Off to find...something.

The caravan has packed up and moved off, in search of truth, light and spiritual nirvana.

Ha! Who am I kidding?

But on the road we are.

Check up on what is going on in my main blog, A Curate's Egg.
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Did the earth move for you too, dear...?

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"AN Israeli politician has blamed a spate of recent earthquakes in the Middle East on gays

Shlomo Benizri of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party said the only way to prevent the earthquakes was for parliament to stop liberalising laws concerning homosexuals, AP reported.

“Why do earthquakes happen? One of the reasons is the things to which the Knesset (parliament) gives legitimacy, to sodomy,'' Mr Benizri said.

Mr Benizri said earthquake damage could be avoided if the parliament stopped “passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes''." - News.com.au

I love the way the ultra religious, of any persuasion, are so sure that they, and only they, know God's wishes.

How does he know that God is not miffed by the lack of roast pork in the Middle East, or the price of matzo balls, or the absence of Australian Rules Football, or, or, or...

At least, from Mr Benizri's assessment, God doesn't seem to be concerned about Lesbians.

And does this mean that the map of homosexuals distributed around the world mirrors the map of earthquake zones? If so, I guess it means Japan, Indonesia and New Zealand are absolutely chockers with gays.

Or, flipping it around, does this mean that the Knesset's liberal laws are responsible for earthquakes in the west coast of the USA?

And what are we to make of the line of earthquakes down the centre of the Atlantic? Is it a thinly veiled message to lonely sailors or is it a sad indictment on the moral turpitude of the dolphins?

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Vaguely related is the following cartoon, published in the mid 70s when the then Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, was in China during an earthquake.

Caused quite a stir at the time, in the media at least.

Prime Minister's weren't supposed to do that sort of thing.

God only knows why.


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Thank you Madam, it's been a pleasure.

There is a story in today's papers (full article) about a Saudi Arabian business woman who was arrested for sitting with an unrelated man at a Starbucks coffee shop, discussing a business deal.

That was her crime. That's all.

It beggars belief.

The men who arrested her were from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. So what did these defenders of decency do to this poor woman?

They strip searched her, of course.

So, sitting fully clothed with a man who is not a relative is dealt with by a group of unrelated males stripping you naked? That seems a trifle unbalanced.

Seems to be more directed at the men's pleasure than the lady's misdemeanour but perhaps I am being cynical. It does have strong parallels with the supposedly Christian treatment of women thought to have been witches in the 15th century. One account I read says that such women had to undergo a vaginal inspection by their accusers as it was suspected they carried satanic amulets in their vagina.

Sure.

I don't care what the book says, it is assault.

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Not quite so bad?

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Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin had many things in common.

Not the least of which was the propensity to imprison and torture anyone who did not agree with them or who had belief systems contrary to theirs.

The difference between them and God is not great.

The Christian God also supposedly tortures those who do not agree with him or who have belief systems contrary to his. The torture involves fire and brimstone in the burning lakes of Hell.

The difference between Hitler, Stalin and this far from benevolent God is that Hitler and Stalin had the decency to stop the torture when the victim was dead.

The Christian God will continue it for all eternity.

Nasty piece of work.
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Bloodyminded stupidity.

The paper today has a story about an American Muslim girl, Juashaunna Kelly, who was disqualified from a cross-country event because she wore a full body suit in order to comply with the dictates of her faith. She had competed in the same event last year with no problems.

Kelly, whose times are the fastest of any District girl, was hoping to run a time fast enough to qualify for the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in February, an event which attracts dozens of college recruiters. In disqualifying her from the event, the organisers were not just making a statement about religious intolerance in the Land of the Free, they were also destroying in a young girl's dreams of a sports-based college education.

Full story

If I believed in Hell, I would wish it on the officials.

Now, Cathy Freeman won gold at the Sydney Olympics wearing a similar suit...

Should she be disqualified and have to hand back her medal?



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Intelligent Design?

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I learn that ten percent of all the world's species are parasitic insects.

It is hard to believe.

What if you were an inventor, and you made ten
percent of your inventions in such a way that they could only work by
harnessing, disfiguring or totally destroying the other ninety percent?

-Annie Dillard
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Three Wise Women?

.Do you know what would have happened if
there had been Three Wise Women instead of
Three Wise Men?

They would have asked directions
Arrived on time
Helped deliver the baby
Cleaned the stable
Made a casserole
And brought practical gifts.

A comprehensively filleted fish.

The leader of the world's Anglicans has described the Christmas story of the three wise men as nothing but a "legend" and says not all followers must believe in the virgin birth of Jesus.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has picked apart elements of the Christmas story, including how a star rose high in the sky and stood still to guide the wise men to Jesus's birth place.

Stars simply don't behave like that, he told the BBC during an interview.

Dr Williams said there was little evidence that the three wise men had existed at all. Certainly there was nothing to prove they were kings.

The only reference to the wise men from the East was in Matthew's gospel and the details were very vague, he said.

"Matthew's gospel says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that's all we're really told. It works quite well as legend," he said.

He went on to say that while he believed in it himself, new Christians need not leap over the "hurdle" of belief in the virgin birth before they could join the church.

He said the virgin birth was "part of what I have inherited".

And on the timing of Jesus's birth, he said the son of God was likely not born in December at all.

"Christmas was when it was because it fitted well with the winter festival," he said.

But Dr Williams said almost everyone agreed on two things - that Jesus's mother was named Mary and his father Joseph.

The archbishop said his approach was to stick strictly to what the Bible says.

- The Melbourne Age - Dec 21st, 2007.

Well, Dr Williams, what does that leave you with?

Just "Jesus's mother was named Mary and his father Joseph"??

But these are hardly Jewish or Galilean names are are most certainly westernised at some point.

So it, possibly you are left with not much at all.
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Two doubting women.

What a disappointment!

Son of Dog

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Grim, and bear it.

There has been considerable hoo-ha in the press of late about the teacher who was jailed in the Sudan after a teddy bear in her classroom was named after the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.

She was jailed for 15 days but released early due to international protests.

Apparently she could have received up to 2 years jail and 40 lashes. The more extreme in the Sudan were calling for her execution. For naming a teddy bear after the prophet. Sounds a bit over the top here.

A number of things worry me about it all:

1. Why could it not have just been pointed out to her that it was inappropriate under Sharia Law to name an object under the prophet and request that the bear be renamed? Why the headlong and seemingly irreversible rush to jail?

2. By the reports, it was the children who chose the name, not the teacher. So where does responsibility lie? The teacher was there to teach English, not religion.

All in all, it reflects badly on Islam as a whole and the vast number of its adherents who are not so extreme in their views. It was a good sign to the world at large that two Muslim peers from the UK went to the Sudan to argue for the teacher's release, showing the moderate side of the religion.

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The bear above, by the way, is the one Margaret left on our bed for me to cuddle while she is away.

His name is Columbus.
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A benevolent God?

This photo was taken in the desert between Iraq and Jordan, 1979.
We had passed out of Iraq and were yet to enter Jordan
and camped in the desert between the two countries.
One night of my life in limbo.

AUSTRALIA'S drought is caused by sin and will be relieved by prayer, according to controversial Pentecostal pastor Danny Nalliah.

Pastor Nalliah, leader of Catch the Fire Ministries, said there was a "mad rush" from every political party to blame climate change, but that if Australia returned to God the rains would fall.

He said the Bible revealed the reason behind the drought in the second book of Chronicles. In chapter 7, it reads: "If I shut up the heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

Last month Pastor Nalliah held a prayer rally at Parliament House, emerging to anoint John Howard as God's man for Australia.

God help us! (Figuratively speaking, of course.)

Well, Pastor Nalliah, what countries are getting God's blessing? If we find the country with the perfect climate does that mean we will also find God's chosen people?

The message about the photo with this post, by the way, is to point out that the Middle East, the seat of the three major religions, is hardly a flourishing rainforest.
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Hell fires?

Now, the faithful are saying that this is nigh on a miracle and proves the pseudo-divinity of Pope JP2. It could mean that he is burning in Hell, too. The photo came via the Daily Mail, a UK paper best used for lining cockatoo cages, so that says something in itself.

What is it with people that they insist in finding faces in things? Mother Teresa in a bun, Christ in a toasted cheese sandwich, a face on the surface of Mars, even the 'Man in the Moon'.

Are we pre-wired to be gullible?
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It's a worry...

Cardinal George Pell

The Melbourne Age:

A bitter rift over climate change has developed between a senior member of the Anglican Church and Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell.

At the national Anglican synod in Canberra yesterday, Bishop Browning attacked the cardinal for saying Jesus said nothing about climate change. "It's almost unbelievable," said Bishop Browning, who is the chairman of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network.

"I wrote him a letter saying Jesus had an awful lot to say about the rich taking what belonged to the poor and about the heritage of the children, and as he spoke about both of these things he spoke about climate change."

Cardinal Pell replied scathingly that church leaders should be allergic to nonsense. "My task as a Christian leader is to engage with reality, to contribute to debate on important issues, to open people's minds and to point out when the emperor is wearing few or no clothes," he said.

Put some clothes on, George.
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Coals to Newcastle?

It's all in the interpretation...

There were 3 good arguments that Jesus was Black:
1. He called everyone brother.
2. He liked Gospel.
3. He didn't get a fair trial.

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish:
1. He went into His Father's business.
2. He lived at home until he was 33
3. His Mother was sure He was a God.

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian:
1. He talked with His hands.
2. He had wine with His meals.
3. He used olive oil.

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian :
1. He never cut His hair.
2. He walked around barefoot all the time.
3. He started a new religion.

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was an American Indian :
1. He was at peace with nature.
2. He ate a lot of fish.
3. He talked about the Great Spirit.

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Irish:
1. He never got married.
2. He was always telling stories.
3. He loved green pastures.

But the most compelling evidence of all - 3 proofs that Jesus was a woman:
1. She fed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was virtually no food.
2. She kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it.
3. And even when She was dead, She had to get up because there was still work to do.
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No white doves for Connie.

I saw with some sadness that Anita Roddick, the founder of the 'Body Shop' chain of ethical cosmetics stores, died last night of a brain haemorrhage, aged 64.

It touches a spot in me.

Let me take you back to Christmas Day, 1969.

My parents and I dropped in on my grandmother's sister, Auntie Connie, to collect her and take her to my grandmother's place for Christmas lunch. Auntie Connie was a small, effervescent, curly-haired spinster whose life revolved around her church. She lived in what was then a small workers cottage. Of course, it needed minor things done to it, like bringing the toilet inside, but nowadays, with renovation, it would be a trendy town house. She made her living doing ironing and her talk was full of what she was going to do to her house after Christmas. You see, she had the last payment for her house in her purse and, when the estate agent opened after Christmas, she would finally own her house.

As we sat with her, having a piece if her Christmas cake and a cup of tea, and listening to her talk about her renovation plans for the house, she had a brain haemorrhage. It was, from her screams, an extremely painful affair.

She died in hospital the following day.

While I had never had a particularly religious upbringing, it was Auntie Connie's death that first made me first seriously wonder about the existence of God. If he did exist, he had a cruel sense of humour. Here was Auntie Connie, devoted church-goer for all her life, active member of the congregation, lived by ironing shirts, had her last house payment in her purse and, wham!, gone. That's it.

And Christmas Day, to boot.

He could have at least sent some white doves to carry her off.
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Maybe.

Mind your bees and accuse.

According to an article in today's paper, Australia's bee population may be at risk from a two-millimetre-long parasite called Varroa that is wrecking havoc in the world's bee population. This little tacker latches onto the bees and sucks them dry faster than the guy in the beer ad deals with a can of Fosters.

Nasty little sucker.

Now, I can understand how this can occur with the Darwin's survival of the fittest; the evolution of this bug means it has found a niche in the world of bees. Presumably those bees that are resistant to the bug with survive and breed a new line of stronger bees, the same way rabbits out bred myximatosis.

But how does the creation explanation go?

Well? If the mite things didn't evolve, where have they been hiding for the last 3,000 years? I'm assuming that God is not doing a timed release or late date intervention here. Why should there suddenly be a critter about that may do nasty things to the life cycles of bees and, hence, to flowers? There are 54 references to flowers in the Bible, so he must be partial to them.**

It's all a mystery to me.
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** Trivia point: there is one mention of bees in the Koran but no mention of flowers. The Bible mentions bees twice.