So I gots me a nice new Bible (New King James Version). Originally, I was like, “What do I need a Bible for? I’m Catholic!” When people say, “What Jesus said was…” I interrupt and say, “But more importantly, what the pope said was…”
Still, I checked the list of Vatican approved books and the Bible was on it. So, I thought I’d give it a look-see and find out what all the hub-bub is all about.
I decided to begin with the section Genesis (GEN-EE-SUS) for some reason. Taking it slow, I read just the first three chapters. This was written by Moses, BTW, which is good to know so if I don’t like the prose I have someone to blame.
Anyway, I have a number of observations so far. First off, the start gives no information on what existed before the big bang and how many spatial dimensions there were.
Also, I noticed that what God did each day in creating the world ended with Him observing, “It was good.” It wasn’t great… but it wasn’t poor either. It was just “good.” That makes me wonder if God really spent all of each day working on the world or would He just fiddle around for part of the day and say, “Well, that’s good enough. I’m going for a smoke.”
The really disturbing part, though, is the whole Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit thing. At first glance, this is the clearest case of entrapment in all of history; I mean, God puts this tree with fruit for seemingly no other purpose than to punish Adam and Eve when they eat it. But then you get to thinking why in the world is God trying to pin some trumped up charges on Adam and Eve when he just created them?
Yeah, I think you see where this is going. The whole thing was just a setup to catch a bigger fish – namely, the devil. God creates this perfect place, an Eden if you will, with the Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit as obvious targets for the devil to spoil it all. Then God says, “It’s the seventh day, so I’m going to sleep. Yep, won’t be paying attention at all (wink) (wink).” Then the devil, in the guise of a serpent, completely falls for it. Then God is like, “Gotcha! Knew you were against me from the start! Let’s see you weasel your way out of this one!”
After His triumph, God realizes he still has Adam and Eve to deal with, so He sets them on their way out of Eden (which takes just too much upkeep). That dealt with, He drinks a beer.
And it was good.
So – and I’m not saying this is necessarily true – it looks like humanity is just a byproduct of an elaborate sting operation on the devil. Pretty heavy, huh?
This is why you take the Bible in small chunks.
Archive of entries posted on 7th February 2005
Yay! Commercials!
First, I just have to say that watching the Superbowl with an HD Tivo is awesome. If I missed something, I just rewound. Needed to go to the bathroom – I just paused it. And, when I was no longer following it live, I could just fastforward the blah blah between plays.
Anyhoo, SarahK has a rundown of the commercials; what were your favorites this year?
Oh, and for those interested, SarahK has an account of meeting my parents this weekend. I had my dad tell her the story of the time he strangled a guy while in prison.
As long as I’m throwing out links, Iowahawk has a transcript of an awesome series from the 70’s your probably don’t remember: Chutch.
Fun Trivia
In My World: Term Two in Full Gear
“Frankly, Mr. President, I don’t think there could be a bigger waste of time than analyzing the Democrats’ response to your State of the Union Address,” Cheney stated.
“But I know they’re up to something!” Bush declared, “There must be some dark purpose behind this seemingly inept and incompetent speech.” Bush watched the screen. “Reid is gay, right?”
“I’m going to go do some real work,” Cheney said as he left the office, “You consider accepting that the Democrats really are just incompetent idiots.”
Bush turned off the T.V. as Alberto Gonzales entered the office. “Good job not getting filibustered, amigo,” Bush told him, “And now that you’re Attorney General, I want to give you this sombrero of authority.”
“I’m not wearing some stupid sombrero!” Alberto yelled.
“But it goes with your poncho!” Bush protested.
Alberto snatched the sombrero and put it on. “Fine.”
A little Scotty dog pup ran into the room and yelled. “Yip! Yip!”
“What the hell is this poor excuse for a Chihuahua?” Alberto demanded.
“That’s my new Scotty pup, Miss Beazley.”
With a sharp kick, Alberto sent the dog flying out the door of the Oval Office. “Sorry,” he said, “but when I see a puppy, I just have to kick it.”
“And those were exactly the sort of qualities I was looking for in an Attorney General,” Bush smiled, “Now get to work.”
As Alberto left the office, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan entered. “I need to talk to you about how to field questions about your Social Security plan,” he said.
“Simple,” Bush stated as he walked over to Scott and handed him an object. “Take this brick. If some reporter calls my plan a scheme or seems to demean my ideas, you smash him in the face with the brick. Don’t make the mistake I did and throw it, though, because then you lose the brick and can’t bash anyone else with it.”
“I dunno…”
“Just get to it, tubby!” Bush yelled as he kicked Scott out of his office.
Condoleezza Rice then entered. “Did you want to see me?” she asked impatiently.
“Yes,” Bush said sternly, “I heard you met with Saudi ambassador and broke his nose!”
She shrugged. “So?”
“Where’s the video?” Bush demanded, “That sounds funny!”
“I don’t like having video evidence of my actions,” Condi said coldly.
“But it would great for the holiday blooper reel!” Bush pleaded.
“Anything else?” Condi asked, “What are we doing about the findings on the oil for food scandal?”
“I’m having my favorite U.N. peacekeeper look into that,” Bush snickered.
Condi rolled her eyes. “You didn’t put a blue helmet on that rottweiler Chomps and send him to the U.N. headquarters to maul everyone, did you? Frankly, I’m getting tired of that antic.”
“And I never tire of the humor of maulings,” Bush answered.
“One of these days, they’re going to wise up and realize that a dog with a blue helmet on isn’t a real peacekeeper.”
“And that will be a sad day.”
Condi headed from the office. “I’ve got more ‘diplomacy’ to do.”
Senator Joe Lieberman came in next. “You said you wanted to see me.”
“Yes, I just wanted to thank you for your continued support and playing the party line,” Bush said.
Lieberman looked confused. “Excuse me?”
“I just wanted to personally talk with all the Republicans in the Senate and make sure we’re united for the same cause against the Democrats who will be blocking our agenda.”
“But I’m a Democrat.”
Bush furrowed his brow. “Are you sure?”
“I am. I even was on the ticket that ran against you in 2000.”
“Really?” Bush said incredulously, “But you even voted for my torturing Mexican.”
“I thought he just made honest legal opinions.”
“Attorney General, we have a man in custody we suspect of being Arab and maybe even Muslim. We were wondering if connecting his genitals to a car battery would be considered torture.”
“In my opinion…” Alberto said as he thought for a moment, “I don’t give a rat’s ass.”
“Are you sure?”
“Hey! Who’s wearing the sombrero?” Alberto shouted angrily, “You don’t question me!” Alberto slumped in his chair and put his sombrero over his face. “Now don’t bother me for the next couple hours; it’s siesta.”
“Well, if you’re convinced you’re a Democrat, I don’t feel like arguing with you,” Bush said, “I bid you adieu.”
As Lieberman left, Laura Bush walked in. “Have you seen Miss Beazley?”
“She went flying in that direction,” Bush answered pointing towards the door.
Laura set a folder on the desk. “Anyway, I corrected the spelling and grammar in these war plans for you.”
Bush snatched them up. “Those are classified!”
“Then you shouldn’t have left them on the coffee table. When I found them, Barney was ripping out the pages.”
“Barney has ruined more war plans than any other small size dog,” Bush griped.
“So how is your day going?” Laura asked.
“Well, next in my schedule is more samurai sword practice in case of another ninja attack. Then I was going to meet with Rumsfeld, but I think he’s busy with the press answering questions about the times he tried to resign.”
“Those were the resignation letters written in his blood, right?”
“I’m pretty sure it was someone else’s blood. Couldn’t accept them, though. If Rumsfeld were let go, he’d go on a rampage. At least while he’s in my cabinet, we can keep an eye on him.”
“So what exactly led you to offer letters of resignation?” a reporter asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Rumsfeld snapped back, “Do you have some other namby-pamby questions?”
“I won’t stop until I get the truth!” the reported declared.
“Rarr!” Rumsfeld yelled as he picked up the reporter and threw him out a window. Rumsfeld then punched the wall behind him, ripped out a pipe, and held it over his head ready to strike as water sprayed everywhere. “Rarr!”
“Run away!” the other reporters yelled as they scrambled over each other to get out of the press room.
Rumsfeld turned to see Chomps angrily lapping up the water that was spraying out of the hole in the wall. Rumsfeld dropped his pipe and patted Chomps on the head. “If I had resigned, I’d be able to spend all my time killing fools like them. Well, I guess I have to leave something for retirement.”
