The Republicans, apparently feeling that there are no other pressing matters of concern in the governance of our country, are pushing to designate 2010 as the Year of the Bible.
I may surprise you a little bit. I endorse this resolution…with a few caveats. I say the Democrats should vote this bill up as long as there is a little quid pro quo: the Republicans reciprocate by going along with the next couple of Supreme Court nominations Obama makes. Fair enough, I think.
Then, since 2010 is the Year of the Bible, we get to say that all subsequent years are Not the Year of the Bible, and be done with it.
(via Kos)
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Can we reserve 2011 for the Koran?
They are becoming terribly embarrassing. I would support any lawsuit if they made a federal designation off of the Bible, while ignoring every other belief system. Of course, the shit-spewing Republicans will tell us to look at it historically, while believing the opposite.
This is parody. Right?
Right?
The sponsor of this resolution seems like a real wingnut.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Broun
Would not this be an action implicitly endorsing religion of the christian flavor? I thought that was unconstitutional.
I'm all for this on the stipulation that 2011 is the Year of the Koran, 2012 the Year of the Kabbalah, 2013 the Year of the Vedas, and so on.
One of many problems with this resolution:
"Whereas many of our Presidents have recognized the importance of God and the Bible, including . . . Ronald Reagan, who declared 1983 as ‘The National Year of the Bible’ . . . ."
We've already had a year of the bible!
Bring it on.
"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." -Issac Asimov
Pretty damn ironic to follow up the (non-official) year of Darwin with the Year of the Bible. Probably a magical attempt to compensate for such heathenism.
Sorry, the Bible was done for 150 years ago, if you can charitably claim that it was (somewhat) believable before that.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
I highly doubt it, Watchman. The Republicans are literally bowing to social conservatives and the Religious Right, which is why I am sadly looking back to the Goldwater days. Ironically, they have also critiqued Obama for pursuing trivial matters, while pulling unconstitutional acts like this. There should be no federal designation for the Bible, unless they acknowledge every other religious text, including the tomes of the FSM.
That's 2010 BCE, right?
Well I guess I'll be writing my Congresscritter and asking him what the fuck is going on up on Capital Hill that they're waisting time on this shit.
Yup. As evidenced by his wacko comments, he primary sponsor of this absurd act is a genuine nut. You can acknowledge your deity without glorifying him in the public square. Simplicity, fellas. Quite frankly, I am sick of these federal designations.
Thanks, Matt... Really, I did know that. I was being darkly wry. ;-)
I love it. They can have one year, sure. We'll take the rest...of time!
I knew that was the most likely thing, Watchman, but I sometimes mistake the actions of the Republicans for intentional comedy. They are thralls to the neo-cons and social conservatives at the moment, which is rather pathetic. An unfortunate reality...
DGKnipfer:
Don't forget to spell "wasting" correctly in your letter.
2014 should be Year of Green Eggs and Ham.
Let's do it if we can get them to alternate years - there are a lot more important scientific treatises than there are important holy books, after all. Stifling creativity will come back to bite them in the ass once again.
I think it's a great idea. I think that each year we should also have a Jesus week. Oh wait, we kinda do already.
/sarcasm
"we get to say that all subsequent years are Not the Year of the Bible"
Come to think of it, the preceding 14 billion years have also been Not the year of the Bible. I find that a pleasant thought.
There are only two possible replies:
1. crickets…
2. “Uuugh.”
I suppose you might have a literate critter in Congress, so I guess that, in theory, a third answer is possible, but that's so unlikely the probability is much higher that everyone in the world likes Vogon poetry.
And it's the Asses, not the Thugs, who are now the majority… which is why choice two is now a possibility.
Thankfully, all of the sponsors of this hideous resolution are Republicans. I highly doubt that Obama would approve of designating this at the federal level (and our Founders would concur), considering the fact that we are a nation that has been enriched by all faiths, and not simply the Bible. To be frank, I've read more intriguing religious texts in my lifetime.
Not to mention his rather nice comments on non-believers, too. Of course, the mere mention of us sent the Christian Right into a wild, uncontrollable rage. They rarely practice what they preach nowadays.
Oh, the hypocricy.
And they got all insulted when we wanted to have just one day for the Darwin celebrations -- insulted that is, until they decided to co-opt the Darwin theme and use it as an excuse to present Creationist programs. Now they want to have a whole year to focus on the bible?
Still, I'm with PZ on this one. I hate to see official imprimatur given to the bible, but let's give them all the attention they want and then some. Maybe some people will finally get that the bible is about 80 percent whacko violence, threats, racism, and so forth.
Maybe the Mormons will mount a campaign for a Year of the Book of Mormon. As someone noted above, we can have a Year of the Koran. We'll end up with comparative religion classes by accident. Could be good.
Let's help them shoot themselves in the foot.
So what's the over-under on a National Baptism Day?
Slightly off topic, but rather amusing:
Yesterday, a creationist pathetically attempted to substantiate his claims that evolution is false by asking, "Why have we only recently had toasters? If we've been evolving for thousands of years, why the sudden knowledge?"
I shit you not. This was genuine.
What does this even mean?
Is this supposed to be a reaction to Darwin year?
I'll consider going along with it, if these guys promise to actually read the bible word for word. Once they're done they will not longer support anything having to do with it.
Skeptico,
I ran spell check on it first. Never was any good at spelling.
And if evolution was true wouldn't we expect to see blendoasters (blender-toaster missing link)? Or even a cross between a spoon and a fork...oh wait...
There was a news story on these kind of bills on NPR this morning. It basically noted that silly stuff like this was designed to keep Congresscritters in DC when action on the floor was slow, so they could do things like be in committee meetings and other legislative activities that do not involve being part of the whole body of Congress.
If we're going to make it Year of the Bible, I'll go along with it provided:
1. Other religious/mythological works get their own year. No IOUs.
2. Someone gives quizzes to all Congresscritters who vote for this, showing that they've actually *read* the book, rather than just the Cliff's Notes and what their priests/pastors/etc. tell them it says.
"Should I write a letter to my Congressman?
Each Congressman has got two ends;
A sitting end, & a thinking end,
& since his whole existence depends upon his seat...
Why bother, friend?"
(--a poem by 'Khazakh' Stan Smythe, 1927-1999)
I'm disappointed. Michelle Bachmann is not one of the co-sponsors of this bill.
PZ, you are a genius. No more bible years. Yahoo! Can we have the century of the atheist?
So 2010 will be the year of the "bullshit", eh? Let's spread the word and retitle that insane crap "Lavatory Wipes: Use Liberally".
How about "Year of the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics", huh?
At least the information it contains is accurate (within clearly stated margins of error) and subject to revision should more accurate data be measured.
-DU-
A few additions to the bill:
Whereas the Bible has been used to justify slavery, including the use of virgin girls as sex slaves;
Whereas the Bile has been used to justify genocide, including infanticide--as well as the death of innocent animals;
Whereas the Bible has been used to condone the rape of women, the environment, or anything that moves;
Whereas the Bible has been used to justify ill-gotten gain as evidence of God's favor;
Whereas the Bible has been used to elevate ignorance over knowledge, hatred over charity, discrimination over acceptance;
Whereas the Bible has been used to justify wars, including the use of any contemporary weapons of mass destruction;
Whereas the Bible has been used to justify the treatment of women and children as chattel, including their physical abuse and even murder;
Whereas the Bible celebrates the past and future death of "unsaved" billions as justice rendered;
Whereas the Bible justifies capital punishment for victimless crimes, followed by eternal torture at the hands of a petty deity;
It is resolved that the President encourage fundamentalist Christians to read*** their own Bibles.
***Reading being defined as actually reading it as a work of literature instead of an 8-ball-like source of random quotes to justify one's prejudices.
I can see it now! Year-of-the-Bible paper drives sponsored by the Boy Scouts! Lots of environmentally correct recycling!
I'm sure I have one of those Gideon hand-out Bibles around here somewhere. Count me in!
Well, in all fairness, the Republicans have little or nothing to do with governing our country anymore anyway. So they really do have nothing better to do with their time.
Do we need to say "Hitler" to make a point?
Godwin's law.
as long as there is a little quid pro quo
I read that as " a little squid pro quo" I've been here too long. :)
Matt and Carole have me thinking we need a year of the Bacon wrapped Squid.
I would agree to this provided they declared 2012 the Year of The Cat in The Hat, and required all presidential candidates to speak only in verse for the duration of the election.
I can see it now: a web site devoted to the 365 biggest blunders of the Bible. Each day we could point out a passage that is either immoral, patently untrue, or self-contradictory. What fun.
Yeah, I'd go for it as long as this little cartoon video about the bible is included and they all have to watch it!
"Year of the Bible"!
Let the stonings commence!
Now, shall we start with Behe Or Ham?
Oh, I know! Bananaman, that worthless cretin, he'll volunteer to a return to the old ways.
I call on 2016 for the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy!
I fully support this proposal. Let's certainly have a Year of the Bible, and let's urge all Christians to read the Bible in its entirety from Genesis 1:1 to the end of Revelation.
The resulting tide of newly-minted atheists will be...delicious. :)
I can has year of Gilgamesh?
In which the State of The Union Address will start with the words "Don't Panic", and a State Department travel advisory will describe Canadians as "mostly harmless".
how 'bout 2010...."year of the balanced budget!"
They will need to be specific as to what version of the bible we are celebrating...right???
I hope people aren't taking Asimov's quip about the Bible making atheists too literally.
There are plenty of Xians who have read the Bible through, and they get bragging rights for it.
The reason they aren't put off by it is that they already know what it says, and either have their little excuses all ready for the "problem texts," or are simply confused by them.
Mostly, they aren't too much affected by evidence from any source. And yes, we know some are, so don't worry about the exceptions. What the majority must do is to think rightly, and that includes not getting the "wrong message" from Biblical incitements to genocide. It really is a "different worldview," except that it's not so much a view of the world as a kind of tribal view that they're induced to swallow whole.
Sure, if you're looking at the world according to proper rules of evidence, the Bible is pretty good at making Judaism and Xianity look bad. But if you're "thinking right," you tend to be confirmed in your faith, as you nod in reverent agreement with all of the parts that you already believe, and marvel at God's love for the world.
I'm sure that most people here know this already. I wouldn't want anyone to believe that reading the Bible is going to repel most people from religion, though, and I'm afraid that a few might get that idea from some of the comments here.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
Simple solution. Since the constitution states that the federal government can't favour one religion over another, this has to be done for other religions too. As such, they should be required to make 2011 the year of the Koran.
Say bye bye bill :D
I believe that poem was written by E.Y. Harburg.
Has anyone else here read Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace, and been immediately struck by the conclusion that the Year of the Whopper and the Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad are not too far behind?
reading the Bible is going to repel most people from religion
Leviticus breeds apostates.
That's 2010 BCE, right?
holy crap! I think you're really on to something there!
I propose that we use the federal legislature to posthumously assign celebratory years!
I mean, we have billions of years to play with before this one!
why impose on an uncertain future when we can rewrite the past?
I hereby claim 1.758m BCE as the year of the Pomacentrid!
embrace your inner fish, heathens!
I didn't read the previous comments so I apologize if this has been mentioned already.
I belong to the Secular Coalition for America. Through them I sent a letter to President Obama and my legislators advising against this ridiculous concept. It costs nothing to join and you get bulletins about nonsense like this with pre-written letters that you can email. You can edit them or write your own. Of course donations are accepted.
Oops, meant to add this:
http://www.secular.org/about.html
This must have something to do with 2009 being Darwin's 200th and the Origin's 150th? Are the Christians doing this committing the sin of envy? Is it that they want their own year now? Despite the fact it's an arbitrary year that has no special relation to the Bible, unlike 2009 to Darwin.
politicians have been pulling stunts like this since the spaghetti monster invented stupid.
it doesn't matter one whit whether the resolution lives or dies. all that matters is being able to go home to the constituents and point at your opponent and say:
"that bastard voted against "kittens fer jebus!"
the Year of the Whopper and the Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad
Aren't those the same year? The latter always seems to follow the former... unless you have a really slow digestion (or you celebrate late in the day on 31 December)...
No. 2001 was the year of the Koran.
[quote]Each Congressman has got two ends;
A sitting end, & a thinking end,[/quote]
Which is which?
I would totally trade a Year of the Bible for universal health care and the Supreme Court, as long as nobody demands that I read the Bible again. (Although I'd probably pull it out often enough anyway, because my boyfriend and I keep having these conversations wherein I tell him something happened in the Bible or Christopher Hitchens, via Audible, tells him that something happened in the Bible. And John goes, "REALLY? WTF?" And I pull it up and show him the relevant verses.)
I'm lobbying to designate 2010 as the Year of Burning Bibles! We could probably generate enough energy to supply a few small cities with power for a year and they would finally have served some useful purpose.
Koran, schmoran; Qabalah, schmabalah; Ayurveda schmayurvenda!
2011 will be the Year of the Bible 2, '12 = YoB 3, and so on.
As with the AD™ system, there is no Year Zero.
Isn't it a thrill to be present at the birth of a new era?
No problem with 2010 being the Year of the Bible… as long as 2011 is the Year of the Qur'an, 2012 the Year of the Satanic Bible, 2013 the Year of the Eight I'd Really Rather You Didn'ts, 2014 the Year of The Egyptian Book of the Dead, 2015 the Year of the Code of Hammurabi, 2016 the Year of the Torah, 2017 the Year of Dianetics, and each receives exactly the same level of support down to the last cent — let's see how the Fundagelicals like them apples.
You guys seem to be forgetting that 2012 is the Year of the Expiring Mayan Calendar. It looks like the xians might just get the last word in.
Crap.
Was this resolution filed before or after Obama personally burned the Holy Bibles of dozens of troops to send a smoke signal of surrender to the Taliban?
I'll agree to a Year of the Bible only if I get to pick the official daily quotes from the Bible.
Hang on, I also want to see:
Year of the Koran
Year of the Talmud
Year of the Torah
(yay - the Jews have two books!)
Year of the Necronomicon
Another year of the Necronomicon (and so on because there are so many of them)
Remember, without all the other bibles a 'year of the bible' would constitute a violation of the Establishment Clause.
@ChipSuey:
Year of Teh Babble is just another name for the Year of the Glad Flaccid Trash Receptical.
Watch for giant ferral infants...
I was miffed enough when they didn't name this century the Century of the Fruitbat. And now this? America, what are you coming to...?
The wingnut sponsoring this junk is also responsible for a bunch of other pointless sputum:
H.J.Res. 50: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage.
H.Res. 386: Commending the University of Georgia Gymnastics Team for winning the 2009 NCAA National Championship.
H.R. 227: Sanctity of Human Life Act
H.R. 1621: Pledge Language is English Declaration and Government Endorsement Act of 2009
Just another cookie cutter jeebus heap
I thought 300 AD was the year of the Bible.
Well, at least we get 2009 as the year of Darwin, so ha!
re: DaveL @ #44
"I would agree to this provided they declared 2012 the Year of The Cat in The Hat, and required all presidential candidates to speak only in verse for the duration of the election."
But then they'll say NO!
"Can't mock the Word of God!"
You'll hear it from every worm, preacher, and fraud.
They're the party of NO!
Can't have irony, see?
Don't expect any better from the ol' GOP.
Doesn't the Bible say something about worshipping the creator, not the creation? Isn't the Bible a creation? (I know that's using the Bible to condemn itself, but the Xtians often use the Bible to prove itself.)
Doesn't the Bible say something about praying quietly at home, instead of loudly in public?
I vote to make it year of Call of Cthulhu
Stupid Republicans. They're supposed to designate 2010 as the Year Americans Give Tim Gueguen Lots of Money, not waste time on Bible worship.
i count a LOT of bibles. 2010, KJV. 2011, NASV. 2012, RASB ...
it's a trap!
/Ackbar
Indeed. Matthew 6:5-6:
With the above updates, Jesus could have been talking to the American fundagelicals.
Argh. Sorry about formatting mess.
Let's try this again, with the correct formatting.
Indeed. Matthew 6:5-6:
With the above updates, Jesus could have been talking about the American fundagelicals.
Maybe if they endorsed teaching all the horrible stuff their precious god used to do, and all the things humans did in the name of that god, that would be great. Also, teach the cosmological model one can get from that book, and show why it is completely contradicted by the evidence. Also, teach everyone the history of religion in general and Christianity in particular, and why the Bible consists of the books it does.
I also think that this millennium should be declared The Millennium of Science and Reason.
Walton, don't try to use the Bible to comment on the practice of Christianity. That bit about praying in private is obsolete, like the bits about wearing cotton-polyester shirts and eating pork.
Next step: Watching the fur fly when they get down to a debate on *which* version. The KJV-only set will be scurrying to pass a new resolution excluding NIV, RSV and other editions that they judge to be deficient in "thous" and "begats."
Put it on C-SPAN and we can all enjoy unreality TV.
Fortunately, my coffee mug was still some 500ms away from my mouth when I read that, so this time at least, my laptop stays dry and unsticky.
Though to answer your question, they are both the same. The head at the other end, is after all a largely empty vessel that acts as a place holder for the hair, shiny teeth, forked tongue and an outlet for lots of hot air. Oh and not forgetting it's role as a holder of the lie indicator, i.e. lips moving.
My question was supposed to be Rhetorical & sarcastic. I knew the answer.
I agree: if they want it to be the Year of the Bible, they have to read it. Word for word.
The religious right hasn't been in a position of non-influence for a long time. I think if they really wanted to stay relevant in the conversation, they should reach out a little more and not try to create issues like shouting at the Democrats who aren't Christian on the floor of the House.
Those Republicans are lame.
bluescat48, I suspected as much but couldn't resist, naughty of me I know :)
@89 Walton has a point, whilst the pork and cloth of two fibres thing is Old Testament and xians may (the gospels aren't clear on this point)be excused from these laws, Matthew (bless his little cotton socks)is New Testament. This all xians must at least give lip service to following.
ps I would like to thank Walton for bringing these verses to my attention as I would like to put them on a card so I can show the annoying amongst the faithful.
Wouldn't it be better with 'Recycle a Bible' year?
Since they are filled to the brim with crap so that they can't even be used as toilet paper, it might be an idea to find out if they are suitable as manure.
BTW, is it blue scat or blues cat? Makes a bit of a difference!
When I read something like this, I'm comforted by the fact that radical nutballs have come and gone for millenia, and yet we persist. That's what helps me get through the day. That's what helps me sleep at night.
Cool! Can we get them to pay their taxes with the "render unto Caeser" passage? Surely we should remind them that "it's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle then it is for the rich to get into heaven." Also, they must not eat shellfish, and mix fabric--and Jesus specifically instructs them to pray in the closet, doesn't he?
I'm all for it, so long as smart people get to cherry pick the bible rather than the religiotards. I think it's high time that people who claim to follow that book be called upon to defend some of the more heinous passages. Do they think that stoning unruly children is good moral advice? Say, aren't they children of god? I better start collecting stones...
The 'Year of the Bible' does not sound so bad. Presumably, all of those in-the-know religion and archeology professionals from accredited universities would have a full year to openly and loudly explain to the masses why the church tales about the bible do not correspond to what is actually known about the bible and it's history from scientific study.
Yes, let's talk for a year about what academians know about the bible, but that popular media and their religious cronies were afraid to convey.
And as PZ said, we would have to establish that subsequent years were 'Not the Year of the Bible' and should ceremoniously point-out that fact each year.
Serious bible study is the fast-track to freethinking secularism and higher moral standards.