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Better the altar weeps than I weep is a good point
Divorce Orthodox Jewry style
http://opinionator.b...&_type=blogs&_r=0
Better the altar weeps than I weep is a good point Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 58 years. meep
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Christians (especially Catholics) could take a lesson
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Drew |
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Yes.
Several lessons. Especially the one about the alter.
Wade. Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/
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Amazing
Wonderful quote.
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Thanks.
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I've often thought if I ever found the need to embrace
a formal western religion, I'd have to be a Jew. Your post only fortifies that view. Thanks.
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better practice your spitting :-)
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 58 years. meep
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start studying
Hebrew with no vowels is a bitch.
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Oy vey! :)
Actually that's Yiddish, but what the heck.
Alex
ÂThere is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. -- Isaac Asimov |
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No way whatever would I ever do that!
I'd have to give up eating pig parts - in all their glory. Even in the deepest darkness of my vegetarian days, I'd occasionally weaken and eat a few pickled pig feet.
Of course, giving up all those creepy-crawleys at the local sushi bar would be nearly as bad (Uni with raw Quail Egg - Yummm!). And having to eat Carp instead of Catfish. Sure, I like carp a lot, but why give up catfish which is much easier to eat or serve to guests? And no Shark, Swordfish, Octopus or Squid! And I haven't even had a chance yet to sample Horse - I have a cookbook from Kazakhstan and can't cook most of the recipes until I get my hands on some horse. And no Ostrich, Emu, Kangaroo, Alligator, Crocodile, Rattlesnake, Llama or Walrus! No Wild Boar or even Rabbit. No Iguana and no Lions, Tigers or Bears! And Lamb is waaaaay too expensive and too fatty. And lets not get into that thing about two separate kitchens for milk and meat - unless you're going really hard core Orthodox. What were these people thinking? Yes, I know what they were thinking. The Kohens had a problem. Too many Jews were slipping off to join more comfortable cultures - so they came up with a dietary law that made it almost impossible for a Jew to associate with other peoples without a great degree of trauma - and this still works today, even for many non-Orthodox. And then there's the prjudice and persecution - never quite out of style. So, absolutely no way! |
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Well, religion aside, I'd guess that many species are today
preparing an Ultimatum for You:
Go back to vegetarianism. We give you 6 months to adapt your wienie immune system, then: We Know where you Live and we have armed Bears--try eating one of those, bi-ped omnivore. The Animuls (we don't spel so gud, but we bite well.) |
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Ultimatum?
No way they could get that together. Half of them would be eaten by the other half before they could sign, and the other half would be fighting over who gets to eat who next.
You'd have better luck getting a half dozen Syrian revolutionary groups to agree on a new constitution. Armed Bears? Fine with me, I'm armed for bear. The main problem with bears is they're major carriers of trichinosis - you have to cook bear meat fairly well done (same with lions, tigers, walrus and wild horses). |
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All that said.
I maintain it is the sanest of the Western religions (with the obvious: that ain't sayin' much).
And I did say "If". ;0) |
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I consider a serious flaw.
"Behold, he has become as we, knowing the difference between good and evil".
This statement announces the "fall from grace" and expulsion from the Garden of Eden - to be lamented forever - with hopes of returning to grace somehow. This is the mistake. This heralds a major step in the evolution of mankind - a step beyond the animal state into something more advanced - on the long, long path to becoming God. It should be celebrated, not lamented. Yes, it involves an "expulsion". God is no longer responsible for your actions. You are no longer part of the animal world - you know better (or certainly should), and are fully responsible for your own acts - and Karma is watching how you handle it. While Judaism has largely learned to deal with this problem, and Christians pretty much ignore it, it is the heart of Islam. The core of the religion is to return to the "state of grace", the animal state in which God is responsible for your actions, through total submission to God's will. Unfortunately, God isn't actually paying attention, and the local mullah acts as interpreter of God's will, and expects to receive the submission due to God in return. This causes problems, especially as there is no central authority. Of course, Judaism also has no central authority, but, due to various factors, it has been much less of a problem. |
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Similarly:
Regards,
-scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson. |
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Yup: Growing up, stepping outta the Kindergarden of Eden.
As Heinlein says in some of his later works, Lucifer was obviously the good guy, but he lost and the winner wrote his tory. -- Christian R. Conrad Same old username (as above), but now on iki.fi (Yeah, yeah, it redirects to the same old GMail... But just in case I ever want to change.) |
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I read one where Lucifer was the good guy
Can't remember the author. Going to go look for it. -- Drew |
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Didn't Twain write something like that?
E.g. http://www.online-literature.com/twain/letters-from-the-earth/2/ Dunno if that is what you're thinking of... Cheers, Scott. |
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Nope, not that
Setup was a spaceship crashes into an artificial microclimate created in what seems to be a huge volcanic crater. The mythology among the locals is that their creator was a large humanoid creature with horns, batlike wings, etc. He loved his creatures and wanted to give them knowledge of science, his father wanted to keep them ignorant and subservient. Oh, and there were giant intelligent spiders that passed knowledge from one generation to the next by eating the elderly and absorbing their memories. -- Drew |
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Smart spiders! ... hmmmm
this embattled planet could do with a few new umm, practical goals? Eat the rilly-old; save lots of last-month $$medicos, assist greatly the population Elephant-in-all rooms. [and, what if it Did smarten-up the mouth-breathers?] Need some stats, of course: would this be Enough? to beat the tipping-point. Active Geo-pro-Survivalistas Demand to Know. Yes, I see that imperils my continuing oxygen ration.. but them's the breaks, if ya wanna do Good and stuff; (Spock put it a bit woodenly but ... you know..) (And no, I don't expect 17 virgins, but with Time suspended ... there are all those books. And Nakariakov Celestial-CDs, a few cohorts. Bliss.) ;^> |
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saw a paragraph on that today
Everyone dies. Its only a matter of timing and whether a bunch of doctors get the money or you. (from the book "the informant") Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free American and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 59 years. meep |
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Mmmmmm. Soylent green is spiders! :)
Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov |