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Category Archives: The Jerusalem Post
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
Knowing What Time It Is
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: Do you know what time it is? If I asked you that question, there are two logical answers and many non-logical answers. If you know what time it is, then the logical … 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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Absolutely Relatively True
My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post: “Absolute truth.” People like that phrase. It sounds serious. It shows they are committed. No weasel words. No equivocation. They said something, they mean it, and it’s absolutely true. Menachem Kellner, a … Continue reading
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
How Theism Has Meaning
My latest blog for The Jerusalem Post: In ancient times, Jewish faith and practice were different from what they are today. Most people know that. However, they usually don’t know the details and don’t think about the implications. In the … 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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Ending the Violence, Part 2
My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post: As I discussed in last week’s blog post, human violence has some specific biological causes: kin selection, territoriality, and lack of empathy. We are created in God’s image spiritually, but our bodies … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism, The Jerusalem Post
Tagged Aggression, Evolutionary Psychology, Intifada, Kin Selection, Peace, Public Choice, Talmud, Territoriality, Terrorism, Violence
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The Thousand-Year View 