Beware of babies

Greetings.

Jewish date:  3 ’Iyyar 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Day 18 of the ‘Omer.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Write an Old Friend Today Day, Babe Ruth Day.

Worthy cause of the day: “Urge the Obama Administration to Protect Polar Bears and Other Vulnerable Wildlife”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. Bad idea:  “Religious Revolt: New Christian Sect Battles Demons, Raises the Dead, Campaigns for Sarah Palin”.  People ought to know by now that the evidence for the existence of demons and witchcraft is nil and that faith-healing is a fraud.  On the bright side, at least some Christian pastors are fighting back against the darkness:  “Nigerian Withcraft: Pastor fights deceitful counterparts”.
   
2. Religious intolerance:  “Hindu radicals attack old church”.
   
3. Time for a few comments on the latest episode of Kings, “Judgement Day”.  There does not seem to be much of anything in this episode directly traceable to Samuel.  King Silas sitting in judgement over his people is more reminiscent of Shelomoh (Solomon) than Sha’ul (Saul).  Jack continues to play politics in a very un-Yonathan (Jonathan)-like manner with little regard for the lives of other people, making a big mess for Michelle/Mikhal and David/Dawidh to deal with.  This episode reflects largely on the themes of God, justice, and the rule of law, with Silas, Michelle, and David all put in dilemmas about whether it is more moral to play by the rules or whether it is sometimes necessary to subvert them.  Silas considers himself God’s representative while judging, and in the end, satisfied with Silas’s judgement, declares that God works through the king.  Michelle also reveals to David that she is promised to someone else, a major roadblock to progress on their relationship.  We will have to wait until June 14 to find out what happens next.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Swine Flu?” and “What is swine flu? US declares public health emergency”:  Paradoxically, there is very little to worry about from swine flu, avian flu, or other new infectious diseases for the very reason that governments are so worried about them.  The response of governments is to quarantine every new case, because there is no way in Hell they are going to let swine flu or any such disease spread.  The easiest way to kill an epidemic disease is to keep it from ever becoming an epidemic—and the last thing any nation or humanity as a whole needs, on top of everything else going wrong on this planet, is another epidemic.  Because humanity’s governments have gone crazy clamping down on new infectious diseases, humanity in general has very little to worry about them.
  
• “New Statesman: Israel = Racist”
  
• “Jewish legacy inscribed on genes?”:  Submitted by Dad.  Interesting notion.  Time and research will tell whether the hypothesis is correct.
  
• “Found: Missing link ancestor of modern sea lions, seals and walrus”
  
• “Bionic penguins take to the water – and the skies”
  

Today’s weird thing is “BWAINZ!!!”.


Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

29 Tishri 5769: Make a Difference Day/Statue of Liberty Day/Diwali

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “PROTECT ICE SEALS FROM GLOBAL WARMING” and “Tell Mukasey: Don't use the Department of Justice to suppress Ohio voters.”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions: “Five questions for Sarah Palin”: This is a nice summary of many of the religious problems with Sarah Palin which have cropped up before. Probably the most worrying thing about her religious beliefs is that she has not discussed the details of what she believes. “Bible-believing Christian” is a large category leaves much room for interpretation. What hints we have of her belief system are worrying, e.g., she seems to believe that God wants an oil pipeline, but has not explicated why she believes this. Rather than try to tease out what she believes from the meagre sources available, after this post is finished, I intend to E-mail her via her office in Alaska and her and John McCain’s campaign site and ask her to directly answer the questions in this article. I encourage everyone else to do so as well.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Mars Miscalculation (1999)”
  
• “Why is West funding Abbas' hate TV?” (And people think Abbas is a partner for peace? Get real!)
  

Today’s weird thing is something silly someone created for Halloween: “Dalek Halloween Pumpkin”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

27 Tishri 5769: International Dadaism Month/Mother-in-Law Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “Protect Patient Privacy” and “Leaders of WOZA at risk of torture and ill treatment”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “For Nonbelievers, Reassurance on Wheels”: Thus is written:

   British atheists announced Tuesday a high-profile advertising campaign to put posters on London buses that say: "There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

   An advertising poster is not much room to put up a decent and readable theological argument, and so the argument made is entirely emotional. This ad seems to imply a malevolent view of whatever god might exist, that any god that might exist wants to make our lives miserable or behaves in such a way as to cause us to worry. Naturally such an implication falls on deaf ears among people who believe in a loving god. Furthermore, if there is probably no god, there is plenty of reason to worry. No god means no one looking out for us, no safety net whatsoever against human stupidity and insanity. Crazy governments or terrorists could launch a nuclear war or plague of smallpox and succeed without any higher power to stop them. We might succeed in letting global warming wrecking civilization. We might succeed in turning the planet into a toxic wasteland. No god means our fate is totally in our own hands, and if there is no free will either, not even that. And no god also means probably no afterlife, which means that death is really the end and we get to drive ourselves crazy with the irrational obsession of trying to imagine what nonexistence is like. In short, no god means plenty to worry about. Thank you, militant atheists, for your efforts to ruin everyone’s day.
   
2. “Afghan student gets 20 years instead of death for blasphemy”: General rule: Suppression of criticism is not an effective way to prove one is correct.
   
3. “Palin hair big with partygoers, NY's Orthodox Jews”: I have no clue what to make of this.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Science Friction: An X-Ray Machine Energized by Adhesive Tape”
  
• “No rest for dead at foreclosed Mich. funeral home”
  
• “Planets Thought Dead Might Be Habitable ”
  
• “Lightning strikes only once — but kills 52 cows”
  
• “Walking house can escape floods or unruly neighbours”
  
• “We Know You”
  
  

Today’s weird thing is a horoscope according to this blog’s fictional characters, Rupert Hippo and company, included below. It is about as accurate as anyone else’s horoscope. Enjoy and share the hippopotamus-themed weirdness.

Aaron

---

Aries: You will be eaten by a gang of hungry crocodiles.

Taurus: All of your parasite-eating birds will abandon you.

Gemini: A gang of evil rhinoceroses will kick you out of your territory.

Cancer: A gang of elephants will get the water in your territory all muddy.

Leo: You will be eaten by a pride of hungry lions.

Virgo: You will stay out on the beach too long and wrinkle up like a prune.

Libra: You will run out of underwater vegetation and have to go to the supermarket for more.

Scorpio: You will meet someone with bigger tusks than yours who will kick you out of your territory.

Ophiuchus: All day the astronomically ignorant will insist that there’s no constellation of Ophiuchus in the Zodiac.

Sagittarius: An idiot will mistake your pink-hued sweat for blood and call 911.

Capricornus: An idiot will mistake your blood for for pink-hued sweat and fail to call 911.

Aquarius: Wildebeest will sue you over alleged water access rights violations.

Pisces: Human tourists will not leave you alone and insist you smile for their photographs.

18 Tishri 5769: Ḥol hamMo‘edh Sukkoth/National Mammography Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Tell the Bahamas to Stop Killing Sea Turtles”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Some hear doll's burbling as a clear endorsement of Islam”: No, I am not making this up. It is probably a fluke and unintentional.
   
2. “Conservative Christians lead push for Prop. 8”: Proposition 8 would eliminate any legal right to homosexual marriage in California. Unlike most articles on subject of homosexuality in Christianity, this one actual takes the trouble to list a few relevant verses, so let us go through them one by one:
   1. Genesis 19:4-6: An incident of attempted homosexual rape in Sedhom (Sodom). This is not legal material, plus the incident happened before the giving of the Torah, so it is not a good basis for deriving law. Clearly the attitude towards homosexual rape is negative, though the context does not make clear whether the homosexuality part or the rape part or both are what is abominated. Note that nowhere in the Hebrew Bible is there any positive depiction of homosexuality of any kind.
      
   2. Leviticus 20:13 (“And a man that will lie with a male like having sexual intercourse with a woman, the two of them did an abomination; they shall die; their blood is upon them.”: This is an unambiguous prohibition of male homosexuality. The justification given for why this does not apply today is nonsense: “Times have changed, and the verses applied to those times only. The chapter also mandates death for adulterers.” One of the major problems Christianity has is justifying gerrymandering what parts of the Law still hold and which do not. There is no mention of an expiration date or any condition for expiration of any commandment, which is why Orthodox Judaism holds they all still apply, even ones Christians tend to look on as downright weird. Even Jesus never claimed any end to Torah prohibitions. Therefore the prohibition of homosexuality still holds.
      
   3. Romans 1:27: This is a very negative depiction of homosexuality. The justification “St. Paul criticizes a range of behaviors.” is nonsense since everything else depicted negatively in this section is something traditionally considered bad.
      
   4. 1 Corinthians 6:9: I am not competent enough in Koine Greek yet to judge whether or not homosexuality is being discussed among other vices. Sorry. This, of course, does not cancel out the verse in Romans.
   Let us face it: there is no ground to stand upon to claim that homosexuality (or male homosexuality, at any rate) is an acceptable practice in Christianity. And I would like to emphasize practice. None of these verses say anything about having homosexual feelings, which is quite a different matter.
   
3. “Baltimore archbishop tells Virgin Mary 'visionary' to stop activities”: Kudos to the Catholic Church for their skepticism of questionable visions.
   
4. “Good Taste”: Yes, people are weird like that. Palin still sucks as a vice-presidential candidate.
   
5. “Earliest Reference Describes Christ as 'Magician'”: Or maybe it is something else. Let us let the archaeologists work this out.
   
6. “Peaceful Demostrator Punched by Scientologist at Los Angeles Event”: This is a new tactic. Usually Scientologists file lawsuits. Maybe the fact that Anonymous protesters tend to be masked and therefore unidentifiable, hence difficult to sue, has something to do with it.
   
7. “World Dignitaries Open International Conference On Religion”: The fact that no religious leaders are mentioned as attending this conference does not bode well, though holding it in Tehran is an interesting tactic.
   
8. “Palestinian man in Jordan kills daughter to cleanse family honor”: And the real shame is that “Forensic doctors said an autopsy showed the girl was still a virgin.” Obviously the father failed to find out if his daughter had actually done anything dishonorable before killing her. It should therefore also be obvious why moral judgement in the absence of evidence is a very, very bad idea.
   
9. “False claims exposed of Kenyan pastor who protected Sarah Palin from witches”: Apparently Thomas Muthee lied about his struggle against “witchcraft”. Mama Jane, the alleged witch he claims to have run out of Kiambu, Kenya, never left town.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Hottest Planet Ever Discovered”
  
• “Obama buys first video game campaign ads”
  
• “Secret London wartime tunnel complex for sale”
  
• “"Walking fish" reveals fresh evolutionary insights”
  
• “Mysterious Mars Moon a Pile of Rubble ”
  
• “Quantum Cryptography: As Awesome As It Is Pointless”
  
• “Angry about economy? Smash some plates and move on”
  
• “What are vestibular migraines?”
  
• “Disco tune "Stayin' Alive" could save your life” (No, I am not making this up.)
  
• “CIA Tactics Endorsed In Secret Memos” (Oops.)
  

Today’s weird thing is the International Earth-Destruction Advisory Board. Enjoy, share the weirdness, Shabbath shalom, and ḥagh sameaḥ.

Aaron

3 Tishri 5769: Fast of Gedhalyah/National Custodial Workers Day/International Day of Non-Violence

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “Will Our Next Political Leaders Help End Breast Cancer Forever?” and “End discrimination against mental illness!”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Bill Maher vs. the "talking snake"”: This article describes Religulous, an antireligious film by Bill Maher. The description smells of bad rhetoric: attacking superficially silly aspects of religion and the nuttiest religious people he can find and being deliberately offensive while avoiding contact with those who might be able to talk with him sensibly about religion. As early as the opening lines of the article, it is clear that Maher is not even getting his subject matter right, failing to understand the difference between an extraterrestrial and a creator deity.  This movie is extremely unpromising.
   
2. “US publisher of Muslim book closes office”: The Jewel of Medina is a historical novel about Muḥammad’s favorite wife, ‘A’isha. He married her when she was six or seven and consummated the marriage when she was nine. (I know: “Ew! Gross!”)  Pedophilia on Muḥammad is something Muslims would rather not have popularized, and so there is a major worry about death threats and violence; there has already been an arson.  It should go without saying that thuggish behavior never makes one right; one can beat another into submission with a baseball bat, but whoever is holding the baseball bat is not automatically right.  In order to show the forces of Islam that we will not bow to threats or fear of threats, I recommend that everyone who can afford to do so pre-order a copy of Jewel of Medina. (It has been added to the official Divine Misconceptions wish-list on Amazon.com.)
   
3. “To some evangelicals, Palin's career violates biblical teachings”: This is a highly relevant question to serious Christians. The verse in question is Titus 2:5 (from the Pauline Epistles), which with the previous two verses reads (New American Bible version):

   Similarly, older women should be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers, not addicted to drink, teaching what is good, so that they may train younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good homemakers, under the control of their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.

   In this entire chapter, he promotes what he considers to be good behavior for all adults: older men, older women, younger women, younger men, and slaves. Clearly Paul is not a modern feminist, but the question is how prescriptive of details is Paul’s intention and how obligatory Paul’s advice is. I leave that great experts on Christian practice to decide, but there clearly is a source for Christians to claim Sarah Palin should not be in public office. The other citing of any specific Scriptural reference in the article is:

   Janice Hodgson, who worked in the mortgage business until recently, said Proverbs 31 offers a positive view of working women with servants -- suggesting, she said, that it is fine for Palin to hire nannies to help care for her children.

   This seems to be talking about Proverbs 31:15 (“She rose while it was still night and gave food to her house and rule to her girls”), which may or may not mention maidservants. The word in question, na‘arah, literally means “girl”, by default around 12 years old. It can also mean “maidservant”, but the context is not clear whether the woman being praised is dealing with servants or children. In either case, it never says anything about letting a non-parent raise children, so Ms. Hodgson is stretching the verse.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Rosh HaShana (1978)”
  
• “Sarah Palin dishes on health and science: What does she really think?” (Disturbing.)
  
• This Modern World 2008-10-01, The K Chronicles 2008-10-01, and Tom the Dancing Bug 2008-10-01
  
• “Why do Americans stand for Southerners idolizing the Confederacy, despite the evils of slavery and treason at its heart?”
  
• “What’s for Dinner?” (To think about after the fast is over.)
  
• “12 Ways to Lessen Your Footprint”
  
• “Is testosterone to blame for the financial crisis?”
  

There will be no weird thing today due to the fast.

Aaron

26 ’Elul 5768: Love Note Day/European Day of Languages/National Pancake Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “CONGRESS: NO BLANK CHECK FOR WALL STREET” and “Help Protect the Marbled Murrelet!”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Italy priest stabber inspired by "Da Vinci Code"”: No, I am not making this up, and I have no clue what the attacker was thinking. I have heard of people taking The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown much more seriously than it deserves—it is, after all, a work of fiction, not history—but this is the first time I have ever heard of anyone going beyond visiting the places depicted in the book and asking questions.
   
2. “Pulpit Initiative About Freedom, not Politics”: Interesting perspective. Religions often have much to say that is relevant to politics, so it is logical to argue that trying to keep the pulpit apolitical under threat of withdrawing tax-exempt status is tantamount to infringing upon freedom of religion.
   
3. “CAIR files FEC complaint: Obsession distribution a Zionist plot”: I was under the impression that even so much as a funny look in the direction of a Muslim was an offense in the eyes of Islam and liable to be labeled without the least shred of evidence as part of an insidious plot against Muslims. They’ll also probably come up with an insidious plot centered around Obama, too.
   
4. “Pastor Muthee and Mayor Palin”: This article deals with a visit by Bishop Thomas Muthee to the Wasilla Assembly of God, including a video of it, where he blesses then-mayor Sarah Palin.  Muthee is worrying to some degree because some of what he says sounds like advocation of abolition of separation of church and state, including lack of understanding of what public schools are about.  E.g., public schools do not push anyone to adopt Buddhism or Islam, or Christianity for that matter.  What he wants is for Christians (possibly just of his stripe) to take over all aspects of society, including government.  He also buys into a stereotype of Jews as bankers.  But very disturbing is his worrying about witchcraft and praying for Palin’s protection from it.  Don’t believe it?  Watch the video:  
   
   Now, it is perfectly possible for someone to believe in witchcraft and yet be otherwise rational.  Unfortunately, this is not how Muthee has behaved.  One of the commentators mentioned in the article tries to excuse the witchcraft business as just a difference in culture, but a modicum of digging turned up a number of articles showing that Muthee has acted on the belief in witchcraft:  “Targeting cities with 'spiritual mapping,' prayer”, “Palin under fire over African pastor friend who waged witch-hunt against woman he believed caused car crashes”, “From basket case to boomtown without a dime of aid”, “Palin linked electoral success to prayer of Kenyan witchhunter”, and “Praying Down God's Power”.  These articles note that Muthee blamed the alleged witchcraft of the diviner Mama Jane for much that was going wrong in Kiambu, Kenya (such as car accidents), and so he and his followers harassed her until she left town, after which things in Kiambu allegedly got better.  Now, if Muthee really believes in witchcraft, it was incumbent upon him to justify why he believed Mama Jane was a genuine witch and responsible for everything going wrong in Kiambu—something every single article omits—before taking action against her.  On the other hand, if Muthee was just using Mama Jane as a scapegoat to rally the community together so that they would improve themselves, then he persecuted an innocent person, something I have trouble imagining Jesus approving of.  Either way, Muthee comes off as very disturbing.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Kadima Road Trip”
  
• “Palin Accepted $25,000 in Gifts, Alaska Records Show” (Oops. Oops on McCain, too, for choosing such a person as his running-mate.)
  
• “U.S. health officials: all school-age children should get flu shots” (Small children are infamous for spreading infectious diseases. It therefore makes sense to vaccinate them so as to hinder the spread of disease.)
  
• “A Budget of Anecdotes”
  
• “Does ideology trump facts? Studies say it often does” (This is very worrying.)
  
• “Adventures in Astroturf”
  
• “Will an asteroid destroy Earth? Time for UN to keep tabs, say experts”

Today’s weird thing is “水の落ちる絵” (Google automatic translation:  “A painting of water fall”), which is described in English in “Water Painting”.

Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

23 ’Elul 5768: Checkers Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “Main Street before Wall Street”, “Open White Spaces for Everyone”, and “Tell the government to protect sea turtles from trawls.”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Mean girl”: There is a lot of dirt on Sarah Palin and her exploitative, un-Christian behavior in this article, but the item I want to discuss is:

   Even though Palin knew that Stein is a Protestant Christian, from a Pennsylvania Dutch background, her campaign began circulating the word that she would be "Wasilla's first Christian mayor." Some of Stein's supporters interpreted this as an attempt to portray Stein as Jewish in the heavily evangelical community. Stein himself, an eminently reasonable and reflective man, thinks "they were redefining Christianity to mean born-agains."

   (Emphasis mine.) Palin is not alone in narrowing the definition of Christianity; a parody from a few years back, “Consumer report: Which religion is the best?”, considers Christianity and Catholicism to be two different religions.  It should go without saying that the claim of Protestantism or one section thereof as the One True Claimant to the Name of “Christianity” is untenable.  Everyone knows that historically Catholicism preceded Protestantism.  Orthodox Christianity, Syriac Christianity, Coptic Christianity, and Ethiopian Christianity also preceded Protestantism.  These older groups were what everyone referred to as Christianity long before Martin Luther.  Therefore, claiming that any younger group is the “real” Christianity is an attempt at changing the definition of the term and not legitimate.
   
2. “Beyond the Israeli-Palestinian problem”: This is historical background for the Jihad. Note that the real offense of the Jews behind the Arab-Israeli War is that the Jews refuse to live by the rules that Islam sets for them, that they should be helpless second-class citizens.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Happy New Year (1976)”
  
• “More Smears By Hari”
  
• “Exposed Untruths Continue to Shape Voter Impressions” (This is worrying.)
  
• “'I'm a PC' ad pictures made on a Mac” (Very ironic.)
  
• “German radio station to air show in Latin” (Yes, Latin is alive and well. If you do not know how scary this is, look over the Wikipedia articles “Latin grammar”, “Latin declension”, and “Latin conjugation”.  And this is a language I am seriously thinking of working on for my Divine Misconceptions project after Ancient Greek due to it being the original language for some source materials and it periodically popping up in all manner of places, its big contender being Classical Arabic.)
  
• “Israel Unleashes First 'Skunk Bomb'”
  
• “Palin lawyer meets with investigator in probe” (Note the opening sentence: “Less than a week after balking at the Alaska Legislature's investigation into her alleged abuse of power, Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday indicated she will cooperate with a separate probe run by people she can fire.” (Emphasis mine.)) and “Palin's town charged women for rape exams”
  
• “Fish Gave Us the Finger” (Not what it sounds like.)
  
• “Where Have all the Gentleman Gone?”
  
• “Why the Oil Crisis Will Persist”
  
• This Modern World 2008-09-22
  

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Emily, is GIANTmicrobes. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

18 ’Elul 5768: International Dadaism Month/International Women’s Ecommerce Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “Lose your home, Lose your vote?”, “Tell Congress: Untangle the Red Tape for the Kids”, and “Tell Harry Reid: Don't cave on offshore drilling.”

I would also like to promote the worthy cause of giving blood, which I did this morning.  It is an easy, safe way to save human lives, so if you may be eligible to donate (and many are who think they are not), please contact the Red Cross to find out where you can donate.  Thank you.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Evangelicals to UN: Indict Ahmadinejad”: They seem to be learning from the mistake of remaining silent that led to the Holocaust.
   
2. Poe's Law: This is the very scary idea that fundamentalism can be indistinguishable from a parody of fundamentalism.
   
3. “Sarah Palin, faith-based mayor”:  In summary:  As mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin foisted a philosophy of “character” (“Character First!”) on the city in her charge; said philosophy is supposedly secular, but in actually it is of the evangelical Christian organization the Institute in Basic Life Principles. That Palin would try to impose her values on other people is completely consistent with what I wrote on Monday about her assumption that she is perfectly right.  It goes without saying that this is a violation of the separation of church and state, even though “Character First!” is allegedly secular.
   
   Even if it were truly secular, she still would have no business trying to impose it on others.  Moral philosophies, unable to anchor its definitions (e.g., of “good” and “evil”) directly in objective physical reality, are matters of opinions.  Without a deity imposing one opinion as a standard, one opinion is as good as another.  Under such conditions, trying to make people accept that something is “good” makes as much sense as trying to make people accept that something is “delicious.”
   
   Also alarming are the values themselves.  While a lot of them sound generally acceptable, the definitions often do not fit how people usually use the terms, e.g., “truthfulness” is defined as “Earning future trust by accurately reporting past facts” when it is normally defined without regard to consequences or what is being reported.  Keep in mind that arbitrary redefinition is a warning sign that someone is trying to be deceptive.  Many redefinitions take on an authoritarian bent, e.g., “meekness” is defined as “Yielding my personal rights and expectations with a desire to serve” and “obedience” is defined as “Quickly and cheerfully carrying out the direction of those who are responsible for me”.  For those of us who have embraced freedom, the idea that we should defer to people who have been caught lying to us frankly makes very little sense.

Poll results:  This blog’s first poll is over.  There were a total of four votes on the question “Should this blog have a poll?”:  one vote for “No” (probably by Bobby Awesome), one vote for “If you ask that question, you deny your Buddha nature”, one vote for “42”, and one vote for “To get to the other side”.  My interpretation is that most of the people who voted were feeling goofy.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Political Miracles (1976)” and “Failing Economy”
  
• “Man who cleaned public restroom gets plunger award” (Mazzal ṭov!)
  
• “Officials call off controversial autism study” (Who exactly decided to permit a study of chelation therapy in the first place? Children have been killed by chelation!)
  
• Tom the Dancing Bug 2008-09-17
  
• “Sarah Palin's wasteful ways”, “Probe into Palin's firing of official unraveling”, and “Group Posts E-Mail Hacked From Palin Account”
  
• “Sheboygan women files landmark case over Web links”
  
• “Deletionpedia: Where Wikipedia entries go to die”
  
• “House okays bill lifting ban on offshore drilling” (For shame!)
  
• “100 groups demand to see secret anticounterfeiting treaty”
  
• “Seedy but Speedy: Fungus Spews Spores at 55 Mph”
  
• “'Grey's Anatomy' viewers learn without even trying” (Interesting strategy for medical education.)
  

On 1 ’Adhar 5767, the weird thing of the day was “Charlie the Unicorn”. Today’s weird thing is the sequel, “Charlie the Unicorn 2”.

Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

15 ’Elul 5768: National Woman Road Warrior Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “Add Your Voice” and “End the Financial Irresponsibility of the War in Iraq”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “The pastor who clashed with Palin”:  The dirt, both political and theological, on Sarah Palin keeps on coming, in this case further documentation of her clashes with Rev. Howard Bess, now-retired Baptist minister in Palmer, Alaska (near Wasilla) and author of Pastor, I Am Gay.  Palin is described as “a woman whose mind is given to dogmatic certitude”. Now, logically, if one is definitely right, anyone who believes or practices anything different must be wrong, so in this world view, everyone and everything is divided between the forces of good and the forces of evil with no middle ground.  Bess notes about people with such a world view:  “They view life as an ongoing struggle to the finish between good and evil. Their mind-set is that you do not do business with evil -- you destroy it.”  As such, Palin has acted to impose her belief system on others whenever possible, e.g., seeking banning of certain books and making it impossible to get an abortion in the Wasilla area.  This world view also explains why those who do not kowtow to Palin in everything are subject to feeling her wrath:  since they do not agree with her on something, they must be wrong and therefore evil, and evil is to be fought at every turn.  And since this is a war, practically anything goes in fighting the forces of evil.
   
   The problem with this world view is that it rests on the assumption that Palin is perfectly right.  Unfortunately for Palin, this is not justifiable.  Perfect certainty is only attainable in the world of pure mathematics, and then not in all cases.  (See Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter, which is one long proof of this.)  In science and every study of our universe, we are limited by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle as to what we can know, so perfect certainty there also is impossible.  Even in religion, uncertainty reigns; even though a deity who is not part of our universe may violate our laws of physics with impunity and thus know perfectly the true configuration of our universe, any information given to us by a deity has to be given through sensory experiences and words we can understand.  Human language is notorious for ambiguity and imprecision, problems which get worse when filtered through translation.  The idea that anyone can know perfectly the Will of God as presented in the Hebrew Bible or New Testament without having to worry in the least about misinterpretation, is not credible.  Therefore, Palin has no case for her behavior.  QED.  (I could write more on the virtue of tolerance, but I have other things to do today.)
   
2. “Science lessons should tackle creationism and intelligent design”: I just know I will never hear the end of this if I do not mention this.  Basically, bioethicist cum Anglican priest Michael Reiss has proposed that science teachers should directly address creationism in science classes.  He has gotten a lot of flack about this already, but there is some sense to this.  As he notes, belief in creationism is often part of a larger world-view, and if that world-view is addressed it might be more effective in getting students to understand and accept evolution.  There is also the potential problem that many people who promote evolution have little or no understanding of theology, which if it holds true among science teachers also, it may make addressing the creationist world-view difficult.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• Crime in Israel
  
• Sciencedebate 2008 now has both Obama and McCain’s answers to 14 science questions.
  
• “Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes” (hat tip to J. L. Bell) and “Palin never in Iraq, campaign now says”
  
• “Pilfered primate freed from jail, returns to Maine”
  
• “Rover, call me an ambulance — dog calls 911” (I cannot make this up.)
  

Today’s weird thing is the shockingly accurate “Tina Fey as Sara Palin on Saturday Night Live!!!”. (LANGUAGE WARNING FOR THE SENSITIVE!) The news has had fun with this, and I could not resist.

Enjoy (or be scared) and share the weirdness.

Aaron

9 ’Elul 5768: Wonderful Weirdos Day/National Grandparent’s Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day: “Set the Rules to End Overfishing”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:  “What's the difference between Palin and Muslim fundamentalists? Lipstick” and “Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview”: There is a lot of worrying material in these articles, largely centering on knowing God’s will.  God is not part of our universe, so mundane methods of observation cannot be applied to Him.  All the information one can have about Him ultimately must derive from prophecy.  Sarah Palin and Ed Kalnins, however, seem to be skipping a step.  They believe that God wants things like Alaskans to build a natural gas pipeline and America to fight the war in Iraq.  However, why they believe these are God’s will is not made clear.  If they believe these things are in the Hebrew Bible or New Testament, they fail to source where they believe such matters are dealt with.  And if they believe they are prophets themselves—which seems to be correct for Kalnins, at least—then one has to ask on what basis they believe this.

Keep in mind that the Hebrew Bible demands we not blindly follow those who claim to be prophets.  Deuteronomy 13:2-6 gives the death penalty for anyone prophesying to worship gods other than YHWH.  Deuteronomy 18:20-22 gives rules for false prophecy, that false prophets are to be put to death and that those who deliberately prophesy anything other than what YHWH commanded them or whose predictions turn out to be incorrect are false prophets.  And ahead of his time was the prophet Gidh‘on (Gideon), who in Judges 6:36-40 empirically tested his own prophecy twice to make sure he had actually prophesied.  And if one wants to make the claim that Christians should not be worried about such strictures, note that Jesus in Matthew 7:15 also worries about false prophecy as well:  “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.”

Think about the fruits of following a false prophet.  Kalnins may threaten those who vote Democrat with damnation, but following a false prophet—something YHWH clearly does not approve of—is an even better way to ask to go to Hell.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Taba Gaza (1988)”
  
• “Arrests Mark Last Anti-War March Of Convention” and “Crowd control at the RNC: Fifty million unanswered questions”
  
• This Modern World 2008-09-08
  
• “Comets Disguised as Asteroids ”
  
• “Ten things you don’t know about the Earth”
  
• “Startling NASA/Griffin Email Leaked”
  
• “Creature Survives Naked in Space”

Today’s weird thing is “Tunnel to the Other Side of the Earth”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

4 ’Elul 5768: Newspaper Carrier Day

Greetings.

Worthy cause of the day:

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Palin calls Iraq war 'a task that is from God'”: To quote:

   Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."
   
   In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."

   I find this rather shocking on Governor Palin’s part. Palin, so far as I know, has not claimed to be a prophet, so presumably she does not have privileged access to knowing God’s will. Furthermore, nowhere in the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament does it say that it is our duty to fight in Iraq or build a natural gas pipeline.  Some clarification is in order on how she allegedly knows what God wants.
   
2. Further disappointment with Palin:  Out of curiosity, I watched part of the Republican National Convention on TV last night, and I caught Palin’s speech.  For someone who is allegedly a good Christian (like almost every other candidate, it seems, these days), she was exceedingly untruthful about Barack Obama.  Now, it would be absurd to expect her to agree with Obama, and it is only natural to expect her to attack him (given the dismal state of American politics), but blatantly misrepresenting his positions (which John McCain has also done), especially on taxes, is not legitimate.  It says in the Decalogue, which despite the mainstream antinomian position of Christianity, Christians do seem to claim as binding, “You will not claim [anything] about your neighbor [as] a false witness” (Exodus 20:12).  Her lying about Obama is therefore un-Christian and requiring some sincere repentance.  The only excuse I can see is that Palin does not know Obama’s actual positions, indicating ignorance or stupidity, neither of which is desirable in a politician. Those interested in knowing the truth about Obama may wish to see Snopes.com’s data on urban legends about him; they also have a corresponding page on John McCain.
3. “Floating church offers solace for traders”: Interesting approach.
   
4. “Canceled Muhammad novel finds new publisher”: Thank YHWH! Down with the dhimmi mentality!

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Back in the Nineties (1998)”
  
• “Chicken pox vaccine dramatically reduces cases” and “Autism, Measles Vaccine: No Link”
  
• “Just Not Good Enough”
  
• “The 5 most laughable terms of service on the Net”
  
• “Why Our Brains Do Not Intuitively Grasp Probabilities”
  
• “What is muscular dystrophy?”
  
• “Science Questions for Would-Be Presidents”
  
• “8-foot mechanical ape missing, owner mystified”
  
• “He's giving you access, one document at a time”
  
• “19-square-mile ice sheet breaks loose in Canada”

Today’s weird thing is “Making "The Fly" sing”. Enjoy (or be afraid, be very, very afraid) and share the weirdness.

Aaron