Transitions

Dear readers (all 3 of you), I will be limiting my posts on this site for the time being.  Most of what I do post will be rhyme, short stories or illustrated subjects like the two below.  If the spirit moves me, I may on occasion rant as usual, but not very often.  On the rant side of the coin, my limited time will be devoted to the cartoon site (Pictorial Theology) reachable by the link to the right. Please take a look and comment if you can.  Thank you

Sophisticated Theology: The Apologist's Handbook

The Slippery Tor

6

Philosophy Tutorial

A Fine Day to You All! (Seriously, This is not Photoshopped!)

The Natural Selection as Embraced by the Roman Catholic Church

Whatever else it does, you can't say that the Roman Church opposes natural selection.  Just look at their stance on abortion and you can clearly see how the church gives in to animalistic urges of its male members (both usages apply here). 

Abortion is opposed even when the mother's life is in danger.  Many Catholic 'thinkers' state have stated that only if the fetus is unsalvageable should the mother's needs be considered.  Otherwise its a case of which 'person' trumps who - mother, or indeterminate lump of cells robbing her of vitality.  Hard to choose?

The Catholic choice is obviously the biological one - the male primate favors survival of its offspring.  It, alone of the two, shares its genes.   So why bother with the female when an offspring is in peril?  You can always find another mate, but offspring are hard to come by.

So, hats off to the Church for biological pragmatism.  At least as long as they can keep women out of the halls of power.  With common sense approaches like this, it's easy to see why morality should remain in the hands of a select few old men.  After all, absent the church, where ever would we find moral guidance?  From rational discourse?  perish (or is it parish) the thought...

40 More Reasons to Roll My Eyes

While taking a break in the office the other day, we started talking about the plethora of '40's' that seem to show up in the Talmud and Bible.  Everywhere you look there seems to be some reference to 40.So I did some digging.  Turns out 40 is a big number in the Bible, Talmud and even the Quran. 

From Biblestudy.org

    The Meaning of Numbers: The Number 40 

The number forty has long been universally recognized as an important number, both on account of the frequency of its occurrence, and the uniformity of its association with a period of probation, trial, and chastisement - (not judgment, like the number 9, which stands in connection with the punishment of enemies, but the chastisement of sons, and of a covenant people). 

The number 40 is the product of 5 and 8, and points to the action of grace (5), leading to and ending in revival and renewal (8). This is certainly the case where Forty relates to a period of evident probation. But where it relates to enlarged dominion, or to renewed or extended rule, then it does so in virtue of its factors 4 and 10, and in harmony with their signification. 

There are 15 such periods which appear on the surface of the Scriptures, and which may be thus classified:.....

Wow!  Impressive machinations.  While reading this I was reminded of the importance of the number 3 in Monty Python’s. Holy Grail 

    " ...And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O LORD, bless this     Thy hand grenade that with it Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy." And the LORD did grin and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and  carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu... [At this point, the friar is urged by Brother Maynard to "skip a bit, brother"]... And the LORD spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that     thou then proceed to three. Five is  right out. Once the number three, being the third  number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

One is serious and one is satire, can’t really remember which is which.

I See IT!

The Gun Fetish

The Merriam-Webster Definitions of ASSAULT

1

a : a violent physical or verbal attack
b : a military attack usually involving direct combat with enemy forces
c : a concerted effort (as to reach a goal or defeat an adversary)

2

a : a threat or attempt to inflict offensive physical contact or bodily harm on a person (as by lifting a fist in a threatening manner) that puts the person in immediate danger of or in apprehension of such harm or contact
b : rape

So the gun fetishists who continue to promote an alternative lifestyle of gun love in an artificial atmosphere of fear adore weapons made and named for violent attacks, military attacks,  threats to others that put them in immediate danger, etc. 

As for fetishes, to each his or her own - as long as it's consenting but I don't consent to be placed at risk by some man-child who still wants to play army or cowboys and indians with live ammo. 

I'm fine with hunting rifles, shotguns, etc.  These have some utility beyond testosterone boosters.

Ideas are not People

My brother recently told me that I need to be more tolerant of religion.  I told him he had it all wrong, and was making one of the great liberal mistakes:

















People deserve the same set of basic rights within reason.  Ideas are up for grabs.  I don't have to respect ideas.  Ideas have no inalienable rights.

Nuff Said