Jewish date: 17 ’Iyyar 5769.
Today’s holidays: Day 32 of the ‘Omer, Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter.
Today’s quasi-holiday: Eat What You Want Day.
Worthy cause of the day: “Put Single Payer Health Care On The Table Now”.
Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
- “Minnesota boy taken to court for refusng cancer treatment”: A 13-year-old a member of the Native American Church organization Nemenhah is refusing actual treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma on religious grounds. Seeing that whatever god may exist does not favor people who refuse treatments that have been rigorously demonstrated to work, this is reckless self-endangerment.
- More reckless self-endangerment: “50 people looking for solar image of Mary lose sight”.
- Witchcraft paranoia does not stop: “Couple ordered to leave Bihar village for ‘witchcraft’”. Do note that more than expulsion occurred; the husband was beaten. There is also no mention of evidence of the practice of witchcraft or its efficacy.
- Evil spirit paranoia is not dead either, even in the United States: “Activist calls for protection against evil spirits in election”.
- “Televangelist Pat Robertson compares same-sex marriage to child molestation, pedophilia”: Strangely enough, I can understand comparing homosexuality to child molestation and pedophilia; homosexuality has a bad reputation in the Hebrew Bible, so it is easy to compare it with other sexual perversions. However, he also compares it with polygamy, which he seems to hold is Biblically prohibited. Where he got this idea, I have no clue. The Torah lists no prohibition on polygamy, and it was practiced by a number of prominent figures in the Hebrew Bible (’Avraham, Ya‘aqov, Dawidh, Shelomoh...) without Divine disapproval. Shouldn’t a preacher know this?
- “Robots Take To The Stairs - This Is Just The Beginning (videos)”
- “H1N1 hullabaloo: overreaction or prudent caution?”
Aaron
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