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Author Archives: N.S. Palmer
What Do You See?
Look at the ink blot. What do you see? The ink blot is used in what’s called a “Rorschach test.” The picture is supposed to be neutral, and not to look like anything in particular. What you see in it … Continue reading
Faith Lost and Faith Found
Why do some people lose their faith, while other people find it? It’s not because of differences in intelligence or education. Atheists and theists are often equally smart and educated. Orthodox Jewish Israeli physicist Gerald Schroeder and Evangelical Christian geneticist … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Christianity, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Modern Orthodoxy
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Who Is Your Enemy?
Who is your enemy? One of my friends said that she must have done something right this year, because she had acquired more enemies. Winston Churchill, who was Britain’s prime minister during World War II, would have agreed: “You have enemies? … Continue reading
In Praise of Sloppy Thinking
By holding the handles, we can manipulate large amounts of information to solve problems, but we avoid getting bogged down in irrelevant details. Even if the underlying details are incomprehensible or inaccurate, the handle can still work. Continue reading
What We Owe to Past, Present, and Future
What do we owe to people who lived in the past and are now dead? What do we owe to people now living? What do we owe to people in generations yet to come? And perhaps most important: What is … Continue reading
All People Are Equal — Mostly
All human beings are equal. Let’s agree on that. But we must add a qualification: All human beings are equal in the morally relevant sense. They might or might not be equal in other ways. Let me tell you about … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy
Tagged Ashes of Our Fathers, Egalitarianism, Equality, Human Dignity, Human Rights, Inequality
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Choosing to be Chosen
In most creation myths, an essential part of creating is to divide things from each other, thereby bringing order from chaos. In Genesis, God divides light from darkness, the waters above the firmament from waters below the firmament, and the … Continue reading
What Must We Believe?
By N.S. Palmer Are certain beliefs required to be a Jew in good standing? Moses Maimonides says yes. Moses Mendelssohn says no. (And yes. And no. Mendelssohn was all over the map on that issue.) Among religious Jews, Maimonides is … Continue reading
Maimonides and Keeping the Commandments
By N.S. Palmer “God rewards those who perform the commandments of the Torah and punishes those who transgress its admonitions.”1 The Jewish sage Maimonides called that an essential tenet of our faith. But there’s something a little odd about it. … Continue reading
Words, Order, and Tisha B’Av
By N.S. Palmer One of Judaism’s deepest beliefs, says Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, is “that God is to be found in words, that these words are to be found in the Torah …”1 That’s right in one way, but wrong in … Continue reading
The Thousand-Year View 