God? Sure! Creator? Nah!

The Irish Independent ran an interesting article yesterday, one which may have faith-heads up in arms or contemplatively stroking their beards depending on the level of their personal attachment to dogma. God, it seems, was never meant to be labelled 'creator' in the Old Testament, a mistake resulting from the mistranslation of a verb (bara) meant to denote 'spatial separation' rather than creation. The amended translation, courtesy of Professor Ellen van Wolde, has God fulfilling a more administrative role, sorting beast from bird, sea from land, in a worldscape already fundamentally formed - though he does retain credit for seeding life as we know it. Hoping to promote a "robust debate", the Professor has certainly stirred up a potential hornet's nest for hardline Christians and Jews, for whom the traditional position of God as creator of the Universe ex nihilo has been central for thousands of years - one can only imagine what the Vatican will make of it! Might make the 'God-as-extra-terrestrial-traveller' brigade happy though (y'know, the Chris DeBurgh theoreticians!).

Deicide (No, not the band)

'Award-winning comedian Tommy Tiernan has been "floored by a belt of the crozier" for allegedly making offensive remarks about the Holocaust' writes John Cooney in today's edition of the Irish Independent. The criticism came in the form of an outburst by Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin at the end of Mass last night in Bray, where, without mentioning Tiernan by name, Archbishop Martin commented that remarks attributed to an Irish comedian were "offensive to the Jewish community and offensive to all who feel revulsion concerning the Holocaust, one of the most horrific events in human history". Tiernan was reported to have made the following remarks during an interview at Electric Picnic earlier this month: "F**king Christ-killing bastards... F**k six million? I would have got ten or twelve million out of that".

Now, leaving aside the massive irony of a senior member of the Catholic church trying to smear anyone's name in relation to the Holocaust (your predecessors weren't so vocal in 1941 your worship), let's have a closer look at what Tommy Tiernan, a comedian well-known for making outrageous and provocative statements both onstage and off, is actual saying here. Not that he'd kill twelve-million Jews for their inferior racial qualities, say, or because they are part of an international conspiracy to control the world's wealth, or any other ludicrous reason but this one - they 'killed Christ'. Sound familiar? That's right folks, seems that Tommy is actually making a very valid point about the stupidity (and hilariousness) of the charge of deicide. No wonder the Archbishop was upset - after all, it would be very bad for their image if people were being reminded that it took the Catholic church nineteen centuries to admit this claim was bogus.