Gospel of Luke 21-24 You don't say

Luke 21-24

The re-retelling of parables and end times predictions.

Once again Jesus sets up the prophesy of his death and resurrection by pissing off the powers that be and getting himself arrested

We learn that Judas was possessed by Satan before he betrayed Jesus and didn't do it willingly.
This feels like a  huge cop-out on the part of the storytellers in that it takes the human element out of the story.  Jesus wasn't really betrayed by an apostile/friend.

Jesus shares bread and wine with his followers.  Two thousand years later, some literalists believe that bread and wine blessed by a priest turns into the body and blood of Jesus.  Still, it's not as stupid as believing that if you trust in god hard enough, you won't die from a viper bite...

I need to bring up something that's kind of bugged me for a while.  Jesus tells Peter that he will deny knowing Jesus three times.  But, Jesus denies himself repeatedly when on trial!

22:70 Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am.

23:3 And Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it. 23:9 Then he (Herod) questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing. What did Jesus have to gain by being snarky to these questions and not being upfront about his "Son of God" status?  If he said he WAS the messiah, they still would have killed him! Oh, and what the hell is wrong with Christians who hate the Jews because "They killed our Lord".  Did they not read the bible?  Are they just really stupid?  Both?  If the people of Jerusalem (the Jews) didn't call for Jesus' crucifixion, Christians wouldn't have a religion, or, more ironically, they'd be Jews themselves!!! But I digress.  Jesus doesn't defend himself in court and is sentenced to death.  He is mocked and beaten on the way so that Catholic churches would have something to hang on the walls (The stations of the cross for those non-Catholics reading this). Getting nailed to a cross is a heinous act, but I find the part where the soldiers give Jesus vinegar to drink while he's hanging there, dying to be almost as horrid.  The Romans were dicks. One of the criminals hanging with Jesus says; 23:41 ... for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. I'm guessing that a dying man nailed to a cross didn't actually say this!   Jesus dies and is taked by Joseph of Arimathaea and his maidens. 23:56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. They must have missed the part when Jesus said you no longer have to observe the sabbath, or did that just pertain to eating corn? But, all is well that ends well.  Jesus comes back from the dead, is reunited with his friends, tells them 'I told you so!' and then rises to heaven.  We all live happily ever after until God decides it's time to kill all of us non-believers. The Skeptics Annotated Bible has several interesting lists of contradictions regarding the crucifixion and resurrection in the right margin.  What do you think?

Book of Daniel

Daniel 1-12

The book of Daniel is all about dreams and their interpretations.  This post is about as confused as his prophesies.

Daniel and some friends are made slaves of Nebuchadnezzar and have their names changed.
Slave Daniel asks God to save his hide by helping him interput Nebuchadnezzar's bad dream.

Daniel's interpretation is convoluted and a pretty generic answer, sort of like today's psychics.

Even so, the king is so impressed that he worships the jewish god and makes Daniel a ruler;

2:46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him. 2:47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.

But in the next chapter ol' Nebu gets mad because the Jews won't worship his god and idol 

and throws them into a burning, fiery furnace, but they are unscathed!!!  And to top it off, the Son of God is walking around in the furnace with them! 3:25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. What else could the king do but convert to Judaism.  Again. 3:29 Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. But, God causes Nebbie to go nuts and lives like a wild animal in the woods for (a year?  Not really sure on the exact timeframe) before returning to the throne.  You think this would have been mentioned somewhere else other then the Bible but I can't find it. Daniel repeats his dream interpretation act almost to the letter with king Belshazzar and is again rewarded.  But that doesn't stop him from being thrown to the lions by Belshazzar's confederates. 6:10-24 is the story of Daniel in the lions den.  Once again I'm shocked that such a quick story has gained such notoriety, even outside the christian community.  The gruesome end of the guilty parties (and their families) is never mentioned of course.  The dreams and interpretations continue thru-out the book.  Daniel meets several angels. As per Daniels first predication, a string of kings comes and goes.  Nebuchadnezzar even writes a chapter! The second half of the book turns grim and we get some proto revelations.  End of the world stuff. It goes into great detail on the happenings but it's still middle-east centric, which is odd because the world is so much bigger now. When reading it, I got the feeling that the author thought the end times would occur with-in his lifetime, but Daniel is ultimately noncommittal as to when God will put and end to his failed experiment. All we know is that there will be zombies!!!

Hitler, McCarthy and Pastor Mike

What do you do when the ideology of one group conflicts with your ideology?  Well, if you're part of the majority rule, you try to outlaw that group and make them criminals (Nazis, Communists, Medieval Catholic Church).

But, what if you live in a country that holds freedom of speech and freedom of belief to be the highest of it's social truths?  Well, you can only hope to keep track of the rabble 'just in case'.

Enter Pastor Mike Stahl.  He feels that Atheists need to be put on a national registry so "we" can keep track of them.

From his blog;

"I mean, think about it. There are already National Registrys [sic] for convicted sex offenders, ex-convicts, terrorist cells, hate groups like the KKK, skinheads, radical Islamists, etc.."

"This type of 'National Registry' would merely be for information purposes."

"I mean, in the City of Miramar, Florida, where I live, the population is approx. 109,000. My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists! Perhaps we may actually know some. In which case we could begin to witness to them and warn them of the dangers of atheism. Or perhaps they are radical atheists, whose hearts are as hard as Pharaoh's, in that case, if they are business owners, we would encourage all our Christian friends, as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them as we would only be "feeding" Satan. "

He seems to be unaware that GOD hardened Pharaohs heart several times after Pharaoh repeatedly agreed to let the Jews leave Egypt.  ;-)

I have to link to the article about Stahls blog because he's made it invite only since it hit the news.

When the lights go on, the cockroaches run and hide.

I'll gladly invoke Godwin's law here.  Pastor Mike's idea certainly mimics Hitler's practices against Jews, gays and atheists, but McCarthyism is a more appropriate comparison.

I really don't have a point to make here, Pastor Mike makes it for me.  I just wanted to shine another light on a cockroach.