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Tag: Judaism

Culture wars Jewish people 

What have the Jews ever done for us?

Melanie, , ,

I gave a talk to the sixth form and staff at London’s JFS school, under the title “What have the Jews ever done for us? The contribution of Judaism to western civilisation and modernity”. You can watch the talk here, and you can read an edited version below. What have the Jews ever done for us? The contribution of Judaism to western civilisation It’s an article of faith that religion and modernity are mutually exclusive. In one box, labelled modernity, are all the good things that we value: reason and…

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Maimonides Culture wars 

Darwinism, Judaism and the clash between science and religion

Melanie, , ,

Yale University professor of computer science David Gelernter has renounced his previous belief in Darwinian evolution. Writing that he was sad to give up on “a brilliant and beautiful scientific theory,” he said he had concluded that it couldn’t explain the big picture—not the fine-tuning of existing species, but the emergence of new ones. Whether or not his argument is well-founded is a discussion for another time. The point here is that it’s unsayable by anyone who isn’t prepared to risk professional and social suicide. Darwinism, said Gelernter, had passed…

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kaddish Israel 

The lethal moral confusion of saying kaddish for Hamas

Melanie, , ,

The lethal moral confusion of saying kaddish for Hamas The Hamas onslaught against Israel at the Gaza border fence has illustrated a danger for the Jewish people even more fundamental than the declared attempt to invade Israel and slaughter Jews. This is the fallout among the Jews themselves. In London, a group of young Jews assembled outside parliament to recite the kaddish prayer for the Hamas terrorists who were killed while attacking the fence in the most violent riots on May 15. In the US, Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the…

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