Good news re the Bamiyan buddhas

Some German scientists have indicated that it might be possible reconstruct at least one of them.  Excerpts from the article at PhysOrg:

Scientists from the University of Munich, in southern Germany, have examined fragments of the statues -- the world's largest Buddhas -- and concluded that the smaller one could be pieced together.

The two sculptures, 53 metres (173 feet) and 35 metres tall, had stood sentinel for 1,500 years in Bamiyan province before they were blown up by Islamists who believed them to be idolatrous.

Erwin Emmerling, the leader of the team sifting through hundreds of fragments, "considers a reconstruction of the smaller Buddha to be fundamentally possible," the university said in a statement...

Either a small factory would have to be built in the Bamiyan valley or some 1,400 rocks weighing up to two tonnes each would have to be transported to Germany. Japanese funding could reportedly be used to rebuild the sculptures.

They were once painted a variety of colours, the scientists said, including dark blue, pink, orange, red and white.

I didn't know these Buddhas had originally been painted (although I knew the Greeks painted some of their statuary).

Waterboarding of babies

Water torture of babies is one way some members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day instil fear of authority, a former member testified Wednesday...

"They spank the baby and when it cries, they hold the baby face up under the tap with running water. When they stop crying, they spank it again and the cycle is repeated until they are exhausted." It's typically done by fathers and it's called "breaking in."

Outside the courthouse, Jessop said water torture is common enough that there doesn't seem any shame attached to the practice...

The full story is at the Montreal Gazette, via Get Cynical. (In all fairness we should note that this testimony was presented during the course of a custody trial).

Asmodeus and other devils

This bizarre image caught my eye at A Journey Round My Skull's tumblr.  The caption there is in French, which Google translates as:

Asmodeus (Asmodai). The manuscript which these engravings are from is called "Compendium totius rarissimum Artis Artis celeberrimos Magicae sistematisatae per hujus Magistros. Anno 1057. Noli Me Tangere "

Next I checked Wikipedia, which offered this information:

Asmodeus or Asmodai... is a king of demons mostly known from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit... He was supposed by some Renaissance Christians to be the King of the Nine Hells. Asmodeus also is referred to as one of the seven princes of hell...

The Asmodeus of the Book of Tobit is attracted to Sarah, Raguel's daughter, and is not willing to let any husband possess her (Tobit, vi.13); hence he slays seven successive husbands on their wedding nights, thus impeding the sexual consummation of the marriages. When the young Tobias is about to marry her, Asmodeus proposes the same fate for him; but Tobias is enabled, through the counsels of his attendant angel Raphael, to render him innocuous. By placing a fish's heart and liver on red-hot cinders, Tobias produces a smoky vapor that causes the demon to flee to Egypt, where Raphael binds him (viii.2, 3).  Asmodeus would thus seem to be a demon characterized by carnal desire...

I also checked my Advanced D&D Monster Manual from 1977, which lists Asmodeus as an arch-devil of Armor Class -7 and with 199 hit points (!) and 90% magic resistance.  Formidable.

The original source for the image is Elisandre - L'Oeuvre au Noir,  which also has these images:

The caption between these two reads as follows:

This is a German book on demonology written in Latin, which was published in 1775, covering all aspects and mastery of the art of magic in the years 1057.

The second demon is not identified at the link; perhaps someone can read the script above his head.  The third guy is Beelzebub - who doesn't look particularly scary.

The Muslim Brotherhood

Information from several sources, because the current events in Egypt suggest that this group will be in the news for a while.  First, from CNN:

The Muslim Brotherhood is a religious and political group founded on the belief that Islam is not simply a religion, but a way of life. It advocates a move away from secularism, and a return to the rules of the Quran as a basis for healthy families, communities, and states.

The movement officially rejects the use of violent means to secure its goals. However, offshoots of the group have been linked to attacks in the past, and critics blame the Brotherhood for sparking troubles elsewhere in the Middle East. Many consider it the forerunner of modern militant Islamism.

The article then cites some relevant history of the group, followed by these comments -

The Brotherhood is the oldest and largest opposition group in Egypt. However, it is illegal under Egyptian law, which bans all parties based on religion. Because of this, its members contest elections as independents... The Brotherhood has widespread support among Egypt's middle classes, and its members control many of the country's professional organizations...

Sayyid Qutb, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and 1960s, developed the doctrine of jihad, and the radical group Hamas is believed to be an offshoot of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood.

This from the New York Times:

The support of the Brotherhood could well change the calculus on the streets, tipping the numbers in favor of the protesters and away from the police, lending new strength to the demonstrations and further imperiling President Hosni Mubarak’s reign... But Islam is hardly homogeneous, and many religious leaders here said Thursday that they would not support the protests, for reasons including scriptural prohibitions on defying rulers and a belief that democratic change would not benefit them.

A Washington Post links to the CNN and NYT pieces and offers additional comment from an article in Time:

If we are talking about Egypt, there is a whole rainbow variety of people who are secular, liberal, market-oriented, and if you give them a chance they will organize themselves to elect a government that is modern and moderate. They want desperately to catch up with the rest of the world.

Historically, Islam was hijacked about 20 or 30 years after the Prophet and interpreted in such a way that the ruler has absolute power and is accountable only to God. That, of course, was a very convenient interpretation for whoever was the ruler.

There is of course extensive historical and geopolitical information about the Muslim Brotherhood in Wikipedia.

TYWKIWDBI normally gets about 100 visits a month from readers in Egypt; they are of course cut off right now, but if others in the region or anyone with a good understanding of the Muslim Brotherhood would like to offer some perspective in the Comments section, please have a go.

Managing "spiritually unfit soldiers"

A series of articles at a website called "Rock Beyond Belief" addresses the U.S. military's approach to the "spiritual health" of its soldiers.  The first article says that the armed forces claim to make a distinction between "spirituality" and "religion," (the former being a belief in a higher power such as a god or spirit), and they justify the need for spirituality as a defense against committing suicide. The second article ' "Yahweh or the Highway" indicates that spiritual fitness is considered mandatory, and that rituals such as folding the U.S. flag have a symbolic significance regarding God.  The third article indicates that soldiers who fail a "spiritual fitness test" are required to seek counseling from chaplains:

...this chaplain told me that I failed the SFT because it was “Jesus’ way of personally knocking on my door as an invitation for me to come to Him as a born again ‘REAL’ Christian” so that I  could be saved and not burn forever in Hell for rejecting him...

The website clearly has an agenda of its own.  I don't have any independent sources to confirm or modify the conclusions they offer.

How should you address God?

An article at the BBC this morning discusses the impact the King James Bible has had upon the English language, enumerating the number of phrases that have come into our language from that source (257 to be exact, according to one scholar), and the number of new words (about 40 - much fewer than the thousand or so introduced by Edward deVere).

What I found most interesting in the piece was this bit about forms of address used when speaking to God:

Has the KJB kept Christian language stuck in the 17th Century? "We thank thee, O God, for the manifest blessings that thou hast vouchsafed unto us," is one example of such a passage.

"It's the last thing the translators would have wanted," argues Simon Jenkins, editor of the Christian website shipoffools.com. "Ironically, at the time, 'you' was a more formal way of addressing someone, and 'thou' was more familiar, but they decided not to use any special grammar for God. He was 'thou' just like everybody else.

"But when I was being brought up, people were still talking to God as 'thou''. it's hopelessly antiquated and alienating. The translators made the right decision at the time, but what the church later did with it doesn't convey that intention at all."

More at the BBC.

Cynocephaly in portrayals of Saint Christopher

Dog-headed gods were a well-known component of the Egyptian pantheon.  Some Greeks believed that dog-headed people lived in distant lands, and ancient maps sometimes display such creatures in unexplored regions.

But the Christian Saint Christopher is also depicted in this fashion.

Today the legend of St Christopher helping Christ cross the river has obscured the important canine detail: though the river fording is almost certainly a late addition. In the early Middle Ages the most famous thing about St Christopher was his dog’s head. Indeed, good St Chris is often portrayed thus in medieval manuscript and sculpture...

One possible explanation is that Christopher was the Egyptian god Anubis in disguise. This explanationm suffers from a fatal flaw, however: the two have absolutely nothing in common bar their dog head and some associations – vague in the case of Christopher - with Egypt.

The answer is, instead, almost certainly to be found in an early misunderstanding of some of the grains of fact in the Christopher legend... It appears that Christopher served the Empire in the Cohors III Valeria Marmaritarum. If the name of this unit is to be taken at face value then these soldiers were Marmaritae a tribal people dwelling to the south-west of Egypt, outside the Imperial borders...

But what is interesting is that the first surviving description of this corner of the world, in Herodotus no less, tells us that it was here that the dogheads lived. Early on in the tradition of St Christopher an author perhaps innocently made the connection that was then afterwards taken seriously by hagiological duffers...

From Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog, where there are additional details.

"Feed the Flock" Pepsi ad pulled from Super Bowl consideration

This ad was pulled from consideration for use by Pepsi during the Super Bowl because it was deemed to be "irredeemably offensive" to Christians.  A representative from Pepsico has apologized to the public for having the ad even in consideration.

It has been pulled from their website and reportedly also from YouTube.  So this embed may not last long.   Warning:  This advertisement this might offend your religious sensibilities (or just your sense of good taste).

Via Althouse (another Madison blogger). 

Update: As predicted, the video has been yanked from YouTube.  It is, however, now available at this link.  At least for a while...

Tides remain a mystery to some people

Bill O'Reilly interviews an outspoken atheist regarding the latter's organization's claim that religion is a scam.  The following exchange ensues:

O’Reilly: I’ll tell you why [religion's] not a scam. In my opinion, all right? Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can’t explain that. You can't explain why the tide goes in...

Silverman: Tide goes in, tide goes out...?

O’Reilly: Yeah, see, the water — the tide comes in and it goes out, Mr. Silverman. It always goes in...

Silverman: Maybe it’s Thor up on Mount Olympus who’s making the tides go in and out...

O’Reilly: No no, but you can’t explain that... you can’t explain it...

The full interview is posted at YouTube; I listened only long enought to confirm that the extract above was not taken out of context, but couldn't listen to the whole thing because I find both people annoying.

Via Daily Kos.

An unusual cemetery in northern Iran

Three shrines and hundreds of tombstones left by an unknown people -

The cemetery lays in the northern part of Golestan province, in the mountains of Torkaman Sahra (Turkmen Desert) near the border with Turkmenistan... The holy place encompasses actually not one but three shrines, revered by local tradition as the tombs of the prophet Khaled Baba, his father-in-law Alaam Baba and his shepherd Chupan Ata...

Prophet Khaled himself is claimed in the legend hanging on the wall of the sanctuary to have been born in Yemen, his father was called Sanan, and he died here in 528, that is 42 years before the birth of Mohamed and 82 years before the beginning of Mohamed’s prophetic mission. The obvious question concerning the faith of which he was a prophet eighty-two years before the very foundation of Islam, is not raised in the legend. However, it is very probable that he was a Nestorian Christian, one of those who in this period migrated in a growing number to the north-eastern regions of the Persian empire, and from there further to China along the Silk Road...

In the cemetery laying a few hundred meters from the shrines around six hundred tombstones have been preserved. The stones are basically two kinds: either long columns ending in round hats which are sometimes two meters high or more, or smaller, squat grave posts similar to a cross where the two arms of the cross are replaced by two semi-circles or almost complete circles...

...if we project these places on the map, we see that almost all of them lay north of the majestic Gorgan Wall, built several centuries before Christ which, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Afghan mountains, defended Iran from the attack of the northern tribes (and which was first excavated by the Hungarian Aurel Stein in 1915). Perhaps these cemeteries belonged to such tribes of the steppe, which would also give an explanation for the lack of any settlement around them.

If this interests you, there is more information and about three dozen more photos at Poemas del rio Wang.  I'm also intrigued by the reference to the Great Wall of Gorgan, the second longest in the world.  I have walked on the Great Wall of China and Hadrian's Wall and visited the Berlin Wall, but have never even heard of this one.  You learn something every day.

The "Ground Zero Mosque" as manufactured news

The graph above shows references to the Ground Zero Mosque as compiled by Google News' timeline.  Here is some analysis from a column at Salon:

It evolved into the national political obsession of the summer and, finally, into a midterm election issue. And then, just like that, it disappeared...

News of the proposed Islamic community center first broke in a front-page New York Times piece in December 2009, but it garnered very little attention. The attention it did receive -- including from the likes of Fox News -- was positive...

The first peak in the coverage came when a wave of national Republican figures weighed in. Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty each took shots at the project and its organizers...

The second peak in coverage came in mid-August when President Obama weighed in at a press conference, citing religious freedom. Those comments gave political reporters an excuse to keep writing about the story for weeks.

But then, after a last gasp in October in the run-up to the election (including a few memorable anti-mosque campaign ads), the story all but disappeared. What changed? Well, on the ground, exactly nothing. The organizers had not changed their plans. Fundraising continued.

There can be no single explanation for why a news story of this magnitude disappears. But, given the timeline here, it seems likely that the electoral calendar played a role. National Republicans who used Park51 as a bludgeon against Democrats suddenly were less interested in talking about the project after the election...

Looking back now, it's pretty good evidence of a manufactured story when coverage spikes and then vanishes, even as nothing has fundamentally changed.

More at the link.

An unexpected copyrighted book

The Telegraph has a New Year Literary Quiz.  I won't duplicate it here; those interested can take the quiz (and view the answers) at the link.  But I will blog this most curious item:

Question:   Which 1611 book is still not out of copyright in Britain — because the rights are held in perpetuity by the British Crown?

Answer:  The King James Bible (or Authorised Version)

?? !!!

Illuminated Gospel

Royal Collection curator Deborah Clarke held the Lorsch Gospels, which went on display Tuesday, with gloved hands. Pope Benedict gave the manuscript to Queen Elizabeth during a recent visit to the United Kingdom. (PA Photos/Landov)

Via the WSJ.

What was Jesus' last name?

Something I'd never thought of, until I read this column at Slate:

Many people shared the name. Christ's given name, commonly Romanized as Yeshua, was quite common in first-century Galilee. (Jesus comes from the transliteration of Yeshua into Greek and then English.) Archaeologists have unearthed the tombs of 71 Yeshuas from the period of Jesus' death. The name also appears 30 times in the Old Testament in reference to four separate characters...

So why do we call the Hebrew hero of Jericho Joshua and the Christian Messiah Jesus? Because the New Testament was originally written in Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic. Greeks did not use the sound sh, so the evangelists substituted an S sound. Then, to make it a masculine name, they added another S sound at the end. The earliest written version of the name Jesus is Romanized today as Iesous. (Thus the crucifix inscription INRI: "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum," or "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.")...

In contrast, the Old Testament was translated directly from the original Hebrew into English, rather than via Greek. So anyone named Yehoshua or Yeshua in the Old Testament became Joshua in English...

What was Jesus' last name? It wasn't Christ. Contemporaries would have called him Yeshua Bar Yehosef or Yeshua Nasraya. (That's "Jesus, son of Joseph" or "Jesus of Nazareth.") Galileans distinguished themselves from others with the same first name by adding either "son of" and their father's name, or their birthplace. People who knew Jesus would not have called him Christ, which is the translation of a Greek word meaning "anointed one."

More at the Slate link.

Muslim students find acceptance at Catholic colleges

Excerpts from an article in the Washington Post:

In the past few years, enrollment of Muslim students such as Shabnan has spiked at Catholic campuses across the country. Last year, Catholic colleges had an even higher percentage of Muslim students than the average four-year institution in the United States, according to the Higher Education Research Institute. The influx has astonished and sometimes befuddled administrators. Some Catholic campuses are creating prayer rooms for new Muslim students and hiring Islamic chaplains to minister to them. Others are unsure how to adapt...

Muslim students say they enroll at Catholic schools for many of the same reasons as their classmates: attractive campuses, appealing professors and academic programs that fit their interests. But there is also a spiritual attraction to the values that overlap the two faiths.

"Because it is an overtly religious place, it's not strange or weird to care about your religion here, to pray and make God a priority," said Shabnan, a political science major who often covers her head with a pale beige scarf. "They have the same values we do."

Georgetown University, whose Muslim student numbers have also been climbing, has a prayer room, student association and an entire center devoted to Muslim-Christian understanding, and the school hired a full-time Muslim chaplain in 1999. Catholic administrators at colleges that have added similar features say they haven't perceived the efforts as a challenge to their religious identity.

"We're not going to take down the cross or change our name. We're proud of who we are," said Marco Masini, associate vice president of student life at Benedictine University in Illinois. "Hospitality is a part of the Benedictine philosophy, so it's important we welcome individuals of all faiths."

Basiri said his Islamic faith has grown and matured in the past four years while studying in buildings named after Catholic leaders, in classrooms adorned with crucifixes, and with classmates often named after saints.

"The face of my prophet and my God has changed," he said. "It is even more beautiful now."

More at the link.

A Qur'an "etched in Saddam Hussein's blood"

Over the course of two painstaking years in the late 1990s, Saddam Hussein had sat regularly with a nurse and an Islamic calligrapher; the former drawing 27 litres of his blood and the latter using it as a macabre ink to transcribe a Qur'an. But since the fall of Baghdad, almost eight years ago, it has stayed largely out of sight - locked away behind three vaulted doors.

The very existence of this item is creating some ethical dilemmas for Iraqi authorities, discussed at the Guardian link.

"It was wrong to do what he did, to write it in blood," says Sheikh Samarrai. "It is haraam [forbidden]."

Sudanese woman publicly flogged

Some version of the disturbing clip, which seems to have been filmed with the knowledge of the officers, were reportedly removed from YouTube, but dozens of copies remain on the video-sharing site. One copy, which has been viewed nearly half a million times, was edited to add English subtitles, and some music. (Warning: the images in the video are graphic and may upset many viewers.)

As the [Reuters] explained, “Floggings carried out under Islamic law are almost a daily punishment in Sudan for crimes ranging from drinking alcohol to adultery. But vague laws on women’s dress and behavior are implemented inconsistently.”

Via The Lede at the NYT.

Bumper stickers

This photo was originally labeled "Hatred."  I agree with the comments at Reddit that...

Ignorance leads to fear, and...

"Fear leads to anger.

Anger leads to hate.

Hate leads to suffering."*

*(Yoda, The Phantom Menace)

Photo source. 

Harry Potter toys and the Salvation Army

CALGARY — The Salvation Army says it refuses to distribute Harry Potter and Twilight toys collected for needy children because they’re incompatible with the charity’s Christian beliefs...

...he was told by Salvation Army officials that the two kinds of toys are “disposed of” and not given to other charities....

“I was told to withhold a six-inch Harry Potter figure, but when I picked up a plastic M-16, I was told, ‘That’s for the 10-year-olds,’” he said.

Via Cynical-C.

Update Dec 15: Reader Glenn Whidden found evidence that the incident cited above may have been the policy of only one Salvation Army group in Canada, and that the Salvation Army as a whole does not have a policy against Harry Potter toys.  Story here.

"I praise you 24/7!!!!!! And this is how you do me!!!!!"

Buffalo Bills' wide receiver Stevie Johnson dropped five passes in the team's loss to the Steelers including a potential game-winner (see above), then after the game Tweeted this message:

Found at 22 words, where there are a variety of relevant comments...