Rosh Hashanah 2011

I'll be taking a honey-scrub in the sauna tomorrow. All, of course, in the holy spirit of Rosh Hashanah. Now that's what I call a sweet start.

Short rhyme by multilingual non-theist

C'est mieux sans dieu.

Keeping Pesach 2010

First seder evening at Wagamama, second at St. Matthew Passion and I don't know yet what I'll be doing for Chol HaMoed.

Can't you believe in a god and be quiet about it?

That you believe in a god I don't mind, it's your decision. But it annoys me when you bring your god into most conversations and correspondences. It's almost if you are reassuring yourself that your god exists by bringing it up all the time. There is no need to convince me that you believe in a god and it has no added value other then to yourself.

Anyway, that's my belief.

Cool Jew

I was brought up in mild non-religious traditional Jewish manner. The way I experienced my Jewishness evolved over the years. I would describe myself now as a conscious anti-theist. But when I saw my oldest son speaking to an Israeli girl it felt good. It seems that my intellect is built on a sticky layer of emotional inheritance of generations.

Believers... (02)

Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

And I saw, god is product of man

But how do I tell my rabbi? He’s a good guy.

My Purim disguise:

The Invisible Man

Objectivism and altruism

Rand defined altruism as the principle "that man has no right to exist for his own sake, that service to others is the only justification of his existence, and that self-sacrifice is his highest moral duty, virtue, and value."

One must distinguish between altruism and helping others. Simply helping others is not altruism: altruism is the belief that you have a duty to help others, that you owe others. As Rand put it, the issue is not whether or not you should give a dime to a beggar, but rather if you "have the right to exist without giving him that dime. The issue is whether you must keep buying your life, dime by dime, from any beggar who might choose to approach you. The issue is whether the need of others is the first mortgage on your life and the moral purpose of your existence." Altruism holds that one person's need is a blank check against the lives of others. Altruism holds that self-sacrifice is the good and that self-interest is evil.

Although some would call this characterization of altruism "extreme", in fact altruism so defined pervades our culture. Ambition, greed, success: today these are viewed with suspicion at best, with downright hostility at worst. On the other hand, the New Deal, the Peace Corps, and "a thousand points of light" are upheld as great achievements or noble goals.

Although altruism claims to be based on "love" for man-kind, in practice altruism leads to suffering. On a personal level, altruism leads to unearned guilt. Personal achievement requires you to concentrate on yourself to the exclusion of others. If you accept altruism as the "good", then to the extent that you achieve, you are left with the nagging feeling that you should be doing more to help others, e.g., by working in a soup kitchen or some other such activity. On an interpersonal level, altruism leads to suspicion and ill will. Since any person's need is a blank check drawn against the lives of others, each person knows that any stranger may cash this check at any time, and conversely each person feels that every stranger owes him something.

From: Objectivism and Ayn Rand

Objectivism

Objectivism holds that there is mind-independent reality; that individual persons are in contact with this reality through sensory perception; that human beings gain objective knowledge from perception by measurement, and form valid concepts by measurement omission; that the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or "rational self-interest"; that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights, embodied in pure, consensual laissez-faire capitalism; and that the role of art in human life is to transform abstract knowledge, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that one can comprehend and respond to with the whole of one's consciousness.

From Wikipedia

Existentialism

Existentialism is a philosophical movement which posits that individual human beings create the meaning and essence of their lives. It emerged as a movement in twentieth-century literature and philosophy, though it had forerunners in earlier centuries. Existentialism generally postulates that the absence of a transcendent force (such as God) means that the individual is entirely free, and, therefore, ultimately responsible. It is up to humans to create an ethos of personal responsibility outside of any branded belief system. That personal articulation of being is the only way to rise above humanity's absurd condition (suffering and death, and the finality of the individual).

From Wikipedia

Thou shalt not worship

period.

Does your god have a sense of humor?

... just wondering.

Atheists all countries unite!

Power to the people!

"I don’t want to go to shul anymore."

Mrs.Circum: “Why is that?”
Mr.Circum: “I don’t believe in a god.”
Mrs. Circum: “So? You still can go to shul.”

Agnosticism is cowardism

While (most) religious people are sincere in their fallacy, agnostics are believers in doubt keeping up enlightened appearances.

I am not a non-believer

Calling myself a non-believer would imply that the choice of believing (or not) is part of my system. It is not.
Reason rulez!

Out of anything for god

Dogma of the faithful :
"I suppose it could be argued that if one is doing something out of spite for God, and not merely out of ignorance, it’s a manifestation of desperation or mental illness, and one is therefore not fully responsible."

Dogma of the atheist :
"I suppose it could be argued that if one is doing something out of love for god, and not merely out of ignorance, it’s a manifestation of desperation or mental illness, and one is therefore not fully responsible."

Coordinating theory (?) :
"I suppose it could be argued that if one is doing something out of anything for any god, and not merely out of ignorance, it’s a manifestation of desperation or mental illness, and one is therefore not fully responsible."


(With thanks to "Cipher" in the comments of Shaigetz' blog)

I might not make a good rabbi ...

but my congregation would have the time of their life.

Holy hoax!

religion