For your next church pancake breakfast…

The Jesus Pan.

Random bit of religious nonsense

I was recently in Canada for the bat mitzvah of one of my cousins. In her Torah portion, the laws of who you could not "uncover the nakedness" of were discussed. After she read and explained the portion, the rabbi gave his speech. One of the things the rabbi said was a bit weird. He had veered off into a talk about why the Jewish laws should be followed. Now, in my experience, most religious people will try to come up with a reason for each law. This rabbi, however, seemed to realize that some laws simply had no reason. He started talking about becoming a better person by following the laws of the Torah, and concluded by saying that even if there is no reason for the laws, a person doing good deeds AND following the Torah's laws would be a better person than someone doing good deeds but not following the laws. I'm really looking for comments on this post, I have no idea what to think of it myself. It's an example of what a lot of religion is all about.

Godless Jew

With much thought and consideration, I've decided to start my own personal blog about the Jewish/Atheism paradox.

I call it: Godless Jew.

I've just written the first post.

We all could stand to know a little more about Judaism & Atheism as a cohesive unit.
Perhaps I can elucidate the paradox a little...

Cults

My history teacher made a remark the other day. I'm sure it would please the general atheist population.

I don't like the word cult. We use it to describe beliefs & religions we don't like. Aren't all relgions cults in a way?

He's right of course, there aren't any particular religions which are more legitimate than any other ones. It's all relative.

Now this doesn't mean I'm renouncing Judaism or anything, don't get too excited. But it does mean I should be a little less critical of other religions. To be honest, much of the reason that I'm Jewish is because I was exposed to Judaism first. Of course now, I'm more educated about alternate faiths and have made a conscious decision. That doesn't mean I don't have prejudices though.

It's just something to think about.

Judicial reform

So there's this whole controversy over swearing on Bibles in court. One side says that oaths on the Bible violate the Separation of Church and State, or some such liberal propaganda. The other side says it's just symbolic, and it doesn't violate nothin'.

Now, I'm all for symbolism. I love symbolism. In fact, I look at the entire English language as a collection of symbols. I choose any words I want to mean any thing I want - at least, when I'm at school.

But anywho, the point is, this whole debate is silly. If the Bible is symbolic of anything, it's symbolic of a drug trip. What people should be swearing on is a dictionary.

No, an encyclopedia!

Hell, how about a whole set of encyclopedias? This way, the swearing-in would take up half the trial:

"…Uh, yes, I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me A Thru Annoy…Garden Thru Gun…Sardine Thru Swell…oh, fuck it, I killed him."

Oh yes, much more effective than swearing on a Bible. With a Bible, there's no incentive not to lie; it's not like God's gonna smite you if you twist a few details. But with good 'ol Britannica, you can just whack the witness periodically. You know, instill some respect of truth in him.

…You know. Abuse.