Sunday, February 22, 2009

28 Shevaṭ 5769: Thinking Day/George Washington’s Birthday/Shrovetide

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day: “Prescription for Change: Reform Health Care” and “Stop roads from ripping through prized forest land!”

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
  1. Do you think the intersynagogue politics where you live are bad?  At worst, people at different synagogues will probably just hate each other and not speak to each other.  ‘Eruvin 60a notes that the people of Gedher (near the Kinnereth) hated the people of nearby town of Ḥammethan so much that they would come to violence, especially when drunk.  The situation today, bad as it is today in some places, is much preferable.
  2. More countries fail basic freedom of religion: “Evangelical church leaders detained in China” and “MALDIVES: Reform excludes freedom of religion or belief”.
  3. “Students 'do not know the Bible'”: This is a major problem, the focus of Stephen Prothero’s excellent book Religious Literacy. Ignorance of the basics of religion, regardless of what one believes, makes it difficult to discuss the topic meaningfully and understand those who know something about religion. (People in this situation may wish to start here.)
Today’s news and commentary:
Today’s weird thing, submitted by Barry, is “No nukes?”:
mahmoud ahmadinejad
Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron

No comments: