Jewish date: 5 ’Iyyar 5769.
Today’s holiday: Israeli Independence Day.
Today’s quasi-holiday: National/International Dance Day.
Worthy causes of the day: “This Mother's Day - Help Stop Poverty Now” and “May 9 is the deadline to roll back Bush regulations on endangered species”.
Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
- More religious intolerance: “Yemen's Jews uneasy as Muslim hostility grows”, “Catholics fear Hindu 'Taliban'”, “Protestant clergyman and wife killed with machetes”
- “Survey: Half of U.S. adults have switched religions”: It is a cliché that people normally follow the religion of their parents. Apparently that is not true, at least in the United States. What the article does not make clear is how many people are switching for the only right reason: objective truth, i.e., leaving one’s religion because one comes to the conclusion that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that it is false or converting to another religion because one comes to the conclusion that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that it is true or at least a good approximation of the truth. Large numbers of people drift away from their original religion, find another they like more, or leave because are dissatisfied with religious teachings, but no information is given on how rational or emotional these decisions really are. Also to be noted is that the survey reports mainly (due to sample size considerations) on Catholicism and Protestantism. Exactly how big a change in beliefs and whether rites are required for it to be considered for someone to have converted is not stated.
Today’s weird thing is “O hai,”:
If only real firewalls worked this way... Enjoy, share the weirdness, and happy Israeli Independence Day.
Aaron
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