by VorJack

During my “dues paying” years, I worked a job as a security guard stuck in a little guard shack. In order to avoid the feeling like I was in a sensory deprivation tank, I always kept the radio on to whatever station wasn’t playing country music. That meant that I occasionally listened to the local Christian station.

Praying to Change the World

Pullquote: Does an omniscient God need to be told that there’s a problem?

One thing I noticed was the constant call to prayer: pray for God to support the President, pray for God to oppose Congress, pray to protect the kids in public school who can’t pray for themselves, pray for the continued prosperity of Wal-Mart (seriously). Growing up Episcopalian, prayer was either a group ritual or a private meditation. This was something different: prayer as spellcasting.

I can’t think of another way to describe it. It doesn’t seem to make sense, even from within the conservative Evangelical theology. Does an omniscient God need to be told that there’s a problem? If God has a will of His own, do you really think you can brow-beat Him into action? If God has a plan for us all, do you really think you can get Him to change his mind?

Didn’t Matthew have Jesus say: “… in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matt. 6:7-8)

Random Reality

Pullquote: Bad things happen to good people, and also to careful people.

Last week, Daniel posted an example of victim blaming. It’s the classic “she’s asking for it” response to someone who dresses differently than you. I think victim blaming is a pretty good example of a certain kind of psychological trick that’s oddly related to this type of prayer.

As a number of people have pointed out over the years, “she was asking for it” is often an unconscious way of saying, “that can’t happen to me.” I wouldn’t go walking in that neighborhood, I wouldn’t wear that outfit, I’d never go out at night alone. Blaming the victim is a way of placing the cause of the harm on the victim shoulders, which implies that the victim could have avoided their fate. By extension, the speaker can avoid suffering that same fate with just a little common sense.

So the victim blaming is actually a psychological trick unconsciously used be the speaker to avoid facing one of the central facts of human existence: shit happens. Yes, you can take certain precautions that lower the probability that you might suffer calamity. But sometimes those precautions are not possible, and sometimes the dice are against you no matter how much you’ve done to improve your odds. Bad things happen to good people, and also to careful people.

Taking Control

Pullquote: Medieval Catholics prayed in order to feel that they had some control over death. Modern Christians pray in order to feel that they have some control over life.

I think its the randomness that really bothers us. The thought that all that separates us from a long stay in the hospital are the random firings of neurons in a drunk driver’s brain can be horrifying. Accompanying that is the horror of powerlessness: if that drunk swerves into us, there’s nothing we can do. Psychologists have shown that we always feel better we believe we have some control.

The above sort of prayer is another way to deal with that feeling of horror. It’s a trick that helps us feel like we’re doing something and that somehow we’re in control. Whenever we’re in a situation where we are powerless – when a friend is in the hospital, when bad things are happenings in far-off Washington, when the huge national economy is out of control, or just when we’re facing all the randomness that’s part of human life – at least we can pray and feel like we’re taking some control over the situation.

This kind of prayer still seems silly to me. Since I grew up in a liturgical church, it probably always will. But at least I think I can understand it now. Prayer of this type lets you do something, when there’s nothing really that you can do.

One thing puzzles me though. This isn’t a million miles away from the medieval Christian habit of praying for the dead to reduce the time spent in purgatory. Medieval Catholics prayed in order to feel that they had some control over death. Modern Christians pray in order to feel that they have some control over life. Do we now find life more horrifying than death?

by VorJack

There’s a story at the NYT about the plight of people who are trying to leave the Church of Scientology. The article focuses on Christie and Chris Collbran, a couple who joined in their teens and worked for the top Scientology administrative group, Sea Org.

They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a week, at most.

But after 13 years and growing disillusionment, the Collbrans decided to leave the Sea Org, setting off on a Kafkaesque journey that they said required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all communication with them.

The article depicts people who are so sunk in to the Scientology organization that they know little else. Their entire support structure, including their families, are involved with the church. Even after becoming disillusioned with the Church itself, they remain believers in its odd theories:

Ms. Collbran says she still believes in Scientology — not in the church as it is now constituted, but in its teachings. She still gets auditing, from other Scientologists who have defected …

You have to work at it to lose people like this. Perhaps this is why the organization spokesman seems a little tone deaf:

Mr. Davis, the church’s current spokesman, said Scientologists are no different from Mormons, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Amish who practice shunning or excommunication.
“These are common religious tenets,” he said. “The very survival of a religion is contingent on its protecting itself.”

Saying, “hey, we’re no more repressive than the other guy,” is not a winning strategy.

Probably the most encouraging part of the story is the positive effect that ex-Scientologist groups are having, as well as directly confrontational groups like Anonymous:

“Since Anonymous has come forward,” said Marc Headley, who belonged to the Sea Org for 16 years, “more and more people who have been abused or assaulted are feeling more confident that they can speak out and not have any retaliation happen.”

Mr. Headley, who wrote a book about his experiences, is suing the church for back wages, saying that over 15 years his salary averaged out to 39 cents an hour. His wife, who said the church coerced her into having two abortions, has also filed a suit. The couple now have two small children.

by VorJack

Well, it looks like it’s time for the mythicists to pack up. The Telegraph suggests that an archeologist has found a nail used in the crucifixion:

Nail from Christ’s crucifixion found?

A nail dating from the time of Christ’s crucifixion has been found at a remote fort believed to have once been a stronghold of the Knights Templar.

I love the question mark at the end of the title. “We’re just asking!”

The nail was found last summer in a decorated box in a fort on the tiny isle of Ilheu de Pontinha, just off the coast of Madeira.

Pontinha was thought to have been held by the Knights Templar, the religious order that was part of the Christian forces which occupied Jerusalem during the Crusades in the 12th century.

The knights were part of the plot of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Well, that last point does it for me.

My first thought was that this is another case where the media outlet is the one sensationalizing the find rather than the archeologist. Over at the Examiner, however, Chris Cunnyngham suggests something else: the whole thing is a hoax from the beginning:

News reports are placing this find on “the tiny isle of Ilheu de Pontinha, just off the coast of Madeira.” A quick check of Google maps brings up nothing but a general search leads us to the “Principality of the Pontinha” a “self-proclaimed country founded by Prince D. Renato Barros.” Renato Barros announced his secession from Portugal in a 2007 press release and headquarters his country in the “Fort of São José.” It seems that all three of these entities – the Ilheu, the Principality, and the Fort – are the same thing – a precarious pile of rocks on the side of a jetty off the southern city of Funchal that may indeed be an old fort. It is not an island anymore though it could have been on at one time.

[...]

So, boiled down, this is what we have: A man buys an old building, pronounces it a nation, secedes from his country, proclaims himself Prince, conducts archaeological digs and claims to have found three Templar skeletons and a nail that may have been a venerated relic of a crucifixion. And if it was a crucifixion nail it was one of thousands available.

I’m curious now: media sensationalism or complete fraud?

by VorJack

I’ve drawn from the blog Scotteriology a couple of times now. Scott has a knack for finding the absolute worst videos of Christian worship, theology and entertainment. He’s the one who first posted the Holy Ghost Hokey Pokey, which he describes as, “Perhaps the saddest, lowest, most incomprehensible moment in the history of Christianity.”

Well, now it’s time to choose the best of the worst. That’s right, it’s Christianity’s March Madness. That link will take you the brackets he’s set up, with sixteen of the most horrid youtube clips ever produced by well-meaning Christians. From there you can follow along as he pits the videos head-to-head and cast your vote for the worst of the lot.

You’ll see old favorites (Christian Sidehug, Colonel Cookie) as well some fresh horrors. Take a look.

by VorJack

While reading about the Flat Earth Society, I ran across a reference to a little-known contest that took place 140 years ago today. I decided that the coincidence of dates was too good to pass up.

On January 12, 1870, a message ran in the magazine Scientific Opinion, offering a wager of up to ₤500 to anyone who could prove that the earth was round. The author was John Hampden, one of the most prominent members of the flat earth movement. Hampden had been writing pamphlets since 1839 on a number of religious and political topics, but his most extreme claim was that the earth is a flat disc surrounded by ice. He had been converted by the founder of the flat earth movement, Samuel Rowbotham AKA “Parallax,” that Bible contradicted the idea of a round earth.

The Challenge

Pullquote: The undersigned is willing to deposit from £50 to £500, on reciprocal terms, and defies all the philosophers, divines and scientific professors in the United Kingdom to prove the rotundity and revolution of the world from Scripture, from reason or from fact.
John Hampden

Not surprisingly, most professional scientists ignored Hampden’s challenge. The 19th century nickname for such fringe belief was “paradoxes,” and while some scientists were willing to speak or write against them, most were reluctant to dignify them with attention. Yet who should finally step forward but Alfred Russell Wallace, the co-discoverer of evolution.

Wallace fits oddly within the pantheon of famous scientists. Michael Shermer describes him as a “heretic personality.” He was a spiritualist and had published a work titled Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural, linking spiritualism and biology. He also argued that some higher intelligence must have influenced the development of the human brain.

Wallace’s ill fit within the scientific community may explain why he, out of all the scientists of his time, stepped forward to take Hampden’s challenge. Another explanation was the money. Wallace didn’t have Darwin’s inheritance to support him as he researched and wrote, and he was working as schools examiner to pay the bills. ₤500 was about a year’s pay for him.

The Contest

Pullquote: Parallax, whose proper name is Rowbotham, is not the man whose wager I accepted. He is far too clever for that ; Hampden was one of his dupes. Parallax makes the boldest false statements, and as the number of those who can contradict him from actual experience is small, his assertions are believed by thousands.
Alfred Russell Wallace

Wallace and Hampden arranged a contest on the Old Bedford River in Norfolk, England. One stretch was a straight uninterrupted six-mile stretch of drainage canal that had a history with the flat earth movement. Hampden’s mentor Samuel Rowbotham had waded into one end of the canal and used a telescope to watch boats as they sailed away. He proclaimed that there was no visible vertical movement of the boat through the entire stretch, proving that the earth was flat and level.

Wallace, who had worked as a surveyor in his early years, understood the types of optical illusions that can result in the effect that Rowbotham observed. He set up a different experiment to cancel out the effects of light refraction. Three boats were moored along the six-mile stretch of the Bedford. Two of the boats were moored by bridges at either end of the stretch, and one boat was moored in the middle.

The mast of each boat was marked at 13′4″ above the water line. The referees would be standing on one of the bridges and viewing three boats through a telescope. If the earth were flat, the markers would line up. If the earth were round, the marker on the middle boat would appear slightly higher than the two end boats.

The challenge took place 140 years ago today, on Saturday, March 5th, 1870. Wallace’s referee, John Henry Walsh, couldn’t make it as was replaced by Martin Coulcher. Hampden’s referee was a fellow flat earther, William Carpenter. In turns, both referees looked through the telescope. Coulcher declared that he saw the middle marker as 4-5 feet higher than the two end markers. However, Carpenter declared that he saw all three markers as level.

Naturally, an argument ensued. John Henry Walsh, Wallace’s first choice for referee, was called back in. After examining the notes – and visiting an optician at Hampden’s insistence – Walsh declared for Wallace. After almost a month of wrangling, Wallace received his £500 on April Fools Day.

The Aftermath

Pullquote: Madam – If your infernal thief of a husband is bought home some day on a hurdle, with every bone in his head smashed to a pulp, you will know the reason. Do you tell him from me he is a lying infernal thief, and as sure as his name is Wallace he never dies in his bed.
Hampden to Annie Wallace

Hampden went crazy. The controversy resulted in a blizzard of pamphlets from the flat earth side, and Hampden tested the limits of his vocabulary of insults on Wallace and Walsh. He mailed letters and pamphlets to everyone connected to Wallace, calling him a thief, knave, impostor, rogue, swindler and so on. As seen in the pullquote, he sent threatening letters to Wallace’s wife.

Wallace reached his limit and sued Hampden for libel in January 1871. Wallace won, but Hampden had signed all his property over to his son-in-law and declared bankruptcy. Hampden would be repeatedly incarcerated, but his attacks continued until his death in 1891. “The Bedford Canal Swindle,” became one of the Flat Earthers battle cries.

Hampden’s only legal victory came in 1877, when he sued Walsh for the return of the ₤500. The Judge would not rule on the outcome of the bet, but he did note that during the argument in March 1870, Hampden had demanded his stake back. The Judge ruled that since the outcome of the bet had not been decided at that point, this qualified as negating the wager. Wallace and Walsh were required to give Hampden back his ₤500.

So Wallace did not profit from the wager. Worse, his reputation among his peers – already rather low because of his spiritual opinions – took a hit. By engaging with a member of the lunatic fringe, Wallace had inadvertently raised the status of Hampden. Worse, he had attempted to profit from it. When Charles Darwin began to lobby for Wallace to receive a government pension for his contributions to science, scientists like Joesph Dalton Hook would bring up the way Wallace went about, “taking up the Lunatic bet about the sphericity of the earth, and pocketing the money.”

I think the moral to this messy story is a simple one for skeptics: choose your battles wisely. Wallace handled the challenge well and designed a good experiment, but it all fell apart in the face of Carpenter’s denial. There was little chance that he could ever convince Carpenter or Hampden, even of the evidence of their own eyes. In the end, Wallace lost far more than he gained from the experiment.

by VorJack

They’re the fringe of the fringe. Even creationists don’t want to be affiliated with them. But the Flat Earth Society is back, and it has a new president, Daniel Shenton. Shenton has resurrected the Society after it went adrift following the 2001 death of its previous president, Charles Johnson.

Alright, so another fringe group. The late Robert Schadewald, skeptic and historian, covered the flat earthers for a while. But honestly, why pay attention to them?

What interests me is the fact that Shenton doesn’t appear to be religiously motivated:

In fact, Shenton turns out to have resolutely mainstream views on most issues. The 33-year-old American, ­originally from Virginia but now living and working in London, is happy with the work of Charles Darwin. He thinks the evidence for man-made global warming is strong, and he dismisses suggestions that his own government was involved with the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

He is mainstream on most issues, but not all. For when Shenton rides his motorbike, he says it is not gravity that pins him to the road, but the rapid upward motion of a disc-shaped planet. Countries, according to him, spread across this flat world as they appear to do on a map, with Antarctica as a ring of mountains strung around the edge. And, yes, you can fall off.

The Flat Earth movement dates back to Victorian times, and it has always been religiously motivated. It was started by a man named Samuel Birley Rowbotham – who operated under the pseudonym “Parallax” – who argued that the Bible depicts a flat earth. If you accept a spherical earth, you have to throw out your Bible.

As Charles Johnson said, “The whole point of the Copernican theory is to get rid of Jesus by saying there is no up and no down. The spinning ball thing just makes the whole Bible a big joke.”

So flat earthers were a more extreme form of creationism. But apparently, not all of them, not anymore. Shenton seems to be a skeptic:

But what about the evidence? In an age where ­astronauts send photographs of a spherical planet from an orbiting space station, how can the concept of a flat Earth persist?

“Look at what special effects are capable of: you can produce any photograph, any video. I don’t think there is solid proof. I’m not intentionally being stubborn about it, but I feel our senses tell us these things, and it would take an extraordinarily level of evidence to counteract those. How many people have actually investigated it? Have you?”

It’s an odd and extreme sort of skepticism, but there you go. In order to believe in a flat earth, Shenton seems to imply that there’s a conspiracy of governments and special effects artists out to maintain the spherical earth hoax. In order to hold on to his belief, he must create a theory that piles unprovable assumptions on top of conspiracism.

by VorJack

I feel a little bit dirty for posting this, but here goes:

Wife of televangelist Benny Hinn files for divorce

The wife of televangelist Benny Hinn has filed for divorce from the high-profile pastor, whose reputation as an advocate of prosperity gospel has attracted millions of followers and criticism from lawmakers and watchdog groups over his lavish lifestyle.

Yes, Benny Hinn, the celebrity pastor of the Prosperity Gospel, has been stricken with the “spirit of divorce.” His wife, Suzanne Hinn, moved out in late January and is now breaking it off entirely. For his ministry, it gets worse: Suzanne has hired Sorell Trope as her divorce attorney. Trope is the celebrity lawyer who represented Nichole Kidman and Elin Nordegren, the wife of Tiger Woods.

Look, I don’t want to celebrate anyone’s divorce. I don’t want to think about the ugliness that could result from this, and the damage it might do to their children. But if Suzanne Hinn and her attorney can rip open Benny Hinn’s finances and make them public during the trial, then the good done might make the whole thing worth it.

I can’t decide whether I’m being naive or cynical, but I have a hunch that a good divorce lawyer could reveal more about Hinn’s fraud than Senator Grassley ever could.

In order to salve my conscience, I offer you Benny’s star appearance in the heavy metal mash-up: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor!

by VorJack

The Tim Minchin clip from last week reminded me of a theory that was going around for a while.

The pseudonymous Christoph Luxenberg wrote a work titled A Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran, in which he maintained that Muhammad and other early Muslims incorporated certain words and phrases from Aramaic into their Arabic. He also wrote that early Islam was influenced by Syrian Christianity.

So far, fairly plausible. He argued that these realizations allowed certain confusing parts of the Qur’an to be more clearly translated.

His most famous example deals with what the Muslim martyrs could expect in the afterlife. Luxenburg argues that the Arabic huri, or “virgins”, is actually a mistranslation of the Aramaic/Syriac word for “white grapes” or raisins, hur.

Can’t say whether it’s accurate or not. But if it is, then someone’s in for a disappointment.