Wednesday, September 08, 2004
One of my pet topics is how absurd religious beliefs are, and how blind the faithful are to how silly they act. Consequently, this cartoon made me laugh:
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posted by Mis-nagid @ Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
One of the dangers of a growing up with a frum education is that you get the mistaken impression that religion matters.
You're taught that religious beliefs can affect reality, and that the supernatural can subvert the natural. That miracles happen and that prayers work. These erronious beliefs require suspension of the physical laws of nature.
There's even a gemara that says that the beis din's pronouncement of the chodesh would affect physical reality. There's a virgin involved for good measure.
This substance-is-subservient-to-superstition streak runs deep. Jews publish books entitled Mysteries of the Creation: A Cosmology Derived From Tanach And Chazal.
How backwards must your understanding of the world be to base your cosmology on a book, rather than the universe? This just reflects the feeling that Jews have of the supremacy of cult over fact.
Frum Jews believe that reality bends to the whims of religion. Reality is unimpressed and continues on unperturbed.
[mis-nagid_AT_hush_DOT_com]
posted by Mis-nagid @ Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Refreshing review
The New York Times reviewed the book The End of Faith by Sam Harris. The book is full of plain talk about religion that you don't often see quoted in a major newpaper. From the review:
A doctoral candidate in neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles, Harris writes what a sizable number of us think, but few are willing to say in contemporary America: "We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common, we call them ‘religious’; otherwise, they are likely to be called ‘mad,’ ‘psychotic’ or ‘delusional.’" To cite but one example: "Jesus Christ — who, as it turns out, was born of a virgin, cheated death and rose bodily into the heavens — can now be eaten in the form of a cracker. A few Latin words spoken over your favorite Burgundy, and you can drink his blood as well. Is there any doubt that a lone subscriber to these beliefs would be considered mad?" The danger of religious faith, he continues, ”is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy.”
Go read the review for yourself. I'm going to order the book in my next book-buying spree.
[mis-nagid_AT_hush_DOT_com]
posted by Mis-nagid @ Tuesday, September 07, 2004
