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Partner #1: Fluent City
Fluent City offers outstanding adult language classes in major cities throughout the United States and wants to help you learn a new language (and maybe even translate the Bible yourself). And to help, they’re offering a chance at winning a FREE $200 Gift Certificate for language classes to anyone who donates to the OMGWTFBIBLE Indiegogo campaign in its last 30 days. Just go here, donate RIGHT NOW at ANY LEVEL, and you’ll be entered to win.
But that’s not all. Fluent City is also a special discount just for OMGWTFBIBLE listeners. Visit www.fluentcity.com and pick a Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese or Russian class. During checkout, use OMGWTFBIBLE as the promo code for 15% off your group class. Don’t miss out – code expires August 25, 2014!
Partner #2: Skeptic’s Annotated Bible
Until the print version of OMGWTFBIBLE comes out at some hazy date in the future (and even when it does), the best place in the world to find all the wacky and weird stuff in the Bible is in the pages of the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible by Steve Wells. That’s why OMGWTFBIBLE has teamed up with SAB Books to offer a signed copy of the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible at the $54 perk level. But hurry! There are only 16 of this perk available, so don’t wait to grab it here.
Via Getty Images
In a glaringly stupid blog post, intellectual lightweight and Answers in Genesis non-mastermind Ken Ham calls out NASA for spending money on space exploration:
I’m shocked at the countless hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent over the years in the desperate and fruitless search for extraterrestrial life. Even Bill Nye “the Science Guy,” in our recent debate, happily gloated about tax dollars being spent toward this effort. And now, secular scientists are at it again.
His reasoning? The Bible clearly says the Earth is special and God made it that way:
Secularists cannot allow earth to be special or unique—that’s a biblical idea (Isaiah 45:18). If life evolved here, it simply must have evolved elsewhere they believe. The Bible, in sharp contrast to the secular worldview, teaches that earth was specially created, that it is unique and the focus of God’s attention (Isaiah 66:1 and Psalm 115:16).
Unfortunately for Ken, the Bible doesn’t say that. The Hebrew in Isaiah 45:18, Isaiah 66:1, and Psalm 115:16 does not explicitly say that God made our planet uniquely special. In all three of those verses, the Hebrew word used is ארץ, which simply means “ground.” Setting aside the fact that this stuff was written before modern astronomy, “ground” doesn’t necessarily mean “only Earth.” Even if עולם, which often means “world,” was used, he’d still be wrong, since that word can also mean “universe.”
The thing that frustrates me most about religion is when its loudest advocates often don’t have any idea what they’re talking about.
<h/t: Raw Story, Huffington Post, Gawker>
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a lot of crazy sex stuff in Genesis. I recently spoke with Andria Kaplan of Shalom Life for her #LoveJewce column about the weirdest, most provocative stuff. It’s all in the article there, so please check it out! For my part, I had this to say about rewriting the Bible:
“As Jews, our tradition of weekly Torah reading makes us all a part of the world’s longest-running book club,” Tuchman tells me in an exclusive interview. “I believe that reading it together and sharing our experience of the text and how it relates to our lives is central to our faith and can bring us closer together. With OMGWTFBIBLE, I’m hoping that I’m making that a little bit more fun.”
A least a little.
A censored version of the book of Genesis.
I think the Hasidim are starting to catch on to how crazy the Torah is. According to FailedMessiah, the Skvere community of Hasidim in New Square, New York has created a somewhat pared-down version of the Five Books of Moses to use at their Bais Tziporah girls school.
This version has removed some of the more racy stuff from the story. Y’know, like the dual narratives of the creation of the world, the story of Eden, all that Cain and Abel stuff, and the flood. FailedMessiah suggests that it’s because these stories are about *GASP* people who aren’t “Jewish.”
Also kept out are the stories of Yehudah, Tamar, Er, and Onan (Episode 18) and of Yoseph and Potiphar’s woman (also Episode 18!). Shockingly, the story of Dinah is left in (Episode 16), presumably to warn young Jewish women of the dangers of loving uncircumcised men.
If you can read Hebrew, you can tell what’s missing here (the whole Potiphar thing).
People sometimes tell me my podcast is inappropriate. It’s not my show that’s inappropriate, it’s the Bible.
<h/t: Motti Schleider>
Behold! The extra-long Genesis Finale Episode 22 of OMGWTFBIBLE with a whole pile of guests is now available!
This episode was recorded at Beauty Bar in New York City.
There are so many ways to listen to Episode 22!
You can listen using the SoundCloud thingie above or by downloading here. Explore our SoundCloud and listen to past episodes here.
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First of all, the finale is up at Jewcy here. A bigger post, and an episode page will show up on this site tomorrow, around the time you’ll be able to download episode 22 in iTunes.
Second of all, I’ve launched an Indiegogo campaign to help ensure this podcast keeps going and gets better and better. Please, watch the video above and head on over here to contribute. Every little bit helps!
Valerie Tarico has an interesting article at Salon in which she asks prominent atheists and anti-theists for their favorite Bible verse. Why? Well, as Tarico so compelling describes the Bible:
[Our] ancestors struggled with important questions that we still struggle with today: What is real? What is good? What is the meaning in our lives? How can we embrace love, joy, peace and wonder? How should we live in community with each other? The texts that were gathered into the Bible offer fragmentary glimpses of how that struggle evolved over the course of hundreds of years.
The writers were Iron Age tribesmen, members of a cruel and misogynistic society. They got a lot of things wrong. But they also got some very basic and beautiful things right. As is the case with many texts, both ancient and modern, those who have the fortitude to sift through the rubble can find real gems.
There are bunch of good ones in the article, but these are my favorite Old Testament quotes:
Social justice and community activism are central themes of the Bible. It is imperative that we not forget those who are in need and are voiceless. We live amongst those who are in need, it is in our best interest to ensure that their needs are met. Two of my favorite verses are Jeremiah 22:3 “This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.” Proverbs 29:7 “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.”
—Kim Veal, Black FreeThinkers& People of Color Beyond Faith
Though it is quite unspectacular, the biblical passage that has long shaped my approach to life is Proverbs 15:1, “A soft answer turneth away wrath.” I hate needless friction and conflict with others. I much prefer to get along with people, not to antagonize them with caustic comments or stinging responses. Otherwise, you’re just “putting out the fire with gasoline.” I always look to say the reconciling, tactful word. I have to be honest. I don’t butter people up. I sure don’t mind being scathing in my responses to bad apologetics arguments. But I try not to make it personal. I’d prefer to keep things respectful and friendly. And this stance stems from that passage of scripture.
—Robert M. Price, The Bible Geek webcast
There are many Bible verses that extol peace, justice, honesty, mercy, wisdom, altruism, and other basic human virtues, and in fact, I’ve written a whole article about verses I find excellent. Here is one that stands out: “And six years thou shalt sow thy land… But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy olive yard.” —Exodus 23:10-11 (KJV) The idea of empathy contained in the verse is even sufficiently broad to encompass wild animals – an important sign that its writer was thinking in terms of all-encompassing principles rather than simple reciprocity. It takes an enlightened spirit to have compassion even on birds and beasts.
—Adam Lee, Daylight Atheism
That last one really stand out to me. I’ve been translating Exodus recently and was blown away by how much chapter 23 seems to be about social justice. If I had to choose my favorite verse (so far), it’d be Exodus 23:1-2 (NIV).
“Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.”
What’s your favorite verse? Let me know in the comments!
Like this grave would fit Optimus Prime.
Now that a computer has passed the Turing test (kind of), it’s time to start asking the really tough questions, like “Can a robot convert to Judaism?”, “Can a robot count in a minyan?” and “I’m a friend of Sarah Connor. Could I see her please?” Over at JTA, Adam Soclof and Rabbi Mark Goldfeder have your answers.
For the purposes of this discussion, I would accept the position of the Jerusalem Talmud in the third chapter of Tractate Niddah that when you are dealing with a creature that does not conform to the simple definition of “humanness” — i.e. born from a human mother or at least possessing human DNA, but it appears to have human characteristics and is doing human things — one examines the context to determine if it is human. When something looks human and acts human, to the point that I think it might be human, then halachah might consider the threshold to have been crossed.
This makes sense from a Jewish ethical perspective as well. Oftentimes Jewish ethics are about the actor, not the one being acted upon. If I see something that for all intents and purposes looks human, I cannot start poking it to see if it bleeds. I have a responsibility to treat all that seem human as humans, and it is better to err on the side of caution from an ethical perspective.
It…kind of sounds like robots can be Jewish. If that’s the case, I can’t wait to attend my first Bot Mitzvah.
Behold! Episode 21 of OMGWTFBIBLE with Michael Malice is now available!
This episode was recorded at Beauty Bar.
There are so many ways to listen to Episode 21!
You can listen using the embed above or here. OMGWTFBIBLE is now on SoundCloud! Explore our SoundCloud here.
You can also: subscribe in iTunes, subscribe via RSS, or listen via Stitcher!
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