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21. januar 2007
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As you'd expect, adherents of Norse creation mythology have much more powerful, ahem, arguments against science than creationists have.
Link via email.
That is so funny I'm even considering forgiving them depiciting vikings with horned helmets.
10:04:39 PM 
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Just as the US and UK are moving greater naval assets to the Gulf, Iran is conducting missile war games.
Iran plans three days of military maneuvers, including short-range missile tests, beginning Sunday - its first since the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions against it in late December, state-run television said.
"The elite Revolutionary Guards plans to begin a three-day missile maneuver on Sunday near Garmsar city," said the broadcast. The city is located in northern Iran on the edge of Kavir desert, about 60 miles southeast of Tehran.
"Zalzal and Fajr-5 missiles will be test fired in the war game," the television quoted an unnamed commander of the guards, as saying. Both are considered short-range missiles.
Not exactly easing the tension.
9:39:04 PM
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Rumours can be utterly devastating to a person's reputation, we know that. If there is one incident in history, however, that exemplifies destructive rumours and how prophecies can be self-fulfilling, it must be the events that caused the fall of the Sui dynasty and the rise of the Tang in China at the beginning of the 7th century CE.
The Sui dynasty was not to be a long-lived one in control of the mighty Chinese empire. Its last emperor, Yang Guang, was dynamic and powerful, but he overextended the resources of his domain in a number of enormous, but eventually unsuccessful military campaigns against Korea, and in extensive public works that taxed the resources as much as the patience of his subjects.
 A rumour started to spread in the capital, apparently based on a prophecy by some mystic that a man named Li would overthrow the empire and become the new ruler. A very popular song, a ballad of unknown composition, about this prophecy was spreading the story further, reaching the ear of the emperor himself.
Li (remember, in Chinese the family name is first and the given name last) was a quite common name among the elites of the administration and military, and emperor Yang Guang started to have a number of persons named Li exiled or even executed in a paranoid attempt to preempt the rumour from becoming true.
One man who feared he could be targeted by the paranoid and by now very unpopular emperor was the governor and military commander Li Yuan. He certainly had no initial ambitions to the imperial throne, and even when urged to move by his son Li Shimin he rejected making such a treacherous move against his own emperor. However, the persistent rumours made the situation unbearable, and eventually Li Yuan, a very able military leader who commanded strong loyalty from his men, moved on the capital in what could be reasonably excused as a preemptive strike.
Among Li's supporters were the Buddhist Shaolin monks, the famous inventors of the martial art known as Kung Fu, who proved to be very effective fighters, though it is debated whether any martial arts were invented already at this early stage. Be that as it may, Li Yuan's forces took the capital, and successfully fought off the remnants of the Sui and other contenders.
Li Yuan became the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty in 618, taking the name Gaozu Emperor. His son Li Shimin succeeded him in 626 when the emperor abdicated.
The Tang Dynasty was one of the most powerful, successful and long-lasting dynasties in Chinese history.
Without a prophecy and a song, it may have never been.
3:21:04 PM
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UNSCAM II:
Has North Korean leader Kim Jong Il subverted the United Nations Development Program, the $4 billion agency that is the U.N.’s main development arm, and possibly stolen tens of millions of dollars of hard currency in the process?
According to a top official of the U.S. State Department — using findings made by the U.N.’s own auditors — the answer appears to be a disturbing yes, so far as UNDP programs in North Korea itself are concerned.
And just as disturbingly, the U.N. aid agency bureaucracy has kept the scamming a secret since at least 1999 — while the North Korean dictator and his regime were ramping up their illegal nuclear weapons program and making highly publicized tests of intermediate range ballistic missiles.
As Glenn Reynolds writes, the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal was just business as usual at the UN. It may be even worse. It is not merely a matter of the UN secretariat being corrupt, but that running these scams appear to be its main function.
PS: Earlier UNSCAM coverage.
1:54:06 PM
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Here is my bold prediction: Neither Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain nor Rudy Giuliani will be elected president of the United States in 2008. I have no idea who will be elected, and while I think that all of the four current front-runners have the qualities to be good presidents, I really doubt that any of them will survive the long fight ahead and make it to the top.
In fact, it would not surprise me the least if the election goes underway with none of these four as the two top nominees.
3:01:51 AM
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A typical show-stopping argument when debating theists of any brand is Stephen F. Roberts' famous words:
I contend that we are both atheists, I just believe in one less god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all other possible gods, then you will know why I dismiss yours.
To make it more obvious, I usually site Ba'al or Zeus as examples; deities once dominant who have since fallen by the wayside.
Obviously, using Zeus as an example will not work wth these people.
After all these centuries, Zeus may have a few thunderbolts left. A tiny group of worshippers plans a rare ceremony Sunday to honor the ancient Greek gods, at Athens' 1,800-year-old Temple of Olympian Zeus. Greece's Culture Ministry has declared the central Athens site off-limits, but worshippers say they will defy the decision.
"These are our temples and they should be used by followers of our religion," said Doreta Peppa, head of the Athens-based Ellinais, a group campaigning to revive the ancient religion.
"Of course we will go ahead with the event ... we will enter the site legally," said Peppa, who calls herself a high priestess of the revived faith. "We will issue a call for peace, who can be opposed to that?"
Peppa said the ceremony will be held in honor of Zeus, king of the ancient gods, but did not give other details. The daily Ethnos newspaper, citing the group's application to the Culture Ministry to use the site, said the 90-minute event would include hymns, dancers, torchbearers, and worshippers in ancient costumes.
Well, why not? It could be fun.
Somehow, like with modern adherents of Norse religion, I doubt that these alleged believers in ancient Greek mythology actually believes that Zeus, Astarte, Hermes and the other ancient deities really exist. I think you have to grow up in a specific culture to seriously believe in particular gods. While many very intelligent people in our part of the world really believe in the Judeo-Christian God, I don't think they would if they were first introduced to the idea in adulthood.
2:49:17 AM
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© Copyright 2007 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.02.2007; 06:24:07.
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