Category Archives: pseudo-scholarship

One of the ‘Shroud of Turin’ Hawker’s Turns out to Be a Pedophile

So, it turns out that
… among the 1978 STURP scientists that examined the Turin Shroud there was also one (probably more than one) who belonged to the fundamentalist sect of the Christ Brotherhood (others to the Cult of Jesus sect). Paterson Brown was arrested in 1981 over raiding several Christ Brotherhood homes and taking 14 children into custody. Although five of the children said they had been molested by Brown, he was tried only for raping and sodomizing the 14-year-old daughter of a sect member.   Not a single book or article on the Shroud has ever mentioned that this depraved pedophile and fundamentalist was part of the scholars who studied the relic in 1978.
Articles on his arrest and charges:
That’s quite revealing.

Twitter Theology That Makes Me Sigh: The ‘Some People’s Brains Don’t Work’ Edition

ttmms

That’s idiotic.  It’s like saying that if you spell one word wrong you’ve spelled them all wrong or if you are wrong about one thing you’re wrong about everything.  No one treats anyone that way- why would anyone treat the Bible that way?  Not to mention the simple fact that these KJV only people are more historically ignorant and more uninformed about the transmission of Scripture than any atheist could ever hope to be.  Indeed, even worse, they are idolaters, worshipers of a book.

The stupid.  It hurts.  Some people’s brains don’t work.

Cindy Jacobs is a False Teaching Heretic

Self-proclaimed television prophet Cindy Jacobs recently warned people with Native

Two priests demand a heretic to repent as he i...

oh for the good old days when they knew what to do with heretics

American heritage that they should “repent for their ancestors’ animism” because they are particularly vulnerable to evil spirits.

In an episode of her web series 10 Minute Prayer School last week, Jacobs said that the Leviathan spirit described in Job 41 was often the cause of “divorce, tribal wars, church splits, family feuds, sibling rivalries, ministries breaking up.”

“If you have in your bloodline any animus [sic], any Native American blood, for instance — not all Native Americans worshipped the serpent or crocodile, many did — but you might want to renounce that and repent for the generational iniquity,” she explained. “If you are — perhaps you’re Mexican and you might have indigenous blood in you or Mayan blood, those who have Aztec blood in any way, you need to repent for the sin of animism before you begin to deal with this spirit.”

Cindy, you have no idea what theology is or what Christianity teaches.  People cannot, they CANNOT repent of the deeds of others.  To suggest so is to demonstrate a complete failure of comprehension.  Cindy, YOU need to repent of your heretical teachings.  And for misleading the silly people ignorant enough to believe you.

And those people will have to repent for themselves.

[As to your 'eisegesis' of Scripture as cited above- you are beyond repair so there's no point in bothering to help you understand].

[With thanks to Irene Hahn on FB for the aneurysm].

The Huffington Post Makes Me Sick

The Huffington Post looks for stories that portray Christians in the worst possible light.  Consequently, their bias is just as disgusting as Fox News’s and yet moderates and liberals give them a pass.  And THAT’s equally reprehensible.

It’s time for HuffPo to stop pretending to be anything but the Fox News of the Left.

Coffee-drinking Christians, take note: There’s apparently “no way” a truly righteous Christian can drink Starbucks beverages.

At least, that’s the opinion of former evangelical pastor and conservative activist David Barton, whose May 19 sermon on pious caffeine consumption was recently posted online.

Speaking at Whitesburg Baptist Church, Barton said that Starbucks was “pouring money” into the destruction of traditional marriage, according to video of the speech.

“The question is, ‘Can a Christian give money to a group he knows will use it to attack what God supports?’” Barton said. “If you know that when you buy a cup of Starbucks, 5, 10, 15 cents is going to be used to defeat marriage, can you do that? The answer is ‘no.’”

Barton represents mainstream evangelicals in the same way that Hitler represents mainstream Germans.  So, HuffPo, just shut up.

It’s Bad to Call Homosexuality a Mental Illness…

But it’s perfectly acceptable to say that religious fundamentalism is:

@YourAnonNews: Kathleen Taylor, Neuroscientist, Says Religious Fundamentalism Could Be Treated As A Mental Illness http://t.co/9Rcm9easeo

Thank you, Kathleen, for demonstrating anti- religious bias is alive and well at Oxford. And that it’s politically correct.

Hooray…. Noah’s Ark Ride

Again… hooray….  I’m sure they’ve loads of biblical scholars serving as consultants.  Just like the History Channel did when it aired the Bible (and completely ignored their advice most of the time).

The Biblical account of Noah and his Ark poses a lot of questions, even for believers like the creators of the controversial Creation Museum in Kentucky.

What is “gopher wood”? How did Noah fit all those animals on the boat? And how did he stand the smell?

In an office park in Hebron, Kentucky, the designers of the proposed “Ark Encounter” theme park are trying to answer questions like these in order to build faith in the Bible’s literal accuracy. The project has run into delays because of lack of financing, which could cost it millions in potential tax breaks. Despite the uncertainty, a recent Reuters preview of the project showed that plans for the ark are continuing.

“We’re basically presenting what the Bible has to say and showing how plausible it was,” said Patrick Marsh, design director for the park, which will feature a 500-foot-long wooden ark and other Old Testament attractions, including a Tower of Babel and a “Ten Plagues” ride. “This was a real piece of history – not just a story, not just a legend.”

I know a LOT of people I’d like to put on the 10 plagues ride but, really, if they aren’t stricken with those plagues, what’s the point?  If the museum wants to be realistic, shouldn’t its plagues kill lots of people?

Mark Driscoll: Another Anti-Intellectual Posing as a Pastor

ttmmsUnfortunately for Mr Driscoll, the Bible never says such a thing.  Of course that doesn’t matter to anti-intellectuals like Driscoll, who cherish ignorance because if their hearers/ congregations actually knew the contents and meaning of Scripture they wouldn’t endure the false teaching that Driscoll spews.

Consequently, it’s in Driscoll’s best interest to keep people ‘bible-dumb’.  The last thing he wants or needs is biblical scholars.  His bread and butter is pseudo-scholarship and pseudo-theology.

Academia: The Last Refuge of the Scoundrel

The New York Times reports

After a sex scandal forced Eliot Spitzer from the governor’s mansion in Albany, he turned up at City College, teaching a course called “Law and Public Policy.” After another sex scandal forced James E. McGreevey from the governor’s mansion in New Jersey, he turned up at Kean University, teaching in the global M.B.A. program.

More recently, Parsons the New School for Design announced thatJohn Galliano, the celebrated clothing designer who lost his job at Christian Dior after unleashing a torrent of anti-Semitic vitriol in a bar, would be leading a four-day workshop and discussion called “Show Me Emotion.”

And David H. Petraeus, the general turned intelligence chief turned ribald punch line, will have not one college paycheck, but two. Last month, the City University of New York said he would be the next visiting professor of public policy at Macaulay Honors College. On Thursday, the University of Southern California announced that Mr. Petraeus would also be teaching there; he will split his time between coasts.

The traditional path to an academic job is long and laborious: the solitude and penury of graduate study, the scramble for one of the few open positions in each field, the blood sport of competitive publishing. But while colleges have always courted accomplished public figures, a leap to the front of the class has now become a natural move for those who have suffered spectacular career flameouts. At this point, the transition from public disgrace to college lectern is so familiar that when Mr. Galliano merely stepped foot on the campus of Central Saint Martins, an art and design school in London, speculation rippled around the world — incorrectly — that he would soon be teaching there.

And that, my friends, is the state of things in American higher education.  It makes you feel great, doesn’t it?  All those years of study and effort ignored and the position you hunted filled by a public figure with less than no similar skills.

Schools aren’t seeking scholars.  They’re seeking celebrity.  That explains, doesn’t it, why Simcha Jacobovici is a ‘Professor’ at a school in Canada.

Scholarship Has Become Speculationship

A second Gabriel Stone, the controversial tablet discovered 13 years ago which raises the prospect of a messiah-like figure that predated Jesus, may exist, according to a world-renowned Israeli scholar. Professor Israel Knohl, a Bible scholar at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem told The Telegraph he believes a second “Gabriel Stone” fragment is still out there, waiting to be discovered.

Really? So, why not a third, and a fourth, and a fifth? Why not as many ‘Gabriel Stones’ as there are pieces of the ‘True Cross’?

When did it happen that scholarship (dealing with evidence in hand) became speculationship (dealing with evidence that’s maybe possibly potentially out there somewhere waiting to be discovered)? Where does it end? What limits does it endure? This is madness. And maddening, really.

Little wonder academics are looked at askance these days. They’ve left the realm of research and become witch-doctors casting spells and inventing theories whole cloth out of nothingness.

The “Gabriel Stone,” a three foot tall tablet found 13 years ago in Jordan by Bedouin tribesmen, dates back to the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Second Temple period. It was recently put on display for the first time in Jerusalem’s much-vaunted Israel Museum, reigniting controversy over the precious artefact among rival scholars. Prof Knohl has been at the centre of the controversy ever since 2008, when he deciphered a crucial line overlooked by other academics where God calls upon his “son” to “come back to life” – an indication of clear Messianic overtones.

No provenance, no value. Period.

I miss the days when scholarship was scholarly. Now it’s Barnum and Bailey. (Just watch a tv ‘Bible Special’ and you’ll know what I mean).

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More on the BBC’s Fearfulness of Christian Zionism

The film-maker behind a BBC4 documentary about ancient Jewish history that was shelved last week has accused the corporation of a “mixture of incompetence” and “political naiveté”.  Ilan Ziv, the Israeli-born documentary maker behind Jerusalem: an Archaeological Mystery Story, which questions the scale of the exodus of the Jewish people from Jerusalem in AD70, also said the official reason given by the BBC for pulling it from the schedules contradicts the one made to him in private.

“This is ultimately a sad saga of what I believe is a mixture of incompetence, political naiveté, conscious or subconscious political pressure and ultimately, I believe, a lack of courage of broadcasters when they are faced with the complexity of the Middle East issue and the intense emotions, fears and aggression it generates,” Ziv wrote on his blog.  He also accused the BBC of trying to “camouflage” the real content of the documentary by changing its title and of secretly planning with one of the film’s co-producers to remove Ziv’s name from the programme and to present it as an “adaptation” of his work.

The BBC is simply afraid to rile the Christian Zionists and others who have a pro-Israel anti-Palestinian segments of society.  Their calculations were purely political.  And it’s shameful.  Especially given their tendency to air programs about the bible and archaeology which aren’t simply inaccurate, they’re wrong.

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Wikipedia Isn’t Just Wrong and Worthless, It’s Also Sexist

From the New York Times

I JUST noticed something strange on Wikipedia. It appears that gradually, over time, editors have begun the process of moving women, one by one, alphabetically, from the “American Novelists” category to the “American Women Novelists” subcategory. So far, female authors whose last names begin with A or B have been most affected, although many others have, too.

The intention appears to be to create a list of “American Novelists” on Wikipedia that is made up almost entirely of men. The category lists 3,837 authors, and the first few hundred of them are mainly men. The explanation at the top of the page is that the list of “American Novelists” is too long, and therefore the novelists have to be put in subcategories whenever possible.

Too bad there isn’t a subcategory for “American Men Novelists.”

People who go to Wikipedia to get ideas for whom to hire, or honor, or read, and look at that list of “American Novelists” for inspiration, might not even notice that the first page of it includes far more men than women. They might simply use that list without thinking twice about it. It’s probably small, easily fixable things like this that make it harder and slower for women to gain equality in the literary world.

People who go to Wikipedia should be told that they are just as likely (and more than likely) to be misled than informed.  And now, it seems, alos the victims of Wikipedian prejudice and sexism.

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Simcha’s Wildest Speculation to Date

Ever wonder what you might have looked like thousands of years ago? A new documentary series called Lost Faces of the Bible uses what its proponents call “myth-busting archaeology” as well as cutting edge facial reconstruction to offer a picture of life during Biblical times.

“Delilah,” the first episode of the series, which airs Saturday night on Canada’s Vision TV, reconstructs the head and face of a Philistine woman the show’s producers compare to the Biblical Delilah. The original skull, part of a collection at Tel Aviv University, was from 3,000 years ago. By the end of the program, the skull becomes a vividly-detailed model of a woman’s face that features a prominent nose and an elaborate hairstyle.

Etc….

Oh come on.  Reconstructing facial features has come a long way but it’s passing absurd to suggest, even hint, remotely, that one has or can reconstruct the faces of particular historical figures WITHOUT any skulls to work from and without even claiming to have the actual skulls identified…. IMPOSSIBLE. And, consequently, rank speculation.

But doubtless some uninformed git will watch the series and tell his co-workers at the water cooler that he ‘knows what Delilah looks like’ regardless of how many pseudo-disclaimers the program is laced with (if it even is).

Oh Canada.

No, Friends, the Shroud of Turin is NOT the Burial Shroud of Jesus

In spite of yet more claims to the contrary.

Giulio Fanti, a professor of mechanical and thermal measurement at the University of Padua, announced the findings in a book that hit shelves Wednesday in Italy, reports Vatican Insider. Fanti has written several papers about the shroud, including one in 2011 that hypothesized how radiation could have caused the image of a man’s bloody face and body to appear on the cloth.

In his most recent effort, Fanti and a research team from the University of Padua conducted three tests on tiny fibers extracted from the shroud during earlier carbon-14 dating tests conducted in 1988, according to Vatican Insider. The first two tests used infrared light and Raman spectroscopy, respectively, while the third employed a test analyzing different mechanical parameters relating to voltage.

The results date the cloth to between 300 B.C. and 400 A.D., per The Telegraph.

I would hate to be at Antonio Lombatti’s house today.  His head must be exploding all over the place.  (Actually I’d like to be at Antonio’s house so I could hear his remarks concerning this absolute nonsense).