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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Roy Refuted??

In a previous post, we read of yet another rant by Ol' Roy, concerning apparent contradictions in the Bible, as seen in The Paris News. Now it seems someone has written in to refute Roy's assertions - here is the text of the letter:

(from the Paris News December 27th edition)

The Thursday, Dec. 14, "Letters" column included a letter called "can't prove" in which the writer endeavored to prove the Bible wrong. He sites Ezra 2:64 and another account of the same event in Nehemiah 7:66. The Bible totals for an assembly of priests who could not find their ancestral history in the genealogy of the nation of Israel and were considered unclean, therefore being found unworthy of priestly service, they were being omitted from the priesthood.

Both Biblical accounts of the story give the same number of priests being excluded. The writer listed a "correct" total from Ezra as 29,818 and a "correct" total for Nehemiah as 31,089. The writer does not say where he obtained his "correct" totals, or what source he could be using that is more reliable than the Holy Bible. Maybe he can explain why his two totals, for the same event, are not the same.

Then, in an effort to prove the Bible wrong, the writer simply quotes from Number 31:17-18. This passage is where Moses tells the men of Israel to kill all of the women and boy children of the Midianites. Many of the men of Israel had been in adultery with these women. The Law of Moses called for all adulterers and adulteresses to be put to death. The guilty men of Israel had already died of a plague and the women were to be killed. The boy children were to be killed to keep them from growing up and trying to destroy Israel to honor their fathers. The little girls were to be kept alive and when the girls grew up they would be made wives of the Israelite boys. They were not child molesters or cold-blooded killers, if that is what was implied.

Finally, the writer references 1 Peter 4:7, "The end of the world is coming soon (said 2000 years ago)." The verse reads, "But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers." NKJV For an understanding of that verse, one must also read many other passages including, 2 Peter 3:8 "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" NKJV. So, with the Lord, there has only been two days since Peter said, "The end of the world is coming soon."

When we look at the facts and consider the scripture in proper context it seems we still can't prove the Bible wrong.

Kary Prince
Thank you Kary Prince for addressing Roy's somewhat misguided ;) view of Biblical texts.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

I Pity The Fool....

Christmas Tree...who has waited until now to do his or her shopping - thankfully, mine is complete (other than a trip to the grocery store later on this afternoon to get stuff for Christmas Eve goodies). Yesterday's Christmas Party at work went well - waaaay too much food as usual. On the agenda for today: Wrap all the presents that aren't wrapped yet, go to the store for groceries and perhaps a few stocking stuffers, pre-stuff the stuffed mushrooms so they can just cook tomorrow, and perhaps later this evening, drive around and take pics of Christmas lights.
Speaking of pictures, I borrowed Mallory's Santa hat that says "Precious" on it for a photo shoot with Snickers.
Precious

Awwww......

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Final Stretch

Well, it seems we've all recovered from Roy's stunningly pointless observations - until next time. In other news, this weekend represents the last non-Christmas Eveish chance to wrap up (pun most definitely intended) your shopping, making way for the final thrust this week into the holiday weekend coming up. I was planning on doing just that today - then going out to take pics of Christmas lights this evening (not too late, though - the magic hour for Christmas light pics is right after sunset, about 30 minutes, no more. Any later and you have to overexpose the lights to get any sky light, or expose the lights correctly and get a pitch black sky). Unfortunately, I suffered an extreme case of Saturday Laziness and I have done absolutely nothing all day long, other than mess around on the computer, download some MORE Christmas music to annoy my coworkers with all week long, and....uh....and....well, I guess that's about it.

I guess that means I'll have to finish the rest of my shopping this week - not that there's much left, not after last weekend's mad dash to Arlington and other Metroplexian destinations. One thing left to do is for me to decide what I'm bringing to our Christmas party at work - I was thinking of a kind of stuffed mushroom recipe, but closer to a pizza - take some whole shrooms, remove the stems (and chop them up to add to the stuffing), baste the shrooms in olive oil, or sautee some miced garlic in olive oil and use the garlic in the stuffing and use the garlic-infused olive oil to baste the shrooms. Then I might add some pizza sauce (just a bit) inside the shrooms, then stuff with a mixture of sausage, mozzarella, parmesan, green onion, those sauteed bits of garlic, bread crumbs, and anything else that sounds good. Then broil the shrooms until the cheese melts and browns - it sounds good in my head but I better try it first before the party Friday, just in case it doesn't taste as good in real life as it doesn in my head, ha ha.

Then Sunday is our annual Christmas Eve party thing - not really a party (well, it didn't use to be, but it kinda evolved over the years). Mom is even now fretting about having to cook all the food (its not that much, just time consuming), even though she knows we will all do some of it (although I admit Mom does most of it). Gotta remember to have extra shrimp for Kathy - she really dogged the shrimp last year, ha ha - just kidding Kathy, we all love you -- just hope there's enough for everyone! Anyway, that's all the posting I'm doing today - more to come later!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Bible Math...Explained!

(thanks to Dee for the title)

Seems our good friend Roy has spoken (or rather, written) yet another bit of profound wisdom. From the Paris News:

Letters to the Editor
December 14, 2006

To the Editor:

A recent letter to the Editor said, “They can’t prove the Bible wrong.”

In Ezra 2:64 the Bible total is 42,360. The correct total is 29,818.

In the same story in Nehemiah 7:66 the Bible total is 42,360. The correct total is 31,089.

Numbers 31:17-18. “Now kill all the boys and women who have had sexual intercourse. Only little girls you may keep alive for yourselves.”

I Peter 4:7. The end of the world is coming soon. (Said 2000 years ago).

Some of the wording may vary slightly in different Bible translations.

Roy Bunch
Now we've seen some of Roy's...uh....'special' nuggets of wisdom before, such as his plan to give North Dakota to the Jews to solve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Or his pontifications about how silly it was for God to choose the Hebrews as his chosen people. However much we might disagree with his reasoning, at least those previous letters of Roy's had some form of reasoning present. His latest letter to the editor....well, it took me awhile to figure out what Roy was aiming at in his Biblical criticism. Apparently, he's referring to an 'apparent' contradiction in the Bible regarding the census of the Hebrews given in both Ezra and Nehemiah. Without resorting to a lengthy (and copied and pasted) explanation, here is a link to a site that does a fairly good job of presenting a possible theory without resorting to the 'scribe errors' often cited by critics as proof of the fallacy of the Bible.

http://www.geocities.com/brandplucked/Ezra2.html

As for the other passages cited, well, I have to get up early, and there's no time to go into detail on them tonight - perhaps Roy might care to elaborate at some point.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Christmas Shopping Begins!


Saturday I went to Arlington (well, I went several places in the Metroplex but most of my shopping was at the mall there in Arlington), braving the traffic and crowds (ugh). Actually it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be - I bet if I went back the last weekend before Christmas, then it might be a tad worse, ha ha.

Anyway, I got most of my shopping done, with a few exceptions which will be taken care of this week most likely. So I'm getting all my shopping done waaay earlier than usual - kinda cool.

Anyway, I kept noticing something all the while at the mall (and at Fry's, and at PetsMart, and everywhere else): even thought Christmas is supposed to be a happy, joyous time, most if not nearly all of the peeps out shopping were glum, rude, and certainly not full of the "Christmas Spirit". Kinda ironic, dontcha think?

The strange thing about all my shopping is that the easiest 'person' to buy for was Snickers - and she almost had the most spent on her - I got her a ramp so she can easily get in and out of the car when we go for a walk at the track. I also got her a giant bed/pillow so she won't have to lay on the hard flat floor. I also got her something from Sharper Image - an ionic grooming brush that conditions the coat and gets rid of dog smell! Shhhh! Don't tell her I got this stuff (I hope Snickers doesn't read my blog.....)