More on when smart people go bonkers

I got a comment that I'm not going to publish. My decision is not because the commenter is wrong -- people can be wrong and we can discuss it -- but that the person is offensively strident. However, I will tell you that she or he believes that Linus Pauling was right about megadoses of vitamin C. He wasn't, and that provides a perfect illustration for what I was already planning to say next. I'll quote from Sarah Harrison, writing in the Science History Institute's magazine Distillations:

 

Pauling had conducted none of the studies his vitamin C theories were built on. Human drug trials are large and expensive to run. So instead, Pauling’s claims were based on the review of existing literature and the experiments of others. This invited problems, such as flawed data. The trials Pauling relied on had inconsistencies between study groups that made the placebo and the vitamin C groups nearly impossible to compare.

Despite his brilliance, Pauling was ill-equipped to catch these errors.

Pauling biographer Ted Goertzel points out that nutrition research isn’t quite like chemistry. There are many more variables to consider in a human trial than with isolated molecules in a lab. What is the dosage of the supplement? When and how is it administered? The study participants themselves add complications: their age, health, or the strength of their immune systems can all differ. Their lives and activities outside the lab can affect the results too.

“His vast knowledge was specialized,” says Goertzel. “He had tremendous knowledge on molecular structure and chemistry. But that doesn’t mean you have a tremendous knowledge about nutrition and vitamins and health.”

And Pauling’s interpretations were questionable. He emphasized the positive effects he saw while explaining away negative or weak results as flaws in study design. Pauling’s vitamin C research was full of cherry-picked data that he wove into a narrative that suited his hypothesis, a process Goertzel likens to the logic of conspiracy theories.

“You get selective evidence, and you throw something out and insist that other people disprove it, and if they can’t disprove it, it might be true,” he says.

Pauling’s approach to vitamin C had none of the rigor or peer review that characterizes good science. When other scientists criticized his articles in peer-reviewed journals, Pauling took his case straight to the public. In 1970 he published Vitamin C and the Common Cold. Written for general audience, the book extolled the virtues of megadoses of ascorbic acid using little more than anecdotal evidence.

 

That tees up the next post. Note the main point here: Pauling was a chemist, who started pontificating about human biology. That's where he went wrong. I'll get to the point in the next post. 

 

Wednesday Bible Study: False Prophet

 In Luke 21, as in the other synoptic Gospels, Jesus foretells the apocalypse. It's going to be really terrible! Only one problem. As with all his other predictions of the end times, it's going to happen within the lifetime of the people he is speaking to. It's been 2,000 years. We're still waiting.

³² “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³⁴ “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

 

 

21 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ² He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³ “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴ All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

The Destruction of the Temple and Signs of the End Times

⁵ Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ⁶ “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”

⁷ “Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

⁸ He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. ⁹ When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”

¹⁰ Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹ There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

¹² “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³ And so you will bear testimony to me. ¹⁴ But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵ For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ Stand firm, and you will win life.

²⁰ “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. ²¹ Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. ²² For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. ²³ How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. ²⁴ They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

²⁵ “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. ²⁶ People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. ²⁷ At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

²⁹ He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. ³⁰ When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. ³¹ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

³² “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³⁴ “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

³⁷ Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, ³⁸ and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.

 

More on the Nobel Disease

Yes, it is an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, but I'd like to be more specific. As most people who read blogs know by now, the D-K effect is, essentially, that people with low competence or knowledge in a particular area tend to overrate their capability. People with high competence are generally more accurate, or even underrate their capability to some extent. Another way of putting it is that you don't know what you don't know, unless you know enough that you do know.

 

Nobel prize winners, and other highly accomplished people in a specific field, are told all the time that they're really smart, but they often don't know enough about areas outside their field of expertise to know what they don't know. Okay, that's obvious, but what we typically see is chemists or physicists making warped assertions about biology --  e.g. Linus Pauling and vitamin C, or William Shockley and James Watson and "scientific" racism, or Karry Mullis claiming that HIV is not the cause of AIDS -- or psychology -- e.g. Brian Josephson endorsing mental telepathy and the claim that transcendental meditation can recover suppressed traumatic memories. (The latter may not strike you as preposterous but the current view is that the idea of suppressed memories is a dangerous falsehood.) Richard Dawkins is not a Nobel winner but same idea -- he's a biologist who ventured ineptly into psychology and sociology.

 

There are a few ways of categorizing human knowledge, but the scientific revolution has created a fairly rigorous structure. I don't want to say hierarchical exactly, because the that could imply that some categories of knowledge are superior to others. Think of it more like the structure of a house. It has vertical layers, which rest one upon the other, but they are all equally necessary: Foundation, first story, second story, attic, roof. You have to build them from the ground up, but if you stop before you're finished, the entire structure is unsound and largely useless. 

 

There is another structure for categorizing what Jurgen Habermas calls "criticizeable validity claims," which is also relevant here though orthogonal to the first. The necessary requirements for a habitable and durable house are part of what he calls the "first world," the world of intersubjective reality, that which is testably true, the domain largely of the sciences. The second is the domain of morality, what is right. In this context, perhaps, who should have claim to own, or at least live in, quality housing? (I would say everybody but obviously most of society does not agree with me.) Is it right to build a house on this particular spot? (E.g. zoning regulations.) The third is aesthetics. What makes a house beautiful? 

 Next time, I'll take up the first categorization.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Sermonette: more obscurity

Luke 20 is largely recycled from Mark, or the lost common source of Mark and Matthew. As usual, Jesus is apparently trying to leave everybody baffled. He's been performing miracles and telling people that he's the son of God and that God gives him the power to perform miracles, but when the priests ask him whence he gets his authority he refuses to tell them. Obviously they can listen to what he says to everybody else. Then there's the parable of the tenants. Here's the SAB summary, which I think is basically accurate: 

God is like a man who owns a vineyard and rents it to poor farmers. When he sends servants to collect the rent, the tenants beat or kill them. So he sent his son to collect the rent, and they kill him too. Then the owner comes and kills the farmers and rents the vineyard to others. 

Okaaay. Not sure what that's supposed to mean but it sounds profound. Then oh yeah -- pay your taxes. So that would speak against the tax exemption for churches, no? 

 

20 One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. ² “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”

³ He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: ⁴ John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

⁵ They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”

⁷ So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”

⁸ Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

The Parable of the Tenants

⁹ He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. ¹⁰ At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. ¹² He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.

¹³ “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’

¹⁴ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶ He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”

¹⁷ Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone’^[a]?

¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”

¹⁹ The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

²⁰ Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. ²¹ So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. ²² Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

²³ He saw through their duplicity and said to them, ²⁴ “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

²⁵ He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

²⁶ They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.

The Resurrection and Marriage

²⁷ Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. ²⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. ³⁰ The second ³¹ and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. ³² Finally, the woman died too. ³³ Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

³⁴ Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵ But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, ³⁶ and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. ³⁷ But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’^{[b] 38} He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

³⁹ Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” ⁴⁰ And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Whose Son Is the Messiah?

⁴¹ Then Jesus said to them, “Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? ⁴² David himself declares in the Book of Psalms:

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand
⁴³ until I make your enemies
    a footstool for your feet.”’^[c]

⁴⁴ David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”

Warning Against the Teachers of the Law

⁴⁵ While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, ⁴⁶ “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷ They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

Footnotes

1. Luke 20:17 Psalm 118:22
2. Luke 20:37 Exodus 3:6
3. Luke 20:43 Psalm 110:1

 

The Nobel Disease

 You've no doubt heard of it -- via Wikipedia, "the embrace of strange or scientifically unsound ideas by some Nobel Prize winners, usually later in life." Actually there isn't any evidence that Nobel winners are more prone to this than other scientists, it may just be that it's more noteworthy when it happens to them. Most of the time -- not quite always -- they step out of their area of expertise. Basically, they've been told they're incredibly smart because they know a lot about physics, or chemistry, or biology, so they think they must be just as smart about everything.

 

Richard Dawkins is not a Nobel winner. Actually, he's not even a highly distinguished biologist, he's more noted as a popularizer of biology and an advocate for science in general. Still, I'll grant you that he's smart. However, like many of his distinguished colleagues, he has become a crank. Unfortunately, Free Inquiry magazine gave him 5,000 words and a cover story to promulgate his crankery, to which I felt compelled to respond. 

 

Since you presumably haven't read Dawkins's original turgid and tendentious screed, I'll just summarize it as follows. (And I believe this is entirely fair.)

There is a precise biological definition of sex, which has to do with large vs. small gametes.

[A lengthy biology lesson which is not clearly relevant to the rest of the argument, in which he claims that there are "rules" about the behaviors associated with male and female sex. Yes, yes, there are exceptions to all these rules but they are exceptions that prove the rule. For example, the male seahorse incubates the eggs, which proves the rule that females always invest more in the offspring because -- well actually I don't know why this happens, but somebody should figure it out.]

The word "gender" only has a distinct meaning in grammar. Otherwise, gender is synonymous with sex. Because I say so.

There are only two sexes and  humans, like all creatures, can only be one or the other, and since sex and gender mean the same thing, it is impossible for people to change their gender or to claim they are of a gender different from their biological sex, therefore trans people do not exist and they should stop pretending that they do.

 

Really. This is a smart guy. Next time, I'll discuss why people can go off the rails like this. 

 

Wednesday Bible Study: Worst Parable Evah

Luke 19 is pretty weird, to say the least. Jesus says that God is like an unjust king, whose subjects do not want him to rule, who takes what isn't rightly his, and who has people who oppose his rule slaughtered in front of him. (Verse 11 et seq).  Remind you of anybody? He also says "‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away." Sounds like the Republican Party platform.

 

By the way, here and in Mark he rides into Jerusalem on a colt. In John, he rides in on an ass, and in Matthew, he rides in on both a colt and an ass. (Neat trick.)  But you know, this is all the inerrant word of God.

 

19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The Parable of the Ten Minas

¹¹ While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. ¹² He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. ¹³ So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas.^[a] ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’

¹⁴ “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’

¹⁵ “He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.

¹⁶ “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’

¹⁷ “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’

¹⁸ “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’

¹⁹ “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’

²⁰ “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. ²¹ I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’

²² “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? ²³ Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’

²⁴ “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’

²⁵ “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’

²⁶ “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ²⁷ But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

²⁸ After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹ As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ³⁰ “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

³² Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. ³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

³⁴ They replied, “The Lord needs it.”

³⁵ They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

³⁷ When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

³⁸ “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”^[b]

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

⁴⁰ “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

⁴¹ As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it ⁴² and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴ They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Jesus at the Temple

⁴⁵ When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. ⁴⁶ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’^[c]; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’^[d]”

⁴⁷ Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. ⁴⁸ Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

Footnotes

1. Luke 19:13 A mina was about three months’ wages.
2. Luke 19:38 Psalm 118:26
3. Luke 19:46 Isaiah 56:7
4. Luke 19:46 Jer. 7:11

 

Timely next installment in Economics 101

 

One last point about Economics 101 may be the most important, but it is likely to be overlooked or even denied in the U.S. today. Economists claim they can show that if all their assumptions are true – perfect information, willing sellers and willing buyers, perfect competition, no externalities – the hypothetical free market will create what is called a Pareto optimum. That is a situation in which no person can be made better off without making someone else worse off. This is the basis of the claim that the free market allocates resources “efficiently.” But there can be a Pareto optimum in which everybody has an equal or close to equal share; and one in which one person has 90% of the wealth and the remaining million people have 10%. The latter is actually much closer to the situation we’re in right now.

There is nothing in the theory of the market to support a claim that whatever distribution results is just, or fair, or desirable. If you don’t think it’s fair that one person has 90% of the wealth, there is no reason in the theory of the market why you shouldn’t tax much of that wealth away and share it with everybody else. Maybe you can think of arguments against doing this, but they aren’t to be found in introductory economics. The question is simply ignored.

 

So, I now turn it over to Paul Campos:

A big lacuna in American political discourse is the absence of the classic idea that the rentier class consists of a bunch of social parasites, who collectively are about as useful as fleas on a dog. The evident fact that an enormous percentage of the plutocracy’s actual membership consists of people who do literally nothing but consume social resources at a decadent and depraved rate, while contributing nothing to society themselves, is something that the American class structure does a remarkable job of concealing from hundreds of millions of people who appear to believe quite sincerely that the ultra-rich are who they are because of a combination of their native talents and their commitment to “hard work.”  . . .

It needs to be repeated often that the vast majority of the people populating our plutocracy do literally no work whatsoever, that their “careers” if any are simply financial Potemkin villages designed to hide that they live off almost always unearned capital — if I had a dollar for every “consultant” “working” on his MacBook in a Boulder cafe while drawing his dividends I wouldn’t have to work for Farley and Lemieux — and that they belong to a social class that, for reasons flowing from a delightful confluence of considerations of social justice and economic efficiency, ought to be taxed, regulated, and criminalized out of existence altogether.  

 

 

A storm for the ages

Well not quite, at least where I am, although farther to the south where they had an ice storm I expect people are extremely miserable. I was right in the bullseye for snow -- I got 18 inches. Fortunately it's very dry and light, on account of it's cold as hell, but that's still a major pain in the ass. I got my truck dug out and my driveway plowed and I made it to the post office and back, just to get a look around. 

 

The PO driveway had been plowed but you had to wade through two feet of snow to get to the front door. I had a snow shovel in my truck so I did the town a favor and shoveled out a path. Looking at our resident's Facebook page I saw a lot of this going on -- people plowing neighbors' driveway, and of course old folks need somebody to shovel for them. (I can still shovel out my vehicles and a path to my front door, but I won't be able to do it forever. I'm not sure what will happen then.)

 

Which, circuitously, leads me to this by Scott Lemieux.  Apparently the inhabitants of Wingnuttia cannot understand how the protests in Minnesota can be happening spontaneously, and that people are just showing up, and volunteering to supply food and beverages and hand warmers. They must have "supply lines," and somebody must be paying them. George Soros, presumably, by way of ANTIFA -- which by the way does not exist, although George Soros does. The fact is they are socially and morally crippled. Like their God Emperor. 

 

 

Sunday Sermonette: Serious confusion

 

Right now it's cold as hell and snowing hard. I'm stuck indoors all day trying to find ways of amusing myself until the Patriots game at 3:00. Meanwhile, the Storm Troopers are rampaging and the crackpot dictator is trying to figure out what country to invade next. Well, life must go on.

Luke 18 is more of those parables that don't quite make sense and only serve to sow moral confusion. He analogizes God to a psychopathic atheistic judge, who will nevertheless oblige petitioners by providing vengeance. That sounds mighty Christian. In the next parable, he says that sinners who confess are preferable to righteous people. Okay, he likes children, that's nice. Then he says it's impossible for rich people to go to heaven, except that it is possible after all because anything is possible. Then he says, perfectly explicitly and literally, [The son of man, i.e. himself ]  will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; ³³ they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” But the disciples have no idea what this is supposed to mean. Then, just for the heck of it, he restore sight to another blind man. BTW, pray all you want, it doesn't work any more.

 

18 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹ To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

¹⁴ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The Little Children and Jesus

¹⁵ People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. ¹⁶ But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷ Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

The Rich and the Kingdom of God

¹⁸ A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’^[a]”

²¹ “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²³ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. ²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

²⁸ Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”

²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰ will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Jesus Predicts His Death a Third Time

³¹ Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. ³² He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; ³³ they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

³⁴ The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

A Blind Beggar Receives His Sight

³⁵ As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. ³⁶ When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. ³⁷ They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

³⁸ He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

³⁹ Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁰ Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, ⁴¹ “What do you want me to do for you?”

“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.

⁴² Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” ⁴³ Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

Footnotes

1. Luke 18:20 Exodus 20:12-16; Deut. 5:16-20

 

Wednesday Bible Study: Again, the preacher and the slave

 Luke 17 has some really ugly shit going on. I like the idea of forgiveness, that it starts out with, but then it gets weird. I'm pretty sure that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can't successfully order trees to uproot themselves and jump into the ocean. I've certainly never heard of anybody pulling that one off. Now, turning to verse 7 et seq, the word rendered here as servant means slave. So Jesus orders us not to thank our slaves for working for us. Then he predicts what Christians today call The Rapture. Remember that this was predicted to happen within the lifetime of the people listening. Don't worry, it is not going to happen.

 

17 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. ² It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. ³ So watch yourselves.

“If your brother or sister^[a] sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. ⁴ Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

⁶ He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

⁷ “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? ⁸ Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? ⁹ Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰ So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

Jesus Heals Ten Men With Leprosy

¹¹ Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹² As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy^[b] met him. They stood at a distance ¹³ and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

¹⁴ When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

¹⁵ One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶ He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

¹⁷ Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸ Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

The Coming of the Kingdom of God

²⁰ Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, ²¹ nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”^[c]

²² Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. ²³ People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. ²⁴ For the Son of Man in his day^[d] will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. ²⁵ But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

²⁶ “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. ²⁷ People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

²⁸ “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. ²⁹ But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

³⁰ “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. ³¹ On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. ³⁵ Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” ^[36] [e]

³⁷ “Where, Lord?” they asked.

He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

Footnotes

1. Luke 17:3 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a fellow disciple, whether man or woman.
2. Luke 17:12 The Greek word traditionally translated leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin.
3. Luke 17:21 Or is within you
4. Luke 17:24 Some manuscripts do not have in his day.
5. Luke 17:36 Some manuscripts include here words similar to Matt. 24:40.