What would Jesus occupy?

With all the #occupy protests around our country lately, it was only a matter of time before our main political parties started claiming divine inspiration. On CNN's Belief Blog this week, Republican Tony Perkins writes "My Take: Jesus was a free marketer, not an Occupier" and points to one obscure parable to support his obvious thesis. Not to be outdone, today's Kansas City Star sports a left-leaning editorial in rebuttal.  In "Sorry GOP, Jesus was probably an 'occupier'," Barbara Shelly uses even more parables to swing Jesus to the left. But later she sagely notes, "The creator endowed humans with an endless ability to conscript Jesus and his words for their own ends, so all of us will come to our own conclusions."

Well said, but I would argue that Jesus would have preferred to not choose sides.  His parables were simple illustrations of spiritual truths -- not of governmental machinations or capitalist societies.  Arguably, especially reading beyond the Gospels into Acts, one might deduce that God prefers socialism over all other forms of government.

This sort of thinking has pervaded professional sports for a long time as well.  Does giving God credit for a win garner favor for future success?  To wit: Tim Tebow, the NFL's latest evangelical phenom (and, arguably, one of the greatest college quarterbacks ever).  God help me, I just can't hate the guy -- but up until last week's astounding Broncos win over the Vikings, I thought his team was winning in spite of him.  

But, I digress.  In military contests, as well as professional sports, both sides claim God is on their side.  Even Napoleon said something about God favoring the side with the most artillery, and look where that got him.  Both sides in the War of Northern Aggression claimed God's favor, but it took the killing of over 600,000 Americans to decide who was wrong.  Even though they probably both were.

So, what would Jesus do? He'd probably tell the occupiers to "render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's," tell the bankers to play nice, and then feed all the occupiers with some little boy's lunch.

All that aside, I admit the #occupy movement does have a few valid points. But, perhaps they should be careful not to bite the hand that feeds them.  And the political punditry at large needs to stop co-opting God into their petty little right-wing and left-wing boxes.

All of this brings me to a perfectly valid excuse to play this clip from Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Thoughts on geocentrism

It's been a while since I've used this particular blog, what with the goings-on in Majors' School and all.

A long-time friend recently posted an article about Galileo, who recanted his heliocentric astronomy theories in the face of a tortuous death at the hands of the Catholic church.  Four centuries later, believe it or not, in this day and age there are actually people who still believe in a flat earth.  Others still believe the earth is round, but fixed in space with the universe revolving around it.

That article sparked a memory of a site I found once:  fixedearth.com.   The site is poorly designed and full of rhetoric -- the author thinks that all science is basically a Kabbalah-based conspiracy.  He also believes that almost everything we need to know about the universe is in the verses of the Bible.  Here is a brief summary of his main "scientific" points:

1.  Earth is the center of the universe, and does not move.
2.  The universe revolves around the earth once each day.
3.  The size of the universe is much smaller than scientists would have us believe.

However, I notice some potentially fatal flaws in this reasoning -- so, out of curiosity, I emailed the guy.  Here's how it went:

Me -- "...let's consider Pluto, which you accept is 3.67 billion miles from Earth.  That means the diameter of its orbit is 7.34 billion miles, making its speed 266,840 miles per second -- still 1.4 times faster than light speed, assuming my simple math is correct.  Isn't this the fatal flaw in your logic?  How can a planet travel faster than light speed?  And if the math used to reach my conclusion is 'occult math' and therefore in error, then how do we determine the correct formula to determine Pluto's speed?

"I would [also] like to know ... how can you reject all other scientific assertions, yet accept measurements within our known solar system, that ostensibly come from the same kabballist methods?"

"There is more about your logic that still puzzles me.  On the one hand, you state "

Scripturally, as we shall see, the stars are in the 3rd Heaven of the firmament."

Yet on another page, you state that half of the 12,000 stars we can see aren't stars at all but reflections of the 6,000 stars that are visible with the naked eye.  However, doesn't the Bible simply call stars as "stars,"  and not reflections?   If the Bible calls them stars, then that's what they are -- nothing more, nothing less.

"Here is yet another conundrum.  If Venus and Saturn are the only planets mentioned in the Bible, then where did the other six come from?  Wouldn't Saturn be the outer edge of the 2nd heaven?  What about nebulae?  I have seen certain nebulae within my own telescope, yet they are not mentioned in the Bible.  Did I imagine them?"

 

His reply --

 

"The whole geocentrism concept has been buried under almost five centuries of the work of Satan's best liars and frauds from the secretive Pharisee Religion's Christ-hating Talmudist and Kabbalist Rabbinate.  Any challenge seems ridiculous, but geocentrism is the God's Truth and it's coming, like it or not.

"Your universe size is very insightful to have been arrived at so quickly.  That figure would barely work.  I think between six and eight billion is what is required to accommodate the huge New Earth and New Heavens promised in the Scriptures.  All the figures are given in the first of seven "Size and Structure of the Universe According to the Bible and Non-theoretical Science" essays.  Scroll down about 35% and look for numbers 1-6 on this subject.
http://www.fixedearth.com/Size%20and%20Structure%20Part%20I.htm

"The 4th and 6th of that series will answer a lot for you too.  #4 is listed under "Star Trails..." in Subject Area #1 at the bottom of www.fixedearth.com.  The others are in Subject Areas #5 & #8, I believe.....

 

"Don't get too hooked on the speed of light limitation.  That is theory, of course, and lately challenged widely.  However, the real universe's extremities can get around within that limitation."

 

I admit I haven't yet reviewed the references in his response from his site, but I just might.  His answer was, predictably, full of rhetoric while not addressing actual answers to the problem with his logic -- the quintessential, "Biblical hand-wave" of logic that is so prevalent in dicsussions such as these.

 

And, also typical that he subjectively chooses which facts fit his theory.

Callsign: Diamond 9

Since I've been "in the field" all week and am suffering Facebook withdrawals, I hope all who read this post consider it my heartfelt thanks for the many birthday wishes I received today (I can read the posts on gmail).

"In the field" is a phrase only Soldiers truly understand.  When Soldiers go on field exercises, we often work 20-hour days, go long periods without showers, eat food we wouldn't feed our dogs, and are lulled to sleep by the drone of a diesel generator.  It is not camping -- we train for war.  And we love it. 

I have often commented in recent years that no matter how miserable, cold, wet, dirty, and tired I am on a field exercise, it still beats the best day in the office.  Why?  Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, but doing what I do -- leading the Soldiers who run tactical networks -- is what I love. 

It's been said that soldiers aren't happy unless they're bitching.  After watching the brutal conditions in the battle of the bulge scenes in the "Band of Brothers" series last weekend, I vowed to never complain about going to the field again.

Last year on my 41st birthday, I was in Germany on Army business -- hobnobbing with officers from France and Poland, drinking German beer and sipping real champagne.  This week was a far cry from that, but memorable nonetheless.

Because I'm moving on this summer, this will be my last "field exercise" for a very long time -- and if my Army career continues how I hope, probably forever.  I can honestly say this rocket artillery unit is one of the best units I have ever been in, and I hope my next job is as rewarding.