Cold showers and The Miracle Maker

Greetings.

Jewish date:  1 ’Av 5770 (Parashath Devarim).

Today’s holidays:  Ro’sh Ḥodhesh (Judaism), The Nine Days (Judaism), Monday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Pam Grier (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Grady Louis McMurtry (Thelema).

Topic 1:  Today begins the Nine Days, an intense part of the Three Weeks culminating in the Ninth of ’Av, which commemorates the destruction of both Temples and many other tragedies in Jewish history.  The level of mourning is increased.  No meat, no wine, no fresh clothes, no anointing for pleasure, and no bathing for pleasure.  The last one, while probably not onerous in ancient times, when they did not have so much indoor plumbing and did not bathe as frequently, is a big pain in the neck for a modern human used to showering every single day.  (It was clearly not an epidemiologist who came up with this idea, as an epidemiologist would have objected to any enactment that worked against good hygiene.)  While bathing itself is not forbidden during the Nine Days except for 9 ’Av, one is expected to keep the temperature of the water as low as possible, which makes showering rather unpleasant, especially since it is difficult to step into cold water in the first place.  (While a cold is not so bad if one is feeling overheated, the air conditioning has been working splendidly over here, so this is not the case.)  I am tempted to ask the local rav if there is any way to trade decently warm showers for fasting two days straight, I will not bother because I know full well the answer will be “no”.

Image of unfun morality via Wikipedia

Now, some may be asking why I would ever consider putting myself through ritual mourning and eight days of cold showers.  Is not religion supposed to be about fun activities?  Or if not fun, at least about spiritual highs?  And the answer to these questions is “no”.  Because religion is ultimately about truth, not just theological truth, but the truth about what one is supposed to do.  A lot of morality is anything but fun.  Sure, one may enjoy even sharing and being selfless with friends.  But admitting one has done something wrong and trying to correct one’s mistakes is anything but fun.  Returning lost property is not fun.  Not hitting some jerk who keeps annoying you is not fun.  Self-control and moderation are not fun.  Letting someone jab you in the arm with a needle as part of blood donation is not fun.  And so on.  And why should ritual be any different?  The dark parts of life are to some degree inevitable?  Why should they, too, not be addressed?

Topic 2:  The latest in this series on Gospel-based films, The Miracle Maker (2000):

(Yes, they have it on Hulu.)  Most of the originality in this movie goes into animation and presentation, with an emphasis on miracles and parables.  Theologically, there is little new here.  The usual suspects, depicted as mean-spirited, are after Jesus the Annoyingly Perfect, claiming to fear Pilate’s and Caesar’s wrath.  Pilate is a little craftier and more evil than usual.  Unless you want to see the animation, do not bother with this one.

Topic 3:  More on Islamic stunts:  The Dry Bones cartoon “the Name Game”, which notes correctly that it makes no sense to try to pretend that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, even though this contradicts what terrorists themselves claim.  “The humanitarian show” notes that the “poor” people of Gaza are better off that a lot of the rest of the people on this planet, including having a higher life expectancy that part of Britain, while no aid is sent to far worse off people in Turkey, Lebanon, and Iran.  “Abbas to Arabs: We'd Support a War Against Israel” shows that Mahmoud Abbas is no partner for peace.  And finally, we have the video “WHAT ISLAM IS NOT”, based on the article “What Islam Isn't”, which describes how Islamization works:


Note:  There will be no religious humor during the Nine Days because it is not really appropriate during mourning.

Peace and consolation.

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

On the Uplift Series

Greetings.

Jewish date:  9 ’Iyyar 5770 (Parashath ’Aḥare Moth-Qedhoshim).

Today’s holidays:  Day 24 of the ‘Omer (Judaism), Festival of Ridvan (Bahá’í Faith), Feast Days of George and Adalbert (Roman Catholicism), Feast Day of St. Susan DeLucci (Church of the SubGenius), Feast Day of St. George (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast of Sir Richard Payne Knight (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “PETITION: NO "TOO BIG FOR JAIL" | Progressive Change Campaign Committee”, “Heart Disease and Stroke. You’re the Cure.”, “ColorOfChange.org:  Keep the Internet open”, and “World Jewish Congress - Support for Israel”, and “Stop KFC From Destroying Our Forests - The Petition Site”.

Image of the guy responsible for the Uplift Series via Wikipedia

Topic 1:  Continuing on the topic of catching up on reporting on my readings and watchings relevant to this blog, I recently finished reading the Uplift Series by David Brin.  (A bibliography follows my description and commentary.)  Please forgive your humble if the description presented below is somewhat disorganized.  The major themes are woven together tightly, and trying to present them in a linear form feels rather like trying to make sense of knotted yarn.

WARNING:  THERE ARE SPOILERS, THOUGH NOT ENOUGH TO GIVE AWAY THE PLOTS.

The Uplift Series is a series of science-fiction stories in which the Five Galaxies (including our own Milky Way), have been dominated by a multi-species civilization of oxygen-breathing sentient beings reaching back over two billion years.  The way things normally work is that promising nonsentient species are modified into sentient beings (“uplifted”) by existing sentient species.  The uplifted client species then serves their patrons for 100,000 years and may afterwards go on to uplift other species themselves.  Successful uplift of client species is a way of gaining prestige.

Species do not simply continue on as they are indefinitely after being uplifted and uplifting clients of their own.  Eventually they mature sufficiently that they withdraw from general Galactic society and take up residence in fractal variants of Dyson shells and become contemplative.  At some point, they may even “transcend” and leave Galactic society completely.  Explaining what “transcendence” really involves here would risk giving away too much of the plots, but suffice it to say that this information is not available to lesser races and is a subject for their religious speculation.

Tradition has it that the chain of uplift reaches back to a single species known as the Progenitors.  Many rival (often warring) religious traditions have grown up dealing with the Progenitors, often predicting their eventual return or claiming they dwell secretly among the younger civilizations.

Another somewhat religious thread is the Library Institute, which is the repository of all knowledge for the Civilization of the Five Galaxies.  Given the sheer amount of data collected by it in over two billion years detailing the histories of untold numbers of sentient species, it is commonly assumed that practically everything doable has already been recorded by the Library Institute and that further improvement is impossible.  As such, Galactic civilization, while far in advance of human civilization, has stagnated.  Furthermore, there is a tendency to assume that the information in the Library is completely reliable.

Notice the themes of order and tradition.  Both of these are very common in real religions, with traditions being passed down from generation to generation and rules ordering society being prescribed.  Also like most real religions with enough members and existing long enough, the primordial ancestral traditions of Galactic society have bifurcated into a plethora of variations on the same theme, even while all claiming validity within the framework of the original tradition.  Many of the variations have gone ideologically rigid, with adherents too often assuming the correctness of their ideology rather than honestly reexamining it as necessary to make sure it is actually correct.  Also dealt with is the common fault of hypocrisy; many groups ignore inconvenient parts of the tradition or rationalize their way around them, e.g., in dealing with environmental regulations or in warfare.

Humanity does not fit well into the highly-ordered Civilization of the Five Galaxies.  No patron species is known to have uplifted them, yet they have managed to become star-farers on their own.  (This is supposed to be impossible.)  Unlike other “wolfling” species, by the time of first contact, humanity has already uplifted two client species:  chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins.  And rather than assimilate into Galactic society culturally and technology, humanity largely clings to its own ways, persisting even in its own science and mathematics.  All this makes for much of the tension which powers the plots of the series.  While there are oddball species in the Civilization of the Five Galaxies, humanity violates the rules to the breaking point.  Having clients is the only thing which really prevents humanity from being wiped out immediately by aliens trying to avoid embarrassment, even though chimpanzees and dolphins are given freedom and legal rights that no other client species have.  Much of the plots, indeed, revolve around war against humanity.  Unfortunately, intolerance (as opposed to mere lack of acceptance) for those who do not fit into the system is all too common in real religions.  This is found in two forms:  built-in (as in Islam) and hypocritical (as happens periodically among members of other real religions).  Such intolerance is based on the logical fallacies of appeal to force, that squelching the opposition actually wins the argument, and wishful thinking.  Let us take these stories as a reminder of what not to do.

Bibliography:

• “Aficionado”
• Brin, David. 1980. Sundiver, Uplift Series, book 1. New York: Bantam Books.
• ———. 1983. Startide rising, Uplift Series, book 2. New York: Bantam Books.
• ———. 1995. The uplift war, The Uplift Series, book 3. New York: Bantam Books. Original edition, New York:  Bantam Books, 1987.
• ———. 1996. Brightness reef. Bantam mass market ed, The Uplift Series, book 4; Book one of a New uplift trilogy. New York: Bantam Books. Original edition, New York:  Bantam Books, 1995.
• ———. 1997. Infinity’s shore. Bantam paperback ed, The Uplift Series, book 5; Book two of a New uplift trilogy. New York: Bantam Books.
• ———. 1999. Heaven’s reach. Bantam paperback ed, The Uplift Series, book 6; The Final book of the New uplift trilogy. New York: Bantam Books. Original edition, New York:  Bantam Books, 1998.
• “Temptation”
• Brin, David, and Kevin Lenagh. 2002. Contacting aliens:  an illustrated guide to David Brin’s uplift universe. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Topic 2:  “Video: Is the Western Wall in Israel? - HR Interviews 'Confused' Tourists”.  Just a demonstration that the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority is backing an idea which does not reflect the socio-political reality that Jerusalem is part of Israel.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor:  “Umm, scuse but befoo yoo go to light at end of”:


Peace and Shabbath shalom.

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

Michael Jackson and Bill Maher

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Tishri 5770.

Today’s holiday:  Sukkah-Building Day.  (The day after Yom Kippur is traditionally considered the best day to start work on one’s sukkah.)

Note:  I just mowed the backyard so I can build my sukkah.  Someone please send electric grapes.

Worthy cause of the day:  “Help Halt Logging in Our Forests”.

Image via Wikipedia

Topic 1:  “The Destructive Deification of Michael Jackson”—Rav Boteach deals with some unrealistic, anti-empirical of Michael Jackson since the latter’s death.  Though people often try to portray the deceased in a favorable ligwishful thinking that they are perfect does not actually work.  Physical reality does not care what we want, but instead remains what it is regardless.  This is especially true for the deceased, who are no longer capable of changing themselves.  Very notable is the notion that a hero is not someone who is perfect, but rather someone who does something great despite his/her imperfection.  To that idea I would like to add that no human can never hope to be perfect.  An imperfect hero is thus better for us to learn from, seeing that he/she must struggle in the same way that we struggle, and we may realistically achieve the sorts of things he/she achieves.

Image via Wikipedia

Topic 2:  I have already noted that pseudo-comedian Bill Maher, creator of the irrational, anti-religious pseudo-documentary Religulous, believes in medical pseudoscience.  “Bill Maher endorses cancer quackery” deals with Maher’s ignorance and support of quackery in gory detail.  Also mentioned is Richard Dawkins’ support for Maher.  Note that Dawkins is supposed to be pro-reason, something which I have shown he is not, and his support for Maher only makes his claim to being pro-reason even less tenable.

And yes, I am starting to have fun with Zemata to add images to my blog.

OK, back to working in the backyard.  Have an easy time putting up your sukkah.

Aaron