Louis Farrakhan is no scholar

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Pineḥas).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Phil Spector (Church of the SubGenius).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Stop Antibiotic Abuse on Factory Farms”.

Topic 1:  The daily dose of anti-Semitism gets weirder.  “Louis Farrakhan calls Jews the “worst enemy” of African Americans” and “Farrakhan charges Jews with 'anti-black' behavior” report that Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, infamous for a long history of inflammatory anti-Semitic rhetoric, recently sent a letter to many major American Jewish groups, assailing Jews for alleged anti-black behavior above and beyond anything else anyone else has done, with tones of a conspiracy “theory”.  Bizarrely, the letter also asks for opening dialog.  (The rhetorical faux pas should be obvious even to people who are not particularly bright.)  The response of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is described in “ADL Slams Farrakhan For Blaming Jews For Financial Ruin Of Blacks”.  The most worthwhile thing your humble blogger managed to dig up in looking into this story is the ADL’s “Jew-Hatred as History”, which analyzes what Farrakhan tries to pass off as scholarship; he is apparently fond of overgeneralization, quoting out of context, blaming groups for the sins of individuals, historical revisionism, racism, blaming children for their parents’ crimes, and stereotyping.  This is definitely worth reading to learn how not to do scholarship.

More on anti-Semitism:  “Tom Friedman Slanders Israel” (dealing with double standards) and “Camp David ( 2000 )”.

Topic 2:  More religious persecution:  “48 Va. inmates isolated because of hair” (Rastafarians are supposed to wear long hair) and “After Failed Attempt of Forced Islamization Egyptian Christian Family Under Siege” (and this is happening in a country which is supposed to be an ally of the United States and receiving US aid).

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “MANTISYAHU”:


Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Bizarre conspiracies and psychologically unrealistic behavior in the Gospels

Greetings.

Jewish date:  2 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Bo’).

Today’s holidays:  Second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast of St. Anthony the Great (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Joshmas (Discordianism).

Topic 1:  More religious oppression:  “Two Christians Critically Wounded at Wedding in Pakistan”, “UZBEKISTAN: Illegal Christmas as unregistered religious activity punished”, “Dutch lawmaker fails to avoid hate speech charges” (freedom of speech includes being able to say things others find offensive), and “Copts protest Christmas killings at Cairo cathedral” (they are sick of being treated as second-class citizens).  Meanwhile, Vietnamese Catholics have taken to protesting in a novel way:  “Dong Chiem is becoming a "Mount of Crosses"”

Topic 2:  The more you read something carefully, the more the details stand out.  One of the most controversial questions in the Gospels is who is responsible for the death of Jesus.  The Gospels agree that the Romans did the actual killing, but they shy away from blaming them for it.  If you look in chapters 26-27 of Matthew and chapters 14-15 of Mark, it is the “chief priests” (Sadducees) and “Elders” (= the Sanhedhrin, consisting of Pharisees) who push Pilate to execute Jesus and convince a (presumably Jewish) crowd to cry for the release of the murderous rebel Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus.  This is an unnatural conspiracy.  Under the Roman occupation, the High Priest was a priest (kohen) who got the position by bribing the Romans.  The “chief priests” therefore had every reason to not act against the Romans by pushing for the release of the last person the Romans would have wanted free, Barabbas; if they were ever found out, they would be replaced—if they were very, very lucky.  Furthermore, because the High Priest was corrupt at the time, he and the Sanhedhrin were not on good terms.  They had no reason to cooperate.  Also unnatural is the crowd being so quickly convinced to call for the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus.  Jesus previously is reported as being fawned over by crowds, yet in Matthew 27:25 they take responsibility for the death of Jesus not only on themselves, but for their children as well!  Does any of this seem psychologically credible?  Does any of this not smack of anti-Semitic historical revisionism?

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Apparently, Basement cat felt that 4”:

Hint for the uninitiated:  Revelation 6.

Peace.

Aaron

Non-believers, religious persecution, and a mindbogglingly immoral law

Greetings.

Jewish date:  29 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Toledhoth).

Today’s holiday:  Saint Day of Margaret of Scotland (Roman Catholicism).

Topic 1:  “Non Believers”:  This Dry Bones cartoon deals with how wishful thinking about Islamists never, ever works.  Come to think of it wishful thinking never, ever works, and physical reality never conforms itself to what we want it to be.  Human beings are also pretty stubborn in that way, too.  Sometimes even people recognize the truth they may want to cover it up anyway, e.g., “Memorial to Conn. 9/11 victim halted as town refuses to make reference to 'Muslim terrorists'”.

Topic 2:  More religious persecution:  “Egypt's Copts facing persecution”, “BELARUS: "We have Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims – all the others are sects"”, “”KYRGYZSTAN: Why is new Religious Education Law being hurried?”, “KAZAKHSTAN: "They can meet and pray to God, but the Law says they have to register"”.  Governments trying to dictate or censor the truth does not work either.

Topic 3:  “Phoenix Methodist church loses appeal; can no longer offer meals to the needy”:  I cannot make something like this up.  It makes no sense to me.  A church was feeding the homeless, and for some reason this is considered illegal in a residential zone.  This is a disgraceful violation of freedom of religion—yes, helping the needy is a religious duty—and senselessly antisocial.  May the legislators of Arizona change the law soon, and may everyone break it if they do not.

Peace.

Aaron

The Goldstone Report, appeal to force, and The Golden Compass

Greetings.

Jewish date:  1 Marḥeshwan 5770 (Parashath Noaḥ).

Today’s holidays:  Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), Bhai Duj (Diwali, Day 5; Hinduism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Enforce Lower CO2 Emissions to Stop Ocean Acidification”.

Topic 1:  “Exposed: Goldstone & the UN Farce”.  This article on the continuing scandal of the Goldstone Report.  Even Goldstone himself admits that the quality of information in the report leaves much to be desired, e.g., uncritical acceptance of the claims of terrorists, and this information would not be accepted in court.  As such acting upon the Goldstone Report is not justified.

Topic 2:  “Forced Islamization of Christian Conscripts in the Egyptian Army”.  Major rule:  One cannot force people to believe anything, no matter how much one threatens them (appeal to force).  Beating up and killing those who refuse to believe does nothing to prove one’s beliefs are correct.  Lying about what happened afterwards does not help either.

Topic 3:  I have completed chapter 11 of The Golden Compass (Book 1 of His Dark Materials).  Seriously emphasized is this trilogy’s depiction of souls.  I have mentioned before that every human in this world is accompanied by a “dæmon” in animal form, which is some sort of manifestation of the human’s soul.  The form of the dæmon reflects the nature of the human.  Children’s dæmons regularly change shape at will.  Adults, who are more set in their ways, have dæmons limited to a single form.  Usually dæmons are of the sex opposite that of their humans.  (Intuition suggests this may be a veiled reference to sexual preference.)  Dæmons can never get more than a few yards away from their humans, though there is an exception to this rule:  the dæmons of witches can get arbitrarily far away from them.  This may reflect the mystical/occult notion of astral projection, in which the soul is said to separate from the body.  Another species is also depicted as having souls:  polar bears.  For these the soul manifests as thick metallic armor.  Why Philp Pullman chose to have humans and polar bears have physically manifested souls, I have no idea; I am not aware of any religion which holds by such dramatic conceptions of the soul.  Increasingly this book seems less and less to be discussing any real religion and more and more diving into fantastic conceptions.

Peace, and have a happy new month.

Aaron