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

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

Some people have strange ideas of what Christmas is about

Greetings.

Jewish date:  8 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wayyiggash).

Today’s holidays:  Christmas (Western Christianity), Feast of the Greater Mysteries (Thelema).

Topic 1:  “Not again! Giant Swedish Christmas goat statue gets torched”:  I do not really understand this.  There are a lot of practices associated with Christmas, but, of all things, destroying a huge straw statue of a goat?  Is this supposed to be in memory of the Grinch or Scrooge or something?

Topic 2: “From Santa to Sanballat”:  This is an article on Christmas in Israel.  Highlighted are stunts performed by Christian Arabs which miss the whole “peace on Earth, goodwill towards men” aspect and use the holiday as an excuse for anti-Semitism, the latest being a newly released document from Christian Arab clerics called “Kairos Palestine 2009”, which unfairly blames the Israelis for everything bad the so-called “Palestinians” experience.  Emphasized is that a message of universality and love does not support an “us versus them” mentality.

Topic 3:  I have a huge back-store of Christmas-related humor, so you are getting it all now.

“How My Cat Reacts to…”:

“As the humans unexpectedly entered,”:

“imposter ornamint”:

“Santa remeberd”:

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself.”:

“INVISIBLE PREZINT”:

“deer… santa… i… haz…”:

“i preetee shur santa not gonna”:

“He sees you when you’re sleeping.”:

“Yu sed camra wuz”:

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Swedish Meatballs and Mecca Cat

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyeshev).

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

Worthy cause of the day:  “Support a Smarter Energy Grid - The Petition Site”.  I would also like to note that I donated platelets yesterday.  The American Red Cross always can use blood and blood components, so please donate if you can.  Remember:  donating blood is an easy way to save human lives without having to risk getting shot or run into a burning building.  Be a hero and give blood.

Topic 1:  The Jewish holiday of Ḥanukkah starts this Friday night, and the Orthodox Union has a long list of resources on it.

Topic 2:  “Swedish Meatballs”:  This Dry Bones cartoon deals with appeasing Islamic terrorists.  This is a bad idea because appeasement only encourages further extortion.  E.g., “protection” rackets only work because people are willing to pay “protection” money.  This situation is worse since Sweden is trying to appease Muslims with Israeli territory, i.e., something that does belong to them.

Topic 3:  More religious humor:  “Mecca Cat”:

Note that the cat is bowing down on a mat, forehead to the floor.

Peace.

Aaron

Hate crimes, anti-Semitic libel, and demonic possession

Greetings.

Jewish date:  17 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyishlaḥ).

Today’s holiday:  Saint Day of John Damascene (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Petition For Jewish Rights In Jerusalem And Judea & Samaria” and “MoveOn.org Political Action: Senator Reid: We're Counting on You”.

Topic 1:  “EXCLUSIVE Analysis: Sorry, Islamophobia Pimps – 67% of US Hate Crimes Against Jews”.  This is genuinely surprising, since anti-Semitic hate crimes in the US do not get a lot of press, but this is FBI data being discussed here.  Considering there are a few million Jews in the US, the chances that any Jew being the victim of a hate crime in any given year is going to be on the order of 0.1% (back-of-the-envelope calculation), which would explain why it is easy to forget about the problem:  most Jews in the US are never going to suffer from it.  On the very bright side, religion-based hate crimes in the US are sufficiently rare (measured in per million), that few of any of us, even groups which complain about bias, ever become victims.  This is a nation which early on decided that religious tolerance was a value, and while there are always jerks out there unwilling to tolerate someone who believes differently, the vast majority of us are successful.

Topic 2:  “Stop the Spread of the Swedish Blood Libel”.  I cannot make up the atrocious quality of reporting documented in this article.  The repeated use of falsehoods frequently presented as truth (“factoids”) is a form of argument from repetition and is fallacious.

Topic 3:  Just to end on a lighter topic, some religious humor:  “MOM!! Call the priest!”:



I have no idea where this business of anyone being possessed levitating comes from, and any information on the topic would be appreciated.  I do know that demonic possession, on the other hand, is mentioned a lot in the Gospels, where the possessed manifest mental illness.

Shabbath shalom.

Aaron