What the hell is this dot crap?

Hey, everyone! Let's welcome the noob!

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posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 8:45 AM on August 9, 2008

9 here, but it can't really be accurate, since "preacher," "beer," and "kinda oaky" weren't options when I needed them to be, so I had to improvise.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 3:05 PM on August 7, 2008

It says my wife is worth nine goats, but I only paid seven! Ha! I love a bargain.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 3:08 PM on August 7, 2008

I probably hadn't seen an episode of Sesame Street for 25 years until last month when my daughter turned two and we started letting her watch a little TV. The very first thing we turned to was Sesame Street. I had a lot of mixed feeling watching it. I'm definitely not sold on the new arrangement of the theme. I still don't get the whole Elmo phenomenon. (Kermit not good enough anymore?) But then I was glad to see how much continuity there was. Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, the Count, Grover,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 10:43 PM on August 6, 2008

How on earth do you figure this is viral advertising? There aren't even any ads on the page, or any products mentioned.


At the bottom, there is a box that says: "Don't want to date a unicorn, click here." You click and, then see this:

This was created by Mingle2
A Completely Free Dating Site

Browse singles, send and receive messages, create a profile -... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 3:00 PM on August 4, 2008

Um, what Bookhouse said.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 3:00 PM on August 4, 2008

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 37%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 63%

My 37% female side is mainly because of my credit card sites and Papa John's pizza. I hadn't previously thought of debt or pepperoni as particularly girly--now I know.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 6:08 PM on August 2, 2008

Saying that Obama is... in shape? That he eats Powerbars? This is all they have to run with in August?

Don't forget, he's also popular, inspiring and well-liked around the world. Which, in McCainland, are more reasons not to vote for him.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 10:02 AM on August 2, 2008

I know that this isn't the worst offense of this administration, but right now something about this feels like the last straw for me. This is not the America I knew. I hope Obama, if he reaches the White House, actively works to restore checks on executive power and ensure civil liberties. If not--where are we going to be in another ten years? Twenty?

As of today, the government can listen to all my phone calls and read my emails--anytime they want. They can seize... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 10:45 PM on July 31, 2008

Man, I wish I could stay that calm, intelligent, and compassionate in the face of ... whatever it was he was facing.

He was facing a request to remove a book that a library patron felt was inappropriate for children--a request that apparently followed library guidelines. Answering those requests with further policy information and well-stated reasoning is part of his job. I have no idea why it would be hard to stay calm and compassionate when faced... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 6:05 PM on July 30, 2008

As an atheist, I'm always amazed at the number of Christians who have a lower opinion of their deity than I do.

I have similar thoughts all the time.

I just don't understand how people can miss the message of the New Testament so completely. Yeah, I know, there are always doctrinal disagreements out there, but if you read the NT and somehow miss that God was manifest as a poor homeless guy who gave up his prerogatives in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 11:10 AM on July 30, 2008

He has been going on about homosexuality for years - methinks he may be protesting a bit too much, if you catch my drift.

By this logic, Metafilter's about 70% closet rabid fundy Christians.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 11:38 PM on July 29, 2008

Hmm, when was the last time a bona fide teacher was in the White House, anyone know?

Woodrow Wilson?
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 6:22 PM on July 29, 2008

Don't think you've been left out, Iraqi friends! There'll be a nice letter coming your way in 2203.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 5:22 PM on July 29, 2008

FYI, here is what the New Testament says about it.

Since the New Testament starts with a genealogy, I hardly think it as simple as that. But this probably isn't the time to get into what Paul was referring to in your citations.

I appreciate the link. I've been trying for some time to figure out who my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather's parents were. This didn't get me there yet, but maybe it will in the future.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 4:35 PM on July 27, 2008

Except that Paul didn't write them, and New Testament conflict doesn't alter the original meaning unless you believe it must.

In your opinion Paul didn't write them, and in your opinion, there is a conflict. If you're some kind of NT scholar, I would love to hear more from you about either of those topics.

Since you don't go for Pauline authorship (and I'll just assume that you are conversant with all the arguments pro and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 6:49 PM on July 27, 2008

Pater, I've upset you, my apologies. I won't waste your time, I have nothing to gain by antagonizing you.

No, you haven't upset me. I've just made a resolution that when someone makes a pronouncement here about some matter of Biblical interpretation, that it's worth finding out if they actually know what they are talking about or if they're just having some fun making claims they explain. It won't antagonize me at all for you to actually explain... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 10:47 AM on July 29, 2008

err, that should be "making claims they can't explain"
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 10:47 AM on July 29, 2008

I think Mr. Obama is too smart to be as religious as he is portrayed, but he pretends to be wicked religious to pander.

I can't see what the difference is between this and the people who think Obama is secretly a Muslim. Sure, he says he's Christian, and he talks about his faith as through it has been a real and significant influence in his life, and he even delivers sermons from time to time, but all that is a smokescreen for what he really is--an... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 10:57 AM on July 27, 2008

I better wake up my wife and get her to explain some of these stats to me.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 11:41 PM on July 24, 2008

BTW, according to this, in 1995 women earned 6491 bachelor's degrees in math, while men earned 7360. Not a surprise that it could be 50/50 now.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 11:47 PM on July 24, 2008

Some brides pick up the tab for their attendants, replacing the pillbox inscribed with the wedding date with a well-earned squirt between the eyes.

I think that could have been worded better.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 1:12 PM on July 24, 2008

For anyone who believed in Jesus to begin with, I don't see how this changes anything. Jesus is always pointing to strains of Jewish tradition to interpret his actions, including the his resurrection, which he framed within the story of Jonah, seen as a symbolic three day burial before a "resurrection" back to life on the surface. If there was some Jewish sect in the time of Christ that anticipated the Messiah dying and rising in three days, that doesn't do anything to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 7:18 PM on July 5, 2008

(the flip side is, of course, the Gospel writers' efforts to exorcise Yeshua's Judaism)

Are you serious about this? Read the first verse of the first chapter of the first gospel in the New Testament--it's the genealogy of Jesus, starting with Abraham. If you are trying to "exorcise Yeshua's Judaism," that's a pretty bad opening move. For that matter, Matthew including five prominent blocks of teaching to parallel the five books of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 7:30 PM on July 5, 2008

A good post on this discovery by Ben Witherington, here.

I take quite seriously the authenticity of this stone, since Ada Yardeni has weighed in on it, and found it genuine. So let us suppose it is genuine-- let's ask the question, So what?

If you read the article you will discover that one eclectic Jewish scholar is now suggesting that the Christians got the idea from this stone or its source, and then predicated... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 11:24 AM on July 24, 2008

Sumatran Tiger is filed under "S" but Solomon Islands Leaf Frog under "F." I think this system is going to cause problems when there is a personnel change.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 6:56 AM on July 22, 2008

You know, a revelation of this magnitude might just be enough to start to turn Metafilter against Dobson.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 11:11 AM on July 21, 2008

Prague - A 32-year-old Czech tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat with a chain saw but survived after the machine missed his jugular artery and got stuck in his spine, a report said on Wednesday.

This was his second suicide attempt, CTK news agency reported. He had earlier tried to hang himself from a tree branch but the branch snapped and he broke both legs in the fall, it said.

I'm unclear about one thing. Do we... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 10:13 PM on July 16, 2008

I'm going to break with tradition here and read the article that we are commenting on. I thought the overall point was interesting--probably 12 years of training to become Batman, and then you can maintain the Bat-life for perhaps 2-3 years.

But it's doable, for a while, if you have the skills and the money. All we need is for Bill Gates to find the right candidate, support his training, and give us a real-life Batman for a while. With a cape, a cowl, and a little... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 9:07 AM on July 16, 2008

The Amish take the Bible verse “spare the rod and spoil the child” in a literal sense.

According to this article, there's only been a Bible in the Amish language for about 12 years. Which might explains why she thinks this is a Bible verse. It's not. (Granted, you can find similar sentiments in the book of Proverbs.)
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 7:06 AM on July 16, 2008

Woah. That Legal Affairs article is much more interesting than the link in the FPP. Heartbreaking.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 7:08 AM on July 16, 2008

What system of classification is being used when Queen Elizabeth, Don Imus and Alan Jackson are all filed under "Hollywood"?
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 10:14 AM on July 11, 2008

People are scared, and when they have nothing to fear, they invent boogeymen to fear. "Oh no, this book has the F word in it. My blonde blue-eyed daughter can't read that or she'll end up having muslim babies." That's basically the operative psychology here.

That the supposedly enlightened, nuanced and sophisticated types on Metafilter make statements like this while (in theory) arguing against two-dimensional, black-and-white world views... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 9:00 AM on July 9, 2008

(That first section was a quote from Pastabagel--I should have italicized it.)
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 9:01 AM on July 9, 2008

Wow, arcanecrowbar--that page is amazing. I might plan a trip to Florida just to meet Yvette in person.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 1:27 PM on July 8, 2008

This shouldn't be surprising, but it is interesting to note that the author of this webpage is pretty smart as well as being mentally ill. At least, she knows about some things that the average person doesn't. For example, on this page she makes a couple of references to "the missing Hebraic version of Matthew." And, indeed, there is a theory that the gospel of Matthew was originally written in Aramaic, an idea that goes back at least to the 2nd century, and was mentioned by such... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 2:54 PM on July 8, 2008

* Okay, I laughed at this , but I don't know if she's actually mentally ill, or just skipped science class on optics day.

Read the comments and I think the answer becomes clear.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 5:17 PM on July 8, 2008

According to McHugh, the omen only created a signal on 160 separate days, or 3.2% of the approximate 5,000 days that he studied.


I only read the first half of the links, so maybe this is cleared up later, but isn't it likely that some of those signals were days or weeks apart, and could therefore both be pointing to the same event? You might not need 120 crashes for a 75% success rate. For all I know, you would only need 40. Do the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 9:13 AM on July 7, 2008

One freeper comment:

Sorry to hear this. Rest in peace Senator Helms. Prayers for him and his family.

I've been listening to Fox News in the background for the past hour, and haven't heard this once. Yet we were repeatedly blasted with the news of Kennedy's illness. No media bias there.

Yeah--Fox News and their notorious liberal bias! Sickening.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 7:26 AM on July 5, 2008

Thanks for the link, spock. I was annoyed by all the sloppy work on this project, and by the misinformation that was present in so many popular accounts. DeConick's webpage is worth a look for more info and links.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 9:16 AM on June 30, 2008

The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles (both written by the same author) were NOT written by the Doctor Luke who followed Paul; there's absolutely no evidence of that, it is something that over the years became attributed to him through legend and tradition

I don't really have a dog in this hunt. My faith doesn't hang on whether Lucan attribution is correct or not. But I also don't think we should be so quick to dismiss traditional... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 7:44 PM on June 30, 2008

ZachsMind,

I went through a similar process, and so did Ehrman, as he details in the intro to Misquoting Jesus. Thus my years of atheism, primarily as result of my disillusionment with the Bible. It turned out that it just wasn't the book that people told me it was.

And then, I started thinking that just because it wasn't what they said it was didn't mean that I couldn't appreciate it for what it was. And after a while,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 8:04 PM on June 30, 2008

Fiction is never written in first person?

It would be easier to believe it had nothing to do with Luke if it were all first-person, empath. The odd, unannounced shifts into first person is what makes Acts so peculiar.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 8:06 PM on June 30, 2008

Riemann,

That's pretty much what I think, too. And I'm definitely agreed that the critical issues in the Tanakh are more interesting than in the NT. But I also think it's hard to account for a very strong tradition of Moses as the authoritative law-giver if he didn't write down some laws along the way. But if he didn't, that doesn't bother me, either.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 8:14 PM on June 30, 2008

Oh, and I should say, empath, that calling Acts "fiction" (a modern category into which it clearly doesn't fit, regardless of historicity questions) is beside the point for authorship. The author doesn't identify himself by name anywhere. It is tradition, not the text, that attributes it to Luke. So even if "fiction" were an appropriate label for it, that still wouldn't be a reason to dismiss Lucan authorship.

Here's the broad-brush version of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 8:31 PM on June 30, 2008

YEah! Where do these people get off? Like it's okay for them to think about things and have positions for or against. What the hell? Who gave them the right to, like, have opinions and stuff?
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 8:41 AM on June 24, 2008

secular principles such as the golden rule

I can't believe someone wrote this non-ironically.

*Ahem*

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 2:00 PM on June 24, 2008

Hoshi, I'm sorry, but we have to let you go. You've upsized, so now you're being downsized.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 12:29 PM on June 24, 2008

A Christian says thank you to George Carlin.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 6:55 PM on June 23, 2008

Someone is claiming that we have no moral standing to claim that burying disabled children alive is a bad thing. Someone else says that the Christians who are trying to stop it are the real bad guys here.

Yep, I must be reading Metafilter again. Geez.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 11:27 AM on June 22, 2008