by Carl Howard | Jan 6, 2014 | Atheism and Religion, Blogging Jewish Law, Feminism and LGBT
A story broke a few weeks ago about some rabbis in New York using violence to obtain Jewish bills of divorce. If you haven’t seen it, here are some excerpts from this story: Orthodox women who are unable to obtain a get from their estranged husbands cannot remarry in...
by Carl Howard | Jan 21, 2013 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Feminism and LGBT, Sex
[NOTE: the above headline is a statement of my opinion.] I’ll admit, I’ve always disliked Alain de Botton. In a previous post, I’ve described him as a sanctimonious, pretentious, pseudointellectual asshole. That was based on a review of his latest book “How To Think...
by Carl Howard | Jan 7, 2013 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Mind, Psychology and Consciousness, Philosophy, Science and Skepticism
Yes. (At least for many of the most useful definitions of machines/beasts.) But I guess there’s a lot more to it — or so a lot of bloviators would like us to believe. There are a lot of opinion pieces out there that decry the materialism/reductionism/scientism...
by Carl Howard | Nov 8, 2012 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Feminism and LGBT, Spirituality
Speaking of Buddhism, one thing I can’t stand is people giving the Dalai Lama a pass, and passing around inspirational images with his “wisdom quotes”. An example here: Not only are they usually deepities or Barnum statements or just trite but the Dalai Lama espouses...
by Carl Howard | Oct 25, 2012 | Atheism and Religion, Blog Topics, Super-Abridged Bible
Prophecies against Judah/Jerusalem (Chapters 1-18) [YHWH to Jeremiah]: “I selected you as my prophet even before your conception.” [Jeremiah]: ” I’m only a boy.” [YHWH]: “Don’t fear, just speak my message. You will herald both destruction and restoration. You must...
by Carl Howard | Oct 16, 2012 | Atheism and Religion, Atrocities and Oppression, Blog Topics, Blogging Jewish Law
I was recently at a Jewish funeral prayer service for a friend’s grandfather. I often heard as part of my Jewish education that Judaism’s approach to mourning is very effective to help the grieving process despite (or because of) being counterintuitive. I’m not sure...
