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

The UN only values human life when politically convenient

Greetings.

Jewish date:  29 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Devarim).

Today’s holidays:  The Three Weeks (Judaism), Lailat al Miraj (Islam), Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), St. Ponco Villa (Church of the SubGenius).

Note:  I am not discussing a Gospel-based film today, because I have not yet gotten around to watching The Miracle Maker yet.

Topic 1:  Today’s anti-Semitism update:  “The UN Bias Against Israel and Human Life” is two graphs which shows how much emphasis the United Nations puts on human life with respect to where human lives are lost.  Not only has the UN been outstandingly disproportionately critical of Israel (46,000 dead, almost all due to self-defense, 223 resolutions against; next to lowest death toll listed is Rwanda with 800,000 dead, next to highest most criticized is Yugoslavia with 58 resolutions against), but these graphs make a mockery of the idea that atheism is inherently more moral than more conventional religions.  Four of the countries listed—China, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, North Korea, and Yugoslavia—are all communist countries.  The Soviet Union is responsible for over 5 million deaths, and China for 31.5 million deaths.

Also:  The video “When we die as martyrs - Palestinian Children” gives some idea of why real peace between Israel and its enemies is currently impossible:

Yes, this is a children’s video promoting jihad and historical revisionism—behavior and ideology in blatant contradiction to peace and conciliation.  And if “Without Palestine, what meaning is there to childhood?!”, then childhood has been meaningless to Arabs for a long time.  There never has been a country of Palestine.  Before the State of Israel, the territory was controlled by the British, and before that the Ottoman Empire.  And yet there was no push for a “Palestinian” state until 1967, when “Palestine” became an excuse to wage jihad against Jews.  Also note “Trust the Palestinian Authority?”; the Palestinian Authority is saying one thing in English and another in Arabic again.

Topic 2:  More religious oppression:  “Muslim Mob Kills Wife, Children of Christian in Pakistan”, “Sealed Church in Bogor, Indonesia Appeals to UN”, “Punjab soup kitchen forbidden to Christians”.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “If yu seez dis, iz too”:


Peace.

Aaron

Beware of comedians mercilessly lampooning anti-Semites

Image via Wikipedia; remove Dome of the Rock and insert Temple here

Greetings.

Jewish date:  Jewish date:  18 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Pineḥas).

Today’s holidays:  The Three Weeks (Judaism), First Martyrs of the Church of Rome (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. “Papa Doc” Duvalier (Church of the SubGenius).


NOTE:  There was no blogging yesterday due to the Fast of Tammuz, which begins the Three Weeks, a period of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples and other tragedies in Jewish history.

Worthy causes of the day:  “Save dairy farms from big agribusiness”, “Alliance for Justice:  Tell Congress: Repair the Damage Caused by the Corporate Court”, and “Make Sale of Crush Videos Illegal Again!”.

Topic 1:  Today’s daily dose of anti-Semitism updates.  To start off, I will let the comedians at La’ṭmah lampoon current anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism in “The Three Terrors from Iran, Syria and Turkey -full Tribal Update” and “The Muslim War Council”:


Let’s face it:  comedians can say true things with impunity that many other people would hesitate say at all.  The Dry Bones cartoon “Immigrants (1990)” correctly notes the different attitudes of Israel on Jewish immigrants and Islamic countries on “Palestinian” immigrants; the former I, as a future immigrant to Israel, am grateful for, while the latter is beneath contempt and a complete betrayal of the notion that all Muslims are supposed to brothers and sisters.  “Bret Stephens on Shalom TV: Will Israel Survive?” presents a “liberal case” for Israel:

Mr. Stephens correctly notes that the values of Israeli society and government are in close agreement with liberal values, while the values are Islamic countries are contradictory to liberal values; it therefore makes no sense for liberals to back Islamic states.  “Telegraph Caught Recycling Gaza War Photo to Distort Today's Reality” documents using an old photograph as if it were applicable to the current situation, a form of quoting out of context.  Rav Shmuely Boteach presents “Response to Congressman Rothman Calling Pres. Obama the Best Friend Israeli Security has Ever Had” and “The World’s Oldest Hatred”, noting correctly that Obama is no friend of Israel (actually, to be fair, every US president since at least Jimmy Carter, has tried to get Israel to do stupid things in the name of “peace”) and that Israel-bashers tend to be insensitive to things wrong with other countries, such as Israel’s enemies.

On a brighter note:  “Dutch may use 'decoy Jews' to fight racism” discusses a new tactic in fighting anti-Semitic attacks in Holland.  Apparently not everything is looking hopeless.

Also:  Someone please prod me to get back to writing about Jesus for a change and not to concentrate too much on the Arab-Israeli War.  We are most likely going to be dealing with the Arab-Israeli War so long as our planet uses petroleum as fuel, and there is no way one man can comment on everything on this one topic.  Not to mention that there is material in Sanhedhrin 43a that presents a radically un-Christian picture of one “Yeshu hanNoṣri”, and there is some particularly un-Jewish and anti-Semitic material in the Gospel According to John which really needs to be discussed.

Topic 2:  More Islamic misbehavior:  “Pakistan's Karachi wracked by spate of killings” (as if killing those one disagreed with made one right), “Pakistan to monitor Google and Yahoo for 'blasphemy'” (as if censorship worked), “Ad aims to propagate true Islam” (as if positive advertising made up for news reporting all the horrible things done in the name of Islam, especially when they contradict the ads), “Ill. police revoke 1st Muslim chaplain's post” (the guy was linked to terrorists, absolutely the wrong sort of person to be in public service).

Related commentary:  “Jihad Denial Syndrome”.  Wishful thinking will never make Islam a religion of peace.  Only Muslims can actually make that happen.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “Adam and Apple”.  I am not quite sure what, if anything, this cartoon is meant to mean.

Peace.

Aaron

Biased cropping and Helen Thomas’s bigotry

Greetings.

Jewish date:  26 Siwan 5770 (Parashath Qoraḥ).

Today’s holidays:  Tuesday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Iggy Pop (Church of the SubGenius).

Topic 1:  More on recent anti-Semitism, dealing with the Mavi Marmara incident:  “Special Analysis: Fauxtography - Reuters Caught Again” deals with the photographic equivalent of quoting out of context:  biased cropping.  “"Go Back to Auschwitz": A Message From the Flotilla” deals with the flotilla’s blatantly anti-Semitic communications to the Israeli Navy and that there were known terrorists on board. Reporter Helen Thomas’s historically ignorant comments that Jews should leave Israel, which resulted in her extremely quick and extremely just firing, are discussed in “Helen Thomas: Israelis "Go Back to Poland"” and “Helen Thomas and Open Season on Israel”.  The latter notes the contemporary context of Jewish anti-Semitism and Jewish tolerance of anti-Semitism.

Topic 2:  Just some reminders that religious persecution is not limited to a single part or even a few parts of this planet:  “RUSSIA: Dagestan's controls on Islamic education” and “Religious leaders launch tirade against Ahmedis”.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “shun!!1! shun the non believer!”:

This is actually a Charlie the Unicorn reference, but the sentiment does occur in real religious behavior.

Peace.

Aaron

Is shaving blasphemy?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  25 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Shemini).

Today’s holidays:  Day 10 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Friday in the Octave of Easter (Roman Catholicism), St. Tommy Geogiarides (Church of the Subgenius), Feast Day of Francis Bacon Lord Verulam and Feast Day of Rabelais and Feast for the Three Days of the Writing of the Book of the Law (Thelema).

Topic 1:  “Georgian convicts swap cells for monastery”:  This is an interesting approach to rehabilitating criminals.

Topic 2:  “Islamic groups block shaving contest”:  Gillette Pakistan decided to create a new world record of the most people shaving at the same time.  I see no problem with Islamic groups protesting the contest, claiming that shaving is against Islam.  After all, freedom of speech includes expressing offense, no matter how innocuous others think something is.  However death threats are beyond the limits of civil society and legitimate discourse; threatening to kill one’s opponents does not make one’s claims any more correct.  Very strange is referring to the contest as “blasphemous”, as if it were all about defaming Islam.  (People interested in defaming Islam usually are much more explicit.)

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Ceiling Cat please hides me!!”:



Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Why is China opposed to “defamation of religion”?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast of Mansur al-Hallaj (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Repower America | We got next”, “Take Action: Send Congress Your State's Invoice for Foodborne Illness.”, and “MoveOn.org Political Action: Republican Leaders: Condemn the hate”.

New cool software:  Ancient Semitic Scripts, which is a collection of fonts for Hebrew and Aramaic based on historic texts.  Mac OS X users can put the font files (things ending with “.ttf”) into the Fonts folder of the Library folder (personal or system).

Topic 1:  More anti-Semitism:  “Not the White Response” and “Muslim-Jewish tensions roil a Swedish city”.  The first article deals someone saying something outrageous and then trying to rationalize it, thus metaphorically only stuffing his foot further into his mouth.  The second deals with anti-Semitic hate crimes in Malmo, Sweden, much of them connected with Islam.

Other religious persecution:  “Pakistani Christian couple refuses to convert: husband is burnt alive, wife raped by police”, “Christians Face 1,000 Attacks in 500 Days in Karnataka, India”, “Kidnapping reflects fears of Pakistan minorities”, “Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws”, “Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Church Leader, Torch Home”, “RUSSIA: Lutheran extremists?”, and “RUSSIA: Who initiated anti-Jehovah's Witness and anti-Nursi campaigns?”.

Image of state religions which really ought to include atheism via Wikipedia

Topic 2:  “UN rights council slams 'defamation of religion'”.  This article has me puzzled.  Islamic countries are infamous for promoting prohibiting “defamation of religion”, the intent being to protect Islam from criticism or condemnation, whether it be fair or not.  However, China, of all countries, supported the resolution.  China, you will recall, is an officially atheist country.  The only way I see around the discrepancy is that China wants atheism protected from defamation as a religion, though this may be pushing it.

For the record:  I am opposed to this resolution because it seeks to squelch legitimate debate.  If one cannot make decent replies to criticism but has to squelch it, then one should be questioning whether one is right in the first place.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, based on the next major Jewish holiday, Pesaḥ (Passover):  “Tough Love” and “All Together”.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

The writers of Caprica have the subtlety of hitting someone in the head with a sledgehammer

Greetings.

Jewish date:  23 Shevaṭ 5770 (Parashath Mishpaṭim).

Today’s holiday:  Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Time to shame Sen. Shelby”.

Topic 1:  Episode 2 of Caprica: “Rebirth”.  The series finally moves beyond the pilot.  This episode deals largely with (1) Zoe Graystone II trying to hide from everyone except Lacy Rand that she is not an ordinary, insentient Cylon, and (2) many of the other major characters, unsurprisingly, still having severely disturbed behavior and emotions.  Most of what else happens is not especially religious in nature.  However, we do get a peak into the lives of the Soldiers of the One.  Lacy visits Sister Clarice Willow at home to discover that the latter is in a polygamous marriage—and I mean polygamous, not polygynous; there are multiple wives and husbands.  There is also the strong implication that Sister Clarice has had sex with students for (allegedly) therapeutic purposes.  I will take this as a sign that the writers are trying to make the Soldiers of the One unsympathetic.

Topic 2:  More religious intolerance (and, no, this recurring topic is not going away anytime soon):  “Constitutional Court Taking Up Indonesia's Thorny Religious Row”, “Pakistan double bombing kills Shia Muslims”, “Anti-Semitic attacks against Jews 'rise in the UK'”, “Attacks on Christians in India’s Karnataka Frequent, Furious”, and “Arrested Evangelists in Tanzania Say Muslims Colluded with Police”.  Meanwhile, Ṣippi Livni, Israel’s opposition leader, is planning to visit the UK in a direct challenge to laws there allowing for the arrest under universal jurisdiction of anyone who has allegedly committed war crimes.  There has been a threat of abuse of such laws by anti-Semites against Israelis.  I have to admire her attitude.  There is some effort at changing the law in the UK, but we yet have to see if anything substantial comes of it.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Well, this is going back”:


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

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