The Fast of Ṭeveth and the non-end of the World

Jewish date:  10 Ṭeveth 5773 (Parashath Wayḥi).

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).

Greetings.

1) Today is the Fast of Ṭeveth, which commemorates the siege on Yerushalayim.  More information can be found in “Asara B'Tevet” and “Fast of 10th of Tevet Marks Siege of Jerusalem”.  Needless to say, because of the fast, I am not particularly active today and will not wax poetic on anything.

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.

• “'Mayan day of apocalypse' arrives”
• “Celebrations in Mexico as world survives Maya "end of days"”:  Not everyone who believed that Friday was something special thought it was the end of the World.
• “Denver sirens are just a test, not doomsday signal”:  Your humble blogger cannot make this up.
• “End of an era: Mayan 'apocalypse' today”
• “Hot spots draw believers, but not doomsday”

Peace and have an easy fast.

’Aharon/Aaron

Still waiting for the end of the World

Jewish date:  8 Ṭeveth 5773 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

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)

Greetings.

I did post yesterday on the predicted end of the World which is supposed to be happening today.  However, I have been deluged with a large number of relevant articles on the “Mayan apocalypse”, with reactions ranging from paranoia to commercialism.

• “Newtown, Mayan end-of-world rumors prompt Michigan officials to close 33 schools”.  (Some side-effects of the phenomenon are not so amusing or harmless.)
• “Maya "end of days" fever reaches climax in Mexico”
• “Mexico's ethnic Maya unmoved by 2012 "Armageddon" hysteria”.  (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.)
• “More Iowans prepare for Maya doomsday, other disaster by stockpiling food, supplies”.  (I suppose a little disaster preparedness cannot hurt.)
• “New Agers, partiers fill Riviera Maya region for Dec. 21, 2012”
• “Germans get ready for Mayan apocalypse”.  (Some people are using the alleged end of the World as an excuse to party.)
• “In Mexico, New Agers hope Dec. 21 brings new era”
• “Italian village aims to survive Maya prophecy”
• “Mayan apocalypse mania grips Russia”
• “Mayan apocalypse: believers flock to Serbia's pyramid mountain”
• “Russia Doomsday Party At Soviet Bunker Costs $1,000 Per Person”
• “Mayan calendar aside, end times theology has meaning for many Americans”
• “Mexico seeks 'end of world' Maya tourism boost”
• “Almost 1,000 doomsday cult members arrested in China”
• “Argentina, fearing Maya-linked suicides, closes mountaintop”
• “Brands Capitalize on the 'Impending Apocalypse'”
• “December 21 Mayan Apocalypse Observances Fueled By Mysticism And Internet”
• “French village prepares 'to be spared the 21-12-2012 Maya apocalypse'”

Finally, I would like to round things out with a bit of relevant religious humor.  A while back there was a cartoon from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:



This cartoon has been recaptioned into something relevant to today:



Peace, Shabbath shalom, and be happy this is not the end of the World.

’Aharon/Aaron

Happy end of the b’ak’tun!

Jewish date:  7 Ṭeveth 5773 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

Today’s holidays:  Thursday of the Third Week of Advent (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Cheech/St. Chong (Church of the SubGenius), Mother Night (Neopaganism), Saturnalia (Roman religion).

Greetings.

I apologize for having not posted for some time now.  I have been busy with other matters, such as computer programming, and certain things have not been my highest priority.  (Trust me:  you do not want to hear me play the mezzo arpeggione right now, I have practiced so little since ’Elul.  It sounds like I am trying to torture my instrument to death.)  This week I have made a good deal of progress on a review of Neopagan material, but I still need to write about another two books.  (And after that I need to look into and write about Discordianism, the Church of the SubGenius, The Secret, older magical materials, and so on ad infinitum…)

In the meantime, I cannot ignore that many people are worried that tomorrow is the end of the World (as we know it, at least).  I strongly doubt this is correct.  While few think that this world will last forever, many have predicted its imminent demise in recorded history, and so far they have all been wrong.  I see no reason to think that the current crop of doomsayers are correct.  Rather than wax poetic  about why the current predictions of impending destruction are baseless, I am going to refer you to some good articles which explain why:

• “Maya Apocalypse 2012: Doomsday end-of-the-world prophecies are nonsense.” by Phil Plait
• “The 2012 Apocalypse, or Why the World Won’t End This Week” by Caroline Dodds Pennock

Those who want to understand why people predict the end of the World may wish to read “Psychology Reveals the Comforts of the Apocalypse” by Daisy Yuhas.

I have also found a number of articles detailing the unusual behavior of people expecting the end of the World:

• “Maya apocalypse and Star Wars collide in Guatemalan temple” by Mike McDonald (and, no that title is not a typo)
• “Russians pay $1,000 for doomsday party in Soviet bunker” by Anastasia Gorelova
• “As "Doomsday" looms, Serbs cash in on mystical mountain” by Aleksandar Vasovic

I hope to post again next week.  Until then, please follow the advice written on the cover of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:  “Don’t panic.”

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Atheist billboards and a possible emerging Twilight paranoia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  3 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Toledhoth).

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

Worthy cause of the day:  “Support Early Education - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  “Atheists turn to billboard sites”.  Thus is it written:  “The group behind a controversial atheist bus-poster campaign is urging parents not to label their children with their own religious faith.”  I already mentioned kind of this stunt in my review of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and my original comments still stand:

As part of showing off for fellow theist-hating atheists, Dawkins makes proposals designed to help make society more atheistic.  For one thing, he would like people to stop attributing religion to small children, e.g., that we should say “children of Christian parents” instead of “Christian children” (Dawkins 2006, p. 339).  It is correct that small children normally have poor or no understanding of basic religious concepts and cannot truly be said to be believers.  On the other hand, membership in religions is frequently defined in terms other than mere belief.  E.g., because a child is baptized in the name of Jesus, he may be considered Christian, whether or not he/she truly understands Christianity.  One may even be a rabid unbeliever and still be considered a member, e.g., “self-hating Jews”.  Dawkins would also like people to stop indoctrinating their children (Dawkins 2006, pp. 325-340).  The idea that this may be against certain religions has either not crossed Dawkins’s mind or he does not care.  It is also difficult to imagine how this would be done without teaching about religion at all (which he does not seem to favor (Dawkins 2006, p. 340)) or that anyone intelligent and seriously religious would voluntarily comply.

The British Humanist Association should be collectively ashamed of themselves for trying to foist such a bad idea on the public.

Topic 2:  “Twilight is a 'deviant moral vacuum': Vatican slams blockbuster New Moon film”:  I am downright puzzled by this article, with an explanation claimed which is downright opaque due to a severe lack of specifics.  Thus is it written:

'This theme of vampires in Twilight combines a mixture of excesses that as ever is aimed at young people and gives a heavy esoteric element.

'Men and women are transformed with horrible masks and it is once again that age old trick or ideal formula of using extremes to make an impact at the box office.

'This film is nothing more than a moral vacuum with a deviant message and as such is something that should be of concern.'

While I have not read the Twilight Saga, the descriptions of it I have encountered seem mild by contemporary standards; it is not every contemporary love story in which the happy couple waits until marriage.  I am so puzzled by what the quote is supposed to mean that I have written the Vatican asking about it, including the question of whether it is even genuine, and I anxiously await a reply.  Intuition suggests this may be another witch-hunt along the same lines of Harry Potter paranoia.

Topic 3:  Some lighthearted stuff to end on:  First, Bizarro’s take on early Christmas commercialism.  Secondly, some of that over-the-top Christmas commercialism:  the USB Fiber Optic Christmas Tree.  And finally, “It’s the End of the World”, a take on the 2012 hype:



Peace, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

2012, a senseless plot thread, and a lame Gospel film

Greetings.

Jewish date:  25 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Ḥayye-Sarah).

Today’s holidays:  Birth of Baha’u’llah (Bahá’í Faith), Saint Day of Josaphat (Roman Catholicism).

Note:  One month until Ḥanukkah.  Time to start reading up on the relevant laws.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Restore Coastal Louisiana - The Petition Site”, “End Gender Discrimination in Health Insurance Coverage - The Petition Site”, and “Big Insurance Kills”.

Topic 1:  “2012: The End Of The World?”  I am not the only out there analyzing bad religious ideas.  This chart gives a nice summation of the purported disaster on December 21, 2012, both what the believers and skeptics claim.

Image via Wikipedia

Topic 2:  Chapters 24-25 of The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) by Philip Pullman.  Pullman leaves Lyra and Will in the land of the dead and tells us about the further adventures of Mrs. Coulter instead.  Mrs. Coulter has decided to play Lord Asriel and the Magisterium off each other and be in favor with whoever wins in the end.  Having stolen an intention craft from Lord Asriel, she proceeds to the Consistorial Court in Geneva, where she is promptly taken into custody.  (She ran off with Lyra at the end of The Subtle Knife, not liking the idea of her daughter being killed.  The Magisterium is therefore collectively unhappy with her.)  This episode quickly goes downhill, with Mrs. Coulter suggesting to the President of the Consistorial Court that the Authority has gone senile and that it may be merciful for Will to use the subtle knife to euthanize him.  (Obvious bad idea.)  This plot thread goes further downhill with the President via proxy stealing some of Lyra’s hair from a locket Mrs. Coulter wears around her neck.  Through use of a process which demonstrates that Pullman fundamentally misunderstands the nature of quantum entanglement, the President hopes to use Lyra’s hair to make Lyra explode.  This gives Mrs. Coulter an opportunity to play the hero and the Magisterium an opportunity to look evil.  Needless to say, Mrs. Coulter is successful in stopping this evil scheme, as there are still 13 chapters to go, and she ends up in Lord Asriel’s hands again at the end.  Theology grade for these chapters:  F.  Physics rating for these chapters:  F.  Plot rating for these chapters:  F, as the scheme is unbelievable and could easily be removed without affecting the rest of the story.  Probability that Pullman will redeem himself before the end of the trilogy:  trivially small.

Topic 3:  Seeing that I have started working on the New Testament in the original Greek, I decided it was appropriate to start watching this pile of Gospel-based films I have accumulated.  As such, last night I watched Godspell, which puts the action in New York City during the 1970s.  On the bright side, the cast does a lot of creative dramatization of the parables and teachings of Jesus, interspersed with songs.  On the down side, there is no serious attempt at understanding anything Jesus had to say or making any of the action actually make sense in 1970s New York.  For almost all of the film, Jesus and his disciples wander around the city, without encountering anyone else, doing their dramatization and singing.  There is a Last Supper at the end, with Jesus making the proper Jewish blessings over maṣṣah and wine(!), but that ends with a whimper with the crucifixion being the arrival of police cars—but no police—and Jesus and the disciples putting themselves up against a chain-link fence.  The film ends with the disciples carrying off the body of Jesus, without any explanation why he is dead (or unresponsive) or a resurrection.  That’s it.  Next to no plot.  Things are further confused by having John the Baptist and Judas Iscariot being the same person and having no motive whatsoever for betraying Jesus.  In short, this film is so lame that it makes Jesus Christ Superstar look good by comparison.

Peace.

Aaron

Philip Pullman fails theology!

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Lekh-Lekha).

Today’s holiday:  Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “No triggers for a public option. Tell Congress now.”

Image of Philip Pullman via Wikipedia

Topic 1:  Last night I finished The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman, and a great secret of this story is finally revealed in chapter 21.

WARNING:  SERIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD.

The plot of this book focuses on two mysteries:  a weakly-interacting elementary particle known as “Dust” and the kidnapping of children.  Dust starts accumulating in children around puberty, a time when their dæmons loose the ability to change shape.  The Church has decided that Dust is evidence of (the purely Christian concept of) original sin.  Keep in mind, class, that original sin is sinfulness inherited from ’Adham (Adam) and Ḥawwah (Eve) due to their violating the prohibition of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; since it is something people are supposed to be born with, something acquired at puberty is probably not whatever physical manifestation it has.

To get around this obvious problem, Pullman rewrites his world’s version of Genesis 3:2-7 to give ’Adham and Ḥawwah dæmons which change shape.  The Snake promises that if they (’Adham and Ḥawwah) eat the forbidden fruit, their dæmons will take on their true forms.  Only when they eat of the fruit do their dæmons take on fixed forms and do they realize they are different from the rest of the animal kingdom, which do not have dæmons.  This still does nothing to get around the mismatch between Dust acquisition and original sin.  Pullman also introduces novel interpretations of a phrase from Genesis 3:19, “for you are dirt and to dirt you will return”:  “thou shalt be subject to dust”—hence the name of the particle—and that somehow this phrase is supposed to indicate that YHWH (God)’s nature is somehow to be partly sinful.  Neither of these new interpretations is tenable in the original Hebrew—and I will (figuratively, not literally) grind into the dirt the face of anyone ignorant enough to dare claim otherwise.  Pullman is simply jamming Scripture into a vague semblance of a useful form in order to be able to make the Church rationalize doing something awful.

As I have mentioned previously, the point of kidnapping children is to perform on them intercission, the separation of body and dæmon/soul.  Not one, but two reasons for intercission are given.  The first, which villain #1, Mrs. Coulter, is supposed to intend, is to keep children from being affected by Dust and thus save them from original sin.  No reason whatsoever is given to believe this should work, and nothing is reported on whether it works.  In fact, it makes no sense to have severed children wander around away from the facility if this is really what they want to do; such children should be retained in order to measure whether they collect Dust or not.  The other reason, which the heroine Lyra deduces that villain #2, Lord Asriel, intends, is to release the energy of the bond holding body and dæmon together.  Lord Asriel actually does this, using the energy to power a contraption to enable traveling to another world.

In summary:  I am not impressed.  Rather than show us the truth or beauty of atheism (whatever that may be), Pullman has invented a Christian world embodying what he hates about Christianity.  He hates the Roman Catholic Church.  He hates John Calvin.  He hates the past abuses of the Church.  But Pullman has gone farther than that.  He has rewritten and reinterpreted Scripture, and he has invented new crimes for the Church to perform and lame rationalizations for those crimes.  In effect, he is preaching against a Church which has never existed.  This is disappointingly in line with the other works of the militant atheism movement which I have read, the only improvement being that his writing is readable.  If he is trying to build a case against Christianity or religion in general, the fabrications invalidate it.  If he is trying to build a case for atheism, he has made no case at all.

Next up:  Book 2:  The Subtle Knife.  I hope it does not prove as big a disappointment.

Topic 2:  By now you probably should have heard of claims of the Mayan calendar running out or a rogue planet swinging by Earth in 2012, causing horrific disaster.  In response to this, I feel it is appropriate to note some materials debunking such claims:  “Apocalypse 2012? The Truth About the End of the World” and “Doomsday 2012, the Planet Nibiru, and Cosmophobia”.  I also dug up a relevant list:  “The millennium and end-of-the-world predictions”.  Due note that the end of the World has been predicted numerous times, and all times which have passed so far has proven wrong.  Given the shaky evidence on which the 2012 claims are based (to put it politely), there is no reason to believe things will be any different this time.

Peace.

Aaron