The end of the world, Indonesian intolerance of atheism, and bacon-flavored syrup

Jewish date:  14 ’Iyyar 5772 (Parashath Behar).

Today’s holidays:  Day 29 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Pesaḥ Sheni (Judaism), Fifth Sunday of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Guiness (The Stout) (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Saint George (Arabs in Israel).

Greetings.

I am going too long between posts again.  I am still rereading my LaVeyan Satanism books, finding rather a lot of the attitudes of Ayn Rand in there.  In the meantime, I would like to comment on a few items in the news:

1) “Miami cult who tattoo themselves with 666 say the world will END on June 30”:  I have no idea what self-proclaimed Antichrist Jose de Luis de Jesus of Growing in Grace International is thinking.  Please note that predictions of the end of the world so far have been all wrong, and I have no a priori reason to believe that De Jesus’s prediction is any different.  But I have marked the date in iCal, and if the world does end, I will be downright shocked and the first to admit he was actually right (if I still exist in some form at that point).

2) “Atheist in Indonesia Facing 11 Years in Prison for Saying 'God Doesn't Exist'”:  Indonesia has the reputation of being a fairly tolerant predominantly Muslim country.  Yet Alex Aan, an atheist who posted on Facebook his belief that God does not exist, was beaten up by an unruly mob and sentenced to 11 years in prison for his beliefs.  There is a very obvious question of why the government of Indonesia recognizes only six religions (Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism), suggesting that the government is more interested in maintaining peace between the existing religious groups rather than enforce a general tolerance for all religions.  That an atheist can be so maltreated is definitely not consistent with freedom of religion.

3) “Rabbi Approved: Kosher Bacon Syrup”:  Harold sent me a link to this, and it just struck me as weird. There is no actual bacon in the syrup.  The only thing wrong with it is mar’ith ‘ayin, that it may create the false appearance of consuming bacon.  Then again, the product is clearly labeled as bacon-flavored on the label.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Doubt and Groundhog Day

Jewish date:  26 Shevaṭ 5772 (Parashath Terumah).

Today’s holidays:  Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Senor Wenches (Church of the SubGenius), Narconon Day (Scientology), Chaoflux (Discordianism).

Greetings, everyone.

I am sorry for not posting much lately.  I have plenty to do to keep me busy.  Not to mention it takes a while to get through the collected material I have on LaVeyan Satanism.  (And so far it seems very derivative of Ayn Rand’s moral philosophy, only not using philosophy-specific jargon and crafted to look scary.)

As I have noted previously, I tend to give negative reviews, largely due to reviewing material I know a priori probably contains religious fallacies or misinformation.  I want to take the opportunity, for a change, to note two movies which showed up on Hulu recently which I considered good to some extent.

1) Doubt.  This movie deals with the sexual abuse of a child by a priest in a Catholic school, a subject which generally everyone finds repulsive.  I am no exception to this rule.  What is good about this film is how this distasteful subject is treated.  Never in the film is it ever proven that the alleged abuse actually occurred.  Rather the principal of the school, a nun, learns of circumstantial evidence—and only circumstantial evidence—that points to abuse.  There is therefore a natural dilemma:  acting against the priest may harm an innocent man, and not acting against the priest may harm an innocent boy.  There is no good solution to this problem, only a question of which solution is less bad.  And different characters interpret what happened differently and choose different solutions.  The principal also has to deal with acting against the priest, which violates the protocols of the Catholic hierarchy, being a violation of her vows.  She thus has an additional problem with no good solution, only a question of which is less bad:  being obedient and possibly abetting child abuse, or violating her vows and possibly stopping child abuse.  I am impressed that the movie ends without full resolution, only with the principal having done what she considers the least bad option.  Kudos to the people who made the film.  Knowledge and morality is real life is often not clear cut, and Doubt is a good attempt at reflecting this.

2) Groundhog Day.  This famous movie deals with a weatherman, Phil Connors, living the same day over and over again, specifically February 2, the American quasi-holiday Groundhog Day, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.  Legend has it that if a groundhog sees its shadow on February 2, there will be six more weeks of winter, and in Punxsutawney, they have an official (tongue in cheek) ceremony for this with an official groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil.  Phil Connors thinks this is all stupid, goes to report on the groundhog only for his job, hates the town, and wants to leave as soon as possible.  Only a blizzard prevents this.  And so he ends up living the same bad day over and over again and hating it.  And no one else is aware  this is happening.

There is the obvious question of why Phil is trapped in a time loop, and it is never answered.  There are not even hints at an answer, so we may as well consider the issue a central mystery (or at least that the answer is “Because without it there would not be a movie, stupid!”) and deal instead with the consequences to Phil.

Phil realizes early on that his actions have no consequences.  He can do anything, and when he wakes up the next day (or is it the same day?), it will be as if what he has done has not occurred.  He thus spends a lot of time enjoying himself, doing things like eating things he knows are bad for him, smoking, punching or deliberately creeping out an annoying insurance agent, stealing, and taking advantage of only him remember what happened in previous times through the loop to seduce women.  He eventually tires of this, especially as he fails in seducing his producer, Rita, no matter how much effort he puts into creating the perfect romantic evening, and gets depressed.  He goes on a spree of killing himself, over and over again.  But, of course, this is futile.

One time through the loop, Phil talks with Rita, convincing her that he really has been stuck in a time loop.  He has learned a huge amount about everything which happens on that one day, and he knows about everyone in the town—something which he empirically demonstrates.  Here things get theological:  Phil claims to be a god.  This is not correct, as he does not have any superhuman abilities.  But with the huge amount of knowledge he has gained, he does have a first-order approximation of omniscience (for February 2 in Punxsutawney, at any rate).  Phil’s idea that God is omniscient for the same reason that he is quasi-omniscient is obviously unlikely.  

In any case, Rita is sympathetic to Phil, and he follows up on her idea of taking advantage of his situation to improve himself.  Part of what he does is along the lines of reading more, learning to play the piano, and learning to ice-sculpt.  But he also does something parallel to what he does early on:  he works to make the lives of others better.  Yes, what he does only lasts until the loop repeats, but he keeps tweaking the day every time through the loop so that it gets better and better for the people of Punxsutawney every time.  This includes saving the lives of three people, one of them a homeless senior citizen who got little attention from anyone else.  The fact that the good he does is only temporary is irrelevant; that what he is doing is good becomes important to him.  By the time he reaches the final time through the loop, he has been thoroughly transformed from a grump into someone who loves the people of Punxsutawney and is loved by them, and he impresses Rita, too.  That people can improve themselves morality is a welcome message.

Peace.

’Aharon/Aaron

Absurdity in the name of publicity

Image of a real sukkah via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Tishri 5771.

Today’s holidays:  Sukkah-Building Day (Judaism), Paryushana (Hinduism), Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), March of Reanimated Corpses/Talk Like A Pirate Day (Secular) (Church of the SubGenius).

Note:  Sukkah-Building Day is not an official Jewish holiday.  11 Tishri, however, is traditionally the day one should start building one’s sukkah (a sort of temporary building with vegetation for a roof) so as to be ready in time for Sukkoth, which starts 15 Tishri.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Don't Build the Belo Monte Dam! - The Petition Site” and “Protect the Paradise Forests and the Orangutan - The Petition Site”.

I have a huge backlog of religious news to comment on, and there is no way I can deal with all of it.  This would be true even if I did not have to put up my sukkah today.  What to choose… What to choose…

Topic 1:  Since Sukkoth is the holiday just around the corner, let us start with “A Look at the Finalists in the Sukkah City Design Competition”, described as “Twelve architects compete to redesign the ritual holiday hut—and you get to pick the winner.”  I would hesitate to call any of the top contenders a winner.  The top 12 are depicted on the voting page, and it is not clear that any of them is ritually acceptable.  Many one would never guess were intended to be sukkoth at all.  When making something ritually acceptable is not a basic requirement, one has to wonder what the people behind this competition are thinking.

Topic 2:  “Pregnant nun ice cream advert banned for 'mockery'”, with the offending graphic visible with respectable detail in “'Pregnant nun' ice cream ad banned after Catholic outcry (on eve of Pope's visit)”.  This is getting in due to being the most recent controversy, not the most worthy one.  Let me just quote this article:

An ice cream company banned from using an advert displaying a pregnant nun has vowed to position similar posters in London in time for the Pope's visit.

Antonio Federici's advert showed a pregnant nun eating ice cream in a church, together with the strap line "immaculately conceived".

The Advertising Standards Authority has ordered it to be discontinued, saying it mocked Roman Catholic beliefs.

I am disturbed that the Advertising Standards Authority banned the ads; freedom of speech does include freedom to say things other people do not like.  However, the ad itself strikes me as at best poorly thought out.  The term “immaculate conception” refers to the Catholic doctrine that Mary, mother of Jesus, was born without the taint of original sin.  The term is often misunderstood as referring to the conception of Jesus, purportedly accomplished by the Holy Spirit and not by the usual human method.  The pregnant nun would seem fit better with the incorrect understanding of “immaculate conception” than the correct one.  A nun conceiving in the usual manner would be getting pregnant through sin (as she is required to be abstinent), and the child would have the taint of original sin.  But a nun conceiving through the Holy Spirit would not commit any sin, and the child might be free of the taint of original sin.  But how does immaculate conception fit in with ice cream?  Ice cream is not conceived at all, nor is the concept of original sin really applicable to it (or anything else inanimate, for that matter).  And if one really wants to force “immaculately conceived” to apply to ice cream, what the meaning of that?  Is this ice cream somehow like Mary or Jesus?  Or is eating this ice cream somehow connected with miraculous pregnancies, perhaps even causing them?  Yes, this is overthinking an ice cream advertisement, but it only qualifies as overthinking since the only thinking which seems to have gone into it is how to cause enough controversy to get a lot of publicity, not thinking about making the content make any sense.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  Since Sukkoth is coming up very soon, “The Laws of the Sukkah according to Dr. Suess”.  For something so silly, it contains a lot of accurate information, not to mention footnotes and references.

Peace.

Aaron

Pros and cons of organized religion

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 ’Elul 5770 (Parashath Shofeṭim).

Note:  For information on ’Elul, see the Orthodox Union’s ’Elul page.

Today’s holidays:  Ramadan (Islam), Thursday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Francisco Franco (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of William Blake/Feast for the First Night of the Prophet and His Bride/Feast of Heracles (Thelema), Sea Org Day (Scientology), Zaraday (Discordianism)

Worthy cause of the day:  “ColorOfChange.org:  FCC: Say NO to Google and Verizon / Demand the FCC do its job and protect the open Internet”.

Topic 1:  Yesterday on the news they reported that author Anne Rice has “quit being a Christian”.  I’m going to let her speak for herself before commenting on this:



To be technically correct, Rice has not quit being a Christian or religious, but rather has separated herself from all organized Christian groups.  Organized religion has the great advantage that it allows people to pull together and more easily do worthwhile things that they could not do easily or at all on their own.  E.g., it is much easier for a house of worship to start and manage a soup kitchen than an individual, as the house of worship can pool resources and spread effort among many people, while an individual would probably not be able to manage alone except maybe on a very small scale.  Organized religion, like any form of human organization, has a downside:  politics.  There is a lot of quarreling and bickering which goes on, both within groups and between groups.  Religions also tend to place a premium on beliefs and practices, so a lot of the politics may deal with beliefs and practices.  I am fortunate that I am currently a member of a group, the West Ashley Minyan, in which the politics have been kept under control (thank YHWH; we are what I have termed a “volunteerocracy”).  Unfortunately, in some groups the politics get to the point where members feel the problems of that organization outweigh the benefits.  Often this results in a schism if enough people feel the same way, allowing for maintaining organization but with a rejection of the old politics.  If there are not enough people, the result can be exactly what Rice is doing:  leaving organization behind completely and going alone.  This is a drastic measure, but organization is (usually) supposed to be a means to an end, not an end in itself; thus if the means is counterproductive, another means has to be employed.  I hope for her sake that she finds going it alone a sufficiently productive means towards the search for truth, and if not, that she find or form a group in which she can feel comfortable enough to enjoy the benefits of organization.

Topic 2:  For today’s religious humor (submitted by Barry): “Prop 8 Overturned! Here's Some Anti-Gay Protesters Getting Owned (PHOTOS)”.  Next to no one likes the Westboro Baptist Church, as they seem to do nothing other than protest with hate-filled signs.  The photographs are of one of their recent protests, in which counter-protestors managed to get the last laugh.

Peace.

Aaron

The Other Bible is not another bible

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Wa’ethḥannan).

Today’s holidays:  Feast Day of Bridget (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Groucho Marx (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Help Save Africa's Lions from Extinction - Take Action Today @ The Animal Rescue Site”, “Stand Up for the 4.9 Million Displaced Sudanese - Take Action Today @ The Hunger Site”, “Urge Congress to Help End Violence Against Women - Take Action Today @ The Hunger Site”, “ONE | Ask the Senate to deliver their promise to Haiti”, and “Why is the Obama administration listening to right-wing smear merchants?”.

Topic 1:  The Other Bible, edited by William Barnstone.  I wrote about this book over a year ago when I bought it.  This is what I wrote then:

I would like to speak a bit about one of my latest acquisitions, The Other Bible, edited by Willis Barnstone.  The Other Bible consists of religious texts which are not part of the standard Christian Bible from a variety of sources spread over something on the order of 1,500 years:  Jewish apocrypha, pseudepigrapha, mystical, and sectarian texts (including the Dead Sea Scrolls), Christian apocrypha, Gnostic texts, Mandaean texts, Manichaean texts, and even pagan texts.  The groups whose works were utilized are not a single religion, and these works thus form a rather artificial collection.  Also the Pharisaic/Orthodox Jewish contributions, listed under “Haggadah”, “Kabbalah”, and “The Zohar, the Book of Radiance (Kabbalah)”, were never intended to be taken as scripture.  As such, “The”, “Other”, and “Bible” are all rather inappropriate for reference to this collection.  In the introduction, the editor conceives of these works being part of a Judeo-Christian “greater bible” which we now have easier access to.  While I have to agree with the editor that these works are valuable for investigating the development of religious thought, I find the notion of a “greater bible” rather repugnant.  Religion is not a free-for-all with texts playthings to delight in.  To accept a book as scripture is an explicit endorsement of its content.  This is why the New Testament is not part of what Jews consider “Bible”:  they view it as a separate, detached collection and not a continuation of the Hebrew Bible.  Bundling together works from multiple religions under a single rubric to imply they are really part of a greater whole, a collection not endorsed as scripture by any single religion except maybe Bahá’ís (and that is a maybe) is an even worse mistake than bundling the Hebrew Bible together with the New Testament.

These criticisms are every bit as valid now that I have finished reading this collection.  In fact, things are even worse than I thought.  For one thing, it is not whole documents which are necessarily included, but rather sections which the editor thought were interesting.  In some cases, the documents which the editor would like to include are no longer extant, and he resorts to including descriptions of groups written by their enemies—hardly the sort of documents that would be included in a “bible” of any sort.  The choice of materials is also rather skewed.  Most of the Apocrypha, the specific collection of material absent in the Hebrew Bible but included in the Septuagint, are not included in The Other Bible, even though they are the first material one looks at when going beyond the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.  Josephus and Philo are for the most part also ignored.  Rather the emphasis is overwhelmingly on Gnosticism.  To describe Gnosticism extremely briefly, consider the notion of a theological “conspiracy theory” in which the Creator God is evil, this world is a trap for human souls, and one’s salvation is dependent not on good behavior but rather knowing the secrets of the Good God above the Creator God (gnosis).  While the Christian versions of Gnosticism almost always included Jesus as the agent of the Good God, early Christians railed against as a heresy.  It goes without saying that Gnosticism is diametrically opposed to Judaism (“metaphysical anti-Semitism” was the term Dr. Gershom Scholem used), given its denigration of the God of Israel and by extension His Torah and His people.  While I find that a lot of Christianity makes sense of a sort in the light of Gnosticism—with Christianity ending up as a sort of Gnosticism-lite—no one sane deems anything heretical as “bible”.  The Other Bible is worthwhile looking at for getting an introduction to many of the texts sampled therein.  For other purposes, the reader is advised to look elsewhere.

Topic 2:  More contemporary anti-Semitism:  “AP Goes Soft on Hardcore ISM” deals with misreporting on the International Solidarity Movement, which is dedicated to aiding terrorists by acting as human shields.  “Israelis fight terror through US court system” deals with a nonviolent way to deal with terrorism:  suing for reparations and actually winning.  “The Treatment of Jews in Arab/Islamic Countries” deals with how Jews have been treated through history by Muslims and gives sources.  “Rachel Saperstein: Five years after expulsion from Gush Katif, from Women in Green” deals with how Jews who were expelled from Gaza five years ago are doing, and it is not pretty.  Rav Boteach in “Why have Christian organizations remained silent about Mel this time, but supported him 4 years ago?” deals with the current scandal of known anti-Semite Mel Gibson.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  No Laughing Matter.  This is a site which pokes fun at the inanities of Middle Eastern politics through mock interviews.  Let’s face it:  comedians can say the unvarnished truth about anything when everyone else fears to do so.  These are the videos they have up currently:



From a different group is the highly sarcastic “(MUST SEE VIDEO) The Humanitarian Crisis of the Gaza Mall: The Horror!”:

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

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

No, studying science will not turn you into an atheist

Image suggested by Zemata and used due to lack of a better idea of what picture to use for this post via Wikipedia

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Siwan 5770 (Parashath BeHa‘alothekha).

Today’s holidays:  Monday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Victory over the U.S. Day (Can.) (Church of the Subgenius), Saints Cyril and Methodius Day (Christianity), Feast of Hermes (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “ColorOfChange.org:  Tell Fox: "Fire John Stossel"”, “Blackwater is just the tip of the iceberg”, “Stop the Comcast-NBC Merger | Free Press”, “Stop The Drill | Oceana North America”, “American Insurance Companies: Stop Canceling Women's Policies - Take Action Today @ The Breast Cancer Site”, “Save Gulf Sea Turtles - Take Action Today @ The Rainforest Site”, “action.firedoglake.com | Sign the petition to President Obama: End plans for offshore drilling”, “Take Action: TrueMajority.org:  NO BAILOUT FOR BP”, and “MoveOn.org Political Action: No Bailouts for Big Oil”.

Topic 1:  Today’s anti-Semitism update:  “"Jew Producer" Silenced: Comedy Central Update”.  “No Nukes?” is a cogent argument why Israel should not give up its nuclear weapons.

On the theme of religious intolerance one may also add “Muhammad cartoonist in hiding after arson attack”, “Endless violence against Christian women of Kandhamal”, “Vietnam police charge six villagers over Catholic funeral”, “Beijing warns US over Falun Gong”, “Protestant clergyman arrested in Guangzhou”, “UZBEKISTAN: Large raid and almost immediate trial starts against registered church”, and “Lao Christians Expelled from Village Suffer Critical Illnesses”.  Yes, it is an ugly, intolerant world out there where some people think they can suppress other people’s beliefs out of existence, as if the existence of only one set of beliefs made them true.

Topic 2:  “From Point of Inquiry: Does Studying Science Cause Atheism, or Vice-Versa?”.  The results of someone actually studying the question, rather than just pulling an answer out of thin air, violate common expectations:  people’s basic religious beliefs, whether accepting a religion or atheism, are normally not affected by science education.  Keep in mind that science is only well-suited for dealing with what can be observed.  As such, making good scientific arguments about lies beyond our universe (such as gods) is fraught with serious problems.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor (courtesy of Jason):  Sh'koyach - The New Age Jewish Comic Strip!  And no, this is not a LOLcat image, for a change.  It is a comic strip about a shrimp who moves in with an Orthodox Jew in order to avoid being eaten.

Peace.

Aaron

On a masterpiece of failing to connect the dots

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath Behar-Beḥuqqothay).

Today’s holidays:  Day 25 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Rodney Allen Rippey (Church of the SubGenius), Beltaine (Wicca).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Save BioGems: Take Action: Put an End to Commercial Whaling”.

Topic 1:  “Corrections, Clarifications, and Outright Obfuscations”.  More anti-Semitic, bungled reporting of the news, including blaming Israel for the death of an Arab kid who was really quite alive and well and in Egyptian custody for illegally crossing the border.  (Oops.)  You would think reporters would do a little fact-checking.

Topic 2:  “Religion’s Summer of Discontent”.  Rav Shmuley Boteach discusses current public perception of religion, noting its perceived “uselessness” and “irrelevancy” to many due to scandals and focusing tightly on one or a few issues to the exclusion of other, often more pressing concerns.  His solution is concentrate more on those pressing concerns, such as through his initiative “ Turn Friday Night Into Family Night”.  Definitely notable is his asking Pope Benedict XVI to work with him.

Topic 3:  “Some profit from wives despite French polygamy ban”.  There was no way your humble blogger was going to not mention this article.  Here is a little exercise for the reader.  This article deals with the problem of polygamy—or to be more specific, polygyny, marriage of one man to more than one woman simultaneously—among immigrants in France, which is subject to abuses, both of the women involved and the welfare system.  (This sort of thing should be offensive even to those who see nothing wrong with polygyny itself; plural marriage does not justify lying, cheating, stealing, and treating one’s wives and children badly.)  Now, this article goes into great detail of what is wrong (practically) with polygyny.  It even says a little what countries the abusers are from.  But what religion do they belong to?  Take a few minutes, look over the article, and see what it says.

Have you found the answer?

The answer is:  the article never says.  It starts off mentioning the issue of Muslim immigrants wearing burqas, but the subject of religion is quickly dropped and not addressed at all regarding polygyny.  Which is notable since there are only two major religions in the West which are problem-children when it comes to polygyny.  The first is Mormonism, primarily in its non-mainstream varieties.  Mormonism, while having spread beyond the United States, is barely ever mentioned as having a presence in Europe; your humble blogger has never heard of the pro-polygyny variants as having reached Europe at all.  The other major problem-child religion when it comes to polygyny is Islam.  Unlike mainstream Mormonism, which repudiated polygyny, Islam still allows men to have up to four wives.  The spread of Islam in Europe and the difficulties in integrating Muslims into general European culture are also major worries over there.  The perpetrators of polygyny mentioned in this article are almost certainly Muslims, yet the author of the article completely fails to acknowledge any connection.  Yes, blaming Muslims for problems which are created by Muslims but not members of other religious groups (including agnostics and atheists) might be considered politically incorrect, but failing to recognize something clearly relevant to the problem is not going to do anything to fix it.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor: “Honey, call the exorcist.”׃


Peace.

Aaron

Exactly how is anyone supposed to be able to prove their virginity?

Greetings.

Jewish date:   19 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath Behar-Beḥuqqothay).

Today’s holidays:   Day 34 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Feast Day of Philip and James (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Frank Zappa (Church of the SubGenius), Discoflux (Discordianism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Don't let the climate deniers drown out science”.

Topic 1:  “Who Can Mock the True Catholic Church?”  By now everyone who is not living in isolation from civilization probably has heard of the Catholic sexual abuse scandal, the real scandal being not that individual priests did something horrible, but that their higher-ups knew about it and covered it up rather than stopping it.  At this point, it is very easy to attack the Roman Catholic Church in general and assume it is 100% horrible and evil.  This article correctly notes that despite everything that has gone wrong, there are still priests and nuns out in the trenches (so to speak) out to do actually helping people, e.g., by helping the poor and downtrodden.  The transgressions of some Catholic clergy does not mean the rest are guilty.

WARNING:  THE NEXT TOPIC IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH.

Topic 2:  “The virginity industry”.  (Submitted by Barry.)  Islam forbids premarital sex, which is the usual among Abrahamic religions.  However, unlike Jews and Christians, Muslims will kill women who are discovered to have prematurely lost their virginity.  This has led Muslim women to have their hymens repaired to cover their transgression, compounding one sin with another.  What your humble blogger is puzzled about is how is any man really knows that the woman he is marrying is a virgin or not.  In some cases it may be evident, e.g., he gets a disease only transmitted sexually from her. However, I have heard that the spilling-of-blood-from-the-hymen test is not perfect, and it is not simply that women have sometimes managed to cheat.  Like any other part of the human body, the hymen can be damaged (non-sexually).  Furthermore, I have heard that by the time people usually get married these days (as adults, rather than the Arab practice of child brides), the hymen has already deteriorated, thus making the test in question return even for a genuine virgin a false negative.  Relying on this test would thus seem to be a good way to commit unjustified homicide.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Put ur monee in the bowl 4 Jeeesus!”:

This cat apparently thinks he/she is a televangelist.

Peace.

Aaron

Beware of ignorance and alleged infallibility

Greetings.

Jewish date:  30 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Thazria‘-Meṣora‘).

Today’s holidays:  Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter (Roman Catholicism), St. Adolph Hitler (Church of the SubGenius; I have no clue what they are thinking).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Please Include the Temple Mount in the Heritage Plan - אנא הוסף את הר הבית לרשימת אתרי המורשת Petition”, “Support Universal Subtitles -- Allow Everyone to Watch Online Videos! - The Petition Site”, and “Tell Sen. Kerry: Don't sell out the Clean Air Act”.

Topic 1:  “JewWalking”:  This video is a demonstration of the problem addressed in Religious Literacy by Stephen Prothero (a book I have previously described), that a lot of people in the United States are severely ignorant of religion.  In this instance, someone stood outside a Jewish Community Center and asked Jewish people around basic questions about Judaism—and many got many questions wrong.  This may be humorous, but the humor is a very bitter one.  Being ignorant about a topic makes it difficult or impossible to make correct decisions about it.  In religion, this may include matters of salvation, damnation, afterlife, and reincarnation—no small matters. Even if one comes to the conclusion that no religion can be correct, being ignorant of religion makes for severe trouble in understanding and dealing with religiously knowledgeable and active people, which includes a very sizable fraction of the planet.

Note:  Those wishing to know more about Judaism can always talk to me or ask their local Orthodox rabbi.  Clergy of all religions should be open to sharing what they know.

Topic 2:  “A Fallible Pope, an Imperfect Church”:  Rav Shmuely Boteach reflects on the recent scandals from the Roman Catholic Church and argues that the Church has to come to terms with its imperfection and not try to pretend otherwise.  Major rule:  Reality is what it is, regardless of how we want it to be.  Therefore ignoring one’s faults is a sure way to screw up.

Topic 3:  “That’s Random!  A Look at Viral Self-Assembly”.  This article deals with the often-misunderstood notion of randomness and discusses how it is harnessed biologically, specifically in the assembly of viruses from their basic components.  Videos are included showing this actually works.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor:  “Mecca Cat”:


Peace.

Aaron

The Sphinx versus Alexander the Great (sort of)

Greetings.

Jewish date:  7 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s holidays:  Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of Wolfgang von Goethe (Thelema).

Worthy cause of the day:  “MoveOn.org Political Action: Get It Done”.

Topic 1:  The latest episode of Caprica: “Ghosts in the Machine”.  Much of the religious aspects of this episode is bits and pieces.  Amanda Graystone, in a variation on seeing dead people, sees a destroyed car.  Joseph Adama, seeking the virtual version of his deceased daughter Tamara, visits a virtual nightclub called Mysteries (as in Eleusinian Mysteries and mystery religions in general), and the proprietor tries to force him to solve a riddle (think of the Sphinx).  Unlike Oedipus, Joseph follows Alexander the Great’s approach to undoing the Gordian knot and uses virtual violence to get the information he wants.  More interesting are the moral reasoning of Daniel Graystone and Zoe II in this episode.  The previous episode ended with Daniel suspecting that Zoe II really was still in the Cylon body based on her subtle behavior towards the family dog.  In this episode, he is determined to get her to acknowledge her identity.  Zoe II, however, is bearing a grudge towards her father, who failed to give her informed consent about transferring her into the Cylon body, and is determined to remain hidden.  Daniel thus puts Zoe II in a series of situations where he hopes she will react as herself and not as a robot.  The situations are cruel, e.g., ordering her to shoot the family dog (unbeknownst to her, with blanks), but he considers getting Zoe II to admit who she is to be worth it.  Though Daniel is unsuccessful in this episode, I fully expect his failure to be only temporary.  (He has to be a genius; idiots do not build functional robots.)  At the very least, he should eventually hit upon bugging his own lab to see if Zoe II acts human in his absence.

Topic 2:  Two articles on religion which I am trying to figure out what people mentioned therein were thinking:  “Mexican drug smugglers embrace bandit as patron saint” and “Hialeah man investigated over feeding Giant African Snails to followers”.  In the later, Charles L. Stewart fed giant African snail mucus to his followers in what was supposed to be an Ifé healing ritual, and his followers got sick.

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

They say all dogs go to Heaven.  Apparently the cats come back…

Peace.

Aaron

Defending the indefensible

Greetings.

Jewish date:  23 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Wayyaqhel-Fequdhe).

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

Worthy cause of the day:  “Alliance for Justice:  Call for Investigation of Missing Torture Emails”, “MoveOn.org Political Action: Tell the party establishment to stay out”, and “CARE:  Voices Against Violence”.

Topic 1:  “When Court Jews Defend Moral Cowards”.  This article by Rav Shmuley Boteach has much less to do with court Jews than moral cowards who defend the indefensible.  Particularly taking a beating is Pope Pius XII, who is infamous for his failure to do much of anything against the Nazis and all their moral atrocities during World War II.  Religion is supposed to be about what is true, not what would be politically expedient to believe or what we want to believe.  Do note that all glossing over the Armenian genocide and Pius XII’s indifference is actually doing is making people angry.

Topic 2:  More anti-Semitism:  “What New Settlement?” and “Jerusalem on the Media Frontline”.  Both of these articles deal with dishonesty in reporting, the first with the untenable claim that adding 112 housing units to a preexisting city in Israel constitutes a “new settlement” and the second attacking the assumption that anything the government of Israel does regarding Arabs living in Jerusalem is necessarily not for their benefit.  Meanwhile, Muslims have been rioting on the Temple Mount, including throwing stones at Jews worshipping at the Western Wall, and blaming Jews and Israel for their temper tantrum and Israeli police trying to restore the peace.  This indecent, rationalizing sort of behavior is precedented; after all, Yasser ‘Arafat launched second intifada and made the excuse that ’Ari’el Sharon was somehow to blame for simply taking a stroll around the Temple Mount.

Topic 3:  Other articles which I wish to note but do not have time to discuss:  “Al-Qaida calls on US Muslims to attack America”, “Scientology in the spotlight amid fresh allegations”, and “Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution”.

Topic 4:  For today’s religious humor, courtesy of Barry and Nancy: “The economy is hitting us all pretty hard”:

Probably this was totally unintentional.

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

Orthodox Jewish introspection, religious oppression

Greetings.

Jewish date:  13 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath BeShallaḥ).

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

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

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

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

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


Peace.

Aaron

Blogging for Jesus and religious intolerance

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Beshallaḥ).

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

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

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

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

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


Peace.

Aaron