Beware of mind-bogglingly stupid aliens

Greetings.

Jewish date:  7 Tammuz 5769.

Today’s holiday:  Feast of Simon Magus.

Today’s quasi-holidays:  Camera Day, Please Take My Children to Work Day.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. More people dying needlessly due to bad religious thinking:  “Horror of Kenya's 'witch' lynchings” and “Trial in death of infant raises questions of parental rights, religious freedom”, and “Man sees subtle victory in fight against Jehovah's Witnesses”.
2. It is unsurprising that Buddhists would find this offensive:  “Footwear store in Geneva uses Buddha statue to hang shoes”.
   
3. More oppression:  “AZERBAIJAN: 'Why shouldn't we bring order to this?'”.
   
4. Political irony:  “Atheist China promotes Buddhism”.
   
5. “Video of church's 'casting out' gay 'demon' in teen sparks anger”:  While demons are probably the least likely cause for homosexuality (as no one seems to have demonstrated yet why anyone specifically ends up with the sexual orientation they have), they are at least the most original suspected cause.  Some solid data supporting the existence of demons and an actual test of whether casting out gay demons actually works would be nice.
   

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Escape Attempt”
  
• “If It Bleeds, It Leads: An Exception to the Rule”
  
• “Lost Apollo 11 video tapes found?”
  

Today’s weird thing, submitted by Barry, is “40 Things I Learned From ID4 That I Never Knew Before”.  Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

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

7 Tishri 5768: Ten Days of Repentance/Child Health Day/World Hospice and Palliative Care Day/World Habitat Day/National Storytelling Festival

Greetings.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Maybe We Should Blame God for the Subprime Mess”: This article suggests part of the current financial crisis is due to prosperity theology, a Christian belief that correct religious belief or practice leads to material wealth. While God may well favor followers with material benefits, assuming that one will receive said benefits is a dangerous one. Humans are always imperfect, at the very least making mistakes. Frequently it goes deeper, with people can blind to at least some of their own faults, so they may not even realize that some of what they believe or do is wrong. As such, one cannot automatically assume one is worthy. And even if one is worthy, people do not always get what they deserve, e.g., the Book of Job teaches us that bad things can happen even to the most righteous people. As such, making assumptions that one will receive material benefits one for being religious is not justified.
   
2. “Faith-healing parents arrested”: To quote:

   The mother and father of a teenager who died in June turned themselves in Thursday to face charges of criminally negligent homicide.

   
   Neal Beagley, 16, died because of bladder complications nearly four months ago. Authorities said his parents belong to the Followers of Christ Church, a religion relying on prayer in place of medical care.
   
   

   After Beagley died, a medical examiner ruled his death could have been prevented had his family taken him to a doctor.

   You can probably hear me sighing at this point.  Major rule:  PRAYER IS ONLY A FORM OF COMMUNICATION.  When one prays, all one does is talk to one’s deity, be it in prose, poetry, or song, be it praise, thanksgiving, or petition; that is all.  Prayer, by itself, does nothing else.  If one is fortunate, the prayer may be granted; it may also not be granted.  Whichever happens is not in our hands, so it pays not to rely on prayer alone when other means of accomplishing worthwhile goals, such as healing the sick, are available.  As empirical evidence that faith-healing can go horribly wrong, I recommend “What's the harm in believing in faith healing?”
   
3. “Pope Benedict XVI starts off marathon Bible reading”: This is an interesting way to promote the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.
   
4. “US financial crisis causes spike in online anti-Semitism: monitor”: Anti-Semites will blame anything bad on the Jews, whether it makes sense or not.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Banks”
  
• “'Intelligent' computers put to the test”
  

Today’s weird thing is “'Smoot' measurement reaches new heights at MIT”. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

10 Tammuz 5768: Embrace Your Geekness Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “Speak Out Against Logging that Threatens Martens and Other Wildlife” and “Stand Up for Prevention and Public Health!” (skimping on healthcare is a recipe for disaster).

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:

1. “Man Claims God Uses Him To Cure Cancer, Raise Dead; Thousands”:  This is an article about a Pentecostal faith-healer.  It is a good sign that even fellow Pentecostals are skeptical about his claims of miracle cures.  Lack of evidence is a warning sign that something fishy is happening.
   
2. “Man sues church, claiming spirit forced his fall”:  This does not sound so much like a religious fallacy as it does a failure to act responsibly.  If someone has a tendency to fall over when having a deep religious experience, does it make sense for him to continue having such experiences standing up?  It is perfectly possible to experience ecstasy while sitting down.  That the claimant blames his church for his own error suggests that these religious experiences have utterly failed in their function of making him a better person.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Fossil finds suggest an early origin for human speech”
  
• “Study: As gas prices go up, auto deaths decline” (Apparently there is a silver lining to one of the things people love to gripe about these days.)
  
• “Kan. town sets pair of penny world records”
  
• “Rare 'Star-Making Machine' Found in Distant Universe”
  
• “Canadian Media: Errors and Distortions”
  
• “I Hear Ya: Bush Signs Expanded Wiretap Power into Law” (Shame on Bush and everyone who voted for this law!)
  
• “Autism Genes That Control Early Learning”
  
• “The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes”
  
• “Superconductors Enter Commercial Utility Service”
  
• “Sandwich board is new tool in job search” (Maybe I ought to try a stunt like this.  Serious suggestions of an appropriate stunt to try will be taken under consideration and appreciated.)
  
• “Will This Vaccine Prevent or Reverse Alzheimer's Disease?”
  
• “Diet Diary Doubles Weight Loss” (This makes sense. After all, it is harder to lie to oneself about what one has eaten when their is evidence to the contrary.)
  

Today’s weird thing is the My Little Cthulhu Vinyl Figure . (If you don’t understand it, you probably don’t want to know anyway.) Enjoy and share the weirdness with a fan (or anti-fan) of H. P. Lovecraft.

Aaron