Sunday, July 29, 2007

Good Christians don't revolt.

Most people, including myself, when they refute the claim that [begin southern accent] "America is a Christian nation," [end accent] usually go to the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence or other documents of the time. This never works to convince the faithheads. It's never enough.

Let's trying looking at it from the other direction. Instead of asking the Founders what they thought about Jesus, let's ask Jesus what he thinks about them. The answer can be found in Romans 13:1-2.
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

This was actually written by Paul, not Jesus (Jesus, apparently never bothered to write anything down), but there it is, the inspired word of God. Revolutionaries go to Hell, and a country founded by such Hell-bound sinners should not be so confident in its Christianly status.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The Gall of the Apostle Paul

This is a good one. If you can find a way to work this into a conversation with a fundamentalist, just sit back and enjoy the show.

Colossians 1:24
Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

(Emphasis added.) Do you understand what Paul is saying here? In general, he's just saying that he's been called upon to build Christ's church, and though the task is sometimes trying (he was in a Roman jail at the time), he is happy to suffer for our sake. That's all well and good. But what's this business about the lacking of Christ's afflictions? Paul has made it clear that [born-agains, cover your eyes] Christ's sacrifice was not enough. The church is also necessary, and without it, the suffering of Christ alone would not be sufficient. Paul's suffering, for the sake of the church, completes the task. So it would seem ye Christians have two choices: 1) accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior AND the Church as necessary for salvation, or 2) continue to think your personal relationship with Jesus will be enough, and that St. Paul either didn't know what he was talking about, or he was an uppity blasphemer. Happy deciding!

Template Change and the Big Red A

I changed the template of the blog. I really like the way the photo sits flush with the header. I think it's neat.

I also added a big, red 'A' to the sidebar. Click it to find out why. Here, too.

Update: I also put spaces in the title. That was long overdue, I think.

Moses: another mass-murdering pedophile

I just had to share this in case anyone out there thinks the Bible is a good source of morality and family values.

Numbers 31:17-18
Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Those were the days, weren't they? No pornography or rampant homosexuality to threaten our wholesome Judeo-Christian values... like genocide and sexual slavery of children. Bring America back to God. Otherwise He just might kill your sons and rape your daughters.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

So who was this Joshua character?

And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did unto the king of Jericho.

Then Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, unto Libnah, and fought against Libnah:

And the LORD delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.

And Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it:

And the LORD delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah.

Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua smote him and his people, until he had left him none remaining.

And from Lachish Joshua passed unto Eglon, and all Israel with him; and they encamped against it, and fought against it:

And they took it on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.

And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:

And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein.

And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and fought against it:

And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.

So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.

And Joshua smote them from Kadeshbarnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon.

And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.

Joshua 10:28-42

Apparently he was a mass-murdering dick.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I'm a big kid now.

Some atheists don't like the word atheism because it gives too much credit to theism. After all, we don't have special words for people who don't believe in Zeus, gnomes, or the Easter Bunny. One alternative a lot people like is humanism, which just sidesteps the whole deity question and focuses on human issues. The trouble with that is that there is more to life than just other humans. Others like naturalism. This is my personal favorite. Naturalism is a philosophical viewpoint that simply rejects the supernatural. If what you're saying has no basis in nature and observable reality, you shouldn't be taken seriously. Even if there were an omnipotent yet short-tempered sky-god who created our world, he would be a natural, albeit incredible, being. All of his powers would have a natural explanation, just like David Copperfield's. It's a great philosophy, in my opinion, but the problem with it is if you tell someone you're a naturalist, it sounds more like you're a 19-century artist than an atheist.

There's nothing out there that really sums up what we all want to say in one word: Well, if you must know, technically, I'm an atheist, but I resent even being asked such a primitive question in the 21st century. While were at it, what are your views on Hercules as a half-human/half-god savior or the Shinto creation story versus evolution?

But I think I've finally cracked it. Who believes in ghosts and goblins, witches and trolls, spirits and fairies, unicorns and Santa Claus? Who believes in these fairy tales? Children. When you realize that belief in Jesus Christ and Heaven is no more sophisticated than belief in the Peter Pan and Neverland, it seems like overkill to make up fancy words for disbelief. We already have a word for people who don't believe fantastic stories for children: adults.

So the next time someone asks me my religion, I'm going to say something like, "I know I look young, and thank you for asking, but I'm an adult. I stopped putting my teeth under that pillow a long time ago."

Thursday, July 19, 2007

No more teenagers for me

No, I'm not referring to my New Year's resolution to stop preying on Japanese schoolgirls. I'm talk about my job, which also happens to involve a few hundred Japanese schoolgirls (and boys). My last class as an Assistant Language Teacher in Kitahiroshima Town ended less than an hour ago. To be honest, if it is bittersweet, it's a lot more sweet than it is bitter. I was only at this particular school for one term, so I didn't really get to know any of the students very well. Also, this school is a bit bigger than the others, so there are quite a few little assholes who make working here more difficult than it should be. Japanese kids are generally more well-behaved than their American counterparts, probably because of the conformity factor, but they're still people, and some of them are complete jerk-offs. The problem in Japan is there's a serious lack of discipline in school even when it is sorely needed. The system is just not designed to account for bad behavior, as if no one wants to acknowledge that not all Japanese kids are perfect little automatons.

Actually, I'm glad I was able to teach at a place like this, especially right at the end, and only for a short time. It will help to take the edge off my sadness when I leave Japan. As much as I'd like to stay here, and as much as I'm not looking forward to living in the Heartland, working at this school is something I will not be missing, except the free coffe and tea, of course.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

New York Times gets it wrong again

Opinions are fine in news stories. Untruths do not belong.

There's an article on today's online NYT called Abstinence Education Faces Uncertain Future. It's a fairly innocuous article about some Texans who are upset because abstinence education is losing favor simply because it doesn't work. Fine. If people want to argue that we should keep spending money on programs that have been shown to be completely ineffective, they're free to do that. But in doing so, they really should start an opinion with "I think," instead of stating it as fact, and journalists should really be able to tell the difference.

The article quotes one Eric Love (Awesome name for a virgin, eh?), director of the East Texas Abstinence Program, as saying, "You have to look at why sex was created... [it] was created to bond two people together." There are two problems with this. First, sex was not created. There's no debate here -- no intelligent one, at least. It evolved, just like everything else in biology, including you and me. Second, it didn't evolve to bond two people together. It evolved because natural selection favors genetic diversity. We aren't the only animals that have sex, you know. I wonder if Mr. Love thinks sex was created to bind together sea turtles and tapeworms, too. If it was, it doesn't work very well. The percentage of monogamous species in the sexual world is extremely low. What are all those adulterous animals doing making a mockery of our sacred rite?

The truth is, we humans have made a shameful mockery of the wonder of sex. It is one of the most amazing evolutionary developments in the history of life. If not for sex, we'd still be stuck in the primordial soup stage. But a few thousand years ago, we started telling each other ghost stories, and now we, particularly we Americans, have the mental and emotional sexual maturity of schoolchildren. Sex is not bad. It's not offensive to any uptight sky-gods. And your future spouse will not love you more if you "save it." So, please, grow up, people.

Omiyamairi

Hiro-kun paid his first visit to a Shinto shrine, called an "omiya," this weekend. Check out this fantastic photo album I made. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the actual ceremony since I had things to do. I think my father-in-law did, so I'll try to get them up soon.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Worst Mission Statement Ever

This is the mission statement posted on the website of Andover Central School in Andover, New York, my alma mater.
Our Mission Capstone

The mission of the Andover Central School System is to inspire within all the desire to learn, to succeed, and to expand the horizon for each individual. Our school will be a safe teaching community, which celebrates our achievements and encourages active partnerships with families and the entire community. We will empower our students to embrace the challenges as worthy citizens in our American society of representative democracy.

Let's start at the top. What the hell is a mission capstone? If you've never heard this term before, don't feel bad; it's nonsense. The author (insert your own air-quotes) has used the word "captsone" way out of context. This is not a particularly propitious start to a school's mission statement.

The lack of parallelism in the first sentence is so awkward even our author should have been able to catch it. And when did Andover get a school system? New York City has a school system. Los Angeles has a school system. Andover has a school. There are other problems with this sentence, but there are more pressing matters ahead.

The next sentence is my favorite because it almost passes as acceptable, especially when compared to the others around it. It's long, which always helps to mask an author's ineptitude, but there's one big problem: the word "community" appears twice in this sentence, each time referring to {cough} different communities. That, dear reader, is not good style. This sentence, too, has more problems. (Who would encourage inactive partnerships?) But let's move on. The last sentence is just begging for attention.

Actually, there's really not much I can say in terms of constructive criticism. This sentence is just bad -- really, really bad: "worthy citizens in our American society of representative democracy." Someone actually wrote that without the intention of sounding like a complete ass. And then someone else read it, apparently found nothing wrong with it, and published it on the Internet for the whole world to see. Amazing.

Are there no English teachers at that school anymore? There were two when I was there. Forget English teachers. Are there no native English speakers? And before you criticize me for being too harsh, remember, this is a school. A school! Where children go to learn how to use the English language like intelligent [expletive] people, not like bumbling [same expletive] idiots. You can do better than that, ACS. And if you can't, just close up shop now before you tarnish any more brains.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Medicare for All

I looked at all the democratic candidates' websites. The only one who has a plan for a single payer health care system is Dennis Kucinich. He is also the only one who has health care at the top of his issues list. Yes, it is more important than the war because the current system kills more Americans in one year than the war ever will. All the other candidates have lame-o plans that would make health care "affordable" for all Americans or get insurance to the 40 million who don't have it. These people still don't get it. It's not a question of money. It's a basic human right. And when a politician proposes anything that is not a single payer system that guarantees free care for everyone for everything they need, he is essentially saying that we Americans are not entitled to the same human rights as, say, the French or the Canadians. Seriously, when was the last time you heard a politician giving a speech about the need for affordable access to police protection? How many Republicans are touting virtues of the free market in providing Americans with their choice of competing for-profit fire departments?

(By the way, in a previous post, I praised Ron Paul, but that was as a Republican, not as a candidate. Republicans are one of two things: grossly misinformed or just plain evil. I think Ron Paul is just misinformed, but that doesn't mean I think he should be President.)

Monday, July 2, 2007

SiCKO

I saw Michael Moore's new movie SiCKO. If you're not in the States now but you're planning on going back, wait till you get there before watching it. You might not want to go back if you don't.

The movie is very good. Much more mature than his other films. I'm sure it has the half-truths and the cherry-picking problems his other movies have, but the premise is something I've known for a while: the American health care system is shameful. It's shameful and it's dangerous and I'm concerned about trusting my family to it.

Here's a list of the countries that have better systems than the United States, according to the World Health Organization (2000):
1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica

I've some thinking to do.