God can’t make a genuine $10 bill. Only the U.S. Mint can do that. Presumably God could make an atom-for-atom copy of one, but it wouldn’t be genuine because it wasn’t produced by the mint.
Therefore God is not omnipotent.
Religion
Above the Law
For an omnibenevolent being, God has a lot of legal trouble. Nebraska legislator Ernie Chambers sought an injunction against the deity in 2007, asserting that He had caused “widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.” And in 2008 a Romanian prisoner claimed that his baptism had been a contract that God had broken by failing to protect him from evil.
God escaped both suits on technicalities. Chambers’ action was dismissed because God has no address and thus couldn’t be notified, and the Romanian suit was deemed to be beyond the court’s jurisdiction because God is not an individual or a company. So that settles that.
“Can a Clergyman Marry Himself?”
This question was officially decided in the affirmative in the Court of Queen’s Bench, Dublin, on November 16th, 1855, in the Case of Beamish vs. Beamish, where the point came into direct issue.
— Frank H. Stauffer, The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical, 1882
Beauty Sleep
Virginia Centurione Bracelli died in 1651, but her body was found largely uncorrupted when her grave was opened 150 years later.
She was canonized in 2003.
I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing
There’s a sculpture of Darth Vader on Washington’s National Cathedral.
During construction, a competition was held among children to suggest a carved grotesque, and Christopher Rader of Kearney, Neb., submitted a drawing of Darth Vader’s head.
It’s visible on the cathedral’s northwest tower — but you’ll need binoculars to see it.
Low Profile
Apparitions of the Virgin Mary, 2003-2007:
- Tree stump, Passaic, N.J., 2003
- Grilled cheese sandwich, Hollywood, Fla., 2004
- Expressway underpass, Chicago, 2005
- Pretzel, Nebraska, 2005
- Firewood, Janesville, Wis., 2006
- Chocolate drippings, Fountain Valley, Calif., 2006
- Souplantation restaurant, Grantville, Calif., 2006
- Pizza pan, Houston, 2007
- Watermelon, Arizona, 2007
Unquote
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” — Pascal
Low Mass
What is it with salt miners? Apparently inspired by Poland’s Wieliczka mine, which features a salty Last Supper, Colombia has built an entire salt cathedral, complete with 14 chapels representing the stations of the cross. Don’t they have work to do?
In the Beginning
The first chapter of Genesis, written on an egg.
From the Jerusalem Museum.
“Old Joke Versified”
Says Tom to Bill, pray tell me, sir,
Why is it that the devil,
In spite of all his naughty ways,
Can never be uncivil?
Says Bill to Tom, the answer’s plain
To any mind that’s bright:
Because the imp of darkness, sir,
Can ne’er be imp o’ light.
— Charles Carroll Bombaugh, Gleanings for the Curious From the Harvest-Fields of Literature, 1890