Israel is a real place

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 ’Elul 5770 (Parashath Ha’azinu).

Today’s holidays:  Ramadan (Islam), Laylat-al-Qadr (Lailat ul Qadr, Lailat-ul Qadr, Night of Power) (Islam), Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Henry Louis Mencken (Church of the SubGenius).

Topic 1:  A big backlog on anti-Semitism and the Arab-Israeli War:  “Selective Outrage: Israeli Facebook Photos Spark Media Circus”, “Action Alert: CBC Drags a False Equivalence”, “EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Dramatic Reunion Ten Years After The Photo That Started It All”, “Iranian youth athlete withdraws from fight with Israel competitor” (translation:  Iran would rather force its taekwondo fighters to chicken out like wimps rather than let them lose with honor), “Lancet Editor "Responds" to HR Critique”, “Ha'aretz Journalist's Speaking Tour: Sponsored by Anti-Zionists”, “BBC Panorama Shocker: Balanced Review of Gaza Flotilla Incident”, “Incitement is not one-sided”, “Dead Jews and living trees” (some people have completely missed what the Holocaust is supposed to teach us), “The Root of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Classic Islamic View of Jews”, “The Despair of Zion” by Walter Reich, and “Egyptian minister calls on Muslims to flood J’lem” (completely forgetting that any Islamic identity of Yerushalayim is completely forged and that Muslim pilgrims there will be giving money to Jews, directly or indirectly, if they want to eat, sleep, or travel).

Topic 2:  I need to start writing about my pilot trip to Israel, my future home, and I still do not know where to start.  So let us start with something basic which at first sounds ridiculously obvious:  Israel is a real place.  Rationality requires us to try to recognize things as they are, for what they are.  The Israel I visited is not a religious fantasy of a Jewish or ecumenical utopia.  Neither is it a successor to Nazi Germany, as anti-Semites would have us believe.  In many respects, Israel is a lot like the United States, being a fully modern, Western country.  This includes the general rule of law and familiar products and technologies.

So how does Israel differ from the United States?  The most obvious (and relevant to this blog) is that while most of the West is predominantly Christian, Israel is predominantly Jewish.  There is a sizeable Muslim minority, and there are Christians, Bahá’ís, and members of other religions as well; but I stayed within areas with Jewish majorities, and this was reflected even within the secular culture.  (I do plan to go into this further as I discuss my trip.)  And while in the United States people are often not so visibly demonstrative of their religion, people who look religious are everywhere in Israel.  Even in Tel ’Aviv, the great bastion of Israeli secularism, there were some people who were visibly observant Jews, including one woman I talked with at a company at which I interviewed.  To be sure, there are enclaves, and whole neighborhoods are set up with particular religious groups in mind.  But in many places, people of different religious strains mix freely and without incident.  This includes on buses; despite what you may have heard about Ḥaredhim (sometimes derisively called “ultra-Orthodox”) holding by segregated buses, I saw plenty riding ordinary, mixed buses.

Israel is also a visibly multilingual society.  In the United States, government-issue signs (such as for traffic and street names) are usually only in English.  In Israel, they are typically in Hebrew, the international language English, and Arabic.  And while the most common language spoken on the street and found in non-governmental signs is indeed Hebrew, I also encountered a fair share of English, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French, Yiddish, and what was probably Amharic.  One may also easily end up talking to people in languages other than Hebrew.  Someone at one synagogue did try speaking to me in Yiddish, which I do not know.  (I got a C in Yiddish in college and have made no attempts to study it since.)  Several people, upon hearing my American accent even when speaking Hebrew, switched to addressing me in English.  (I myself must admit guilt at switching too frequently from Hebrew to English when I had trouble making myself understood in Hebrew.  Hebrew is not my native language, and it requires more mental effort for me to speak or understand.  And I am under the impression that my accent is not the easiest for Israelis to understand either.)

I need to move on to other things today.  I hope to write about the Old City of Yerushalayim tomorrow.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “The transition”:

And again, if anyone knows anything about where this notion of black cats being evil comes from, please let me know.

Peace.

Aaron

Beware of pygargs

Greetings.

Jewish date:  28 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Shofeṭim).

Today’s holidays:  Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Britishthermalunit, inventor of AC (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Ban New Offshore Drilling - Take Action Today @ The Rainforest Site”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Tell Google: "Don't be evil" / And to stop dealing away the Internet”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: Google: Don't Be Evil”, and “Alliance for Justice:  Congress: Repair the Damage Caused by the Corporate Court”.

Topic 1:  It has occurred to me that there is an irony in the terminology of the Arab-Israeli War.  The Muslims call Israel “Palestine” in an effort to dissociate it from Judaism.  Now, where does this term come from?  After the Romans finally crushed the Bar Kokhba’ Revolution (with much difficulty), they adapted the name of traditional rival state about where now the Gaza Strip is, the Pelesheth (= “low-country”) and started calling Israel Syria Palestina.  This was later shortened to “Palestine”.  Thus the Muslims are implicitly identifying with Israel’s oppressors and occupiers from the Roman Empire.  The irony comes in that the “Palestinians” claim to be oppressed and occupied.  They could have gone with “Canaan” instead, given that the Kena‘anim lost out to the Children of Yisra’el, but no one has any nostalgia for the Kena‘anim.

More anti-Semitism:  “Canadian Media Bark up the Wrong Tree in Lebanon Ambush (August 4, 2010)”, “Dead Photojournalist Waiting To Happen” and “Border Clash: A Case Study in Reuters Photography” deal with reporter bias, participation in an international incident, and stupidity.  (I am aware “stupidity” is a strong and undiplomatic word, but putting oneself in a position where one could easily be mistaken for an enemy soldier and get shot is pretty stupid.)  “Photo Bias Rampant In the Media” deals with the photographic equivalent of quoting out of context:

“Sky News Discovers Gaza's Middle Class” reveals that not all Gazans are suffering.

Related:  “Taqiyya - Lying For Islam” deals with lying in the name of Islam.

Image of “pygargs” via Wikipedia

Topic 2:  Some strangeness from the King James Version (KJV):  The KJV renders dishon in Deuteronomy 14:5 as “pygarg”, which is not an English word at all.  “Pygarg” is an adaptation of the Greek pygargos, meaning “white-rumped”, which is used in the Septuagint.  Why they did this, I am not really clear.  “Addax” is a perfectly good English word, though maybe they really did not know anything about addaxes in England at that point.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “Basement kitteh tabulates quarterly figures.”:


Peace.

Aaron

Theological review of Wyrd Sisters (The Discworld Series, book 6)

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 ’Av 5770 (Parasthath Wa’ethḥannan).

Today’s holidays:  Feast Day of Mary Magdalene (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Karl Marx/St. James Whale/ 1/Pi approximation (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of the Scarlet Woman (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “JCRC-NY Write to Rickys”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Put up or shut up:  It's time for prominent Tea Party leaders to step forward and deal with racism within the Tea Party”, “Protect the Future of Fish and Fishing in America - The Petition Site”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: We need Elizabeth Warren at the CFPB!”, and “Forget what Timothy Geithner thinks. We want Elizabeth Warren to police Wall Street.”.

Topic 1:  Wyrd Sisters (The Discworld Series, book 6) by Terry Pratchett.

WARNING:  SPOILERS FOLLOW.  YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP TO TOPIC 2.

This book focuses on parodying the plays of William Shakespeare, particularly Macbeth and Hamlet, not theology.  There are a number of more or less theological ideas dealt with, though.

• Ghosts.  Early in the book King Verence I of Lancre is murdered.  After meeting with Death (apparently a favorite character of Pratchett), Verence remains in his castle as a ghost.  It turns out the castle is filled with the ghosts of royalty—and the kitchen is filled with the spirits of animals eaten by them!  Ghosts interact weakly with material objects and are not visible to anyone except cats, witches, and Death.  Ghosts are also linked to the actual material of the place they died and cannot go far from it.  The only way Verence and a number of other ghosts can leave the castle is to have a brick of it physically carried elsewhere.
• Witches.  Featured in this book is not only Esmerelda “Granny” Weatherwax, but two of her colleagues, Gytha “Nanny” Ogg and Magrat Garlick, as well.  While Nanny Ogg works pretty much along the same lines as Granny Weatherwax (except never having been celebate and dominating a large family), Magrat is a parody of the contemporary “witches” of our world.  E.g., she coerces Granny and Nanny into forming a coven with periodic sabats, she wears tacky silver jewelry, she likes dancing, she believes in “Nature’s wisdom and elves and the healing power of colors and the cycle of the seasons” and pretty much any flaky New Age idea the reader can think of.  There is also the idea that witches are supposed to stay out of political matters; this is not a genuine traditional or New Age concept about witches, but rather an inversion of the behavior of the witches in Macbeth.  Duke Felmet, who murders King Verence I and claims the throne, accuses the witches of interfering in politics, as they make convenient scapegoats.
• Cleanliness = moral purity.  Duke Felmet, like Lady Macbeth, feels guilty over his crime.  In a rather extreme version of the equation, he does extensive damage to his hands trying to rid them of the (real or imagined) blood of his victim.  (I know:  ew!  While much of the book is funny, in this item Pratchett goes into the realm of the cringe-worthy.)
• Granny Weatherwax discovers that the Kingdom of Lancre has what might be described as an “overmind” consisting of the minds of all its inhabitants, including animal inhabitants.  This may be a reflection of ideas that all are part of a greater whole.  This overmind hates Duke Felmet and his wife and want them deposed.
• Destiny.  The witches believe that Tomjon, the son of Verence I, is destined to inherit the throne.  While they do play a part in ensuring his survival and hastening his ascent to the throne, the assumption is that his ascent is inevitable.  Tomjon is indeed recognized as the legitimate heir to the throne, but he does not want the job of king.  The throne is then turned over to the Fool, who is his half-brother.  This is consistent with the handling of fate/destiny previously in the series.
• Belief = reality.  The influence of belief on reality on the Discworld has already repeatedly been discussed.  Wyrd Sisters takes it in a new direction by having Duke Felmet have the Fool commission a play depicting the “official” version of the death of Verence I with the intention of establishing that the Duke is legitimately ascending to the throne.  While the actual performance of the play is accidentally hijacked by the witches, Death, ad Verence I to reveal what really happened, the question of whether the play could have actually changed reality in the Discworld had it been executed successfully is left undecided.

Next up in this series:  Pyramids (The Discworld Series, book 7) by Terry Pratchett.

Topic 2:  A backlog of materials on Islamic misbehavior, including associated anti-Semitism:  “Special Analysis: The Obama-Netanyahu Summit” looks at biased reporting.  In “Tom Friedman’s Soft Spot for Terrorist Fadlallah”, Rav Shmuely Boteach blasts New York Times columnist Tom Friedman for mourning the death of Hezbollah terrorist Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah as if he were a hero.  (Some people do have very strange ideas that murderers can be heroes.  I have no clue why.)  Daniel Pipes in “Turkey in Cyprus vs. Israel in Gaza” notes Turkish hypocrisy over criticism of Israel’s treatment of Gaza, considering how Turkey has treated northern Cyprus since it invaded and occupied it in 1974.  “No. 1 Nation in Sexy Web Searches? Call it Pornistan” notes that Pakistan, an Islamic nation not famous for freedom, is the number-one country in many pornographic searches on Google; I suspected this story was a hoax until I went into Google Trends and checked the claims myself.  “The Muslim Mosque:  A State Within a State” argues that Islam itself qualifies as a state; his might be stretching the meaning of the term somewhat, but lots of citations in basic Islamic literature are brought forward to argue the claim, especially the point that it is a goal of Islam to take over the Earth.  And there is plenty in the way of violence, but I have other things to do today that just blog.

Related to this:  “A political culture gone bad” deals with how not to treat Muslims.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “Bonus Post: The Most Elusive Of Them All”:



Note that this graph is arguably not accurate on Jesus, but some people really do seem to think of him in these terms.

Peace.

Aaron

A big backlog of stuff

Image of where I am working towards going via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Balaq).

Today’s holidays:  Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Joseph Smith (Church of the SubGenius), Litha - Sommer Solstice (Wicca).

Worthy causes of the day:  “End Violence Against Women - The Petition Site”, “Friends of the Earth U.S.”, “Action at Oil Change”, “Obama, Say No To Commercial Whaling! - The Petition Site”, “ONE | 3.5 Million Healthworkers Needed”, “Support Women's Health with the Global MOMS Act - The Petition Site”, “Please Include the Temple Mount in the Heritage Plan - אנא הוסף את הר הבית לרשימת אתרי המורשת Petition”, “Working Families » Take Action!”, and “What President Obama should have said.”

Note:  The big gap in postings is largely due to me attending an ‘Aliyyah Absorption Information Expo last week.  This is also the reason I have not yet written a review of Mort (The Discworld Series, book 4) while having finished reading Sourcery (The Discworld Series, book 5).  Expect the next Discworld review to be for at least two books at the same time.  On this past trip, I have also acquired a copy of the first season of Serughim, an Israeli show which deals with a group of Dathi Le’umi (religous Zionist/Modern Orthodox) singles in Jerusalem.  The point of getting this set of DVDs is to work on my understanding of spoken Hebrew (Israeli radio is too fast for someone unused to rapid Hebrew speech), but there is enough going on religiously in the episodes I have already watched that I expect to eventually be writing episode-by-episode reviews.

Also:  Since I have a huge backlog, expect this post to be very short on commentary.

Topic 1:  Updates on anti-Semitism:  “CBC National Corrects Gaza Infant Mortality Rate Error”, “Gaza Flotilla: The Battle for Public Opinion Continues”, “SUCCESS! - Yahoo Reunites Jerusalem”, “Best Seller”, “Their Problem”, “Bowen: My Critics Are "Enemies of Impartiality"”, “SUCCESS: BBC Apologises for Al-Dura Inaccuracy”, “Israel Bashers Bash the Beeb”, “HRC Rebuts Mayor's Diatribe in Journal de Montreal”, “Guardian Israel Obsession Reaches New Heights: Flotilla Stats”, “When concept trumps reality?”, “Cairo court rules on Egyptians married to Israeli women”, and (in a different vein) “The Never-Ending Lynching of Sholom Rubashkin” and (the very worthwhile read as it exposes some serious hypocrisy) “A modest proposal for solving the kosher slaughter problem”.

Topic 2:  Other Islam-related things going on:  “BP, Kaddafi, and Britain’s Oil Comeuppance”, “Eurological Problem (2007)”, “Turkish Tomorrow?”, “Barcelona will ban use of face-covering Islamic veil in city buildings”, “Deafening silence from Left as Iranians protest”, “Islamic Sharia Law to Be Banned in Oklahoma”, “World Cup 2010: Somali football fans executed for watching matches” (I cannot make this up, and I do not understand it), “Appeal for Afghan Christians, sentenced to death for their faith”, “Target killing count continues to rise”, “Surge for Dutch anti-Islam Freedom Party”, “Ahmadis press for protection”, “Egyptian Couple Shot by Muslim Extremists Undaunted in Ministry”, “The killing of a Christian businessman in Kirkuk rekindles fear among Christians”, “Muslims Order Christians to Leave Village in Pakistan”, “Prisoners convert to Islam for jail perks” (definitely the wrong reason to convert), and “Chain e-mail claims Muslims will be a majority in U.S. in 20 years”.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, which deals with a commonly voiced paranoia:  “Consequences Of Gay Marriage”.  I do not support gay marriage, but this graph gets it right as to what would happen if homosexual marriage were allowed.

Peace.

Aaron

The theology of Equal Rites (Discworld Series, book 3)

Greetings.

Jewish date:  5 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Naso’).

Today’s holidays:  Day 49 of the ‘Omer/‘Erev Shavu‘oth (Judaism), Feast Day of John I (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Leonary Nimoy (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of Elias Ashmole (Thelema).

Note:  There will be no blogging by me for the next two days due to the Jewish holiday of Shavu‘oth.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Friends of the Earth U.S.:  Say 'No!' to Offsets, 'Yes!' to Real Climate Solutions”, “Repower America | Tell Your Senators: Time to act!”, “An inconvenient truth about the climate bill”, and “Help Wild Tigers Survive - The Petition Site”.

Cover of Equal Rites

Topic 1:  Equal Rites (Discworld Series, book 3) by Terry Pratchett.


WARNING:  SOME SPOILERS.


This is not a theological story.  It is not even a non-theological story with major theological elements.  The central theme of this story is magic performed by men versus magic performed by women as they are treated in fantasy:  the male magic of wizardry is considered good, while the female magic of wizardry is considered bad.  This is definitely not the first book to attack this cliché, i.e., the Oz books of L. Frank Baum featured good witches and bad wizards alongside bad witches and good wizards.  Pratchett has different method of handling this problem:  a dying wizard bequeaths his “wizardness” to a newborn baby girl, Eskarina “Esk” Smith, not knowing she is a girl.  This one act forces Esk and many of the other characters to try to find some way of dealing with the anomaly of a female wizard, whether to try to turn her into a witch or to accept her as a wizard.  In the process the worlds of witches and wizards collide, and your humble author decides to not spoil you on how things turn out in the end, as the state of sexual politics at the end of the story is not a theological issue.  (OK, I know:  there is a sexual political aspect of religion, especially these days when sexual equality or lack thereof is a real issue.  But the wizards-versus-witches issue is given as much theological depth here as the matter of feminism is given theological depth in The Marvelous Land of Oz.  Perhaps in another book...)

There are, nevertheless, a few theological elements in Equal Rites.  Pratchett does mention the cliché of witches worshiping a mother goddess and dancing naked in the woods—and he immediately dismisses it as a common delusion (at least so far as the Discworld is concerned).  Also noted in passing is the notion that religion makes people act unnaturally, leading them to visit witches to help them deal with the consequences.  There is real truth in this.  Much natural behavior (murder, rape, violence, infidelity, domination, promiscuity, etc.) is forbidden or strictly controlled by religion.  Pratchett give this a bit of a negative spin, but even adamantly anti-religious secularists normally advocate some degree control of such natural behaviors, if only for utilitarian reasons.  If some unnatural behavior is necessary for a more pleasant and safer society, so be it.

Also present is the notion that thought creates reality, which the wizard prodigy (and proto-love interest of Esk) Simon lectures on at Unseen University.  In our reality this is, of course, wrong.  Unfortunately, some people implicitly treat it as true by means of the fallacy of wishful thinking, and there are even a few works (The Secret, What the Bleep Do We Know?) which argue (badly) for the explicit version.  The counterfactual belief in thought creating reality shows up as a plot element in the form of the Things which dwell in the Dungeon Dimensions.  The Things threaten Esk and Simon, but once Esk realizes they are merely ideas without independent existence, they atrophy and evaporate.

Overall classification:  Humorous fantasy, but not for children.  Don’t beware of Things.

Theological rating:  ☈.  (Absurdist.)

Note:  I do not yet own a copy of Mort (Discworld Series, book 4), so it will be a while until I review it.  I could skip to the next book in the series I have, but I would rather review the series in order.  Anyone wishing to speed things up is welcome to send me copies of Discworld books I do not already own.

Topic 2:  The daily dose of anti-Semitism:  “Anti-Israel Detractors Go Postal to Stamp Out Israel (May 16, 2010)” and “"You Lied to Me, Jew Producer": Comedy Central Shocker”.  Irony may be found in “Rachel Corrie Died for This?”  “Journalist says only truth will set Palestine free” deals with the question of what it really means to be “pro-Palestinian”.  “Israeli-Palestinian conflict rages on Wikipedia” deals with a relatively recent method of trying to get a set of beliefs enshrined as the truth.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “I IS AMISH LOLCAT.”  (Sorry, they made no provision for embedding this one.  You will have to click on the link.)

Peace and ḥagh sameaḥ.

Aaron

Divine punishment, the pointlessness of the peace process, and the disgraceful Richard Goldstone

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Emor).

Today’s holidays:  Day 26 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Festival of Ridvan (Bahá’í Faith), Fourth Sunday of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. T (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Manes (Thelema), Apostle and Evangelist Mark (Greek Orthodox Christianity).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Reform Immigration For America | Racial profiling? Not in our America!”, “Tell Obama to Further Support Malaria Vaccine Research - Take Action Today @ The Hunger Site”, “Friends of the Earth U.S.:  Tell the Obama Administration to Reject a New Pipeline for the World's Dirtiest Oil”, “CARE:  Child Marriage:  A Promise of Poverty”, “Health Care for America NOW! | Demand Our $$ Spent on Health Care Not Profits”, “Take Action: TrueMajority.org:  WITH WALL STREET OR WITH US?”, “Stop senseless wolf killing in our country! - The Petition Site”, “Take Action | Earth Day Network”, “Take Action: Speak out for Sudan | Save Darfur”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: We need a criminal investigation of Wall Street”, “Tell Big Banks: Party's Over - The Petition Site”, and “Close the Loophole: Help Close the Gun Show Loophole. Keep Guns Out of the Hands of Criminals.”.  (My posting got put off due to working on a review of the Uplift Series, so there is a big backlog.)

Topic 1:  “Iranian cleric blames quakes on promiscuous women”:  Considering that Hojjat ol-eslam Kazem Sediqi is not a prophet, HOW DOES HE KNOW?  Also to be noted, but which he does not seem to realize, is that it takes two to tango.  Therefore the young men allegedly being tempted into adultery should be held accountable for their failure to resist temptation.

Topic 2:  The periodic anti-Semitism roundup:  “Anti-Israel Programmer Suspended by Montreal Campus Radio” (baseless accusations), “A taboo that harms Arabs too” and “The False Religion of Mideast Peace: And Why I'm No Longer a Believer” (forget the peace process; the way things are now it will not work).  On the bright side (submitted by Harold), “Palestinian Zionist Organization is Founded”.

Topic 3:  “South Africa: Religious Uproar Over Jewish Judge Who Criticized Israel”.  To make a long story short, the man from which the disgraceful Goldstone Report takes its name will not be attending the bar miṣwah ceremony of his grandson, as people really hate his guts and do not wish to be around him.  “This isn’t about Goldstone, it’s about Judaism” and “Condemn His Report, But Welcome Goldstone” argue that despite the fact that Richard Goldstone has committed has done something truly despicable, he should not be barred from attending the bar miṣwah ceremony because that is simply not the way Jews are supposed to behave.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor:  “You know your haircut’s bad”:



Peace.

Aaron

None of us has a right to always be right

Greetings.

Jewish date:  18 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).

Today’s holiday:  Casimir (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell the FDA to Update Nutrition Label Info - The Petition Site”, “DemocracyForAmerica.com » Become a Citizen Co-Sponsor”, This is how we stop Blackwater for good.“”, and “Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) | Tell Democrats We Have Their Backs”.

Topic 1:  More anti-Semitism:  “Israel Apartheid Week Comes to Town” and “Conjecture vs. Fact Drives Vancouver Sun Reporting on Assassination”.  These articles deal with poisoning the well (working to avoid anyone listening to one’s opponents, usually accomplished through lying) and presenting speculation as if it were fact.  (Again, I acknowledge this topic gets a lot of play.  I plan on stopping harping on it once the problem goes away.)  More interesting is “Opposing the digital pogrom”; the government of Israel has gotten so fed up with anti-Semitic attacks from foreign reporters that it struck back with Masbirim (English translation via Google Translate), a site encouraging Israeli citizens to do pro-Israel PR when abroad.  Foreign reporters are reportedly not pleased with being parodied in the videos as being totally clueless, but considering that said reporters frequently have little or no idea of the context of what they are reporting on, the lampooning is fair.

Topic 2:  “Libya slaps embargo on Swiss, demands U.S. apology”.  Libya in this article illustrates the fallacy that one is always entitled to be right, no matter what.  Libya may not appreciate the Swiss ban on new minarets.  Libya may even feel that it is religiously proper to declare a jihad against Switzerland.  However, it is beyond all reason for Libya to expect the United States or Switzerland (or any other non-Muslim country) to necessarily agree to what Libya (or any Muslim country) wants.  The United States and Switzerland are religiously tolerant countries with civil liberties.  Jihad—the epitome of religious intolerance—is not appreciated in either country, and their citizens are free to criticize anyone, including heads of state.  As such, if Mu‘ammar al-Qaḏāfī’s son broke laws in Switzerland on how domestic help is supposed to be treated, then the Libyans should not expect the Swiss to be anything but displeased.  And if the Swiss feel that Muslim immigrants have been abusing their civil liberties, then Libya should not be surprised if the Swiss get wary or even take measures against abuse.  And if Mu‘ammar al-Qaḏāfī calls for a jihad, then he should not be surprised that a US diplomat does not approve.  And, as a US citizen, I invoke my own right of free speech and suggest that everyone in the US, Switzerland, and elsewhere, counter the Libyan boycott with a boycott against Libyan products; there is no point in rewarding a regime which expects to be kowtowed to at all times.

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


Peace.

Aaron

Never, never, never convert for the wrong reason

Greetings.

Jewish date:  1 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Terumah).

Today’s holidays:  Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), Monday of the Sixth Week of Ordinary Time/Carnival Monday (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell President Obama to Stop Big Oil's Race to Ruin in the Tar Sands”, “Save BioGems: Take Action: Save Yellowstone/Greater Rockies”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: Demand an explanation from Anthem Blue Cross”, “Stop Corporate-Sponsored Wolf Slaughters - The Petition Site”, and “Support Malaria Vaccination Research - The Petition Site”.

Topic 1:  More current anti-Semitism:  “Countering Canadian Campus Media Bias Against Israel (February 12, 2010)”, which highlights reporters getting facts wrong and holding by moral double standards.

Topic 2:  “Anne Hathaway Wished To Be A Nun” and “Anne Hathaway leaves Catholic Church over gays”.  Anne Hathaway and family left the Roman Catholic Church because her brother is a homosexual and the Church does not approve of homosexuality.  Ms. Hathaway and family joined the Episcopalian Church (AKA the Anglican Church), of which the more Protestant branch has favorable views of homosexuality, though she has currently left that church as well.  Now, what bugs your humble blogger about this case is that Ms. Hathaway and family seem to have left the Roman Catholic Church because the Church has a view they do not approve of.  If so, they have converted for the wrong reason.  The question one should be asking when judging if a religion is correct should never be whether the religion agrees with one’s moral opinions.  Morality is purely a matter of opinion, and one cannot expect that a god or karma—the ultimate enforcers of morality, if such exist—will necessarily be in agreement.  The question one should always ask is whether a religion is true.  Yes, one may still reach the wrong answer, but one at least is put in a better position if one does so.  If one reaches the wrong answer on what religion is true, one can at least beg for mercy to whatever god of reward and punishment that does exist that one has made a good faith effort to find the truth and act according to it; as we have imperfect information and limited abilities in processing it, that god in all fairness has to take into account in judging us the fact that many of us will inevitably not reach the right answer.  But if one follows one’s own tastes and makes no effort to find what is actually true, then if one reaches the wrong answer, one cannot plead to the god of judgement that one has at least made a decent effort to find the truth; as such, one cannot expect that god to be pleased or merciful.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “I miss the smell of sulfer”:

(Come to think of it, where does this whole business of sulfur in Hell come from anyway?)

Peace and happy new month.

Aaron

Have we really learned anything from the Holocaust?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath BeShallaḥ).

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

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

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

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

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

Peace.

Aaron

Never blindly trust a translation II

Greetings.

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Hint:  Matthew 4:18 and Mark 1:17.)

Peace.

Aaron

Never blindly trust a translation

Greetings.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For (or by) Dawidh:

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

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

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

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


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

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

Peace.

Aaron

Is your government secretly plotting to prevent the coming of the Mahdi?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  22 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyeshev).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Friends of the Earth U.S.:  Breaking from Copenhagen: U.S. colludes in plot to shunt poor country demands”, “AARP - Health Action Now!:  Tell the Senate- Close the Doughnut Hole!”, “Enact Health Care Reform Based on These 7 Guiding Principles - The Petition Site”,  and “Tell the Senate Democratic Caucus: Don't give up on the public option,”

Topic 1: “Ahmadinejad Reportedly Claims U.S. is Blocking Return of Mankind's Savior”:  I cannot make something like this up.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims that the United States is working to prevent the coming of the Mahdi and that he has documented proof.  What the proof is and how the United States is supposed to preventing the coming of the Mahdi is not stated.  This probable paranoia presumes that the US government believes that Islam is true but, rather than embracing it, choses to do something which risks the severe displeasure of Allah instead.  This requires at least a few hundred people conspiring to do something which would probably land them in the Islamic version of Hell.  Major rule:  if you are going to tell a lie, at least tell one which is credible.  No one respects a bad liar.

Topic 2: “Exposing Excellence: Global National Profiles Israeli Victim of Terror”:  More anti-Semitism in the press, including trying to pass off anti-Semitism as legitimate criticism of Israel.

Topic 3:  Today’s daily dose of religious humor:  “Dear”.

Ceiling Cat is the LOLcat equivalent of God, just as Basement Cat is the LOLcat equivalent of Satan.  This cat is praying a variant on the Lord’s Prayer.  Come to think of it, the Lord’s Prayer is ascribed to Jesus.  Now I am wondering about a LOLcat version of Jesus...

Peace.

Aaron

V is for “vacancies”

Greetings.

Jewish date:  24 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Ḥayye-Sarah).

Today’s holiday:  Saint Day of Martin of Tours (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “ColorOfChange.org:  Murdoch: Make a choice”.

Topic 1:  “CBC Promotes False Barrier Analogy”.  The PR jihad against Israel goes on, and this article talks about why it makes no sense to compare Israel’s anti-terrorism barrier to the Berlin Wall.  Also in jihad-related sloppy thinking, the Dry Bones cartoon “Face It” deals with the reluctance of many to acknowledge that the Fort Hood shootings were an Islamic terrorist attack, despite the evidence that it is.

Topic 2:  Given some criticism I received on my review of the pilot episode of the new V last week, I think I need to clarify my position on the series.  The plot and characters are not necessarily bad.  For all we know, the writers may have even avoided two major blunders of the original V:  the Vs eat humans, in which case their operation is much more complex than they really need it to be to accomplish this, and there is a human-V mating which produces live offspring, which in real life is almost certainly impossible.  The real problem is that there are huge gaps in the story, the “vacancies” of this post’s title.  While we have some idea what some of the main characters are thinking, we have practically no idea why most of the people in this series believe and act the way they do.  Much of the time, it is not even clear what the Vs are doing other than secretly plotting against humanity.  Without much of a background, it is very hard to appreciate the show as a whole.  If the new V survives past the four episodes planned to be shown this year, I hope they will make an episode dedicated not to moving the plot along but telling us what humans in general are thinking and what the Vs are doing on Earth which makes humans love or hate them; this could be done plausibly in the form of a documentary hosted by reporter character Chad Decker, who already has reported on the Vs.

The latest episode, “There Is No Normal Anymore”, does not introduce any new theological ideas.  It does, however, deal with the moral issue of trust.  FBI agent Erica Evans and Father Jack Landry, who were present in the last episode at a resistance meeting which was infiltrated and attacked by the Vs, are naturally unsure whom they can trust.  There is evidence that Vs have been on Earth for decades, disguised as humans, and knowing who is really human and who is a V without more physical examination than most people would casually submit to is impossible.  This leads to questions of when to hide information or lie.  What they ultimately decide they must keep doing, despite the unanswered trust and deception questions, is to get to the bottom of what the Vs are really up to.

Image via Wikipedia

Topic 3:  Chapters 20-23 of The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) by Philip Pullman.  Chapter 20 deals with Mary Malone, still in the world of the melufa, turning her crude optical device to see Dust into a more proper spyglass and ascending to the tops of the wheel seedpod trees to see why they are slowly dying.  Apparently currents of Dust in the sky have changed and are no longer raining much Dust down on the wheel seedpod tree flowers to fertilize them.  Don’t ask me to explain the physics of this; it makes no sense to me.


Meanwhile, Lyra, Will, and two elf-like beings known as Gallivespians, following Lyra’s death, reach the shore of a river, where they meet the boatman who takes people to the land of the dead proper.  They all go, but in the process, they have to leave their dæmons behind.  This is a huge blunder on Pullman’s part.  The dæmon is supposed to be the soul, and if that is not what goes to the land of the dead, what does?  Furthermore, Lyra and company really do not act differently when they go on to the land of the dead; they just feel horrible.  In any case, the land of the dead itself is as dark and dreary as the waiting area, only it is fenced in and guarded by harpies, who do little more than be insulting.  (Notice the ancient Greek religion theme going on here.)  With the help of Will’s knife, Lyra and company get past the front gate, only to find more of the dark bleakness, inhabited by the physically insubstantial dead, who do little more than sit around quietly and get insulted by the harpies, who know all the bad things everyone has done in life.  Despite promises that the Authority will reward and punish the dead, there is only punishment by the harpies in this domain.  It is so bad that Lyra and Will plot to let the dead out into another world—and even though the result will be oblivion for the escapees, most of the dead prefer it to remaining in the land of the dead.  None of this sounds particularly like the Christian afterlife, so chalk up another demerit to Pullman.


Peace.

Aaron