Watch Rabbi Boteach Get Creamed

Terrible Behavior In The Name of God

The haredim have once again, rioted on Shabbat, to "preserve" its "sanctity."

40 haredim were arrested out of thousands of rioting jewish-talibans, and I'm not gonna hold my breath for condemnations from modern orthodox and old school orthodox leaders.

Failed Messiah has the story - http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2009/06/thousands-of-haredim-riot-123.html

How much do you wanna bet that the ultraorthodox culture in Israel don't allow for normal socially acceptable releases of aggression (sports, video games, etc) so they resort to rioting?

Day of Rest

Nothing so profound today.

Check out this touching tribute to the Enterprise-D. A commenter on the YouTube page wrote rest in peace Enterprise-D. I say Amen.

Some Questions

How do we know that the Torah was the same for everyone before the invention of the printing press? Maybe there's some archaeology out there that I'm not aware of ...

How do we know that the rules in the Torah aren't man made chumrahs like present day kasharut shabbat etc?

Where in the Torah does it say that followers are rewarded for practicing chumrahs? Or in another way, how do we know that followers are rewarded for practicing chumrahs, from the Tanach?

Why is it that followers are not allowed to test God? Doesn't that sound a little too convenient for the clergy to say?

E-man's (http://www.markset565.blogspot.com/) Done it Again.

In E-man's latest post, he explains the Maharal's disagreement towards Jewish philosophers, you know, "believers of Israel that try to explain the wonders and miracles that happen in this world with their minds and their knowledge," as opposed to like, imaginations, and circular fundamentalist reasoning.

The Maharal continues "The reason they use their own knowledge to explain the miracles is because the miracles do not make sense to them according to their understanding of the natural world." Oh no!!!! Someone using their head!!!!! The horror!!!!!!!!!!!!

The orthodox rabbis may lose their abilities to control the beliefs of their followers! We can't let that happen now can we? Hmmm, oh yes we can. XD


E-man then said that it looks like the Maharal said that jewish philosophers were saying that the bible is more allegorical when the Maharal said the jewish philosophers were looking for natural causes for biblical events.


"Now, returning to our original intent for mentioning the philosophers that we have not properly addressed, that we need to know how to answer a heretic," the Maharal wrote. Oooooooooh so respectful. Why not use the word skeptic? Or dissenter? Did the Maharal really have to use the word heretic?

Thus sayth the Maharal "This is referring to the philosophers that say that everything comes from the intelligent order that emanates from the eternality of the world. This means that nothing deviates from this natural order and everything has its nature that it is accustomed to follow." Whether or not the world is eternal and whether or not the natural order can change seems to me to be two different unrelated things.

Maharal: "This means that even a fly's wing cannot be elongated!" Depends on whatever turn evolution goes.

The Maharal then asks this profound question "Furthermore, according to the philosopher, how can it be that anything can come from anything? Nature dictates that anything can not come from anything, but rather only one thing can come from a specific thing. If this is true, then how could blood come from water?" I can't imagine anyone of the jewish philosophers who are supposedly more rationalist saying that the blood came from the water, even in the Maharal's time. And if a random nut claiming to search for natural reasons said the blood came from the water, is he really worth the response of a high statured religious leader??

The Maharal then gave this beauty "There is a difference between them (the natural actions vs the spiritual actions). Natural actions occur in time and therefore every natural action needs to occur in a certain amount of time. However, an action that is not from nature does not need to occur in time. This difference is because of the fact that nature uses physical power and all physical power needs to occur in a certain amount of time. However, spiritual actions occur without taking up time, because these actions do not use physical power and therefore do not take up time." It looks to me like biblical events including miracles, are alleged to have occurred within a span of TIME. The Maharal appears to be just ranting here.

E-man said that the Maharal said (I feel like i'm being like the Talmud with all that he said this he said that yada yada) "Philosophers, who go after nature, disregard the miracles because of this (that through nature one form can not accept another form). This we (the Maharal) admit, that through nature the miracles are impossible. However, through the spiritual actions all the miracles are possible. This is because the lower world that is governed by nature also has a connection to the world that is governed by spirituality and it is from this connection that miracles occur. This causes miracles to occur through what connects this world and the spiritual world. Therefore, miracles only occur through the Jewish people like we will explain later. All of this is because of the connection that the Jewish people have with the spiritual world and therefore miracles occur for them." I guess the Maharal had a special telescope to detect all this.

Does A Democracy Have To Be Secular To Work?

It is an interesting question, but I believe, it is a vague question.

By democracy does one mean pure democracy or representative democracy? By secular, as opposed to what? As opposed to merely acknowledging a higher power, or actual sectarianism? The word secular is also vague.

When I say secular I mean three things:

• Having democratic values. (present day United States democratic values)
• Looking at reality (science, politics, etc.) objectively.
• Morality is more important than religious ritual.

Now, to venture on an answer to the question on the title of this post:

Pure democracy is unfeasible in this day and age because there's too many people for it and no one has time to be hung up on politics all day, so we have representative democracy.

Now the question becomes, does representative democracy have to be secular to work as opposed to the alternatives?

Well, in terms of Israel and the Charedim's power trip, and Iran and the desire of the clerics to stay in power, it seems pretty clear that sectarianism mixed in with government is not conductive to democracy. However in Britain, the Church in England is official and the British are democratic.

It seems pretty clear that religion in government is less likely to be democratic, but another variable in the equation is that a citizenry also has democratic values. The Islamic world has lots and lots of house cleaning to do in terms of their civil rights records and they gotta stop blaming Jews and Americans for all of their bull shit and start looking at how their dictators are all corrupt and everything.

It should be noted that while I don't see sectarianism mixed with government as a good thing, it don't mean religion being involved in a person forming a political opinion is a bad thing. I imagine religious people get their morality based on religion and that that's apart of what they vote based upon and I do not see this as a contradiction of democracy.

In the case of the United States, the oldest republic in the world, the U.S. declaration of independence says "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." These are powerful words.

I personally don't think that a God is impossible, I do think it is intellectually dishonest to claim to know for sure if God does or does not exist. However to say that God could be there is a non statement; because anything COULD be there, I feel I can only accept as true what IS there, what can be observed and measured.

That being the case, it is a good thing for the government to recognize a divine authority that's higher than humanity, where rights come from, and it seems to me to be conductive to democracy. The citizenry in my opinion should also be secular the way I defined it with the 3 aspects, that helps a lot. I can't imagine anyone objecting to objectivity and no need to bicker about a ritual - the primary focus should be being a good person.

So in conclusion, in order for democracy to work, I think the government and the citizenry should be secular the way I see secularism in order for democracy to work, and a divine power higher than mankind should be acknowledged as the source of rights. There is no contradiction in this in my opinion.

It is my sincere hope that the Islamic world stops blaming Jews and Americans for shit and that the Islamic world starts brainstorming for themselves how to repair their own living situation.

Check Out These Books

Captain Picard Song

I like what Captain Picard said about truth.





Everything Enterprise

Israel Needs Someone Like Sarkozy, For The Charedim

French president Nicolas Sarkozy said "The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement—I want to say it solemnly. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."


Books

Orthodox Madness (with major correction O.O hey it happens)

I don't get how our orthodox friends living in Israel can be so anti-homosexual and yet be so adamant about a separation of the genders.

It doesn't make sense.

While homosexuals aren't bad people, homosexuality should not be done, but with that, it simply does not make sense to separate the genders. I forgot to proofread when I fixed this sentence.


Both genders need to have the ability to interact with the opposite gender, and interaction with the opposite gender, to be normal people.

Now, let me diverge, and I'll talk about assimilation for a moment. Orthodox Judaism did not come up with shit that is of recreational value. Thus, to play a game of baseball is assimilating to one extent or another. So is a board game. A bicycle. A movie. A guitar. Bowling. There is a human need for fun, and having fun necessarily requires a certain extent of assimilation to one extent or another.

I'm going to finish with a joke. An orthodox rabbi and a priest went to lunch. The priest finished his steak. The rabbi kept asking, what is the halacha of putting the fork into the steak? What is the halacha of cutting the steak? What is the halacha of mash potatos? What is the halacha of condiments? What is the halacha of taking the first bite? What is the halacha of taking the second bite? Is there a bracha for the second bite? Is there a bracha for the last bite? What is the halacha of vegetables? What is the halacha of the bracha for having more than one thing on the plate? What is the halacha ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Orthodox Madness

I don't get how our orthodox friends living in Israel can be so anti-homosexual and yet be so adamant about a separation of the genders.

It doesn't make sense.

While homosexuals aren't bad people, homosexuality should not be done, but with that, it simply does not make sense to separate the genders.


Both genders need to have the ability to interact with the opposite gender, and interaction with the opposite gender, to be normal people.

Now, let me diverge, and I'll talk about assimilation for a moment. Orthodox Judaism did not come up with shit that is of recreational value. Thus, to play a game of baseball is assimilating to one extent or another. So is a board game. A bicycle. A movie. A guitar. Bowling. There is a human need for fun, and having fun necessarily requires a certain extent of assimilation to one extent or another.

I'm going to finish with a joke. An orthodox rabbi and a priest went to lunch. The priest finished his steak. The rabbi kept asking, what is the halacha of putting the fork into the steak? What is the halacha of cutting the steak? What is the halacha of mash potatos? What is the halacha of condiments? What is the halacha of taking the first bite? What is the halacha of taking the second bite? Is there a bracha for the second bite? Is there a bracha for the last bite? What is the halacha of vegetables? What is the halacha of the bracha for having more than one thing on the plate? What is the halacha ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Definitely not worth giving up for religion. XD

Cool

University of Colorado team finds definitive evidence for ancient lake on Mars

First unambiguous evidence for shorelines on the surface of Mars, say researchers click here for news article.

Neat Song

Despite the fact that I'm secular, and this song endorses religion, I am a conservative in American politics and I do think this is a neat song:







Government spending DOES need to decrease. Life DOES start at conception. Homosexuality IS wrong. Government ownership of business is a disaster waiting to happen. The USA DOES need to do its own drilling for oil. etc.

Some Definitions

God = Unprovable.

Rabbi = Specialist in the unprovable.

Creation = Pre-Scientific Method theory.

Seinhedrin = Court with standard of evidence that the Torah itself probably don't even have to meet.

Rosh Yeshiva = Nutcase control freak.
* When I call myself the rosh yeshiva, it's a joke because I am secular and I satirically present myself as a religious principal of a religious school.

Kosher Supervisor = Pain in the ass.

Shomer Negiah = Taliban shit.

Shabbat = Rest day no fun allowed.

Oral Law = Total bullshit.

Mubarak Putz Moment

The Jerusalem Post (www.jpost.com) in the article "Syrian paper slams Netanyahu's speech" has indicated that after Binyamin Netanyahu's Sunday speech, Mubarak dictator of Egypt, has revealed exactly how emotionally disturbed he and his co-ideologues are.

Mubarak said that "Netanyahu's demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state is ruining the chance for peace."


Whaaat?

Riiiiight, like Israel should give the Palestinians full statehood without anyone having to recognize Israel's Jewish nature and thus they can keep firing rockets into Israel and shit like that?

It is in fact the Palestinians and neighboring Arab countries who are ruining the chance for peace, all the Arabs gotta to is just cut the bull shit with the jihad crap and recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state and it will all be over.

Now if only we can get the charedim to accept Israel's right to exist as a secular democracy ........................

Orthodox Bullshit

Garnel (garnelironheart.blogspot.com) wrote in his blog masthead that, "This blog is for those who wish to remember that Judaism is a religious nationality that achieves perfection through the rational and passionate observance of God's Law. If you are the type who was promised by secular/atheist academics that Judaism has no answers to your difficult questions, ..... there are other places you could be."

Orthodox Judaism can answer questions? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. What orthodox judaism does is discourage questions and shun them if not then for sure shuns outright dissent.

Orthodox Judaism can't answer shit.

I'll take the other place, something we call, a free society.

Orthodox Judaism Loves UFOs

When reading about UFOs, I came to the conclusion that God himself is a UFO.

God is

• unidentified
• flying
• an object
• not from Earth
• people claim to have seen him or feel him or whatever but not the general masses

God fits the definition of a UFO if you ask me, and that makes orthodox judaism a ufo religion. XD

Speed of Light

I was reading stuff, and as a disclaimer I am not an expert in physics by any means but when I read that by way of relativity it would take infinite energy to get something to travel at least at the speed of light ... I was light what? O.o I mean, it seems self refuting cause light does not need infinite energy to travel at the speed of light. XD

I was reading all this while I was reading about UFO skepticism. I think people should read about UFO skepticism because we don't get enough of it from the History Channel's one sided garbage about UFOs and evil UFO conspiracies.

Awesome Song