Friday, March 20, 2009

24 ’Adhar 5769: Vernal Equinox/Sweater Day/National Quilting Day/National Agriculture Day/Great American Meat Out Day/International Day of the Francophonie

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Join the Fight to End Mountaintop Removal”, “New Networks Must Be Neutral”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
  1. “Gambian state kidnaps 1,000 villagers in mass purge of 'witchcraft'”: When are they going to get over this shameful witchcraft paranoia which only hurts innocent people?
  2. “Pope tells Muslims that religion rejects violence”: The Pope is trying to redefine religion, as it is written:

    "Genuine religion ... stands at the base of any authentically human culture," he said. "It rejects all forms of violence and totalitarianism: not only on principles of faith but also of right reason."
    The Pope thus commits the fallacy of redefinition.  “Religion” has no one accepted definition.  It is such a loosely defined term that any belief system which has anything to say on theology or morality is likely to be termed a “religion” by someone.  This includes atheism, communism, and Nazism.  Some even claim that science, which is more of a methodology than an ideology, is a religion; while this is usually a politically charged claim, the same sort of dedication, devotion, and feelings of awe usually associated with religion can also be found in the writings of some scientists on science, e.g., those of Carl Sagan.  Trying to indirectly change Islam, which has a documented history of violence and totalitarianism, in this fashion is likely to convince no one sensible.
  3. “Woman accused of church theft blames Satan”: Uh, yeah... I hope she did not mean it literally...
Today’s news and commentary:
Today’s weird thing is “Building my own Solar Panel”. Somebody please send me one of these. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

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