This is one of the questions that nagged me in the back of my mind ever since I went to yeshivah: how do we know we are right and all the others wrong? It would be quite an accident for us to be right amongst all these thousands of different belief systems.
If you think of it, if there is only one true belief system, the vast majority of religions will always be wrong. And every religion has a reason why they are right and all the others are wrong.
Dawkins brought his point across rather clear here:
Buying David Gottlieb's book 'Living up to the Truth' on Torah Min Hashamayim never managed to convince me. What is your excuse for believing in exactly the same thing your parents believed in?
Sorry. Off topic, but I just had a Chabadnik claim that it's mere opinion that the earth goes around the sun and it can go the other way too (sun around the earth) WTF??
ReplyDeleteThe Rebbe was a geocentrist?? LOL.
Anyone and everyone can always be wrong, it's not limited to religious issues. Politics are the other big one. My answer is trying to treat everyone with respect, and not assuming or inferring stupidity or for failing to agree with me.
ReplyDelete> The Rebbe was a geocentrist??
ReplyDeleteYes.
Technically, the Earth and the Sun orbit their mutual center of gravity, but that point is deep inside the Sun.
Mutual enter of gravity is not the same as geocentrism though. For the sun to literally orbit the earth the solar system would not even function the same. You have the moon and other planetary orbits that the sun is now crossing into. Unless you go back to a Ptolemy system.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason they believe this stuff is because the Torah gets it wrong stating that the earth is fixed and the sun moves can be stopped in the sky.
About the topic. The biggest problem is that people compartmentalize their own belief systems as unique and somehow superior. I became an atheist not because of science, but because I was interested in other belief systems and earlier mythologies. The deeper you dig with any religious belief system you begin to make connections to earlier belief systems. You begin to realize that those other belief systems are similar in many ways and don't have the evidence that your religion also doesn't have. The texts are clearly man made, full of contradictions, and some disgusting things clearly not divine.
ReplyDeleteI would almost argue for mandatory comparative religion courses.
Apostate: Any books that you can recommend?
ReplyDeleteOff the top of my head.......
ReplyDeleteThe Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel by Mark Smith; The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein; Did God Have a Wife? by William Dever; The Hebrew Goddess by Raphael Patai; The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts by Mark Smith; Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic: Essays in the History of the Religion of Israel by Frank Moore Cross; Canaanite Myths and Legends by John Gibson; Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others by Stephanie Dalley.
Babylonian and Canaanite mythology is always a good bet. There were other smaller influences as well like the Hittites. The Temple at Ain Dara which has some remains still standing today is supposed to be remarkably like Solomon's Temple.
I know we briefly discussed Friedman's books in another section before so no need to mention them again.
OMG, Amazon sells "The Hebrew Goddess 3rd Enlarged Edition". Sounds like she was addicted to plastic surgery! :P
ReplyDeleteHad one book in my Amazon list and another in my bookshelf. Thanks for increasing my wishlist!
Well, I don't believe anything my parents believed in and if you're an atheist, you are also in a minority. As you will be whatever you believe.
ReplyDeleteThe mutual center of orbit of the earth and sun is so deep within the sun, that it causes an infinitesimal wobble in the sun. Consequently it's fair to say that the earth orbits the sun. The geocentric model of the universe is total hogwash.
ReplyDelete"Well, I don't believe anything my parents believed in"
ReplyDeleteAnything? They were Christians so you only ditched like 20% of the same "holy" book and one crappy messiah. That's not exactly the biggest leap. An American jumping from Christianity to Judaism, oh how earth shattering.
Obviously they must have believed in honoring one's parents as well. Another lesson discarded
ReplyDeleteWell, they can't ALL be right, but they can all be wrong.
ReplyDeleteSo, particularly, why deliver your mind to the idocies of dopey orthodox precepts and rituals?
To add to Apostate's list, see
ReplyDeletehttp://www.infidels.org/library/modern/
Thanks Ichabod!
ReplyDeletekofer what you are you have a yiddeshe neshama how dare you go against our mesorah
ReplyDeletelearn a shtickel in birchos shmuel dont learn it krum and you will see that is the Emes
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: If you are openly frum, why do you sign in as anonymous?
ReplyDelete"You have a yiddishe neshama" - I am Jewish but the existence of a neshama or an afterlife has never been proven. Hey, been FFB and at some point in time you discover it is all fake, just all the other organized religions.