Religion and Fundamentalism

[galadhelsul]

Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil. Choose life, so that you and your offspring will live (Deut 30:15,19)

Comments

[luckylefty]

I feel about religion pretty much the same way you feel about fundamentalism. Pretty much every religion (UU may be an exception here) has certain core beliefs that it insists that you take on faith and do not question. If you say "Jesus was this guy that lives 2000 years ago, and I don't see why I should give his views on moral issues any more weight than anyone else's", few would consider you a Christian. If you say "I don't see why I should find the Old Testament any greater source of Wisdom than the new, and just because certain views and practices have been part of a tradition of the Jews for 2000 years doesn't mean these views or practices should be given any more weight than those in the Koran or the New Testament", than few would consider you a Jew.

I see a lot of diversity of views on Israel among my jewish friends. The main commonality I see is more interest in the issue, and more knowledge of its history. Many non-jews seem to behave as though the history of the region started in 1967, and anything that happened before that date is irrelevant. It doesn't surprise me that the opinions of the well-informed on an issue are on average different from the opinions of those who don't care as much about it and are less knowledgeable.