Mocking The Clickbait 18: You Need Better Scientists.

New Evidence Tells Scientists What Really Happened On Noah's Ark.

There's no new evidence to be had that will change the fact that there was no Noah, ark, or worldwide flood.  If a scientist actually believes otherwise they aren't a very good scientist.

"Free The Arm!"

That's what I joked I should shout at Saskatoon's Holy Family Cathedral.  The reason?  The severed arm of Catholic Saint Francis Xavier is on tour, and it made a stop today at Holy Family.  Touring a long dead man's arm like that seems foolish and kind of ghoulish to me.  And as always with supposed relics there's the obvious question of whether it actually is what it is claimed to be. 

Strange Combo, Yet Not.

This morning I visited one of the local Dollarama stores.  I noticed that they had some CDs, and took a quick look.  There was nothing I wanted to buy, but one did attract my attention.  It was a karaoke CD of religious songs.  That's a bit odd.  Even more unusual was the cover art, which consisted of a young woman, drawn in an anime/manga style.  Not quite the combo you might expect.

But then again maybe you would.  Christianity and anime have met in the past.  Japanese animation firm Tatsunoko Productions collaborated with the US Christian Broadcast Network in the early '80s on Superbook, a series of cartoon adventures based on the Old and New Testament.  At the same time they also produced a series called The Flying House, which also used Biblical materials as the plots for its episodes.  Some years later Osamu Tezuka, revered as one of the giants of anime and manga, created In the Beginning: The Bible Stories, an anime series that told the stories of the Old Testament.  It was co-production with Nippon TV and the Italian government broadcaster RAI.  It was one of Tezuka's last projects before his death of cancer in 1989, and was not completed until after his death.

Someone Has To Do It.

Nasty person that I am I want someone to drive in a NASCAR race with a car numbered 666.   Would it freak out a bunch of people?  Given how the audience for that sort of racing supposedly skews I'd love to find out.

I Agree With Local Baptists.

This morning I saw a sign in front of a local Baptist church that said "One thing that cannot be recycled is wasted time."  I agree, which is why I don't spend regular time in churches.  I already have plenty of ways to waste time.

A Growing Food Trend.

A Villa Madina outlet has been added the food court at the Centre at Circle and 8th.  Like a lot of recent businesses it uses electronic signage instead of old fashioned printed signs.  One of the pieces of information on its video loop is that the meat at Villa Madina is certified halal.

Saskatoon's Muslim population has increased considerably in recent years.  Along with that increase has been increased visibility of halal food products.  You can find them both in stores catering to local Muslims, and in places like Real Canadian Superstore.  So a restaurant that advertises the halal status of its food is no surprise.  On the other hand I'm sure it's a pleasant surprise for those looking for more halal eating options.

I don't expect we'll see halal meat in a lot of the older fast food places.  It probably wouldn't be worth the bother given that other menu items won't be halal, like anything that includes pork products.  And of course Muslims will vary in their willingness to accept non-halal food products.  For some it will be a very important issue, for others it will be quite far down the list of what they worry about.

Incidentally I went up to the mall to visit Co Op to pick up some frozen hamburgers.  The hamburgers in question have no indication of halal certification on the box.  Not that I was looking for such certification when I bought them, not being a Muslim. 

Don't Assume.

This weekend's Sunday Phoenix contains a flyer for the Marriage You've Always Wanted conference.  Seeing that it involves the Rosewood Park Alliance Church, and an author and evangelist named Gary Chapman, I'm afraid I must note it will not deal with the marriage I've always wanted.  After all I don't want a marriage involving conservative Christian nonsense like "...God's biblical intention for sex...."

Not that I'm ever likely to get married anyway.

Secularism, You're Doing It Wrong.

Quebec is sometimes perceived as being more progressive than the rest of Canada.  But then you have things like this, the Parti Quebecois government announcing legislation to restrict religious symbols.   The "Charter of Quebec Values" will include a ban on public employees, in places like hospitals and schools, wearing religious headwear and "highly visible" crucifixes.

I'm no fan of religion.  I think the world would be a bit better place if one of the major sources of friction between people, belief in magical beings for whom no substantial evidence exists, fading away.  But I'm also a believer in people having the freedom to believe in such things as long as they don't harm others with that belief.  Wearing a hijab or a Sikh turban doesn't fall into the category of harming others.  Banning public employees from wearing such things is discrimination.  A devout male Sikh for example must wear a turban in public, so this ban will effectively prevent him from retaining, or applying for, a government job. 

The concept may have a lot of support in Quebec, if polls are to be believed.  Many Quebeckers supposedly see such religious garb as a cultural threat.  If so they have an amazingly low confidence in their own culture, thinking the mere wearing of a head covering could endanger it.  And if they want to encourage a secular culture this is exactly the wrong way of doing it.  All such restrictions will do is discourage the devout from participating in the secular culture around them, especially women who already face sexism from their co-religionists.  

The "highly visible" crucifix provision also sounds suspiciously like a copout intended to appease  certain segments of the Christian community.   Besides the question of what will determine what counts as "highly visible" is the fact that most Christian sects do not consider wearing a cross to be an inviolate requirement of showing one's devoutness.  The Christians who might be effected by this bill, such as Catholic nuns whose orders still require some sort of habit to be worn in public, likely don't work for secular hospitals and schools.

HRH Antichrist!

The latest issue of the Globe tabloid had me rolling my eyes with its cover story that Queen Elizabeth has made Prince William King.  In case you didn't know, that isn't going to happen.  The line of succession is quite clear, Charles will be the next King, unless he dies before the Queen.  The Queen just can't arbitrarily make someone King.

So I was sitting here tonight, snooping around to see how many people actually believe this kind of thing.  But as I did I found an interesting example of kookery.  Some folks believe Prince William is the Antichrist. I shouldn't have been particularly surprised, since there's a few people who believe King Juan Carlos of Spain is the Antichrist.  So why not the much better known William?  I suppose there's even  someone who has a theory that Crown Prince Naruhito, heir to the Japanese throne, is the Antichrist.

Specifically I stumbled across this page, but of course there are others out there.  I find it amusing that it talks about Princess Diana's supposed  "prediction" that the succession would skip a generation, and that William will be the next monarch.  Personally I wouldn't call that a prediction, I'd call that wishful thinking.

Fair warning, Help Free the Earth seems to be run by people who'll believe just about every conspiracy theory they've run across.  That includes that persistent piece of scumbaggery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.  They try the old "We don't hate Jews, only Zionists." dodge, but you can bet your bottom dollar they've never heard of a Jew they don't think is an evil Zionist who wants to take over the world.   On the other hand I find it amusing that they think Alex Jones is actually a tool of the New World Order. You'd think more conspiracy theorists would consider the possibility that other conspiracy theorists are trying to manipulate them for the bad guys.  Of course it's probably as much about being jealous that Jones has a significant public profile, and they don't, as any belief Jones works for the enemy.

Listening To A Ghost.

Since it's a nice evening I decided to take my Grundig G5 shortwave portable outside and tune around a bit, hoping to avoid a bit of the indoor electrical noise.  As I turned the dial I came across a preacher that sounded familiar.  I assumed it was Pastor Pete Peters with his Scriptures For America program and sure enough that's who it was.  Peters, a believer in the racist Identity brand of Christianity, was a fixture on shortwave when I was a heavy listener in the early '90s.

But when I typed "Scriptures For America" into Google I got a surprise.  Peters died in 2011.  I'd been listening to a ghost!  Or, rather, even though he's dead the miracle of audio recording allows Peters to keep spreading his racist claptrap from beyond the grave.  Too bad.  Incidentally the show didn't note that Peters has died.

The church Peters ran in LaPorte, Colorado, apparently only has 100 members.  I wonder where they've been getting the money to pay for his broadcasts all these years, along with their other activities. 

Rename?

The names we give things can be so interesting.  In English today's date on the Christian calender is called Good Friday.  When you think about it this is kind of an odd name, since today is the day Jesus was supposedly killed.  Wouldn't a more appropriate name be Evil Friday?  Or Murder Friday?  Of course since he supposedly died at the hands of Roman law enforcement perhaps the appropriate name should be Execution Friday.  For that matter Easter could be called Good Sunday, since that's when Jesus supposedly came back from the dead.

An Interesting Employee.

Currently there's a kiosk for the well known charity World Vision in Saskatoon's Centre at Circle and 8th mall. One of the girls working there is a Muslim.  World Vision is a Christian charity, so it obviously surprised me.  Unless of course there's some Christian sect whose women regularly wear hijabs that |I'm unfamiliar with. 

I Hope It Doesn't Give Her Ideas.

No doubt you'll have heard about Pope Benedict's resignation by the time you read this.  I can only hope his actions don't inspire certain others to follow.  Specifically Queen Elizabeth.  I don't know about you, but I'm not particularly fond of Prince Charles and some of his ideas, so I'm in no hurry to see him on the throne.

The tabloids will no doubt have a field day with this.  They'll claim all sorts of evil goings on as the "real" reason Benedict resigned, or start babbling about him making prophecies.

Because of his age Benedict was often suspected of being a transitional Pope, one who was chosen precisely because he wouldn't be Pope long, so younger candidates could strengthen their positions.  Maybe we'll see some evidence of this as the process of choosing a new Pope begins.

Removed For Safety Reasons.

Coming home this afternoon on the bus I spotted a Christian tract sitting on one of the seats.  I took it with me when I got off, so that some poor unfortunate wouldn't be warped by reading it.

In reality I suspect that tracts don't have much effect at all.  Religious upbringing, personal relations, and other interactions strike me as much more likely to have an effect on one's religious choices than an easily ignored piece of paper.  Of course part of the thinking of those who distribute tracts is that they, like the religious works they're based on, have some sort of God given power to effect others, that they're a magical talisman.

Oh No!

I just found one of the bills in my pocket has a serial number that ends in 666!  Whatever shall I do?

Spend it like I normally would.  Seroiusly, did you think there would be any other answer?  People who worry about the number 666 should stop being so paranoid.  Besides, I hear there's some dispute whether 666 is the correct number anyway.

Checks And Balances.

"Jesus is Lord," and its variations, is a phrase anyone in a society with a large Christian presensce has enountered many times.  I'm afraid however it's a concept I can't support.  I prefer my rulers to have their powers limited by the rule of law.  Jesus supposedly isn't, making him too likely to abuse his power.

Godly Gigabytes.

Christianity generates a lot of business activity, especially in the US.  You can fnd all sorts of Christian oriented products, ranging from the expected, like numerous Bible printings, to the surprising, like Christian sex toys.   So when I noticed an ad over on a couple of the Freethought Blogs blogs today for the Puritan Hard Drive my curiosity was piqued.  Was it someone's clumsy attempt at selling computer parts to a captive audience?  Clicking on the ad revealed that the Puritan Hard Drive is actually a hard drive filled will all sorts of religious material.  The producers did go to rather more effort than simply rebranding a standard hard drive and selling it at a markup.

I do wonder about a couple of things.  Firstly, what would the actual Puritans think of computers?  Assuming you could convince them they weren't some form of magic would they think them an appropriate tool for the faithful?  Even their usefulness for Biblical scholarship might not be enough to convince them.  A more imporant question may be whether any of the material on the Puritan Hard Drive is under copyright, and did they get permission to use such material?  Some people may feel they deserve to be properly paid for their hard work, no matter what the intent of the creators of this product might be. 

As for why ads like that pop up on the atheist oriented Freethought Blogs it's simply a result of the keyword algorithm used by the ad service that provides their ads.  Certain words and combinations of words will result in certain ads appearing, even if said ads seem at odds with the editorial stance of the site's conttributors.    In the end it still benefits the site, and non-believers clicking on the ads doens't help sell the product.

Do Creationists Pee?

The question came to mind after reading a new bit of Creationist nonsense PZ Myers came across.  You'd think anyone above about oh, the age of three would know that urine is the result of fluid intake, and therefore largely composed of water.  Apparently not whoever came up with this silliness.

(If you read the comments to PZ's post you'll see a lot of people think it's a Poe. Whether it is or not you can be sure someone out there does actually believe this.)

Read The Text.

Last week the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled that proposals that Saskatchewan civil marriage commissioners should be allowed to opt out of marrying same sex couples would be unconstitutional.  Not surprisingly some people were not happy with the ruling.  One was Ray Noble of Saskatoon, whose letter was published in today's Saskatoon Star Phoenix.  It's short enough to quote in full

RE: Proposals 'a step backward'(SP, Jan. 11)
I say the Court of Appeals ruling was a step backward-about 4000 years-to Sodom and Gomorrah.

As yes, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  One of the few "proofs" that gets dragged out of the Bible that God doesn't approve of gay people.  But have some of the people who use it actually read the story?

Genesis 18 tells us that Abraham has visitors, minions of God who warn him Sodom and Gomorrah will soon be destroyed because of their supposed wickedness, with Abraham trying to convince them and God that there are enough righteous men for the cities to be spared.  The minions soon set off to Sodom to visit Abraham's nephew Lot.  Lot welcomes them in, but the men of Sodom soon appear, demanding the strangers come out so they "may know them."  This is generally taken by Christians to mean that the locals want to have sex with the visitors.  Lot offers his virgin daughters instead.

Let's repeat that:  Lot offers to let the men of Sodom do as they please with his daughters.  In other words he offers to let the men rape them instead.  This is acceptable, but raping the male visitors isn't?   One assumes that most modern people would be appalled at the idea that raping women is somehow more acceptable than raping men.  Given this it's not hard to assume many Christians haven't read the story, or they wouldn't be so quick to use it as evidence against homosexuality.

It gets worse.  When the visitors warn Lot they are about to smite the city and that he must gather up all those close to him we learn that his virgin daughters are engaged to be married.  The text indicates that his future sons-in-law don't take the warning seriously, and so the next day are left behind when the visitors force Lot, his wife, and his daughters to flee Sodom.  So not only was Lot willing to betray his daughters by letting them be raped, he was willing to betray his future kinfolk as well. 

As Lot and his family flee the messengers of God warn them not to look back as they prepare to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.  The cities are destroyed by fire and brimstone, and Lot's wife makes the mistake of looking back, resulting in her being turned into a pillar of salt.

Note that Genesis doesn't name any of these women.  Whoever wrote this part of the text apparently thought they were as unimportant as some modern readers seem to.  After  all their focus is all on the supposed homosexual angle.

This is of course the typical cherry picking that goes on with religious texts.  People use the story of Lot to attack gay people, ignoring the details of the story that show by our standards Lot is in no way a righteous man and seems little better than those who were killed in Sodom, yet doesn't suffer their fate.  They also feel free to use this story to claim that God prohibits homosexuality, yet don't see the need to follow things like the dietary restrictions laid out in the Old Testament, claiming Jesus brought about a "new covenant" that superceeds the requirements of Leviticus.  But if that's the case why not the supposed prohibition against homosexuality as well?

Interestingly other Jewish scriptures indicate that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for their general nastiness, that they were uncharitable, inhospitable to strangers, and often cruelly violent.  This includes the story of one of Lot's daughters, Paltith, being burned after giving bread to a poor visitor to Sodom, while another girl who did the same thing was smeared with honey and hung from the city wall, to be killed by bees.

And while we're on dubious uses of ancient texts the Sodom and Gomorrah saga is one of those Biblical sagas that are claimed by some to be evidence of ancient alien encouters, with some sort of alien nuclear device destroying the cities.  I doubt whoever first wrote the Lot story would be amused at such speculation.

Typical Of The Big Guy.

Prince Edward Island is currently in the middle of a debate about allowing Sunday shopping all year round.  Opposition leader Olive Crane launched a private members' bill calling for ending restrictions that prohibit Sunday opening between Christmas and Victoria Day.  After appearing on a local TV show Monday Crane slipped on the set of the program and hurt her ankle.  During debate on Thursday transportation minister Ron Mackinley implied the accident might be a punishment from God.  If so that would be so typical of the Supreme Being.  He's always doing stuff like punishing people for minor changes he doesn't like and making the face of the Virgin Mary appear in oil spots in parking lots.  Yet he never seems to do worthwhile things like making the entire leadershp of North Korea drop dead for that mess they caused this week. 

Of course if you believe certain religions Olive Crane is doing the right thing.  After all they don't believe that Sunday is a godly day, but Saturday, or Friday.  Perhaps Mr. Mackinley better watch himself in case they're right and good ole arbitrary God decides to punish him for opposing Sunday opening.