Beware of the Dark Side

Greetings.

Jewish date: 9 Tammuz 5769.

Today’s quasi-holidays: Build A Scarecrow Day, Canada Day, Second Half of the New Year Day.

Worthy cause of the day: “Declare Your Energy Independence” and “Help Release Laura Ling and Euna Lee”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Al Qaida warns of revenge on France for burka warning” and “Sweden won't push debate over burqa ban in European Union”: I am not keen on the notion of a ban on the burqa—despite considering it overkill—due to opposition to unnecessary restrictions on freedom of religion. However, threatening revenge—which coming from a terrorist group must be given weight as credible—is not a good way to argue that the forces of Islam should not be fought.
   
2. More religious oppression: “AZERBAIJAN: Parliament approves latest Religion Law changes”, “For Bahais, a Crackdown Is Old News”, and “Bible college students killed in Yemen”.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The East Bank”
  
• “Doctors warn against 'swine flu parties'”: What is wrong with some people? Disease is not fought by spreading it! Diseases are fought by keeping them from spreading!
  
• “Screening Tests – Cumulative Incidence of False Positives”
  

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Barry, is a T-shirt. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

Beware of the cat

Greetings.

Jewish date:  5 ’Iyyar 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Israeli Independence Day.

Today’s quasi-holiday:  National/International Dance Day.

Worthy causes of the day:  “This Mother's Day - Help Stop Poverty Now” and “May 9 is the deadline to roll back Bush regulations on endangered species”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. More religious intolerance:  “Yemen's Jews uneasy as Muslim hostility grows”, “Catholics fear Hindu 'Taliban'”, “Protestant clergyman and wife killed with machetes”
   
2. “Survey: Half of U.S. adults have switched religions”:  It is a cliché that people normally follow the religion of their parents.  Apparently that is not true, at least in the United States.  What the article does not make clear is how many people are switching for the only right reason:  objective truth, i.e., leaving one’s religion because one comes to the conclusion that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that it is false or converting to another religion because one comes to the conclusion that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that it is true or at least a good approximation of the truth.  Large numbers of people drift away from their original religion, find another they like more, or leave because are dissatisfied with religious teachings, but no information is given on how rational or emotional these decisions really are.  Also to be noted is that the survey reports mainly (due to sample size considerations) on Catholicism and Protestantism.  Exactly how big a change in beliefs and whether rites are required for it to be considered for someone to have converted is not stated.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Israel Independence Day”
  
• “Snowrollers”

Today’s weird thing is “O hai,”:

If only real firewalls worked this way...  Enjoy, share the weirdness, and happy Israeli Independence Day.

Aaron

No weird thing, but some comments on Reaper and Cupid

Greetings.

Jewish date: 27 Nisan 5769.

Today’s holidays: Day 12 of the ‘Omer, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Today’s quasi-holidays: Husband Appreciation Day, Kindergarten Day.

Worthy causes of the day: “Accountability for Torture”, “Stop Discriminatory Sentencing”, “The Human Face of Climate Change”, “Taxpayer Proxy”, and “Stand With Dr. Dean”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. Lack of freedom of religion: “Committee to Follow up Quran Desecration Case”. Note the vigilantism in response to an alleged offense; freedom of religion violations are not just the province of governments.
   
2. I know, I am getting bad about keeping up with commenting on depictions of religion on TV (thank you, Richard Dawkins, for writing a book which is so profoundly wrong), so right now I will write just a few comments on Reaper and Cupid.
   
   Reaper, which I was introduced to only recently despite it now being in its second season, is something of a mixture of the old Faust legend, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the fairy tale “ Rumpelstiltskin”. The premise is that slacker Sam Oliver has to hunt down souls escaped from Hell for the Devil because Sam’s parents sold his soul to Satan. Unlike Buffy, the only one of Sam’s sidekicks who is competent and moral is his girlfriend, and his superhuman powers are very poorly developed, so the overall tone is rather goofy. Theologically it is even worse off than the Faust legend taken literally, since there is the whole question of whether a soul can really be considered property made worse when the soul belongs to another person. There are also questions of how the whole punishment system of Hell works, what its purpose is, and how souls can escape Hell which have still been left largely murky. Satan is rather enigmatic, too; it is not clear if he is working against God or for God. Some of these questions are inherent in traditional Christian ideas, and I hope the writers explore them more.
   
   Cupid is a remake of a show that was on TV 11 years ago. The premise is that someone in modern America believes that he really is the Roman love god Cupid and that he has been exiled from Olympus for neglecting his job. His only hope of returning, he believes, is to match up 100 couples which feel true love. “Cupid” also denies that there is any truth to the story of Cupid and Psyche. This premise naturally gives “Cupid” a series of 100 goals to accomplish as a way of moving the plot along, not to mention 100 headaches for the psychologist in charge of keeping him out of trouble. So far the theology has not gone any deeper or further than I have mentioned, and it is not clear whether “Cupid” is really a Roman god or merely delusional. Intuition suggests other alleged deities may make an appearance at some point to help keep the plot from becoming formulaic.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Hitler at the UN (1975)” and “Racism on the agenda: Ahmadinejad's attack on Israel triggers walkout at the UN”
  
• “Innovation: Harnessing spammers to advance AI”
  
• “Source of Singer hoax remains a mystery”: Someone please tell me this is a hoax and that no one is really this gullible.
  

There is no weird thing today due to Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Aaron