Chalk this one up to proof of the supernatural; the face of Jesus Christ, Lord of Hosts, Son of God, appears on a moth in Texas. Apparently when it moves, it kind of looks like the King of Kings is talking to you.
I always pictured Jesus with a more pleasant look on his face.
Here’s the news report from KLTV in Texas:
The devilishly handsome University of Ontario Institute of Technology professor Christopher diCarlo has been honoured as Humanist of the Year by the Humanist Association of Canada. Dr. diCarlo “teaches both bioethics and critical thinking at Oshawa’s UOIT, where he pushes students to recognize the cultural and religious underpinnings of their opinions. Such self-awareness, he says, is essential to constructing a strong argument”, reports the Guelph Mercury.
Commitment to reason is what garnered the good doctor the award; he relates the realization that only 1 religious group - the one you belong to - is welcome in Heaven as a turning point for his rejection of inherited superstitious beliefs. You can check out the “best critical thinking book ever”, according to comments, “‘How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass: A Practical Guide to Critical Thinking” on Chapters; here’s his lecture The Relations of Natural Systems: A Synthetic Understanding of Causality.
Dr. diCarlo is noted for having been ousted from Wilfrid Laurier University for denying creationist myths and teaching the commonly accepted theory that early North Americans migrated across the Bering Strait.
The Guelph Merucry adds that Statistics Canada reports that atheism is now the second-largest belief system in Canada, at 16.3% (or 19%, depending where you’re reading), second only to Catholicism. Go Canada, and congratulations Dr. diCarlo!
The Dead Sea Scrolls are undergoing a massive conservation and recording effort that will see them posted online in their entirety, photographed with new infra-red methods that allow previously invisible text to be read. The scrolls are on their last legs, having been assembled with Scotch tape in the 1950s and steadily degrading ever since. The 900 documents are in about 15 000 pieces, and the hope is that the newly visible bits will help with reconstruction, matching handwriting and such. In any case people can stop groping them and exposing them to light, and do their research virtually.
What new tidbits about Christ will we learn? Secrets so very dark they had to be buried in a cave for 2000 years? Stay tuned; the scrolls should be online in a couple years.
Don’t get too attached to JC, however…a fresh interpretation of ancient-Hebrew inscribed stone tablet predating the big J seems to bear an awfully similar messiah legend, involving a prince of princes who dies and rises after 3 days. Is this a pre-Christian prophecy, or another formulation of the good ole’ Horus myth? Occham says…
Can you imagine wading through the mountains of curse-word-laden email this man must get? Between missives of hate (from loving Christians, mainly) and limited-time offers on wiener supplements, I wonder that the good doctor even opens his Outlook.
And what the heck, Hitchens on religion:
via videosift.com
Calgary officials are permitting hijabs and saris to be worn in public pools under a new inclusiveness policy designed to encourage women who are otherwise muffled by religious prohibition to have some fun on their holidays. Saris are not permitted in the deep end lest they get sucked into the pool’s filtration system, reports the Globe and Mail.
Aheda Zanetti, the woman behind Australia Islamo-surf label Ahiida, remembers “growing up in Australia (posed) a lot of challenges for a young Muslim / Arab girl. As an active person who liked to participate in community activities and sport, I found myself restricted due to cultural and religious beliefs…I noticed there are younger girls and women …obeying their Islamic belief in dressing modestly, in turn, having to miss out on opportunities, and (not) taking part in any sporting activities that Australia has to offer.”
To combat this sports injustice, Ms. Zanetti brings us…the Burkini©! Available in both ’slim fit’ and ‘modest’, these $200 Allah-approved bathing costumes are worth every penny when you just wanna rock the pool in an appropriately reserved manner.
I know I’m supposed to be mowing my lawn, but this is good stuff. In the previous post I mentioned David Campbell, though not by name, the Florida school teacher who’s working hard to make sure kids get taught evolution and that they aren’t turned off by it by seeing it as in opposition to their religion.
David’s reputedly up against a document circulated by the loathsome Discovery Institute called “10 Questions to Ask Your Biology Teacher About Evolution”. These questions are likely designed to trip up teachers without specialized knowledge, making it look like evolution is indefensible or incorrect simply because a B. Ed. doesn’t come with advanced biology training.
The National Institute for Science Education got wind of this and compiled answers to the questions.
Well, my godless friends, it’s the Lord’s Day, and in the interest of getting my lawn mowed before sundown, here’s a roundup of some irreligious stuff I came across this week that likely all deserve their own individual posts, but ain’t getting ‘em.
Tyson Koska over at Truth is a Woman is conducting a very brief poll on religious/not-so-religious self identification. He’s got well over 400 respondents so far, and would like to hit 1000. For your edification, the interim results - why not go give your two cents?
Also dig: a multi-denominatinonal “Bookshelf for the Religiously Confused“, one of the more offensive t-shirts I’ve ever seen, and an shining example of pro-gay-marriage Mormons taking their opposition to the Church’s opposition to the internet.
Vote in a poll on MSNBC - should God come off the American dollar bill? - and discuss on their Newsvine forum. Marvel at the reasonableness of a California court ruling that regardless of their religious beliefs, doctors can’t discriminate against gays and lesbians (huh?). Note that Tiger Woods can walk on water.
Roll your eyes that a prominent Shroud of Turin ‘expert’ has won the support of Oxford University in carrying out new carbon dating tests on the wretched piece of cloth [I wonder what Dr. Dawkins has to say about his employer cooperating with such investigation?]; consider yourself lucky that the Pew Forum reports a slim margin of people prefer religious institutions to keep their noses out of politics; be proud of one school teacher in Jacksonville as he introduces evolution in the classroom as a result of a Florida Department of Education mandate to teach real science; cheer the Saudi women who may one day soon be able to drive; and peruse early reviews of Religulous, which sound pretty good.
Amen.
National Geographic reports “a labyrinth filled with stone temples and pyramids in 14 caves - some underwater” has been discovered in Yucatán, Mexico. The site is a Mayan portal to Xibalba (pronounced Shh-bulba), the urban underworld also known as the “Place of Fear”.
We may want to seal up this particular archeological gateway and forget we ever found it, because Xibalba is a pretty awful place, and we don’t want cruise ship passsengers wandering into it by accident. Ruled by two badasses named One Death and Seven Death, the 10 Xibalban demons bring “sickness, starvation, fear, destitution, (and) pain” to humanity, I guess until humanity gets sick of that and retires to Hell. After crossing a pus-filled river, among other delights, former Mayans are tested in a variety of haunted houses like Dark House, Razor House, and Bat House. Death (again) and humiliation await those without the guile to outsmart the infernal tests.
It intrigues me to consider how seriously the Mayans took this story and how real they held their gods to be. Some of these caves are underwater. Archeologists think they actually held their breath, dove, and carved the columns and statues. Their Xibalban Hell was 100% real to them, and this was what they were compelled to do about it.
P.S. Mayans thought the first humans were made of corn.
You can profess your atheism all you want, but if you were baptized, confirmed, christened, or otherwise formally admitted into an organized religion, chances are your name appears in a register somewhere announcing it to God and the world. Possibly legally, as in the case of census data and the persistently-rumoured distorted membership claims of the Catholic church.
A growing number of adults, once subjects of ‘paedobaptism’, are as a conclusive step in their atheism seeking to officially remove their names from any such lists. It’s tougher than you might think. The National Secular Society of the UK offers a general-purpose debaptism certificate you can download and display proudly in your home or office, but folks in the Catholic church need to supply an actus defectionus to the parish priest where their baptism took place. Confirmation stats are considered preferable to baptism stats, but if you want to deplete the official toll by 1, you ought to get your name removed from any register.
This only renounces your membership, however…no church will admit to removing the actual baptism. It’s an historical fact, like graduating high school, and leaves ‘an indelible mark on the soul’, according to the Catholic church. You’re an apostate now, buddy, and you got some ’splaining to do when you reach the pearly gates.
The Italian Union of Rationalists and Agnostics (how cool does that sound?) have supplied over 30 000 would-be defectors with the actus download, though many require a face-to-face visit with a priest accompanying their letter of Christly insultations.Exiting the Mormon church may be especially difficult - no one’s explicitly saying so, but there’s an awful lot of instructions available for how to do it.
Does it matter? Politically, yes, if you don’t want to be contribute to religious numbers somehow in your federal census data. Spiritually, a nice ritual debaptism might be refreshing. Send a clear message to God: we’re no longer dating, I’m deleting you from my friends list, and I don’t want you texting me.
Wild speculation? Illuminati machinations of the highest social order? Mormons know my favourite song and what I looked like in grade 11?
Blogger Brady Brim-DeForest reports a possibly-insane-but-certainly-interesting rumour that the LDS has made a bid, likely greater than 5 billion bucks, to purchase Facebook. Their interest stems from their geneaology hobby - the Mormons have the largest genealogical database in the US.
The Church PR dept sent Brady a one-liner to the effect of “This rumor has no foundation whatsoever,”…and 2 hours later the LDS website was down! Coincidence…or Anonymous attack?
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