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Why do we give Jews a 'Pass'?
I was reading an article in the "Atheist Revolution" blog and I came across this snippet:
When I encounter a parent telling her children about Santa Claus, I may find it unfortunate that someone would lie to one's own child merely for entertainment purposes. The potential for harm here seems trivially small. I cannot say the same for the Muslim parent instructing his son in the virtues of martyrdom or the Christian who tells her daughter that her Jewish friends will go to hell because they have not been "saved."
Could we not add something like the following to the last sentence:
...or the jew who tells his kids that he's "chosen" and has a covenant with god that entitles him and his "people" to the land of Israel, and then uses that as justification for a bloody occupation of Palestine.
The one-year anniversary of Operation Cast Lead is approaching (Dec. 27th) and I think we should take a look at where we've come since then. The Goldstone Report: buried. Settlements: expanding. Palestinian house demolitions: continuing.
As atheists, we should be appalled whenever religion is used to justify actions that result in suffering or death. We do not seem to hesitate to speak out when a child dies because a Christian Scientist eschewed Western medicine in favor of prayer. We do not seem to hesitate to speak out when a Muslim nutjob finds motivation in his religion to grab some firearms and gun down some people. Why are we silent when an ethnic group uses a story about chosen people and covenants in The Big Book of Jewish Fairy Tales (aka, the Old Testament) to justify what is looking more and more like a slow, methodical ethnic cleansing campaign? Why do the Jews need to have Jerusalem all to themselves? Why is it so important to them to have a Jewish majority that they'll turn Gaza into a prison camp and The West Bank into Swiss cheese where the Palestinians are forced to live on smaller and smaller plots of land and endure more and more restrictions on their movement? If this were being done to a Jewish population they'd be screaming about a second holocaust.
The bottom line is that all three major religions are guilty of many modern-day atrocities and have a great deal of blood on their metaphorical hands. Why do we only bewail the actions of two of those three major religions?
When I encounter a parent telling her children about Santa Claus, I may find it unfortunate that someone would lie to one's own child merely for entertainment purposes. The potential for harm here seems trivially small. I cannot say the same for the Muslim parent instructing his son in the virtues of martyrdom or the Christian who tells her daughter that her Jewish friends will go to hell because they have not been "saved."
Could we not add something like the following to the last sentence:
...or the jew who tells his kids that he's "chosen" and has a covenant with god that entitles him and his "people" to the land of Israel, and then uses that as justification for a bloody occupation of Palestine.
The one-year anniversary of Operation Cast Lead is approaching (Dec. 27th) and I think we should take a look at where we've come since then. The Goldstone Report: buried. Settlements: expanding. Palestinian house demolitions: continuing.
As atheists, we should be appalled whenever religion is used to justify actions that result in suffering or death. We do not seem to hesitate to speak out when a child dies because a Christian Scientist eschewed Western medicine in favor of prayer. We do not seem to hesitate to speak out when a Muslim nutjob finds motivation in his religion to grab some firearms and gun down some people. Why are we silent when an ethnic group uses a story about chosen people and covenants in The Big Book of Jewish Fairy Tales (aka, the Old Testament) to justify what is looking more and more like a slow, methodical ethnic cleansing campaign? Why do the Jews need to have Jerusalem all to themselves? Why is it so important to them to have a Jewish majority that they'll turn Gaza into a prison camp and The West Bank into Swiss cheese where the Palestinians are forced to live on smaller and smaller plots of land and endure more and more restrictions on their movement? If this were being done to a Jewish population they'd be screaming about a second holocaust.
The bottom line is that all three major religions are guilty of many modern-day atrocities and have a great deal of blood on their metaphorical hands. Why do we only bewail the actions of two of those three major religions?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Glen Rosenberg on -
whad I say?
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Permalink Reply by Glen Rosenberg on
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Then you will be forced to respond to supercillious in kind cuz that is all i got left!
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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Chang on -
Fair enough. Unfortunately for your entertainment, I don't have much to say to people I look down on. So... don't eat anything too spicy, okay? It's bad for your stomach.
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Permalink Reply by Glen Rosenberg on
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You would not know your better if it came tightly packed in a sweater.
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Permalink Reply by Sassan K. on -
I always say judge a culture by the number of people they produce for the betterment and advancement of humanity. And all one has to do is to take a look at the Nobel Laureate list and see the great contributors of science produced by the Jewish culture. And the greatest of them all was Albert Einstein. I also tend to look at the fact that an approximate 15-30% of Israelis are atheist Jews. Atheism is quite high among people of Jewish origin and Jewish culture. And hence, they produce great numbers of Nobel Laureates and scientists whom are involved from physics to medicine.
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Permalink Reply by Elissa Bernheim on -
sassan,
very true, they actually did a study about why jews vote like atheists and correlated culture and percent of atheists in a graph on the side of the page and jews were at the top. i will try to find the article so that i can share it with you. jews have always held education to a very high standard and we all know the more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will become an atheist.
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Permalink Reply by Doc on
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That sounds like a very interesting study, perhaps even ground breaking. I'll be on pins and needles waiting to see it. Do, please, find it. That would be great!
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Permalink Reply by Elissa Bernheim on
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im trying to do that now. i have a hard copy of it somewhere because my teacher gave it to me. when i find that ill see if i can either scan it or find it on the internet and ill post it on my page.
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Permalink Reply by Sassan K. on
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And if you really wanted to talk about the Israel and Palestinian conflict, you would realize the impediment to peace is from the side of the Palestinians who glorify Jihad and martyrdom rather than life. I have always believed that as long as the Palestinians hate the Jews more than they love their own kids, they will never have a state and will never have peace. I suggest reading "Son of Hamas" by Mosab Hassan Yousef.
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Permalink Reply by Glen Rosenberg on
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Hey Sassan K., what is your take on the issue of whether there is a double standard causing the ultra-focus on transgressions of jews in Israel that is indicative of anti-semitism?
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