Atheist Physics Teacher

Yeah, I know, I haven't been posting lately. I apologize. Bri and I went away for a long weekend, and since we've be back I have been working on getting ready for the new school year.

Until then, expect that there won't be too many posts. Once the school year starts, I will set aside some time a few days a week to keep posting.


Stay tuned for more Bad Religion Songs of the Week, Bible for Atheist chapters, and more. For now, keep yourself entertained by this webpage: Can Atheists Be Ethical. Also browse the rest of the site if you have the time and the inclination.

I'll comment on that page later. First I want to hear (read?) your opinions.

In Chapter 13 Abram and Sarai and Lot leave Egypt, and Abram realizes that the flocks of Lot and himself are too large to be grazing on the same lands, so Abram tells Lot that they should separate. Abram gives Lot the choice of where he will live, and Abram takes up some other land. When Abram gets there God tells Abram “all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.” (Genesis 13:15-16, NRSV)

In Chapter 14 there is a big battle between a lot of the kings in the region that Abram and Lot are living. Lot ends up being captured and Abram takes his men (318 of them) to retrieve Lot.

When Abram returns he is met by King Melchizedek and Abram gives him one tenth of everything he had plundered. The King tells him to give him the persons, but to keep the goods for himself. Abram replies, “I have sworn to the Lord, God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, so that you might not say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me.”

This is a good lesson for anybody, religious or not. Abram knows that the King might later ask favors of him in return for his generosity. Abram takes nothing that is not due to him, and will therefore be left alone in the future.

Skyscraper
Bad Religion
Recipe for Hate

Come let us make bricks and burn them hard,
We'll build a city with a tower for the world
And climb so we can reach anything we may propose,
Anything at all

Build me up, tear me down
Like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down
These joining walls
So they can't climb at all

I know why you tore it down that day
You thought, that if you got caught we'd all go away,
Like a spoiled little baby who can't come out to play,
You had your revenge

Build me up, tear me down
Like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down
These joining walls
So they can't climb at all

Well madness reigned and paradise drowned
When Babel's walls came crashing down
Now the echoes roar for a story writ
That was hardly understood
And never any good

Build me up, tear me down
Like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down
These joining walls
So they can't climb at all

If I was forced to make a list of hobbies, interests, or activities I would have to include going to concerts. I am sure there are people that go to more than I do, but come on, concerts are expensive.

I have been meaning to make a list, for myself, of all the concerts I've attended, so that I don't forget them. I figure this would be a good forum to share my favorite concerts. Right now I'm planning on recounting my 5 favorites (in reverse chronological order), and maybe more when I'm done.

While I certainly enjoy the music of all the bands I've seen, my Top 5 concerts are not of my Top 5 bands. The criteria for best concerts have a more to do with circumstances and environment than the music alone.

The most recent concert I've been to that I include in my Top 5 is the Good Rats reunion show at B.B. King's Blues Club in NYC. I was chilling at my computer around 10am one Saturday, and my dad came downstairs.

"What are you doing today," he asked.
"Nothing," I replied.
"Want to go to a concert?"
"Yes! What concert?"

As long as the price is reasonable, I will go to basically any concert that someone I know is going to. That's how I discovered Guster sophomore year.

My dad told me it was The Good Rats, who I had heard of, and that the ticket was free. He even offered to pay for my food and drinks as long as I paid for the train. I'm in!

My dad's friend Jeff picked us up and we shared a few beers and some stories from back in their day on the way into the city. B.B. King's Blues Club is a pretty cool place. It's not a theater, but it's not a club either. I've been calling it a supper club, like where Ricky played on I Love Lucy. It basically looked like a restaurant with a stage, and our table was right up front.

No opening band to put up with, I love it. During the show waiters come around to replenish beers, so you only have to get up to pee. The show was great. I didn't really know any Good Rats music, but I ended up buying a couple CDs because they are so good.

This one makes my Top 5 list for the following reasons: no opening band, uniqueness of the venue, quality/quantity of food & drink, discovery of a new favorite band.

I used to think that a blog had to be specialized; that I needed different blogs to present different ideas. Hogwash!

In my local paper, The Long Island Advance, there is a weekly (as is the paper) segments titled From the Archives of the Long Island Advance, in which they present some news clips from 100, 75, and 50 years ago. A lot of the news is so mundane that I find it to be very funny. I hope that you do too.


From 100 Years Ago:

• Charles F. McNeil fell from a motorcycle in the rear of Roe's Hotel and was bruised up a bit.
  
  
• Blanch, the 6-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Woodruff, was bitten by a dog, The wounds were cauterized and the dog was shot. The child is said to be out of danger
  
  
• Bonaparte Overton was thrown from his carriage on West Main Street, corner of West Avenue, and received a number of scalp wounds. He is now out again.
  
  
• John McVoy was arrested by Officer Smith and fined $5 by Justice Losee, the fellow being drunk and disorderly. McVoy was lying across the sidewalk on West Avenue, near Amity Street, partly dressed.
  

This just keeps getting bigger and bigger. This version extends to Lot, nephew of Abram. Also, I've added asterisks next to the names of people in the direct line from Adam to David.

Click the image below to view the full genealogy.

Half of Chapter 11 is very interesting, and half is a continuation of the genealogy. The first half, the interesting half, is the story of the Tower of Babel. I can only understand this story if God is weak, nervous, and jealous.

Here’s the story if you don’t know it. Everyone speaks the same language. They are all direct descendents of Noah so this makes sense. Humans decide to build a big tower “with its top in the heavens.” It seems that this tower is intended to be a symbol of their unity so that humans will not be “scattered abroad upon the face of the earth” (Genesis 11:4, NRSV).

This scares God. He is afraid that now “nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them” (11:5, NRSV) so God confuses the humans’ language and scatters them around the earth.

What the fuck?

Humans peacefully work together in the name of unity and they get punished for it. I’m done.

If you are interested in the story of Babel make sure to check out next week’s Bad Religion Song of the Week.

The first half of Chapter 12 describes Abram’s journey with his wife and nephew Lot, eventually leading them to Egypt. The Bible says that they took “the persons whom they had acquired in Haran” (12:5, NRSV). Does this mean slaves? Or does this mean people who joined their settlement? I bet it means slaves.

The second half of the chapter is interesting and confusing. There is a famine where Abram is living, so he takes his family into Egypt. Abram is worried that upon seeing his wife Sarai the Pharaoh will kill Abram and take his wife. To prevent this they lie to the Pharaoh and say that Sarai is his sister. Pharaoh does, indeed, take Sarai as a wife, and pays Abram in animals and slaves.

Consequentially, God gets pissed at Pharaoh for committing adultery (although there are no commandments yet) and afflicts his house with great plagues. Pharaoh calls Abram, gives him a piece of his mind, and sends him and his wife and his people away.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely understand how Abram’s scheme was supposed to work, and it did! It just boggles my mind that Pharaoh is punished for committing a sin, that has not yet been prohibited, in ignorance, and Abram, who essentially whores out his wife to save his own life, gets off scot free. More than that, he gets a bunch of animals and slaves as a reward.

God’s idea of justice is twisted.