Subject: Re: Rival Cultists: We Can Only Laugh

Date: 19 Sep 1997 18:31:58 GMT

From: rebholmes@aol.com (RebHolmes)

Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com

Newsgroups: alt.slack

References: 1

> LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuter) - Gangs of Muslim youths paraded through the

> streets of a northern Nigerian city to protest an eclipse of the moon,

> saying it was caused by "sins of infidels," newspapers said Thursday.

Dear fucking god ...

What next? An armed insurrection against "nighttime"--?! "The sun would

shine over Lagos continually, were it not for your harlotry and sin ... ."

The thing that creeps me out is that the people who most strongly want the

world to be run by Laws are the people who most strongly insist on

believing that it all happens by magic. "All that Kepler discovered was a

whim of Allah. Were the women to keep their proper place, that heresy

would be extinguished for all to see."

Sure. Right. "Go ahead and take calculus classes--they'll help you

understand this whole SHITLOAD of phenomena that will VANISH like a soap

bubble as soon as we get the women and the infidels in line ... carry on

with your bunsen burners and particle accelerators ... as soon as the

praying gets loud enough, you'll see that IT WAS ALL A TRICK ... the Earth

IS flat, and the sun DOES shine directly out of god's ass ... but because

all you people are so sinful, he thought up orbital mechanics as a BIG JOKE

ON US, and he's been faking the lab evidence all this time."

I mean, if this is where magical thinking takes you, I don't wanna do it

anymore. I like the general notion, everything that happens happens

because of some intention ... but when you capitalize the "Everything" and

refuse to recognize that some things happen OVER and OVER ... well, I start

to wonder if we couldn't trim our belief system down a bit.

Uggh. I've been startled back into my old job, metaphysics and

epistemology. Did that shit for years. I was hoping that magical thinking

would help me out of it, but this news item was just too much.

Posting this anyway, 'cause it beats work ... .

--DH

Head Rabbi, Temple Amharetz