Monthly Archives: November 2007

Funny search terms

Fun, Site

So WordPress gives a “useful” tool in its Dashboard that lets you know what search terms have been used to find your blog.  I often find really random things on there, currently the list includes:

  •  God gives some people unsual smells
  • dog eats homework
  • physics porn
  • Astrological houses and ten commandments
  • free website templates for chiropractors

and yes, that is a misspelling of “unusual,” I guess God doesn’t give everyone the perfect gift for spelling (if I believed in a God then you could argue that I’m being a hypocrite).

If anymore amuse me I’ll post them again.

I’m trying to understand…

Bible, Religion

Where and how Jesus rules the Old Testament and laws of the covenant obsolete.

A lot of the apologetics argue that Jesus “fulfils” the laws so they are no longer necessary:

From Matthew:

5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

But this directly contradicts many of the assertions of the Old Testament that the laws were eternal and perfect (and thus wouldn’t need to be changed or abandoned):

Psalms 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

Psalms 119:160
Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments(laws) endureth for ever.

And furthermore:

Psalms 119:1-4
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
Thou(God) hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

Furthermore, it’s pretty clear that in the Old Laws God did not want people eating certain foods (they were unclean), but Jesus saw fit to not ‘fulfil’ those laws, but was more willing to just ignore them and taught his disciples as such:

Lev 11:42-44
Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination.
Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Mark 7:18-19
And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

There’s also  several points when Jesus pisses off the Jews by failing to observe the Sabbath, but it’s very clear in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus etc. that one who doesn’t observe the Sabbath is to be put to one of a couple serious punishments (since the Old Testament specifies several) – in this law Jesus didn’t really fulfil it, but merely decided to ignore it.

So I pose the question, because I’m not a Theologian, or even a decent expert in the Bible, where am I wrong, and where does it explicitly say that Jesus cancelled the Old Laws?

I’m trying to understand…

Bible, Religion

Where and how Jesus rules the Old Testament and laws of the covenant obsolete.

A lot of the apologetics argue that Jesus “fulfils” the laws so they are no longer necessary:

From Matthew:

5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

But this directly contradicts many of the assertions of the Old Testament that the laws were eternal and perfect (and thus wouldn’t need to be changed or abandoned):

Psalms 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

Psalms 119:160
Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments(laws) endureth for ever.

And furthermore:

Psalms 119:1-4
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
Thou(God) hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

Furthermore, it’s pretty clear that in the Old Laws God did not want people eating certain foods (they were unclean), but Jesus saw fit to not ‘fulfil’ those laws, but was more willing to just ignore them and taught his disciples as such:

Lev 11:42-44
Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination.
Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Mark 7:18-19
And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

There’s also  several points when Jesus pisses off the Jews by failing to observe the Sabbath, but it’s very clear in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus etc. that one who doesn’t observe the Sabbath is to be put to one of a couple serious punishments (since the Old Testament specifies several) – in this law Jesus didn’t really fulfil it, but merely decided to ignore it.

So I pose the question, because I’m not a Theologian, or even a decent expert in the Bible, where am I wrong, and where does it explicitly say that Jesus cancelled the Old Laws?

I’m trying to understand…

Bible, Religion

Where and how Jesus rules the Old Testament and laws of the covenant obsolete.

A lot of the apologetics argue that Jesus “fulfils” the laws so they are no longer necessary:

From Matthew:

5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

But this directly contradicts many of the assertions of the Old Testament that the laws were eternal and perfect (and thus wouldn’t need to be changed or abandoned):

Psalms 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

Psalms 119:160
Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments(laws) endureth for ever.

And furthermore:

Psalms 119:1-4
Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.
Thou(God) hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

Furthermore, it’s pretty clear that in the Old Laws God did not want people eating certain foods (they were unclean), but Jesus saw fit to not ‘fulfil’ those laws, but was more willing to just ignore them and taught his disciples as such:

Lev 11:42-44
Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination.
Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.
For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Mark 7:18-19
And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

There’s also  several points when Jesus pisses off the Jews by failing to observe the Sabbath, but it’s very clear in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus etc. that one who doesn’t observe the Sabbath is to be put to one of a couple serious punishments (since the Old Testament specifies several) – in this law Jesus didn’t really fulfil it, but merely decided to ignore it.

So I pose the question, because I’m not a Theologian, or even a decent expert in the Bible, where am I wrong, and where does it explicitly say that Jesus cancelled the Old Laws?

Mythology

Religion

It’s funny how dead religions are now called mythology and seen as silly beliefs of people in the past – or if not silly, than worthy of Disney movies, but modern religions are faith and divine and (they hope to be) above question.

Sharia Law

Atheism, Bible, Politics, Religion

Sharia law is the Islamic way of providing rule and justice. It is based solely off of the Quar’an and for that reason it is unjust and should not be practised in Canada.

Modern Western law has evolved from religious inspired doctrines of the middle ages, to reviving some of the old Greek ideas of democracy, to a modern secular and philosophical form.

Allowing for law from books of revelation, even within small communities leaves people open to persecution, discrimination, and hate crimes.

The Old Testament features many laws which do not hold today – from not eating shellfish, to stoning and death sentences for many crimes. By Old Testament standards slavery and the subjugation of women would be allowed and promoted. Even the New Testament features passages that do not apply to modern law.

One only needs to listen to stories from the Islamic states to hear the sheer appalling gory of Sharia law in action: a British teacher sentenced to forty lashes for allowing her 7-8 year old students to name a teddy bear Mohamed in Sudan, a woman in Saudi Arabia is sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail for being in a car with a non-relative man – she was also gang raped that night (the attackers got 2-9 years in jail), and that’s just what I’ve heard in the past couple weeks.

And some feel it’s okay to allow this sort of legal system to be practised in Canada? (The move in Ontario in 2005 was squashed by Premier McGuinty).

Religious law is a 1000-year backwards step for a society.

cdesign proponentsists

Atheism, Creationism, Evolution, Links, Parody, Religion, Science

From the Nova special last week on the Dover trials, it was shown that in an early draft of “Of Pandas and People” (the ID-friendly “biology” textbook from the Discovery Institute) there was a slip up in one of the edits where “cdesign proponentsists” where mentioned (as a change from “creationists” to “design proponents”). This was one of the key pieces of evidence that ID was just religious creationism relabelled.

Now the definition has shown up on UrbanDictionary.com as follows:

The missing link between “creationists” and “design proponents”, as used in the textbook Of Pandas and People. Used to refer to creationist dumbfucks who are all to generally confused by science theology or even common sense.

Science says man evolved from other apes. Cdesign proponentsists say apes smell and prefer the scientific explanation “Goddidit”.

The bunk of chiropractors

Links, Science

Most people can understand that homeopathy is bunk science (in the same way intelligent design and astrology are), but many are still willing to stand behind their chiropractors who are downright thieves.  At Surgeonsblog he says it best (after tearing at chiropractors and then ranting on pseudoscience):

I don’t think you should get to pick and choose. Don’t believe in evolution? OK, then don’t get on an airplane. Earth is twelve thousand years old? Fine. Take back your laptop. Homeopathy makes sense to you? No problem. Put down that cellphone, never avail yourself of GPS. Because if man and dinosaur occupied the same space and the same time, if carbon-dating is bogus, atomic clocks don’t work and transplants are impossible. If vaccines cause autism, Rovers aren’t on Mars and nothing will happen when I push the button to post this.

Want more reasons to discredit chiropractors? See SkepticReport, and Wikipedia’s subarticle on the Scientific Investigation of Chiropractic.  The summary is: there is not enough substantial evidence to claim spinal manipulation is able to cure anything, and furthermore, there are many serious risks to spinal manipulation when improperly performed (stroke, paralysis, etc.)

Predicting People

Fun, Parody, Science

There are many trends that you can track with people and how they respond to different situations.  Anyone who’s planned an event has probably realized that the majority of people RSVP in the last time frame, which can make predicting expected numbers of registrants difficult.

A recent paper in Nature Physics examines data from several recent physics conferences and determines the rate at which people register.  The data initially begins linear, but spikes logarithmically near the deadline.  They summarize that you can predict the total number of registrants by extrapolating the linear registration data to the deadline and tripling that number.

Citation:

Conference registration: how people react to a deadline

Valentina Alfi, Giorgio Parisi & Luciano Pietronero

Nature Physics 3, 746 (2007)

If you don’t have access to this journal you can still view the graph (the article is only a page so you get most of the info from the graph).

I broke 2000!

Personal, Site

My first site ever to break 2000 hits since it started in June (currently at 2012 visitors).  My best day ever was 88.  I have to thank WordPress for this, since without it’s blogging might I would never have gotten beyond talking to myself and maybe the odd friend looking at my site.  Also the Atheist Blogroll helped out too.