I just ran across this post on a washingtonpost.com blog. The author, a prominent Jewish Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, argues that the Pew Forum survey on religion overestimates the number of atheists in the United States (they estimate about 1.6% of Americans). Rabbi Steinsaltz argues that “true atheists” have two rare qualities: 1) an understanding of what it really means to *not* believe in a divine power, and 2) an irrational, emotional belief that no God exists. (After all, God can neither be proved or disproved logically, and therefore true atheism as opposed to mere agnosticism requires an active belief in the absence of God.)
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Jul 092008
May 282008
Humility. Temperance. Stewardship. Modesty. These are all good Christian values. They are good conservative values as well. Jesus taught them (as have most of the world’s great religious leaders of all faiths). In most cases, our parents and grandparents taught them as well. Christians, and I think most others, recognize the opposites of these values (pride, extravagance, waste, boastfulness) as sins. When we apply these concepts to our daily lives, they all add up to a basic concept that I still can’t believe is controversial: conservation.
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May 232008
I’ve been looking up some demographic data today, and ran across the Pew Forum survey. In particular, they have detailed information on the religious breakdown of the country, as a whole and broken down by states. I found some of this pretty surprising. For instance:
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Dec 062007
Mitt Romney gave his Mormon speech today. At least that’s how his campaign, aided and abetted by the media, have been spinning it. In reality, the speech is not nearly as controversial as it could have been, nor is it as revolutionary as some are calling it. It was just a campaign speech with the usual mix of slogans, platitudes, and carefully chosen quotes from the founding fathers. Ultimately, it failed and for one simple reason: Romney spends the entire speech trying to have it both ways. Romney wants to be all things to all people, and that’s not the mark of a good candidate or a good president.
Dec 062007
Ah Hanukkah, the festival of lights. Many Christians are unaware of the significance of Hanukkah. Allow me to enlighten you: there is none.
Hanukkah is the celebration of a victory in a minor battle, in a minor war, that the Jews eventually lost. If I were to list the top dozen Jewish holidays in order of importance, Hanukkah wouldn’t make the list. Nonetheless, if you were to ask most gentiles to name Jewish holidays, they would probably name Hanukkah first, then probably Passover, and would be hard pressed to name a third. (For those wondering, Yom Kippur is the most important Jewish holiday – and it doesn’t even register in my spellcheck as a word, although Hanukkah does…).
Why, if Hannukah is such a trivial holiday, does it seem so prevalent in the eyes of gentiles? Quite simply, timing. Hanukkah happens to fall at around the same time as Christmas. And in an attempt to look multicultural, stores, and politicians, and television shows need something to put up in addition to Christmas, lest they look too Christian-centric. So, throw in a Hanukkah song, and now it looks like Jews are part of the celebration too. And most Jews, in an effort to help their kids not feel bad about being in the minority, play along and give presents at Hanukkah time even though technically that has nothing to do with the holiday. (I suppose presents really have nothing to do with Christmas either, technically…)
Anyway, for all those politicians saying that its ok to put a nativity scene on public property because they also have a menorah, that’s just hogwash. That would be like putting out an American flag and a fortune cookie and claiming you were representing America and China equally. Personally, I have no problem with nativity scenes in public places, so long as my tax dollars aren’t paying for them. I think its nice to get to experience other people’s cultures. But I do get annoyed at the lip service to Judaism, and the faux multiculturalism argument. If you really want to be multicultural, put out a shofar on Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah.
I wish you all a happy holiday season.
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