the Vulcan belief system. Whether Vulcans believe in the supernatural or not has never been discussed, albeit Mr. Spock once claimed to specifically not believe in angels. However, the Vulcan belief system includes things like monasticism and mysticism which would normally be religious on Earth. There is some arguing in this film over whether the needs of the many really do outweigh the needs of the one (reflecting <i>Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan</i> and <i>Star Trek III: The Search for Spock</i>). Also, Spock claims that war is “by definition” immoral, which sounds like an all-too-human attempt to skirt the problem that morality is intrinsically a matter of opinion. Certain properties, such as weight and temperature, are matters of objective fact. But whether an action is good or bad cannot be objective in the same way; no matter how hard one looks, one will never find goodness particles or evilness waves. Spock seems to be trying to make morality objective by defining what is and is not moral. One can argue about whether some action objectively fits this definition. (And your humble blogger assumes that Spock, being no mental slouch, has a definition for war and every other relevant term.) However, since the definition is <i>not</i> rooted in objective reality, it remains an opinion. Klingons just as easily can claim that war is by definition moral (and act on this presumed morality, too). Defining what is moral or immoral does not make it objectively so.</div>
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Also: Considering that Vulcans have been depicted at times waging war, the Vulcan belief system appears to have a priority system. Vulcans may consider war immoral, but they may well consider other things, such as being murdered by enemy soldiers, to be worse, thus making war the lesser of two evils. Real humans tend to agree on this issue, though there are a few true pacifists.</div>
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<b>2) <i><a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/grim/kos/index.htm">The Key of Solomon the King (Clavicula Salomonis)</a></i> translated by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers:</b> This is a grimoire repeatedly mentioned as source material in your humble blogger’s previous reading on Neopaganism. It certainly looks like the source for Gerald Gardner’s <i>High Magic’s Aid</i>, the procedures for working magic being largely the same. Unlike <i>High Magic’s Aid</i>, <i>The Key of Solomon</i> deals with working magic in a Jewish (or pseudo-Jewish) context. There is none of the Neopagan business of duotheism, polarity of the sexes, or ritual nudity. Magic instead is presented as an exercise in manipulating spirits for one’s purposes. Much emphasis is put on the necessity of piety to work magic. Consistent with this is the lack of any procedure for divination; after all, the Torah explicitly forbids several kinds of divination.</div>
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And, no, there is no convincing reason to believe that King Shelomoh (Solomon) actually wrote this book. There is nothing in the Hebrew Bible to suggest he practiced any form of magic.</div>
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<b>3) <i><a href="http://www.hulu.com/save-me">Save Me</a></i>:</b> This gem of a show showed up recently on Hulu. It is story of a woman with poor moral habits (such as drunkenness, petty theft, and embarrassing behavior) named Beth who accidentally chokes. She survives, though feeling like she died in the process. Reborn, she finds herself religiously moved and believes that God communicates with her.</div>
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One major issue that this show deals with is how would someone who experiences a sudden conversion would behave. (This sort of thing does happen in real life at times. See <i><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/621">The Varieties of Religious Experience</a></i> by William James.) Given the profundity of Beth’s conversion, she tends to go to extremes—absurd ones, as this is a comedy. Having no previous religious experience, Beth frequently has no idea how a religious person is supposed to behave and makes some very strange mistakes. For example, in one episode she prays constantly. She also embraces love for her fellow humans and other creatures to the point of loving her husband’s ex-mistress Carlise and a spider. At one point, she decides to read the (Christian) Bible, but finding the King James Version too hard, she turns to <i>The Children’s Bible</i> and proceeds to misinterpret the parable of the Good Samaritan. (Come to think of it, she never seems to get very far in either version.) In another, she “honors” her parents by calling them excessively. Trying to “honor” her daughter Emily into honoring her back proves socially embarrassing for the latter. Despite everything being played for laughs, religious behavior Beth undertakes on her own really is no stranger than what a lot of converts do.</div>
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(And to be fair to Beth, none of the other main characters displays much knowledge of Christianity or religion in general, which is sadly normal for Americans these days. (See <i><a href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2008/11/5-mareshwan-5769-clich-daysandwich-day.html">Religious Literacy</a></i> by Stephen Prothero.) Emily even hollows out a Bible to hide marijuana in.)</div>
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The other major issue is the nature of prophecy. For Beth, this is something in the way of a comedic version of the sorts of things one would expect in Ezekiel and Jonah (or <i><a href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2007/07/17-tammuz-5767-fast-of-tammuz.html">Evan Almighty</a></i>): She is told to do all sorts of strange actions in a gender-neutral voice, and she is not allowed to shirk her duty. Refusing to do what God demands only results in pain for Beth, and compliance is quick. Beth is assumed to be some sort of crackpot for claiming prophecy, though with the lack of theological sophistication of the characters, none of them ever thinks about empirically testing whether she can consistently make correct predictions. This is despite that around Beth periodically occur unusually well-timed events (lightning striking Carlise, Beth’s car hitting a squirrel, various injuries to Beth, rain falling, the power in various houses going out, etc.) which serve to progress the plot, tie up loose ends, and bring Beth together with her family and friends. Beth’s husband Todd is unusually generous in interpreting what happens to Beth and chalks her prophecies up to intuition. Untraditionally, Beth prophetically has access to knowledge about people which she should not have. Semi-traditionally, she actually has two visions of God, once in the form of Betty White(!) and the other as a black man. (For comparison, YHWH or some suitable representative has a form which looks like it is practically on fire in Ezekiel.) Less traditional is God claiming to have taken corporeal form when Beth was a child and played friend with her; while Christians generally regard Jesus as God somehow become corporeal, your humble blogger is not aware of them promoting the idea that He has made a habit of pretending to be human. Then again, God in this series never claims to be the god of Christianity or any other religion, so some flexibility is warranted.</div>
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All in all, an enjoyable effort in theological fiction. I am saddened that its run seems limited to just seven episodes. I hope NBC changes its collective mind and continues the series.<br />
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’Aharon/Aaron</div>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-17141680260108275192013-07-16T16:16:00.000+03:002013-07-16T19:46:34.805+03:00Thoughts on the Fast of ’AvJewish date: 9 ’Av 5773 (Parashath Wa’Ethḥannan).<br />
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Today’s holidays: The Fast of ’Av (Judaism), Feast Day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Roman Catholicism), Display of the Embarrassing Swimsuits (Church of the SubGenius).<br />
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Today is the Fast of ’Av, the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, marking some of our worst tragedies. When one reviews the laws for fast days, one of the first things one reads is that fasting and associated practices, while obligatory on certain days, are not an end in themselves. Thus to spend a fast day touristing or playing video games is forbidden. because that would be missing the point. Fasting and suffering are a means to the end of repentance. This post is meant to comment on a contemporary mistake that we have yet to correct.<br />
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In previous generations, our ancestors saw fit to act on what they believed was going to happen soon. YHWH forbade King Dawidh to build the First Temple, but since Dawidh’s son Shelomoh was supposed to build it, Dawidh made all the preparations he could ahead of time. When many thought that Shim‘on “bar Kokheva’” bar Koziva’ was Mashiaḥ, many took up arms against the Romans to fight the wars that Mashiaḥ is supposed to fight. And when many thought that Shabbethay Ṣevi was Mashiaḥ, many repented their sins and prepared to move to Israel. The attitude was that one should act to move events along. The fact that Mashiaḥ did not actually come at those times is irrelevant to this point.<br />
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We are closer to the fulfillment of Messianic prophecies now than at any time in the past 2,000 years. Not only have we reestablished the Jewish state, but it has survived despite the constant hostility of its neighbors, including terrorism and unprovoked warfare. All three of the major Abrahamic religions are scrambling to deal with this unprecedented historical change, with adherents trying to adjust their beliefs to the altered situation on the ground or rationalize their way around it. And while we Jews have been a big winner in this new era, for too many of us the consequences of this new era have not sunk in. <br />
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As happened at the start of the Second Temple Period, few of us have returned home to Israel voluntarily, preferring to remain in the Diaspora. Many of us who did come came because they had little choice in the matter. Persecution and genocide, both before and after the formation of the State of Israel, have given Jews every reason get out of Europe and the Muslim world. Those living in places of tolerance, such as the United States, have felt less motivated to make <i>‘aliyyah</i>. In such comfortable places, it is very easy to claim to be a Zionist but never act upon it. Moving to Israel may be a dream or an ideal, but “maybe sometime in the future” very easily becomes “never” in practice. I myself was guilty of this error until YHWH coerced me into reconsidering. It is one thing to say one believes that Israel is where Jews belong; it is an entirely different thing to live it.<br />
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Even among those of us who live in Israel, the consequences of what we are supposed to be doing have generally not sunken in completely. Yes, we tithe our produce, and we do not celebrate an extra day of major holidays. But ever since the destruction of the Second Temple, we have not been able to fully practice Judaism. Without the Temple, or at least proper access to the Temple Mount, many of the rites that are supposed to performed daily, on Shabbath, and on major holidays cannot be performed. Part of the problem is the government, or to be specific, <i>every</i> government Israel has had, starting in 1967. Almost immediately after the Temple Mount was liberated, Mosheh Dayyan returned it to Islamic control, where it has remained, aided and abetted by the police. The police would rather violate freedom of religion to keep Muslims relatively happy in the short term, even though it is their job to enforce religious tolerance and pandering to violent Muslims never works in the long term. Muslims are essentially allowed to do anything they want up there, even blatant violations of Israeli law, such as destruction of antiquities, while Jews are openly discriminated against. Many Jews are turned away for no valid reason, while those who do ascend are warned not to pray and may be harassed by the police and Muslims. Bringing sacrifices is something the police cannot conceive of permitting at all.<br />
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The strange thing is a general lack of concern, even among the observant, for the Temple Mount and the Temple service. Many of us pray for complete redemption and sing about how we want Mashiaḥ now, but we expect YHWH to do everything and ourselves to do nothing—unlike what our ancestors did. Very few of us bother to visit the Temple Mount. Very few of us protest against Muslim desecration of our most holy site. And very few of us have done anything to get ready for restarting the Temple service. When confronted with their indifference, many will make excuses based on ritual purity (in contrast with what Jews did in earlier times or that certain sacrifices can be made even while ritually impure) or feign fear of Muslims should Jews reclaim the Temple Mount (despite Muslim complaints about Jews having little to do with reality). Simply ignoring a large chunk of our religion is irrational, and I can see no way around the problem other than to reclaim the Temple Mount.<br />
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May YHWH help us get past the delusion that the status quo must be preserved and lead us to repent.<br />
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Various relevant articles:<br />
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<li>“<a href="http://www.templeinstitute.org/time_to_build.htm">The 9th of Av: A Time to Mourn... A Time to Build</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/The-Temple-taboo-319923">The Temple taboo</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://www.templeinstitute.org/archive/16-07-13.htm">Danon: Equal Prayer Rights on Temple Mount Now</a>” (Someone is trying to get my vote.)</li>
<li>“<a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169931#.UeTZxxYhEht">Muslim Extremists Force Jews From Temple Mount</a>” (As I keep saying on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/aaron.solomon.adelman">my Facebook account</a>, the police suck.)</li>
<li>“<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/A-historical-description-of-Tisha-Beav-319914">A historical description of Tisha Be’av</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Weeping-in-the-silence-Tisha-Beav-319924">Weeping in the silence – Tisha Be’av</a>”</li>
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Also note the <a href="http://www.templeinstitute.org/main.htm">Temple Institute</a>, who are working to get ready everything needed for the next Temple.Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-41223765925231495772013-05-31T13:32:00.000+03:002013-05-31T13:32:19.285+03:00A short review of The Book of the SubGeniusJewish date: 22 Siwan 5773 (Parashath Shelah).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Visitation (Roman Catholicism), Syaday (Discordianism), Desecration Day (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of Alphonse Louis Constant (Thelema).<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/Bobdobbs.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/Bobdobbs.png" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">J. R. “Bob” Dobbs, savior of the Church of the SubGenius</td></tr>
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Having written about <a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/search/label/Neopaganism">Neopaganism</a>, your humble blogger decided to examine the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius">Church of the SubGenius</a>. The Church of the SubGenius is sometimes connected with Discordianism, an eccentric Neopagan group, and I happen to have a copy of <i><a href="http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/classic/classics/X0003_botsg-intro.html">The Book of the SubGenius</a></i>, a central text of the Church of the SubGenius, on paper. The Church of the SubGenius is also significant enough to make the news. One of their holidays, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Day_(Church_of_the_SubGenius)">X-Day</a>, is periodically reported, and a child custody battle between two members gained some notice. It therefore seemed like a decent idea to get it over with and review <i>The Book of the SubGenius</i>.</div>
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<i>The Book of the SubGenius</i> rather reminds me of the <a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/search/label/LaVeyan%20Satanism">literature of the Church of Satan</a>, which creates a huge aura of evil meant to scare away of non-Satanists, under which is hidden a philosophy of selfishness. <i>The Book of the SubGenius</i> likewise creates an aura, only this one of some of the worst and most insane ideas from religion, both real and imaginary. Anyone with the endurance to read <i>The Book of the SubGenius</i> will find examples of conspiracy “theories” which reach all the way back to the gods, doomsday predictions (which have turned out to be wildly inaccurate), maltheism (Divine disinterest in or hatred of mortals, clearly styled after the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu_Mythos">Cthulhu Mythos</a>), racism, selfishness, love of money, predestination, eisegesis (reading meaning into texts which is not there), taking texts out of context, alien visitations (probably inspired by Raëlism and Erich von Däniken), salvation through paying money to the Church, salvation ultimately being dependent on one man (clearly inspired by Jesus), sexual perversion, and incoherent rants. The book is also littered on every page with bizarre drawings which may give the reader nightmares. (Really. This material is safe for neither work nor family.)</div>
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Clearly the insanity is <i>not</i> meant to be believed; <i>The Book of the SubGenius</i> in at least two places inside, as well as in the blurb on the back cover, insists its own contents are false. The mass of insanity would thus act in the same way as the Satanic aura of evil: to scare the heebeejeebees out of anyone not prepared to do the long, hard work of trying to figure out what is hidden underneath. There also is a quality of humor to the entire book, as befits a parody religion. But I have heard that there are SubGeniuses who practice SubGeniusism as a real religion, necessitating that they find something very meaningful under the huge pile of freaky goofiness. If so, what is it? Is it just a philosophy of hedonism combined with a warped sense of humor and getting the most benefit out of society with the least effort? Or is there something else hiding there?</div>
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Seeking answers to these questions, I could have driven myself crazy analyzing <i>The Book of the SubGenius</i> and various other materials found on the Church of the SubGenius Web-site. Instead, I took a perfectly valid empirical shortcut: I sent E-mail to Reverend <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Stang">Ivan Stang</a>, founder of the Church of the SubGenius and thus someone who should know the answers. He told me he was unaware of anything hiding behind the aura of insanity. Thus the Church of the SubGenius can safely be treated as a parody religion.</div>
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As far as a parody religion goes, the Church of the SubGenius is shallow and unfocused. Well-constructed parody religions, such as the famous Church of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster">Flying Spaghetti Monster</a>, focus on one religion or even one idea and show what may be wrong with it. SubGeniusism, on the other hand, is a mishmash of bad ideas and does not accurately reflect any real religion or real religions in general. There is no attempt to show why any of these ideas are bad, only attempts to freak out the reader with them. As far as humor goes, this book will not appeal to everyone. Your humble blogger recommends that anyone who does not find disgust or shock funny skip this book and read something from the <a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/search/label/Discworld%20Series"><i>Discworld</i> series</a> instead.</div>
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Peace and <i>Shabbath shalom</i>. <br />
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’Aharon/AaronRupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-46959827902264726012013-04-09T21:37:00.000+03:002013-04-09T21:37:29.724+03:00There are no atheists in twisters (or: The gods of Oz must be crazy): a theological review of Oz the Great and PowerfulJewish date: 30 Nisan 5733 (night) (Parashath Thazria‘-Meṣora‘).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Ro’sh Hodhesh (Judaism), Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast for the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law and Feast Day of Rabelais and Feast Day of Francis Bacon Lord Verulam (Thelema), Feast Day of St. Tommy Geogiarides (Church of the SubGenius), Day of Jarl Hakon (Norse Neopaganism).<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">There are no atheists in twisters (or: The gods of Oz must be crazy): a theological review of <i>Oz the Great and Powerful</i></span></b></div>
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WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, STARTING IN THE SECOND PARAGRAPH.</div>
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Much ink has been spilled (so to speak) recently by Ozophiles reviewing <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oz_the_Great_and_Powerful">Oz the Great and Powerful</a></i>, and a lot of is very accurate. This includes <a href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2013/03/oz-great-and-powerful-2013-review.html">a review allegedly by the Witch of the West on this blog’s sister blog, <i>Weird thing of the day</i></a>. The graphic effects are indeed excellent and completely worthy of Oz. The writing, while not as good as the effects, is good enough to be entertaining. But while there is much that is good and many nods towards the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oz_Books">literary Oz canon</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film)">famous 1939 MGM movie</a>, one needs to keep one thing in mind when discussing this movie: it was produced by <i>Disney</i>. Disney has a reputation for being driven by profits more than by the quest to produce true art—an attitude which produces botched works.</div>
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<i>Oz the Great and Powerful</i> is botched in an artistic aspect, because it was the wrong film to produce in the first place. <i>Oz the Great and Powerful</i> has Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, also known as “Oz” and “the Wizard” as the protagonist, and Oz is absolutely the wrong character to center any prequel to <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz">The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</a></i> around. <i>Oz the Great and Powerful</i> starts off and ends with it being very clear that Oz is human and a fraud. This completely removes the major revelation that the Wizard is a fraud for anyone watching the movies in order—a serious artistic offense. The writers should have learned this from <i>Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith</i> but did not. Nothing can truly compensate for this error.</div>
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Even ignoring this blunder, centering the film around Oz is a clear violation of the norms set down by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Frank_Baum">L. Frank Baum</a>, the creator of Oz. As noted in <a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/proto-neopaganism-in-oz.html">my previous post on this blog about Oz</a>, Baum incorporated ideas of matriarchy and feminism—ideas derived from sources that also influenced Neopaganism—into his works. He created many strong female characters, and he favored using girls as his protagonists. Making Oz the protagonist makes it harder to write Baumian feminism; the easy way to write such a story, given that he is the hero, is to give him the lion’s share of successes in moving the plot towards a happy ending. Thus <i>any</i> other character on the side of good—regardless of sex—is going to look second-class by comparison. Thus Glinda, the most powerful mortal character in Oz, is noticeably less powerful than how Baum describes her; otherwise she would have no use for Oz at all except maybe as a figurehead—a position any man sufficiently skilled in lying could fill. As the villains, Evanora and Theodora, can be as powerful as the writers want, so long as Oz can beat them, are both women, it is very easy to interpret this film as having the message that it is wrong for a woman to be too powerful, whether or not that was actually intended.</div>
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“The Witch of the West” does a nice job of detailing how the writers further screwed up on its portrayal of women. Suffice it to say that the result is a textbook example of regression to the mean and fitting the ideals of neither Baum nor his proto-Neopagan sources. Given that (and how) people routinely poke fun at the portrayals in Disney movies of women, such is (disappointingly) to be expected. (For examples of poking fun of Disney’s portrayals of women, see “ <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDsQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DUuk-h2ZYNJU&ei=GVpkUeqxHsmsiQLGn4CIBw&usg=AFQjCNEJSsmEsPOqQVEZxIXNcpSI_f7aug&sig2=H-VkI_3ArLpWQY52c72oYg&bvm=bv.44990110,d.cGE">Advice For Young Girls From Belle</a>”, “<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CEAQtwIwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DeT2R3E7vDUc&ei=GVpkUeqxHsmsiQLGn4CIBw&usg=AFQjCNE6jOd5jRTFsQcjFkSaWcIc2x_iZA&sig2=cNz_fXp2AiSzDAIChCaeyQ&bvm=bv.44990110,d.cGE">Advice For Young Girls From Snow White</a>”, and “<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CEUQtwIwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DN8xCgC3w1zs&ei=GVpkUeqxHsmsiQLGn4CIBw&usg=AFQjCNELX-H0QUX8xHjaNAvrIdAQZWm8HQ&sig2=VayhCTD4HbEV7AaoczOpsg&bvm=bv.44990110,d.cGE">Advice For Young Girls From The Little Mermaid</a>”.)</div>
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Bucking Baumian proto-Neopagan matriarchy is not the only religious aspect of <i>Oz the Great and Powerful</i>. The plot can be understood as a religious journey for Oz. Oz starts off as a flawed man, albeit not a hopeless one. Part of this is that he is a professional charlatan, practicing stage magic. Lest anyone think this is necessarily harmless, his audiences—unlike modern audiences—believe his powers are real. This gets him into trouble when he is asked to heal a crippled girl and he cannot comply. He also is a serial womanizer, habitually releasing his charms on whatever beautiful adult human female is available without foresight—which creates problems, as he is somehow extremely attractive to women. He rather guiltily has to turn down one Annie, who is struggling to decide whether to marry John Gale or continue a sporadic relationship with Oz. He also has to flee to avoid getting killed by a strongman who does not appreciate him having charmed his wife.</div>
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Oz escapes the strongman in a balloon, which turns out to be a bad idea, as it quickly gets caught in a tornado. Vividly animated flying objects with the potential to kill Oz evoke a religious response: he prays. Oz’s prayer is a prayer of the saying “There are no atheists in foxholes”: unfocused and desperate. He does not specify to Whom he is praying, not even a generic “God”, and he promises little more than to improve and accomplish something. At this point, he is ready to do <i>anything</i> any god demands, just so long as he lives. And his prayer is apparently accepted by a god Who expects Oz to make good on his prayer.</div>
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The previous king of the Land of Oz, father of the witches Evanora, Glinda, and Theodora, prophesied about the coming of the Wizard. The Wizard would be named “Oz” and save the people. Disappointingly, nothing is said of the critical details of prophecy, such as the name of the god in Whose name it was said or how anyone knows that the king had actual prophetic powers and was not delusional—a large theological plot-hole. (Would it have killed the writers to add in “Thus says the Supreme Maker” or “In the name of Lurline”?) Whatever the real details are, the prophecy is generally believed, and the arrival of Oz, quite logically, only serves to reinforce the belief.</div>
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Not all the characters unambiguously believe the prophecy. Oz, who was not raised on the belief, is more confused about it than anything else. While never claiming disbelief, he repeatedly quietly denies he is the foreseen Wizard. Evanora and Theodora (post-slide into evil) seek to prevent the prophecy from coming true by killing Oz; technically this not require belief in the truth in the prophecy, but removing Oz also removes the possibility that a rebel movement of believers will coalesce around him. Glinda also is ambiguous about her belief about the prophecy. She is aware from the moment she meets Oz what sort of man he is (probably by magic or Sherlock Holmes-like perception), and from that moment she charms him into fitting the role well enough to launch and execute a revolution against Evanora. Whether the prophecy is real or not seems of little import to her. That her subjects believe the prophecy makes it a lot easier for her and Oz to get them to prepare for battle and fight. The result, of course, is in accordance with the prophecy: the revolution, led by Oz as the Wizard, is successful, Evanora and Theodora are defeated and have to flee, and Oz becomes the undisputed ruler of the Emerald City. </div>
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The fulfillment of the prophecy opens a whole theological can of worms. Is the prophecy genuine, or did Glinda just engineer the fulfillment of a false prophecy? If the prophecy is genuine, did whatever gods exist have a hand in its fulfillment, or did they just foresee what would happen? </div>
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Along the way to fulfilling the prophecy, Oz does undergo some moral improvement. At the start of the movie, the only relationship he has which is not exploitative is with Annie. At first in Oz, he follows his usual pattern—most egregiously by taking advantage of Theodora and then abandoning her without so much as an “It’s not you; it’s me”. But he also exercises real sympathy, helping Finley the Flying Monkey and the China Girl (despite no hope or desire of a romantic fling with either) and eventually Glinda’s subjects. Oz also manages to form a relationship with Glinda without exploiting her. (To be sure, despite her maltreatment by the writers, even in this film taking advantage of Glinda would be hard. Instead, she is arguably exploiting him.) Oz even issues a public apology to Theodora and offers her a place in the Emerald City if she finds her “inner goodness”.</div>
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On the other hand, Oz’s moral improvement leaves a lot to be desired. At the end of the day, he is still a charlatan. He uses large-scale humbuggery to win the war, and he remains a humbug in his capacity as the Wizard even after his victory. Also, his apology to Theodora is too little, too late; she dismisses it without a thought. And there is something disappointing in knowing that this “hero” down the line is going to send Dorothy and company to kill Theodora. This is a horrible thing to do to Dorothy and company, given that if they are crazy enough to attempt it, they will probably get killed, injured, or enslaved. And it is a horrible thing to do to Theodora, given how badly he has treated her already.</div>
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This incomplete repentance makes for some serious question for the unnamed gods of Oz. If the revolution is really their doing, why did they put a fraud in power? Why do they let him get so out of hand as to risk people’s lives? What sort of morals do they hold by if they do such things? These are not insoluble questions. E.g., the gods of the Land of Oz may be trickster gods, or they may consider Oz as the Wizard as their best available solution to the Land of Oz’s problems, not an ideal one. But no attempt is made to answer such questions.</div>
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Theological rating: C-. (Your humble blogger doubts the planned sequel is going to clean up the mess the writers left. Note Disney’s <i><a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2011/02/theological-review-of-tron-legacy.html">Tron Legacy</a></i>, which does little to answer the unsolved theological questions of <i><a href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2008/02/8-adhar-rishon-5768-ferris-wheel.html">Tron</a></i>.)</div>
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<b>Appendix (because your humble blogger cannot resist commenting on things beyond theology and morality): </b></div>
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1) The way to write a prequel to Baum’s Oz books covering the arrival of the Wizard correctly is to <i>not</i> write it with the Wizard as the central character. Such a prequel should be about someone young, preferably a girl, living in or visiting Oz at the time of the arrival of the Wizard. The Wizard might well appear as a character, but never, <i>ever</i> in his true form, only disguised and scaring the heebeejeebees out of everyone in that time of political turmoil, thus avoiding spoiling a major revelation.</div>
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2) I would like to note one continuity nod which I have not noticed anyone else mentioning. As noted above, in the film, one Annie tells Oz that John Gale has asked her to marry her, the implication being that Annie and John will become Dorothy’s parents. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Melentyevich_Volkov">Alexander Melentyevich Volkov</a> created a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_the_Emerald_City">loose adaptation of <i>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</i> in Russian</a> and a series based on it which went off in a different direction from Baum’s books. The equivalent of Dorothy in that series is named Ellie, and the names of her parents are… John and Anna. This may not be a continuity nod to literary or MGM Oz, but it does indicate that someone who made this film really was an Ozophile.</div>
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3) “Oz” is conventionally translated into Hebrew as <i>‘Uṣ</i>, apparently repurposing the name of the place ’Iyyov (Job) lived. But “Oz” is translated into Hebrew in this film as <i>’Oz</i>. The name of this film in Hebrew is <i>’Ereṣ ’Oz</i> (“The Land of Oz”)—corresponding to the conventional shortened title of the second canonical Oz book, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marvelous_Land_of_Oz">The Marvelous Land of Oz</a></i>. Your humble blogger suspects these discrepancies may be due to less familiarity with Oz here in Israel than in the United States.</div>
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4) For those who are interested in seeing films which do a better job on certain themes in <i>Oz the Great and Terrible</i>, your humble blogger recommends <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=plcp&list=PLJ0pRegSiYkaAxb2A17ljX-H99-1vJ75j"><i>The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space</i> </a>and <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_Quest">Galaxy Quest</a></i>. Both films deal with the theme of people forced by their circumstances to impersonate people who do not actually exist and coming to accept the roles, albeit in science-fiction settings rather than a fantasy setting. <i>Captain Zoom</i> also deals with religious issues, including having some uniquely dramatic evidence that a prophecy is real. Both are very entertaining and worthwhile watching just for the fun of it.</div>
Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-56916620766354264632013-02-17T21:35:00.002+02:002013-02-17T21:35:40.801+02:00Review of One Night with the KingJewish date: 8 ’Adhar 5733 (evening) (Parashath Teṣawweh).<br />
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Today’s holidays: First Sunday of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Isaac Asimov (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Giordano Bruno the Martyr (Thelema), Quirinalia (Roman religion)<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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Considering that <a href="http://www.ou.org/holidays/purim/">Purim</a> is a week from now, I would like to give a review on a relevant movie, <i><a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/149920">One Night with the King</a>.</i><br />
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I have been told that I tend to give negative reviews. Fair enough. This is <i>Divine Misconceptions</i>, the blog which concentrates on religious fallacies and misinformation. Thus I often read or watch material containing religious fallacies and misinformation—material I know full well has something wrong with it—and report on it, thus leading to negative reviews. I am thus happy, for a change, to review a movie based on a book of the Hebrew Bible which I consider done well.<br />
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<i>One Night with the King</i> is an adaptation of <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3301.htm">the Book of Esther</a>, and the people who made it thought a lot about what they were doing, and they took care to go back to the original material. The basic plot, most of the characters, and much of the dialog are taken straight from the text of Esther. In doing the work of adaptation, the adaptors were very careful to <i>interpret</i> the original story in a psychologically plausible manner rather than <i>rewrite</i> it. For example, some examples of interpretation:</div>
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<li>How was Haman descended from ’Aghagh when all of ‘Amaleq was wiped out? ’Aghagh’s queen, pregnant with his child, escaped.</li>
<li>Why did Haman hate the Jews so much? ’Aghagh’s queen passed on a multigenerational grudge. (That does happen at times.)</li>
<li>Why was Mordokhay sitting in the palace gates so much? He was a palace scribe.</li>
<li>Why did Washti refuse to come to ’Aḥashwerosh’s banquet? She was protesting ’Aḥashwerosh’s plans to go to war against Greece in revenge for for his father dying in war against them.</li>
<li>Where was Haman to get that huge amount of money he promised ’Aḥashwerosh in return for being able to destroy the Jews? He proposed to get it from the Jews by killing them and taking all their money and property; the money would be used to finance the war.</li>
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There was a lot of thought put into elaborating on the characters.</div>
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<li>Mordokhay is well aware of the inconsistency between his religion and his remaining in Persia. (This was a very real problem in the Second Temple Period, when most Jews remained in the Diaspora rather than return to Israel, and the inconsistency is a major problem today.) He wavers between hiding his Jewishness and taking pride in it. (This happens a lot today, too.) </li>
<li>’Ester has been blown up into a multilingual, literate, and educated character who wants to run off to Yerushalayim with her boyfriend. After being conscripted into ’Aḥashwerosh’s harem, in the finest of human fashion, she becomes a writhing mass of contradiction. She tries to make the best of her situation and becomes romantically entangled with ’Aḥashwerosh. And she also cannot ignore the politics being worked about her; she has to become involved.</li>
<li>’Aḥashwerosh is portrayed as torn between his love of art and learning, on one hand, and on the other hand the need for following protocol and wreaking revenge. His attraction to ’Ester is not just based on her beauty, but her mind as well. (He has taste in women and finds less-intellectual women boring.)</li>
<li>Haman is portrayed not only as carrying on a family tradition of hatred, but also as a master political schemer. His ultimate goal is to become king, and he is quite willing to step on anyone who gets in the way of that goal. About the only thing that matters to him other than revenge and political ambitions is family—and his wife Zeresh encourages Haman in his wickedness. Haman repeatedly gives eloquent political speeches, spreading conspiracy “theories” about the Jews and the Greeks secretly plotting to destroy the Persian Empire. He comes off as a truly evil and dangerous villain.</li>
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Are there inaccuracies in <i>One Night with the King</i>? Yes. For example:</div>
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<li>’Aghagh’s queen passes down to her descendants a symbol which is a variant on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika">swastika</a>. While this is an obvious reference to the Nazis, the swastika did not originate with anti-Semites and has been used by a variety of cultures throughout human history.</li>
<li>The anachronistic use of the swastika is balanced by an anachronistic use of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagram">hexagram</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_David">Star of David,</a> Shield of Solomon) as a symbol for the Jews. Until Jews adopted the hexagram in the 1800s, it was a geometric and magical symbol.</li>
<li>’Ester probably did not have a boyfriend before she was abducted. The concepts of “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” do not appear in the Hebrew Bible at all.</li>
<li>The Book of Esther makes no mention of the conscription of young men to become eunuchs. Thus the undesirable fate of ’Ester’s boyfriend in the film probably never happened.</li>
<li>’Ester in this film claims to have read <i><a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/eog/index.htm">The Epic of Gilgamesh</a></i> in the original. Your humble blogger is under the impression this may be anachronistic.</li>
<li>Haman is unaware that the names of the months are <i>not</i> Jewish.</li>
<li>In the film, it is repeatedly claimed that the Greeks practice democracy, as if this were a universal for them. Your humble blogger is under the impression that Greece in the ancient world, at least before Alexander the Great’s conquests, was a collection of city-states with a variety of styles of government.</li>
<li>’Ester’s fast is too short, and she only has one feast in the film.</li>
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However, none of the inaccuracies are large enough to make much of difference in an overall story which largely follows the original Book of Esther. As such, they are for the most part forgivable.</div>
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Peace. <br />
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’Aharon/AaronRupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-9470631139307977712013-02-06T21:44:00.000+02:002013-04-09T21:38:21.128+03:00Proto-Neopaganism in OzJewish date: 27 Shevaṭ 5773 (evening) (Parashath Mishpaṭim).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Paul Miki and companions (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Tlaloc (Church of the SubGenius).<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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I have decided to put off writing about <i>The Secret</i> and <i>What the Bleep Do We Know?</i> These movies/books are eminently worthy of criticism, and the way the magic espoused in them is supposed to work does resemble that of Neopaganism and LaVeyan Satanism. However, <i>The Secret</i> properly belongs to the New Thought movement, and <i>What the Bleep Do We Know?</i> is a product of Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment. As such, discussing either properly requires a sizable amount of research which would be a major tangent away from Neopaganism. <i>The Secret</i> also requires (or would prompt) digressions into the worlds of <i>Chicken Soup for the Soul</i> and <i>Conversations with God</i>, the authors of which appear in the movie. As such, I deem them worthy of review at a later date.</div>
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Current reading more directly related to Neopaganism is going slowly, so please be patient. I have read a little from <i>The Key of Solomon</i>, a classic grimoire which is cited as one of the sources for Wiccan ritual. (And it certainly reads so far like something Gerald Gardner was cribbing from in writing <i><a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-leap-into-abyss-of-unreason-review-of.html">High Magic’s Aid</a></i>.) I am also reading <i>The Book of the SubGenius</i>, a sacred text of the Church of the SubGenius, a parody religion connected with the Neopagan denomination of Discordianism. (It’s also sufficiently disturbing that I want to get it over with.)</div>
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In the meantime, I would like to note <i><a href="http://findingoz.com/index.htm">Finding Oz: How L. Frank Baum Discovered the Great American Story</a></i> by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Schwartz_(author)">Evan I. Schwartz</a>. This is not a book about religion <i>per se</i>, but rather a book about how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Frank_Baum">L. Frank Baum</a> wrote <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz">The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</a></i>. This includes not just his personal history and the state of society in the United States at the time in general, but also religious influences. One of these was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy">Theosophy</a>, a religion which was having its heyday in Baum’s day. (Those who have read <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked:_The_Life_and_Times_of_the_Wicked_Witch_of_the_West">Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West</a></i> will remember that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_(Oz)">Wizard</a> in that story was a Theosophist on a mission from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Blavatsky">Madame Blavatsky</a>.) Another was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda">Swami Vivekananda</a>, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism">Hindu</a> monk who spoke at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_World%27s_Religions">Parliament of the World’s Religions</a> at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition">World’s Columbian Exposition</a> in Chicago in 1893 and became popular for a time. I hope to discuss Theosophy and Hinduism in the future, and thus I will not discuss them now, especially since I still have a lot to read of even basic Hindu literature (which is extremely extensive) and everything to read of Theosophical basic literature.</div>
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So what is there left to discuss from <i>Finding Oz</i> now? Consider that <i>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</i> was published in 1900, and society in the United States back then was noticeably different than it is today. Today it is generally assumed in the United States that women are equals of men and have the same rights (despite problems in implementation), thus leading to Republican politicians making themselves look really bad whenever they dare to suggest anything appearing otherwise. This assumption of equality was not a foregone conclusion back in Baum’s day, which was decades before the era of women’s liberation. Baum happened to live at the time of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette">suffragette movement</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony">Susan B. Anthony</a> and company, which sought to obtain the right to vote for women. And his mother-in-law, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matilda_Joslyn_Gage">Matilda Joslyn Gage</a>, was a leading suffragette. Gage did not just break with common expectations for women at the time; she also broke with Christianity. Not only did she embrace Theosophy as an alternative, but she also embraced... the pseudo-history of matriarchy, the idea of witches as “wise women” and Christian persecution of witches. Please note that <i><a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2013/01/review-of-ten-neopagan-books.html">The Sorceress</a></i>, <i><a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2012/06/review-of-aradia-or-gospel-of-witches.html">Aradia</a></i>, and the first edition of <i><a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2012/07/review-of-golden-bough.html">The Golden Bough</a></i> had already been published, so these ideas were available already to be embraced.</div>
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These ideas rubbed off on Baum to the extent that they showed up in the Oz books. This is not limited to Baum having a thing for strong female characters (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Gale">Dorothy</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glinda_the_Good_Witch">Glinda</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Ozma">Ozma</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Bobbin">Betsy</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trot_(Oz)">Trot</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patchwork_Girl">Scraps</a>, etc.). While Baum generally kept religious references in his books to a minimum, everyone is aware that Oz has witches. (Gratefully, he avoids the cliché that witches are all evil or its inverse that they are all good.) Dorothy Gale is told when she first visits Oz that Oz has witches, because it is an uncivilized country, the implication being that in civilized countries—such as the United States—witches are persecuted. Both Glinda and the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1607142501"></span>Witch of the North<span id="goog_1607142502"></span></a> are definitely “wise women”, providing sage advice and help, especially the former throughout the series. All four countries in Oz are ruled by women (specifically witches) when Dorothy first visits, and while there are male rulers after that, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marvelous_Land_of_Oz"><i>The Marvelous Land of Oz</i> </a>a girl, Ozma, becomes ruler of all of Oz, a position she retains even in the works of succeeding authors. Also note that Baum avoided the psychologically unrealistic equation of making all female rulers automatically good and all male rulers automatically bad, e.g., the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Witch_of_the_West">Wicked Witch of the West</a> is a terrifying dictator, and her replacement, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Woodman">Nick Chopper the Tin Woodman</a>, is much beloved by his subjects. (Baum still has plenty of fans today, and with good reason.) Granted, the proto-Neopagan ideas were never taken to the extent of <i>Aradia</i> or <i>The Golden Bough</i> (e.g., Glinda never goes dancing naked in the woods, worshipping the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Lurline">Fairy Queen Lurline</a> and doing something inappropriate with a warlock, and she most definitely does not murder a Quadling consort every year), but some of the basic ideas which later inspired Neopaganism are really in there.</div>
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(Now all I need to do is figure out how to tie <i>Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland</i> and <i>Peter Pan</i> into religious fallacies and misinformation...)</div>
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Peace. <br />
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’Aharon/AaronRupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-17674144450656445852013-02-01T13:11:00.000+02:002013-02-01T13:11:18.937+02:00Notes on 2 Corinthians + Paul's Neopagan-like thinkingJewish date: 21 Shevaṭ 5773 (Parashath Yithro).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Friday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Chronos (Church of the SubGenius), Candlemass/Festival of Light (Ritual of the Elements) (Thelema), Imbolc (Neopaganism).<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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I really need to find more time to work on my blogs…<br />
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Progress on reading the New Testament is slow. Koinē Greek is a complex language, and Paul loves to wax poetic in it. Included below is my latest installment on the New Testament, my notes on 2 Corinthians, for what they are worth. Paul has not gotten any more rational or lucid. If I can tie this in my series on Neopaganism, I get the impression that while Paul was a monotheist, he was thinking a lot like a Neopagan. As recorded in Acts, Paul had a vision of Jesus, and the emotional effect on him was so powerful that he was an instant convert. The emotional effect was so powerful that it took days for him to recover enough to interact with other humans. By virtue of his vision, Paul believed himself an apostle, and he went off on his own vision of Christianity, one different from that the people who knew Jesus believed and practiced. Very much like Neopagans, Paul put an emphasis on having a strong emotional experience over following formal rules.<br />
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Peace and <i>Shabbath shalom</i>.<br />
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’Aharon/Aaron<br />
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2 Corinthians 1:1-2—Introduction. Paul maintains that he is a God-chosen apostle of Jesus.<br />
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2 Corinthians 1:3-11—Comfort from Jesus. Subtext of persecution.<br />
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2 Corinthians 1:12-2:4—Paul seems to be attributing a change in plans to God and Jesus, as well as not grieving the Christians of Corinth. Emphasis on faith.<br />
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2 Corinthians 2:5-11—Paul preaches love and forgiveness of sinners. Paul seems to think of himself as an authorized forgiver.<br />
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2 Corinthians 2:12-17—Paul went looking for his brother Titus. He also waxes poetic about those preaching Christianity having the “aroma” of Jesus.<br />
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2 Corinthians 3:1-6—Paul uses the metaphor of people being letters from Jesus written with the Spirit. Paul promotes antinomianism, claiming “the letter kills”.<br />
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2 Corinthians 3:7-18— Paul continues promoting antinomianism, claiming the Torah as bring death and his antinomianism of the spirit as bringing righteousness. (As if YHWH did not want us to do what He actually told us to do.) Exodus 34:34 might be cited, misquoted and ripped out of context.<br />
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2 Corinthians 4:1-18—Paul uses the metaphor of unbelievers being in darkness. He cannot understand that they might have good reasons for doubting that there is anything special about Jesus and claims that “the god of this age has blinded” them. Paul complains about persecution, casting the persecuted Christians (persecuted even unto death) as working in the same mode of the persecuted Jesus. Cites Genesis 1:3 (botched) and Psalms 116:10 under the delusion that they are relevant.<br />
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2 Corinthians 5:1-10—Paul mixes metaphors, talking about being clothed with a heavenly building. He seems to be talking about an eagerness to go to Heaven.<br />
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2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2—Paul speaks about living for Jesus rather than oneself and becoming reconciled to him. Cites Isaiah 49:8 in botched form and out of context.<br />
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2 Corinthians 6:3-13—Paul readily accepts persecution.<br />
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2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1—Paul encourages separation from unbelievers, identifying the believers with the Temple. Cites something which might be a botched version of Leviticus 26:12, Jeremiah 32:28, or Ezekiel 37:27, a fabricated quote, and a botched version of 2 Samuel 7:14.<br />
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2 Corinthians 7:2-16—Paul seems to be happy, because the believers in Corinth are such wonderful people.<br />
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2 Corinthians 8:1-15—Paul promotes love and generosity, citing Exodus 16:18, which is completely irrelevant.<br />
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2 Corinthians 8:16-9:5—Paul praises Titus and notes him being sent.<br />
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2 Corinthians 9:6-15—Paul encourages the believers to “sow” and “reap” generously, citing Psalms 112:9 unbelievably and incorrectly.<br />
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2 Corinthians 10:1-18—Paul defends his ministry, somewhat illucidly, but seeming to think that he has some sort of authority and power. Cites something which might be a botched version of Jeremiah 9:23 irrelevantly.<br />
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2 Corinthians 11:1-15—Paul seems to be encouraging his followers to form a strong emotional relationship with Jesus, drawing on the frequently sexual symbolism for the relationship between YHWH and Bene Yisra’el in the Hebrew Bible. Paul thinks of himself as equal to the apostles. He accuses at least some of his opponents of being “false apostles”, bringing up Satan as a precedent.<br />
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2 Corinthians 11:16-33—Paul boasts about all the suffering he has undergone.<br />
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2 Corinthians 12:1-10—Paul relates someone who had an ecstatic vision. He also talks about having a thorn in his flesh and interpretting it completely in theological terms rather than as something to be dealt with by removing it himself.<br />
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2 Corinthians 12:11-21—Paul asserts again that he is not inferior to the apostles and expresses concern for the Corinthians.<br />
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2 Corinthians 13:1-10—Paul cites Deuteronomy 19:15 in slightly botched form and irrelevantly to try to add more authority to his visits. Paul claims that Jesus is “in” the Corinthians and encourages people to strengthen themselves in faith.<br />
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2 Corinthiatns 13:11-14—Paul sends his final greetings.Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-49496731310599902522013-01-18T13:08:00.000+02:002013-01-28T15:00:26.297+02:00Review of ten Neopagan booksJewish date: 7 Shevaṭ 5733 (Parashath Bo’).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Friday of the First Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Martin Luther (Church of the SubGenius).<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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I am finally getting around to posting something on a whole slew of Neopagan (mostly Wiccan) books, finishing up what I have for Wicca in print. These are not ideal reviews, but this post has been put off too long so far. After this I get to worry about pre-Neopagan magic, such modern magic as <i>The Secret</i> and <i>What the Bleep Do We Know?</i>, Discordianism, the Church of the SubGenius, and various other surprises.<br />
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The reviews follow below<br />
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Peace and <i>Shabbath shalom</i>. <br />
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’Aharon/Aaron<br />
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<b><i>The Sorceress (La Sorcière)</i> by Jules Michelet</b> (Michelet):<br />
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This pseudo-historical book, originally published in French in 1862. draws upon accounts of witch trials. All the clichés found in the work of Margaret Murray, Charles Leland, and Gerald Gardner are present in abundance and luridly to the extent that any movie made of this book would have to have at least an “R” rating. The Christian clergy and nobility are presented as being irredeemably corrupt. This is emphasized for the priesthood, dwelling extensively on sexual abuse of nuns. The peasants are downtrodden to the point where they are totally miserable, are rarely able to get married, and frequently resort to abusive incest. The peasants, in their desperation, also resort to Satanic witchcraft, likewise depicted scandalously. This book is useful as an example for how witchcraft was depicted back around the time Gardner was putting together his Book of Shadows. As a representation of what actually happened, it comes off as if Michelet committed the logical fallacy of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking_(fallacy)">cherry-picking</a>: choosing the material which suited him—in this case, anything and everything smacking of sexual impropriety—and ignoring everything else. Since all the characters are evil, desperate, or crazy, the book comes off as unbelievable.</div>
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<b><i>Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America Today</i> by Margot Adler</b> (Adler):</div>
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Anyone who wants to know about Neopaganism needs to read this book. This is a genuine academic work, looking at what Neopagans actually believe. Ms. Adler not only took a survey of the views of Neopagans, she did it <i>twice</i>. Your humble blogger has the revised and expanded edition. And what she turns up in the interviews, over and over again, is the real key to understanding Neopaganism.</div>
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Abrahamic religions put an emphasis on truth. For example, Christianity hinges on the question of whether Jesus is the Messiah. Thus the New Testament, especially the Gospels, spend a good deal of verbiage arguing that Jesus is the Messiah. If he is not, then there is no point in being a Christian. </div>
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Neopaganism, to the best of your humble blogger’s knowledge, <i>never</i> works like this. There has been a good deal of arguing over whether there is any truth in the historical claims of Robert Graves, James Frazer, Margaret Alice Murray, and Charles Leland, but one will look in vain in the Neopagan works your humble blogger has read for any rational reason to believe in the Triple Goddess and the Horned God. What one finds in abundance throughout Adler’s book, on the other hand, are emotional reasons. People who convert to Neopaganism do so because it resonates with them. They have had deep emotional experiences in response to paganism and have decided to adopt it as a lifestyle. Some come to paganism through study. Others have visions of various gods and goddesses. And almost incredibly, some people play-act paganism for one reason or another and have such a powerful emotional experience that they become pagans.</div>
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How participants feel affects every aspect of Neopaganism. They believe what resonates with them, even if the “belief” is what they act as if is true rather than what they actually think is true. If polytheism resonates with them, then they are polytheists. If duotheism, they are duotheists. If belief in just a single goddess resonates with them, then they believe in just a single goddess. Likewise, they do what resonates with them for rituals and magic. If they enjoy Gardnerian rituals, then they perform Gardnerian rituals. If they prefer rituals practiced by historical pagans, they do that. And if they prefer to make up their own rituals, they do that, since whatever gives them a spiritual high is important. The religious stories (“myths”) they tell are what resonate with them, be it genuine historical pagan religious stories, the pseudo-histories already discussed in this series, or brand-new stories which fit their tastes, or science-fiction. Their moral/ethical behavior is also what resonates with them, which can be liberal or conservative, egalitarian, female supremacist, focusing on men, ecologically oriented, politically active, politically neutral, or just about anything else one can imagine. So they end up creating such unusual-sounding groups and ideologies as the Church of All Worlds, the Reformed Druids of North America, Feraferia, Ásatrú, and Discordianism, and they go off in all sorts of unforeseen directions. And since how one feels is all they consider important, many Neopagans indulge in whatever misconceptions they like without critical thinking, even if outside of religion they are fairly rational people.</div>
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Also in this book are some ideological discussions, a disdain for Christianity, rationalization that polytheism is somehow inherently more moral or otherwise better than monotheism, some talk of the predominant Neopagan theology of pantheism (belief that everything that exists is divine), and trying to subsume all Neopaganism (and sometimes even more) into a single, unified ideological framework.</div>
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<b><i>The Witch’s Bible</i> by Gavin and Yvonne Frost</b> (Frost and Frost <i>The Witch</i>’<i>s Bible</i>)<b>, <i>The Prophet’s Bible</i> by Gavin and Yvonne Frost </b>(Frost and Frost <i>The Prophet</i>’s<i> Bible</i>) <b>and <i>The Magic Power of White Witchcraft</i> by Gavin and Yvonne Frost</b> (Frost and Frost <i>The Magic Power of White Witchcraft:</i> <i> Revised for</i> <i>the Millennium</i>):</div>
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<i>The Witch’s Bible</i> happens to have been briefly reviewed by your humble blogger before this blog was founded (Adelman). Unfortunately, his evaluation of it has not improved.</div>
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The Frosts are the founders of the Church and School of Wicca. The School of Wicca runs a correspondence course, and thus naturally much of the material in these books instructs the reader how to practice magic and this version of Wicca.</div>
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The Church of Wicca is theologically unusual, to the point where some wish that it would not be labeled as Wicca at all. Its doctrine is that there really is only one god, but in its rituals participants pretend there are two. There is also a lot of theological emphasis on “the Other Side”, which is inhabited by the dead, who are progressing in their spiritual development and occasionally contact the living.</div>
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While Neopagans commonly practice ritual magic—which does get its fair share of discussion—these books push magical and irrational thinking to unusual levels and in a new direction; they are largely about how one can develop one’s psychic powers, and they are full of pseudoscience. These books also deal extensively with magic as a form of self-improvement; one can read in them about how to use magic to increase one’s income, get what one wants, and rearrange one’s life for the better. Intermixed with this is more traditional financial and career-development advice. As such, these books come off as less spiritual or religious than many other Neopagan materials discussed in this series.</div>
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While Neopagans seem to be in general more sexually permissive than traditional Christians, the Church of Wicca actually mandates sex magic and regular swapping marriage partners.</div>
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Like Neopagans in general, the Frosts seem rather annoyed by Christianity and continue the tradition of botching Hebrew and Qabbalah.</div>
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<b><i>A Witches Bible Compleat</i> (<i>Eight Sabbats for Witches</i> and <i>The Witches Way</i>) by Janet and Stewart Farrar</b> (Farrar and Farrar):</div>
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This is an extremely serious ritual manual and series of essays on Wiccan magic and theology. The Farrars practice Alexandrian Wicca, one of the early offshoots of Gardnerian Wicca, and they worked with Doreen Valiente, one of Gardner’s high priestesses, to research the textual history of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows. (Valiente actually wrote parts of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows.) This is thus a useful book for anyone wanting to know about the origins of the Book of Shadows; it was not handed down intact, but rather was compiled from a number of different sources, and parts were written from scratch. </div>
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The Farrars are not even vaguely rational people. Their “rationale” for Wicca is philosophical, without the least bit of evidence to back it up. They mix together anything from older religions which suits their tastes, factual or fictional, whether or not the combination actually makes sense. They are also no more accurate in general than the Neopagan authors whose works are reviewed in this series. They buy into Gardner’s doubtful pseudo-history of witchcraft and matriarchy, and like Gardener they love bashing Christianity over (real or imagined) crimes. Like Gardner and the Frosts, the Farrars buy into pseudoscience constantly, unable to distinguish that which is supported by evidence from flimflam. What separates them from the Frosts is the lack of financial and self-help advice, and a tone that many will find downright creepy.</div>
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This book should prove very useful for anyone wishing to study the practice of Wicca. It may also prove useful for those looking for a peek into the minds of serious Wiccans.</div>
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<b><i>A Wiccan Bible: Exploring the Mysteries of the Craft from Birth to Summerland</i> by A.J. Drew</b> (Drew):</div>
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Mr. Drew does not appear to be a major figure in Wicca. You humble blogger acquired his book only because he is aware of a large number of “Bibles” other than the Jewish and Christian ones, and he is collecting them for the <i>Divine Misconceptions</i> project. Mr. Drew presents his own system of theology and ritual for Wicca, and much of what he writes can be found in other sources. However, he goes into depth presenting a creation story, unlike other writers, and he takes a truly unique approach.</div>
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When trying to write a religious text, writers tend to take one of two paths: either they present their text as something handed down to them, or they present their text as a work of scholarship. The Wiccan works reviewed for this series tend to take one or some mixture of both these paths. Mr. Drew takes a third path: he blatantly claims he made up his own creation story. While many people try to pass off something fabricated as something meant to be taken seriously, Mr. Drew is honest that he is simply making up his own story. While this approach can work well when writing parables, Mr. Drew transparently cobbles together his story from the stories of previous religions and genuine history, actually having paragraphs giving the purported original stories. The effect is to make for tedious reading and no aura of respectability that a (real or purported) transmitted text or a (real or purported) scholarly text might have. The effect is even worse when one is familiar with any of the sources he draws upon and can recognize that he is fudging. Since Mr. Drew is blatantly making things up, there is no point in him bringing sources, especially when he cannot be bothered to get them right.</div>
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This tedious “cobbled” approach is carried over to discussions of theology and ritual, as if any older religion’s tenets were evidence of Wicca (Mr. Drew’s version or otherwise). Actually, it gets worse, with long lists of the gods (and purported gods) and holidays of numerous older religions. How accurate any of this is unclear; for example, Mr. Drew is intent on finding polytheism in Judaism and Islam, in complete disregard of the fundamentals of Judaism and Islam. Your humble blogger has no trust that Mr. Drew got anyone else’s religion right.</div>
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This book is for the Wiccan literature completist and the scholar of Wicca. Almost everyone else can skip it.</div>
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<b><i>The Wicca Bible</i> by Ann-Marie Gallagher</b> (Gallagher The Wicca Bible: The Definitive Guide to Magic and the Craft)<b> and <i>The Spells Bible</i> by Ann-Marie Gallagher</b> (Gallagher <i>The Spells Bible</i>):</div>
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Like Mr. Drew, Ms. Gallagher does not appear to be a major figure in Wicca either, with her books also acquired for your humble blogger’s “Bible” collection. While Ms. Gallagher seems to have some sort of academic credentials, they do not show in her books, which read like she is on a spiritual high due to Wicca, untempered by critical or analytical thought. Practically everything in these books can be found elsewhere, only packaged with a plethora of color photographs and careful typography. The main reason to read these books is the photographs. Otherwise they can be safely ignored.</div>
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<b><i>Witches’ Craft: A Multidenominational Wicca Bible</i> by Bruce K. Wilborn</b> (Wilborn):</div>
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There is a bit of the history and theology of Wicca in this book, with the author buying into historically questionable claims of a secret witch cult persecuted by Christians. There is also a section on how to perform divination and work magic with herbs. However, the most interesting thing about this book is that it details the rituals of many distinct denominations of Wicca. As noted above, Neopagans change their rituals in order to get the desired emotional experience, and Wiccans are no exception. This book lists the variants of each ritual, one after the other, allowing easy comparisons. This book is probably more useful for scholars of Wicca and Neopaganism than other people.</div>
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<b>Bibliography:</b></div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
Adelman, Aaron Solomon. “Beware of the Surprise Narrator.” (2009). [<a href="http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.co.il/2009/08/beware-of-surprise-narrator.html]">http://weirdthingoftheday.blogspot.co.il/2009/08/beware-of-surprise-narrator.html]</a>.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today. 1979. Revised and expanded ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986. Print.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
Drew, A.J. A Wiccan Bible: Exploring the Mysteries of the Craft from Birth to Summerland. Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page Books, 2003. Print.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
Farrar, Janet, and Stewart Farrar. A Witches Bible Compleat. New York: Magickal Childe Publishing, Inc., 1984. Print.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
Frost, Gavin, and Yvonne Frost. The Magic Power of White Witchcraft: Revised for the Millennium. Paramus, NJ: Reward Books/Prentice Hall, 1999. Print.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
---. The Prophet’s Bible. York Beach, ME: S. Weiser, 1991. Print.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
---. The Witch’s Bible. Los Angeles: Nash Publishing Corporation, 1972. Berkley Medallion ed. New York: Berkley Publishing Corporation, 1975. Print.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
Gallagher, Ann-Marie. The Spells Bible: The Definitive Guide to Charms and Enchantments. Hampshire, UK: Godsfield Press Ltd., 2003. Cincinnati, OH: Walking Stick Press, 2003. Print.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
---. The Wicca Bible: The Definitive Guide to Magic and the Craft. London: Godsfield Press, 2005. Print.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
Michelet, Jules. The Sorceress (La Sorcière). 1939. [<a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/sor/index.htm">http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/sor/index.htm</a>].</div>
<div style="margin-left: 36px; text-indent: -36px;">
Wilborn, Bruce K. Witches’ Craft: A Multidenominational Wicca Bible. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, 2005. Print.</div>
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Rupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-44331780224957926002012-12-23T11:51:00.003+02:002012-12-23T11:51:45.657+02:00The Fast of Ṭeveth and the non-end of the WorldJewish date: 10 Ṭeveth 5773 (Parashath Wayḥi).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Fast of Ṭeveth (Judaism), Fourth Sunday of Advent (Roman Catholicism), Saturnalia and Larentalia (Roman religion), Feast Day of St. John Belushi (Church of the SubGenius), HumanLight (Secular Humanism).<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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1) Today is the Fast of Ṭeveth, which commemorates the siege on Yerushalayim. More information can be found in “<a href="http://www.ou.org/holidays/asarah-btevet/asara_btevet/#.UNbMDqUQWy4">Asara B'Tevet</a>” and “<a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163440#.UNa4G6UQWy4">Fast of 10th of Tevet Marks Siege of Jerusalem</a>”. Needless to say, because of the fast, I am not particularly active today and will not wax poetic on anything.<br />
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2) Friday was supposed to be the end of the World according to various New Agers and a Christian sect known as “Almighty God”. Also needless to say, these people were wrong. The articles on the “Mayan apocalypse” did not stop, so today you get a followup.<br />
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<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38784/">'Mayan day of apocalypse' arrives</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/celebrations-mexico-world-survives-maya-end-days-005043281.html">Celebrations in Mexico as world survives Maya "end of days"</a>”: Not everyone who believed that Friday was something special thought it was the end of the World.</li>
<li>“<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/denver-sirens-just-test-not-doomsday-signal-154658612.html">Denver sirens are just a test, not doomsday signal</a>”: Your humble blogger cannot make this up.</li>
<li>“<a href="http://www.space.com/19020-mayan-apocalypse-today.html">End of an era: Mayan 'apocalypse' today</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/hot-spots-draw-believers-not-doomsday-142323297.html">Hot spots draw believers, but not doomsday</a>”</li>
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Peace and have an easy fast.</div>
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’Aharon/AaronRupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280474378426550212.post-76659611850363865892012-12-21T12:59:00.001+02:002012-12-21T12:59:45.774+02:00Still waiting for the end of the WorldJewish date: 8 Ṭeveth 5773 (Parashath Wayyiggash).<br />
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Today’s holidays: Feast Day of Peter Canisius (Roman Catholicism), the end of the World (predicted by New Agers), Winter Solstice (Neopaganism, Thelema), Divalia (Roman religion)<br />
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Greetings. <br />
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<a href="http://divinemisconceptions.blogspot.com/2012/12/happy-end-of-baktun.html">I did post yesterday on the predicted end of the World which is supposed to be happening today.</a> However, I have been deluged with a large number of relevant articles on the “Mayan apocalypse”, with reactions ranging from paranoia to commercialism.<br />
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<li>“<a href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/20/16042653-newtown-mayan-end-of-world-rumors-prompt-michigan-officials-to-close-33-schools?lite">Newtown, Mayan end-of-world rumors prompt Michigan officials to close 33 schools</a>”. (Some side-effects of the phenomenon are not so amusing or harmless.)</li>
<li>“<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/maya-end-days-fever-reaches-climax-mexico-061630777.html">Maya "end of days" fever reaches climax in Mexico</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/mexicos-ethnic-maya-unmoved-2012-armageddon-hysteria-090323940.html">Mexico's ethnic Maya unmoved by 2012 "Armageddon" hysteria</a>”. (It is the New Agers promoting this idea that today is supposed to be the end of the World, not the actual Mayans, and, yes, they are still around.)</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38761/">More Iowans prepare for Maya doomsday, other disaster by stockpiling food, supplies</a>”. (I suppose a little disaster preparedness cannot hurt.)</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38766/">New Agers, partiers fill Riviera Maya region for Dec. 21, 2012</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38756/">Germans get ready for Mayan apocalypse</a>”. (Some people are using the alleged end of the World as an excuse to party.)</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38760/">In Mexico, New Agers hope Dec. 21 brings new era</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38763/">Italian village aims to survive Maya prophecy</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38767/">Mayan apocalypse mania grips Russia</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38759/">Mayan apocalypse: believers flock to Serbia's pyramid mountain</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38758/">Russia Doomsday Party At Soviet Bunker Costs $1,000 Per Person</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38755/">Mayan calendar aside, end times theology has meaning for many Americans</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38762/">Mexico seeks 'end of world' Maya tourism boost</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38768/">Almost 1,000 doomsday cult members arrested in China</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38765/">Argentina, fearing Maya-linked suicides, closes mountaintop</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38757/">Brands Capitalize on the 'Impending Apocalypse'</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38754/">December 21 Mayan Apocalypse Observances Fueled By Mysticism And Internet</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://wwrn.org/articles/38764/">French village prepares 'to be spared the 21-12-2012 Maya apocalypse'</a>”</li>
</ul>
Finally, I would like to round things out with a bit of relevant religious humor. A while back there was a cartoon from <a href="http://www.smbc-comics.com/" style="font-style: italic;">Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal</a>:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><img src="http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20090602.gif" /></span><br />
<br />
This cartoon has been recaptioned into something relevant to today:<br />
<br />
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/16J0f.jpg" /><br />
<br />
Peace, <i>Shabbath shalom</i>, and be happy this is not the end of the World. <br />
<br />
’Aharon/AaronRupert Hippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11625972476470777797noreply@blogger.com0