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Category Archives: Bible
How Medieval Islam Influenced Modern Judaism
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: In the modern era, we associate Islam mainly with terrorism, barbarism, and opposition to science. But it was not always so. Long ago, our early encounters with Islam influenced the development of … Continue reading
Will Judaism Disintegrate?
My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post: A popular California rabbi’s forecast seems gloomy until you think about it. Then you realize it’s absolutely catastrophic. He says that Judaism is: “… a platform [that] rests on a mountain of dynamite. … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Modern Orthodoxy, The Jerusalem Post
Tagged Authority, Autonomy, Eliyahu Fink, Fink or Swim, Halacha, Hedonism, Jewish tradition, Maimonides, Millennials, Modern Orthodoxy, Moses Mendelssohn, Nihilism, Open Orthodoxy, Saadia Gaon, Spinoza, Zeitgeist
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Is Kabbalah Rational After All?
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: “Whereof we cannot speak, about that we must remain silent,”1 advised the Austrian Jewish philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. People are never very good at remaining silent. That’s true even for things we can’t … Continue reading
Myth and Its Meanings
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: Biblical creationists get a bad rap. People think they’re completely wrong. But they’re not. Oh, sure, they’re wrong about the science. The world wasn’t created in 4,004 BCE on October 23, as … Continue reading
Creation But Not Ex Nihilo
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: How did the world get here? That question didn’t start with the ancient Israelites and it probably won’t end with us. Our scientific attempts to explain the origin of the universe are … Continue reading
Belief, Backward and Forward
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: Judah Halevi was a poet. Saadia Gaon and Moses Maimonides were philosophers. On the surface, their approaches to religious belief seem almost completely different. But at a high level, they agreed almost completely … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Epistemology, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, The Jerusalem Post
Tagged Ethics of Belief, Halevi, Kuzari, Maimonides, Moses Mendelssohn, Saadia
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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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Is It Reason or Revelation?
By N.S. Palmer Apart from goofy statements made by individual philosophers, philosophy has a pretty good reputation. It uses logic, cites evidence, and presents comprehensible arguments that you can accept or reject on their merits. On the other hand, religious revelation has … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Philosophy
Tagged Bible, Boethius, Brettler, Consolation of Philosophy, Hazony, Jewish, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Parmenides, Philosophy, Pre-Socratics, Revelation, Tanach, Torah
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The Thousand-Year View 