Via Ezra Levant today: Rob Wells is an anti-Christian bigot. That’s fine — Canada is a free country, and people are free to be bigots, just as long as they don’t get violent about it. Hate isn’t against the law. (Well, actually it is, under section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. But no-one has [...]

One of my favorite Biblical stories is the one of Jesus killing a fig tree. Aside from the implication that Jesus would kill a tree just because… well, he was hungry and it wasn’t producing food (I’d hate to see how he gets at a Denny’s on a busy night), the story is just bizzare and I don’t think I’ve gotten the same response twice as to its meaning.

My girlfriend, who lies somewhere in the void between religious and atheistic says that as a young girl, she watched a musical cartoon that explained that the story is about the power of words. If Jesus curses the tree, it will die. A sort of be careful what you wish for deal, I guess.

Recently, I heard another defense of the story saying that if the tree wasn’t producing anything meaningful, it serves no purpose and should die. I often say the same thing about Ben Stein, but, alas, I am not Jesus Christ. (Note: though Ben Stein is an obnoxious moron, I don’t actually wish him dead — for clarification purposes, this last sentence uses a literary device known as humor to get its point across. In truth, I don’t care enough about him to actually wish him anything.)

But, for the best explanations of the fig tree story, I turned to google, which gives us a link that explains simply that the fig tree represents the Jews or at least those who are so stuck in their religious ways that they won’t accept the new way of thinking (I think my irony meter just exploded). Wikipedia sort of confirms this, but then includes a few other oddball interpretations to keep things interesting, including one that somehow relates to The Matrix.

All of this points back to the relativism inate in religiousity. No two people actually subscribe to the same exact religion and often will defend their beliefs by explaining that those bad people who call themselves Christians (or Jews, or Muslims, etc.) aren’t true Christians (or Jews, or Muslims, etc.) and then explain what it means to be a true Christian. Unfortunately, Dictionary.com isn’t too helpful in this regard, offering 11 different definitions ranging from “a person who believes in Jesus Christ” to “a male given name.”

As for my particular interpretation, I believe that figs are a nasty fruit and Jesus, in his omniscience, tried to destroy the fruit before it could give rise to the truly awful Fig Newton. Unfortunately, being in human form, he was not omnipotent and could not prevent its ultimate creation.

However, there’s a fairly good chance that I’m injecting a little too much Terminator into the story.

I wonder how many people clicked through to this site hoping to see pictures of Xenu’s nipples or something? Probably a fair number. Shame on you - pervy buggers. This clip is from a British show called ‘The Peep Show‘:

After reading some of the ridiculous claims against evolution, I found myself thinking about how to relate this to regular people without using something like gravity. Many moons ago I took electronics and it seems this fits quite nicely to help some people in understanding What evolution really is. Basically, just like evolution, the DC Theory is also a theory. Same with AC. The funny thing is, even with DC/AC Theory.. sometimes people will debate the direction current flows. In any electronics, current flows from negative/ground to positive. To sum up, ground has an abundance of electrons and those electrons flow towards the available holes on the positive side where electrons have been kicked out of the way to create holes or places for the electrons to fill up. Now for me, I'm not 100% sure how to "prove" witch direction the current flows, and to be quite honest it does not matter.. All the equations for AC/DC theory work. Everyone knows that their electronic devices are obviously working, but we don't Believe IN the AC/DC Theory, we simply use it as a tool to answer how something happen, or what will happen. I mean, hell on a quantum level, we still do not KNOW or understand how the electron even moves. Anyway, this is kindof a short post, I'll try to edit and fill in some other information. I just thought about it today and thought maybe it would give someone a glimpse of how the theory of evolution is no different the the hundreds of other theories we use everyday that are not up for debate. I think the AC/DC Theory is a pretty good one that many people should be able to relate to or understand. Evolution is simply the best answer to understanding everything around us and how it all works.

My first though was the "Internal Combustion" ( i mean Thermodynamics Theory). lol... but I wasn't sure if that would work as well... I could imagine someone claiming that every time a piston fires it must be god igniting the gas... course I'm just rambling off topic now, but it was kinda funny.

Is it odd that every time I read that title I have the sudden urge to break out into a Jimi Hendrix tune? Maybe it's just me. Anyhow, onward to what I have to say today. It's of course nothing new, but for some reason today it bothers me as I think about it.

Today, after having a wonderful lunch with my wife, I find 2 pamphlets standing upright against my front door. Not surprisingly it was from the Jehovah's Witness. My complaint here is not really about them coming by the house. Heck, I even give them some credit... At least they DO what they preach lol.... Out of the 20 or so churches in town, they have been the only ones that come by consistently trying to find that one moment of insecurity where they can be there to try and save the day.

Anyway, I had to spend a few min in the house after eating a fulfilling lunch so I grabbed the pamphlet on my way to the Throne. This is the February 1, 2008 issue of The Watchtower. The front cover has storm clouds at the top, a man with his head down holding the top his suit jacket over his left shoulder with his forefinger and the jacket on his back, and a newspaper in his right hand. Giving that appearance that his is maybe not having the best of days. Then the title is what got my attention:

How Can
You Find Real
Peace of
Mind?

Yes, on the pamphlet the font slightly increases to emphasize Peace of Mind. So, I figured what the heck, lets see what they have to say. I began to flip through and the first stop was pg 4.

Where did We Come From?

WHY DOES THE ANSWER MATTER? Many people are taught that life on earth emerged by accident. They are told that through a series of unlikely, random events, evolution produced the human race with all its emotional, intellectual, and spiritual capacities.

But consider: If we really are the product of evolution and there is no Creator, the human race would, in a sense, be an orphan. Mankind would have no source of superior wisdom to consult-no one to help us solve our problems. We would have to rely on human wisdom to avert environmental disaster, to solve political conflicts, and to guide us through our personal crises.

Do these prospects bring you peace of mind? If not, contemplate the alternative. Not only is it more appealing but it also makes more sense."

Now, lets just ignore the typical straw man setup at the beginning for a moment. We all know how easy that is to refute. But check out the consider portion!!

"Mankind would have no source of superior wisdom to consult - no one to help us solve our problems.."

Exactly!!! We have to use our own intelligence to get by! That is the point... If you remove the supernatural, you are left with the natural, the common, the normal, the only difference is now you have no one to blame. One of my biggest problems with religion is this small tiny fact that remains constant. Belief in the supernatural removes personal accountability.

After reading that page the rest of the pamphlet got progressively worse, leaning more towards the divine at one point proving my point of removing accountability by answering the question why does god allow suffering by blaming it on Satan. If I have some extra time, I'll try to blog on that because they really did not answer the question, they simply blamed Satan and and said god allows it because there is still a score to settle... Really lame explanation if you ask me..

I couldn't resist, Everyday I see this sign and kept telling myself I was going to snap a shot of it, and finally today I did. The irony of this sign speaks for itself :)