Don't Fear the Reapers

Here's another gem from my Facebook feed. Apparently, after the Rapture God is going to send "Reapers" to kill everyone, and they're going to be showing up on gigantic UFO's that are the size of Jupiter. So I guess that makes them terrorist space aliens or something.

Seeing as none of this is in the actual Bible, I'd be very interested in finding out where this theology comes from. It is being taught by some new UFO cult? Also, I'm curious where this mysterious "NASA footage" can be found. A UFO the size of Jupiter near the Sun would be visible to the naked eye and disturb the orbits of all the inner planets including Earth. So where are they? Do they have some sort of cloaking device? Does it block the effects of gravity too?

At any rate, I've never understood why anyone would want to follow a deity so bent on carnage and destruction, space alien or not. The good thing is that as there's no evidence the Rapture will never happen, we seem to be safe from the Reapers for now.

The Gilford Ghost

Here's another one of those cases that's either legitimate paranormal activity or an outright fake. Recent security footage from a store in Gilford, New Hampshire appears to show a glass bowl being tossed off a counter by an invisible force. The bowl breaks at around 00:50 on the video. Some commenters online have suggested some sort of vibration from outside the shop might be responsible, but after viewing the footage I'm dubious of that explanation. The bowl doesn't just slip or slide off, it actually seems to be pushed or pulled.

The easiest way to fake this would probably be something like monofilament line attached to the bowl. At the resolution of the security camera it would be invisible and even digital enhancement likely wouldn't reveal it. WMUR news in New Hampshire reports that the store's owners will be bringing in paranormal investigators to check out the shop, and it will be interesting to hear their findings. Hopefully whoever they contact will be professional enough to try to rule out every possible normal explanation before concluding that the place is haunted, but at the same time avoid the usual skeptic assumption that just because it would be possible to fake the footage it must not be authentic.

Today in Poor Oppressed Christian Film

Many modern political attacks make use of one simple but highly effective tactic. You identify your candidate's weakest point, and then proceed to attack their opponent for the same thing. When George W. Bush ran against John Kerry in the 2004 US Presidential Election, Republicans felt that Bush's stint in the National Guard stacked up poorly against Kerry's war experience in Vietnam and proceeded to attack Kerry's service record. Likewise, the whole "birther" phenomenon started out as a similar attack in 2008. John McCain was born on a military base in Panama, and Republicans worried that Democrats might question his natural-born citizenship on those grounds. So they put forth allegations that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, which totally eclipsed the circumstances of McCain's birth and took on a bizarre life of their own.

Poor Oppressed Christians also make use of this same tactic incessantly, as illustrated by the new Christian film God's Not Dead currently in theaters. According to this review the film is not particularly good and I have no intention of seeing it, but I want to highlight one of the main plot elements. The film is about a Christian college student who challenges an atheist philosophy professor to debate the existence of God, which is not necessarily a bad setup and could have been used well by a more skillful filmmaker. The key point that I want to highlight, though, is how this philosophical debate is set in motion.

The most worthwhile moments of God’s Not Dead come from Kevin Sorbo, of all people, who plays the film’s mustache-twirler of a villain, professor Jeffrey Radisson. Professor Radisson teaches an introduction to philosophical thought course that asks students, on the first day, to write on a sheet of paper that God is dead, then sign it for credit [emphasis mine], so that he can move past the early stuff and get to the things he finds more fulfilling. As Radisson, Sorbo is playing a transparently awful person, but he has fun with his most villainous moments and even locates a few notes of sorrow and regret in Radisson’s backstory.

Science Isn't Philosophy, and Vice Versa

The new version of the television series Cosmos hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson has predictably attracted the ire of Creationists who feel that their beliefs are not being adequately represented. This complaint reminds me of a comment I made as a follow-up to one of my previous articles, that Creationists confuse philosophy with science. Believing that the universe was created by a deity who resides outside the realms of time and space is a philosophical claim, not a scientific one. Any scientific claim must be testable, and the hypothetical actions of a supernatural, omnipotent being fall completely outside that scope.

“Creationists aren’t even on the radar screen for them, they wouldn’t even consider us plausible at all,” said Danny Falkner, of Answers In Genesis, which has previously complained about the show. Falkner appeared Thursday on “The Janet Mefford Show” to complain the Fox television series and its host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, had marginalized those with dissenting views on accepted scientific truths, reported Right Wing Watch.

“I don’t recall seeing any interviews with people – that may yet come – but it’s based upon the narration from the host and then various types of little video clips of various things, cartoons and things like that,” Falkner said. Mefferd said the show should at least offer viewers a false compromise.

“Boy, but when you have so many scientists who simply do not accept Darwinian evolution, it seems to me that that might be something to throw in there, you know, the old, ‘some scientists say this, others disagree and think this,’ but that’s not even allowed,” she said. Tyson recently said science reporting should not be balanced with nonscientific claims, so that seems unlikely he would offer that sort of fallacious argument on his own show.

There's an enormous difference between proposing and testing an alternative hypothesis that contradicts the established theory of evolution on the one hand, and arguing that any challenge to evolutionary theory automatically means "God did it, full stop" on the other. The first is science and the second is not, so any attempt to "explore the controversy" just means bringing up one apples to oranges comparison after the other. That's why science educators just don't do it. Nor should they.

There's no physical evidence whatsoever that the world is not billions of years old, and tons of evidence that it is. Even so, Christianity does not require anyone to be a scriptural literalist, and therefore there's nothing contradictory about believing (A) that God created the universe and (B) that the world is billions of years old, except in the minds of fundamentalists. The first is a philosophical belief, whereas the second is a scientific claim that has been demonstrated by actual research.

Westboro Baptists Eat Their Own

One of the downsides of founding a virulent hate group is that someday they may turn on you. According to this story, amidst rumors of his failing health, it has come to light that the Westboro Baptist Church excommunicated founder Fred Phelps back in August. Furthermore, his daughter Margie announced on Twitter that when he dies the church plans to picket his funeral. Normally I wouldn't comment on this as I think these clowns get way too much press already - they are, after all, a group of about twenty people, most of whom are Phelps' relatives. So we're talking about a group that's like what would happen if you got all your cousins and their families together and declared yourself a new religious denomination, but who nonetheless have a massively outsized media profile. However, the cautionary tale here shows what can happen if your group's entire ideology is based on hatred. Eventually nobody is pure enough to qualify.

With reports that the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. is near death, many quipped the Westboro Baptist Church, the very organization he founded, would picket his funeral as they have so many others in the past. It might sound like a joke, but apparently it’s the real deal: The WBC will hold a demonstration at the funeral of their former pastor.

Phelps Sr., 84, got back in the news Sunday when his estranged son Nathan posted a note to Facebook saying the pastor is currently in hospice care and was excommunicated from the organization for reasons that remain unclear. As twisted as it may be, his daughter Margie (who is a part of the WBC) said on Twitter the hate-fueled organization would definitely be at his funeral, if only to picket.

RIP Donald Michael Kraig

On Monday Donald Michael Kraig, author of Modern Magick and Modern Sex Magick, passed away at the age of 62 following a battle with an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer.

Kraig's first book is one of the most popular occult titles of all time with more than 300,000 copies in print over the last twenty years, and as a result he was one of the most influential authors in the field. For many people currently active in the occult community, Modern Magick served as their first introduction to the Golden Dawn magical system.

Unto Donald Michael Kraig from whose eyes the veil of life hath fallen, may there be granted the accomplishment of his true Will; whether he will absorption in the Infinite, or to be united with his chosen and preferred, or to be in contemplation, or to be at peace, or to achieve the labour and heroism of incarnation on this planet or another, or in any Star, or aught else, unto him may there be granted the accomplishment of his will; yea, the accomplishment of his will.

Anyone who wishes to donate funds to Kraig's family in order to cover medical and funeral expenses may do so here. In light of certain ongoing Facebook discussions, be advised that comments criticizing Kraig and/or his work will be removed from this post. This is not the place for them.

What Poor Oppressed Christians are Fighting For

If any of you have doubts about what the Poor Oppressed Christians really want, this story should settle them. Regular Christians - the vast majority of them - just want to practice their religion and be left alone. Poor Oppressed Christians, on the other hand, want to be granted special privileges so that they can feel like they're better than everyone else who doesn't conform to their faith. A judge in Louisiana recently ruled against a teacher who openly ridiculed a Buddhist student, describing his beliefs as "stupid," and included a test question that required students to profess Christian belief or be marked down.

The student, known as C.C., was asked by sixth-grade teacher Rita Roark to answer the following question on a test: “ISN’T IT AMAZING WHAT THE _____________ HAS MADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” When C.C. failed to respond “Lord,” Roark responded “you’re stupid if you don’t believe in God.” She also frequently denigrated his Buddhist faith, as well as the Hindu faith, referring to both as “stupid.”

When his parents complained to Sabine Parish Superintendent Sara Ebarb, they were told that “this is the Bible belt,” so they should expect to find the Christian God in the classroom. Ebarb advised them that if they wanted an ungodly classroom, they should transfer C.C. to a school where “there are more Asians.”

Judge Elizabeth Foote of the U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana sided with C.C. and his parents, citing that Roark’s behavior — and the school’s decision to defend it — clearly violated “the Free Exercise and Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”

It should be noted that the student in fact responded to the question with "Lord Buddha," which prompted the teacher's response. He didn't refuse to answer, he just refused to pay proper deference to the Poor Oppressed Christian God. I honestly can imagine few situations more un-American than this one, and I'm glad to see that the judge ruled against it. But this is the world the Poor Oppressed Christians want, a world in which they are recognized by all public institutions as superior and anyone who dares to suggest otherwise is attacking their civil rights.

Liber Loagaeth and the Heptarchia Mystica

Did you ever come up with an idea that was so good you wish you had put it in a book? Today's article is one of those ideas. Back when I was putting together Mastering the Mystical Heptarchy this would have been the perfect addition to the manuscript, and if I ever sell enough of them to merit a second edition I likely will be adding it as an additional appendix, provided it works as well as I think it might. I don't necessarily know that I'm the first person to work this out; once you see the pattern it's so obvious that it's hard for me to believe that nobody's published it or discussed it before. Still, I haven't seen it posted anywhere online, and it's certainly an idea worth sharing.

One of the things that I kept running across in my Heptarchial work is that there are no "Angelic Keys" for the Heptarchial system, or at least nothing that is explicitly identified as such. The workaround I came up with is to employ the First and/or Second Watchtower keys for Heptarchial work. Still it remains an unsatisfactory solution in that it's applying a piece of the system that's more properly associated with the Watchtowers to the Heptarchia Mystica. Now Liber Loagaeth is one of the pieces of the Enochian system that nobody really seems to know what to do with. In the early 1990's George Hay published a book claiming it to be an enciphered copy of the Necronomicon, which would have been a neat trick seeing as Lovecraft started writing centuries later. The text from Liber Loagaeth that I'm using can be found here, at Joseph Peterson's esoteric archives.