The Silence is Deafening

Politicians sometimes have a tendency to exaggerate.  Yes, it is true.  I remember that I sometimes used to get embarrassed at one of my favorites, Ronald Reagan, when he would “misspeak”.  Mostly, as I recall he did a bit of exaggeration about his World War II service as well as his early childhood.  Well, no harm done.

Things have been getting worse and worse, however. It is time to put a stop to a lot of the rhetoric that we have been hearing.  Now, first of all, politicians, with the best of motives do promise things that they simply can’t deliver on, if congress is unwilling.  It is hoped that we have an electorate that is wise enough to understand that even though a politician might promise to go to Mars next year, if congress is unwilling to provide the funding, it won’t happen.

We really need to go after the bald-faced lies that candidates or their representatives make.  This past Sunday, one of the Romney advisers stated that the bailout of Chrysler and General Motors was Romney’s idea.  Clearly, the bailout was a good idea.  There are a lot of people who would be out of jobs of the bailout did not happen.  Was it Romney’s idea?  Well there was a November 2008 op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled, “Let Detroit go Bankrupt”.  Who wrote it?  Yes, it was Mitt Romney.  People make mistakes but Romney (or maybe the Republican Party) should immediately disavow that statement by Romney’s advisor.  Will they?  This is an easy chance for the Republicans to show that they are not morally bankrupt.  So far the silence has been deafening.

Representative Allen West, a darling of the Tea Party, said that he “heard” that up to 81 House Democrats are members of the Communist Party.  So he “heard “ that, did he?  He didn’t name names, can you believe that?  Other Republicans should have called him on that.  Did they?  Not as yet.  The silence is deafening.

“I should tell my story. I’m also unemployed.”  Who said that, none other than Mitt Romney – a man with a net worth of over $200 million.  A Republican should have said SOMETHING about that.  Did they?  The silence is deafening.

I won’t go into some of the ignorant things that Bachmann, Gingrich, Cain, and Santorum have said because they are all out of the race, but it always surprised me when, every time a stupid thing was said, no Republican called them on it.  It is sad to think that maybe, the average Republican didn’t have the smarts to catch them on it.  The silence was deafening.

God’s Political Failures

Every presidential candidate who was directly endorsed by God was failure.  They will likely not become president in 2012, and, probably will not ever become president.  Of the most recent crop, the only Republican who did not make the claim to have been endorsed by God, Mitt Romney, will be the Republican candidate for president.

Herman Cain told an audience in 2010 that he was found to be cancer free (he was operated on in 2005) and that God said, “Not yet, I’ve got something else for you to do.”

Karen Santorum (Rick’s wife) gave an interview to CNN in which she said, “It really boils down to God’s will. What is it that God wants? … We have prayed a lot about this decision, and we believe with all our hearts that this is what God wants.“  Apparently God wanted what Rick wanted.  I am shocked, totally shocked!

Michele Bachmann told World Net Daily in 2009 that she would NEVER run without God’s personal endorsement.  Apparently he endorsed her, too.

There’s more, but you get the idea.  Yes, God has a sense of humor (or has advanced dementia).  You certainly never get that from reading the Old Testament where god was into genocide, genital mutilation, multiple wives, misogyny, dietary suggestions, and revenge killings.

If you have ever stopped to read the bible, you probably realized that it was composed by the great-great-…-great grandparents of the producers of Saturday Night Live.  Deep down, you know that they NEVER intended for it to be taken seriously.

My personal set of beliefs tells me that the bible was intended to be an all-purpose book — possibly the world’s first almanac.  Did you know that it was full of jokes?    The bible itself refers to Samson as bringing the house down.  It spoke of the first great female financier – Pharaoh’s daughter who went to the banks of the Nile and drew out a little prophet.  It gave marital advice – like the time when Eve asked Adam, “Adam is there another woman?”  He counted his ribs and said, “No, I am sure there isn’t.”

Now, here is the interesting thing, as far as I can tell, Mitt Romney was the only GOP candidate that did not explicitly say that he was endorsed by God — and he is clearly going to be the candidate of the God’s Own Party (GOP).

Further, as you know, the 10-Commandments says that,  “Thou shall have no other gods before me”.  ”Gods” in that commandment is a plural!  What does that tell me?  It tells me that the God that we currently worship is not the only God.  There must be other gods.  Now, in our recent history we had a president who claimed to be a follower of the current God — and that didn’t end up well.  Maybe we should examine what God Mr. Romney follows.

After all, we have been following the same God for 2000 or more years and he (she?  it?) has not brought world peace — in fact wars have been getting bloodier and bloodier.  What about human suffering?  God doesn’t have a very good record there.  Starvation?  Nope.  People disagree over who or what he was, or even if he ever really existed — and history shows that they were more than willing to kill over it.  The only thing that our current God seems to be able to do is to persuade some to squander their life savings on some televangelist, give money to protect pedophiles, or to run for the American presidency.

Though Christian leaders claim all the credit, real human progress did not take place in Western Civilization until Europe shook off the rule of Christianity, starting in the 16th century, and put limits on the authority of Christian leaders.

There are current leaders in the Catholic church who are former Nazis and pedophile enabler.  The heads of some of the major Protestant denominations are obsessed with fighting gays as well as womanizing — yet a large number of them seem to be gay or womanizers themselves.  They claim that God wants you to be rich — which is in direct contradiction to Jesus’ teachings.  In case you are a little rusty with that last one, God wants you to give up your riches and help the poor.

A large number of Muslims seem to feel that the way to everlasting life is to kill yourself (and every one around you).  The Jews keep claiming that God gave them, well, whatever they want — as long as they continue to mutilate their son’s penis and not eat pork products or shell fish.

I would suggest that we should look around and anyone who wants the God job should be given a 2000-year term.  If it doesn’t work out?  Bye, bye.

Amen.  May your version of god be with you – and may he stay far away from me!

RonsCoffeeAndChocolates.wordpress.com has been added to The Atheist Blogroll.  You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit http://mojoey.blogspot.com/2006/09/join-mojoeys-atheist-blogroll.html

Internet Hall of Fame

Al Gore was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.  According to the NPR web site, Al Gore has been lauded by the Internet Society for being a key proponent as a senator and vice president of sponsoring legislation that funded the expansion and greater public access to the Internet.

As a politician one is often called upon to toot one’s own horn. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, according to a transcript posted by the cable news network, Gore said that “during my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, and improvements in our educational system.”  As far as I can tell, there is nothing wrong with that statement.  That is what he did.

Indeed in the definitive statement provided by Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf — two giants in the development of the Internet, “Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development.  No one person or even small group of persons exclusively “invented” the Internet. It is the result of many years of ongoing collaboration among people in government and the university community.  But as the two people who designed the basic architecture and the core protocols that make the Internet work, we would like to acknowledge VP Gore’s contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President.  No other elected official, to our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time.”

They go on to say:  “As far back as the 1970s Congressman Gore promoted the idea of high speed telecommunications as an engine for both economic growth and the improvement of our educational system.   He was the first elected official to grasp the potential of computer communications to have a broader impact than just improving the conduct of science and scholarship. Though easily forgotten, now, at the time this was an unproven and controversial concept.  Our work on the Internet started in 1973 and was based on even earlier work that took place in the mid-late 1960s. But the Internet, as we know it today, was not deployed until 1983. When the Internet was still in the early stages of its deployment, Congressman Gore provided intellectual leadership by helping create the vision of the potential benefits of high speed computing and communication.  As an example, he sponsored hearings on how advanced technologies might be put to use in areas like coordinating the response of government agencies to natural disasters and other crises.

As a Senator in the 1980s Gore urged government agencies to consolidate what at the time were several dozen different and unconnected networks into an “Interagency Network.”  Working in a bi-partisan manner with officials in Ronald Reagan and George Bush’s administrations, Gore secured the passage of the High Performance Computing and Communications Act in 1991.  This “Gore Act” supported the National Research and Education Network (NREN) initiative that became one of the major vehicles for the spread of the Internet beyond the field of computer science.”

After having listened to the recent presidential debates, it might be hard to believe this, but Al Gore is living proof that we do produce good people who want to serve our country.

He could have been our president, but we Americans had a better idea.  We chose a man who chose war with Iraq, war with Afghanistan, government sponsored torture, corrupt no-bid contractors, refusing to let Katrina ruin his holiday, tax cuts for the wealthy, limiting stem cell research, and a failed economy.

You Stink at Photoshop

There is a series of videos that I once watched entitled, “You Stink at Photoshop”.  Photoshop is a tough program to master and most users,  including me, stink at photoshop.  These video shorts helped a little but I am still learning.

Well, I guess that I am not the only one who could use more lessons.  The above photo is of Patriarch Kirill I of the Russian Orthodox Church.  So, what is wrong with it?  First of all, take a good look.  Can you find it?  No?  Well, take a look at the Patriarch’s left wrist.  Look at the reflection in the table.  If you are up on your excessively expensive wrist watches, you might just see a $30,000 gold Breguet watch reflected in the polished table top.  See it now?

Russian bloggers are incensed with how extremely wealthy the Russian Orthodox Church with its ties to the Russian government has become.  With all the corruption in the Russian government you don’t often hear of the official church making any comment about it.  Now we see why.

WWJW — What would Jesus wear?

[Both pictures from the NY Times]

“Letter to My Students”

Many have said that in the latter half of the twentieth century, if you wanted to see how the United States will be in a few years hence, all you had to do was to look at California.  Well, I am looking and not liking what I see.  I see a state where the leaders — political, financial, and industrial have developed the attitude of , “I’ve got mine, and I’m planning on screwing you.”

Michael O’Hare is a Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley, he was raised in New York City and trained at Harvard as an architect and structural engineer. Diverted from an honest career designing buildings by the offer of a job in which he could think about anything he wanted to and spend his time with very smart and curious young people, he fell among economists and such like, and continues to benefit from their generosity with on-the-job social science training.

In 2010 he wrote a letter to his students [pulled from the August 23, 2010 http://www.samefacts.com].  It is pretty powerful.  Read on (emphasis are mine):

Welcome to Berkeley, probably still the best public university in the world. Meet your classmates, the best group of partners you can find anywhere.  The percentages for grades on exams, papers, etc. in my courses always add up to 110% because that’s what I’ve learned to expect from you, over twenty years in the best job in the world.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is that you have been the victims of a terrible swindle, denied an inheritance you deserve by contract and by your merits.  And you aren’t the only ones; victims of this ripoff include the students who were on your left and on your right in high school but didn’t get into Cal, a whole generation stiffed by mine.  This letter is an apology, and more usefully, perhaps a signal to start demanding what’s been taken from you so you can pass it on with interest.

Swindle–what happened? Well, before you were born, Californians now dead or in nursing homes made a remarkable deal with the future.  (Not from California? Keep reading, lots of this applies to you, with variations.) They agreed to invest money they could have spent on bigger houses, vacations, clothes, and cars into the world’s greatest educational system, and into building and operating water systems, roads, parks, and other public facilities, an infrastructure that was the envy of the world. They didn’t get everything right: too much highway and not enough public transportation. But they did a pretty good job.

Young people who enjoyed these ‘loans’ grew up smarter, healthier, and richer than they otherwise would have, and understood that they were supposed to “pay it forward” to future generations, for example by keeping the educational system staffed with lots of dedicated, well-trained teachers, in good buildings and in small classes, with college counselors and up-to-date books.  California schools had physical education, art for everyone, music and theater, buildings that looked as though people cared about them, modern languages and ancient languages, advanced science courses with labs where the equipment worked, and more. They were the envy of the world, and they paid off better than Microsoft stock. Same with our parks, coastal zone protection, and social services.

This deal held until about thirty years ago, when for a variety of reasons, California voters realized that while they had done very well from the existing contract, they could do even better by walking away from their obligations and spending what they had inherited on themselves.  “My kids are finished with school; why should I pay taxes for someone else’s?  Posterity never did anything for me!”  An army of fake ‘leaders’ sprang up to pull the moral and fiscal wool over their eyes, and again and again, your parents and their parents lashed out at government (as though there were something else that could replace it) with tax limits, term limits, safe districts, throw-away-the-key imprisonment no matter the cost, smoke-and-mirrors budgeting, and a rule never to use the words taxes and services in the same paragraph.

Now, your infrastructure is falling to pieces under your feet, and as citizens you are responsible for crudities like closing parks, and inhumanities like closing battered women’s shelters. It’s outrageous, inexcusable, that you can’t get into the courses you need, but much worse that Oakland police have stopped taking 911 calls for burglaries and runaway children. If you read what your elected officials say about the state today, you’ll see things like “California can’t afford” this or that basic government function, and that “we need to make hard choices” to shut down one or another public service, or starve it even more (like your university). Can’t afford? The budget deficit that’s paralyzing Sacramento is about $500 per person; add another $500 to get back to a public sector we don’t have to be ashamed of, and our average income is almost forty times that.  Of course we can afford a government that actually works: the fact is that your parents have simply chosen not to have it.

I’m writing this to you because you are the victims of this enormous cheat (though your children will be even worse off if you don’t take charge of this ship and steer it). Your education was trashed as California fell to the bottom of US states in school spending, and the art classes, AP courses, physical education, working toilets, and teaching generally went by the board. Every year I come upon more and more of you who have obviously never had the chance to learn to write plain, clear, English.  Every year, fewer and fewer of you read newspapers, speak a foreign language, understand the basics of how government and business actually work, or have the energy to push back intellectually against me or against each other. Or know enough about history, literature, and science to do it effectively!  You spent your school years with teachers paid less and less, trained worse and worse, loaded up with more and more mindless administrative duties, and given less and less real support from administrators and staff.

Many of your parents took a hike as well, somehow getting the idea that the schools had taken over their duties to keep you learning, or so beat-up working two jobs each and commuting two hours a day to put food on the table that they couldn’t be there for you. A quarter of your classmates didn’t finish high school, discouraged and defeated; but they didn’t leave the planet, even if you don’t run into them in the gated community you will be tempted to hide out in.  They have to eat just like you, and they aren’t equipped to do their share of the work, so you will have to support them.

You need to have a very tough talk with your parents, who are still voting; you can’t save your children by yourselves.  Equally important, you need to start talking to each other.  It’s not fair, and you have every reason (except a good one) to keep what you can for yourselves with another couple of decades of mean-spirited tax-cutting and public sector decline. You’re my heroes just for surviving what we put you through and making it into my classroom, but I’m asking for more: you can be better than my generation. Take back your state for your kids and start the contract again.  There are lots of places you can start, for example, building a transportation system that won’t enslave you for two decades as their chauffeur, instead of raising fares and cutting routes in a deadly helix of mediocrity.  Lots. Get to work.  See you in class!

Elizabeth Warren

After listening and watching Rick Santorum, one of the most dispicable presidential characters in some time — ranting about the “way things should be”, never seeing a country that he doesn’t want to bomb, never seeing a woman’s body that he didn’t want his laws all over, and ranting about lots of other things that he and his followers don’t seem to know anything about —  and the way that there are so many Americans eager to follow him, I was wondering a bit if it would ever be possible for a political candidate to simply express their views on religion, show proper respect for everyone else, and get on with the campaign.  Maybe there is still hope.

Take a look at this campaign flyer from Elizabeth Warren, running for Senator from Massachusetts:

A relative (thanks, Bill!)  sent me a political advert from Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts.  Though I would prefer that religion stayed completely out of campaigning, notice the tasteful way that Elizabeth Warren handled it.  Notice particularly the second from last paragraph.  Now there is a decent person.  By the way, she did note that some of us are simply just celebrating “the start of spring“.   I don’t even know her, but I like her.

No, she is not a member of Gods Own Party.

Easter Sunday

Easter is perhaps the most important of the Christian holidays.  According to Christian tradition,  It celebrates Christ’s resurrection from the dead following his death on Good Friday.  Easter is named for a Saxon goddess who was known by the names of Oestre or Eastre. Although American Christians continue to generally celebrate Easter as a religious holiday, public references to Easter almost never include any religious elements.

In the United States, Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate Easter in decidedly non-Christian ways: with chocolate and other forms of Easter candy, Easter eggs, Easter egg hunts, the Easter bunny, and so forth. Most cultural references to Easter include these elements, most of which are pagan in origin, and have preceded the death of the Christian god by hundreds to thousands of years — and all of which have become commercialized.

In every other language but English and German, the name Easter is derived from the Hebrew word “pesach” for “he passed over”.  In Spanish and Italian, Easter is “Pascua” in French it is “Paques”, etc.  The early Christian church spent much time creating the story of their God.  In the year 325 proclaimed that the death of Jesus would be commemorated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the Vernal Equinox.  This date was determined by noting that the Last Supper, as Christians came to know it, was actually a Passover seder, and Jesus’s resurrection occurred on that Sunday.  Passover occurs on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan on the first full moon on or after the Equinox.

The story that the early Christian church adapted is quite similar to the Roman god Mithras.  Mithras’s birthday was December 25, had 12 followers, virgin birth, and died a violent death — only to rise on the third day.

OK,  what is with the eggs and the bunny?  The egg is widely used as a symbol of the start of new life.  This tradition actually started with the ancient Zoroastrians. Their New Year was in the spring and the egg represented the start of a new life.

The bunny, like the egg is the symbol of fertility   Female hares can conceive a second litter of offspring while still pregnant with the first.  This phenomenon is known as “superfetation”.  It is no surprise that rabbits and hares should become fertility symbols.

As it happened, the pagan festival of Eastre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ. It made sense, therefore, to alter the festival itself, to make it a Christian celebration as converts were slowly won over. The early name, Eastre, was eventually changed to its modern spelling, Easter.

[ The above information was gotten from Wikipedia - from three separate topics, “Easter”, “Easter Bunny” and “Easter Egg” ]

Pontius Pilate

Even though there is a lot of doubt that the Good Friday story really happened — or that  the Jesus, as described in the Christian Bible  really existed, there seems to be no question in the minds of historians that a lot of the actors of the time were, in fact, real people.  Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate, King Herod, etc., really were people who lived about 2000 years ago.  We know of these people because of the various sources that historians had.  For example, there are Jewish writings about Pilate (they didn’t like him very much).  There are Roman writings and records, as well.  There is the record of his trial in Rome from different sources.  There are records of what he did (many executions) from many sources.  Just like Julius Caesar or some of the other Roman kings, there is no question that Pilate existed.

There are enough engravings in the temples to leave us to believe that King Herod really existed.  There were many Jewish writings as well as Roman writings to leave no doubt in our minds.

Same with Caiaphas.  He was a Jew and priest in the temple.  He was appointed by Rome and was clearly their puppet.  The Jews hated him but as long as Rome liked him, he was OK.  Again, lots of writings, engravings, etc., from many sources.

Contrast this with Jesus.  You don’t find Jewish writings about him — though they did write about other “messiahs”.  You don’t find any of Jesus’ writings.  You don’t find any writings about any of the miracles that he performed (other than in the bible).  It goes on and on.  Wouldn’t it seem that if there was a Jesus who raised the dead, this might be a reoccurring  theme in many Jewish writings?   After all, he was a fellow Jew.  What about turning water in to wine at a wedding party, surely there were a few people who might have noticed and been suitably impressed — and, maybe, told their friends or wrote about it?  The Jews were treated very harshly by the Romans and, as religious people, they were desperate to find a messiah.  They found many.  There were none, however, that matched the description of Jesus.  When something so extraordinary was supposed to have happened,  it is up to the proponents to prove it happened rather than ANYONE to prove that it DIDN’T happen.

But, let’s get back to Pontius Pilate.  Most (but not all) creditable historians tell us that there are absolutely enough writings in Israel as well as Rome to indicate that this was a flesh-and-blood human.  In the year 37 Pilate was recalled to Rome.  He was charged for acting a bit too much like a king — rather than a representative of a king. Under his administration of Judaea  a lot of people were crucified and there was indication that they did not receive fair trials.  Rome had laws and they MUST be obeyed.  Pilate’s job was to enforce Roman Law – not to create his own.

Pilate was put on trial and found guilty of abuse of authority.  He was  busted in rank, made into a lowly foot-soldier and ordered to join the Roman Legion in Gaul (France).  He did so, and needless to say, was not a happy person after having lived like a king for so long.  The story goes that about a year or so later his depression got the best of him, and he committed suicide.

He didn’t kill a god, he simply had fallen from a position of living like a god, and could not handle it.  It was probably not the first time that something like that had happened and, it was clearly not to be the last.

[Note:  I know that my narration does not exactly follow the story in Wiki.  Though I put great faith in Wiki, there are areas where it does not measure up.  The story of Pontius Pilot in Wiki appears to be taken right out of the bible,  There are much better and more scholarly sources.]

Good Friday

Good Friday is the day that Jesus was executed by the Romans.  We know the story of how he dragged the cross down the Via Delarosa and up Calvary Hill in Jerusalem and was nailed to it.  Some feel so deeply about this that they, at some level, feel the pain.

Others are simply baffled.  They are baffled because they know the Roman and Jewish culture of the time — and the story simply doesn’t make sense.  Let’s look at this:  According to the Christian story Jesus and his twelve disciples walked the hills and forests of Judaea turning water into wine, raising the dead, and preaching his interpretation of the Jewish Bible.  Since, according to the story, so many of the Jews became followers of this Rabbi, that the Romans were worried.  They felt that he was preaching treason.  At the same time, the leaders of the Temple – Caiaphas and the others were worried because, in their mind, Jesus, who was implying that he was related to God, was preaching blasphemy.

Finally, when he came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, the Romans decided that they would grab him.  Unfortunately, they had no idea what he looked like!  From here, the story really gets weird.

According to the Bible, Jesus came into town on his donkey with the people throwing flowers and generally being very happy to see him.  Now, the Jerusalem of 2000 years ago was a very small city.  When he entered, the Roman intelligence service should have had a VERY good look at him.  Unfortunately, they seemed to have missed him, so they bribed one of the followers, Judas, to make the identification.  That, he did for thirty pieces of silver.

Jesus was then taken to Pontius Pilate the Roman Prefect of Judaea.  Now, if Pilate thought that Jesus was a serious threat to Rome, he (Pilate) would have put Jesus on trial.  If he were found guilty of sedition he would have been crucified.  Pilate apparently decided that he was not a problem and turned him over to the Jewish court.  At this point the specter of crucifixion should have been removed.  The Jews NEVER crucified.  Their method of capitol punishment was stoning to death.  That is specified in the Bible (Leviticus 24:13-16).

According to the story, the court convened on Passover.  This was VERY unlikely.  The Rabbis in the court would have been celebrating one of the holiest of the Jewish holidays — not passing judgement over a blasphemer!  The holy days always came first! They simply would have put him in jail for a few days.  In any case, they found him guilty.  Blasphemy is punishable by death — but, again, the Jews NEVER used crucifixion.  Their method of punishment was to stone someone to death.

Somehow, Jesus gets crucified — this turn of events doesn’t seem likely.  Along with him are two pickpockets.  That makes no sense, either!  The Romans only used the punishment of crucifixion for someone who has been seriously messing with Rome, e.g., a spy, or someone who has been preaching treason.  They would never crucify a common pickpocket.

So here we have two pickpockets and one delusional Rabbi being crucified.  There’s more:  Jesus and his two new friends were crucified at the top of Calvary Hill.  That is not how the Romans did things.  They would set up a cross at the city dump — the lowest point in the area, not the highest.  When the enemy of Rome would be crucified, it would sometimes take as long as three days to die.  After the death, over a period of weeks,  the flesh and muscle would be eaten away by birds and insects.  Eventually, the bones would fall into the dump.  Truly a horrible way to go — just what the Romans wanted.

In Jesus’s case, he seems to have died in 6-hours and was then taken away to be buried.  In real life, you wouldn’t dare claim the body of someone who was crucified.  If you did, you immediately fell under suspicion of Rome — and you probably would be next to be crucified.

There are more inconsistencies:   The tomb that Jesus’ body was taken to was within in the city wall.  In ancient times , the city fathers  never allow someone to be buried in the city.  Eventually, any cemetery in the city would expand to fill the city walls.  It is really expensive to keep expanding those 20-foot-thick city walls.  Dead people were buried outside the city.  The city walls were built to protect LIVE people, not DEAD ones!.  Even today there is a large cemetery outside of the Jerusalem city walls — which existed long before the time of Jesus.  THAT is probably where Jesus would have been buried.

Clearly, the persons or people who wrote this story had no knowledge of Roman or Jewish culture.  Enjoy the holiday,  remember, Jesus will be rising in a couple of days.  All will be well.

Note from me:

This narration is based on the facts as best as I know them.  They are not consistent with Wiki.  In this particular case Wiki seems to have used the bible for the Easter story.  You don’t use the bible to prove the bible!  This story is consistant with a number of books written by reputable authors.  Certainly no one is forcing you to believe something that you would prefer not to believe.  Only, I hope the reader understands that  your narration of the events of 2000 years ago MIGHT be wrong — just as mine might be wrong.  It is probably OK to drum into a child’s head that 1+1=2,  after all, there is plenty of proof of that.  But it is certainly not OK to drum into his/her little head that there was a 2000 year old man who had a virgin birth, walked on water, raised the dead, turned water into wine, disregarded his violent death and simply flew up to heaven — at least until you have some proof.  A book that has been written by man long after the supposed fact, then censored by men, and then re-written, and then re-written again and again does not constitute proof.  At best, it constitutes fiction.

Passover

April 8th, marks the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover (Pesoch, in Hebrew).  Basically, skipping a lot of interesting stuff, the story goes that the Jews were slaves in Egypt.  They were mistreated and a leader, Moses, emerged at the behest of the Jewish God, to represent him (God) and the slaves in front of the Pharaoh.  Basically, God wanted Pharaoh to release the Jews.  Pharaoh initially said, “No”.  So, as the story goes, god turned all the water in Egypt into blood, killing all the fish and other aquatic life.

Pharaoh still said, “No”.  So, in turn, God attacked with Frogs, Lice, Flies, etc.  Finally God used the ultimate weapon, killing all of the Egyptian first born.  To be saved, the Israelites had to place the blood of a lamb on their door.  If they did that, the angel of death “Passed Over”.

With that, the Pharaoh changed his mind and allowed the Jews to leave.  The Red Sea parted for them, and then they wandered in the desert for 40 years,  During that time they received the 10 commandments.  So, basically, they left Egypt as slaves and emerged 40 years later as “The Jewish People” – God’s children.

Sounds a bit far fetched, how much of it might be true?  This from the Israeli Newspaper Haaretz (The Land):

We tend, in the midst of our disdain for Egyptian, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, to overlook the fact that one of the biggest events of the Jewish calendar is predicated upon reminding the next generation every year of how the Egyptians were our cruel slave-masters, in a bondage that likely never happened.

The reality is that there is no evidence whatsoever that the Jews were ever enslaved in Egypt. Yes, there’s the story contained within the bible itself, but that’s not a remotely historically admissible source. I’m talking about real proof; archeological evidence, state records and primary sources. Of these, nothing exists.

It is hard to believe that 600,000 families (which would mean about two million people) crossed the entire Sinai without leaving one shard of pottery (the archeologist’s best friend) with Hebrew writing on it. It is remarkable that Egyptian records make no mention of the sudden migration of what would have been nearly a quarter of their population, nor has any evidence been found for any of the expected effects of such an exodus; such as economic downturn or labor shortages. Furthermore, there is no evidence in Israel that shows a sudden influx of people from another culture at that time. No rapid departure from traditional pottery has been seen, no record or story of a surge in population.

In fact, there’s absolutely no more evidence to suggest that the story is true than there is in support of any of the Arab world’s conspiracy theories and tall tales about Jews.

So, this holiday, celebrating an event that probably didn’t happen, was celebrated by Jesus.  That, of course, got him into a bit of a kerfuffle with the Romans.

To be continued …