Weekly readers’ beefs

January 18, 2015 • 10:33 am

Here’s a selection of the nasty, humorous, and misguided comments that some readers tried to post over the last few weeks. All of the misspellings and other errors appeared in the original (attempted) comments.

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Reader “NEIL C. REINHARDT” (yes, in caps, like the rest of his email), had a few words to say about cats in a comment on my post “Spot the Jack Russell terrier“:

JERRY,

WHILE I AM FEEDING THREE CATS OHTHRS WERE NOT AND WHILE THEY HAVE PUT ME ON THEIR “STAFF”, I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU.

HOW MANY “WAR CATS” ARE THERE? “DRUG CATS”? “SEARCH AND RESCUE” CATS? “LIFEGUARD” CATS?
“BOMB” CATS?

HOW MANY CATS WILL RUN OUT TTO A MAIN ROAD TO GET FIRE AND RESCUE PERSONNEL AND LEAD THEM BACK TO WHERE THEY ARE NEEDED?

AND HOW MANY CATS PULL SLEDS?

SO GET THE HELL OFF OF THIS BS AOBUT CATS BEING BETTER THAN DOGS ARE!

This was actually similar to an argument made by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker‘s “Cats vs. Dogs” debate that we had last October. Gladwell’s thesis, which he deliverered in a hilarious 8 minute-talk, was that the superiority of dogs was demonstrated by their participation in the War on Terrorism (bomb sniffing, finding victims, etc.), while cats didn’t give a rat’s ass about terrorism. Ergo, he argued, dogs were superior. Here Mr. CAPSLOCK argues that cats are inferior because they don’t do the bidding of humans. I guess, then, he’d argue that slaves are better than free people! Seriously, though, one of the appeals of cats is that they don’t do what you want; they are independent, semi-wild, and an animal closer to being wild than is a dog. And you have to earn their love, which is what you do with humans, who do not (as do dogs) love you unconditionally. But I’ve said all this before. My real reply to NEIL C. REINHARDT would be this: “Back away from the caffeine. Slowly. . . ”

Reader Mark sent me this cartoon as an answer:

Obedience ≠ Intelligence

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Reader “Katia” defended the Pope against my criticisms in the post “Pope Francis says it’s not kosher to make fun of faith“:

Frankly I agree with Pope Francis 100%.
To question this and continue the path of blaming and criticizing more progaganda.

I’m not catholic, it just COMMON SENSE

What I said about Pope Francis was the harmful nature of his claim that nobody should criticize religion (of course he meant Catholicism). I’m not sure what Katia is trying to say here, or what common sense is, but if nobody “blamed” the Church, its reprehensible policy of covering up child rape would have never been uncovered, and might well have continued.

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Reader “John Balmer” criticized evolution in an attempted comment on my post, “Scotland refuses to ban teaching of creationism“:

If Evolution is such a solid fool proof and unshakable scientific fact ….then why are evolutionists so scared if it being challenged by an alternative view of Origins and by having it put under scrutiny….the truth is the evolution Theory is full of holes and has become nothing more to the ruling establishment than a Sacred Cow not to be touched or challenged……now that is Indoctrination !!!

Dear Mr. Balmer,

I’m not scared at all of creationists, who tend to be a foolish lot, nor am I afraid to put the theory of evolution under scrutiny. After all, that’s what I did in my last book, comparing its ability to explain the data with the ability of creationism. Evolution won hands down. (Did you read that book, by the way?) And what are the “holes” you’re talking about? Our unsolved questions, like the origin of life? Well, we’re working on them, and, unlike you, at least we have a way to know whether our answers are wrong. Finally, you do realize, don’t you, that any scientist who could disprove the existence of evolution and natural selection would become instantly famous? Scientists don’t get famous by buttressing an established paradigm, but by overturning it.  But you appear to be blinded by faith, and so you may not understand what I’m trying to say.

Have a blessed day,
Professor Ceiling Cat

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Reader “Raynor” had something to say about Alex Malarkey, the Christian boy who retracted his assertion that he visited Heaven after an accident, as detailed in my post, “Boy who wrote bestseller on visiting heaven retracts his claims”:

Alex, et. al are possesed and the book is true. All who claim otherwise are going to hell.

Now this may be a “Poe,” but I’ll assume that Raynor is serious. And if Alex is possessed (presumably by Satan), why would Satan, speaking through the boy, produce an account of heaven that is true?

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Reader “Zenta” made this comment on “The Paris murders: Catholic League’s Bill Donoghue gets it wrong; New Yorker’s George Packer gets it right“:

Dear Biology Professor,

Social life, politics and Power are more complicatde than Biology. It is funny to see trying to explain everything based on wrong analogy, irrelevant biology or psychology.

(I’ll assume this is a female, but it doesn’t matter.) It appears she’s trying to say something, but can’t quite figure out what. And its relevance to the post on the Charlie Hebdo murders, in which I didn’t even mention biology, is nebulous.

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Finally, reader “Grow up”  objected to my post “Yiddish girl” corrects Ami magazine about geocentrism“, in which a girl wrote to the Jewish teen magazine AMY (an offshoot of the Jewish magazine “Aim”), saying that “Jews believe” that the Sun goes around the Earth instead of vice versa. I, of course, said that was bogus and that the girl’s views were corrupted by faith.  “Grow up,” almost certainly an adult, argues that, in fact, you can conceive—both religiously and scientifically—of a geocentric solar system:

To start with, I know the editor of the Aim personally. She told me that she barely thought about the answer when responding. She would not insult a young girl writing in so just chose to be polite. She does not in anyway believe in Geocentrism, nor to any very Orthodox Jews she or I know of. It takes great immaturity, obsessiveness and secular fundamentalism to attack a letter written by a little girl in a kids magazine! This is a magazine that regularly has features for kids on accepted science and never has in any way promoted geocentrism.

Still, the editor was right about differing opinions. The opinions she refers to are not scientist but Rabbinic scholars. This girl was arguing that “we Jews” by which she can only mean Orthodox rabbinic consensus, was geocentric. The editor replied specifically to her assertion that it was a fundamental belief of Orthodoxy. It would be a lie to say that not Rabbinic scholars since Galileo have ever been geocentrists because many were. Today however few Rabbis ever thought geocentrism in any way a religious belief and feel free to accept scientific views. Any person seeking to prove what Orthodox Rabbis historical believed can bring proofs either way. Some Rabbis vehemently rejected heliocentrism while there was even one Rabbi who was even a student of Galileo and an ardent heoiocentrist. Thus her answer of differing (rabbinic) opinions was correct and the best answer to give when arguing on theological issues. Regardless, geocentrism today is no longer as “wrong” as it used to be. The Lubavitcher Rebbe pointed out that the theory of Relativity makes the question of what moves around what moot. I am no student of physics but even I understand that relativity does make defining what moves around what much more flexible. If one really feels the need to theologically believe in geocentrism they can do so due to the the theory of relativity.

Leaving aside religion, let’s tackle the scientific claim based on relativity. Now I’m not going to give the answer here, as I’ll leave it to readers. But let me just pose this Gedankenexperiment. Model the Earth going around the sun by making two fists and having one of them revolve around the other.  If you could see your fists from afar, floating in space, you wouldn’t know which object was going around the other. From the Earth’s reference frame, it would look like the Sun was going around the Earth, and vice versa from the Sun’s reference frame. So why isn’t “Grow up” right on scientific grounds?

I’ll put up the answer later, just so readers can think about the evidence for a heliocentric solar system. But do put your own answers below in the comments.

My holiday snaps: India (architecture)

January 18, 2015 • 8:02 am

One of the day trips we took from Calcutta (now known as “Kolkata”) was to Bishnupur, world famous for its sculpted terracotta temples depicting scenes from the Mahabarata, a Sanskrit epic poem said to be the longest poem ever written (it fills several large volumes, which I can attest to since my host had a copy).

The temples are located here because Bishnupur was the capital of the Malla dynasty (later conqurered by the Mughals), and the temples, which probably took at least 15 years each to build, were ordered built (and financed) by the king. They’re made of terracotta, or sculpted clay that is fired and hardened, and then the sculpted panels fastened to the temple with a mixture of various organic substances including sugar (I can’t remember them all, but you wouldn’t think that, combined, they would form a glue that could last centuries).

The temples date mainly from the 17th century, and given that they’re made of fired clay, have been severely eroded by weather over the last 500 years. But they’re still stunning, and well worth visiting. In a few generations the figures won’t be nearly as nice.

First, there is a “Ganesha” tree in the town, which has a callosity resembling the beloved elephant-headed god. It’s revered and decorated by worshippers:
Ganesha tree

Here are several of the temples, which are spread out all over the town.  I wasn’t savvy enough to record their names, nor energetic enough to look them up now. But it’s not necessary except for history buffs.(UPDATE: in a comment below, reader John O’Neall links to a Wikipedia page that identifies and describes all the temples.) Here are four of the most elaborate:

Temple 1

Temple 2

Temple 4

Temple 5

But it’s when you get close to them that you see that each is covered with a profusion of religious sculptures. I took a lot of photos but will show just a few.

First, when you approach the temples you can see how elaborate the sculptures are:

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Note the deer (or cows) and ducks (or geese):

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The art of making these elaborate sculptures has apparently been lost, though there’s a trade in inferior terracotta pieces for the tourist trade.

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An original Sanskrit inscription. My host, a scholar of early Indian religious history, could read it, but I can’t remember what it says. Is it too much to hope that a reader can translate?

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And a selection of some of the more striking panels:

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Tigers!

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And the effects of erosion on a depiction of Krishna playing his flute. How sad that someday this will all be effaced by the elements:

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Sunday: Hili dialogue

January 18, 2015 • 5:20 am

Once again Hili fails to attend church on the Lord’s day. Rather, she luxuriates at home and keeps Cyrus off the couch!

Hili: Look, I occupy the whole sofa!
A: A small dog would still find some room.
Hili: A very small dog.
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In Polish:
Hili: Popatrz, zajęłam całą sofę!
Ja: Mały pies jeszcze by się zmieścił.
Hili: Bardzo mały.

ISIS executes men and boys for breeding pigeons, throws gay men off buildings

January 17, 2015 • 1:15 pm

I won’t belabor this, as reports of Islamic terrorism are so frequent, and now so horrible in nature, that we’re almost getting inured to them. Now we learn that ISIS is not only killing people for being gay by throwing them off buildings, but also killing men and boys for the horrible and anti-Islamic crime of breeding pigeons. (That, of course, would have doomed Darwin.)

The report on executions for pigeon-breeding comes from NBC News:

Raising doves and pigeons is a deadly pursuit in ISIS-controlled Iraq.

The popular hobby is in the sights of extremist Islamist fighters, who this week rounded up 15 boys and young men in the eastern province of Diyala for pursuing a pastime now deemed un-Islamic. Three have already been executed, according to a security official in the area who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity.

Abu Abdullah, a 52-year-old farmer, told NBC News about the moment earlier this week that six gunmen barged into his home and dragged away his oldest son, who is 21.

“My son was standing beside me. I asked them why, and they said, ‘He is not following the real Islam, he must be punished for being a pigeon breeder. This habit is taking him away from worshiping Allah,” Abdullah said on the telephone.

The fighters put the household’s pigeons in bags and burned them. Then they took away his son.

“I begged them again to know where are they taking him, what are they going to do to him. They said he is going to be taken to be judged according to the Islamic Sharia,” Abu Abdullah said. “They pushed me, and when my son tried to stop them from pushing me they beat him. Then they put him inside the car and left.”

Why is this so anti-Islamic? It’s fatuous:

The hobby, which was especially popular among middle and lower classes before the U.S. invasion in 2003, has been targeted by extremists of all stripes. Suspicion of bird-breeders stems from the fact they tend to feed their animals at the same time devout Muslims traditionally hold their first of five daily prayers.

This distrust has prompted some clerics to issue fatwas against bird breeders.

A fatwa? If we didn’t already know that extremist Islam is a form of insanity, this should convince you.

And Pink News reports, with disturbing photos, that ISIS has executed two gay men by throwing them off buildings. This was apparently announced in advance, since the photos show a crowd gathered below the building waiting for the men to fall. I’m sure many of them cried “Allahu akbar.”

You can see the photos by going to the link, and then clicking the next link (or the screenshot below) that says ”

Screen Shot 2015-01-17 at 9.35.02 AM

That second page adds this:

In further images, far too disturbing to be published on PinkNews, the corpses of the men were photographed lying on the street in front of an angry crowd.

ISIS released other images alongside the gay executions showing a woman being sentenced to death by stoning. A further shocking image, again too disturbing to publish on PinkNews shows the woman’s corpse under a mound of rubble.

Another set of images show two men, described as thieves being crucified and then being shot in the head from behind.

Well, the photos aren’t as disturbing as the videos of ISIS cutting the heads off hostages, and I’ve seen a couple of those. Religion has driven these people over the edge, turning them into automatons who lack any feelings we’d describe as “human.” I have no idea how to solve this problem, but let’s begin by saying that these two instances of barbarism—murder for homosexuality and pigeon breeding—are due not to colonialism, or oppression by the West, but simple delusion caused by faith. There is no other explanation.

I shouldn’t have to keep making that point, but apologists like Karen Armstrong keep arguing that this kind of violence has nothing to do with “true” religion. Of course she defines “true” religion as “religions that don’t practice violence,” so it all becomes a horrible tautology. We’ll deal with Ms. Armstrong’s latest book, and her interview about it, later this week.

 

h/t: Linda Grilli, pyers

More ugly phrases

January 17, 2015 • 11:25 am

I present two phrases that annoy me when used in either speech or prose, and I encourage readers to add their own.

“At first blush. . .” I heard this on NPR this morning, and, as always, it irritated me (though not as much as Krista Tippett irritates me). It means “without previous knowledge,” or, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary (which gives some early usages), this:

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I think this usage is both superfluous and pompous. Why can’t you just say, “If you didn’t know better, it would seem that the Pope would be nonviolent,” or something along those lines. When I hear the “blush” part, I always think of a peach.

“Sea change”:  All this really means is a “big change”, as in “There’s was a sea change in the attitude towards terrorism after 9/11.” I doubt that people who use it even know its origin. It was in fact coined by Shakespeare in The Tempest to indicate a change actually caused by the sea. Here’s the OED definition:

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And the full reference from The Tempest:

“Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made,
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change,
into something rich and strange,
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.”

But when people use the phrase now, they’re virtually never referring to a change caused by the sea. Rather, they just mean “a change.” If that’s what you mean, just say that, or say, “A big change.” Why bother to add the word “sea,” which adds nothing to what you say except to make you sound smart?

I suspect that even Steve Pinker would approve of this trimming of phraseology, though I haven’t asked him. At any rate, what phrases annoy you?

Requests to readers

January 17, 2015 • 10:50 am

Tidying up the website today, I’d like to make three requests to readers:

1. Please do not accuse anybody of a crime in your comments, even if you’re joking. For instance, on the thread about Pope Francis, one reader called him a pedophile and another a child rapist.  While priests have indeed been convicted of those crimes, there’s no evidence that the Pope himself is a criminal.  Remember that making such accusations, unless you have facts to back them up, can be an offense for which you (and I) can be sued. If you want to criticize people, there are other ways to do it.

2.  I’m getting so many emails that they’re beginning to get lost. Some readers send me items several times a day, and I don’t think that I can keep up with that volume of email.  Since I often use readers’ suggestions for posts, and don’t want to lose them, could you accumulate all the items you want to send me on a given day and put them into just a single email?  Thanks.

3. I’ve found that some people are reposting my pieces, sometimes in their entirety, on their own websites. I’d like this to stop, as the material is in effect copyrighted and it’s both illegal and unethical to put someone’s work up on your own site. It’s okay to post snippets with links, and if you want to post more you can email me to ask. I’ll formulate a policy about “fair use” in the next week, and post it as a “page” on the left margin, along with Da Roolz.

 

Finally—a BBC show that doesn’t whitewash Islam

January 17, 2015 • 10:00 am

This superb video, “The Battle for British Islam,” is a recent BBC Panorama documentary narrated and moderated by John Ware. Unlike the Beeb’s recent cowardice about criticizing Islam, this is an honest and hard-hitting documentary, one that even shows a Charlie Hebdo cartoon of Muhammad. The link was sent to me by reader Malcolm, who added a note that serves as a good summary:

I don’t know whether you’ve had the chance to see this programme of earlier this week but I think you would agree with most of it.
It’s the BBC at its best and most serious and it is very different from the normal deferential and respectful stance towards Islam in its news output. It allows moderate Muslims to say that there is a connection between extremist Islam and violent extremist Islam. It says that Foreign Policy is not the problem but rather it is a puritanical, conservative form of Islam that fosters an “us and them” attitude towards the West which opens the door to violence. It also poses the question ”what can be done” and suggests that the solution, if any, is largely the responsibility of muslims.

If you’ve followed the doings of European Muslims, it won’t suprise you that there are a fair number of “extreme nonviolent Muslims” who favor things like killing apostates and stoning adulterers, as well as a replacement of Western democracy by a caliphate under sharia law. (I wonder why they’re called “nonviolent”!). And talk about “Islamophobia”—one talking head,Shaikh Abu Usamah al-Thahabi, an imam from Birmingham, proclaims (at 7:50; see also at 12:48) that “the problem with being a non-Muslim is that they are liars—usually, usually.” Anyone saying something like that about Muslims would be excoriated (and rightly so), for bigotry, or maybe even killed for criticizing the faith. But it’s apparently okay when a Muslim harbors sentiments like this: after all, they’re an oppressed minority.

Note that several Muslims point out that extremism among “nonviolent” Muslims is growing in the UK, with Muslim “faith schools” teaching anti-Semitism, anti-Westernism, and contempt for other faiths. Meanwhile, the president of the Muslim Association of Britain tries to dismiss the “extremist” views as simply “conservative.”

Finally, at 20:50, Adam Deen, president of the Deen Institute, places the blame where it belongs, not on Western oppression but on “this type of puritanical Islam.”

I highly recommend that you take 28 minutes and watch this program. While I advocate calling out the violent, misogynistic, and oppressive aspects of Islam whenever possible, the best thing said in this video occurs at 28:34, when Muhammad Manwar Ali, chief executive of the Muslim charity JIMAS, asserts that  “The solution to extremism from Muslims lies with the Muslims, obviously because it is our faith that needs to be moderated or channeled, devised in such a way that it never contributes to harm or injustice.”

I’m not holding my breath.