Looking for Raj Patel and Maitreya in all the wrong ways

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s holidays:  Ḥol hamMo‘edh Pesaḥ (AKA Passover; Judaism), Day 5 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Easter (Christianity).

Topic 1:  “A Brief Passover Message from Rabbi Shmuley”:  In this article, Rav Boteach argues that people do not want true freedom and prefer systems in which they do not have to make choices for themselves, i.e., conformity.  Being free requires nonconformity and making choices to do the right thing, even if no one else is doing it.

Topic 2:  “Raj Patel - Bible Code”.  An anonymous commenter on the BloggersBase version of my blogs recommended this page, claiming “Raj Patel is being used as a mouthpiece for maitreya. Don't be fooled by any of these smooth talking liars”.  (And, yes, we are discussing the claim that Share International holds Raj Patel is the Maitreya again.)   The “mouthpiece” claim is based not on objective, verifiable evidence, but rather on Bible codes.  I have already noted that Bible codes do not work.  This alone should disqualify any claim based on them.  However, this Bible coder clearly has ascended to a new level of Bible code incompetence.  “Raj Patel” and “Maitreya” are not Hebrew words.  The Bible coder has let software do his transliteration for him, resulting in the sequences ראיפתאל and מתרי.  Anyone who knows any

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, in which I take advantage of other people’s Easter humor:  “ How am I”:

“der iz a speshul ring of hell”:

“Easter Bunneh”:

and “How to Make Peepshi = Peeps Sushi”.  The last is Barry’s suggestion.

Peace and ḥagh sameaḥ.

Aaron

It is no surprise why the Cyclons tried to kill all the humans

Greetings.

Jewish date:  16 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).

Today’s holidays:  Bahá’í Month of Fasting and Ayyam-i-ha (Bahá’í Faith), Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Help stop expanded logging in the Tongass”.

Topic 1:  The latest episode of Caprica, “There Is Another Sky”.  The first of two major religious themes of this episode is the treatment of artificial people.  Daniel Graystone, arguing before the board of his company, claims that artificial intelligences do not have rights and do not need to be treated with the same consideration as humans and can be exploited and bossed around at will.  To illustrate, he orders Zoe II to rip her own arm off.  He still has no idea that Zoe II is still alive and possesses a Cylon body, and she complies, apparently to avoid blowing her cover.  (Why she keeps up the pretense of being just another robot, I have no idea.  I hope she will eventually explain her reasons.)  Meanwhile, the virtual reconstruction of Tamara Adama falls into the hands of a gang who realize that she is pure avatar and not a normal human; she cannot be injured—though she can feel pain—and she cannot be knocked out of the virtual world.  The gang feels no qualms about forcing her to participate in New Cap City, a crime-based game in which normal rules of morality are ignored.  Eventually she turns on them and shoots them all, knocking them out of the virtual world, except for one; the reason for this will be explained shortly.  But suffice it to say that many of the humans have little or no moral regard for artificial people.  This explains a lot about why 58 years in the future the Cylons rebel and try to kill all the humans.

The other major religious theme is mourning.  Joseph and Willie Adama spend this episode trying to come to terms with the deaths of Shannon and Tamara.  Joseph finds out that Willie has been skipping school and tries to bond with his son.  Eventually the two of them participate in a Tauron mourning ceremony involving giving coins for the dead—shades of the ancient Greek practice of placing a coin under the tongue of the dead so as to pay Charon to take him/her across the river Styx to Hades—and officiated by a bald, darkly-clad priest.  At this point Joseph seems well on his way to recovery (that is the point of mourning ceremonies, after all), when all of a sudden a visitor shows up.  It is the one gang member which Tamara II did not shoot, and he tells Joseph that Tamara II sent him.  The gang member runs away in fear before delivering any more information, and Joseph is left clearly disturbed.  Clearly Joseph’s search for Tamara II is meant to be a long-term arc.

Topic 2:  Despite a prediction to the contrary, Utah was not destroyed by a comet yesterday.  Reason:  1, Bible codes:  0.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Even Basement Cat”:


Peace.

Aaron

Islam is not and never has been a religion of peace, and wishful thinking will not change this

Greetings.

Jewish date:  15 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).

Today’s holidays:  Purim Shushan (Judaism), Monday of the Second Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Holi (Hinduism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Strip insurers of their antitrust exemption”.

Topic 1:  “Utah to be destroyed by a comet! Or not!” and “BIBLE CODE PREDICTIONS: 2010”.  I have mentioned it before, and today is the day that someone has predicted on the basis of Bible codes that Utah is going to be obliterated by a comet.  If Utah is still standing within the next few hours, tomorrow I gloat.

Topic 2:  “Islam: Verses of Violence”.  This is a list of verses in the Qur’an and Ḥadith calling for intolerance, violence, and jihad (holy war).  (Not only references are given, but links to the relevant material itself, so it is very easy for you to check that what is claimed is true.)  Yes, I know, many people these days have a vision of Islam being or at least becoming a religion of peace—and we all would like it to be so.  But the roots of Islamic intolerance go back to Muḥammad himself.  He himself advocated and practiced intolerance and violence, and no amount of denial is going to change the past or the contents of Muslim traditions.  Since Muḥammad is the model of behavior for Muslims, it is very easy for them to justify behavior no other major religion sanctions.  Some modern applications of Muḥammad’s teachings:  “UN deplores Gaddafi call for anti-Swiss 'jihad'” (Switzerland decides to restrict the building of new minarets, therefore Colonel Mu‘ammar al-Qaḏāfī of Libya calls for a jihad against Switzerland), “Israeli police, Palestinians clash at holy site” (Arabs consider mere unsubstantiated rumors an “attack” and “provocation” and start throwing stones at Israeli police; anyone who considers this harmless is dared to stand still while stones are thrown at him/her), “No models of example” (multiple incidents of Islamic terrorism and how the terrorists were treated by their fellow Muslims; hint:  as heroes, not criminals).  Yes, there are some tolerant and peaceful Muslims out there, but let us not pretend that Islam as a whole, whether in the past or the present, is innocuous.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Your cat goddess”:

Apparently this cat has a Bast complex…

Peace.

Aaron

Is Utah going to be destroyed by a comet on March 1?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Terumah).

Today’s holiday:  Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time/Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Toyota: Stop lobbying against car safety”.

Topic 1:  “BIBLE CODE PREDICTIONS: 2010” (noted in “Utah to be destroyed by a comet! Or not!”).  According to this site, based on hidden codes in the Hebrew Bible, Utah is supposed to be destroyed on March 1 by a comet impact.  I have no trust in Bible codes.  YHWH is quite capable of giving direct messages, and the Hebrew Bible is full of them.  Some of these messages, such as “do not worship idols” and “treat the poor well”, proved difficult for people to keep and thus were repeated by the prophets over and over again so that even someone who is not particularly bright can see they are there.  Looking for hidden codes, as demonstrated in Michael Drosnin’s heretical The Bible Code, is an easy way for people to latch onto the Hebrew Bible (or whatever scripture they hold dear) as important and completely ignore the text’s actual message.  I also have grave doubts that the methodology of Bible codes is actually valid; The Skeptic's Dictionary reports that the unlikely message “The Bible Code is a silly, dumb, fake, false, evil, nasty, dismal fraud and snake-oil hoax.” was found hidden in Drosnin’s The Bible Code II:  The Countdown.  If one can find a message as long, unambiguous, and unlikely to be intentional as that hidden in such a book, one can forget about the short, ambiguous, messages of the Bible codes being real.  But to be open-minded, I have decided to put the predictive power of this dabbler in Bible codes to the test.  Therefore I have put “Comet destroys Utah” on my calendar for March 1, and we will see if it really comes to pass.  If it does (which would be surprising, since one would think a state-annhilating comet would have been noticed by astronomers already), then the Bible-coder will have something to gloat about.

Topic 2:  “Was Haiti Punished for Sin?”:  Rav Shmuley Boteach has clearly read Job and knows that bad things happen to those who do not deserve them.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Basement cat”:


Peace.

Aaron