Stupid court!

The U.S. Supreme court has reversed the decisions of 3 district courts and 3 circuit courts and declared Bush’s 2003 ban on “partial birth abortions” to be constitutional. There’s no such medical procedure. The Center for Reproductive Rights says:

April 18, 2007: In a stunning reversal, the Supreme Court rules against women’s health and in favor of abortion restrictions. In its ruling upholding the Federal Abortion Ban case, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively overturned 30 years of precedent and announced that women’s health is no longer a paramount concern. The Center for Reproductive Rights said the Court’s decision paves the way for state and federal legislatures to enact additional bans on abortions as early as 12 weeks, including those that doctors say are safe and medically necessary.

Who does what around the house?

A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, “You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don’t have to wait as long to get our coffee.” The husband said, ” You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee.” Wife replies, “No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should make the coffee.” Husband replies, “I can’t believe that, show me” So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says
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…”HEBREWS”

Did Christ exist?

There’s a question that it seems hard to get an objective answer to. I’m looking for sources that are neither believers nor atheists. Here’s a review of the facts and who believes them, on religioustolerance.org.

From Impact Press, “Did Jesus Exist–and Does It Matter?“

Viewing the biblical Jesus as a pastiche woven from stories of various pagan gods, demigods, and heroes adapted to a first-century Jewish milieu, many scholars have noted striking similarities between Jesus and his pagan counterparts. For example, the Persian sun-god Mithra, widely worshipped in the Roman Empire before the inception of the Christian era, had 12 disciples, performed miracles, was buried in a tomb, rose on the third day, was called the Good Shepherd, identified with the lamb, considered “the Way, the Truth and the Light, the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah;” his principal festival was held on what was to become Easter, and he instituted a Eucharist or Lord’s Supper. When Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire in 313 C.E. (Common Era), he was influenced by the pell-mell conversion of Roman soldiers from Mithraism to Christianity. The biblical Jesus gave them a sort of home-grown Mithra

See also “Dates for early Christian writings” (previous).

Religions: Confucianism

From Wikipedia:

“Confucianism or “The Teachings of Confucius”) is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the early Chinese sage Confucius. It should be noted that many “Confucian” teachings existed before Confucius but they were summaried and furthur developed by him. Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political, and religious thought which has had tremendous influence on the history of Chinese civilization.”K’ung Fu Tzu (Confucius) (551–479 BCE) was a famous sage and social philosopher of China whose teachings deeply influenced East Asia for twenty centuries. The relationship between Confucianism and Confucius himself, however, is tenuous… The first occurrences of a real Confucian system may have been created by his disciples or by their disciples. During the philosophically fertile period of the Hundred Schools of Thought, great early figures of Confucianism such as Mencius and Xun Zi (not to be confused with Sun Zi) developed Confucianism into an ethical and political doctrine….

“It is debatable whether Confucianism should be called a religion. While it prescribes a great deal of ritual, little of it could be construed as worship or meditation in a formal sense. Confucius occasionally made statements about the existence of other-worldly beings that sound distinctly agnostic and humanistic to Western ears. Thus, Confucianism is often considered an ethical tradition and not a religion. However the United Nations recognizes Confucianism as a religion.

“Its effect on Chinese and other East Asian societies and cultures has been immense and parallels the effects of religious movements, seen in other cultures. Those who follow the teachings of Confucius say that they are comforted by it. It includes a great deal of ritual and (in its Neo-Confucian formulation) gives a comprehensive explanation of the world, of human nature, etc. Moreover, religions in Chinese culture are not mutually exclusive entities — each tradition is free to find its specific niche, its field of specialisation. One can be a Taoist, Christian, Muslim, Shintoist or Buddhist and still profess Confucianist beliefs.”

When I was a child, Confucianism seemed the most sensible teaching available.

See also Shinto.

Little Mosque on the Prairie starts this week

“Little Mosque on the Prairie” plays our stereotypes and small-town fears for laughs. It reminds me of “Corner Gas,” which is quietly funny at first but can induce hysterics if you watch several shows in a row.

In the first episode, Amaar is lining up at the airport to fly to his new job as an Imam for a new mosque, talking on the cell phone to his mother. “I’m not going to commit suicide, he says… I’m just moving to Saskatchewan.” Confusion ensues as he’s mistaken for a suicide bomber.

When he finally gets to Saskatchewan and the small town of Mercy, townspeople are appalled, suspicious, and hostile as they view with alarm their exotic immigrants. Tiny as it is, Mercy has a radio station and a newspaper, which makes for some amusing interviews. And it doesn’t hurt that Amaar is drop-dead handsome.

Follow the link for the official Web site including video clips.