Putting the split between Judeo and Christian
Religious revisionism is a tiresome thing. As a Jew who's actually taken the time to learn, and as a human who's learned about rational things like science, the news that "Intelligent Design" is being taught for college credit in a non-religious setting blows my mind.
I might remind those focused on the pure letter of the Book about the six days it took to create the earth. And that it took three 'nights' and three 'days' before the sun and moon were created to make diurnal references possible.
Judaism has no problem with these issues: since our view of God permits metaphor instead of slavish obedience to the letter of the law, evolution, all the way up to humanity and the story of the Garden of Eden, is not a problem. A hallmark of the Jewish view of miracles is that they are worked in concert with nature as often as possible. It is in the rare occasions, such as the Ten Plagues, or the parting of the Sea of Reeds (ya gotta watch translations in other languages, folks, there was nothing red about the sea until a monk missed a letter!), when God's power is proclaimed for effect.
For those of you worrying about family purity and such, just stop and take a breath. If there were only two humans on the planet, and they only had two boys, and one killed the other... we would all be descendents from one man and one woman. Um, doesn't work that way, which is one of the reasons why incest is such an abomination in your religion. There is room for metaphor, if only to prevent incest from being seen as the method of God's choice for making the next generation.
Back to the course. Along with Janet Jackson's nipple slip, the FCC's sudden prurient interest in idiot speech heretofore covered by the First Ammendment and the self-censorship being executed by various actors' venues, I see factions in the United States attempting to return to the kind of self-censorship and muzzling that only drives deeper, and internalizes, the festering heart of independent thought and action.
While this may be amusing to our European and local neighbors, even as I applaud my children not being exposed to 'shock jock' talk, I fear for the honesty and progress of this great country. And courses in pseudo-science lead to pseudo-scientists, pseudo-thinkers, and pseudo-leaders. Caveat Emptor.
I might remind those focused on the pure letter of the Book about the six days it took to create the earth. And that it took three 'nights' and three 'days' before the sun and moon were created to make diurnal references possible.
Judaism has no problem with these issues: since our view of God permits metaphor instead of slavish obedience to the letter of the law, evolution, all the way up to humanity and the story of the Garden of Eden, is not a problem. A hallmark of the Jewish view of miracles is that they are worked in concert with nature as often as possible. It is in the rare occasions, such as the Ten Plagues, or the parting of the Sea of Reeds (ya gotta watch translations in other languages, folks, there was nothing red about the sea until a monk missed a letter!), when God's power is proclaimed for effect.
For those of you worrying about family purity and such, just stop and take a breath. If there were only two humans on the planet, and they only had two boys, and one killed the other... we would all be descendents from one man and one woman. Um, doesn't work that way, which is one of the reasons why incest is such an abomination in your religion. There is room for metaphor, if only to prevent incest from being seen as the method of God's choice for making the next generation.
Back to the course. Along with Janet Jackson's nipple slip, the FCC's sudden prurient interest in idiot speech heretofore covered by the First Ammendment and the self-censorship being executed by various actors' venues, I see factions in the United States attempting to return to the kind of self-censorship and muzzling that only drives deeper, and internalizes, the festering heart of independent thought and action.
While this may be amusing to our European and local neighbors, even as I applaud my children not being exposed to 'shock jock' talk, I fear for the honesty and progress of this great country. And courses in pseudo-science lead to pseudo-scientists, pseudo-thinkers, and pseudo-leaders. Caveat Emptor.
posted by Da Shlom at Sunday, January 23, 2005
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