Mt. Molelog

Church of Christ, Primate

In my earlier article about the Tulsa Zoo’s Ganesh vs. Christ brouhaha, I made some suggestions for how Christianity could be given ‘equal time’ without sacrificing the zoo’s animal focus.

Alas, I somehow missed the best and most obvious answer.

The zoo should construct a statue of Jesus near the zoo animals he most resembles, much like they did with Ganesh (who isn’t, after all, really an elephant: he’s an elephant-ish god, with characterstics of both elephants and human). Yes, that’s right, there should be a Jesus statue right outside the primate house.

To go along with it, as other examples of how primates are viewed throughout human culture, there should also be a King Kong statue and a reproduction fo the Aperaham Lincoln statue from the pointless remake of Planet of the Apes.

I’m sure that’ll make the Christians happy.

2005-06-09 13:24:37 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) | Religion

Christ vs. Ganesh

CNN is reporting that the Tulsa (OK) Zoo is going to get a “display depicting God’s creation of the world in six days and his rest on the seventh, as told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible”.

This comes in response to a petition asking for such a display, which in turn apparently comes in response to a display of a Ganesh statue outside the elephant exhibit.

I hardly know where to start on this.

First, this is supposedly the progressive city in Oklahoma.

Second, does everyone get ‘equal time’, or just religions? The elephant exhibit also includes a Republican party elephant mascot; does the zoo need to add a donkey exhibit to have something to show the Democratic party donkey in front of?

Third, this is a zoo. The elephant is, you know, an animal. The creation exhibit isn’t. At the least, the Christians could have asked for an animal-related Christian exhibit. Several possibilities come to mind, and I’m no expert on the religion: an ichthys display in the aquarium; a display of the tempting snake from Genesis in the herpetarium; an easter bunny by the rabbits; an exhibit on exorcism into pigs in the swinehouse.

2005-06-08 21:12:52 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Religion

Divorce Court: Parents v. Judge

As part of a divorce proceeding, Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion (Indiana) Superior Court, has forbidden a pair of Wiccan parents from exposing their child to “non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.”

Mind you, neither parent asked for the order, and both objected to it; the apparent problem is that the child is attending a Catholic school, and the judge is worried the differences will confuse the child. Even if such a concern was reasonable, which it isn’t, and were properly within the judge’s perview, which it isn’t, this is an insane solution. Given a choice between practicing their religion or changing schools, I suspect they would have chosen the latter.

It’s easy to imagine the outcry if non-Catholic Christian parents were forbidden to expose their children to any religious beliefs that would differ from those shown in a Catholic school, or vice versa; the outcry here should be at least as great.

For the record: I grew up in a Unitarian family (which in turn meant in-church exposure to everything from Animism to Zoroastrianism) , attended an elementary school associated with a Presbyterian church (but which had little or no religious content), attended a Catholic high school (which had required religion courses, a daily prayer, and optional daily and mandatory monthly masses) and attended a Methodist college (with required religion courses). And I’m not confused at all: there is no god, and there’s no meaning to life except what we make of it. So we better choose to make something good of it.

(via Deus X’s linkblog)

2005-05-26 20:37:18 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Politics::Legal | Religion

Non-Christian Christians?

In the middle of a New York Times editorial is this little nugget:

Yet despite the lack of scientific or historical evidence, and despite the doubts of Biblical scholars, America is so pious that not only do 91 percent of Christians say they believe in the Virgin Birth, but so do an astonishing 47 percent of U.S. non-Christians.

What the fuck?

Why, how, can someone believe in the virgin birth without being a Christian? There's no reason to believe it without believing the rest of the stuff that goes along with it.

I don't understand people, not at all.

2003-08-18 21:45:00 | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) | Religion