Saturday, February 16, 2008

My Favorite Comic Strip is Non Sequitur







Biblical Wisdom, Part 8 - On Slavery and Women

Exodus 21:7-11

21:7
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
21:8
If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
21:9
And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
21:10
If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
21:11
And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

Makes me wonder how any woman in the 21st century could be a christian (or a practicing Jew, for that matter).

Friday, February 15, 2008

Priest Fight!

Somehow I missed this story, which happened in December 2007. As I read it, I couldn't help but imagine the fight being re-enacted by members of Monty Python...

Robed Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests went at each other with brooms and stones inside the Church of the Nativity on Thursday as long-standing rivalries erupted in violence during holiday cleaning.

The basilica, built over the grotto in Bethlehem where Christians believe Jesus was born, is administered jointly by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities. Any perceived encroachment on one group's turf can set off vicious feuds.
On Thursday, dozens of priests and cleaners came to the fortress-like church to scrub and sweep the floors, walls and rafters ahead of the Armenian and Orthodox Christmas, celebrated in the first week of January. Thousands of tourists visited the church this week for Christmas celebrations.

But the cleanup turned ugly after some of the Orthodox faithful stepped inside the Armenian church's section, touching off a scuffle between about 50 Greek Orthodox and 30 Armenians.
Palestinian police, armed with batons and shields, quickly formed a human cordon to separate the two sides so the cleaning could continue, then ordered an Associated Press photographer out of the church.


Four people, some with blood running from their faces, were slightly wounded.

None = Fastest Growing "Religion"

According to the most recent American Religious Identification Survey:

In the US, the number of non-religious people has more than doubled from 14.3 million in 1990 to 29.4 million in 2001; their proportion has grown from just eight percent of the total in 1990 to over fourteen percent in 2001.

This was the greatest increase in absolute as well as in percentage terms among all religious groups.

Perhaps there is yet some hope for reason and sanity?

The Theory of Evolution Made Easy

Enjoy this nice little video outlining the theory of evolution.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Biblical Wisdom, Part 7

Matthew 19:12

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

Err, um, I am not able.