Friday Links - Get More Sleep

Sometimes I'm still tired after I sleep in on Saturdays.  Apparently, that's normal.  Here's why sleeping in won't make up for staying up late all week.  (via Instapundit.com)

I've decided that my generation stinks at raising kids.  Over at EndTimesTavern.com I saw a link to this article about a brawl breaking out at a kindergarten graduation which only confirms my suspicions.  Sheesh.

And, the next time someone tells you their ideas is the best thing since "sliced bread" you should show them this - sliced bread is only as new as 1928.

Have a good weekend!

Christianity and the End of Proposition 8

As you surely know by now, a federal judge has ruled Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional in California.  This ban on homosexual marriage has been struck down because the judge felt that "moral disapproval" was not enough to save the voter-passed Proposition 8.

You might be surprised to find out that I'm not very concerned about this.  Proposition 8 didn't interest me much when it was written, and it's removal today doesn't get me out of my chair.   It just doesn't mean much to me.  I'll explain.

As I've said in the past, I don't like the idea of the federal government regulating marriage.  If Uncle Sam can tell homosexuals not to get married then he can tell me not to get married with that same power.  I'm not a fan of giving the government powers it can use against me, so I don't get excited about banning gay marriage - that could come back to bite me.

Furthermore, to hit on a common talking point, I don't think gay marriages will make me feel like my marriage has been devalued.  That's already been done by high divorce rates, abusive/cheating spouses, and people who treat marriage like a form of dating that some people only get into so they can profit from the divorce.  I'd like to see the church deal with these problems from its own members before criticizing anyone outside of the church.

Finally, I don't think there will be cataclysmic reactions to this.  Since I'm not Pat Robertson I don't believe God will curse our country for this - if He cursed every country that accepted homosexuality things would have turned out very different in history for a lot of countries.  We are each expected to take care of our own personal devotion; we are judged individually by what is in our hearts and not corporately by federal laws.

This doesn't mean that I am happy about the judge's ruling, today, but I just really can't get that worked up about it. (I realize this puts me in the minority, because most of the people I know are either celebrating or plotting revenge.)

But I'll tell you something that does make me angry.  Very angry, in fact.  TheWrap.com wrote an article about this federal ruling, and the very first comment on the story was written by a hateful person who insulted gays and called them all sodomizers.  His screen name? HeDied4u.  That's right, the very first comment on this story managed to make Christians look hateful and ignorant.  Being hateful to homosexuals is something that Jesus would not do, and yet some of my fellow believers have occupied this sinister outpost.  I want to hang my head in shame because I have to be associated with that sort of thing.  This is why I can't tell someone I'm a Christian without being called a gaybasher or a hater even though I'm a very accepting person.Christians acting hateful and misrepresenting Christ is a far bigger problem than anything California's courthouse can bring.

Before we take any action on gay marriage, let's clean up our own house.  Stop hating.  I can't make it any more simple than that.  Love your neighbor as yourself.  While this is being perfected we should not look too far outside of ourselves.

3 Conversion Testimonies that You Never Hear (For Obvious Reasons)

Hearing someone explain their religious convictions can be fascinating - and I've heard it all.  I know a fellow who left his high rank in the Church of Satan (as well as his self-styled Vampiric lifestyle) to follow the Christian church, and I met a man who spent his life studying so he could Christianity only to become one, himself.  But there are a few stories that I never hear, and for good reason.  Here's three conversion stories that don't exist and - more importantly - why.


1 - The Ex-Evolution Professor

The Testimony: "I was lecturing my class on the foolishness of believing in God when one handsome student stood up and proved my every argument wrong with different quotes from the book of Genesis!  My Ph.D. in Biology was useless against his rhetoric - I joined the church choir the following Sunday.

Why you never hear it:  It's not true.  It never happened. And it's not going to happen.  No one ever became a Christian because they were publicly humiliated by a Believer.  The world of biology is laughing at the ludicrous claims made by creationists, and shoving those tired apologetic fallacies down people's throats is just going to get you laughed at.

See?  Jesus rode on a T-Rex!  Now you have to be a Christian!

2 - The Internet Victim

The Testimony:  I was on 4Chan making fun of Twilight and Justin Beiber when suddenly another anonymous user began to ask me if I was a Christian.  I told him I didn't believe in God, but then he said, "The Bible says 'the fool has said in his heart there is no God.'"  I went to the church right away and joined their softball team.

Why you never hear it:  You must be really out of touch if you think that griping at people will convert them to anything.  I know people who gripe at me because I don't like bagels, but every time they yell at me for walking past Einstein Bros. I just get more resolved not to go in (let it go, people - I'd rather eat donuts!). Arguments are not won by griping, and important decisions about religion are not made for people in this way.


3 - The Shame Cycle

The Testimony:  It was no big deal at first.  My Christian neighbors told me I was living in sin a few times and I just ignored it.  But it kept happening.  Eventually, I began to feel guilty about my long hair and my heavy metal music.  I tried to ignore it, but I felt a twinge of guilt every time they told me that Metallica makes God cry.  After a few years of their judgmental and condescending emails I realized that they were right and have only listened to Bill Gaither ever since.

Why you never hear it:  There are people who have gotten it into their heads that the best way to show someone God's love is to hate them and treat them badly.  This is supposed to help, but it doesn't resemble Jesus' ministry and it does no good.  You can't shame someone into a conversion.  It's never happened.

Unless you're a fan of the Spanish Inquisition...

Did you come to your religious convictions through someone's rude attitude?  Most convictions come through life experiences that are very personal - and you can't force that by arguments and hatred.  You must respect a person's own search for Truth while seeing to your own devotion.  Supposedly, Native Americans were once forced at gunpoint to walk through rivers in order to be "baptized," and that's what we resemble if we get pushy over our faith.  We must be better than that.

New Research on The Dead Sea Scrolls Reaches Dueling Conclusions

National Geographic recently posted an article titled, Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery Solved? Not because they had any answers, but because it's really good headline.

The mystery of the scrolls concerns the writers; we have no idea who made these scrolls.  The reigning theory is that a group of Jews known as the Essenes (famous for baptizing people before Jesus was born) manufactured them, and many efforts have been made to connect this group to John the Baptist.  Such a grand unifying theory is certainly interesting, but it's a theory that still lacks a great deal of proof.

National Geographic's article focuses on some new discoveries:

"...new research suggests many of the Dead Sea Scrolls originated elsewhere and were written by multiple Jewish groups, some fleeing the circa-A.D. 70 Roman siege that destroyed the legendary Temple in Jerusalem..."

Some of this research is based around a cup not connected to the Dead Sea Scrolls at all except for the writing on it that matches the writing on the scrolls.  It is supposed that this means the cup maker was part of the same group as the scroll writers, but all it really proves is a common style of writing.  Of course, Common Style of Writing Found Between Two Jewish Antiques isn't a very good headline.

Meanwhile, scientific research has shed some light on this issue as a group in Italy did some exciting new work on the scrolls.  Discovery.com fills us in:

The researchers bombarded the scroll fragments first with alpha-particles and X-rays from the portable XPIXE device, and then with proton beams produced by a particle accelerator.  The X-rays emitted by the samples showed that all of the fragments contained chlorine and that the ratio of chlorine to bromine within the Temple Scroll fragments was about three times higher than is normally found in sea water. The researchers concluded that the scroll may have been made from the very salty Dead Sea water.

The only problem with the article is that it seems to tell us that all of the documents were made locally - but only one of the 900+ scrolls were tested.  Still, it challenges the notion that the scrolls were collected from all over and held in Qumran merely for storage.  An interesting piece of the puzzle, to be sure, but not yet definitive.

I hate it when I have to choose between Discovery and National Geographic - it's like asking someone to choose between their parents.  And I really hate to admit how often they can resemble cheap journalists rather than researchers.  Either way, the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls may be beyond all of us - there are some secrets that history just refuses to give up.