| Christianity is a syncretic religion. That is, it tries to combine different traditions and schools of thought as a means of reconciling disparate beliefs. For example, the Hebrew scriptures are quite emphatic about there being only one God, but that gave the early Christians problems when they tried to assert the divinity of Jesus. The answer: there is only one God, who is a trinity of persons, but only one God. Perfectly clear to the believer, perfect nonsense to the infidel.
We find the same merging of traditions when looking at other divine or semi-divine entities, such as angels. The Hebrew scriptures describes an angel as a messenger of God. Tradition added names, roles, and ranks. So we have Metatron, the Voice of God from the Talmudic tradition, an angel second in rank only to God himself. Christianity gave us Gabriel, who spoke to Mary and Mohammed. There’s Michael the Archangel, general of the hosts of heaven. And there’s Raphael, the healer, and Uriel whose role is unclear but you need four angels if you want to have one for each of the cardinal points of the compass.
When I was a Christian, I thought belief in angels was at best irrelevant; at worst idolatry. If you posit an omnimax God (omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, omnibenevolent), helpers and henchmen are insignificant. If you worship angels, you’re contravening the First Commandment. In this, I was definitely in the minority. According to a Harris poll on religious belief, 68% of American adults believe in angels. (76% of Republicans believe in angels.)
Just in time for Christmas, with its Annunciating Angels and Hosanna-ing Hosts, comes a new study on the subject of angelic flight. According to Professor Roger S. Wotton, professor of biology at the University College of London, angels simply cannot fly. No way, no how, no can do.
Wotton looked at all available representations of angels, fairies, dragons, and putti (putti are those chubby little cherubs we find hovering about the fringes of much Christian art). Unlike birds, which are evolved reptiles whose forelimbs changed over the aeons into wings, angels are just humans with human skeletons and musculature. Bird wings are tacked on as an afterthought. There’s no supporting skeletal or muscular structure to support wings, and they are far too small to lift the weight of even a chubby cherub. Wotton’s essay can be found here, and it’s delightful.
Of course, it won’t persuade a single believer. Their faith is iron-clad and impervious to either science or humor. For the rest of us, it’s a fun holiday read. If angels do fly, after all, it’s because they take themselves lightly. | comments: Leave a comment   |
| At 12:47 this afternoon (Eastern Standard Time), the North Pole will be angled furthest away from the sun. That is, the axial tilt of Terra relative to Sol will be at its most acute. For the Northern Hemisphere, it is the shortest day of the year. Here in New Saint Botolph’s Town, the sun rose this morning at 7:10 a.m. and will set at 4:14 p.m - just a little over nine hours of daylight. Bad news if you’re an office cubicle troglodyte with Seasonal Affective Disorder. It is also the official beginning of winter, but those of us who shoveled snow yesterday already had a pretty good idea of the season.
Our ancestors lit fires today to encourage the sun’s return. It’s not that they really believed the sun would go dark. Primitive doesn’t mean stupid. But if you lived in northern latitudes, it was a darned good excuse for a party. The cider that was put by in October was developing into a pretty decent tipple, and there were other potent beverages to keep you warm. Animals that you didn’t want to keep through the winter were slaughtered and smoked, salted, dried, or roasted. The offal was minced for sausages, haggis, and puddings, and pies. The deep midwinter was almost upon us, we hoped we’d make it through to the spring.
The Solstice has always been a significant date for religion. The forces of darkness have to be battled back, and the forces of light encouraged. Even after the early bull-and-cow cults were supplanted by mighty gods like that preached prophet Zoroaster, elements of the old beliefs still crept through. Ahura Mazda was represented as light and fire; the evil Ahriman was darkness. The bull and sun gods were translated into another form, to be worshipped by the far-flung Roman legions as Mithras and the Unconquerable Sun. Sol Invictus later became an official Roman cult.
The Romans collected religions like some people collect Beanie Babies. The turning of the year was a great time to celebrate the god Saturn. Invented to raise morale after a military defeat around 217 BCE, Saturnalia stretched from a one-day celebration to a whole week by the time of Caesar Augustus. Social strictures were eased and even reversed. Drinking, eating and merrymaking were the order of the day.
Later Christians sought to stamp out the drunken revelry of Saturnalia by claiming the day to celebrate the birth of their God. It took a while, since the earliest Christians were Jews who saw the celebration of anyone’s birth as a pagan custom. But, several hundred years after the event, which certainly did not take place at the Solstice, Christians were able to stomp out Sol Invictus, Saturnalia, and heathen festivals in favor of a new holiday.
Personally, I’m tired of these people trying to take Saturn out of Saturnalia. When you go to the Forum, what do you hear from merchants? Not “Io, Saturnalia.” No, now it’s “merry christmas.” This is a Roman nation, and we worship Roman Gods. If the christians don’t want to celebrate Saturnalia, let them exile themselves back to the Provinces where they came from. | | comments: 10 comments or Leave a comment |
| "Under President George W. Bush , the United States withdrew from its decades-long role as a global leader in supporting family planning, driven by a conservative ideology that favored abstinence and shied away from providing contraceptive devices in developing countries, even to married women."
"When Congress reauthorized PEPFAR in July 2008 , to the tune of $48 billion over five years, religious groups such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops fought to keep the family-planning restrictions.
Conservatives equated birth control with abortion, U.S. officials said, even though aid agencies are prohibited from spending federal money on abortions, and the procedure is illegal in much of Africa . "
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3374340 | | comments: 10 comments or Leave a comment |
| Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell believes in ending the death penalty, conserving water and reforming government -- but he doesn't believe in God. His political opponents say that's a sin that makes him unworthy of serving in office, and they've got the North Carolina Constitution on their side.
More here...
Perspective: It's North Carolina, and I'm not surprised. Stories like this only strengthen the stereotype of ignorance and religious fanaticism in that region. What does surprise (and disturb) me is to find my current residence of Pennsylvania also has a similar provision in its constitution.
This on the heels of Houston's election of its first openly gay mayor. I am under the impression that the GLBT movement is a couple of steps ahead of Atheists in terms of social acceptance, especially in the South. Maybe they have better PR.
Thoughts? | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| Or rather I'm talking to t'internet.
I know this isn't "On Topic", but I would value your opinion as vaguely like minded people.
Have you any good blogs or websites (apart from your immaculate own) you could recommend to keep me amused, entertained and informed in the forthcoming exciting, new decade.
By the way after allowing real people to name the last decade the noughties I have decided I will name the next decade.
It will be called Frank. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| This is the result of the recent post in this community asking for demographic information concerning atheists and their political beliefs. I give you my "non scientific, completely for fun, proves nothing at all beyond information about LJ users who belong to the atheist community and have chosen to respond to this poll" poll.
Poll #1498273 What are your politicalbeliefs?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 91Select the answer that most closely matches your political beliefs. | | comments: 38 comments or Leave a comment |
| In an on-line forum, ( Shooting my mouth off and being banned. (No need to read this.) )
What I was most curious about was that most or all atheists would be libertarians (someone even making that a criterion for being an atheist). Is there any data on the political orientations/affiliations of atheists? I've been searching the net, but have only turned up personal opinion and no hard data. What information is out there? What can be stated with reasonable certainty? | | comments: 15 comments or Leave a comment |
| Note: The following springs from atheism, but it is as much about the privilege that often comes with religious faith. X-posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) antitheism
Forgiveness is a traditionally religious concept. I don't claim that it is the exclusive province of people of faith, but in my experience the people who discuss it most frequently, and with the most seriousness, are religious people. I can even see that it is a concept that is psychologically useful for many people.
My problem with forgiveness is that people of faith often feel the entitlement to tell others that they should also be forgiving. This is problematic on more than one level:
- This is a coded way for religious people to push their ideas on the secular or people of alternate religious persuasions, in a way that seems totally benign but can actually be rather coercive.
- Telling people to "forgive," or "let it go," is an attempt to dictate to people how they should manage their own emotions. This has varying degrees of seriousness, which leads to...
- Extreme cases, where victims of discrimination and/or trauma are told by people who have not endured the same that they should forgive, or let it go. Spouting this message may be socially sanctioned, even though it is harmful.
Religious privilege, or, in the U.S., the privilege of being a Christian of some sort, intersects with other privileges. It becomes seriously problematic when an idea (forgiveness) that is seen as good by the majority of people, is used to contribute to the silencing of others. | | comments: 12 comments or Leave a comment |
| Kent Hovind is a young-earth creationist and founder of the Creation Science Evangelism ministry. He is also serving a ten-year prison sentence for various tax offences. Hovind received his MA and PhD in Christian Education at Patriot University, and despite the fact that Patriot University is a non-accredited diploma mill, he just loves to call himself "Dr. Hovind." Today I learned at Pharyngula that Hovind's doctoral dissertation is now available at WikiLeaks.
What makes the document particularly funny is not its persistent errors and lies about science, philosophy, and history; these, after all, are par for the course. Its main comedic value lies in its writing style, which is so utterly simple and childish that it would be kind of endearing, if Hovind weren't such a scumbag. And if he hadn't been 38 years old when he wrote it. Here is a random paragraph about history:
Another man that is very important as we trace the history of evolution is Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin. He was born in 1731 and died in 1802. He was an extremely fat person. In fact, he was so fat they had to cut a curve in the dining room table so that he could get up to the table. He was a medical doctor. He was also very immoral. He had twelve legitimate children and two illegitimate children. He was known to have had many affairs.
Here is a random paragraph about science:
On the trip to the moon, they were so concerned that there might be some type of bacteria life on the moon. They spent extra money to isolate the moon rocks when they got them in the spacecraft, and when they got them back on earth. They will do the same with all the other planets. They will say, "Oh, there might be life there. We need to protect those rocks." One of the astronauts offered to eat some of the moon dust on the way back to prove that there was no life on it and that it was perfectly sterile. Bring back a Mars or Jupiter rock, I'll eat it or lick it. There is no life on the other planet.
I don't think I am ever going to be able to shake the mental image of Kent Hovind trying to eat metallic hydrogen from Jupiter. | | comments: 8 comments or Leave a comment |
| |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
bubbles_lau's Friends Page
6 (6.6%)![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/punquinheads/pink/curious.gif){kind=small}
curious![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/punquinheads/pink/awake.gif){kind=small}
awake