{"id":4297,"date":"2003-09-29T09:18:22","date_gmt":"2003-09-29T16:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4297"},"modified":"2003-09-29T09:18:22","modified_gmt":"2003-09-29T16:18:22","slug":"universals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/09\/29\/universals.html","title":{"rendered":"Universals"},"content":{"rendered":"

People often talk about the universality of religious thoughts and beliefs. “Everyone has a variation on the Golden Rule,” they say. Or, “These various faiths around the world give their believers purpose, a moral code for good behavior, and a faith in the afterlife.”<\/p>\n

Me? I think the one universal among many strong religious believers, regardless of their particular persuasion, is a noted lack of sense of humor<\/a>. (Read first, then continue.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I’ll note, parenthetically, that there is a cell phone service in India in which folks can SMS Ganesh (just as they would have once left a written supplication at a temple) and then get a reply receipt and a picture of the god on their cell phone. So this particular statuette seems in keeping with that (I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it were surplus promotional material).<\/p>\n

Ganesh and I have a strange relationship. I almost went to Ganesha HS in Pomona, California, until my folks decided (for my safety) that I should go to Damien HS instead. And the renaming of the street that ran past the HS and over I-10 — Ganesha Blvd. — to “FairPlex Blvd.” in honor of the Los Angeles Co. Fairgrounds<\/s> FairPlex rebranding in the 1980s was one of my early introduction to nomenclatural visigothery by public officials and their needy coffers.<\/p>\n

And, of course, I play an elephant-headed H’flahmp in Jackie’s Necropolis <\/i>campaign.<\/p>\n

At any rate, I found this new story amusing, in particular the reaction. I’m glad to live in a country where being religiously offensive is in the eye of the beholder, and warrents letters to the editor, rather than legal summons — even when it’s my own ox (or elephant) being gored.<\/p>\n

(via GoaF<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People often talk about the universality of religious thoughts and beliefs. “Everyone has a variation on the Golden Rule,” they say. Or, “These various faiths around the world give their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":134632,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/11\/lamb-eating-elephant-room.html","url_meta":{"origin":4297,"position":0},"title":"The Lamb-Eating Elephant in the Room","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 11-Sep-17 7:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"The group Meat and Livestock Australia is under fire (apparently once again) for a new ad touting Australian lamb. The concept is sort of fun -- gods and goddesses and similar religious figures from a number of faiths gathered around a lunch table, enjoying (of course) lamb. Problem is, one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/australia-lamb-ganesh.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/australia-lamb-ganesh.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/australia-lamb-ganesh.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7963,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/07\/12\/cell_phones_and.html","url_meta":{"origin":4297,"position":1},"title":"Cell phones and car crashes","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Jul-05 9:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"I am getting increasingly ambivalent about cell phone use while driving. Three things drive me to that: More and better studies, such as this one, which point to increased accident...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43253,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/25\/scotus-no-cell-phone-searches-without-a-warrant.html","url_meta":{"origin":4297,"position":2},"title":"SCOTUS – No cell phone searches without a warrant","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Jun-14 3:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow. You don't get a lot of unanimous rulings from the Supreme Court these days, but here's one of them.'Cellphones are unlike anything else police may find on someone they arrest, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. They are \"not just another technological convenience,\" he said, but ubiquitous,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12682,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/02\/26\/faith_snapshot.html","url_meta":{"origin":4297,"position":3},"title":"Faith snapshot","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 26-Feb-08 10:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Les points to a new, massive Pew Research report on the state of religion in the US. Bottom line: it's a diverse picture, and getting moreso over time. A...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/pew-religion.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3600,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/21\/a_bad_sign_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":4297,"position":4},"title":"A bad sign","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 21-Oct-02 9:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"The company I bought a case for my new cell phone from, wpscellular.com, is ... ... well, when the wrong case arrived last Monday, I went to their site to...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27698,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/01\/religion-and-compassion.html","url_meta":{"origin":4297,"position":5},"title":"Religion and compassion","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-May-12 10:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Saw this article being kicked around a few places online today. The quick read, based on the headline, is that religious people are less compassionate than non-believers, or give\/help less because they are \"less compassionate.\"The story itself, though, is a bit different. When looking at why people helped strangers, non-religious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}