Thursday, May 14, 2009

Beware of Romulans

Greetings.

Jewish date:  20 ’Iyyar 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Day 35 of the ‘Omer.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
  1. Project Moses:  This is a project to promote and sell Ten Commandments monuments, with hope of a “National Judeo – Christian Memorial”.  There are a couple of things wrong here:  1) There is nothing really “Judeo” in this “Judeo-Christian” project.  The shape of the Tablets is traditionally given as square, not something I have heard compared by a rabbi to McDonald’s golden arches.  The language used is supposed to be Hebrew, not English.  And finally, the term ‘Asereth hadDibberoth translates as “the Ten Statements” or “the Ten Words” (hence “Decalogue”); “the Ten Commandments” would be ‘Asereth hamMiṣwoth.  Jewish tradition holds that there are a total of 613 commandments binding on Jews, not a mere ten.  Jewish tradition also holds that non-Jews are obligated to follow a mere seven commandments, not ten.  This project is thus an example of false or misguided inclusiveness.  2) A “National Judeo – Christian Memorial” sounds suspiciously like a violation of separation of church and state.  Project Moses is soliciting private funds for the Memorial, but it is unclear whether they want this built on public or private land.  The former would be illegal, while the latter would be protected under freedom of speech.
  2. Christian group declares UFOs 'evil spirits' of the Bible”:  I cannot make up the beliefs of this group, Alien Resistance.  It should be noted that there is no good evidence that demons exist or that alien abduction experiences faithfully reflect physical reality.
Today’s news and commentary:
Yesterday I watched the new movie Star Trek, which I am relived to find was actually worth watching and not the disaster I feared it would be.  (Thank you, YHWH, for having mercy on my cinematic experience.)  In honor(?) of our avoiding disaster, today’s weird thing is an in-progress comic parody interpretation of Star Trek.  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and live long and prosper.

Aaron

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