Dr Who Review of episode,"Last Christmas" shown 25th December 2014

BBC,"Dr Who" sci-fi fantasy episode for 25th Dec. 2014,"Last Christmas" 

was written by Steven Moffat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

The story is a bit abstract but the plot is based on the idea that "Dream crabs" are a sort of parasite which are like a big hand which attaches to the face of its victim causing them to slip into dreams while it sucks their brains out. The only way to escape the dream crabs is to wake up and return to reality. So the person has to work out what is real and what it not real.

One idea in the story is that four of the crew are each given a instruction manual and are asked to read from page 12. What they read out is different from each other which reveals that they are not really awake but in a dream state. The parallel is in comparing what scripture says to what we know from science.

I liked the bit where Dr Who tells the crew to focus on other things (their favourite things?) so that the dream crabs will lose their power

The story could be interpreted as a wake up call to people to shake off religious delusion. In religion there is a difference between knowing what the stories say and knowing the various interpretations, i.e the apologist's attempt to persuade that the stories are real and the skeptics interpretation which notes reasons to consider the stories to be not real events.

The show starts with a Santa having crashed his sleigh on the rooftop of Clara's house. Santa asks the elves to pick up the spilled tangerines. One of his elves says,"Nobody likes tangerines". Santa replies,"How dare you, that is my signature gift". A couple of minutes later Dr Who is made to repeat the line,"Nobody likes tangerines"

I would guess that over 70% of people like the taste of tangerines/ satsuma/ clementines/ oranges.
Maybe the line,"Nobody likes tangerines" is placed in the film to be so contrary to what we experience from real life as to make people kick back against it rather than just mindlessly agreeing with everything. If people are encouraged to see the error in things that heroes like Dr Who say then might they also question statements by the "heroes" in scriptures ?

Santa's reply,"How dare you" was an attempt to assert by authority but he could have been made to refer to market research showing 90% of those who tried satsumas enjoyed them.

It can be a bit of hassle when the peel is like glued on to the fruit or when there are seeds but I think the taste is worth it.

Right at the start when Santa's  sleigh crashes into the roof top, he shouts ad hominem / name calling,"Moron" but I would like to imagine Santa would speak about his emotions,"Oh grief, this is so infuriating / upsetting / worrying." Describe the situation," I have so much to do, I can't afford to lose time like this." Inquire about the reasons for what happened and offer instruction on how to avoid & improve in future," What on Earth happened dear Elf ? Were you not watching where you were going? Do you need glasses? Were you not concentrating, were you blinded by the snow ? Do we need to get you GPS steering or radar ? Going too fast due to unrealistic work load?"

See article in the Independant newspaper from 17th December 2009
Are tangerines, satsumas and 'clementinies' any better than the traditional orange?
http://www.independent.co.uk/l...

Celebrate Christmas because you know the reasons to think the gospel is not real

 Celebrate Christmas because you know the reasons to think the gospel is not real or 
Celebrate Christmas because you think it gives you a happily ever after
Celebrate Christmas because of the things about it that you enjoy, what ever.
Avoid the things about Christmas that you loathe, manage it which ever way you like.



 I celebrate that I have discovered the books & websites which share the reasons to think that the supernatural tales are not real.  Seth Andrews, "The Thinking Atheist" made a great video, "Drawing back the curtain". I think the information Seth shares enriches Christmas. Well it makes a deliciously bitter sweet dialectic.
 I love to scoff at Christmas. When Christmas carols come on the radio I enjoy to think of opposite lyrics. Some people get to play the fool and I get to play the wise man, but then they probably think I play the fool and they play the wise man. As Richard Dawkins said in TGD the common man thinks its true, the educated man thinks its false and the ruler thinks its handy. [You can't have a parody if you don't know the original ]

There is a wealth of skeptic freethought surrounding the nativity stories that can be a spur to studying the history of astronomy etc.
 Aaron Adair makes good points in his book,"The star of Bethlehem: A skeptical view"
Jonathon M.S. Pearce does a similar thing in,"The Nativity:A critical examination"

I would like to send  wide angle Christmas cards that expand peoples vision. The nativity story has Jesus go to Egypt, so I would have a picture of a pyramid with the name Osiris & the 42 negative confessions (1250 BCE), the magi would be Galileo offering the baby a telescope, Leeuwenhoek offering a microscope, Amerigo Vespucci offering a Globe, the star would be comet 67p with Rosetta probe orbiting and Philae Lander on it - reminding of the Philae obelisk with its decree written in both Egyptian hieroglyph & ancient greek , the Rosetta stone with its hieroglyph, demotic & ancient Greek. The angels might be Darwin & Ingersoll. This is the fantastic tale of how science & reason & careful study have gone through every detail in the Bible stories and shown where they are wildly improbable.

I can see that there are bits of religion that people would want to be true - the happy ever after. i find that I have no less security about that, maybe more. I think a loving deity would take everyone to a happily ever after, if there was one but since it looks like there is no supernatural then I look forward to resting in peace. R.I.P looks positively rosy once you have looked into the pit of worst fears. It is possible to see religion as amusing fiction fantasy. ( except for its real life impact ) 

Eve partakes the apple iphone3G which hangs from the tree of knowledge

The Genesis tales might be the authors' best guesses 2500+ years ago but in evolution we have a much more likely explanation for how the world is.

ReWrit Genesis 3v6
And Eve looked into the apple iphone3G that hung from the tree of knowledge and saw that it was pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom and a better quality of life. As she looked more deeply into it she discovered Wikipedia and Youtube. As she clicked through the links she saw many material things which could enhance her rather uncomfortable existence. She saw medicines which could cure the illnesses that her relations had suffered. She saw foods that could help maintain health. She saw another universe of entertaining ideas and stories which made more sense about how the Earth operated.

Then Eve thought to herself. Why has that man who has been wandering around here, calling himself God almighty, been trying to keep me from discovering all this knowledge? God has failed to cure my families illnesses or to raise our quality of life. Each time his spells fail he says it is our fault for not having enough faith or for having done something to displease him. You know what, it is starting to dawn on me that this knowledge can be good for me and that the ideas of God have been evil for me. I think God was maybe just trying to keep us running around after him, waiting on him hand and foot while he sits in his ivory tower. I think that apple salesman who God called a snake oil salesman actually made some good points.

And Eve called to Adam, "Look mate, we don't have to live like dumb monkeys, huddled in paranoid fear of things that aren't even real. Do you want to sit here using twigs to fish termites out of the mound living a nasty, short, brutish life or do you want a taste of the action and reach for the stars?"
Then Adam said," I'm not sure, i'm afraid it will end in disaster
And Eve said unto Adam,"You are starting to really get on my wick and you know what you won't be getting when I'm in a foul mood"
And Adam said,"Give me that Apple, I'll be your dog"

The very first Apple Computer logo, drawn by Ronald Wayne, depicts Isaac Newton under an apple tree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

Specific Versus Generalized, exaggerated

I admire the high resolution article on 6th Nov 2014 by Jerry Coyne critiquing the article by, Andrew Brown: "If you hate the belief, you hate the believer" 

Jerry Coyne shows his eye for detail and demonstrates how to make comments that are specific, to the point, accurate.

I wonder if there is a comparison with image resolution? There is a good illustration on Wikipedia:

wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_resolution#mediaviewer/File:Resolution_illustration.png

I wonder if early human language was like ZX-81 resolution?

         It is so easy to make generalized, exaggerated, conflated comments like, “I hate you” which most often means, “I hate the thing you did just there” or “I am furious at being told to do that”

Mostly "I don't like you" is a vague, amorphous, rude way of saying,"There is something that you have done or an idea that you hold that I don't like" or "I don't trust you not to harm me, I suspect he is looking for an opportunity to steal from me or do something harmful such as scheming against me" Maybe it is mostly the case that people have mixed feelings about others. Love and hate, amusement and boredom, admiration and revulsion, like and dislike.

           If a super intelligent brain surgeon who has an IQ of 160 is driving a car and breaks the highway code at some point, due to being distracted by solving some three dimensional trigonometric equation then does it make sense for the person who is at risk of injury to shout,”You idiot” ? It would be more accurate to say,”That was idiotic behaviour” but maybe more specific & helpful to say,”Don’t get distracted from driving, concentrate, watch out, keep your mind on the task in hand”

         I think it is interesting to look at the changes that the Coran has made to the Babble stories, however I hate the idea of hell that is proposed in the Coran. I think it is hateful to propose that hell is real. It makes me angry when I hear people make such proposals but then I focus on what I have read that says it is wildly unlikely that there is any afterlife let alone one of suffering. Also having thought of the worst case scenario of hell and then seen that it probably doesn't exist, annihilation seems preferable, a relief rather than a gloomy disappointment. So then I can laugh at the stories of religion and pity those who are blinded by it. Their religion is only one aspect of them. I like some of the Islamic melodies & architecture etc.

             If I love one aspect or point of a film it doesn’t mean I love it all equally, just as if I loathe one scene it doesn’t mean I have to reject the whole thing. However it is maybe just part of life that our first comments about something give a vague impression to what we witnessed; “loved it, great, abysmal” and only later do we fill in details once we are more focused on it.
(It can sometimes be funny to deliberately exaggerate but can also be done destructively)
It is just too easy to make distorted, over the top comments in the heat of the moment. Later we hope the other person will ignore it as nonsense. The,”I’m annoyed that you forgot to put the bin out” becomes,”You always do that. You’re hopeless” but could have been,”Please try harder” Does it matter?

    When some one says,"You fool" it is possible to reply, "In what way exactly ? What is it about what I have done that you are displeased about ? What did you want me to do, how exactly did you want it done"

    By making generalized, exaggerated comments maybe it can be compared to  using a sledge hammer to drive in a pin or an axe to do brain surgery instead  a scalpel

Parallels between the 2014 sci-fi film "Interstellar" and the gospels

I watched the 2014 science-fiction adventure film,"Interstellar" directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine, the film features a team of space travelers who travel through a wormhole in search of a new habitable planet. It has plenty of warped science but I suppose that gives the viewer a chance to show off their superior knowledge by criticizing it.

Are there parallels between the plot of, "Interstellar" and the gospels ? Cooper ( played by Matthew McConaughey) is sent on a mission to save the human race. He is sent to prepare a place for the chosen few. He says he will return,within the lifetime of his daughter, to take the chosen ones there. He discovers that the promising new worlds are actually fairly bleak. He fails to return due to being stuck in another dimension after falling into a black hole. By a strange quirk of Hollywood logic this somehow results in him being stuck behind the bookcase in his family home. He shoves books out of the book case to try to catch his daughters attention.

I think Christopher Nolan may have solved the Bible riddle ;-) What actually happened was that the events of the life of Jesus took place on Earth's nearly twin planet in close proximity to Gargantua, a nearby rotating black hole which is in another galaxy. This new planet has water that you can walk on, either due to much stronger gravity or due to having much higher salt content than even the dead sea. ( The film didn't really explain why)

Has Jesus got stuck in a black hole and the Bible stories are about what happened on the planet he found? He shoved the Bible through from the back of someones book case in the second century and people mistook it thinking that the events took place on Earth ?

Professor Brand is like the priests who make up a story about having a complex mathematical formula to save the world but it is all a lie to get people to do what they want.

Galileo and the miracle of seeing the phases of Venus

How do we get the media to look further back in history ?
The history behind the star and crescent emblem is quite funny. The star has been imagined as Venus and the crescent as a phase of the moon. However they have drawn a distorted/fictional crescent which extends past the poles.(The crescent on the flag of Singapore is closest to real life) It would have been a miracle if the Coran had said the star was Venus and the crescent was showing a moment of its phases. Neither the Coran nor the Babble manage this miracle even though Mohammad is claimed to have flown to the seven heavens on his trusty Buraq and Jesus also is said to have flown up past the clouds.  They both failed to advise on how to make lenses. Perhaps they were both short sighted and needed glasses but didn't know how to make them ?

In medieval Islamic cosmology due to the scientific dominance of the Ptolemaic the Muslim astronomers accepted unanimously the geocentric model. The ideas in the Almagest allowed for predictions of the motion of planets so maybe reinforced their mistaken view that the geocentric model was correct.

Using a telescope in 1610, Galileo was able to observe Venus going through a full set of phases, something prohibited by the Ptolemaic system (which would never allow Venus to be fully lit from the perspective of the Earth, as this would require it to be on the far side of the sun, which is impossible if its orbit is, as the Ptolemaic system requires, between the Earth and the sun ). This observation essentially ruled out the Ptolemaic system, and was compatible only with the Copernican system

See Wikipedia: Geocentrism and Islamic astronomy

Also from Wikipedia:

During the 1950s to 1960s, the symbol was re-interpreted as a symbol of Islam or the Muslim community.

 It has been associated with the Moabites (14th or early 13th – 6th century BC), as the symbol or symbols appear on what are thought to be Moabite name seals. Crescents appearing together with a star or stars are a common feature of Sumerian iconography, the crescent usually being associated with the moon god Sin (Nanna to the Sumerians) and the star (often identified as Venus) with Ishtar (Inanna to the Sumerians). However, in this context, there is a third element often seen, that being the sun disk of Shamash.

The star and crescent was also the emblem of Mithradates VI Eupator. "His royal emblem, an eight rayed star and the crescent moon, represented the dynasty's patron gods, Zeus, Stratios, or Ahuramazda, and Men Pharmacou, a Persian form of the native moon goddess." Other scholars have suggested that the star and crescent are more directly related to the cult of the god Mithra. Ustinova associates the star and crescent motif attested in a number of finds in the Bosporan Kingdom (which date from the 5th century BC to the 1st century AD) with the cult of Mithras, and indicates the star and the crescent together constituted the emblem of Pontus and its kings, asserting that it was introduced to the Bosporus by Mithradates and his successors, where it is attested on coins, locally produced jewelry and other objects. She suggests that this emblem indicates "the possibility of an earlier association of the Pontic dynasty with the cult of mounted Mithra. Mithra in fact must have been one of the most venerated gods of the Pontic Kingdom, since its rulers bore the theomorphic name of Mithradates […] although direct evidence for this cult is rather meager."

Parody on Genesis 2v7. Eve was created first, on the eve of Adam

My parody ReWrit on Genesis 2v7

In the beginning the first Homo sapiens God created was Eve. God saw that she was very beautiful and fell in love with her, one thing led to another but to cut a long story short they had a fling. Nine months later Adam was born. God excused himself by saying, "Well at least it saved me from having to do surgery and from now on Adam will have to pander to woman's every whim in order to make up for my sin of emission"
This explains why all men are bastards who have delusions of grandeur thinking they are God's gift to the world when in fact they are the result of a moment of madness.
Also it means that women are damn right when they say, "For God's sake will you do some house work around here"
Unless men do what women tell them to do then God will be very angry with them.
This myth also explains why Eve was called eve - because she was created on the eve of Adam
And Adam called Eve, "Womban" because she had a womb from which the lowly animal Adam was born

The term "all men are bastards" is a colloquialism / slang for, " Men have a tendency to do things which women find annoying, like not behaving as their better half would like; expecting love without financial commitment etc"



Parody on Iron Maiden track, "Sign of the cross" from their X factor album

Eleven religiously deluded men, silhouettes looming against the sky One in front with a cross held high, come to speak his lies anyway
Standing alone in the wind and rain feeling calm, my fears have subsided Sensing the change in the tide again brought by the storm that is brewing Feeling no anxiety as I remember the reasons to doubt the things I once believed Now that science & reason has passed the test nothing to do but await what is coming Why then fear 'God' ? No harm befalls me when I don't believe in the supernatural. By Richard Dawkins I am blessed with an inner strength, some they would call it atheism I face this like Carl Sagan saying extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence Praying to a God who isn't there won't help me. I feel the freedom start to rise They'll be saying their prayers when troubles come But I won't fret my way through life, there's no judgement day May the guilty weep when that law man comes, may the law prevent & prevail, take them away to jail The sign of the cross; the name of the fraud, clouded over the sky, the sigh of the cross There will be no cosmic apocalypse, it was out of date 1900 years ago, there will be no immortality Life evolved by natural selection, not magical creator, no God, so at death I will rest The sign of the double helix, the fact of evolution on an 4.5 billion year old sphere, a universe with billions of galaxies, a heliocentric solar system Eleven saintly deluded men come to speak their lies anyway

Original:
Eleven saintly shrouded men silhouettes stand against the sky One in front with a cross held high come to wash my sins awayStanding alone in the wind and rain feeling the fear that is growing Sensing the change in the tide again brought by the storm that is brewing Feel the anxiety hold off the fear some of the doubts in the things you believe Now that your faith will be put to the test nothing to do but await what is comingWhy then is God still protecting me even when I don't deserve it Thought I am blessed with an inner strength some they would call it a penance Why am I meant to face this alone asking the question time and again Praying to God won't keep me alive inside my head feel the fear start to riseThey'll be saying their prayers when the moment comes there'll be penance to pay when it's judgement day And the guilty will bleed when that moment comes they'll be coming to claim, take your soul away The sign of the cross the name of the rose, a fire in the sky the sign of the crossThey'll be coming to bring the eternal flame they'll be bringing us all immortality Holding communion so the world be blessed my creator, my God will lay my soul to rest The sign of the cross the name of the rose, a fire in the sky the sign of the crossLost the love of heaven above chose the lust of the earth below Eleven saintly shrouded men came to wash my sins away

REAL OR NO REAL ?

How is it that so many people can watch ghost stories with ghosts passing easily through solid walls and yet they don't immediately question why would the stone  need to roll away from in front of the tomb of Jesus to let him out ? Physicists like Lawrence Krauss tell us that physical materials are actually mostly empty space at atomic level.  Even Luke 24v36 has Jesus appear as if by magic in front of the disciples. V37 they thought they saw a ghost. v38 somehow it doesn't dawn on Jesus why it should be a bit scary to appear out of thin air. Strangely none of the disciples asked, " How did you manage to appear out of thin air, where did you teleport from ? " What about v32 which might have been 7 miles away in Emmaus, which has Jesus magically disappear from two of his followers and yet they don't say, " Wow how could he disappear into thin air " also back at v40 these two followers don't say, "Jesus disappeared into thin air from before our very eyes at Emmaus, neat trick Jesus".

John20v19 has Jesus appear and stand among the disciples even though the door was locked.

Matt 27v51 Has the tombs break open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life, but again why would any tomb need to break? Couldn't these ghosts have drifted though solid stone ? Isn't it just a way whereby the author makes the story more dramatic and tangible ? 

See the Youtube video on "Madtv" of the parody of Terminator going back to the supposed life of Jesus to prevent his death by assassinating Judas. Jesus brings Judas back to life again so that Judas will be able to betray him. 
Anyway the video makes a glowing light at Jesus hands  as Jesus restores Judas but I doubt if light would be necessary for the healing [ Saw this link in " Killing history" by Robert M. Price.]

Was the original tale about Jesus just a prank ghost story or play that some people later mistook to be an account of factual events ?

Parody of Nunnery scene from Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet”

To believe or not to believe,
that is the question ?
Fact or fiction ?
Whether these stories really happened
Or were they just made up,
figments of ghost writers’ imaginations ?
Accurate accounts of historical reality or distortions, exaggerations ?
Mere retelling of ancient lore ?
Alas poor Jesus. Did anyone know him well ?
If we held his skull it would show that someone by that name lived, but was he only a puppet or ventriloquist’s dummy?
Entombed like a Pharaoh mummy ?
Luke 18v19, why do you call me good ?
when so much of what I say is dumb & rude
Would it be as foolish as the Egyptian belief to think that he sailed a barque across the heavens?
A popish pilot steering St. Peter’s Barque, Jings crivvens ?
Help ma boab
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels from an evolutionary perspective!

ADAM & EVEOLUTION

A parody on the Abrahamic creation story:
Adam and Eveolution
ReWrit Genesis 2v20 "From all the animals no suitable helper was found for Adam"

And it came to pass that one day Adam wondered if it would be possible to have a cross breed between a human and other primates and so he did have romantic relations with some of the other species of great apes. Well after a few years when God happened to be walking by
God said to Adam, " What on Earth are you doing?".
Adam replied, " I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if I could have a human cross ape child, but I have been trying for years now and so far there has been no offspring"
 God said unto Adam, " Speciation old chap, speciation. You see there has been too much evolutionary divergence between the species of which you are an example and the species you have been having monkey business with. So although you share a distant ancestor with these females it will not be possible for you to have a cross breed child by them. Your sperm will not be able to fertilize the egg within them. An ancestor of yours might have managed it 4 million years ago but not now. Basically give it up. In any case don't you realize that there are females of your own species, why don't you take one of them as your wife?"
Adam said, " Well they don't look much different from these apes"
God replied, " Here, i think you need to wear this pair of glasses"
Adam tried them on and said, "Wow, I was blind but now I see"

WAYS IN WHICH JESUS FELL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD

Maybe, "The bad Jesus", could also be titled in a parody of Romans 3v23, "How Jesus falls short of the glory of God" or 
" Instances of where the behaviour of Jesus falls short of what you would expect of a loving, caring, honest, smart, all powerful son of a God/ divine being"

I read "Fighting words" by Hector Avalos and was mighty impressed, one of the best. 
The contents of, "The Bad Jesus" looks promising too.

I've started on, "The End of Biblical studies". I see in his conclusion his favoured option is
3. Retain biblical studies, but redefine its purpose so that it is tasked with eliminating completely the influence of the Bible in the modem world
(Kindle Locations 4398-4399).

Would that mean, "eliminating the harmful aspect of the Bible"?
If people used wikipedia to look up each different word in the Bible then they could very quickly get a wide picture of the history of religion.
I think one of the biggest problems is with ministers keeping the congregations in the dark about all that is known. A few weeks reading through the books of Hector Avalos, John W. Loftus, Robert M. Price etc would save decades of fretting and let the reader laugh at religion & also more fully see the funny side of films like, "Life of Brian" and other skeptical satire.

I see "The bad Jesus " has a section on Jesus using a whip to drive money changers from the temple. John 2v18 has the Jews demand a miracle to prove his authority. How is it that the Son of God didn't manage to use supernatural abilities like a modern day comic hero? Looks a bit mundane to use a whip when even Elisha is said to have been able to pray and have the Arameans struck blind in 2 Kings 6v18.
Why didn't Jesus say, "Remember Zechariah was struck dumb when he doubted the angel's message in the Temple 30 years ago (Luke 1v20) so you too will all be struck dumb until you leave these courts"
{What sort of signs did Zechariah make in Luke 1v22 to explain that he was going to have intercourse with his wife Elizabeth and get her pregnant ? Could he not write ?}

Why didn't God shout down from the sky as in Matt 3v17, only this time, "This is my Son, do what he says or you're dead" Why didn't God just make the money changers faint ?
Why did Jesus not have a sort of hypnotic stare to make those around him accept and believe all that he said ? Why didn't Jesus have lightning power rays coming from his hands similar to Force Lightning when the Emperor Palpatine is going to kill Luke Skywalker in," Return of the Jedi" ( just before Darth Vader picks the Emperor up and throws him down the Death Star's reactor shaft.)

Why didn't a host of angels appear to make the money changers sore afraid like the shepherds in Luke 2v9. Or a sky filled with chariots of fire like 2 Kings 6v17
Why didn't he just lift all the traders up with telekinesis superpowers, like Yoda the Grand master of the Jedi order, without having to physically touch them? Cause it was just fiction and the Bible authors didn't have the more developed imagination of modern novelists ?

Why didn't Jesus give a cure for leprosy like what modern medicine has shown possible instead of allegedly just doing a few isolated magic tricks.

Why didn't Jesus hang around after his claimed resurrection ? By using the abilities that the O.T. claims God had then it should have been easy for Jesus to journey around the world and make sure everyone in the world had heard the message within a few years.

Here are superior Son of God powers, see Youtube
Star Wars Philosophy :: Force Telekinesis (a lecture by Jonathan Barlow Gee)
Jon Gee channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Parody on "Jesus we enthrone you" by Don Moen

I love this melody, it is one of my favourites and I have sung it many times in church.
However have you noticed Luke 22v36 has Jesus telling his disciples to sell their cloak in order to buy a sword if they do not already have one? This happens maybe the day before Jesus is arrested on the Mount of Olives. At the arrest, one of the disciples used his sword to strike off the ear of the High Priest, John 18v10 says it was Simon Peter. So how come that Jesus thought he needed to resort to using swords instead of relying on his guardian angels or other supernatural abilities ? Look at 2 Kings 6v18 which has Elisha pray and the Arameans become blind or what about Acts 5 which has Peter speak to Ananias to which he drops dead or what about Acts 12v23 which has Herod drop dead for merely failing to give praise to God ? Can Jesus calm storms on the Sea of Galilee but not calm human behaviour ? Now adays it is easy to make the excuse that angels don't act to protect people from abuse, things were different in Bible times ? Yet we see even Jesus didn't expect any help from angels even though the devil reminded him in Luke 4v10 of Psalm 91v11 "He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully" What if Peter at Luke 22v38 had said, " but what about Psalm 91v11 ?" would Jesus have replied as in Matt 16v23, " Get behind me Satan." ?  Is this to say, " Only my interpretation of scripture is valid" ?
.
So although there are some good ideas in the Bible such as the golden rule and maybe some of our modern laws are derived or evolved partly from ideas seen in the Bible, i post below my parody on,"Jesus,we enthrone you". I am only prepared to follow the best of Jesus' ideas but the rest of them I'll leave at the side of my plate.

Jesus we dethrone you,
we proclaim you are fraud
Having studied Debunking Chrisitianity, 
we think there probably are no gods
and as we study we see clearly,
 the things that are false that we once  held dear
but instead of sadness we give a cheer
to think there is no cosmic hell

See Youtube 

Jesus, we enthrone you - DON MOEN 

Praise and worship channel

Parody on Eurythmics, "Thorn in my side"

This is a song directed at "Jesus" or priests in general and their scriptures

Thorns in my brain that is what your halo's mostly been
Confusing texts, it's not clear what they really mean
Were you a witch doctor or purely mythical ?
you claim to make men better but you really made me ill.

To run away from you, is what I want to do
To refute your errant ideas, is what I want to do

To run away from you, is what I want to do

To refute your errant ideas, is what I want to do

Paralysis of mind achieved by Bible verses so unkind
did I suffer blinkered vision or was I nearly half blind ?
I was feeling complicated, a feeling of great gloom
I was bound up in tangled cords at your threats of doom

See Youtube 

Eurythmics - Thorn In My Side, CenturyHitMusic channel

Donald Trump has often spoken in broad generalizations which are as effective as using an axe to do micro surgery. I don't agree with his idea of banning whole groups of people, it was inflammatory.
I think politicians need to encourage everyone to read more widely and in greater detail. Politicians need to make policies which enable people to acquire a greater understanding of the findings of up to date science. Well Wikipedia, Youtube and the google box could go a long way to improving people's general knowledge. What about if Trump recommended that people check out each word of Scripture on Wikipedia - that could help everyone end up with a broader perspective. People would see that there are many reasonable interpretations of each passage. They would also end up doing a study of comparative religion and history of religion.

Maybe given the wars over religion in the world Trump should read out:
1 John 2v9, "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness" 
1 John 3v14," We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death, Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life."
1 John 4v8, "Whoever does not love does not know God"

Matthew 5v22 is one of the bits of the Bible that I like best. It says something along the lines of ~ don't call people, "You fool" which is a very generalized comment. It doesn't go on to offer a better alternative. I think this is also connected with the 5th commandment idea of "Honour / Respect your parents & others"

Matthew 5v22 also has, "Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement"

I think the better thing is to try to make your comment specific to the action or idea in question. To be more specific you could say, "I think that would be a foolish thing to do / say" I think it would be acceptable to speak like that.

In a similar way the comment, "I hate you" is too generalized. It sounds better if it is put in more specific terms: "I hate what you did just now, I hate that idea"
I think this could be made more specific if you use one of the other words denoting the various shades of emotion. "I'm really annoyed about one aspect of what you did. I think that you spent more money on it than i was willing to spend and you didn't even ask whether I would agree" with the reply, "I'm sorry but I think it is really worth the extra money, just look at all the extra things it can do, the other one wouldn't have been adequate"

Actually the Bible verses I quoted from Matthew & 1 John put their ideas in an overly severe manner. Just because you are furious about something that your neighbour has done doesn't by any stretch mean that you would lash out at them to cause physical injury let alone murder or that you would wish them harm. Mostly you would only just wish that there was a way to convince them of you point of view. Most time people see that over reacting would be counter productive.

However I do think there could be some tendency that if you go around name calling and speaking in gross generalizations then it could inflame the situation but not necessarily. Some people can laugh at a slagging off and just put it down to banter. I think it depends whether you can see through the generalized language to the specific thing that underlies it - to read between the lines and make out what they would have said if they had taken the time to give a more detailed account.; It is a trade of between easy broad brush strokes and finely painted detail.

When your sibling screams, "I hate you" it usually means something like, "I'm livid that you borrowed my clothes without asking then dumped them back in the bottom of my wardrobe, dirty, and now I don't have them to wear for my important meeting" but they might be too enraged to put it so clearly.

Was Jesus a Witch doctor, Happy Hellowean

 I think the Bible is mostly the word of witch doctors, so how about a Happy Helloween card with Jesus riding on a broomstick that looks suspiciously  like a cross between his legs.  Across the top of the card: " Why didn't Jesus fly over to the Americas and bring back chocolate treats for the Old World kids ?"  { Sarcastically}: Well maybe he did and then told the kids to keep it a secret. It would be very tempting for children not to tell anyone about their secret stash of chocolate that Jesus had given them.  Jesus could have given them a never emptying jar of chocolates as in Elijah's oil jar of 1 Kings 17v16. Maybe Jesus encouraged them to keep the secret by warning, "Now keep the chocolate a secret kids or I'll send you to hell forever"  Is Christianity the ultimate treat or trick ?  

   What about a Hallowean card with Jesus wearing a witches hat with a thorny halo above it stirring his cauldron with soup made from wing of bat, leg of toad & some reptiles & rats after Acts 10v12, "four footed animals, reptiles, birds". The caption would have Peter saying, "Surely not, Lord. I'd rather go to McDonald's" and Jesus replying,"Woe to him who betrays the Son of Man. Eat or be damned, I poured blood sweat and tears into making this"

p.s  I thought I was joking about the bat but I have just remembered about Leviticuss 11v13-19 which lists bat as a bird.

If Eve had tasted forbidden knowledge she would have realized life eveolved.

ADAM & EVEOLUTION

If Eve really had eaten a fruit of forbidden knowledge then she would have realized that 'God' had been lying to Adam and that in fact organic life on Earth started about 3.6 billion years ago and evolved from there by natural selection, i.e without the assistance of a deity. She would also have realized that the Americas split away from Europe & Africa over 100 million years ago and that many of the best food crops lay over the pond in America out of reach, so Eve would have pointed out that Adam had not been given a chance to name all the plants and animals since if the garden of Eden was in Babylonia it only had Old World plants and animals, and only a percentage of the possible Old World crops at that.

So with a whiff of this forbidden knowledge Eve would have cottoned on to the idea that either God was making stuff up or that Adam was making stories up about God. At any rate she would pretty soon be demanding that Adam get across to America and bring back some of the forbidden and out of reach chocolate if he wanted to touch the other forbidden fruits she had to offer him.

Eve should have also realized that the "Garden of Eden" was in fact a bit of an Orwellian wilderness intellectually and materially, rough experience with bush tucker, very short lifespan, pain in childbirth, tooth ache, disease, fights for survival etc and that in fact there was a  much more promising way of living that could be achieved by slamming the door on the God delusion & taking massive leaps in information and technology as witnessed in the best of what the 21st Century can offer : in pain free dentistry, much reduced pains of child birth, more interesting activities to fill ones life with, several more decades life expectancy, freedom from worries about non-existent religious threats, much more diverse diet, better clothing, hygiene, you name it. [ however also in some cases polluted water, air & general environment depending on location & lots of new troubles and stresses ]

The theory of angels has had its chips

The Bible has very rare moments pointing to reality.
Acts 23v8,” The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits ” ,well said by them, unfortunately it is only a set up for the apologist to give his punchline Acts 23v8, ” but the Pharisees acknowledge them all ”

Mark 11v18, ” Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection ”

Lukw 20v27, ” Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection ”

But these comments are said in an attempt to have them refuted by an appeal to authority – from Jesus – Luke 20v35 ” In the resurrection from the dead…and they can no longer die for they are like the angels”

Acts 17v18 has Paul meet a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who dispute with him and say, ” What is this Babbler trying to say ?”
Pity Acts doesn’t quote the Epicurean paradox
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” — ‘
The same could be said of angels, why do they achieve virtually nothing, do they not exist ?
It is propaganda spin to miss out key bits of information. Did the authors of the Bible texts deliberately miss out information that would have shown Babble ideas to be nunsense ?
Since Epicure is a variety of potato I think the other epicurean paradox is how come no Old World priest predicted the existence of potatoes in the Americas and how come no angel flew a few seed spuds over to Europe a few millennium earlier? The theory of the existence of angels has had its chips.

The evolution of Jesus, which component parts coalesced to touch down as the Christ ?

Before the gospel stories about Jesus Christ formed there were possibly forerunners that bore similarities, What if a fictional teacher of righteousness story was superimposed on the Jewish religious custom of Purim ? Then the story got fleshed out by rewriting  Elijah & Elisha as Jesus. In the same way that Christmas and Easter were overlayed on previous 'pagan' myths maybe the N.T. was just a warping of older customs and folklore ?
Some of the early plant cell life was a symbiotic relationship between various organelles. So various independent units maybe coalesced to form the Jesus story ?

In, " The Golden Bough " chapter 5 " The crucifixion of Christ / the scapegoat " James George Frazer looks at the possibility that there was a real raving rabbi Jesus who got caught up in the Jewish festival of Purim. Oxford university press edition
 p 666 - " We have seen reason to think that the Jewish festival of Purim is a continuation, under a changed name, of the Babylonian Sacaea, [ p642-652 ]and that in celebrating it by the destruction of an effigy of Haman the modern Jews have kept up a reminiscence of the ancient custom of crucifying or hanging a man in the character of a god at the festival. Is it not possible that at an earlier time they may, like the Babylonians themselves, have regularly compelled a criminal to play the tragic part, and that Christ thus perished in the character of Haman ? The resemblance between the hanged Haman and the crucified Christ struck the early Christians themselves; and whenever the Jews destroyed an effigy of Haman they were accused by their Christian neighbours of deriding the most sacred mystery of the new faith."
  p670 " The hypothesis that the crucifixion with all its cruel mockery was not a punishment specially devised for Christ, but was merely the fate that annually befell the malefactor who played Haman, appears to go some way towards relieving the Gospel narrative of certain difficulties which otherwise beset it. If,as we read in the gospels, Pilate was really anxious to save the innocent man whose fine bearing seams to have struck him, what was to hinder him from doing so? He had the power of life and death; why should he not have exercised it on the side of mercy, if his own judgement inclined that way? His reluctant acquiescence in the importunate demand of the rabble becomes easier to understand if we assume that custom obliged him annually at this season to give up to them a prisoner on whom they might play their cruel pranks. On this assumption Pilate had no power to prevent the sacrifice; the most he could do was to choose the victim.
   Again, consider the remarkable statement of the Evangelists that Pilate set up over the cross a superscription stating that the man who hung on it was king of the Jews. Is it likely that in the reign of Tiberius a Roman governor, with the fear of the jealous and suspicious old emperor before his eyes, would have ventured, even in mockery, to blazon forth a seditious claim of this sort unless it were the regular formula employed on such occasions, recognized by custom, and therefore not liable to be misconstrued into treason by the malignity of informers and the fears of a tyrant ? "....
  "The part of Mordecai was played by Barabbas "
   p 674 ~ "the theme of such dying & rising gods was common over Western Asia and may help to explain the spread of the Christ story."
  My opinion - what if someone hung a new story on the tradition of Purim. It was any old person who was hung as Haman but gospel authors made the event mean something else, rewriting the O.T. supermen Elijah & Elisha into the new adventures of superman Jesus. Several threads converged in the gospels ? But for Jesus to be a hero he needed to cancel Hades otherwise to only save a select few is to behave barbarically

On WEIT article,” Rabbi Sacks goes after atheists ” 29th September 2014. At comment 16. Simon Hayward posted the hilarious Youtube video of “Not the Nine O’clock news,Monty Python Worshipers”, kanizu00 channel, which reversed the idea of who was doing a parody – with a film, ” The life of Jesus Christ ” being a parody on the real life of John Cleese (ref to life of Brian }

So the link is with the life of Jesus Christ being a parody on the Esther, Mordecai, Haman story which itself is a parody on the Babylonian festival of Sacaea or Zakmuk in the spring month of Nisan in March/April held in honour of the god Marduk during which the person playing the part of Zoganes dies. Zoganes during his five days in office personated not merely a king but a god, whether that god was the Babylonian Marduk or some other deity is not yet identified.

Before the cotton cloth canvas was woven there were threads and a structure – loom & gin, before the threads there was cotton on a bush, before the bush there were seeds.
There were religious customs & structures & temples before the Jesus story got going, there was also a lot of scripture material, plenty of other myths and legends.
Is the Jesus story a cotton twill textile like Denim or plain woven fabric ?

Charles M. Schultz, " Peanuts " cartoon

Snoopy is writing a book on theology titled, " Has it ever occurred to you that you might be wrong "

Peanuts: therefore the Old World Gods were figments of the witchdoctors’ imaginations.

Pumpkin: therefore there is no God. None of the superstitions claiming supernatural assistance predicted the Americas
Pumpkin : The Jesus myth is squashed.

Thanksgiving Day could be viewed as a celebration of the Columbian Exchange which I think should put an end to the claim of religion to divine revelation.

Turkey : Jesus is stuffed.

If religion claims a magical Noahs’s flood at 2300 BCE ( see Ussher chronology ) then how come so many important food crops were unique to America? Why would a God have magically put them out of reach of his chosen children of Israel ? Out of reach of Jesus ? Why did Adam & Eve never mention missing chocolate & popcorn or pumpkin pie & maple syrup after being excluded from the garden of Eden ? Our diverse choice of diet now is more a ” garden of Eden ” experience than any Babylonian located one could ever have been. [ in the unlikely event of one existing ]

However if these food crops were evolving due to selective actions by humans, what effect would a large influx of Europeans have had if they arrived in the Americas 2000 or 3000 years earlier? Would some of the crops have been lost, would their breeding have been disrupted ? Would the native American Indians have given up on sweet-corn in favour of wheat ? Or were they already well enough developed by that stage ? I wonder how big tomatoes, potatoes etc grew at 1000 BCE ?
I think I read that Cassava from S. America has been a boon to Africa. Any angel worthy of the name could have transported some American food crop plants over to the Old World tropics without necessarily informing anyone of their origins but no such thing occurred.

The argument from peanuts (Arachis hypogaea)is slightly undermined by the Bambara groundnut ( Vigna subterranea ) & Hausa groundnut (Macrotyloma geocarpum) both native to West Africa. Apologists are going to say the Old World had plenty of nuts. Seems these three groundnuts belong to the family Fabaceae. Does this mean that they have a common ancestor which dates back to before S.America split from Africa 150 Ma ago ? How come peanuts are mentioned in Bolivia, Paraguay & Peru but not so much in Brazil ? Did they die out in Brazil ? How does the eating quality of Peanuts compare to Bambara & Hausa ?

Snoopy : Has it ever occurred to you to ask how come the scriptures never told of this New World and its bounty ? Thomas Paine considered this question

Religion a form of mimicry of reality whereas Evolution by natural selection is reality

Are religions a form of mimicry ? Maybe religion mimics reality ? The stories of religion recorded in scriptures succeed because though wildly improbable they appear to still be ‘possible’ and contain ideas that people wish to be real.
The shaman / priest uses their stories to trap and parasitize their flock. If people had sufficient knowledge of history & science and tried to apply them critically to the religious stories then they would soon see the difference between the mimic of reality and probable reality.

Are the errors of scripture like Cordyceps fungi ?

See. Cordyceps: attack of the killer fungi – Planet Earth Attenborough BBC wildlife on Youtube BBCWorldwide channel

Maybe the opposite of religion is the theory of evolution as it gives the reality that everything evolves by very gradual processes where as religion expects instant mysterious magic. The religious stories can be seen to have evolved from Torah to O.T. to N.T. to Koran to Book of Mormon to Watch tower. Maybe the Koran virus has lost its eyesight like the Mexican tetra or blind cave fish (Astyanax mexicanus) The Koran has had the tolerant ideas found among the N.T. mix stripped out. It has lost the inner conflict of the debate- were we meant to follow O.T. laws or Pauls idea of living by spirit guidance? So instead of healthy doubt there is more unhealthy tendency towards certainty to follow barbaric 7th century morality.

Harebraineddim ones on El-AL flight to celebrate anniversary of A&E

From Wikipedia
Rosh Hashanah, Traditional greetings :
Ketivah VeChatimah Tovah which translates as "A good inscription and sealing [in the Book of Life]" (Hebrew: כתיבה וחתימה טובה‎).[24]

The next time the Mishnah gets rewritten there needs to be a minor edit;
Ketivah VeChatimah Tovah which translates as "A good inscription and seating [in the Booking of Life]" (Hebrew: כתיבה וחתימה טובה‎).[24]

Maybe the pilot should have blown the shofar in short, long and staccato blasts that follow a set sequence:

Shevarim (3 broken sounds) Numbers 10:5;
O'Teki'ah (long sound) Numbers 10:3;
Shevarim (3 broken sounds) Numbers 10:5;
repeatedly
Then sung out,
L'shanah tovah tikatevu v'tichatemu meaning "May you be inscribed and seated for a good year"

The Yamim Nora'im are preceded by the month of ELAL, during which Jews are supposed to begin a self-examination and repentance, a process that culminates in the ten days of the Ya mum No sitt'im there, known as beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with the holiday of Yo mum Kip & purr next to me.

So the Harebraineddim ones need to accept that there is no good reason not to sit next to women & consider it a privilege. Also reflect on the fact that evolution by natural selection means there was no first Adam & Eve and so no anniversary to celebrate.. However there are other things to celebrate such as the arrival of the winter rains & start of the new growing season. Also celebrate the theory of evolution as it offers the best structure for explaining why life on earth is the way it is and why people so often behave not much better than dumb apes.

In prayers composed by the classical rabbinic sages for Rosh Hashanah found in all machzorim the strongest theme of the prayers is the "coronation" of God as King of the universe in preparation for the acceptance of judgments that will follow on that day, symbolized as "written" into a Divine book of judgments, that then hang in the balance for ten days waiting for all to repent, and be "seated" prior to Yom Kippur. The assumption is that everyone is seated for the flight and therefore the next festival is Sukkot (Tabernacles) that is referred to as "the time of our joy" (z'man simchateinu). Note if God was seated for the Coronation then do thou likewise

Rosh Hashanah is also the day of "Yom Hadin", known as Judgment day. On Yom Hadin, 3 books are opened, the book of life, for those who took their prescribed seat promptly among the passengers, the book of death, for the most evil who stood in the isle will receive the seat of death back in the departure lounge waiting for the next flight ( which might never arrive ) , and the third book for the ones living in doubts with non-evil sins, who were quickly persuaded by the flight chauffeurs to take their appointed seat. The final judgment is not done from Yom Hadin before the start of Yom Kippur, it is sometimes possible to receive the seat of life by asking for forgiveness. 
[ Rafi Norm on Ynetnews.com pointed out
Fact check: LY4 had 24 min delay at departure and 14 min at arrival compared to the average... ]

Choose an ever evolving, updatable, upgradable, adaptable " God "

When choosing a God, if there is no real cosmic one to be found, then one really ought to at least choose one which is evolvable. If " God " is defined as being the set of ideas currently viewed as being the best structure for society to operate by or the understanding of the world about us which is closest to reality then you would expect that " God " should evolve as new data comes in.

We should have expected the psalms to sing praises to the God who is ever evolving, adapting, learning, updatable, upgradable, adjusting previous conduct manuals to incorporate new ideas which might enhance the lot of his subjects on Earth.
You would expect by now that Allah would be shouting at its followers, " Switch to English common law, shariah isn't fit for the 21st century, it contains arbitrary pointless taboos and unnecessarily severe penalties "

Where are there examples of self analysis, self criticism in the scriptures? Wouldn't a God have tried out policies on his new found humanity, observed how they worked out then changed the bits that were having a negative effect. FEEDBACK ?

Sadly Psalm 102v27, " You remain the same "
Malachi 3v6, " I the lord do not change " [ Except he changed between O.T. & N.T. ]
Hebrews13v 8, "J.C is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

So I expect that after hearing exactly the same joke in heaven for the millionth time the saved will be like, " Grief, this is hellish, God you are boring the socks off me "

For cutting edge ideas on evolution try " Why evolution is true " website by Jerry Coyne and for more reasons to think that there probably is no supernatural realm try John W. Loftus, Victor J. Stenger or Robert M.Price.
 Try a better thinking structure of reason & science with Richard Dawkins

I love the smell of napalm in the morning, Apocalypse now

I love the smell of tobacco smoke in the morning. Condor tobacco is the aroma of the Americas where the Condors glide free and should blow to pieces the claims that the priests of Abrahamic religions were receiving supernatural revelation because they totally failed to predict the existence of the New World or its foods & other resources. Had they done so then they could have enjoyed roast potatoes, turkey & sweetcorn followed by pumpkin pie with maple syrup  at least 800 years sooner or maybe 1500 years sooner than they did. They could also have enjoyed the calming effect of nicotine sooner but perhaps it needed the miracle of personal vaporizers to allow safer delivery mechanism than breathing tobacco leaf smoke. But hey, I like the smell of real pipe smoke. Also the smell of gasoline should be a reminder of the reality of fossil fuel which had its origins in organisms which lived millions of years ago. This also is a solvent to the religious tar which tries to bind people in a macadam mindset which asserts the guess that the world began 6000 years ago is a reality when all the evidence points to that idea being a fantasy based on blind guesswork.

See tobaccoatlas.org World tobacco production peaked in 1997 at over 9 million tonnes and has since declined  by almost a quarter to 7.1 million tonnes in 2009. Tobacco is primarily grown in low and middle income countries, where it is a contributor to undernourishment because land is used to grow tobacco rather than food. In 2009 , six of the top ten tobacco producing countries had undernourishment rates between 5% and 27%

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPT3RFTpSUw