Sunday Funnies

Epimenides' Paradox

"All Cretans are liars"

Epimenides
A Cretan Liar?

Or so the philosopher and poet Epimenides of Knossos (6th century BCE) is reputed to have once uttered. The statement is considered a paradox because Epimenides was himself a resident of the Isle of Crete. If all Cretans are liars then the statement itself would be a lie... or that at least one Cretan is not a liar. This statement would be true only if it was false.

There is biblical reference to Epimenides and this particular paradoxical declaration... albeit one that indicates Paul the Apostle seriously misunderstood the nature of the statement.

600 years after Epimenides was dead and buried, writing in Titus 1:12, Paul is quoted as saying "even one of their own prophets has said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.' This testimony is true." Paul obviously considers Epimenides’ to be denouncing his own people, and Paul himself agrees with that low opinion. He was apparently upset with the Cretans obstruction of Titus in his mission to the island.

Like most all of the Bible, Paul misses the point and displays classic religionistic ignorance. Epimenides was not derogating his tribe… he was attempting to demonstrate logical antinomy.

Math and science… baffling the faithful for 6,000 years.

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Henry Wade not the only corrupt District Attorney in Texas

A Church going Boy Scout leader, former DA and staunch Republican sitting judge finally faces the music for a 25-year-old injustice.

"At issue in the court of inquiry is whether Mr. Anderson committed criminal misconduct in 1987 when he turned over only a few pages of evidence to Judge William Lott, who had asked the prosecutor to submit exculpatory evidence.

Whether or not it was Sheriff Boutwell’s errant investigation that prompted Mr. Anderson to discount the evidence, Mr. Morton’s lawyers say the prosecutor had a legal responsibility to disclose that information. 

'That does not excuse failing to obey a court order,' said Barry Scheck, a co-founder of the Innocence Project."

One more innocent is free, and maybe this time the careless perpetrator of the injustice will pay some kind of price for his "hang 'em high" style of injustice.

[See also the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, In which our good Texas Governor Rick Perry illegally and improperly intervened to ensure that Willingham was not as lucky as Michael Morton.]

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Awakening can be painful

Damsel, Arise: A Westboro Scion Leaves Her Church

The not right Rev. Fred Phelpss  preaches an obscenely bigoted brand of christianity. Phelps'son Nate walked away from the church years ago and has spent a great deal of time trying to defuse the damage daddy and the rest of the Phelps family wreak on grieving families. 

Now Nate's sister Megan has done the same.

"Mostly, the tears have subsided—'in public, anyway,' she says one afternoon, as we sit in a Tribeca café. 'I still cry a lot.' Forget what you know of the church. Just imagine what it is like to walk away from everything you have ever known. Consider how traumatic it would be to know that your family is never supposed to speak to you again. Think of how hard it would be to have a fortress of faith built around you, and to have to dismantle it yourself, brick by brick, examining each one and deciding whether there’s something worth keeping or whether it’s not as solid as you thought it was."

Some people will go to their grave still believing in the bullshit of religion. Megan may be one of those, but at least she has stepped away from that batshit preacher of hate and false dogma. 

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H/T Hemant