A Great Riff on "The Good (??!) Book": The FOB Bible

I'm not a huge fan of The Old Testament. It's not just that the moral lessons it contains are abhorrent, it's also the fact that -- as ancient texts go -- that particular batch of legends is not particularly interesting. But, by some winds of chance, this one set collection of stories (The Bible) has become the best-selling book of the year, every year, and it's not clear that any other text in human history has been as thoroughly and repeatedly discussed and analyzed. Much like Twilight, the huge body commentary spawned by the text is a lot more interesting than the text itself (here's a fun new post about Twilight that just sprung up). In a similar vein we have The FOB Bible. Despite the retread subject matter, The FOB Bible adds some clever and original insights to these familiar tales.

The FOB Bible is a collection of literary shorts (stories, poetry, etc.) inspired by the stories of The Old Testament. Instead of just taking the biblical tales at face value (the way we normally think of them), the authors (the "Friends of Ben") imagine what it would be like if these stories really happened, filling them out in lively detail.

As an example, "The Book of Job's Wife" adds a very human dimension to what it would be like for a family to suffer the misfortunes described in "The Book of Job." The story is almost an apologist's rendition of "The Book of Job" in that it cleans up some of the most questionable aspects of the story (the idea that getting a new family makes up for burning his kids to death; the idea that God decided to make Job's family suffer on purpose, on a bet; etc.) -- portraying God as a force of good and comfort instead. Yet, I liked "The Book of Job's Wife" anyway, as a well-told story. That one was my second-favorite in The FOB Bible collection, right after "Ezra's Inbox": which is "The Book of Ezra" re-imagined as a collection of emails. That one was fun because I've been in web-like email discussion like that one, and it's an entertaining way of illustrating each character's position and what they think of one another. It almost made me want to go back and read "The Book of Ezra". Almost. But I suspect that (like the band) this short retelling is a tad better than Ezra.

Some stories from The FOB Bible have been posted online, such as the powerful Abraham's Purgatory (correcting the thoroughly despicable moral in the original story of Abraham's sacrifice), and The Changing of the God -- a lighter look at the transition from The Old Testament to The New Testament. Other excerpts (including some of the clever rhymed poetry) can be found here.

Overall, The FOB Bible is beautifully produced and illustrated with gorgeous (public domain, I assume) engravings by Gustav Doré that complement the tone and text well. I'd recommend this book as a good choice to pass around and discuss on a pleasant, rainy weekend getaway with friends.

Kids and the Internet: update!

Remember when I asked for advice on letting my kids explore the Internet? Because Nico had discovered a conspiracy theory movie on YouTube?

Well, I've just put up a new post on Rational Moms explaining how we've handled it and where we've gone from there. (Hint: more science movies!)

As a bonus, I also wrote them a post about how much we love Tux Paint (fun, educational, and free!), and don't forget to check out (((Billy(')s))) Carnival of the Godless!

on vacation with more than I can chew...

I've been looking forward to this vacation all year -- two months with my family in Minnesota! Unfortunately, that means that everything I didn't have time to do this past year, I just put it on my "I'll do it on my vacation..." list. Then I cleverly signed on for a professional/research project that looks like it's going to be as much work as being in a start-up again. (Remember when I was so busy with work that I had to have Nico blog for me? That's about where I'm at now.)

Anyway, I'll give you the run-down on my plans in hopes that I'll have the opportunity of meeting some of my blogging friends during my stay in the U.S.:

First off, I'm spending July and August in the suburbs of Minneapolis. (Naturally, I'm hoping to see the Minnesota Atheists again.) Also, in late August, I'll be in Utah for the Sunstone Symposium, and I hope to meet some of you there! Then, for September, October, November, and December we'll be in New Jersey. After that, it's back to Switzerland.

I know, with a six-month stay in the U.S., I really ought to update the masthead of my blog. It's getting to be about time, that's for sure! Well, I'll put it on my to-do list. Somewhere.

Blogspace slowing down? Say it ain't so!

At least it seems like blogspace isn't growing as rapidly as it used to. Mojoey notes that the atheist blogroll has been hovering around 900 for months; similarly Outer Blogness has had a population of around 200 for a while.

Here's TooManyTribbles' video of where the atheist blogroll was at two years ago:



It looks like blogging is still quite popular, and still growing in popularity -- just growing at a slower rate. My guess is that the people who thought blogging would make them rich-n-famous have given up, the people who were just in blogspace to share photos with family and friends have switched to FaceBook, and people who like to try the latest fad... well, I'm not in the loop as to what those guys are up to. The people who remain here in blogworld are the ones who just happen to like expressing themselves in this format.

Like me!!

I like socializing online (see my friend, the Internet), and I especially like having the motivation to write out my thoughts in coherent essays. It's fun to share ideas and discuss! :D

Unrequited? Why the atheists love the gay more than vice-versa...

I've been thinking about this question ever since I read Greta Christina's post on being an atheist in the queer community. I don't mean this to be a question of blame -- quite the opposite. I'd kind of like to understand the situation better, in order to avoid unfair expectations.

Reason #1: taking back one's faith

I suspect that there's a higher proportion of atheism in the queer population than in the general population -- that is, gay people are more likely to be atheist than straight people. You're more likely to question (and then follow those questions all the way to atheism) if God-belief isn't working for you. And being repeatedly told that God thinks you're an abomination would be a pretty strong motivation to ask yourself, "Wait a minute -- Who is this God dude anyway?"

But, really, that's the only link with atheism for the gay folks, and not everyone who questions God's existence winds up disbelieving. Some gay people take great comfort in their faith and in their traditions, and would rather question the assumption that God doesn't love them the way they are. For such people, to embrace the atheists would be like granting that the homophobes are the true people of faith, and are the ones who are qualified to pronounce on what God likes and doesn't like (in particular, homosexuality). It's too much like saying, "OK, if God were to exist, then you're right, He would hate me," which a lot of gay people aren't ready to grant.

Reason #2: goal alignment

Even if the gay people's needs don't line up exactly with the atheists, the common goals in the opposite direction couldn't be more obvious. Here's a case of harmful (discriminatory) laws getting passed -- based solely on religious justification, with no objective reasoning to back them up. That is exactly the sort of thing that is of most concern to atheists as a group.

Reason #3: visibility

The GLBT community got out there and said "We're here! We're queer! Get used to it." So now the atheists (like everybody else) are used it. With a little more visibility, people will start to get used to the atheists as well. (Though we don't have a good rhyme... Any ideas?)

Reason #3: the popularity ladder

Gay people are currently more accepted by the general population. Sure, they're almost as despised as the atheists, but that little difference counts for quite a lot when you're near the bottom of the popularity ladder.

This isn't an atheist/gay thing -- it's human nature in general. You don't improve your popularity by hanging out with the folks who are even more nerdy than yourself, you improve your popularity by telling those above you on the social ladder that you're like them, and join them in looking down on someone else. I touched on the personal-life version of this in the novella Young Women's, but it's also standard fare within and among disadvantaged groups...

Other ideas?

Search query puzzlers!

I've been trying to restrain myself from doing too many search query posts ever since Felicia said it was a cliché. Admittedly, Andrew did one since then, helping to increase the coolness factor a little bit. But the trouble is that I've recently gotten a bunch of search queries that have stumped even me! So, I have no choice but to post them and see if any of you have any answers for these poor, unfortunate queriers:

Q: suicidal beached whales verses mass murderers
A: Sorry, what?? Are you asking which would win? Uh... both..?

Q: verb tenses had better make an effort
A: D'oh!! You found a verb construction I missed in my million English verb tenses and moods, illustrated dialog! And what the hell kind of construction is "had better" anyway?

Q: the name of an aspect of something used to refer to the whole thing, such as when alcohol is called the bottle
A: Man, I don't remember the word for that, either. I'm really on a roll here when it comes to High School English class. Now I know you guys are going to say "Wikipedia!" or "google it!" but what do I look it up under? If I type that description into google, it'll just land me back here, and you can see how much help that will be...

Q: do brilliant women have beautiful pussies and loving attitudes?
A: I dunno. Probably some do, but I haven't seen any studies on it or anything.

Q: lourdes - places to go besides church
A: lol, good luck! You can try playing the game of who can find the tackiest souvenir, but aside from that and church, there's not much else. Maybe consider a change of destination? Unless somebody here knows of something non-churchy in Lourdes...

Q: i love the fountain and i'm an atheist
A: See, this one I really don't get. What fountain? And what does it have to do with being an atheist?

Q: should a blogger post a personal picture of himself?
A: I say yes, but I know there's some disagreement on this one! :D

Q: what is better place to live in swiss or india
A: I've never lived in India, so I can't really judge. I could ask some of my colleagues who are from India. I mean, I could have if I hadn't quit my job the other day (in anticipation of temporarily moving back to the U.S.). Sorry!

Q: how can i know if the church is true mormon intellectual
A: Again, this one is a little tricky to parse, but I suppose the querier is looking for a proof that the LDS church is true, one that would convince a Mormon intellectual. Well, querier, you've come to the wrong place for that!

Q: why are mormons so into scrapbooking
A: Another philosophical question about Mormons! Mormons really like creative handicrafts, and scrapbooking is particularly fun for SAHMs because of the tie-in with family activities. That, and the fabulous possibilities for scrapbooking-supplies MLMs.

(Oops, I answered that last one myself. C'est la vie.)

So what's going to happen in Iran?

Like everybody, I've been following these daily images from Tehran. (Well, like everybody who hasn't discovered Twitter yet.) I wonder what's going to happen.

From what I've read, I understand one of the main problems with the Islamic Republic is that a body of clerics has to approve every action the government makes. This body of clerics is not elected and not accountable to anyone. (Well, not accountable to anyone who exists at least.) So even if the elections were democratic, and even if a reformist candidate were to get elected, there's a limit to what he could accomplish. It's not clear that it's even possible for them to solve their problems working within the system.

I just hope things get better and not worse. I keep thinking of that line from Persepolis when (during the earlier revolution) the mom says, "Well, at least things can't be worse than they were under the Shah..."