Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Draco Malfoy becomes unlikely Lunar New Year mascot in China (February 4) Lol, this is very funny. So the Chinese translation of Malfoy's name is 马尔福 [mǎ ěr fú], where the 马 [mǎ] is the Chinese word for "horse" and the 福 [fú] means happiness and good fortune and is used all the time at Chinese New Year. So now, because it's about to be the Year of the Horse, apparently Malfoy is a Chinese New Year mascot.

Chinese culture is weirdly into puns, so I am not surprised that suddenly Malfoy is a thing for Chinese New Year. I haven't seen any of these decorations myself in the wild, but if I do I will definitely let you all know.

2. This xkcd about Groundhog Day. Also this one about proofs.

3. Purity Culture is Pedophile Culture (September 8, 2025, via Why It Matters that Jeffrey Epstein Recommended James Dobson) [content note: child sexual abuse] This is a blog series about how most child sexual abuse is committed by a father, step-father, relative, or family friend- this is true, we have statistics on this, and James Dobson knows this- but instead of doing something to help protect children from father/daughter incest, Dobson and other purity culture leaders teach an ideology where parents have total control over their children's bodies, where a daughter's virginity belongs to her father until marriage, where the father-daughter relationship is described in borderline-creepy romantic terms. Yikes.

4. How to be less awkward (January 7, via) "I learned an important lesson that day: when it comes to being awkward, the coverup is always worse than the crime."

5. How to Teach Textual Criticism To Fifth-Graders (July 23, 2025, via) "If Billy wrote his primary copy in pencil, though, and you feel like messing with them even further, get an eraser and do a fairly sloppy job of erasing everything he wrote."

6. Bad Bunny's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show (February 9) I don't speak any Spanish, so I'm not really able to tell you if this is good or not. But I liked it.

7. They're cured of leprosy. Why do they still live in leprosy colonies? (February 7) "In fact, leprosy — also known as Hansen's disease — is one of the least contagious diseases there is. Ninety-five percent of humans are naturally immune and it's not easily contracted by the other 5%. Today, leprosy is easily cured with antibiotics, especially if detected early."

8. The vegetables on VeggieTales are not Christian (December 10, 2025, via) "Mike Asparagus is not a Christian; he is an actor who occasionally portrays Christian characters. You might compare Mike Asparagus to Mark Williams, who is not a practicing Christian, but still portrays the fictional character of Father Brown on TV[.]" I am so here for this.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Pardon the Corruption (December 2, 2025, via) "DOJ lawyers normally apply standard criteria for pardons, these include: post-conviction conduct, character and reputation; seriousness and relative recentness of the offense; acceptance of responsibility, remorse, and atonement; and need for relief. The ideal case was someone who had served significant time, especially for more serious crimes, expressed remorse, and faced real hardship because of their conviction. Now, the ideal case is a wealthy supporter of the President who would prefer never to see the inside of a jail cell for their crimes."

2. Lawyers allege Dept. of Homeland Security is denying legal counsel to Minnesota detainees (January 19, via) "'One ICE agent said if we let you see your clients, we would have to let all the attorneys see their clients, and imagine the chaos,' said another attorney who asked not to be named. 'And I said to that person, yeah, you do have to let all the attorneys see their clients. You do have to accommodate that. That’s the Constitution. You chose to put them here. I didn't bring this guy here, you did.'"

3. Epstein Files Reveal How Pathetic Richard Dawkins & Other Men Are (February 6, transcript here) The Epstein files give an inside look at some drama that was going on with sexual harassment in the atheist community.

4. Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting (February 1) So... this is strange and I don't know what to make of it. I saw this news a few days ago but decided not to share the link yet, because it was only ProPublica reporting it, so I wanted to wait and see if it would be verified by other big news sites, before I shared the link. In the article here, ProPublica says they found the 2 names by looking at "government records"- but I don't understand what these "government records" are and how they got them.

So I guess let's still be skeptical about this? I'm sharing the link now because this was published a week ago and there still seems to be nothing mentioned on the other mainstream news sites (except The Guardian), and I find that very strange.

5. The unfathomable Minnesota transcript that must be read, as it tells the reality of America today (February 5) "What -- what can the Court expect going forward, because this is obviously not workable, and it's certainly not an example of complying with the Court's order, unless you feel it is?"

6. Trump refuses to apologize after posting racist meme of the Obamas (February 7) "'It's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,' said Scott, who is Black."

7. Immigrant whose skull was broken in 8 places during ICE arrest says beating was unprovoked (February 7) "He remembers Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulling him from a friend's car on Jan. 8 outside a St. Paul shopping center and throwing him to the ground, handcuffing him, then punching him and striking his head with a steel baton."

Adding Incest to the Story of Cain

A chart showing the descendants of Adam, in the bible. Image source.

I recently read "Genesis for Normal People," and I want to talk about the story of Cain.

This story is from Genesis 4. Adam and Eve (the first humans) have 2 sons: Cain and Abel. Cain murders Abel. And then the part I want to talk about is what happens after that. 

As punishment for murdering Abel, God says that Cain will have to wander the earth. Cain is really not happy about this- he is afraid that "whoever finds me will kill me." So God puts a mark of some kind on him to tell people not to kill him. Then Cain moves away, and he and his wife have a child, and he builds a city.

"Genesis for Normal People" says this (page 33):

If you have ever read this story to inquisitive children, you know what's coming next-- the dreaded question that terrified Sunday School teachers pray is never asked: "Where did Cain get his wife from?" (I don't know, Susie. Ask your parents.) Along with that question, we can also add, "Where did this posse come from that Cain is so afraid of, and why exactly would one man in exile build a city?"

Even children recognize that if Adam and Eve were the first humans, and if Cain and Abel were their children, and if Abel is dead-- that leaves three people on earth. So Genesis 4 just drops a bunch of other people in our laps without bothering to explain where they came from.

Some, who still want to read Genesis 2-4 as another account of creation, find an answer in Genesis 5:4, where we learn that Adam had "other sons and daughters." So are we supposed to believe that Cain married his sister? Besides the fact that that's gross and a little creepy, let's also remember the story doesn't say that or even suggest it. That is a made-up explanation. And besides, Genesis 5:4 seems to say that these other children were born after Seth, Adam and Eve's replacement child for Abel-- all of that happened after the banishment of Cain and his marriage to his mysterious wife. And finally, think about this: for Cain to find a wife among his sisters while wandering around as a fugitive would mean that at least one sister (actually, a lot of brothers and sisters since Cain builds a city) would have been banished too. But again, the story doesn't say any of that.

Here's a simpler explanation: there were other people living outside of the Garden of Eden all along, even if the story doesn't explain it. Which leads to this: maybe the story of Adam and Eve isn't about the first human beings. Maybe it's about something else. And that something else is this:

The Adam story is a story of Israel in miniature, a preview of coming attractions.

!!!!!! Oh, yes, I read all the apologetics books back in the day, and yes they certainly do talk about the question "where did Cain get his wife?" The answer that's given in the apologetics books is: Cain must have married his sister or niece. And this was okay back then because Adam and Eve had completely perfect genes. But later, many many generations after Adam and Eve, the effects of sin in the world had caused more and more mutations in people's genes- so incest is a bad idea now, but back then at the creation of the world, it was fine.

Yes, really, if you believe that Adam and Eve were the first 2 people, and everyone is descended from them, then you have to get into these fan theories about how sin causes genetic mutations. You have to make arguments that incest was okay back then but not okay now.

"Genesis for Normal People" points out that NONE OF THAT IS IN THE BIBLE! The bible does NOT say "Cain married his sister." People just made that up because it follows logically from Adam and Eve being the only people on earth originally. But don't take it that seriously! It's not a true story!

It's just FASCINATING how Christians go from "I believe the bible" to "incest was okay during the time of Adam and Eve and I will die on this hill" when the bible doesn't say that at all! It doesn't!

(I mean, if you want actual bible stories about incest: Abraham and Sarah were half-brother/half-sister. Jacob married his cousins Rachel and Leah. The bible has incest. But the story of Cain doesn't, unless you need it as part of your fan theories.)

When you believe in inerrancy, and you read the bible, you see things in the stories that actually aren't there. Like the incest in the story of Cain. 

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Posts about "Genesis for Normal People":

"Genesis for Normal People": Separating "what the writer meant" from "what is true" and "what it means for us"
God Made the Firmament
When the Bible is Racist
To what extent do I care what the biblical writers meant?
Adding Incest to the Story of Cain

Related

Children's Bibles and "turning ambiguity into clear articulations" 

Cain and Family (A Logic Problem) 

The Bible and the Pixar Theory