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Monday, November 17, 2008

Hi guys, this is going to be kind of quick, but I wanted to let everyone know about the PBS documentary airing on November 18th at 8pm. Here is a short blurb about it from Yahoo News.

I hope some of you get to watch it, as I would love to see the discussion afterwards!

38 comments:

  1. You rock! Thanks Nonmagic, I'll definitely be watching tomorrow.

    Incidentally, I watched a (possibly old) Hitler Channel show this last weekend on Biblical Prophecies. Pretty interesting, but I was dismayed to see people like Ted Haggard being interviewed.

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  2. Thanks WEM! I'd like to watch a documentary that finally once and for all concisely debunks biblical prophecy. Maybe PBS will tackle that, although so called biblical prophecy is so absurd that I doubt they'd waste their time on it.

    What was the name of the one you watched? I might check it out.

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  3. Welcome back Nonmagic!

    I hope they get a chance to screen that one here in Aus... I'd love to see it. It looks entertaining.

    Actually, Good News Week (Australian comedy quiz show) really ripped into religon yesterday. If anyone can track down last nights episode on you-tube or anywhere... it was extremely entertaining, and thoroughly blasphemic.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. If you're interested, try:

    http://ten.com.au/gnw-video.html

    Season 2, Episode 6

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  6. It was more along the lines of the recent History Channel stuff: throwing out the unknown /mysterious and letting people believe or not (re. UFO Hunters, Monster Quest, etc).

    Weird, I can't find the listing for it. Stupid world wide web thingy...

    It was interesting, tho somewhat guilty of selling mystery in the guise of history. It tried to point out prophecies that failed to come true, some which may yet happen, as well as a few which may (depending on interpretation) be considered to have been fulfilled.

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  7. Thanks Quasar!

    WEM, I really hate when they do the wishy washy mystery as history thing. But I guess they don't want to offend too many people.

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  8. Interesting show, Quasar. Tell me: was this on cable, or standard broadcast? They bleeped something from one of the comedians in the beginning, but "blowjob" got through :)

    Assuming I'm watching the right episode, of course...

    I've always enjoyed trying to understand other cultures, even if in some superficial way, through pop culture. Thanks for turning me onto this...

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  9. Whoops, I was watching the wrong season...

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  10. I wonder if Ray or Mark W. Laine or All Fired Up or Vera or Jinx McHue et al will watch? Thanks for the heads up, NM.

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  11. Whateverman said:
    "I've always enjoyed trying to understand other cultures, even if in some superficial way, through pop culture. Thanks for turning me onto this..."

    You'll probably learn a lot about Australian culture from the comments about Aussie tourists at the start of the ep. ;)

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  12. Rufus,

    If Vera watches she will tell us how all those scientists got it wrong, but since she used to be a nurse and reads RTB, she knows wayyyy more than they do so she has it right. She will also tell us that those scientists were staring at Maragon's boobs so obviously they were blinded to her Jebus.

    If Mark W. Laine watches he will tell us how we are all blinded by demons and that's why we believe the scientists.

    If All Fucked Up watches he will cut 'n paste some nonsense diatribe from some apologist and/or some junk from AiG that he thinks refutes it all, when actually it does nothing but prove how clueless he really is.

    If Jixny McFuckNuts watches he will say that all atheists are stupid because science knows nothing, only Da Jebus does. Also watch for flying non sequiturs.

    If Ray watches he will say that the scientists really believe in his god because the bible says that they do and the bible is true because the bible says it is true so therefore, the bible is true.

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  13. I pprobaly won't watch. Haven't been interested in archeology much lately.
    But has anyone read Dani'el blog (he's this messianic who posts here on occasion) yet. he has some crazy visions and prophecies. I wonder if they will come true?

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  14. Personally, I'm more curious about what Dani'el will do when they don't come true.

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  15. Yeah, I'm curious about what Daniel will do when LA and SF are still around next June. Hopefully he'll just revise everything, say he got something wrong. Otherwise, he might end up "sitting up there for more than an hour/way up there in the Texas Tower", as Kinky Friedman sang.

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  16. Seriously? People actually believe that the Hebrews were monotheistic following the contract with Abraham?

    Come on, even the Bible doesn't believe that! The Canon actually says that the Hebrews had lots of problems with worshiping other gods and goddesses (they were especially fond of Astheroth) and God punished them by raising up Babylon to conquer them and put them in exile.


    The Language thing actually intrigues me, though. I wonder if by "modifying stories using different patterns of language over a period of centuries," they mean "changed how the stories were written as their language changed."

    The Exodus thing is kind of interesting, also.


    My favorite part is this:

    The special, narrated by Liev Schreiber, is not likely to sit well with those who believe that the Bible, despite its internal inconsistencies, should be interpreted literally.

    Why? I dunno why. It's always fun to talk about the Canon's inconsistencies. I've only found a few, but none that really bother me.

    I guess the thought of my Aunt Kim and Uncle Steve watching this is a bit humorous as well. Sie sind ferruct. Sehr ferruct.

    That's German for "They are crazy. Very crazy."

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  17. rob,
    this is OT, but your use of the word 'ferruct' (actually spelled 'verrückt' in German, but the sound is accurate save for the difficult Umlaut) reminds of a funny moment we had in Italy.
    It was a cool season and we were at lake Garda in northern Italy. The sun was shining, and my brother decided to swim. As he was getting ready to jump in, an Italian lady came up to us, pointed at him and exclaimed 'Ferruct!' five times. Yeah, the water was very cold, but my brother is a chubby guy who never had trouble with cold water or air. He's used to going out in a t-shirt in winter.

    On topic, interesting post you wrote there. Food for thought.

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  18. Elyon and YHWH are two different Gods at first. I pointed this out in a different topic. The Hebrew gods came from Babylonian and Sumerian stories. There is an old Sumerian coin with a depiction of YHWH on it. The coin predates the OT.

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  19. http://www.dhushara.com/book/orsin/char.jpg

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  20. Jinxy McFuckNuts is a great name. I think it's what you get when you put "Ray Comfort" into a porn name generator.

    Incidentally, when I put "Ray Comfort" into the Sarah Palin Baby
    Name Generator
    , I got:

    Bang Walmart Palin

    And the next time...

    Bash Budweiser Palin

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  21. beamstalk,

    How do they know (or what leads them to believe) it's a depiction of Yahweh? Is there a name on the reverse?

    Is there an accompanying article? I have a nephew who is a Jewish fundamentalist, and I like to send him such things to play with his head (although he has much the same opinion of science as do your evangelical opponents).

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  22. Cipher here is an article on the coin.

    http://www.bibleorigins.net/YahwehWheelCoin.html

    The tiny inscription near his head is YHW or YHD. I was wrong this does not predate the OT it was 4th century BCE. Still it is an image of YHWH when there is supposedly no images of him.

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  23. Interesting that they might have associated Yahweh with Dionysius. Plutarch, a Roman historian of Greek ancestry, thought that the Jewish god was actually Bacchus, because of the Jews' use of wine in religious ritual.

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  24. Thanks, NM.

    I checked and I'll be able to see this tonight.

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  25. Cipher also check out this episode of the Atheist Experience. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7143320070446993932

    Tracie goes into the different Gods of the Hebrews and how they relate to the Gods of Sumeria and Babylon.

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  26.      Daniel already seems to be trying to portray the recent fires as "divine judgement." I think he will try to weasel out of his original claims. Remember? Originally the judgements were supposed to be things that were so obviously supernatural that no one could mistake them. Earthquakes and fires would not be counted.

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  27. @ Felix:

    Holy Crap!

    How do you make an umlaut?

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  28. rob,
    I use my keyboard :)
    Since it's German layout (Z and Y reverse to US keyboards and with Umlauts of course), I have no idea what ASCII codes to use. They should work, since they appear in my posts, so I guess they're on an ASCII table.

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  29. Rob Penn:

         "How do you make an umlaut?"
         Ordinarily I don't bother. But we can turn to the handy HTML guide. It gives examples that "Ä" is represented at "Ä" Strangely, it doesn't give a code for a plain umlaut. I suppose "¨" should be "¨"

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  30. @ cipher:

    Interesting that they might have associated Yahweh with Dionysius. Plutarch, a Roman historian of Greek ancestry, thought that the Jewish god was actually Bacchus, because of the Jews' use of wine in religious ritual.

    I can see that. Seder meals have a lot of organized wine drinking.

    I'm also willing to guess that one may have thought the same thing about that new sect of Judaism calling themselves Christians. What, with Paul having to tell some of them that they're drinking too much and all, I guess it'd have the same effect.

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  31. Ë

    YAY! Thanks Pvblivs! ^_^


    Back on topic, I missed the program. That makes me sad. But I can watch it tomorrow on the interwebs, so I'm not too sad. ^_^

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  32. Very good program. I almost mentioned Asherah as YHWH's wife here the other day. Asherah was also known as a concubine of El.

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  33. Plutarch, a Roman historian of Greek ancestry, thought that the Jewish god was actually Bacchus, because of the Jews' use of wine in religious ritual.

    What you have to understand is that Judaism today is nothing remotely like how the Ancient Hebrews worshiped. It is like comparing apples and oranges. If you watched the NOVA program last night, they talked about this.

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  34. Of course; I'm well aware. Although, by Plutarch's time (1st century CE), rabbinic Judaism was underway.

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