“Just a theory” does not mean what many people think it does

Greetings.

Jewish date:  1 Tammuz 5770 (Parashath Ḥuqqath).

Today’s holidays:  Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Annie Sprinkle (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of Ludovicus Rex Bavariae (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Tell Boehner: No BP Bailout”, “Take Action: Support ECEA - Hold Big Oil Accountable!”, “A victory for the Clean Air Act... for now.”, “JCRC-NY State Dept Petition:  Urge State Dept to Investigate Flotilla Passengers”, “Make Alzheimer's a National Priority! - The Petition Site”, and “Take Action: Urge your Senators to support the Appalachia Restoration Act | Rainforest Action Network”.

Topic 0:  I have finished Mort (book 4 of the Discworld Series) by Terry Pratchett.  Now I have to get around to writing a review, which is going to be an interesting challenge since I am going to have a busy week…

Topic 1:  Updates on the latest anti-Semitism:  “Yahoo Divides Jerusalem” discusses Yahoo! trying to enforce an artificial distinction between East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem which only exists as part of a jihad tactic.  “Reuters' Double Exposure” discusses propaganda photograph which has little relation to reality.  And then there are two videos:



Your humble blogger also would like to note “Hamas rejects Israel-approved snack foods for Gaza”, which is absurdly petty; these people are very lucky that Israel does not close the border completely and forbid letting anything whatever getting through.

Topic 2:  “Russia Church wants end to Darwin school monopoly”.  The Russian Orthodox Church wants creationism taught in Russian public schools alongside evolution.  Needless to say, this is a bad idea since evolution is correct and creationism is wrong.  Revealing is this rationalization:

"Darwin's theory remains a theory. This means it should be taught to children as one of several theories, but children should know of other theories too."

“Just a theory” is a common misunderstanding often voiced by creationists.  “Theory” colloquially means what “hypothesis” means an explanation, whether or not it has any real support or is particularly coherent.  To scientists, a “theory” is not a mere hypothesis; a “theory” has evidence to back it up, and it is self-consistent.  E.g., the Theory of General Relativity is not a mere hypothesis; it has been backed with multiple lines of evidence and has technological applications, such as GPS.  Likewise the Theory of Evolution, which is also known to be a fact.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor: “good solz go to celing cat”:

Peace and happy new month.

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

Proof by assertion does not work. Proof by assertion does not work. Proof by assertion does not work. Proof by assertion does not work. Proof by assertion does not work. Proof by assertion does not work. Proof by assertion does not work. Proof by assertion does not work. Proof by assertion does not work. Proof by assertion does not work.

Greetings.

Jewish date:  19 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Ki Thissa’).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Second Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of the Magi: Lao-Tzu (Thelema), World Day of Prayer (Christianity).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Take Action: Join Us for the Food Safety Action Day on the Hill!”.

Topic 1:  Pesaḥ (Passover) is coming in less than a month.  You can find out a lot about it at the site of the Orthodox Union, which includes their annual Passover Guide.

Topic 2:  “Darwin Foes Add Warming to Targets” and “Redefining The Creation/Evolution Controversy”.  Both of these articles deal with creationists.  The first deals with creationists also supporting denial of global warming and trying to use legal maneuvers to coerce have both unlikely beliefs taught in public schools.  Major rule:  Truth is not determined by governments.  For example,
Trofim Lysenko convinced Joseph Stalin that Medelian genetics was wrong and hypotheses that acquired characteristics could be inherited.  Lysenkoism therefore became what the USSR deemed truth, and since Lysenkoism is wrong, Soviet genetics was put back by decades.  The second article attacks the notion that the evolution-creationism controversy is an argument between science and religion.  This idea is often assumed to be true because it is said so often (proof by assertion).  The author of this article is the man behind The Clergy Letter Project, a series of letters signed by thousands of clergy affirming the truth of evolution and exposing the proof by assertion as baseless.

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


Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

“Intelligent design” is worse than merely being wrong

Greetings.

Jewish date:  3 ’Adhar 5770 (Parashath Terumah).

Today’s holidays:  Ash Wednesday (day 1 of Lent; Roman Catholicism), Feast of Giordano Bruno the Martyr (Thelema).

Worthy cause of the day:  “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.”

Topic 1:  More anti-Semitism (yes, that issue is not going away anytime soon, unfortunately):  “UN's Double Standard for Arab Refugees” (according to the definition for refugees used anywhere besides Israel, extremely few of the stateless Arabs, whether in Israel or claiming connection with it, qualify as refugees), “'EU aid funds PA incitement'” (bad idea if they really want peace), and the Dry Bones cartoon “And Then? (2004)” (everyone who does not think that Israel will have to bomb Iran’s nuclear program back to square one because no other country will be willing to do the job, despite international criticism, stand on your heads).

Topic 2:  “The End of Intelligent Design?”:  This article deals with what is wrong with the so-called “intelligent design” (ID) movement, not merely as “intelligent design” being a euphemism for creationism.  Correctly noted is that as science ID is a total failure, having produced zero results, all the while in effect claiming that science is incompetent to explain our world.  This is a very dangerous thing to do, as science has been very successful at understanding how our universe works; naturally, real scientists are strongly opposed to ID.  Another consequence of ID is to pit religion and science against each other.  This makes it easier for anti-religious atheists to pretend that science actually supports their beliefs, causes a ton of needless enmity, and anyone who is both pro-science and pro-religion is likely to get caught in the crossfire.  In short, ID is worse than merely being wrong.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “after a long and tiring day of soulsnatching”:


Peace.

Aaron

Ancient Hebrew and conservative Christian revisionism

Greetings.

Jewish date:  27 Ṭeveth 5770 (Parashath Wa’era’).

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

Worthy causes of the day:  “Sign the Petition | UANI:  Support Human Rights in Iran”, “Portect Children From Toxic Pesticide Clouds - The Petition Site”, “Take Action: Don't let polluters strip the Clean Air Act”, and “Repower America | Save our clean air”.

Topic 1:  “Most ancient Hebrew biblical inscription deciphered”.  Thus is it written:

Prof. Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa who deciphered the inscription: "It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in current research."

And this article goes on to further discuss other violations of common scholarly assumptions which will be pretty much expected by anyone with orthodox Jewish beliefs who knows what he/she is talking about.  I know I still need to do a lot of research on the Documentary Hypothesis and Higher Criticism for the Divine Misconceptions project, but something like this does not assure me that Biblical criticism has much predictive (or in this case, postdictive) power.

Topic 2:  “Revisionaries:  How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids’ textbooks.”  This article deals with the wrong way to get one’s ideas accepted.  The right way is to give people sound, rational reasons to believe that one is right.  The problem is that creationism, pushed by conservative Christians, is implausible.  It has been soundly defeated and is considered false even among scientists who are serious Christians.  Creationists have taken to legal maneuvers to coerce people into accepting their ideas, but this has only met with at best mixed success.  This article deals with efforts by conservative Christian creationists to foist their ideas on the United States at large by using dirty political maneuvering to get their ideas, on creationism as well as history and politics—and regardless of whether or not there is any reason to believe they are correct—into textbooks used in Texas and by extension the rest of the country.  Shame on them!

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Yup”.


Peace.

Aaron

Bibi, creationism, and Basement Cat

Greetings.

Jewish date:  12 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyishlaḥ).

Today’s holiday:  First Sunday of Advent (Roman Catholicism).

NOTE:  My apologies to anyone getting an earlier version of this post.  Sometimes Blogger does really stupid things.

Topic 1:  “Bibi's bad week”.  This article deals with what the Obama administration wants Israel to do for the sake of the “peace process”, such as freeze Israeli building in Judea and Samaria and release terrorists, how Binyamin Nethanyahu is starting to give in to such ill-conceived demands, and why all this is a bad idea.  That Israel should give concessions is based on the assumption that concessions from Israel brings the Israeli-Arab War closer to an end.  It does not.  Ever since at least Jimmy Carter, American presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, have pressured Israel to make more and more concessions to the Arabs in the hopes of peace, most of the Israeli prime ministers have made concessions, and still the war is no closer to ending.  They say that madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results; if so, the strategy of Israeli concessions is madness.  My suggestion:  United States presidents should get out of the “peace process”.  If over 30 years of sticking their noses into Israel’s business has produced only misery, hatred, destruction, and death, then they should be rethinking their actions and not relying on assumptions which are wrong.  It makes no sense to ignore basic facts about this war, such as it is an Islamic jihad against Judaism and that land is an excuse for the war, not a reason.  And Israel should refuse to be dealt with as a second-class country.  Instead of putting its own sovereignty on the negotiating table, it should be making demands and refusing to budge on anything until they are met.  From the United States, they should demand and receive the release of Jonathan Pollard and moving the American embassy to Jerusalem.  Israel should also seize complete control of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and impose peace rather than waste time on negotiating with the Arabs.

Topic 2:  “Evangelicals, creation, and scripture:  an overview” by Mark Noll.  This paper deals with how American evangelical Christianity developed its current mode of Biblical literalism and creationism.  Literalism apparently worked well for Protestant Christianity in a democratic environment, especially anti-traditional variants; one does not need to be a great scholar to understand a literal interpretation.  There is a lot more in there, but I do not have the time at the moment to summarize it all.

Topic 3:  More religious humor:  “basement cat”:

Here we have not only the “black cat = evil” trope, but also the notion that Hell is hot.  I am not sure where that notion comes from either, so if anyone knows, please tell me.  Thanks in advance.

Peace

Aaron

Darwin, Ali, and Satan

Greetings.

Jewish date:  4 Tishri 5770.

Today’s holidays:  Ten Days of Repentance (Judaism), Tuesday of the Twenty-Fifth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Mabon (Wicca).

Worthy cause of the day:  Urge your Senators to Protect the EPA’s Ability to Curb Global Warming Pollution.

Topic 1:  “Who Cares About Darwin?”:  This article deals with a creationist tactic of claiming that Charles Darwin is a horrible person who is responsible for Hitler, the Nazis, the Holocaust, and anything else awful one can imagine.  I have already dealt with why this is completely unfounded this to some degree in my review of Expelled:  No Intelligence Allowed, largely that anti-Semitism, including violent anti-Semitism, existed long before Hitler and that Hitler fails completely to reference Darwin or evolution in Mein Kampf.  This article goes into other aspects of why this guilt by association fails:  that we do not believe in evolution because of the authority of Darwin, Darwin’s life is irrelevant to whether evolution in true, and how evolution works (really or allegedly) is a matter of physical fact and not moral prescription.

Topic 2:  “Store Honors Islamic Martyr”:  This article is a warning to make sure one is interpreting something correctly.  This article deals with a sign saying a store would be closed on September 11 to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Ali.  Someone mistook this for a celebration of one of the 9/11 terrorists.  However, Imam Ali was really Muḥammad’s son-in-law and cousin.

Topic 3:  “Why do I”:

This is yet another LOLcat picture featuring Basement Cat, and like all good religious humor, it is founded on something actually part of religion.  Basement Cat is the LOLcat equivalent of Christianity’s Satan, who in Matthew 4:1-11 attempts to tempt Jesus.  This picture reflects an interpretation of evil as something external to and separate from us.  While not the only explanation given for the origin of evil, it is one with an inherent danger when taken literally:  since ultimately Satan is the author of evil, not us, arguably it is Satan who is responsible.  “Satan made me do it” is thus an easy way of shirking moral responsibility.  Such a conclusion is a position neither the Hebrew Bible nor the New Testament take; “Satan made me do it” is never used as a defense by anyone therein, and similar defenses (e.g., ’Adham blaming Ḥawwah and Ḥawwah blaming the Serpent) do not past muster either.

Somebody bug me to blog about what I believe to be the real origin of evil at some point when I have more time...

Aaron