Thoughts on Newdow’s lawsuit, forgotten gods, first Christian State

Atheist Michael Newdow is suing to remove the reference to God from Obama’s upcoming inauguration.

… It’s a lawsuit against using religion at all in a presidential inauguration.

In 2005, Newdow sued for the same reasons and the courts rejected his suit. I think it is important to note that we didn’t always have prayers in the Inauguration ceremony and they began with Franklin Roosevelt in 1937.

… the phrase “so help me God” isn’t a historic precedent, either. Newdow writes that the first verifiable use of that phrase took place in “1881, ninety-two years after George Washington’s initial ceremony” — when “Chester A. Arthur took the oath upon hearing of President James Garfield’s death.” – thelang

American atheists are currently outnumbered, but if Newdow is around in 2042, he’d probably win then:

Polling data from the 2001 ARIS study, described below, indicate that: 76.5% (159 million) of Americans identify themselves as Christian. This is a major slide from 86.2% in 1990. Identification with Christianity has suffered a loss of 9.7 percentage points in 11 years — about 0.9 percentage points per year. This decline is identical to that observed in Canada between 1981 and 2001. If this trend has continued, then: By about the year 2042, non-Christians will outnumber the Christians in the U.S. – religioustolerance

I’m not saying Christianity will ever go completely extinct ( unless our species does), yet I find it interesting that most gods humans have ever worshipped are now little known. They include: Aken, Aker, Am-Heh, Ament, Ammit, Amun and Amun-Re, Anat, Andjety, Anqet, Anubis, Anuke, Anuket, Apep, Arensnuphis, As, Astarte, Aten, Atum, and Auf … and those are just the Ancient Egyptian gods… just the one’s that start with the letter A.

Well, you’ve probably have heard of Anubis from some mummy movies. Did you know that “Anuke” was a god of war? Coincidence, time travel?

At the core of issues of religious tolerance is the reality that each group privately believes the other’s beliefs are absurd. Respect for those who reach vastly different conclusions when presented with the same (you assume) evidence, takes serious effort, on both sides.

Yet we continue to coexist.

After death, will evil persons of all religions be greeted byAment and then be devoured by Ammit? Will Christians be shocked to meet Ptah, the creator, with his punt beard? Yes, Ptah, the god of stone based crafts, reincarnation, and lord of the underworld. Will their hearts be heavier or lighter than the feather of Ma’at? Will they then be able to get past the evil demons armed with knives guarding the 15 or 21 gates and then exist in pleasure for all eternity in Aaru,  a series of islands  covered in “fields of rushes”?

Odd beliefs? Perhaps, but they persisted for more than 3,000 years.  Christianity has lasted at most 2000 years now.

Armenia was the first country converted to Christianity. This was done, some claim, by St. Gregory the Illuminator in 301. He supposedly converted people from their pagan beliefs. Others see things a bit differently:

… A letter of Bishop George of Arabia to Jeshu, a priest of the town Anab, dated 714 (edited by Dashian, Vienna, 1891), contains an independent tradition of Gregory, and styles him a Roman by birth.

In spite of legendary accretions we can still discern the true outlines and significance of his life. He did not really illumine or convert great Armenia, for the people were in the main already converted by Syrian missionaries to the Adoptionist or Ebionite type of faith which was dominant in the far East, and was afterwards known as Nestorianism. Marcionites and Montanists had also worked in the field. Gregory persuaded Tiridates to destroy the last relics of the old paganism, and carried out in the religious sphere his sovereign’s policy of detaching Great Armenia from the Sassanid realm and allying it with the GraecoRoman empire and civilization. He set himself to Hellenize or Catholicize Armenian Christianity, and in furtherance of this aim set up a hierarchy officially dependent on the Cappadocian. He in effect turned his country into a province of the Greek see of Cappadocia. This hierarchical tie was soon snapped, but the Hellenizing influence continued to work, and bore its most abundant fruit in the 5th century. His career was thus analogous to that of St Patrick in Ireland.

And so, I find myself at the start of 2009 spending hours and hours researching the history of Jesus Christ.  I”ve barely scratched the surface. Once again, however, the same evidence leads different people to vastly different conclusions.  It is my belief that an objective reality does exist, that some people are right on some counts, and wrong on others.

If you had proof that Jesus Christ was an invention of a Roman writer, who created him a century after he supposedly existed as a way to control the local Jewish people, would you personally choose to make that fact known? You could destroy the hope and faith of millions. Or perhaps remove one of the major causes of war. Would making this known be a good or a bad thing to do, if it were the truth? I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

BART officer fatally shoots man at Fruitvale station

A young man allegedly involved in a fight aboard a BART train was shot to death by a BART police officer on the platform of the Fruitvale Station early New Year’s Day, in the midst of a brawl between two groups of young train passengers. … While witness accounts reported by news organizations indicate Grant was on the platform and handcuffed when he was shot, BART spokesman Jim Allison said the victim was not restrained when the gun discharged. – sfgate

I wonder if there are surveilance tapes. The London Underground has everything on video. Answer: There are cameras, but they say there is no tape. At some stations they have tape, at others a guard monitors the situation.

I doubt Oscar Grant should be dead. This is a sad accident, probably. He did, it seems, choose to be in gang brawl on a train, which is damn stupid. Or was it just a verbal argument?

Yellowstone Supervolcano may lead to nuclear disaster

Update 1-6-09: Only 1 quake today. It seems the super volcano god has been appeased … for now.

Update: Small quakes at Yellowstone continue, I count 13 so far…no, make that 14 today.

An eruption of the Yellowstone super volcano could cover 1/2 of the USA with ash, and cause extreme global cooling. The disaster might be unmatched in known history, but worse, it may trigger  nuclear melt downs according to Tom Lakosh at newsblaze. Ash may cause a few decades of damage, but nuclear meltdowns due to ash-clogged cooling systems could cause damage that lasts hundreds of years, Tom warns.

As I looked at the maps, I noticed that the states most damaged may be those that previously supported Bush. Just an odd coincidence, I’m sure.

According to this educational link, most of California could eat dust too.

We have learned some things about cleaning up volcanic ash. Wet sawdust helps, for example.

The Yellowstone eruption damage predictions range from billions dead around the world to no casualties at all because we will have decades, even centuries of warnings, and plenty of time to prepare.

The mega-eruption, if it happens, could be *hundreds of thousands* times bigger than Mount St. Helens. The last super volcano was 75,000 years ago. Light was blocked out all over the world. 35 centimeters of ash fell *2500 miles* away. The global temperature plunged 21 degrees. Mankind was almost extinguished, cut back to only a few thousand. This one…could be *ten times bigger*.

… The Toba eruption is generally thought to have been larger than any of the Yellowstone eruptions. The largest Yellowstone eruption was pretty close, though. Source: [armageddononline.org] – slashdot

Here is more information on the nuclear meltdown danger:

It’s not that there’s been ~ 300 quakes since Saturday or even that they’re all within a mile or two of each other, the worrisome part is that they are all within a few hundred yards of each other vertically, extending from the surface down to 7.2 km potentially defining a single “chimney” under high pressure causing hydraulic fracturing along its entire length, (link).

The National Park Service reports the magma chamber is as shallow as 8 km and if the major chamber is that close to the chimney reaching to 7.2 km, we may be in for an eruption.  …

The safety of containment of radioactive materials is threatened because nuclear power plants will not have sufficient clean water reserves to maintain extended cooling of reactor cores and spent fuel pools after ash deposition contaminates all surface waters. All downwind plants will have to immediately suspend operation of their secondary cooling loops to prevent disabling erosion of all moving parts and piping by the ash in their normal water supply.

The remaining ~7% of reactor thermal output retained in the latent heat of radioactive decay in fuel rods will require use of reserve water supplies for emergency core blow downs that were never intended to supply enough water for the extended periods of time that ash could fall and otherwise contaminate surface cooling water from rain runoff.

Moreover, these reserve water pools are already providing cooling for spent fuel rods which could also melt if their water is consumed for blow down steam replacement. The use of ash-contaminated water for primary loop cooling poses the same problems of pump and pipe erosion and accumulation of sediments in the core would cause water circulation problems that could lead to fuel assembly overheating. The air filtration systems in containment buildings were also not designed to stop release of nuclides under near continuous and extended blow down circumstances.

It is imperative that the NRC immediately coordinate with DHS/USCG for emergency acquisition of all available water tankage to store uncontaminated water, or settle and filter contaminated water, for extended use by nuclear facilities. DHS should also consider seizure of all drilling equipment, (operation of any engine in ambient ash will be limited), to supply ground-filtered water to power plants and the public, (ash is so fine that filtration of any type will be very limited, particularly where air and water filter replacement will be limited).

This will also necessitate insuring that all required tank trucks, transport trucks, barge tugs and tank vessels have sufficient spare air filters, water pumps and pump impellers. While prior lack of planning may be excused due to the improbability of such an event, the ongoing events at Yellowstone Lake demand immediate attention to this potential catastrophe beyond anything experienced in recorded history, which could be devastatingly compounded by our failure to stockpile sufficient clean cooling water for reactors. … – newsblaze

Unrelated to the nuclear threat, here are some recommendations from the army  regarding what you should do at home in the event of an ashfall:

YOUR HOME

• Close doors, windows and dampers. Place damp towels at door thresholds and other draft sources; tape drafty windows.
• Dampen ash in yard and streets to reduce resuspension.
• Put stoppers in the tops of your drainpipes (at the gutters).
• Protect dust sensitive electronics.
• Since most roofs cannot support more than four inches of wet ash, keep roofs free of thick accumulation. Once ash fall stops, sweep or shovel ash from roofs and gutters. Wear your dust mask and use caution on ladders and roofs.
• Remove outdoor clothing before entering a building. Brush, shake and pre-soak ashy clothing before washing.
• If there is ash in your water, let it settle and then use the clear water. In rare cases where there is a lot of ash in the water supply, do not use your dishwasher or washing machine.
• You may eat vegetables from the garden, but wash them first.
• Dust often using vacuum attachments rather than dust cloths, which may become abrasive.
• Use battery operated radio to receive information.

- army.mil

Wet ash is heavy! Got a ladder and a shovel for your roof? Battery powered radio? (I just got this one because it can charge my cell phone from solar or the crank in addition to battery power, short wave, am, fm, etc.).

A Yellowstone super volcano eruption could make us wish for the good old days when terrorists destroying a few big buildings in New York was our biggest problem. Then again, it may not happen for a million years. No one knows.